I had the demo of Arx Fatalis years ago, and really enjoyed it but never got round to playing the full game. I'd be happy to take note of any you think deserve a mention. These sorts of games elevate gaming to an art form, honestly, and it's what got me seriously into gaming in the first place. Wow, thanks for your detailed answer! There's nothing like a beautifully crafted world and story. If you are into these types of games, there are many more like them I can suggest, but I thought it best to keep it to a few, since it would otherwise be a waste of effort to write out 20 game suggestions :) I hope you find something here you will enjoy. I can keep going, as there are many glorious and immersive RPGs from the golden years of gaming, but these should provide a good amount of hours. People fear the hell out of you, but that doesn't equate to loyalty as such. I don't want to give too much away here, but let's just say you're not universally loved in this game. You get to experience that not everyone is as loyal as they proclaim, and it's up to you to make sure they either fall in line, or just plain old fall. It's a really wonderful experience through and through. There's just a ton of well written dialogue, and so much intrigue. You're the muscle who carry out the orders of your master "Redbeard" who governs the whole system. They're essentially the absolute law of the civilized world, and as a "Hand", what you say goes. well you play as a "Hand" of this giant military organization. The world the developer created for this is fantastic. If you give the game a shot, you'll be drawn into a wonderful world of intrigue. There are so many races, like lizardmen, apes, and all sorts of weird stuff. It's a very weird and wonderful adventure where it's not all just magic and swords, but it's a mix of science and technology. After crash landing on some random planet as a result of being shot down, your party of 5 others begins your journey to find out what happened, and what to do about your situation. You start your journey as hired goons for a scientist who doesn't tell you anything before taking off in his space ship. There's just a huge amount of things to do in the game, and it's the most immersive RPG I've ever played. You might happen be sent on quests by the gods, or find ancient ruins to explore. But once you get off the beaten track, that's where this game really shines. You navigate by landmarks, and remembering what the NPCs told you.
There's no indicators of how to get to places. The world is huge, and immersive, and you actually have to pay attention about the world. This is my favorite RPG of all time for many, many reason. I'm not sure if you played it, as you only mentioned The Elder Scrolls, but if you haven't, you really should. The story, the narration, the characters, the plot, the everything is glorious. The combat is largely shit, but that's completely irrelevant. It's hard to write anything about the game, again for the fear of spoilers, but it is without equal. This game really captures the best of what a great story is. It's incredibly well written, and will keep you glued to the monitor from start to end. It surprised the hell out of me with its fantastic story. Needless to say, I thoroughly loved this game. I'm not trying to plug the review, but it's just easier this way. I wrote a review of it that will explain much better than I ever could in a few words, so to save me some time toiling over how best to advertise my love for the game, I'll leave a link. Things aren't always what they seem, and as you go deeper and deeper into the core of the world, you learn more and more about the mysterious goings on in the world of Arx Fatalis. You're then quickly thrust into an epic quest of exploration, where you have to help the human race survive. You happen upon a human outpost, and find it having been attacked. It's very hard to write anything about the story in fear of spoilers, but you're a human, who start out trying to escape a goblin prison. Things went to hell, quite frankly, and diplomatic ties were severed between mots of the races. However, as time went on, the races grew apart.
However, as time went on, the races (goblins, humans, rat-men, trolls, and dwarves). Tunnels were dug, and diplomatic relations were great. Imagine a world where the races had to move underground due to an asteroid hitting the world.
This game is one of a kind, and is incredibly immersive. I could speak volumes about each game, as they all rank very high on my favorites list, but I'll keep it to a brief few words for each, so I don't end up spending an hour or two writing out a huge wall of text. If you're into older games, I have a few recommendations.