When doing the pale pass quest for oblivion I came across the messenger's tablet.I wanted to find out more info about the tablet but the uesp wiki does'nt have much info on it.So I'm wondering if this text is based off a real life language or just made up like the ayleid language. Here's a link to a pic of it:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Messenger%27s_Diary

Looks most like http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Gakkiron_1.jpg or http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/Mifu02.jpg calligraphy to me.

The writing in that document is heavily based on Japanese (moreso than Chinese, I'd say), hence being written vertically. Akaviri language seems to have more sound variations and combinations than Japanese, though; Japanese words generally have alternating vowel and consonant sounds, whereas Akaviri has complex words like Mishaxhi and Tsaesci which look more Chinese. They do also have definitely Japanese weapons, the katanas, though! It's basically a mishmash of those two languages and cultures.

The "human" Tsaesci remind me a little of Aztecs IMO, what with all the X's in their names and their preoccupation with snakes (Quetzalcoatl, anyone?).
Actually... weren't the Imperials originally supposed to be like Aztecs or something?

But that whole snake-preoccupation (they are snakes, after all) sort of makes them pretty much non-human. Look at their creation myth and the whole thing about "eating" the humans and red dragons. No real-life language is like the Tsaesci language at all.

And outside of the calligraphy and the vertical writing, there's nothing Asian about their language at all. Even their letters look like snakes!

You could call the Redguards Japanese for the same reason (ie Gaiden Shinji, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Ansei#Ansei-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensei, and if you think too hard about it, there's possibly a somewhat tasteless atomic bomb reference in there too), even though there's some Australian Aboriginal, Middle-Eastern and maybe Vodun influences in the Redguard's culture too.

There's no denying there's probably some Japanese influence with the Tsaesci, but that's not all there is to them.

Well, some of the characters in the document in the OP are directly cribbed from Japanese characters (there are recognisable, if slightly changed, te, ro and to characters from hiragana among others), and the more complex ones resemble kanji; in that way, the structure of the language seems to be basically Japanese. But I would agree that in lore, their language is probably not meant to resemble Japanese to that extent (I'm liking the idea about the snake-letters). I did pin more of a Chinese culture onto the Akaviri, because of the emphasis on tigers and dragons (Chinese dragons are also more snake-like than Western dragons). Not to mention the Tang Mo, which to me seem directly related to the Chinese Monkey legend, which is a brilliant story if you've never read it. The Tsaesci are described as naga, which come from Hindu/Buddhist mythology, and again Buddhism is the dominant religion of China.

I agree there are more influences than purely China to the Tsaesci but I would argue that as a whole land, China is the strongest influence for Akavir. I will admit though, I know little about either Akavir or China, so I could be totally wrong!

Akavir definitely has elements of both Chinese and Japanese symbols (dragons and snakes, their katanas and armour), but my impression is that the Tamrielic view of Akavir is similar to the traditional western view of the 'Orient' or 'Far East' as a whole, rather than individual cultures.

Comparing TES races to directly to RL nations is a bit over-simplistic anyway, in my view. You can call the Bretons French or the Imperials Romans, but you'll be missing a lot of the nuances.

No fancy answers here; it seems to be mostly based on Japanese. Of course, a vast majority of Asian writing systems appear to be Japanese to people in the west, as most of us have the Latin alphabet, and it could be anything from Sanskrit to Uighur.

But, as long as it can't be translated into any of those, then it's Akaviri

Half of the letters in that document are just 3, 4 and 5 repeated over and over.

Aztecs were preoccupied by alot of creatures, not just snakes... actually i think the jaguars and eagles were more important to them....
And besides that snakes are worshipped in many other cultures...
Akavir are heavely based on the Pacific Asians... just as much the Nords were based on... the Nords....

I've gone over that document a couple of times now, and I can't for the life of me recognize any Japanese characters. It all looks like snakes and dragons (check out that third-last letter on the second page- reminds me of the Empire's http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:Akaviri_banner.jpg) to me.



I'll agree with you about the Aztecs, that was mostly speculation on my part (hence the IMO), but I think it's foolish to say that Akavir is entirely based on Asia.

The Tsaesci, sure. To an extent, anyway. The others? Not so much. What do we know about the culture of Tang Mo, besides it being the "Thousand Monkey Isles"?

Like I said earlier, basically the only similarities with the Tsaesci and real-life Asian cultures are the vertical writing and the katanas. They don't wear armor, they drink Goblin blood, they look like golden snakes (as do their letters... there seems to be a thing for numbers here too, see the below creation myth as there's some mathematical things in that too) and they "http://www.imperial-library.info/obscure_text/tsaesci.shtml" which is probably a metaphor, but either way implies that they have a completely alien mindset that can't really be compared to any real-life human culture.

Oh, they're also immortal. Unless someone kills them.

i actually noticed a while back that some of the characters in the akaviri missive look a lot like the glyphs on the elder scroll. the real life explanation for that is boring, but the in-universe implications could be quite fun.

The thing about the Akaviri is, they might not be Immortal. Or even Drink blood for that matter. As you said yourself, we know next to nothing about them. Thus, Beth can very easily alter the Lore on the Akaviri (Again) disregarding what we do know of them.
Plus the Book, 'Mysterious Akavir' (One of the sources on Akaviri culture), can't really be trusted, in part due to it's contradictory nature and simplistic writing.

Looks like vertical orientation of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit. The glyphs look sorta similar. I mean, they don't look like Babylonian writing, that's for sure.

Akavir is based mostly on the far east. But there could be up to five different languages! this text would only be a representation of Human akaviri, but the Tsaeci, Tang Mo, Kamal, and Po* could have vastly different languages.

*Po means Tiger, which is what the are. Tun means empire, which is refering to the country, not the race. Ka is refering to their leader, who is a dragon. But their race would be Po.

The Akaviri are based on Japanese culture as the Bretons are based on the French etc... They come from Akavir which is deeply based on the Japan Islands.

As stated before that's huge oversimplification. Races in TES universe are a mix of various real life and fantasy cultures plus things imagined by developers. Some influences are easier seen as they are more common (katanas = Japan, french names = french culture), some others are less obvious, thus, ignored.

Their writing looks Japanese, as does their culture in general. I would say the the Akaviri, in general, are based off of the Japanese, or other oriental cultures.

Guys, remember: Akavir is a continent, not a single nation.
When the games say "Akaviri", they usually mean "Tsaesci", since none of the other Akaviri nations have had much (if any) contact with the Empire.

So.... no. Akavir is not based on Asia as far as we know, because the only Akaviri race we've seen are http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=783058#entry11372730, and even they only have very superficial Japanese influences.... no more than the Redguards!

I actually started thinking about it, and the attempted invasion of Tamriel by akavir (The Pale pass one, not the Kamal one) was started by human Akaviri pirates harassing one port. So, IMO, the Tsaeci were tracking down the pirates because piracy is...ilegal. when they found the giant continent, they asked for some more soldiers to conquer it, thinking it much smaller (a common theme in real-world explorers). So the men of akavir and the Tsaeci may have both been trying to take over Tamriel at the same time, but independent of each other.