I have looked through clips of Daggerfall.

From what I can see, High Rock is the forest province of Tamriel consisting of mostly dense forest with areas cleared for farming. Look in the background of the Daggerfall game and much of the background scenery in the distance shows forest. The cleared areas of travel or around the towns still has many tress dotted around. Many looking like large oaks

Not like the provinces of Valenwood & Elsweyr which I understand to be more like in the hot tropical rain forests of south east Asia & India, but rather the Sherwood Forest type of woodland forests that used to cover the majority of England.

Am I correct?

http://members.chello.at/theodor.lauppert/games/tes/daggerfall1.png
http://download.net.pl/img/d74e7dd5aa64c37821d3ee08f9bdec56.jpg.jpg
http://daggerxl.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/ryuranx_sod_4.png

I can see that part of the map of Tamriel High Rock also has some snowy patches in the north which I'm guessing it is also home to some high mountain ranges which I can assume would also explain the name of the province being "High Rock"

http://images.uesp.net/thumb/b/b1/DF-Map-Iliac_Bay.jpg/400px-DF-Map-Iliac_Bay.jpg

Anyone?

I think you are mostly right, but I think there are quite a lot of mountainous regions in the province also. Daggerfall was rather limited in it's ability to portray elevation changes, so using it as defining the region leaves a lot of questions. The way the older in games maps are drawn there appears to be a lot of mountain looking area.

that is not to say the mountains arent covered in forest either, at least a good bit of it. I always pictured it as a combination of rocky mountain range and appalachien mountain range. Some areas of steep high rock, some snowy peaks, some of them with a good amount of woodland, but then also in areas tall, but more gentle, rolling style mountains with a lot of wood cover. Towns wood be around the more temperate lower elevations where the land was flatter for farming, with some settlements higher up for various reasons, like mines and the like.

England is a fair real world comparison, a lot of dialogue in daggerfall has that ye olde feel to it, and the weoponry and armor and whatnot has a definate middle ages europe art look to it. It stands to reason then that european landscape would have an influence on the world design also.

Thats all IMO of course.

I always thought of High Rock as being the most 'Middle-Ages Europe' province, with a sort of mix between French and English culture, and terrain similar to Northern England or Scotland.

If you smashed all the British Isles into France, you get High Rock.

I seem to recall some old adage from high rock along the lines of "any man can claim a hill and call himself king"
-implying to me the terrain is very hilly (not mountainous, that's very different than hilly.).

It will certainly be interesting to see what Bethesda does with High Rock (if they ever return to it) to keep it from resembling a repeat of Cyrodiil. The province is so densely-populated that the buildings (as seen in Daggerfall) would probably be more urban and high medieval in nature, rather than posh English cottages. A mix of French, German and Flemish architecture might be interesting.

It's Jacobian tragedy in Appalachia. High Rock points to Zero Stone; where mankind threw down her slaver gods, the dreugh kings, and established Convention.

I also guess that 'true' High Rock is not like the landscape presented in the game Daggerfall at all, mostly due to technical limitations at that time. Since we have pretty much covered geological matters, what about the people? Poverty? Anything that considerably changed during the last 200 years?

Some kings don't allow the poor. Others facilitate the needy, with kindness and soup kitchens.

It's like living in a magical place where you can find hill billy bretons. (The reach, it atleast used to be part of High Rock) In a world full of petty politics, a place where each of the tiny so called "Kingdoms" Have a pissing contest becasue they don't know how to unite over a bigger threat. But you want to know what it's actually looks like? Well it is pretty similar to Cyrodil in Oblivion, Except probably more mountany.

I don't think that's really forest in the background. It's just not treeless step or open grassland. There's always just enough trees to break the horizon line.

We have pocket guides for these things.

Past that, I think the points you have made in the OP are good ones. Another thing to grasp is High Rock is actually terribly varied - large areas of heavy forest, becoming steep mountains (many of them also forested), becoming craggy Moorland, becoming the wide, flat flood planes of the Bjoulsae basin. Culturally, a curious mix of medieval Frankish and German, with the added twist of a powerful upper-middle class of mages. An important aspect of High Rock is how varied it is. Although the nobility across the area have probably have much in common, expect vastly different peasantry between say, Camlorn or Evermore.

I expect it to be very British and French, I wouldn't expect to see knights wearing glamorous armor sets as Bretons don't get any racial attribute bonuses connected to melee weapons, armors or smithing. I'd find it hard to believe this would be a major factor to their homeland life.

