#teslbr

sure, the altmer worship pretty basic fantasy gods in a pretty basic fantasy way. they’re high elves, and kind of a touchstone for the contrasts in the lore. the imperials and bretons function similarly, both reflecting real european cultures, and the imperials in particular utilize religion as a tool of at best unification across the empire, and at worst as a way to oppress native populations and suppress their native cultures.

then there’s the bosmer, who are somewhat similar to the altmer, but way different. like, the green pact alone makes them highly unique. they can’t eat plants, and in the past this fostered cannibalistic practices. they’re wood elves, and you can draw good comparisons between them and other fantasy wood elves, such as their living in trees and fondness for archery. but GOD if the green pact and their literally-physically-moving capital tree city don’t make them right-off way more interesting, i don’t know what will.

then there’s the next race of mer, the chimer, who are DRASTICALLY different from the rest. they worship “demons” and value strife and political underhandedness. their evolution, the dunmer, worship living gods, who are all fairly unique to each other: there’s the most seemingly mundane, almalexia, who might appear at first as just a maternalistic queen (”mother morrowind,” after all), but has within her war and strife; sotha sil, who creates robots and shit and lives in a technologically advanced city in another realm; and vivec, who i hope i don’t have to explain as a pretty fucking unique god.

then there’s the chimer’s contemporaries, the dwemer, who are initially described as “dwarves” and “deep folk” to confuse you, but are actually a highly technologically advanced steampunk people who worship no gods, but instead value reason and logic and science above all else, and even go so far as to try to make themselves gods by tampering with the still-beating heart of a creator god.

then there’s the nords, who if you only played skyrim might seem just like normal vikings or some shit. but skyrim really fucked with the cultural and religious lore of the nords a lot. their chief god is a dragon god of destruction, who they worship to placate into not ending the world yet, and who once enslaved them all with his dragon army. the next most important god is literally dead and in heaven, but sometimes he gets brought back in different shapes to help the nord people. some of the other nord gods vaguely resemble other “normal” gods, seeming to have counterparts in other religions, but that’s bc those religions built their gods piecemeal, using the nordic gods as part of the ingredients.

then there’s the redguards, who are actually more like the more “tame” religions than you’d think. they have unique gods, for sure, and different names for shared ones, but ultimately they’re not too dissimilar from from, say, the religion of the altmer, save for name and aesthetic.

then there’s the orcs, who worship a “savage demon” god of war, or sometimes the same god as a “noble knight” god of war. their entire culture is founded on their oppression as “ugly” and “animals,” as well as their resistance to that oppression.

then there’s the fuckin khajiit who take a lot of the altmeri and bosmeri concepts and gods and completely flip them on their heads in very unique ways, mostly centered on their “cats” themes. there’s so much interesting about it, way more originality in approach than i have space to elaborate. i highly recommend reading “words of clan mother ahnissi”, which is really the fundamental text on khajiit religion.

then there’s the argonians who only worship one god of the other cultures, (the literal fucking void) and also the deific trees that give them life. this requires no further explanation as to why they’re pretty fucking unique.