Actually, this part of the Skyrim world is the one that I hate the least. Sounds like every proxy conflict ever. The parallels to many real-world conflicts from Vietnam to Ukraine are obvious.

And it is a nice dilemma: do you support the clearly colonial empire, which however seems to be half ok at running things, when they are not on an oppressive execution spree? Or support the self-determination of the people, who are propped up by a rival empire that is even worse, and half of them are horribly racist? It is pretty well balanced and not quite as black and white as the usual video game lore, it has layers, and makes you think. I like it.

I am surprised that anyone would consider the Oblivion Dark Brotherhood faction and plot to be poorly written. It was easily the best story of the base game.