Alright, I'm going to list everything I grasped from reading the ES religion books (all of them, talk about hardcore, but hey, I had nothing else to do) plus some of the online articles for shits n' giggles.
In the beggining, there was Anu and Padomay (Being and Nothingness, or good and evil) Anu is assosciated with Aedra and Padomay is associated with Daedra. The part lying between them is called the Perfect Gray, where unaligned spirits formed and died. They died because they were unable to channel their power. Anu taught Akatosh how to control the flux of Time, so he had managed to form permanently. The cosmos were unstable and Time flowed differently in different places. After Akatosh formed and equalized the area of Time around him, other spirits began to form (Aedra and Daedra) and aligned to either Anu or Padomay. Considering this, I think that the Gray diminished, leaving today what are called 'pocket' realms or dimensions in the middle of Sithis (which I forgot to mention is the outside of the universe, or maybe Sithis is Padomay, I cannot tell, but think it is the former) between them. Eventually there were tons of spirits, but over time they lost power and died out. Lorkhan (whom I theorize is Daedra in essence, but people say he is unaligned) tricked Akatosh and the Eight divines into creating the world (Bad for them, good for us
).
Kynareth provided space, and all the other divines filled it along with some help from unnamed spirits. But creating a planet takes energy (what, do you think they can just pull realms out their asses?), and the Eight Divines were left weak. A meeting in the Adamantine tower brought little results, and everyone but the Eight fled to Aethrius for fear of being destroyed. Lorkhan was caught (and killed) and Akatosh removed his heart (or Divine Spark). Right before Akatosh was about to destroy it, the heart told him that it was the spirit of the realm, that it was the realm, and destroying it would make their efforts of creating the mortal plane fruitless. What I can't comprehend is that Akatosh ties the heart to an arrow, and shoots is off the top of the Adamantine Tower, and it lands in the middle of the ocean, making Vvardenfell. Why not imprison it or something?
Moving on, after all the gods fled to Aethrius, the cosmos stabilized and then Time started. Akatosh and the Eight bound themselves to Tamriel, becoming the Earth Bones. Which brings me to a discussion of Aedra and Daedra. They tell me Daedra cannot create, but have the ability to change. Aedra cannot change, but can create. "Daedra live too long, and thus we become dull and complacent. You live too short, and thus become wonderfully sharp and inventive. Does that make sense?" - Unnamed Daedra
Afterwards, the 16 Daedra and (
Aedra lived almost side by side. The Daedra are supposedly jealous of our realm because it is so large and that it is always being aded on to. So they try and corrupt it. Assholes... Anyway, the Aedra are too weak to do anything other than create relics or give blessings or miracles. Kinda sad, but at least they aren't total dicks. You know, I've got a reference that Daedra are assholes. Sheogorath and Jyggalag. 15 other princes gang up, combine powers and curse Jyggalag, turning him into Sheogorath. All for shits 'n giggles. I think that would be worse than lighting a cat on fire.
Talos needs mentioning. He ascended in a spot at Sancre Tor, after a very difficult battle. Talos is not Aedra, as you may think. He is patron-saint of the Empire. A powerful spirit, no more.
And I think that's all there is, really. If you want to talk about it....
