Hey guys/girls, I'm trying to locate some sources that point to the exact real world cultural influences the devs had when creating the elder scrolls series (Morrowind in particular). Does anyone know of any links or articles where they have actually been quoted on where they drew their ideas from? The only thing I can really think of is the Making of Oblivion DVD, and even that was fairly generic examples (for a fairly generic, albeit fun, game).

Like any fantasy game, I suppose the series' roots can be traced back to D&D and Tolkien, but that's pretty much a given nowadays. Most of all I'm interested in Dunmer culture and architecture, for example:

-What mythologies and religions the Neravarine prophecies and Tribunal temple are based on.
-Where the ideas for the flat rooved urban houses and mushroomed telvanni houses came from.
-What real or fictional worlds are Vvardenfel and Morrowind based on.
-Where the Dunmer language (eg. N'wah, -ruhn, -fel) originates from.

Is anyone else interested in this kind of study of our beloved series, or is it just me?
Thanks for your participation in advance!

TES I and TES II clearly show a strong DnD influence. TES III separated from that largly and TES IV found some middle ground between TES I/II and TES III. As for the Dunmer language, I don't know of its origins. We know more about the Ayleid language, but I'm not quite sure on its origins, either.

As for study of the series, yes, I am interested. As for generic anything, I beg of people to give that argument a rest.

Yeah sorry about that comment, it kinda slipped out. This isn't the time or place to open such a can of worms

As for D&D, I meant more in terms of our perception of a fantasy world, its rules, limits, etc. I guess you could say it was more of an influence on game mechanics than the culture itself in TES III.

I checked out The Imperial Library, but as far as I can see they've only got documentation on the culture within the game itself, less the cultures that inflenced it. I guess I'll keep hunting down sources, but for whoever's interested I'll post my ideas/findings here (when I actually FIND something).

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Appendices might be able to help with one's search for the cultural influences of real life on the series(the entire series, not just Morrowind), but don't expect much about the Dunmer language(don't know anything other than some words). Many things about Morrowind may have just been made up by Bethesda. Details about Dwemer and Ayleid languages are on that page and from there, you might be able to compare those to real-life languages, but Bethesda may have easily made those up, as well.

its really easier to try and pinpoint which ones it is not influenced by. the hlallu houses look like they were influenced by adobe houses from the american southwest, or by the mudbrick houses of just about anywhere in africa. likewise, you'd have to try pretty hard to find a religion that doesn't have some sort of prophesied reincarnated hero. just about all worldly cultures got into Tamriel in one way or another, you can for instance discover everything from voodoo to hinduism to christianity in the Sermons.

the telvanni mushroom are pretty obviously based on, wait for it, mushrooms :disguise:

Imperials are modeled on Romans: their Latin like names, armor:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:MW_Armor_ImperialSteelM.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Italic_helmet

Cloud ruler temple has Japanese/Chinese architecture style:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:OB-place-Cloud_Ruler_Temple.jpg
Some examples:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WPMeridianGate.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Tai.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:XiAn_CityWall_DiLou.jpg
Also note that entrance structure is in shape of Chinese pavilion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_pavilion
Main structure is reversed, side structures are in similar position as in some Chinese temples while entrance wall is in shape of some Chinese forts.

Mournhold Royal Palace has towers probably influenced by Chinese architecture.
Mournhold gates to other sections of city has Arabic style ornament.

Oblivion cities are probably based on middle age European culture and architecture.
Castle ruins are also based on European castle ruins:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:OB-place-Fort_Aurus.jpg

Sometimes are multiple cultures combined:
Thadon's lower garment is Ancient Egyptian based:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:SI-npc-Thadon.jpg
Part around neck is influenced by European middle ages clothing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Felipe3-Spain.jpg
While crown could have been influenced by Viking.

In other cases could have been for inspiration but made different.

I don't believe there are specific sources, but inspiration for some Dunmer/Ashlander names, such as places and people, as well as some clothing and architectural elements, was definitely taken from various middle-eastern cultures like Assyrian or Babylonian.

I personally just think the Tribunal's trinity of Mage/Warrior/Rogue is pure DnD archetypes.

I found a lot similarities with the Dune serie of novels by Frank Herbert. Not sure if it was a direct source of inspiration or if they just were influenced by the same things.

If I remember correctly, Morrowind (especially it's architecture) was heavily influenced by Conan the Barbarian books, comics, and movies. Not sure where I heard this though.

Morrowind was influenced by Star Wars, MK said so.

I was thinking that. Only sci-fi culture could have influences the odd culture of the dark elves.

That is one of the reasons I love Morrowind so much. While other games (especially Oblivion) were influenced by medieval and ancient history, Morrowind has another approach. While no one suspects a sci-fi collection like Star Wars, Morrowind appears to be completely obscure and unique (I hate to use that word).

its not like star wars was completely new stuff, it is also just a collection of real world influences cleverly twisted and disguised (or not, see how obsessed lucas is with campbell)

Just about everything that the devs come across in daily life has an impact on the game.

Someone already mentioned this, but a lot of things in morrowind were inspired by Assyrian culture, especially names. There was an Assyrian king named Ashurbanipal, and that obviously sounds similar to the names of some Daedric ruins, like Ashurnibibi. I vaguely remember reading something about this quite a while ago, perhaps on the UESP wiki. A google search could turn up more.

edit: I suppose I mean "influenced", not "inspired"

Inspiration or influence?

most likely influence.

The Tribunal Temple seems similar to eastern Christianity.

Disguised? I think it's more intentional homage and allusion, really. He makes his parallels pretty heavy-handedly at points, to where one wonders if he's going for any attempt at allegory at all or he's saying "LOOK, HERE'S A REAL LIFE LESSON FOR YOU. *HINT*" Admittedly, there's more of that in the latter films, but nobody cares about those.

http://www.oblivionportal.com/info/characters.php No other response would cut it.

Edit: And frankly, I've been waiting forever to have even a semi-legitimate reason to link to that.

and that's the moral of the story

This is an old topic, but to me it seems likely the Dunmer are Judeans. There are a lot of parallels with Roman-occupied Judea -- the Dunmer had their own Temple and a fair amount of autonomy from the Empire; their Temple had its own military force, the Ordinators; there were legends of a messiah who would throw out the outlanders; Zealots ran around in both realities, assassinating the outlanders; their nation was formed by a prophet leading his people to their own land (Veloth/Moses); and now, there is a diaspora similar to how Jerusalem fell in 70 CE. It wouldn't surprise me if the Dunmer eventually filter back to Morrowind and try to restore their homeland, centuries later.

Do you mean the real life influences? Like the Morrowind Legion are obviously of Roman influence? Or the Oblivion Legion seem to have more of a enlgish knight influence?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numantia

Which is the home of Don Quixote's author. Who MK molded Mankar Camoran from.

What, seriously? Miguel Cervantes, Mankar Camoran? What are the similarities, besides the initial letters of their names?

He is kidding. Numantia was not the home of Cervantes, and Cervantes was not the inspiration for some elflord.