Nine Divines


 * "The Nine say: Above all else, be good to one another."
 * ―The Ten Commands of the Nine Divines

The Imperial Pantheon of the Nine Divines, also known as the Eight and One, is the most important religious order in the Empire of Tamriel, worshiped by the members of the Imperial Cult. The religion combines the Eight Divines pantheon created by Saint Alessia with the apotheosized form of the founder of the Empire of Tamriel, Tiber Septim who became Talos, the ninth Divine. There are six gods and three goddesses. All across the provinces of the Empire, there are chapels in each major city venerating the Divines, as well as wayshrines along the roads that are devoted to the Nine Divines. Many of these gods also appear in various combinations in the pantheons of other cultures.

Gods

 * Akatosh – The Dragon God of Time and Chief God of the Pantheon
 * Arkay – God of the Cycle of Life and Death, and Burial and Funeral rites
 * Dibella – Goddess of Beauty, Love, Passion, Music, and the Arts
 * Julianos – God of Wisdom, Literature, History, and Logic
 * Kynareth – Goddess of Air, Wind, Sky and the Elements
 * Mara – Goddess of Love, Compassion, Family, Maternity, the Mother Goddess
 * Stendarr – God of Mercy, Justice, Charity, Luck, and Forgiveness
 * Talos – Hero-god of Mankind, God of Might, Honor, State, Law, and Man
 * Zenithar – God of Work, Commerce, Trade, and Wealth

Saints

 * Saint Alessia
 * Saint Pelin
 * Saint Olsa
 * Saint Errandil
 * Saint Olva
 * Saint Pelinal
 * Saint Kaladas
 * Saint Jahn
 * Saint Ellenica
 * Saint Marben
 * Saint Octavient

Alessia and the Eight Divines
The Eight Divines as an official religion was instituted by Alessia upon her slave revolt against the Ayleids and the formation of the Alessian Empire in 1E 242. Alessia's first major act as Empress was to abolish worship of the Ayleid gods. However, she was a shrewd politician, enough to realize that her people had never known any other gods. Alessia knew she had to be careful in choosing the official state religion; she could not afford to anger her Nordic allies, but her own people could not adjust to the complete Nordic pantheon in just a single generation. Her compromise was to merge the two religions, choosing to keep the less controversial Ayleid gods, such as Akatosh and bring in popular Nordic ones, such as Dibella and recreating Kyne as Kynareth. She sidestepped the issue of Lorkhan by leaving him out of her Eight Divines, but identifying him as the "missing ninth god," a brother to the Eight Divines who was otherwise absent from the pantheon. The worship of the Eight Divines, along with the Empire itself, would go on to become the most prominent religion across all of Tamriel.

Perhaps coincidentally, the eight Aedra Alessia chose are those Aedra said to have been most active in the creation of the world. When the Et'Ada realized what Lorkhan had done, and how their divinity was being drained to create Nirn, most of them objected or withdrew. The eight Aedra that make up the Divines, however, willingly gave of themselves to complete the act of creation, and are therefore seen as benevolent in contrast to the more aloof deities that withdrew, who became known as the Deadra. With Alessia's death in 1E 266, she was canonized as a Saint, known as Saint Alessia the Slave-Queen in the Imperial Pantheon.

Popular Opinion and Worship
Worship of the Imperial Pantheon started in the Province of Cyrodiil, the homeland of the human Imperials. The Church and Missionary of the Pantheon is known as the Imperial Cult of the Nine Divines/Eight (4E 175 onwards), whose aim is to bring divine inspiration and consolation to the people of the Empire and the peoples outside its borders. Because Talos was not originally one of the Eight Divines, and many continue to stand by this fact, in some religious sects they are referred to as "The Eight And One."

Second Era
With Tiber Septim's great conquest of Tamriel complete in 2E 854, he would form the Empire of Tamriel in which he would serve as Emperor. With his conquests complete and the Empire formed, Tiber Septim set out to create the rule of law and order under which the peoples of the Empire would abide by. In these new laws set out in the Imperial Constitution, Tiber Septim reinstated the old Alessian Pantheon of the Eight Divines as the official religious order of the Empire. Tiber Septim would officially sign the Constitution into law in 2E 855 and the Imperial Pantheon of the Eight Divines would be reinstated as the official religion of the Empire with the Imperial Cult as its Church.

