This is just something that's always bothered me in Elder Scrolls, I don't know what anyone else thinks about this but for me it just kinda irks me out.

I just kinda dislike when they use American accents for characters in Elder Scrolls games. For me, part of being immersed in a classical-medieval themed world is getting to hear characters that sound like they were from medieval europe, or the middle east, whichever part of Tamriel we're talking about here.

When I hear American accents in Elder Scrolls it just kinda suspends the immersion for me. Two characters in particular, for the dark brotherhood, Astrid and Nazir sound WAY too American for my taste. I think Astrid would've sounded way cooler if she had a smidgen more European in her accent, and Astrid had something like an Afro-Arabic accent. To me, that's just more exotic and feels more different to what I'm accustomed to living in America. I mean I hear American accents every day and it's just so plain and boring to me, when I want medieval fantasy I want it to sound as distinct from Modern American accents as possible while still using the English language, for me that's what does the trick. Just Eurasian accents just help me feel more escapism from day to day life that I expect routinely.

I was so relieved when Skyrim came out, and I heard many of the Nords had a Nordic-ish accent as opposed to what we saw in the E3 demo with characters like Alvor's original voice.

The only race in Elder Scrolls where american accents are somewhat appropriate for me are the Imperials and people living in the province of Cyrodiil. But that's just because we have a lot of movies in American film for Rome where all the characters speak American English going back to films from the 40's, the image of Romans with American accents is so ingrained in American pop culture it has become somewhat appropriate.

That being said, I still prefer for Imperials to have an accent that is at least somewhat Latin in nature. Somewhere between what we see in American movies and in the middle towards Ecclesiastical Latin spoken in Catholic Mass but with a deeper, more powerful voice I think would be absolutely perfect for an Imperial soldier.

Idk, just my thoughts.

The Redguard's have always been pretty squarely in the American accent camp. Imperials too, prior to Skyrim for the most part.

I'm frankly fine with it. I would like to hear some more east Asian accents for parts of Cyrodiil, but that's just me.

The Elder Scrolls is a fantasy series that takes place on an imaginary planet. Any European accent is just as appropriate or inappropriate as an American accent.

Naaaaaaaaaa. It's boring. XD sorry. XD

I mean, unless Tamrielic/Cyrodiilic is just English with another name, it's not like they're actually speaking English. https://youtu.be/TsvCIGgDfZI?t=9m26s, yo.

That said, a bit more variance in accents for non-Cyrodiils would be great. Sort of to keep the whole translation thing in check. Just like there are different dialects/accents in English, there would be the same for Cyrodiilic. I imagine living under the Emprie for so long would kind of make most of them go away, though.

The only accent that really bugs me in Skyrim is Barbas, apparently from Brooklyn, N.Y. That dog drives me nuts anyway, but his accent really takes me out of the game as I listen to a very heavy New Yorker accent.

I generally give accents quite a bit of leeway in fantasy settings. It is hard to make a character sound "different" without using some kind of known accent. One problem that arises are characters of the same background using different accents. You may have 3 Nords. One is British, one is Scandinavian, and the third is Russian. I realize that different races can have different accents, depending on where they grew up. Kind of like us humans and how our accents differ.

This is a huge reason why I dislike voice overs in video games. NPCs are now presented as developers want them, not how my imagination wants them

Well, all 3 of those accents for Nords work pretty well. I mean Britain, and Scandinavian are both Germanic languages, and Russian is still fro Northern-ish and works perfectly for a Northern European game.

And ya that Barbas was pretty bad XD.

Nope. Yokduan is closer to Japanese then it is Arabic, and even then the inflection is radically different. Probably not gonna happen, especially with the Forebares. Meanwhile half of Cyrodiil has been massively impacted and assimilated with Akaviri culture. If there's any place that's going to have any eastern accents, its there.

Pretty much this. As long as they don't start using uniquely modern vernacular, like "blogging" or "selfie" I don't really mind what accent the voice actor has. I'd rather a plain American accent than the faux Brittish accent the Dunmer voices have in Skyrim.

