Ashlander culture

The Ashlander culture is an anachronistic survival of the ancestor-worshipping tribal culture that evolved into the theocratic Great House culture of the native Dunmer. The Ashlanders perversely prefer the impoverished physical culture and subsistence economy of the Ashland nomadic herder- hunter, and their ancestor worship is shamanistic and primitive by Dunmer and Imperial standards.

Dunmer Culture

Native Dunmer culture shares common roots with the other Aldmeri races -- the Altmer, or High Elves, and the Bosmer, or Wood Elves. All Aldmeri cultures are ancient, complex, and sophisticated. The native Dunmer have dark grey skin, unlike their cousins. Native Dunmer have strong militaristic and authoritarian traditions, founded in their ancient practices of ancestor worship, and fostered and elaborated in the theocratic religion of the Tribunal Temple.

Foreigners

Most native Dunmer don't like foreigners. The Dunmer are a proud people, and they look down on other races and cultures. They particularly dislike outland Dunmer -- Dark Elves born and raised to Imperial ways, who don't know what it is to be a Dunmer born-and-bred. Foreigners can be accepted in Morrowind, even adopted into the Great Houses. There's even a Nord on the House Hlaalu Council. But it isn't easy. It takes time and effort to win a native's trust.

Great Houses

In modern times Morrowind is ruled by five Great Houses: House Hlaalu, House Redoran, House Telvanni, House Indoril, and House Dres. The Great Houses traditions derive from ancient Dunmer clan and tribes, but now function as political parties. Great Houses culture is partly defined by its roots in ancient Dunmer tribal clans, and partly by later Imperial influences from other Western cultures. Dunmer Great House membership is largely a matter of birth and marriage, but Imperial colonists may also become retainers of a Great House, or may be adopted into a Great House. The clan and family structures of the Dunmer Great House system are strong forces for social and political stability. Three of these Great Houses have territorial interests on Vvardenfell; the other two, Dres and Indoril, are not represented on Vvardenfell. The three Great Houses on Vvardenfell identify themselves by their traditional colors: red for Redoran, yellow for Hlaalu, and brown for Telvanni. Thus, members of House Hlaalu may be referred to collectively as Yellows. The Red Party of Redoran preserves the ancient martial traditions of our ancestors, and deserves our thankful respect. The Yellow Party of Hlaalu honors and serves Fortune, Trade, and the Empire, and through such distractions they stray away from the narrow paths of duty, gravity, and piety. The Brown Party of Telvanni honors great traditions of arcane mastery of our race, and deserve our respect, but they are careless in observance of Temple teaching, and scornful of discipline, doctrine, and obedience. - The Great Houses culture is only one of the native Dunmer cultures of Morrowind. The other native culture, the Ashlander culture, is a nomadic barbarian culture largely untouched by Imperial influences.

House Styles

The three Dunmer Great Houses that have settled Vvardenfell have distinctive architectures and lifestyles. Aristocratic, warlike Great House Redoran favors a spacious, irregular, organic building style. Great House Hlaalu, an aggressive mercantile culture, strongly admiring and influenced by Imperial culture, prefers simpler, more modern, more densely populated settlements, while bizarre wizard towers dominate mushroom-hut villages of the Great House Telvanni sorcerer-lords. A fourth Great House style, the Velothi or Temple style, is evident in the monumental architecture, bridges, buttresses, and grand canols of the ancient religious center of Vivec City.

Cultures

Three major cultural groupings have settled Vvardenfell: the Ashlander nomads, the ? Imperial Provincial culture, and the native ? Dunmer culture -- also sometimes known as the House Dunmer culture, the Dunmer Great House culture or the Dark Elf culture. The smallest settlements are the ? Ashlander nomadic camps, comprised of small portable huts. Recent ? Imperial colonies like ? Pelagiad display the same sturdy half-timbered homes and stone castles as might be found in Daggerfall or any other Western province. But the dominant culture is the native Dunmer Great House culture.

Imperial Culture

Imperial culture is a pragmatic melting pot of the various contrasting cultures of the Imperial provinces, unified by a strong hereditary emperor and bureaucracy, the rule of law, a powerful professional army, and tolerance of disparate polytheistic cult worships. Education and wealth is broadly distributed through all social classes where Imperial culture has flourished; many citizens are literate and protected under Imperial Law. Persons of all races and creeds can advance in wealth and status in commerce, the bureaucracy, and the military. However, moral and political corruption at the highest levels of Imperial society, and the economic strain of maintaining military occupations in widely separated hostile provinces like Morrowind, signals the impending decline of the Empire.