High Elves of the Elder Scrolls
This is going to be just my personal thoughts and observations on some things about the high Elves and the thalmor in the elder scrolls series. Some of this may be incorrect and jumbled, as this is my own brainstorming and theorizing on the subject. This will also include some other known theories that I believe to be very likely, and also things mentioned in the elder scrolls online, as it's events have been confirmed to be cannon in the series by the lore writers of both zenimax and Bethesda studios. If anyone wants to add to or comment on this matter or bring in new information, feel free. I'm open to new information and enjoy sharing ideas on these topics.
Starting with the thalmor as we see them in Skyrim. They are definitely introduced into the game as antagonists, using trickery, bribery and threats in many forms to gain political advantage. They believe that tamriel in it's etirety is theirs by rights, as their direct ancestors, the Aldmer (not Altmer), we're the first to live on and settle tamriel before any other race. There are other reasons as well, much attributing to their long lifespans and "elder knowledge". The Dominion has believed that it is the one force that can unite and guide tamriel successfully since it's conception in the 2nd era. They want the empire as it is to collapse, so that they can take the high seat of tamriel and "fix the world", though often using underhanded methods like usic the stormcloak rebellion to play the human races against each other. I am going to end up playing devil's advocate here, so bear with me.
The founder of the Altmeri Dominion, Queen Ayrenn, traveled tamriel for much of her youth. She loved the continent and it's people as a whole, and wanted to save tamriel from the war and destruction that was running rampant at the time, and formed her faction for this purpose. It survived over the years, being corrupted into an organization for high elven supremacy and domination, continuing to war with the other races and nations of tamriel through the centuries, eventually coming to a "peaceful resolution" that was really more of a pause, at the end of the great war with the empire, which lead to the white gold concordat, and the abolition of Talos worship in the empire. Now this is where things take a turn to the religion and culture of the high Elves themselves.
Talos was a hero of the human races, and if you listen to some of the comments made by Elenwen is Skyrim, many elves do recognize him as a hero, but not a God. The high Elves are decendants of the Aldmer, as stated before, which, going by what records you can find in the games of prehistory and the formation of nirn itself, are the first children of the gods, Ehlnofey, that make up the body of the planet. The Altmer believe that they and all mortals would be godlike celestial beings were it not for the Ehlnofey being tricked into creating nirn by the god Lorkhan . Lorkhan is basically Satan in their religion for this reason, but more about that later. Between their belief in being decended from the gods themselves and the fact that much of Talos' campaign to create the empire stemmed from killing off elves and pushing them out of territories that they had owned before, the worship of Talos as a God is the most simultaneously racist and blasphemous thing humans could do to the high Elves. It would be like finding the founder of the KKK or the guy who initially forced native Americans out of their homelands and saying that this person was raised up as the god of all the white people. That's off topic, but really it's just an example. Understandably, high Elves would be extremely offended by Talos worship.
I'm going to get onto some theories here, so hold on. There is a theory that when Lorkhan(again, Altmeri Satan) was killed, somehow Talos mantled him. Mantleing is a process of serving the same purpose and imitating someone or something so completely that you essentially become that thing, so Talos replaced Lorkhan in this method. In the theory, a person with the power to do this is known as a shezzarine. There are three shezzarine in the series that I know of. Talos, Pelinal whitestrake, and the Last Dragon boat. Yes, the protagonist of Skyrim, according to the theory, is also a potential replacement for Lorkhan, a sort of almost demigod, if you will. Lorkhan dies, his power fades, he is replaced by a sort of mortal vessel, turned to God. To the Altmer( should they even be aware of the existence of. Shezzarines) Talos would be the wierd combination of Jesus and the Antichrist, and so are you after the fact as the dragonborn in Skyrim. And that is understandably really frickin scary. Just a bit of evidence of you being a shezzarine. In sovngard, you have to enter the hall of valor. This is Shor's (talos') palace. The spirits there explain that they could not leave to fight alduin without Shor's permission. Shor isn't even there. His throne is empty, but if you walk around and explore the hall of valor, for some reason you're allowed to sit in it? Something that, hearkening back to the shivering isles dlc of Oblivion, you could not do until you had officially taken the place of the thrones previous occupant(sheogorath). Also, though they could not leave the hall without Shor's permission, it's suddenly okay for them to go fight with you after you get there? You are shor, in the process of mantleing Talos, as he did to Lorkhan before, now essentially a good in your own right. All of this is especially wierd if your dragonborn was a high elf, because you're becoming the wierd Jesus/Satan abomination of your own religion.
So there's that post. I am certain that there's something I left out. Take notes, leave me some notes, add on to this idea. Learn to be more understanding of elven culture, if you can't be accepting of it. Learn lore and make more theories!