E.Asians / Oriental styled races in TES

Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 2:34 pm

There won't be any specific Asian races because no new races are being added. The best you can do is try to make your character have more Asian features with the character creation.
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Bitter End
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 1:45 pm

While some of those things are true, most people are just grasping at straws when they say what the Dunmer are. Nomadic hunters? Someone will compare them to any culture that has nomadic hunters. Xenophobia? They find one xenophobic culture, never mind that most ancient cultures were rather xenophobic, and just about everyone on Tamriel is too.

Of course the Dunmer takes some inspirations, but saying the Dunmer "are" ___ is boring. Discussing similarites is fine and can be interesting, but saying one culture is a real-life one is boring.


I mentioned xenophobia in relation to the Japanese because Tiber Septim was the Dunmer's Commodore Perry. They're occupied and they don't like it and they're not afraid to spit that fact into the face of any outlander they're forced to not murder horribly. I agree with you in principle, though, and that's the point I was trying to make. Even the Nords are not just Vikings, damn it, though they take quite a bit of influence from old Nordic cultures (hence their name). Hell, the Skaal bore more resemblance to Native American stereotypes you find in popular culture than to Vikings. Dunmer aren't Japanese or Assyrian or Hebrew or anything like that, they're Dunmer. They bear resemblances and show influences but they are sufficiently distinct from all of those things to be unique in their own right. Almost all of the TES races have some Asian influence as well as European or Middle Eastern influence. The Khajiiti and Redguards are known for their traditions of unarmed combat, the Argonians have a very Zen way of looking at things, and the Imperials regard their Emperors as having divine lineage.
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Paul Rice
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 3:30 pm

You don't need to try and make elves asian just to represent (not every game needs every human race spoken for). They have elements of Asian culture and style, as well as a lot of other cultures. There's no reason they can't just be their OWN culture. What's great about Morrowind is really the fact that it's so unique and taken from so many sources that it's impossible to narrow it down to even 3 or 4 main influences. And that's cool (by the way, to a previous poster, I can see the Star Wars influences, like alot of their architecture always reminded me of http://www.dvdactive.com/images/editorial/screenshot/2009/8/tatooine2004.jpg) with me. There should be more cultures in fiction where it's not an obvious parallel with Earth.
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Jade Barnes-Mackey
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 7:17 pm

No, nothing about the Elves is Oriental in my opinion. They're just stereotypical Elves similar to those found in Tolkien's work.

Why do all fantasy races have to closely resemble real-world races? It's silly.


You are kidding right? the asien and middle eastern influence is obvious in Morrowind.
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Tom Flanagan
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 4:16 pm

I don't know why people reject every similarities with real world cultures, like that would destroy the fantasy world or something...
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JeSsy ArEllano
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:37 pm

There are certainly influences from real world cultures going on, but I agree that its silly to think of Altmer as asians etc.
Its just that they share some aspects.

Im surprised no-one has mentioned orcs yet though.
Their armour is very samurai.
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Laura Hicks
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 12:46 pm

While we're at it, I've always imagining that for the Altmer, as well as those Asian undertones in them (heck, those ornate design on the Orcish armor are supposedly inspired by the Altmers style,) it would be cool for them to be somehow incorporating some design elements from the renaissance-period Italy in the mix; especially those fancy masquerade masks and ludicrously extravagant clothing. Anything to turn up their "delusion of grandeur" flavor to the max, I say!
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W E I R D
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 7:33 pm

Don't Relate Elves to Human Races

They are Elves


But Yeah i would like an Asian Human Race Maybe Yokudans as an Asian looking Human Race
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maya papps
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:27 pm

We have Europeans equivalent races of various types. We have an African looking race.

What about people of Asia? Its easy for people of west and southern Asia as they are basically just brown of darker skinned Caucasians and there is the option to make a tanned / brown skinned Nord or Imperial (I myself have made an Indian looking Nord). I also think the culture of the Khajiit has an Indian / Persian feel to it. But what about Easians / Orientals?

Personally I have always seen the Elven people to be TES equivalent race for E.asians / orientals.

High Elves like a (tall) Chinese / Siamese advanced society type people (civilized nature, inventors of ancient technology & magics etc)

Dark Elves I see as Japanese / Korean type people (some nomadic in Asian looking tents whilst others in splendid cities).

Orcs I see as a Mongolian / Hun stocky barbarian type people

Wood Elves I see like a Cambodian / Vietnamese Khmer small jungle type people


Anyone else agree?

its's redguards or the akviri beast race that are the asians of the elder scrolls belive or not
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Cathrin Hummel
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:37 pm

I don't know why people reject every similarities with real world cultures, like that would destroy the fantasy world or something...
It's not that, the issue is when people shout "I want x race to be y IRL culture/people." What a lot of us want is the TES races to have many influences from many different cultures. As example, people have, literally at this point, to every single culture in the world that has ever existed. While the dev commentaries point mainly towards 4-5ish (if I remember correctly), it's that kind of diversifying of cultural influences that makes a race interesting.

It's the difference between someone shouting "I want the dunmer to be Japanese" and someone saying "The dunmer are a combination of x, y, z, aa, and bb."
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Bee Baby
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 9:32 am

No, nothing about the Elves is Oriental in my opinion. They're just stereotypical Elves similar to those found in Tolkien's work.

Why do all fantasy races have to closely resemble real-world races? It's silly.


