I see that multiple times in Belkarth everyday, too, but it's the same everywhere And most of them seem to "get dressed" during that time, I guess that's when they're wearing a costume. And one time I saw a guy that did some odd animation when I logged in (players still not fully rendered), it looked like a Harvester got him, but.. couldn't be lol
This allows the game to show you a place holder for other players while it's fetching the textures for their gear. It was possible in PvP to be attacked by an "invisible" opponent when you entered a zone. Unless you're entering a dark tunnel in the sewers they'll be fairly easy to see. Which makes me wonder why they didn't pick a color like bright purple or orange which would obviously stand out in any environment? Oh well, it's ZOS, they can't do everything right.
Edited by ontheleftcoast on September 23, 2015 6:58PM
Interestingly enough, visual effects like buffs and AOEs are still rendered on the character models while they're black, making for some very strange visuals...