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I actually considered commenting on the contrast of the music and setting, but personally it seems like an artistic choice to have it contrast heavily with what's actually happening.



That's textbook culture shock. If you actually play as an elf they go into more detail as to both why and when it is done.

#Minor Spoilers#

Some of the text you see playing an elf suggests that it is how elves transfer their knowledge and culture. When an elf eats the flesh of others, they gain the knowledge and skills the other possessed. It is also suggested that they usually only eat the flesh of those who have asked them to do so, though you, the player, are given the choice to not follow this.

The idea of something like this being unfitting exists because in our culture the act of cannibalism is unthinkable and the idea of it being presented as something normal or even beautifully weirds us out.

Imagine in your mind an island with two tribes on it. Each tribe governs itself but whenever they come into conflict over something instead of going to war they host a game in which two teams try to capture one of the other teams members, bring them back to their tribe, and devour their heart. The tribe of the winning team gets to decide the outcome of the overarching conflict.

Now, at first glance this seems horrible, and maybe it is depending on your perspective, but the most casualties of any war they have ever experienced has been exactly one and that's because this isn't a hypothetical.

There's also a precedent for Elven cannibalism in the Bosmer of Elder Scrolls, though it is handled differently (the Green Pact and so on).

Personally I have found it to be a neat trait afforded the Elves of Divinity and it is done quite artfully.

That was my thought too. Though it has to be said that the bosmer male is the most despicable of any videogame character type. Except for the chap outside of Skingrad who was obsessed with cheese. The cheese obsession obviously playing no part in that assertion. Probably.

Okay, I mostly just hated Maglir. And Glarthir.


I also like it a lot. Well obviously I don't like the thing in itself, but I like it as an idea that both challenges our sensibilities and opens up some interesting story opportunities.

Yes the canibalism thing is a very interesting take on the perpetuation of culture.
Much of the strong reaction to it probably comes from all of us being raised in cultures with burial rituals that focuses a lot on the dead body. To us it's a desecration of the dead and thus an insult to the dead, but allowing the memories of the dead to live on is really honoring the dead.

From our human perspective we put so much effort into building legacies, creating some form of meaning with our lives, and remembering our dead. Simply making someones memories immortal is a very elegant solution.

Maybe he was a cultist of Sheogorath? CHEESE! CHEESE FOR EVERYONE!

There is that possibility; he was certainly quite silly, and likeable enough for me to forget the evils that were Maglir and Glarthir and Thoronir and Adoringfanir.