Third Era
Upon Tiber Septim's death and assent to godhood in 3E 88, he would be succeeded by his grandson Uriel Septim I, who would reform the Pantheon of Eight to be that of the Nine, to represent his grandfathers accension to that of the god known as Talos, with that it officially became known as the Imperial Pantheon of the Nine Divines. By the late-Third Era, worship of the Nine Divines was still only prevalent in mainly Cyrodiil, while many across the provinces favored their own traditional Patheon, many converted to the worship of the Imperial Pantheon, especially within the Provinces of Morrowind and High Rock. Within Morrowind, following of the Nine Divines was dominant within the territory of the pro-Imperial Great House Hlaalu and the colonies on Vvardenfell. The Bretons of High Rock began to slowly converting to worship of the Imperial Pantheon, due to similarities between it an the Bretony Pantheon, with them both worshipping the Dragon God of Time, Akatosh.

However, the Nords of Skyrim still largely followed their own religion, with even the Nords in Bruma in Northern Cyrodiil, refusing to revere the Nine in favor of their own gods, in part due to their preference to Ysmir compared to Akatosh. Conversion of the Redguards of Hammerfell saw little to no success due to the huge differences between the two religions, due to the fact that the Redguards still worshipped the Gods of Yokuda even after they had migrated settled down in Hammerfell. While conversion of the southern Provinces of Elsweyr, Valenwood, Black Marsh, and the Summerset Isles saw some success mainly in pro-Imperial regions such as Rimmen in Elysweyr and Gideon in Black Marsh, many of their people continued to worship the Gods of their traditional Pantheon and many rejected the teachings of the Imperial Cult.

Fourth Era
While by the Fourth Era the Nords of Skyrim's cities had began to enthusiastically take to the worship of the Nine, they historically had their own pantheon, which was still followed by citizens in more remote locations. Despite Talos not being part of the religion of the Nords, the conversion of Skyrim was such a success, that the Nords came to believe that Talos was a part of their culture and traditions.

Following the signing of the White-Gold Concordat at the end of the Great War, Talos was effectively removed from the pantheon of the Gods—and The Eight Divines worship resumed. While the ban on Talos worship was not enforced originally, following the Markarth Incident, the Emperor was forced to crack down, and permit the Thalmor, the political faction and extremist paramilitary force of the Aldmeri Dominion, entry to enforce the Concordat. Where required, Thalmor agents from the Aldmeri Dominion, ensure that the worship of Talos remain an illegal activity. The outlawing of Talos worship is one of the causes of the Stormcloak Rebellion led by Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak, who see the ban on the worship of Talos as a violation of Skyrim's religious freedom.

While the banning of the worship of Talos can as a great shock to the citizens of the Empire, many simply obeyed by the law and turned in their Shrines and Amulets of Talos to the Imperial Government. Many however, across the Empire, especially in the Province of Skyrim continued the worship of Talos as the Ninth Divine in secret, despite the risk of death or imprisonment by the Thalmor.

The Imperial Liaison to the Aldmeri Dominion, Leonora Venatus wrote the book known as The Talos Mistake, stating the Empire chose to remove Talos from the Nine not because of the Dominion, but because it was the right thing to do. The book states that the worship of Talos only weakened the history of Tiber Septim's mortal deeds, and pulled the people away from the Eight Divines.

With the Empires fracturing beginning in the Fourth Era after the end of Oblivion Crisis and the Stormcrown Interregnum, the many Provinces of the Empire began to break away beginning with Black Marsh and most recently Hammerfell. As a result popularity of the Pantheon has begun to decrease outside of the borders of the Empire due to persecution and lack of faith. After many massacres and atrocities against its members and followers across the newly independent nations of the former provinces, Emperor Titus Meade I in 4E 31 recalled the Imperial Cult back to remaining provinces of the Empire; Cyrodiil, Skyrim, and High Rock. However, despite risk of persecution, true devotes of the religion remain outside of the Empire, spread across Tamriel hoping to spread the good word of the Eight Divines to anyone who may hear it.

Communication with Mortals and Manifestation
Prior to Alessia's pact with Akatosh, binding her soul to the Amulet of Kings, many Aedra and Daedra were able to fully interact with Nirn and its population. However, even during this period, these eight Aedra are not known to have manifested physically on the planet, but communicated through dreams and visions (as with Alessia). Their interaction with the world is relegated to blessings through their altars and shrines, and the Divines themselves are mostly seen as distant, beyond a few charismatic cults for individual Divines. On rare occasions, the Divines may communicate with a follower of the Imperial Cult, turning them into an Oracle. These Oracles are on occasion, given visions by the Divines of prophecies and magical artifacts, as well as the locations of deceased followers of the Nine. On occasion, the Divines manifest themselves in mortal form, the Divines which have been believed to have done so are Talos, Mara, and Zenithar.