i have been playing skyrim consistently ever since it came out. i have wondered for a long time what brings me back to this game. i only just recently realized there seems to be a lot of similarities between the civil war depicted in the game and the real conflict that has been brewing in america. talos (jesus) worship is persecuted. leftist authoritarians (empire) disappear people dangerous to them, even colluding with foreign entities (thalmor). skyrim was a generation defining game. i cant help but feel like there is some predictive programming in the civil war aspect of the game. jarl ulfrics character in particular really scares me since it is implied in the game he had been kidnapped and tortured by the thalmor- hinting at the idea he was a compromised pawn, a trojan horse to give the people of skyrim false hope they could go back to the old traditions before the empires subversion of the culture.