Lol! Those creatures you mentioned are from a cartoon. You got to be kidding me if that's your problem

? ? Another silly thing I don't undestand / know of. What is "smurfettes" ?

Somehow I have a strange feeling, that (if you really would like Beth to consider this) you should explain a little more detailed, what exactly you are afraid of / what you won't like ... and what your ideas would be, to implement things you would like.

Because the Bretons have alternated between English and French naming conventions, I've always just likened them to the Celtic people of Europe. The French,
Scottish, and Irish. As an actual Celt myself, I'm rather flattered to have this association going on in the game. I don't think you have to try to make them seem like a direct attack on/parody of any specific people. Every TES race has far more character than that.

The lines get fuzzier with the mer, of course.

Well I kind of feel you here. I'm a quarter Norwegian and can't stand all of the, "lol why aren't you blonde-haired and blue-eyed" comments in real life. I hope these silly assumptions don't manifest themselves in half of all the Nords in Skyrim.

I'm hoping Bethesda won't employ much of the more obvious elements of Norse culture. Right now, the game's dark "ancient" feel reminds me more of Beowulf than anything else, but they've always mixed a few cultures into every game they've covered. Morrowind, for example, had both Egyptian and Native American influences. The Imperials who were often touted as a purely Roman society had a bit of a Byzantine edge to themselves in Oblivion, I think.


I agree. Simultaneously though, racism has always been a major aspect of life in Tamriel and I wouldn't want them to completely sever ties to discrimination, be it over the real-world counterparts the races are grounded in or anything else. At least, I think all the humans get along more nicely in Tamriel than they do in real life.

No, they are not from cartoons...

If anyone has watched the video on GI's website about art design etc, you'll see that in the art designer (guy who draws all those awesome concept)'s office, there were a LOT of books on vikings. So although bethesda are trying to make skyrim its own culture, I think we can expect a lot of similarities between the two.
This may not be modern day real life - I have no idea how much the vikings' culture has influenced that of the northern European / Scandinavian countries.

Perhaps you should try overcoming your prejudices for real people instead. :thumbsup:

Funny how the TC is complaining saying he doesn't want Bethesda to associate Bretons with Britain when Bretons are actually Tamrielic French folk. Names like Jean and Claude, the accent, etc.

I don't mind it. It's more just finding names for them. French names - Bretons, Roman names - Imperials, Scandinavian names - Nords

I think, I wrote it already. I would like totally fictional characters and names and places and everything else, so when I chop the head off count's shoulders in Skyrim, his name would not remind me Birger Jarl, so that I would feel that racist jokes about blonds, hairy and stupid and slow nords would be just that, an in-game folklore. I am fine with those jokes, as long as I seriously believe it is fictional.

That was never a point. You have to read more carefully.

Not really, I just like to play the game that would not remind me of real life as much as possible. That is all.

Western fantasy literature and games are naturally influenced by Western history and mythology. That doesn't qualify as a 'rip-off'.

In TES, most names for Nords are recognizable as (at least somewhat) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nordic. Most Breton names sound French or British. Most Imperial names sound Latin (the language of the Roman Empire). Other cultural elements for each of these may also be found in TES. But TES http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Main_Page is radically different from Earth history. For example, Bretons are half-elves. That alone makes them significantly different from Earth's Bretons.

I totally agree here. I don't even associate TES Bretons with real Bretons, as I wrote, but more with real British (English culture), regardless of their names, wiki, etc. They are very smart (magick) and business (merchantile) and negotiations (speechcraft) oriented. They are the nation of trade, diplomacy and magic. They are just Brits. It feels that way. And I don't really care if the name is Breton.

... and another thing to be explained (at least to me): Who is "Birger Jarl" ? - And you still haven't answered the other simple questions: What is "smurfettes" ? and: Wat are those "silly examples" ? (in some more detail, which would explain the relevance to your fears) - Sorry, but if you don't explain yourself a little more, I can't follow you / your thoughts. :wink_smile:

I see. You associate TES Bretons with the British of real life. But, TES does not give Bretons any bonuses to Mercantile, Speechcraft, or Personality. In fact, Imperials are more like your conception of the British. So, the association you make between Bretons and the British is one entirely of your own making.

As for Skyrim, Nords are obviously influenced by Nordic reality, but I would say there is some influence from Cimmeria, which is of course part of a fictional fantasy world. In fact, Todd (or Pete or someone) made some mention of Conan when describing Skyrim. Sorry I don't have the quote. Perhaps that will help you. I know this idea makes Skyrim more interesting for me!

Unless the in-game manual says that nords are scandinavians, I'm happy.

You are right. But, it doesn't really matter here. My associations are not relevant or interesting. I just want to encounter less hints about Nords being Swedish of Finnish or Norwegian, etc.

Those silly examples he refered to are characters from a book by Tove Jansson.
With smurfettes he means to refer to smurfs.
Birger Jarl was a swedish statesman who established a Swedish rule in Finland in the 13th century.

Sure, explain me then, how relevant it is, :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birger_Jarl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattifattener

If any of these or similar will go into a book, creature, person of otherwise will be slightly modified and mentioned, I'll stop playing the game...

Moomin and Hattifattener are creatures from cartoons written by a Swedish-Finnish writer in fairly modern time. I said before... you got to be kidding me ^^
They have nothing at all to do with Vikings or their culture. Nothing at all.

Not sure where you're going with Birger Jarl.

I have no worries at all about what you're saying.

Thanks ! :icecream:


The thing of "Birger Jarl" is quite iteresting, but those other "silly examples" you call: "some creatures from Nordic Lore" ? I still don't get it. :rolleyes:

and:

Shouldn't you do this ? I mean, it was an example from you, no ?
For me it was only "relevant", because otherwise I couldn't understand your reasoning (which I still don't, to be honest).

It is all kind of a moot point since I doubt Beth is going to change anything about any of the races that the OP sees as "rip offs" of real people. It is only natural that they look to the real world cultures they base the human races on for names, architecture, and some story elements. Take the quest in Bloodmoon that centered on the Meadhall of Thirsk for example. Ripped right from the epic poem Beowulf. Was it fun? Sure was!

I think maybe, just maybe, Redguards have a slight Africana influence. I may be wrong.
:wink_smile:

there should be a chain of fast food restaurants in Skyrim called Birgir Jarl :wink_smile:
even if Bethesda don't put real world references in (which apart from Easter Eggs they don't) people will still see them
Skyrim like every other TES game will be influenced by real world cultures but clear associations between in-game characters and places and real life have never been part of the series and I doubt Skyrim will have them either

Seconded, and that's the whole point here: It was even more fun, because of it's cultural / historical inspiration, imo. (Maybe we / the OP should take history / ancient cultures more like the "fiction" of our forefathers ? :wink_smile: )

err, that's not going to happen.
even if it's not intentionally based on apre-existing culture, people will link it. make up a background for a race of man, and other relevant stuff, nd i assure you, people will be able to link it to actual cultures.
just happens real life is a good place to get inspiration from. even the greatest works of fiction are heavily based on pre-existing cultures and mythology.