While strolling around the internet, I found this quick article comparing real world empires to that of the Elder Scrolls.
I found it to be interesting.


http://www.gameranx.com/gallery/elder-scrolls-race/

In other news, the weather on Nirn bears some similarities to real world weather :rolleyes:

very cool.

I'm sure you'll hear more TES fanatics complaining about how TES shouldn't be compared to real life cultures and such, but I can totally see the inspirations in the comparisons.

Yeah. Yeah. I get it.

I suppose you could make some loose references but I prefer not to equate a game like this to real people. Especially when Im not a historian in the 1st place. You could probably make comparisons to multiple peoples without even realizing it

see what I mean

Yep, because I do not agree with you I am a fanatic... blah blah


shut it man, youre out of line

Obviously he was not singling you out.
Everyone has their own opinion.

You should relax, man.

LMAO @ Argonians and Khajiit!

That article is way off on so many levels: Khajiit as Gypsies? Seriously!? :lmao: The only 'nomadic' cultures they are inspired by are Sahara Desert Nomads and Mongols. Their southern culture is almost entirely 19th-century chinese: Rice-powered agricultural economy, adn the entire population's high on opium Skooma.

The Argonian connection is outright terrible (FFS, Not every reptilian fantasy race is based off the [censored] quetzalcoatl-worshiping Meso-Americans!)

And the rest are even worse.

The game obviously draws real life comparisons, but its near impossible to come up with something 100% percent original from our world given so much of fantasy has been rooted in legion and mythos of our world. That article is very simplistic and not complete at all when it comes to which races are inspired by which. The Redguard's alone have a strong mix of Muslim, Phoenician (Carthaginian), African and Bedouin cultures that all mix together to create something unique, especially paired with their religion. The Imperials are intanstly compared to Rome simply because of the Legion, but when you get down to the culture of the Colovian's and Nibanese its a completely different story, one that doesn't resemble Rome in the least bit save for military organization and Latinish names.

The Orcs were another major misconception, their armor is obviously inspired by feudal Japanese samurai, their culture is semi-Sheppard based and theres is no inequality or stigma between the six's, so calling them Mongols is overly simplified. The Argonians I have the most trouble pinning on, as they are the most different, but a mix between Native American nature worship (like the Hist) and African tribalism can be seen as definite influences, but the Dunmer as Japanese I don't quite see, Dunmer culture being divided up into Great House's with a King may appear closely related, but the King is more or less an Imperial Puppet with little influence to fight the main Houses if push came to shove, and Dunmer culture itself doesn't really scream Japan to me.

The Altmer on the other hand seem more Japanese to me, if you have to simplify it, and I'd have to agree 100% with Scow2 on the Khajiits.

Nords are painfully obvious, even their culture screams at you about their real world influences, thats not really very debatable in my opinion. High Rock is so much like Feudal Europe its painful, so many French influences can be seen and are the more 'bland' race but the mixture of elven blood and history gives them a different and unique flair as well that limits your ability to just plainly say "Bretons are Celts".

Maybe I should hang out In this forum more often.

You all seem well versed and literate.

This subject is one that has been breached many, many a time and has come back in force the past few days. This has to be the third or forth topic I've seen between the general discussion and lore forum's, so those who talk about it have done so so many times its like second nature . Those of us who pay attention to the fine details of lore tend to have some sort of background in real life culture/history, mostly just as a hobby I would guess, I myself am a Political Science major and Religious Studies Minor so history and culture is one of my favorite things to study, and the Elder Scrolls Universe has cultivated such an interesting history and world it feels almost as real as ours when it comes down to the fine tuning of Nirn's inhabitants and their history. So much to the point that one stops seeing the 'real world' comparisons and starts seeing something unique and different.

Nords used to have much more Russian influence... I miss it.

BEAR CAVALRY, PLEASE!

lol at Khajiit, though it is fact that Romani (Gypsies) are an Indian people and I would definitely say are closest Indian - India is desert and sand and the skooma pipes look like Indian hookah. The names of Khajiit are Indian in many ways. They end in -iit like Harjit & Ranjit. There are names like Ra'ja.
Big cats like lions and tigers are native to India and feature as an important racial symbol for many Indian people and nations.

I used to think Dunmer are Japs but I now think they are more Turkic / Mongolian due to the yurts they live in.
Orsmer are probably the Mongol / Hunnic tribes that went west into Europe (such as Magyar who invaded Hungary) as they were known as short stocky people

I think Altmer cover both Chinese and Japanese. Like the picture shows they look Chinese and many aspects of their cleaner refined nature reflects on the ancient Chinese. The Orcish armor in Morrowind was copied from Altmer armor and it looked exactly like Samurai armor.

Redguard I would say are based on the ancient Carthaginians of northern Africa who's empire centred from what is now Tunisia. Play the Redguard game and look at the lore of the early TES games and see how Redguards gave the most resistance to the Rise of the Empire (exactly like the Carthaginians did with Rome)

If all the other mer races are based on Esian (East Asian & Pacific) people then I'd place my bets that Bosmer are like the Esian people of SE Asia such as in the rainforests of Borneo.

I think the hidden success to fantasy lore is to base them loosely on our own ancient cultures. Look at all the successful fantasy world such as warhammer, Lord of the Rings, Fable etc. They all do it. Then look at other game which don't and see they don't make the same success.

This doesn't restrict the races as we can expand as much as we choose. I think deep down most people like to relate to things and like the fact they can change them into something much more. Its like Vikings with dragons and giants ogres etc. This didn't happen in real life. Nor did some of the exotic armors that I'm sure the Nords will have in Skyrim. Its like the Norse we want to see as opposed to the reality.

The circumstances of the Empires incursion into Hammerfell were far different than that of the Roman Empires into Carthage's however. The Forbear's welcomed the Empire to their side while the Crown's fought to protect their old way of life and continued existence and wasn't a conflict of Imperial interests like it was between Rome and Carthage. In the Immortal Blood Timeline I play a Ra'ga tribesmen and I take heavy influence of Carthaginian and Phonecian ways to my character and his tribe, at the same time another player takes a more arabic approach, both are very appropriate for the different sides of the Ra'gada people.

yh, that's how I play my Redguard with heavy influence of Carthaginian and Phoenician (& Canaanite / Jericho etc) ways to my character.

I imagine my Redguard character as a kind of Hannibal style general.

I think I had another idea for a drinking game! Do a shot every time someone makes a thread pigeonholing a fantasy culture into a copy of a real-world one. You'd be hammered in five minutes.

Do'tirath has a better view on this: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1213608-races-and-their-real-life-equivalents/
Except that I think Argonians are Russians and Dunmer are Albanian and Khajiit are Moroccans.

Do'tirath's is another extremely dumbed down comparison and is in no way a better view than that article posted in the OP. He explains none of his reasoning and it's just another tick mark on the generalized belt of comparison threads. There is no direct comparison to any of the races.