What's the deal with Talos and the Thalmor?

[ArcieAdam]

I can't see why they would want to ban Talos worship because of ideological differences. It's not worth their time to spend agents enforcing the ban

Yet they do exactly that. Find the Talos shrine in the woods near Riverwood to learn of the actions of one such agent. Ondolemar in Markarth tries to recruit you to gather evidence against a suspected Talos worshipper. In one branch of the Civil War story you can blackmail Jarl Igmund's steward by finding evidence of his Talos worship and threatening to turn it over to the Thalmor. Nords have good reason to fear being denounced to the Thalmor inquisition for practicing the "heresy" of worshipping Talos.

 

The Thalmor put a great deal of effort into hunting down the remnants of the Blades to the last individual, going far beyond eliminating them as an operational threat. Why? Because the organization was intimately associated with Tiber Septim, and they were Talos worshippers. Acilius Bolar, one of the last, fled to an ancient Blade's sanctuary (Bloated Man's Grotto), where he left his sword and his writ in front of a statue of Talos before going out to die to prevent the Thalmor from desecrating the shrine.

 

I think it's pretty clear that ideology is at work here, not just crafty warmongering.

 

Exactly, they do do exactly that. Expending manpower and resources enforcing ideology in a foreign land so far away is expensive, too much so to be fueled by mere ideology. There must be other plans at work, else they wouldn't bother. Ever other day in Skyrim, you see a single unarmed Nord, in rags, being dragged away by two fully armed Thalmor agents, and a Thalmor wizard. It's needlessly excessive. It's obviously to incite the Stormcloaks to rebel against the Empire. The dossiers you pick up in the Thalmor embassy even say they want to see the war in Skyrim prolonged.

 

As far as the Blades go, they aren't just a cult of Talos worshipers. They are, to the Thalmor, very dangerous terrorists, and most political entities don't ever say, "Ok, I think the terrorists get the message, we can let up." Again. the dossiers you retrieve in the Thalmor embassy explicitly state just how dangerous the Blades are to their operations in Skyrim.

 

By the way, I hope I'm not sounding forceful at all or calling you wrong. This is all conjecture and I could easily be wrong here, I just enjoy talking about fantasy politics.

Edited January 16, 2013 by ArcieAdam

[Lachdonin]

As far as the Blades go, they aren't just a cult of Talos worshipers. They are, to the Thalmor, very dangerous terrorists, and most political entities don't ever say, "Ok, I think the terrorists get the message, we can let up." Again. the dossiers you retrieve in the Thalmor embassy explicitly state just how dangerous the Blades are to their operations in Skyrim.

 

I think this is an important thing to remember when dealing with the Blades and the Thalmor. Lets face it, when it comes to terrorists, governments are prone to dramatic over reaction. Lets face it, modern governments have gone so far as to create a fictional, all powerful terrorist network which lurks behind ever corner. Organizations which a nation views as subversive or terrorist do not elicit reasonable responces at the best of time, particularly when tied historically to a rival regime.