Morrowind, the Elder Scrolls novels, and the End of Weird
After the surprise release of the Oblivion Remaster), I went on a small Elder Scrolls binge. I read the novels and then replayed Morrowind.
I noted one key difference between these two pieces of media and my memories of newer Elder Scrolls games: the weird is not there anymore (at least not in the surface).
It's kind of sad how the Cyrodiil and Skyrim are standard fantasy settings. You still have some non-standard elves (even orcs are elves). You still have the weird gods with their many interpretations. But all the cities and the stories are quite tame. Even the multiple questlines do not interact much anymore.
The novels somehow fit in the older setting. It helps that they are related to Morrowind (and happening after Oblivion). The gods still interact with the whole setting. The lore for both Argonians and Dunmer is developed. The flying island of Umbriel is also uniquely strange even for the standards of the setting.
Unfortunately, I don't think the main series will have any chance of going back to weird in the near future. The online game locks many things up (I refuse to play MMOs). The TES VI will probably be in some of the regions from Daggerfall, so more standard-ish fantasy. Unless they try something interesting in it, there's probably no more weird in the series.
I hope to eventually find more games with a similar feel to Morrowind, but the scale just feels too big for an indie game and too complex for an AAA game. At least I can find other novels with a similar alien feeling.1
I'm currently reading the Machineries of Empire series and it is wonderful.↩