I think that the province of Morrowind and the history and culture of its people is based on the history of Scotland. I'm a historian, and have done years of research into Gaelic history, and for a few years I've also been reading up on the lore of Morrowind. There are a few similarities, almost all of which are major.

Tribes and Houses:

As you all know, the Dunmer are politically, and culturally, divided into Great Houses and Ashlander tribes. This divide happened only after the establishment of a 'modern' government. There is great similarity here between the divide between the Gaidhealtachd and the Lowlands, where in the former there were conservative Gaelic clans that created and put into practice their own definition of a modern society, and in the latter there were houses, such as Hamilton and Stewart, that were responsible for different areas of Scotland and feuded more often than their Gaelic cousins. Before 1034, all people in Alba (the Gaelic name for Scotland) were Gaels. Scots were simply not a race. After that, however, the different cultural group in the Lowlands became Anglicised and feudal of their own free will - in Morrowind, the Tribunal came to power, and reformed the culture and religion, just as Malcolm Canmore (or more specifically, Queen Margaret) did in Scotland. Whilst there were Great Houses before the Tribunal, they were never as far from the Ashland tribes as they were after the Tribunal took power.

Ethnic Divides by Geography:

In the islands in the north and to a lesser extent the west of Vvardenfell, many inhabitants are Nordic. In the islands to the north and west of Scotland, the many inhabitants are of Norse descent. In the south of Vvardenfell, there are more Imperials. In the south of Scotland, there are more families that trace their ancestry to Saxons or Normans. In the far south of Morrowind, there are families that raid across the border and take slaves. In the far south of Scotland (and the far north of England) you had Border reivers, which did much the same until the Scots took the English throne and founded the United Kingdom.

History:

The Gaels are said to have been led to Ireland by Mil Espaine, who seems a lot like Veloth in that had led his people towards a distant land because their own society was perceived to be under threat. Most historians agree that if the Gaels did indeed arrive in Ireland from Iberia, as all real evidence seems to show, then they would have done so either when Carthage was beginning to found colonies in Iberia or just before Rome was founded.
We were not the first people in Scotland, much like the Chimer were not the first people in Morrowind. There were the Picts there before us, who are very similar to the Dwemer in that they were for most of their existence master builders and artists, and, in a sense, created their own gods by worshipping creatures and numbers.
The Picts were conquered, through the inheritance of the Pictish throne by the Gaelic king of Dal Riada, and their culture disappeared. This is not quite Red Mountain, of course, but it does seem like the disappearance of the Dwemer, with just as much proof for any explanations as to why an entire race and culture would disappear (of course, in Alba it took a few years, in Morrowind it took less than half a second).
Scotland was incorporated into the United Kingdom. It did found it, and, whilst Morrowind did not found the Tamrielic Empire, there are similarities. Both states kept their own laws and traditions.

These are the main points of my argument for Morrowind being partly inspired by events in Gaelic history, and the culture of the races of Scotland. Feel free to beat the hell out of it - I'll get back to reading the history books and will then check the Imperial Library to find more points

Okay, I'll beat the hell out of it.

Migration, tribalism, ethnic regions. You hear these words and think of Scotland? Anthropology may not be your thing.

You know, history tends to repeat itself everywhere and allot of statements are very general. By the time people from the North aren't living somewhat in the North, they tend to be foreign invaders. Tamriel has both so they are bound to fit either way.

But perhaps more a convincing argument lies in the fact that everybody tends to associate the history of Tamriel (or Morrowind specifically) with their own history. You can't all be right, right? And with all the people claiming familiarity, it seems all the more reasonable that the lore involved was actually inspired on a large amount of real world history.

The former two, yes, with the very arrival of the Gaels in Scotland via, according to about half of all people who've looked into the genetics, the Caucasus, Egypt, and Iberia, and possibly the latter, as in the Hebrides you had regional gods and goddesses (such as Seonaidh and Cailleach) well into the 1800s.

EDIT: Damn, regions not religions. Then yes, as there are ethnic regions in Scotland, with different geographic areas where the population is mostly Saxon, Norse, and Gaelic. Some locals can even recognise a Pictish nose (hehe my friend has one lol)

Come to think of it. You folks do have a God-King that bartered the secret of nuclear power for peace with the Roman Empire?

I'll, um...be right back on that

That's the "I read a book syndrome" making another victim. Morrowind has been influenced, consciously or inconsciously, by a variety of sources. Each player has his or her own sources which influences how the game is perceived. Therefore, you can make comparisons like this one with just about anything, even some things that could seem ludicrous at first.

Stories with conquered countries that rally around a messianic figure to restore their freedom (the basis of the Nerevarine prophecy) can be found in every area of the world. Is the Nerevarine inspired by William Wallace? Joan of Arc? Tecumseh? Lawrence of Arabia? Haile Selassie? Are the Ashlanders Native Americans? Tuaregs? Mongols? Etc. You can project many images easily.

But neither Scotland or Morrowind were conquered - there's not many unions in the world where nations keep their own laws upon taking over or signing a treaty with another, with a few notable exceptions.



We had three gods and goddesses, though, that are said to have each taught us different things that, in a way, correlate to what the Daedra taught the Chimer. All of those were triple deities, as well. And come to think of it, we also had a High King, in Ireland, that united the Norman houses and Irish tribes, in theory (never actually existed).