If they are going to try to create unique accents for some of the races, I'd rather see something completely original, like the raspy Dunmer voices in Morrowind, than simply trying to copy Brittish accents because they supposedly sound more medieval.

Meh, idk most of their architectures and armor, with the exception of those related to the Blades seem to be quite European in nature. Last names are mostly Latin/European too.

Sorry, I just really like to get my Roman fix from the Imperials. And Arabic from Ra Gada/Redguards.

I mean, if both Hammerfell and Cyrodiil had predominately Asian accents along with the people of Akaviir they would all sound the same, I like to see each group from the real world get their appropriate representation in Elder Scrolls.

I do think though, if you gave the Blades a heavier accent with just the faintest trace of an East Asian accent, that would be totally awesome. Something like, idk how to explain it. Like the Huns, or the Bulgars, or Circassian or something. Turkic tribes that migrated to Europe in the Middle Ages. That would be totally awesome!

Just I can't have it that way. It simply isn't enough to say oh it's a fantasy world, therefore anything can and will go.

Thematically, the game is set up to draw inspiration from medival/classical mythology, therefore wouldn't it be more in theme for the way the people sound to match the way they look? There's just no real reason people in Elder Scrolls should sound like modern plain Americans when they look ancient. It's boring and lame imo. Just ugh. I like the whole package.

Giving them the ancient accents fleshes out the whole look and feel more wholesomely for me.

I'm with Pseron on this one.

Colovia, yes, but the Niben was supposed to be far more Akaviri then what Oblivion gave us. They might be back peddling on that notion. Might.

Its not a question of "if" with the Redguards. Their language stylings are obviously Japanese. Gaiden Shinji, Shehai Shen She Ru, ect ect.

A important thing to remember about TES is that all the races are a mishmash of a large pool of cultural and religious influences. While some have a obvious asthetic, none of them adhere to a single source tooth and nail. For all we know, Akavir might not even sound remotely east Asian at all, and given the precedent elsewhere, its down right likely.

The Blades lost all Akaviri heirtage when they stopped being the Dragonguard. They retain the aesthetic, but have no cultural tie ins or trappings to speak of save a close relation to the Talos cult. They were an orgainzation of spies, and the vast majority of members didn't run around swinging katanas everywhere.

So... wait you want the people who have roman last names to sound East Asian, and the Blades with direct lineage from the Akaviri Dragonguard, who maintain Akavirii aesthetics in their armor, culture, and architecture to be traceless in heritage and accent?

I'm pretty sure some lineage from Akaviir can easily be present in the Blades just as it should have been in Niben people. And I'm quite confident that they were swinging around Katanas because they do in the game. Both Oblivion and Skyrim, they're still using Akaviiri katanas...

Colovians.

Nibenese.

Except they don't. Not even the culture. The vast majority of the Blades during the Septim empire, were spies. You know, guys like http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Caius_Cosades, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Nine-Toes, http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Sjorvar_Horse-Mouth, and http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Jauffre.

You want to know how to be a bad spy? Run around wearing things that a particular organization is known for wearing. The fact of the matter is, the Blades we see in Oblivion are the face they put on and that everyone is familiar with. The vast majority of their members are, again, spies, with no cultural boundaries or biases to speak of. Its only until Delphine happens is when we see the whole Dragonguard thing come back, and even then, its barely recognizable as Akaviri at this point.

Idk about the other guys, but I know for certain Jauffre carried a dai katana and armor set somewhere in the back. So yes. Katanas. Maybe while spying, they didn't carry katanas with them, but yes, they still owned them. Still kept them in their armories. Yes. And it still looks akaviri. Still looks japanese in nature. still a curved sword with circular handguard and japanese leather binding on the grip. Seems Akaviri to me. Perhaps you could give me a source saying distinctly that they lost their cultural heritage, their codes etc? It seems to me that they clearly still keep them, even in Skyrim they still hate dragons and haven't forgotten their old tempers...

