"The core conflict, the central dichotomy of TES lore is not Good vs Evil, it's Change vs Stasis, with no moral qualities applied to either. There are some individuals who are going to seem unambiguously good or evil when viewed through a modern moral lense, yes, but that's not the central issue at hand here. There's no evil dragon kidnapping the fair maiden, nor any rescuing knight. There's a long, long history of philosophical conflict over an open-ended question posed by the deaths of the Aedra at Convention. Is it better to transcend or regress from the Mundus and mortal death?
It's worth noting that the heroic ideal within the TES mythos is the silver-tongued traitor, rather than any moral paragon. All the greatest heroes were liars, or murderers, bastards and betrayers, from the start to the end without exception. Pelinal killed Ayleid and Nede indiscriminately when his madness overtook him - Tiber slit Emperor Zero's throat and then betrayed his closest friends, and in doing so became the most important deity in the mythos. Vehk betrayed the closest friend he'd ever had and stole godhood with a lie, then rewrote history as it served him.
The Heroes aren't the good guys in TES. They're just the ones who win."
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And yet I am, and live—like vapours tossed. I long for scenes where man hath never trod A place where woman never smiled or wept There to abide with my Creator, God, And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept, Untroubling and untroubled where I lie The grass below—above the vaulted sky.”
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