How did an Altmer get to be Imperial Battlemage? Was he even an Altmer in previous games? This has puzzled me ever since I first saw him in Oblivion. Now, I've never played Daggerfall, but I have seen his picture from that game and he doesn't look like an Altmer there. Anyone have a link or something that can explain this?

You are obligated to use your imagination to see his golden skin and pointy ears. There is no answer to your first question, make it up.

He was painted yellow in that cinematic, but it's too dark to see.

And Altmer are accepted in all posts and offices in the Empire. Aside from the formulaic RPG nonsense of each role being played by the race that has the right skill bonuses (bandits...) in defiance of all logical demographics, Altmeri high culture became Imperial high culture. Cyrodiil owes a lot to Summerset Isle for its Imperial Institutions and expertise, just as it does to Akavir.

Also, in no way is Ocato the first Altmer Imperial Battlemage. We have Jovron Direnni, and Pelladil Direnni, whom were also both Imperial Battlemages.

I guess I wasn't aware of how willing Altmer can be in participating in the empire. I figured that, first of all, they wouldn't be caught dead working for a human emperor and that, second, the empire wouldn't care to employ them. Do you suppose Altmer like Ocato are detested by his own people?

I'm sure they see it as asserting their superior culture over the apes who got their grubby hands on a super-weapon. Having Altmer high in the Imperial government certainly serves the interests of Summerset Isle, and Ocato is someone of importance in Firsthold.

Greeks worked for the Romans, and sometimes even went pretty high. Egyptians worked for the Greeks after Alexander. Japanese worked for the Americans post war until the Americans left. Iraqis work for the Americans now, albeit they sometimes get shot for it. After a war, people look for work. If the guy in the big chair is of the same race as the bastards who stole your country, you may not like it, but your family needs to eat. After a few generations, if the occupation goes well and your people are integrated into the new power structure, your grandchildren won't even think much about it.

Working in White-Gold Tower is also pretty hard to pass up. Mythically, it turns Summerset into the cosmic boondocks.

I suppose all that is true. Would I be correct in presuming that the Altmer's isolationist tendencies mentioned in the Pocket Guide are exaggerated?

I'd go with the idea that there's a split among Altmer, as with similar situations in the real world. Some are very isolationist, especially older Altmer and Altmer still living in the Summerset Isles. Younger Altmer, especially those who've lived their lives around humans and beast folk, are probably much less isolationist. Which won't stop them from engaging in some angry language now and then; still, they don't feel the loss like the older generation. Most are used to the idea that you need to play nice with the non-mer if you want to make a living, and some even have non-mer friends and lovers.

Maybe, aside from the whole bit about them making an Island disappear to (for sundry reasons including) prevent foreigners from infecting it.



Actually, if I am to understand correctly, it is the young Altmer who believe even more fiercely in their own culture.

The PGE is more than 400 years old.

Not the "third edition" which I guess DarkRalen refers to.

Well, even if Altmer are typically isolationist, theyre no hivemind. There are always exceptions.

I may be way off the mark here, but I have always had a sneaking suspicion that the Summerset Isles were inspired by Japan. Japan was fiercely isolationist a few centuries ago and is now a completely open society to foreigners. Perhaps this is the way the Altmer are tending. Does anyone know if the gamesas writers based Summerset on Japan?

I dont think so but it's a possibility.
Keep in mind that the Summurset Isles have always been extremely afraid of the "diminishing" of their "Pure blood", almost like Vampires in some series.

*cough* incist *cough* *cough* baby killers *cough*

Oh how much we can learn from their High and Advanced Society!

Ah, Imperial propaganda, we know not weither to beleive you or not, but it's fun to use your deceptive writing to mock the silly golden people with their pointy ears and nose-in-the-air snooty talk.

It could just as well be China. And if the correlation is so simple that it could be either of those countries, it's too simple to be important.

Let's not even touch whether it's important or not. That will take us down the road to why we're discussing a video game so vigorously....

If gamesas was drawing parallels with real places, it is unlikely to have been China in this case. At least, in my opinion. China is a huge country (or region, if you prefer) and Summerset is an archipelago just like Japan.

I think it's obvious that many parallels were drawn between these fictional cultures and those of the real world. For instance, many of the Bretons appear to have French/English names; Nords similarly have Scandanavian names and wear woad like the Picts; and the Imperials are very obviously inspired by Rome. These fictional cultures might be creative amalgams of real world peoples. Examining these parallels is part of the fun of discussing this stuff at all.

Does Ocato fit this model? Naturally, it's never a direct imitation of the real world far east, but if it is even in part, is Ocato as well? I put it to you that he is not. I feel like he is an example of the fictional world having taken on a life of its own. He fits with the lore, not with any supposed model of the real world.

Disclaimer: I am a student of ancient history so you'll have to forgive my references to the real world. I quite like discussing TES as works of literature, thus their inspiration and influences are fascinating to me.

Really? Never picked that up, and I read pretty much all of the in-game books. Of course, I may just have missed it. If that is the case, I wonder why they took it in that direction. After a war, it's almost always the older generation that stays hostile and the younger generation that accepts the peace.

Maybe they were thinking of angry teen immigrants or the Catholic-Protestant problems in the UK, but those are really different issues.

Depends on what real world model you're looking at. It breaks down if you say Sumerset Isle is to the Empire as Japan is to the USA, but it works well enough if Summerset Isle is in part to the Empire as Greece is to Rome; the Romans employed Greeks at all levels of government, and some even became Senators.

I agree that the TES world also has a life of its own, like any fictional setting; all of the cultures are weird mixes, with fiction trumping history.

Akavir is really meant as the Japan / China anolog.

Ah yes, I quite forgot Akavir. Morrowind occasionally has that mysterious far east feel to it as well. I'd wager that this is something Bethesda liked getting into. I must admit, the lore that has to do with the empire's relations to the more remote cultures is the most interesting to me--like the books from Morrowind with dates as titles (help me out here, I can't recall the dates :/) that were about Vivec resisting imperial incursion.

Its in the pge 3 edition. They took that direction, because it makes a lot of sense. Who usually fights the revolutions? Who is usually too hot headed to sit down, shut up and listen? Horny "youths".

I think you may be on to something here. I'm young, horny, and revolutionary. Carpe Libertatem!

Because the Altmer just look like legalistic prigs.

I seem to remember that at one point there was an Occato who was an Archmage and a member of the Elder Council - presumably the same guy.