But the latter statement there is loose, I'll admit.



No, as those peoples did not have to live alongside cultural groups like the Dunmer Houses under the same circumstances as the Gaels shared their country with the Scots.

I mean that these features describe almost every human culture that ever figured out the secret of fire.

Like you say, Egypt (a dev-avowed inspiration for Morrowind), Iberia, and the Caucasus (which is on the verge of giving me an I-read-a-book syndrome of my own) are all described equally well by the sorts of events in Morrowind's history.


I'm tempted to say "wanna bet," though you have framed it in a very specific way. I can see a similarity with the original Islamic Empire for instance. William Walker de-facto annexed Nicaragua and then barely changed anything. The United Fruit Company bought governments and then were only interested in the bananas. Europe has gypsies, Siberia has natives and oilmen, etc.

The English colonies? Just about any colonial power with more interest in trade then empire building let the local inhabitants keep their old power structures. Overtime things change of course, but the same can be said about Morrowind.

If you look at the history of Judea, you'll see that Judea has more similarities with Morrowind than Scotland. In my opinion it seems that, assuming Morrowind is based on a real life place, Judea is the most likely place Morrowind was based on. That being said however, one could suggest that Morrowind was based on Deseret/Utah.

Yeah, but Judea has so much history that Star Trek is probably half based on it.

Scotland is not an English colony (it's the other way around), and England is not a colonial power. Britain was. That's one difference with Morrowind - that Scotland founded the empire it is a part of, where Morrowind didn't.



Every human culture that figured out the secret of fire has the exact same layout of cultural regions of Morrowind? Nordic northern islands, slave-raiding Borderers, and Great Houses in between?



I'm no expert on Jewish history, but the only connection that I can see it has with Morrowind is that both have been referred to as the promised land.



Empires and annexation are different. I suppose I should have clarified. I meant that both Scotland and Morrowind are legally entitled to keep their own laws, and only they can change them, and although this is for different reasons it is very similar and even more unique to the two of them, in the real world and to a lesser extent the world of TES lore.

Veloth seems a lot more inspired by Moses.

And the Dunmer are incredibly similar to the Hebrews. A different system of belief than the people who live around them, given to them by a divine source (or in the case of the Chimer/Dunmer, daedric source).

And are we ever given a reason as to why the Great Houses exist?

And I don't believe Hammerfell was ever conquered either.

Personally, High Rock and Skyrim seem to be the most highly influenced by Northern European cultures. The Reachmen can have parralels drawn between them and the Scottish Highlanders and Picts, while the city folk of the two provinces are more Lowlanders.

First you have to ask yourself: what is the likelihood that a U.S. video game designer took an upper level course in the History of Scotland? I don't know if such an exclusive-focus course is offered in most colleges/universities for undergraduates.

I think you'd be surprised. Us multi-ethnic Americans love learning about one-eighth of our genes. But I still think this, quoted from Community Discussion:

I'm an American, too, in case you forgot. :poke:

Err, bananaphone is an autonomous province of Moldova...

Very interesting and extensive input.

However, I think Gez is right on this one. This Morrowind Prophocies could be based on a number of different cultural aspects of the world past, anyone from the ancient Mongols to the Babylonians to the various Native American tribes (with the world in-between).

Actually, I did my own study about the socio-cultural inspirations with the Mer and Beast races. Come to think of it, I was going to write one about the humans, but I never got around to it.

I know what I'm going to be doing next time I've got some spare time.

Because the single largest ethnicity of people who signed the Declaration of Independence is Gaelic (Scottish and Irish) :deal:



I agree that High Rock does seem to be Pictish (in fact it's supposed to be based on the Bretons, a Celtic race that still inhabit Breizh, which are a Brythonic Celtic race, like the Picts), but Skyrim and the Nords bear little resemblance, both in their history and in their culture, to Scotland or the Highland Gaels. Perhaps the Norse influences in the Gaelic culture, such as furniture and some mythology, appear in Skyrim, but not much else does.

I don't get it. Most of the devs would've had at least an American history course in high school that emphasized less on the ethnic backgrounds of the signers of the Declaration of Independence than their contribution in the country's framework, and would've had even a less detailed view on Scottish history. But, I guess you figured it out. Congratulations.

:snicker:

Yeah, good point...but they have taken Celtic races as their inspiration before, remember. They even took the name of one, and a great deal of the culture, and gave it a province in a similar geographic position to the race's real-life homeland. Given this, it is more likely that they'd choose another Celtic race's history and culture as an inspiration for something if they've already done it once.

I am sure that Morrowind was influenced by http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuB8xWeA59I.

I thought that would be in the first ten posts, but better late than never

Well, there was that thing about St. Jiub driving the cliffracers from Vvardenfell, much like St. Patrick drove the snakes from Ireland. But there's all sorts of cultural references really, Personally I see a lot of the Aztecs in Vivec and the Mexicans in Balmora, others feel Seyda Neen is like Venice. At the end of the day, a Game made by humans is bound to reflect some aspects of human history, which is why the dunmer are bipedal humanoids and not sentient squids. All fiction is subjectively understood, and we could debate forever whether the devs used Scotland, Rome or Egypt or America as a basis, or simply made it up off the top of their heads, and maybe its us reading too much into it.