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The God system of TES is an allegory of Christianity. Consider the Proof:

Akatosh's Elven name, Auriel, means "Lion of God" in Hebrew

Talos was man, ascended to sit at the right hand of Akatosh, which is the Head diety in the Pantheon, as Jesus ascended to sit at the Right hand Of God.

Talos's worship was outlawed by the government, much as the Worship of Jesus was outlawed by the Romans, who the Empire is made to resemble.

Akatosh is the chief diety, and is thought of as the God of Time, which may be a reference to God's Eternal Nature

The High Elven Aldmeri Dominion are like the Pharisees, who actively persecute Talos (Jesus) worshippers.

The Nords are willing to suffer and die for their belief in Talos, much as early christians were willing to suffer for their risen Christ.

Moved from Lore, as this is not appropriate there. While I am very worried about where this thread will go, I'll give it a very short chance.

I do believe you are reaching to the extreme, pulling vague comparisons with things that could easily be compared to any number of other things. For example, religious persecution is not unique to Christianity, you could replace that with countless other religions or philosophies. The same is true for people being will to die for their beliefs.

Talos ascension to godhood is not even a unique occurrence in the series, there are plenty of mortal gods, arguably this has even happened already in that pantheon. There is a common story suggesting that Arkay was once mortal as well before Mara took an interest in him, see Arkay, the God of Birth and Death. Furthermore, I would find it hard to compare the story of Jesus and Talos, one being a preacher and the other being a warlord.

Akatosh being the god of time relating to the nature of god is a gigantic stretch. It could just be as easily argued that he is truly a parallel for any other deity with dominion over time, such as Chronos.

I just do not see any plausible argument for how this is true.

I am NOT saying it is a direct metaphor. I am saying, however, that part of the lower line up with Christian events and or doctrines. while this may be true of other religions, the Romans actively persecuted Christians by Death, much as the Thalmor Justiciars punish the Nords who revere and worship Talos. the Empire is thought to be made to resemble the Roman Empire, which is one reason why one of the Emperor name is Reman. Remen and Romulus were the founders of Rome. since Christianity was persecuted by the Romans, and the Empire is made to resemble Rome, this leads me to believe that Talos was made to be a Jesus like figure. he is made to be like the Jews would have liked their Messiah to be. the Jews were looking for a savior to come and lead an army to come and sweep the Romans out of Israel and return them to their golden age.

furthermore, Akatosh's Elven name, Auriel, is a direct reference to him being of God, as the "El" ending in the name means "of God" and "Lion of God" is the direct meaning of the name.

The simple flaw with that comparison is that Jesus Christ didn't create the Roman Empire; Talos is a much more clear analogy for Julius Caesar (who was also considered to be a god by the Romans, in a pantheon that fits The Nine much better!). In fact, I will go so far as to say that is absolutely who they were basing Talos off of. Furthermore, it is not the Empire that is oppressing Talos worship as much as it is Thalmor, who are forcing the Empire to do so (and it is still mainly the Thalmor who are enforcing this).

So the only thing I cannot really argue with is your etymological source, which by itself is not a very strong argument. The ES universe is filled with random names with some historical root. But let's assume that they purposely chose Auriel for any reason besides it sounding pretty, that still does not necessarily mean they are referring to the Christian god. That's also ignoring the actual sources for their names, with the rest of those details being made up as they went along (Auriel wasn't established as an alternative name until Morrowind). In fact, I would go so far as to say Auriel was literally just chosen because it sounded nice, and had existing religious connections.

I won't argue with you, its just a thought. who knows they could be referring to Allah and the Muslims

The only reason the thought came to me is because Talos ascended to sit at the right hand of Akatosh. Jesus rose to sit at the right hand of God. this is the main reason why I thought that might be a reference to Jesus. even so it is a very loose metaphor

As is often the case when trying to compare a fictional universe with the actual universe, many individual things can line up if you force the dots to connect. That doesn't mean that was the intention of the game creators.

