The Elder Scrolls, or TES, is a video game franchise primarily developed by Bethesda. It has currently spawned five main games and a handful of spin-offs. When people talk about TES, they mainly talk about the last three main games, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim. So, what makes these games so special?

Each game is set in a province on the fictional continent of Tamriel, so you'll slowly but surely explore the continent through various games, but until then — if you want to know more about the continent and its history — you'll have to make do with what the characters and in-game books say about the other provinces. A big part of what makes TES so special is how its history and worldbuilding is told.

Rather than giving a ready-made account of what happened, TES has it told by its characters who, just like in the real world, often don't know the whole story, all writing different books that say different things about the same event, leaving the player to speculate.

Keeping this in mind, what makes this franchise so unique is how it tells its stories along with its metaphysics. The continent of Tamriel is not just a setting for gameplay. It is a living, breathing environment filled with a complex, sometimes contradictory, history and diverse cultures. And each of these cultures has a multitude of belief systems. Different gods, different creation myths and different views on the universe.

TES also delves into profound philosophical themes, such as the nature of reality and the existence of free will. Various characters in the world philosophize about these and other things, but also disagree with each other about what is true and what is not. Here too, the player is given the chance to speculate and form their own opinions about this world. Perhaps they can even see their own world a little differently because of it.

All of the above is the backdrop. The things that make the place more believable and fun to engage with. Another big part of what makes these games so great is the atmosphere they manage to create. Wandering through the plains of Eastmarch and hearing a dragon roaming the mountains in the distance, arriving on the island of Vvardenfell and hearing the sounds of a Silt Strider through the mist, especially with the beautiful soundtracks produced by Jeremy Soule.

It is a combination of the three facets above that make these games so special. The way it tells its stories, the metaphysics and metaphysical discussions and the wonderful atmosphere. That's what makes it so much fun to just wander around aimlessly, to pick up a book and read for a while and to walk into a town to talk to some locals.