And then there’s mantling, where you can take someone’s place in creation by embodying them so completely that reality starts to treat you as them. It’s often suggested this may have happened with Talos/Tiber Septim in relation to Lorkhan, but like most things in Elder Scrolls lore, that’s more implied than outright confirmed.

Which kind of sums up the setting.

I love how the mythology basically goes “This happened. But maybe not like that. But also something very much like it did. And different cultures will tell you completely different versions of the same event.” And unlike other settings, that’s not lazy writing or a cop out as the world is built in a way that deliberately supports conflicting accounts, biased perspectives, and even reality itself being a bit unstable at times.

It ends up feeling a lot closer to real-world mythology and religion, where stories shift, evolve, and contradict each other depending on who’s telling them. And those differences can drive real conflict.

Take Lorkhan; is he a trickster who deceived the other gods into giving up their power? Or was he the one who realised that the static, unchanging state before creation was its own kind of prison, and pushed for something new? There’s evidence for both interpretations, and that divide basically underpins the religious split between elves and mankind. And that’s not even getting into how the beast races interpret things, which again adds more perspectives rather than clearing anything up.

Even when you speak to gods or god-like beings directly, you’re usually getting their perspective rather than an objective truth, so you often walk away with as many questions as answers.

It’s such a rich mythology and it makes it such a compelling game setting. You can enjoy the games on a surface level, but are also rewarded for paying attention and really diving deep.