Sweet. So Melissa can use Auri-el's Shield then. Since she is a worshiper of Akatosh.

Ban Darr was also known as an exceptional archer if you are looking for a maybe-god-but-also-could-just-be-a-concept-for-bandit-mentality.

They're aspects of the same Time oversoul, but they definitely aren't the same.

Auri-el is an Altmeri God King. Akatosh is the Dragon God of Time created from Alessians exorcising the elven qualities of Auri-el and replacing them with mannish qualities.

Auri-el is the one who commanded Lorkhan's execution. Akatosh is the patron of all three Cyrodiilic empires of man.

What are Dunmer funerary practices? Did they change with the reintroduction of The Reclamations? I know they hold ancestors in very high regard, but what would a devout Dunmer do to send off his parents rightly if they lived in Skyrim? Thanks

Yeah so they mainly cremated their dead, have a real stick up their ass about necromancy. Plus it sort ties in with their reverence for fire and their proximity to red mountain, ash being quite significant. Necrom was like a giant cemetery, a necropolis. 

Most of what I know comes from three sources, Ancestors and the Dunmer The Doors of the Spirit and Incident in Necrom. Factor in the ash pits we see in Morrowind and Raven Rock and all things point to cremation. I think. The Ashlanders don't, though, iirc. 

I think the major difference between third era Dark Elven funerary customs comes from the absence of the ghost fence. I think before the blight it was custom for clans and families to maintain their own ghost fences by donating ancestral bones, a voluntary thing. The great ghost fence made donating remains to it rather than private ones more socially acceptable. After the events of TES III maintaining the great ghost fence was no longer necessary, but the eruption of red mountain and Argonian invasion has seemed to have put an end to the tradition entirely. 

It could be fun to explore that old tradition, for the deceased to leave a finger bone for the family ghost fence in his or her will. But I don't recall evidence of this still being customary in 4E 201. 

Edit: lemme see what Savants have to say...

... Ahh, not a thing. Sorry. 

So yeah, cremation and possible relic donation for family shrine should you wish to restart the old tradition of ghost fence. I think ESO has a few burial chambers and even a necropolis. You wanna me go and take screenshots, lore the shit outta this?

Which cult was more powerful/influential in their prime; the Dark Brotherhood or Morag Tong?

I want to say Morag Tong for being OG and a sanctioned guild of holy endorsement.

From what I understand the Tong was a government agency before Red Mountain so they were probably looked more fondly upon. I also seem to remember a Black Horse Courier page where the Legion discouraged the use of the Black Sacrament but mentioned the Tong as a more lawful approach to taking someone out.

Does homosexuality exist in TES?

I think there is. In Dragonborn DLC, there's a small hut somewhere in Soltheim with notes that indicate the inhabitants were homosexual.