The races are fine looking the way they do. It's who they are. It would be awful if what happened to the Wizardry happened to TES. The old wizardry series was all american styled art for the monsters and characters, then it became more popular in Japan so all the characters and monsters became anime drawn making them look extreamly generic. I would not like that at all.
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Natalie Harvey
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:58 am

i dont think that they are based on real world races but i would say that there probably slightly influenced by them. the high elves definably by asian races.
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Liv Staff
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:07 pm

What about people of Asia? Its easy for people of west and southern Asia as they are basically just brown of darker skinned Caucasians and there is the option to make a tanned / brown skinned Nord or Imperial (I myself have made an Indian looking Nord). Anyone else agree?

What's the problem? Why not change the physical features of a human race to look Asian (the same way you do for Western Asians)??

You can change eyes, if that's what's bothering you.
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Maya Maya
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 1:46 pm

http://amito.freehostia.com/Morrowind/Images/Urshilaku.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eFESZhWXX-A/SSLVIYY9-bI/AAAAAAAAAXo/X8-a1oN9NNU/s400/gulver+mongolian+yurt.jpg

http://users.atw.hu/nyerscsaba/jurta/magyar01.jpg. Nuff said.
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Hussnein Amin
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:26 pm

This reminds me of the thread where someone was complaining that Redguards were racist because they represented Blacks and only had fighting skill and therefore were meant to mean that Blacks can not be smart.

I think if one of the basic races had ended up looking japanese I would not have had a problem with it. To be honest ES games have a lot more variety than most, so can't really complain.

I think the point of what I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't be trying to make ES politically correct concerning races. It's another world, another universe.
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JUDY FIGHTS
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 10:12 am

What's the problem? Why not change the physical features of a human race to look Asian (the same way you do for Western Asians)??

You can change eyes, if that's what's bothering you.

You can't give them an epicanthal fold, at least not in Oblivion, and the eye options are terribly limited.
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Alexandra Louise Taylor
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:15 pm

Eh, enough asian influences in TES already.
Orcs, Altmer, Akavir... Etc.

No need for a new race out of nowhere because "TES R RACIST"
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Brooks Hardison
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 12:46 pm

Eh, enough asian influences in TES already.
Orcs, Altmer, Akavir... Etc.

No need for a new race out of nowhere because "TES R RACIST"

I don't say this often. But seriously, this.

Also, have a look at TESNexus. Look at the mods. Like 80% of all character mods are asian / anime styled. This is if you play on the PC of course.
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+++CAZZY
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:09 pm

Gotta love 'em Ashlander yurts. It's my Argonian Spellswordspear favorite place to hang out and chillax. Good buddies with the people too.


Which is a bit ironic, considering the whole slavery thing. Lol wait, by 'hang out and chillax', do you mean 'get locked in a cage'?
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Rhi Edwards
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:16 pm

If they were going to add that Imperial Race later in the game cycle, I don't see why they made them into bland white people instead of some type of asian for the sake of diversifying races. Why were the Imperials added to Morrowind as bland white people?

Probably because TES was created by bland white people for bland white people like me. :no:
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Jarrett Willis
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:54 pm

Eh, enough asian influences in TES already.
Orcs, Altmer, Akavir... Etc.

No need for a new race out of nowhere because "TES R RACIST"


Ah, the Orc armor in Morrowind. Very asian in appearance.

http://images.uesp.net//2/23/MW_Armor_OrcishM.jpg



Wait, but that means that TES is saying that asians are big stupid green monsters that talk slow. :P
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benjamin corsini
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 7:33 pm

Ah, the Orc armor in Morrowind. Very asian in appearance.

http://images.uesp.net//2/23/MW_Armor_OrcishM.jpg



Wait, but that means that TES is saying that asians are big stupid green monsters that talk slow. :P

Nah, at least the females are more intelligent still than the average Nord and Redguard males.
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Races

Probably because TES was created by bland white people for bland white people like me. :no:

Wait. Since I'm an Asian... does that means that I'm not allowed to play the game in the first place?

Good bye my beloved TES. It's been a pleasure to know you :(
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Emerald Dreams
 
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Post » Mon Jul 12, 2010 1:21 pm

Associations with real world ethnicities is an attempt to simplify tamriel cultures to better relate to them. That's fine and all, but don't expect them to conform more than superficially, and do expect them to have similarities to more than one culture. Sure the yurts and nomadic paraphernalia of ashlanders seemed to be riffing off mongols, but lots of it is also bedouin. Their names were more assyrian. House Redoran was almost arabic in some ways. Indoril had architecture that seemed inspired by thai or cambodian styles, as did Almalexia's outfit. Armor types like the chitin, netch and morag tong stuff seemed almost more like the sandpeople from Star Wars tho. Telvanni seems almost like a dark take on paintings of fairy villages made of mushrooms and such. Dunmer living in the grasslands could almost be compared to a bible-era rural hebrew lifestyle.

Basically BGS put a lot of effort into blending elements associated with a variety of cultures so that whenever you think you have the dunmer pegged they could still surprise you. Thats part of why so many people loved Morrowind so much. Nord culture in Skyrim will likely be more constrained, but Todd has strongly implied that their goal is to work in as much of that uniqueness as they can so that Nords don't just seem like Norse culture 2.0.

Which is a bit ironic, considering the whole slavery thing. Lol wait, by 'hang out and chillax', do you mean 'get locked in a cage'?


Ashlanders didn't keep argonian slaves, nor did Redorans. That was primarily the Hlallu (and some other house from the southern mainland whose name I can't remember but started with a 'd' I think, in lore but not in the game).
The Telvanni also kept slaves, but theirs were of all races, including other dunmer.
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Sasha Brown
 
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