The thing that elder scrolls does particularly well is worldbuilding. They accept the public’s history with these races and either expand or reject them entirely, and it’s all done convincingly. You aren’t in medieval Poland with monsters and magic, you’re not in Tolkien’s playground of languages and places, you’re in Tamriel where everyone is just awful, and that’s okay.

Learning to quickly leave your notions behind is a fantastic. The “forget everything you learned in college” moments are a lot of fun, and I wish more franchises embraced that.