I know the imperials are based of the romans, the nords are based of the norse, the bretons are based of the french, and the ashlander dunmer the native americans, and many people have suggested japanese for the Altmer, but what about the argonians, khajiit, bosmer, redgaurds , and orcs?

Most of the Tamriel races draw on multiple real world cultures. For example, the Ashlanders bare similarities to a number of nomadic cultures, not just Native Americas. The Redguard draw primarily from the larger empires of North Africa and the Middle East (and perhaps even the Mughals).

The non-human races are far harder to pin down. Altmer culture has never struck me as being particularly similar to feudal Japan. Some of the material culture is similar but I imagine they originally obtained this from Akavar - which we know has a strong Asian foundation. Much of what makes Elven and Beastman cultures stand out is strongly rooted in fantasy elements (the Green Pact, the Hist, the many forms of the Khajiit) which overwhelms any real world characteristics. The Dunmer are something of an exception but that's because we've seen them in depth - although honestly much of Dunmer culture is still very fantastic.

I can see traces of the Japanese people in the Altmer in terms of deep pride, value of tradition and slight xenophobia but that's as far as it goes (in my eyes at least - Maybe I'm wrong. It's happened. Once ). I think the Norse influence on the Nords - Hell, on the game in genral - is very obvious but still needs pointing out given the subject of this thread.

I think that one will find quite a bit of Mongol influence within the Nords, particularly their armor (Nordic Fur armor looks very Monglian). Ashlanders borrow some of that east Asian influence as well with the design of their yurts.

While I'm not going to argue with you about what you've said, I will add my take. The Imperials to me are more Byzantine than Roman at this point of their history. Then the Nords are more Slavic as in the Rus peoples of same time frame. I look at Bretons as Celtic, Redguards as Berbers(Northwest Africa), The Mer have some Asian influances. I see the Altmer as Chinese, the Bosmer as aborigines, and the Dunmer as Southeast Asians (Thais, Vietnamese). The Orcs are Germanic/Norse. Khajit I see as somewhat Mesopotamian. Finally the Argonians seem like Egyptian to me. I apologize for naming fantasy races as humanistic and these are my own racist thoughts. It does help me portray my PC's in my mind by being able to read up on these cultures. Also I kept them all in the same geographical/political area to make it plauisable in my mind.

I agree that the Bretons are more Celtic than French. Their history and culture has similarities to that of Wales before it was conquered. Although most of their names are French-sounding some such as Edwinna Elbert are very English/Anglo-Saxon sounding.

edit: the relationship between Altmers and Imperials is similar to that between Greeks and Romans, the older civilisation having cultural influence over the younger although its political power has declined

God help the man who dares to say that beast races were based on real life furries. I for one, can't look at the game the same way, I used to way back when.

Bastards.

Wait, what?.....How?

The ancient Egyptians were famed for their ability to both resist poison and breath underwater. I think. Maybe.

The following are my opinions/observations.

Imperials: Largely based on Ancient Romans.

Nords: Norse.

Bretons: Franks, mostly due to their mannerisms and accent.

Dunmer: The Ashlanders can be attributed to nomadic culture in general, more specifically the huns, or perhaps mongols.

Redguards: Mid to Northern African in general, probably Nubians specifically, maybe Egyptians.

Argonians: Tribal culture in general, maybe Native Americans.

Khajiiti: African.

Bosmer: Celts.

Orcs: Orcs are orcs. Tracing back to DnD. That's what they're based on.

Altmer: Nothing comes to mind.

When ?

In.... Errrr..... Ancient times?

I'll get my coat. :ninja:

The Celts aren't a single race, it's a word used to describe many different nationalities whose languages have the same descent. I've compared a lot of things to the Celts, and am an expert on Celtic history myself, and whilst there is Irish in the Nords and Highland Gaelic in the Ashlanders, there is almost nothing with the Bosmer.

And, as others have said, it's impossible to say the races are based on a single real-life race. The Orcs have Mongol traits, the Nords have Norse traits; but they also have Afghan traits and French traits, respectively. The Ashlanders have many ideas from the Assyrians, the Native Americans, the Israelis, and the Gaels, and the Bretons are almost entirely Breton (I don't know why people didn't get that one almost as soon as the Bretons were introduced to the games), French, and English.

Short and short-tempered? I don't know, was just kind of throwing that one out there. And I never claimed that the Celts were a single race.

People have almost covered this topic to death. Although each of the Elder Scrolls races are influenced by real-life races, there isn't really a one-to-one correlation between the fictional and actual cultures. They're basically a hodge-podge of a bunch of different races from a variety of time periods.

Which should probably be expected given that real world Bretons are French Celts

There are generally considered to be six major Celtic groups. The Irish, Scottish, and Welsh are the best known, but also included are the Manx, Cornish, and Breton. There are a few other regions that retain or at least had a large celtic presence, in particular parts of England. Depending on the time period Celts can be found in a number of other European locations, most notably the Iberian peninsula. I also know there is some work on Germanic Celts but I'm less familiar with it.


*snerk*

Bravo!

I had a horrid feeling a previous poster (juggalo-mantis) thought I was being serious...

There are two groups, called Goidelic and Brythonic, which include those six races (although the latter included many others).

The Bretons in the game are based largely on the Bretons in real life, which, other than their different language, culture, society, history, food, and cultural loyalties, are French. And they're Brythonic

Goidelic and Brythonic are branches of Celtic language. And there are more Celtic groups than those that are attributed to the Insular Celtic languages, namely the Celtiberians.



There is no general consideration. These are the six Celtic groups that exist today.

They're not groups, they're nations (the actual meaning of the word, not the one that's the same as 'country'). There's only one Celtic race in those regions, so they can't be groups.

But I'm going to shut up now, as I guarantee I will probably drag this off-topic if I don't

I knew you were not serious. Because i studied the ancient egyptians in high school a lot. And it didn't say [censored] about them being argonian like. Plus that was the ancient canadians you were thinking of not the ancient egyptians. Everyone know that.

Warning the above post may or may not be serious. Who Knows ?

Nah, Canadians were the basis for Falmer which must make Nords Americans. Further evidence for this hypothesis can be found on the Robert Calvert album "Lucky Leif and the Longships".

One thing has had me baffled for a while. Originally the Redguards' architectural style was Arabic, primarily due to the lack of culture flushed out for each race in TES: Arena. This continued in Daggerfall. Afterwards however, they begin to adopt the more port-like styles seen first on Stros M'Kai. Are they both considered canon styles?


More English names were utilized in the games pre-Morrowind. I agree with you that their culture reminds me of the Celts greatly.

Since we get to see very few visual clues as to some of the races I'd hazard a gues that most of them so far have attributes belonging to multiple real world cultures. I think this works better within games too. Take Knothole Glade in Fable 1 for instance. The totems and spiral art appeared to be a combination of what is commonly considered Celtic and (apologies for the term) Native American iconography. This personally made it one of my favourite places to hang out. I think it's more imaginative and probable that each TES race is a melting pot of real world cultures and their idiosycracies. After all the Orc armour in MW looks like Samurai Armour does it not?