Bretons are the least of the human races likely to produce good armor sets but are best with magic.

Mages towers is a must

Somehow, the Swordcoast of Dungeons & Dragons comes to mind. Especially the cities of Baldur's Gate, Candlekeep and probably Deepwater...

I cringe when people say "High rock is basically a mix of French and English" the way I see it, High rock is more a mix of all European cultures squeezed into small area. I think the Illiac bay is actually more mediterranean in Flora and Fauna, with wild cats and wild hogs replacing wolves, (Don't forget, a quick hop across the pond and you get deserts) The Ayleid ruins add a small sort of Greek flavour to places like Mages Towers and Temples.

The North East on the other hand is more like Skyrim, or Scotland I guess, There are Elks, not like the Skyrim deer, more like the Irish Elk of the Ice age and Large varieties of Wild Boar. The North East and the north coast is mostly where the forests are concentrated. some of the border towns show influence from other cultures who invaded, Jehenna and Farrun show a slight Nordic mix, Evermore is like a smaller, more mountainous version of Wayrest.

The wild North is very different from the cosmopolitan South. The Bretons of the North resemble the Ancient Gauls with their hill forts and their round houses, their murals, Plaid designed clothing and swirling patterns. They have a lot more respect for magic users as well, revering their Shamans the way the Ashlanders of Morrowind revere their Wild Women. The cosmopolitan Illiac bay cities more resemble medieval Italian or German cities, with vast mages guilds in each of the major ones.

The Hrothgardian mountains resemble the Eastern Steppes, with wild horses and large rodent life, (Some kind of creature resembling Marmots)

If anyone has played Rome Total War, the default Celtic/Germanic/Barbarian cities are what spring to mind when describing the northern cities, while Assassins Creed is what comes to mind when describing the Illiac bay cities.

Obviously this comes all from my own head, I just think if someone were to make a mod or a game set in High Rock, my version will offer the most variety and would be the most interesting.

This. Twice.

So what about Cyrodiil? Isn't that supposed the equivalent of our Mediterranean Europe ranging into a more central Europe (Bavarian / Swiss / Austrian) looking Colovian lands to the North?

Well, recall that Cyrodiil was originally supposed to be the geographical equivalent of the Aztec Empire with dense jungles and floating cities and pyramids. After Talos did his thing, we basically have two Mediterranean Europes, one in Cyrodiil and one in High Rock.

I think Bethesda were still finding their feet with the jungle theme and when the games became massively popular they quickly sorted all the provinces out.

I think the native American influences now sit with the Argonians & Black Marsh. Cyrodiil has Roman & Greek clothing, architecture, people names. That and like I said that ranging into a more Bavarian / Swiss/ Austrian feel in the Colovian lands. Bretons have had Welsh, English, Scots & French names. Imperials are also good with heavy armor unlike the Bretons so I don't see High Rock as a nation of smiths but a lore based on wizards. I'm expecting castles like that of Britain and France alongside plenty of woodland and forest. Maybe a few Robin Hood style characters along the way.

We have seen definite Japanese influences on the Akaviri but there is also a chance to see cultures like the Mayans, Incas & Aztecs of Americas having an an influence on some of the regions of Akivir seeing that it is like the new world and a continent separated by ocean. That we'll have to wait patiently to see.

You are away off the mark here, actually. Again, I should point you to the Pocket Guides, in particular http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-first-edition-high-rock. The uniting idea behind High Rock is feudalism X 100. Preposterous knightly orders, endless questing and adventuring, layers upon layers of chivalric obligations and oaths. An ecstasy of Arthurian fantasy. On top of that, we have this ancient mage-class, that is highly important to Brettic society. Somewhere between the medieval artisan class and the clergy, these guys are omnipresent, collected into numerous guilds and societies - the greatest of which being the Imperial Mage's Guild. Essentially though, the Bretons are a race of proud, haughty knights in gleaming armour, puffing out their chests as they march about in horses draqed with the most gaudy heraldic designs one could imagine.



I think you've got most of this right here, but are a little off in your original assessment. Frankish culture does seem to be the model for Daggerfall, Camlorn and much of the Iliac. One thing good to keep in mind, is although the climate and the peasantry is likely to vary wildly as you say it does, the nobility will generally be intermarried, and share a High Rockian culture. The King of Daggerfall and, for example, the Queen of Evermore would generally have more in common with eachother than they would with even their own middle class, or the different ethnic groups that may reside in the eastern kingdoms.

