The Nine (or Eight) Divines are the gods of Cyrodiil, High Rock, Skyrim and their empires. Through the proselytizing arm of Tiber’s Empire, the Imperial Cult, it has spread throughout Tamriel. The Eight Divines (minus Talos) are Aedra, and are found in some form in many other pantheons as well.
The Eight Divines were introduced in TES2: Daggerfall. Each major city had a temple dedicated to a specific divine, and the player character could join the individual temples to gain access to merchants and services. Although ostensibly part of the same religion, the temples were often in conflict with each other.
In TES3: Morrowind, the Imperial Cult took center stage. Chapels to all nine of the Divines were present in areas of Imperial settlement, and the player could join the Cult, recover artifacts, and even meet human versions of some of the Divines.
In TES4: Oblivion, each major city had a temple dedicated to a specific Divine, and wayshrines to them could also be found in the wilderness. The temples were not at odds with each other like they had been in Daggerfall, and the player could not join them as a faction as in previous games.
The Nine were again change to the Eight in TES5: Skyrim (following the ban on Talos worship after the Great War with the Aldmeri Dominion). Temples to individual divines can be found in the Hold capitals, and a temple to all of them together is located in Solitude.
The Nine Divines are:
- Akatosh, Dragon God of time
- Arkay, God of the cycle of life and death
- Dibella, Goddess of art, beauty, and eroticism
- Julianos, God of language and logic
- Kynareth, Goddess of nature and the wind
- Mara, Goddess love and fertility
- Stendarr, God of law and mercy
- Talos, God of war and governance
- Zenithar, God of work and commerce
