TES lorebooks will go out of their way to show that the characters glorify torture or casually talk about how much they love worshiping daedra that force them to kill their own loved ones or something, and then just unceremoniously move on from that. and I’m so upset by this but also confused because what was I supposed to get out of it? am I supposed to think:

• that this specific TES culture is terrible? (if so, why aren’t these stories clear about which culture they’re talking about?)
• that all TES cultures are terrible? (if so, why don’t we see that terribleness reflected in the games? most TES characters seem like decent, average people)

overall I feel like the lorebooks in TES crank up the grimdark and edginess absurdly high compared to what we see in the TES games, and that’s such a jarring tonal shift to me that it feels like these books are set in a completely separate universe