As someone who has had to struggle with the mercilessly small amount of lore on Evermore in particular, I can vouch that (depending on where the map puts it), a large amount of its populace would be Bjoulsae, and likely not even speak the same language as the city-dwelling folk. The best way to understand High Rock, I think, is as many contradictions rolled into one as possible.

One last thing, whatever you do don't confuse North East High Rock with North West . Don't forget that the majority of The Reach is within the borders of Highrock, so that is were you would imagine most of the Druidy Gaulish stuff goes on.

Screens I've seen from Daggerfall give it a very northwestern Europe feel, plus a mixture of the Pacific Northwest (this could also explain Hammerfell's change in climate. Plus, Hammerfell's coast is mostly made of forests, a la North Africa). It does make sense to be more Mediterranean, but it feels very much like a mix of France, England, Washington State and British Columbia. Then we have the mountains, which are pretty much the Alps/Rocky Mountains. I've always thought of northwestern High Rock to be a lot like the Scottish Highlands, which would then not be a far stretch from High Rock's "Western Reach" (which is really in the Northeast of High Rock), which would probably be very similar to the Reach as seen in Skyrim. These are the four main environments and landscapes I've always imagined High Rock to have, especially since their culture and names seem heavily influenced by the Bretagne region of France, that juts out on a peninsula just like High Rock.

I couldn't say that I sensed this. If anything, I've always considered the Nibenean Valley and/or Valenwood to have more in common with Pacific Northwest. Large, wet, temperate rain forests so flush with resources that its indigenous inhabitants could have maintained a sedentary hunting-gathering lifestyle. Though I've never played Daggerfall significantly, so...

If you squint hard enough you can find this in the rubble of the Temple:

High Rock cafe just became my favorite of Hrothgaar's Holds. So's Revenant Moon the Castellans' star?

Or the Bone pool?

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-first-edition-high-rock




So it seems that High Rock has a nobility made mostly of Imperials. There are settlements made of Nords and the Bretons are greatly made up of mages & sorcerers within is built an ancient mage-class that is highly important to Breton society.





Franks were a people much like the Anglo-Saxons as in they were an warrior axe wielding Germanic people similar to the vikings of Scandinavia. The Gauls are the original people of France. Their culture was built more around magical folklore and tales of wizardry.

The story of King Arthur is set at the time when the Romans pulled out of Britain and the lands were left to the invading Germanic people from Northern Germany and Scandinavia. When Rome took over Britain they made many of the former Briton (Celtic) chieftains as Roman governors and the country remained very much the same but with the presence of Roman Legions to keep law and the provinces under their chieftains paid tax to Rome. Even the language and beliefs of the locals remained Brythonic (Celtic). As a result of this many Britons (Celts) at the time preferred Roman rule over the local warring tribes as it guaranteed safety and the land flourished. When Rome pulled out many wanted back the security and rich lifestyle of Roman rule.

Arthur is believed to be a baron or leader left from the former Roman rule who managed to put up the largest resistance against the Norse / Germanic invaders and he managed to hold much of south west England & Wales from them. Many local Brits spread heroic tales and propaganda to gain him support hence the appearing legends with his name. Some of the Arthur legend are believed to be adapted from older legends of the Celtic people (i.e. Holy Grail from Cauldron of Plenty). The wizard Merlin in the story is a Briton druid left from the old beliefs of the former Brythonic (Celtic) society.

The people in real life known as "Bretons" are a branch of Britons who crossed the English Channel from south west England and settled in western France (Brittany) at the time of this same Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. Bretons have their own language to this day which is of the same language as Cornish & Welsh.


I agree with the warm tropical rainforests but tend to think of Valenwood & Summerset Isles as more on the other side of the Pacific and being like south east Asia. Pyandonea, the tropical islands in the ocean off from Summerset Isles I imagine to be like the islands of Polynesia / Oceania out in the Pacific Ocean off from south east Asia.

Bosmer I imagine much like the tribesmen of Cambodia, Burma and Vietnam as both are short in height, both can be very deadly fighters (as in the Khmer Rouge & Viet Cong as quick examples), Both are remembered for cannibalism (The early European expeditions into south east Asia record local tribes as being cannibals), Both live in the jungles.....etc

Maormer I imagine to be like the Polynesian tribe of Oceania called the Maori.