Daggerfall was really not... able enough to have a specific art direction, if you know what I mean.
In Morrowind, there was a lot more foreign influence in the general art direction. The imperials were very Roman-like, and the Orcish armor was obviously influenced by the Japenese Samurai, and the Dunmer tribes were really interesting... not sure what they represented though. It all felt really... historic.
In Oblivion, the general feel was the high-fantasy European King Arthur stories. There did not seem to be any foreign influence in it. Every single piece of art in the game was like this. Excluding maybe the Oblivion planes... there was no historic feeling.
Which led me to wonder what everyone would like the region of Skyrim to feel like!


I think more influence from the East and South America would feel very unique to the Elder Scrolls.

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

Yay ABBA!

Will add that in, sorry about that.

I did not vote...my choice would be Scandinavian influence...of course, I am mostly of Scandinavian (Finn) descent with a little bit of English and a tiny bit of German. So I am a little biased!

Don't worry, I fixed it now!

Not historic? It felt rather medieval European to me. If that's not historic, I don't know what is. It may not have felt primeval or had some sort of desert nomad thing going on, but that doesn't make it any less "historic."

I voted...you know what for!

Then maybe the word is... I don't know, but this is basically what every other fantasy game/movie/book's atmosphere resembles.
So, yeah, it's historic, but it isn't........ unique...?

Explain.

You're pretty obviously wrong, but I'll let you say something.

Graphics.

This is being said with very little knowledge of TES lore, but I'm assuming that the southern part would have a little more imperial influence, and the further north you go a more Nordic style.

Daggerfall didn't have graphics?

i would hate to see Nords living in Asian style housing, wouldn't look right at all.

Agh, I'm just saying the graphics weren't really advanced enough to have an artistic influence. Sure, you could have mythical creatures from a certain country's folklore, but there were a lot of generic mythical creatures in the game. The architecture of buildings were very bland, not that they had a choice. The game was simply built on technology that could not have any more detail. I'm not hating on the game, in fact I think it's a great game.

I think the word you're looking for is "exotic." People tend to crave what they are not familiar with simply because it is different from the norm. After having lived among that stuff for a few years, though, it's made that stuff more tangible to me and I find it quite awesome, even if it is common.

Now to the topic, I chose the Scandinavian influences since these are Nords and they do seem to have a bit of a Norse flare to them. When you read stories like Beowulf, the Vinland Sagas, or the Poetic Edda, you find that it's a rich source of material. I may get blasted for this, not sure, but I also kind of thing of how Rohan was depicted in the LotR movies. Especially Edoras with it's great hall of ornately carved wood sitting on the hilltop surrounded by houses.

Yes!

Siberians, Mongolians and Northern Chinese would probably disagree

I'm not sure how you can say that without saying Morrowind didn't have advanced enough graphics to have an artistic influence.

http://i50.tinypic.com/2gwc1tj.jpg
http://www.dfworkshop.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/wayrest_city.jpg
http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/screenshots/5/29065/daggerfa_790screen003.jpg
http://www.zonalibre.org/blog/dondepre/archives/ES-Daggerfall.jpg
http://www.dfworkshop.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/daggerfall_city.jpg
http://media.moddb.com/cache/images/mods/1/16/15352/thumb_300x150/CastleSentinel.png
http://photos.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/daggerfall.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_MY0ihuJZc

Nordic obviously, I mean it is the home land of the Nords.

I've already detected some possible Egyptian and Eastern Monasticism influences on the stone relief on www.elderscrolls.com.

Okay. Count me wrong.

The fact that we now live in a global community, and are exposed to multiculturalism on a daily basis, means that any Earthly influence that Bethesda uses is going to feel generic. They should come up with something original if they want exotic. For my part, I hope they stick with the Norse style.

Norse style, sure...but I hope they don't draw on it too closely. I want Skyrim style! I mean, that was something awesome in Morrowind, that the traditional Dunmer styles (like the Redoran) didn't resemble anything in the real world too closely. It made you buy into the world. I don't want to be in Scandinavia with elves and lizard-men...It should be something of its own.

I am more worried if the martial combat looks like martial combat and not the rock'em sock'em robots in Oblivion, although if they added different cultural weapons and fighting styles that would totally be great for role-playing despite what many people might say.