August 21, 2013 1:45 PM EDT
Depends, does this count?
"I'm not a great advocate of the tenacious and treacherous Talos, his bold, belligerent, and bloody reign over Tamriel is hidden behind the nefarious clergy that supports him and the war mongering proponents of his worship that has a certain ambiguity between what they say he said and what is said he did; thus his personage as a whole and his worship both seem hypocritical, hateful, and built upon a throne of destruction and debilitation forged in the fires of despicable slaughter covering up the reign of the warlord with notions of peace and prosperity under pain of death.
In short, I 'ates 'em. Dat's 'ow oye likes 'em. 'E's a stuck up monkey. the problem is that Talos, to me, is separate from Tiber Septim. With Tiber Septim we get all the notions of some great empire but it was founded by absolutely obliterating all his opposition, fabricating stories to get him popular support, and courting the anti-cultural Nords who wanted genocide... so of course Hjalti ran with it and betrayed everyone to get power. He slit his Lord's throat, he adopted a Nord name then gave it to someone else because he didn't want to deal with people, he couldn't be bothered with actually running a realm and put someone else in charge, then betrayed them -both- when he realized "I can use a super weapon to just stamp out the opposition... and I know juuuust how to do it. Vivec me ol' pal, you still got that crazy metal god of death around? Promise I won't use it on you, honest!" and he didn't. He just used it against everyone else, depopulated every country he took over, started a cult, and gets worshiped as a god of peace and prosperity under his benevolent rule when he's let the rest of Tamriel burn. He wanted money, he wanted wealth, he wanted power, he's just a damned warlord.
But he's also a superb warlord, effective, charismatic, clever, and malleable. He was a good general (granted with help) and had no scruples to hold him back. As a historical figure that's terrific, his usage of all local customs and religions is downright genius. But that's Hjalti Earlybeard of Alcaire. That isn't 'Talos' man-god-child-rapist-murderer paragon of Nord legend. We have a major problem and almost none of it is to do with this guy.
Talos himself is far more debatable. He may be Septim... sorta, according to the Arcturian heresy which I rather like. It comes from the combination of Hjalti, and his betrayed advisers the ancient and far more powerful (cornerstone and Thu'um master) Wulfharth and then his arch-priest of the Divines, Zurin Arctus. Through them all he may have gained god like powers by forming their souls into one upon their deaths. If that's true, really it's Wulfaharth that's mostly responsible and he's kinda still alive (he came back and walks Tamriel as an older man and not as the aged philanderer of Tiber Septim). Wulf of Morrowind, the supposed 'Talos' to me is clearly Wulfharth the sorcerer king of legend, Wulfharth the undying one.
As for what else. Talos is also just as likely frigging Lorkhan. Lorkhan, the lord of death, pain, misery, chaos that fekked up the whole perfect cosmos, bound the souls of humanity to his will to create an army, and stamped over the world destroying just about everything till the elves stopped him cold. The same one that swore a vengeance on all elves and since then has been trying to kill just about everyone and everything. This isn't a great sympathetic god, it's a god of slaughter, a cold impersonal god only given to warfare. It's Lorkhan,Shor, the absent god cursed to walk Tamriel because Trinimac finally stopped the upstart Sithian prince. He's a Daedra by definition, a non-ancestor to the Elves. He's certainly not a Divine, he's not Lord of Divines, he's a lord of slaughter. He refused to stop until each and every elf was dead, and everything under his domain. Sound familiar? He's bascially Mehrunes Dagon in a nice human shell.
Then we have his 'ethos' which is created after the fact. His clergy go around suppressing others, and his church grew out of a time after all Hjalti's opponents had been crushed. war and mass ethnic killings even admitted by future Emperors, and an anti-cultural propaganda streak a mile wide characterize early worship. Repression of other beleifs and the mass slaughter and stagnation of opponents was still common. His church itself has changed immeasurably, starting as a Talosine cult from Nord roots, much like Septim made the cult of Empror Zero for his slain 'lOrd' Cuhlecain. Then it become the Eight and One where Septim was something of a god of human endeavors (look at the title of Shezzar who is Shor). We see it in Morrowind, he was just something of a paragon warrior that was praised as a saint, that was the Imperial cult. Then he became part of the Nine Divines under Akatosh by the time of Oblivion. Now, at the time of Skyrim, he's the Lord of the Divines above all others and they shall accept no other explanation. It is forced integration and forced acceptance despite a clergy of madmen and lunatics (I can also point out that they tried to create a theocracy just before the events of Arena under the illegitimate sun of Emperor Uriel Septim VII... who subsequently ordered his son's murder in the Temple of Divines). This isn't some happy friendly god or god-cult. This kind of thing keeps happening in every era thanks to Shezzarines and Shorrite supporters. It's a blight, a plague, Talos is a vicious and abhorrent god. I agree with the Talos Mistake, saying that Septim is a God robs him of his true triumphs as a brilliant warlord and military leader.
So Skulls for the Skull Throne, blood for the Blood God, all hail Talos, the master of butchery.
Good thread though, wonder who would support him."
