User blog comment:Zippertrain85/The difference between Mideval & Fantasy/@comment-77.53.70.152-20140308093351

I think the most iconic aspects of the European medieval age would be it's technological level, the prevalence of religion throught society and monarchies with a certain hierarchy.

I realize these are not even close to describing the actual medieval age when it comes to common people, but Skyrim (and Cyrodiil (although its visual aesthetics and history are much more closely related to the Roman Empire)) does meet all of the most known criteria.

The technological level (disregarding anything related to magic, of course) is mainly the same level as medieval technology, even if it's all over the historical timeline. Only certain aspects have been shown that more accurately would be described as renaissance era technology. This seems to be true for all men and mer dominated provinces (as not much is known from Elsweyr and Argonia).

Religion seems to be an important aspect of society in all of Tamriel. In game books describe religion in provinces not visited in TES 3-5. In fact, religion is so important that the occlusion of Talos from the pantheon in the Empire has had such an effect that it actually started the civil war (but I have to include the fact that Skyrim was in a period of unease even before the Markarth Incident and it might just have been a matter of time before a rebellion was started).

And Skyrim, just as Cyrodiil and Morrowind, is ruled by a monarch. Skyrim also have a noticable hierarchic system similar to that of medieval Europe: The classes/castes are distinctly farmers and hunters, merchants and artisants, nobles, and priests. Mages create another class, but that's to be expected. The main distinction is not the fact that it's possible to "climb the hierarchical ladder" (which was possible as long as you could finance it or gain the necessary skillset (with the exception of nobles which was an exclusive class in most European medieval societies)), but the fact that the classes have radically different population numbers. Skyrim (just as the other games) shows almost no farmers and hunters. I think that has to be expected, though. Cities are so very, very much more interesting than travelling from farm to farm in a game. That's just suspension of disbelief.

All in all Skyrim is a classic stereotype of medieval society. Not necessarily very realistic or historically accurate, but it is a representation of the medieval ages. A highly romanticized one, but still.