True. But maybe they were intending to put a little but of historical and religious underlyings into the game to.spark thought

Oh, I'm sure they put historical, cultural and religious borrowings from left, right and center into the games, mainly because imagination has to work with something; but most of these were spliced and recombined like DNA, and trying to map them to real world phenomena 1:1 never ends well - mainly because it tends to attract people with an agenda, and from there things generally go downwards.

I'll give you that the figure and worship of Talos contains some elements that are transparently borrowed from Christian theology ("both Man and Divine", to name but one) - among others, like AKB pointed out above. But it's a long way from there to your opening sentence "The God system of TES is an allegory of Christianity", unless you choose to look at things through coloured glasses and ignore things that don't fit (for example, last time I checked Christianity wasn't polytheistic).

I agree that there are many parallels.

Also, the relationship between Talos and Akatosh isn't like the relationship within the holy trinity

TES is pure fiction and as such parallels can be drawn to many real life religions and cultures and from other fiction. This thread serves no purpose than to risk trivialising beliefs some readers may have and imo the site cannot benefit from it

the forum rules have also banned religious or controversial threads indefinitely

lock it quick

Delete it for me, mattbott

I seriously doubt it is an allegory for Christianity although certain aspects are applicable to various real world religions. What is important to keep in mind is that allegory and applicability aren't the same thing. Allegory is that it is the direct intent of the person making it, applicability is that it draws certain parallels to other things without being directly about any of them.

I disagree with wanting to lock this on the grounds of it being about religion in TES. The thread deals with religion which is present in TES. So is politics, gender, sexuality and a whole manner of other things.

I agree with Musicman on this one, if you look at anything hard enough it will eventually seem like a truth to you. One game that definitely is based on Religion, Christianity to be more exact, without a shadow of a doubt is Chrono Trigger because the ties are almost obvious. Exodus for the Sega Genesis is another prime example and it's oddly really fun as well lol.

It's like comparing the United States Civil war to the Civil war in Skyrim when both are quite different in actuality.

some more parallels are raised in a similar discussion here

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:318529

Well, I did see Talos' face on a sweet roll once.

I would say that TES was far more influenced by Joseph Campbell than it was by any religion directly (there is even an in-game book called 'The Monomyth', which in the real world is a term coined by Campbell), kind of like how Star Wars was, only using his work less like an instruction book, which it was never meant to be.

TES invokes many archetypes that Campbell observed in multiple myths and religions. Noticing a similarity to a specific religion doesn't necessarily mean that it comes from that religion, especially when said similarity can also be found elsewhere.

I can tell you for a fact that MK is a self-proclaimed Christian, but a lot of the lore he wrote for the Aedra, Daedra, Tribunal and other belief systems in TES derive from a combination of all major world religions. There are heavy elements of Hinduism and things like Polynesian polytheism in there as well. There's also a heavy dose of the occult, notably sources like crowley, which crop up a lot in Vivec's sermons and Mankar's commentaries.

The Joseph Campbell thing makes sense too, but I think it's because the major lore writers of TES took some of the same classes in college he did. Things like comparative religion and mythological anthropology classes. If you look at some of the most influential people who contributed lore for TES, they're all very learned men with specialties. MK studied comparative religion. Kurt Kuhmlmann is a history and anthropology buff. Peterson is a big literature and history guy. Guys like Rolston and Schick have a background in history and world-building in the pen and paper games scene. These influences are apparent in the world-building of the series. You get a wide array of influences, not just a direct parallel to Christianity of all things, which to me is not any more prominent than any of the other themes explored.

I think Jesus and Talos are somewhat comparable, but that's the only similarity I see, really.

Aside from both being avatars, they aren't comparable in the slightest.

I have to 2nd that. In most cultures and religion, it's not uncommon for a mortal to ascend to godhood, let alone represent or fill the void of another godlike being<_< The more you water it down, the comparable they'll become, but the same to be true for many others

I mean comparable in an extremely loose sense of the word; I highly doubt Talos is in any way based off Jesus specifically, but there are a few vague similarities which are likely coincidental.

The same can be said about Talos and Buddha, though. TES mythology is an amalgam of many different myths and religions, like Pilaf said previously.

I'm not denying that. i'm simply saying that talos and jesus are slightly similar, not that their similarities are necessarily a unique thing.