Actually to make it even more authentic every person in that province would speak in that language and subtitles should be enabled and read in the respective country the player has bought it in. like watching anime your welcome

The point is that they don't adhere to Akaviri culture. They can't. They'd stick out like a sore thumb. The Blades were recruited from the inhabitants of the Provinces, trained in stealth and combat, and adept at infiltration and blending in. Their armour was stylistic and mostly ceremonial as their public presence as the Emperor's bodyguards, but the overwhelming majority of them probably didn't even transport the gear with them. None of the Blades in Highrock or Morrowind had any at least.

It's like assuming all RCMP officers adhere to the same cultural background just because all of them have a dress uniform.

The Blades stopped being Akaviri before the 3rd Empire even began.

Lol sometimes I think I want it to be that way.

I really loved the way the first assassin's creed handled it. All the main characters spoke in English but with an accent but sometimes while playing in the world you'd hear the npc's speaking in Arabic, or Teutonic Knights scolding at you in German or French, and it sounded really era-appproriate. Good times. XD

Which works... In a historical setting. This isn't Medieval Europe. This is Tamriel.

Hell, if you wanted something approaching depth of scale, every Hold in Skyrim should have a different accent. What accents you use don't matter, because they aren't Germans or Scandinavians or Russians or Celts. They're Nords. You could give them all south-Asian accents and it would be just as appropriate.

Same, this is a fantasy setting not a historical setting.

The thing is, accents help me identify the NPC. With 3 different accents, one can not listen and think, "Ah! Nord!" When they switch them around like that, they become "Earth accents", to me.

I think that while accents in the games should take inspiration from real-life ones, they should simply be "American" or "Middle-Eastern". The standard American-style accent I believe is "Cyrodilic" and seems to be used by Imperials, both Nibenese and Colovian, while some Colovians with a more pronounced Colovian heritage would possess a somewhat Slavic-inspired accent, while otherwise adhering to the "Nordic" accent we've already seen.

The "Cyrodilic" dialect would also probably be used by some Lukiul Argonians and Forebear Redguards, while the more xenophobic/isolationist members of those races would have thicker accents, likely utilising more Yokudan or Jel words in their dialogue. Altmer and Bosmer seem to utilize an English accent, as do the Bretons, and the Dunmer seem to utilize a gruffer, cockney English accent. Bearing some similarities to the Orcish accent, though far more brutsh, while the Khajiit have a very thick accent, utilizing the Ta'agra dialect.

I agree with this as well. The larger the diversity of accents, the better for giving presence to individual characters.

Next TES should feature Valley Girl speak, like... i dunno... like... u know ... maybe like...

Eh, I prefer that the accents are mostly divorced from any attempt to give each village in each province their own unique "dialect". And I'm not a fan at all of the "all fantasy characters are British" trope, but Elder Scrolls avoids that more than embraces it usually. What's important for me is that the accent fits the character, not necessarily the character's culture or background. So it's totally appropriate for a fancy, stuck-up Redguard to have a posh British accent. Or for rougher, more roguish characters to talk in a gritty cockney accent. As for American accents specifically, I say bring it on. I honestly feel like there's a lot in American culture and symbolism for a fantasy setting to explore, but most fantasy is so deeply entrenched in emulating medieval European imagery or Tolkien that they don't bother. (and they always treat African or Asian imagery as the "exotic" and "foreign" lands - there's no reason for fantasy to be so damn Eurocentric any more, but I guess that's not up to Elder Scrolls to challenge any more)

I mean, sure, there's lots of potential for Bethesda to go deep into accents and linguistics and use them as a way to provide depth and verisimilitude to the world they create... but for me, it's interesting stories and characters that draw me into the world, not how precise every minute detail of the lore and culture holds up under a microscope. (I'm probably taking this topic to an extreme that nobody's gone to yet...)

Here's a thing. Kind of a... note. How does everyone feel about characters in Tamriel using the word "Okay"? I personally kinda like it.