i think I might've found thevproblem ... I tried to talk to a race i made called "Dwemers" (which are literally just female dwarfs) and the game was having none of it. I found a spelling error in the Dwemer's description after the town square refused to work.
I shall test out this theory and report back to yall.
Edit: After some tests, i still have no bloody clue ... maybe one of the races i added is screwing up the game but I can't tell. 🤷♂️