Is it a major city? I mean, I know it's near Wayrest, but I don't see it on any maps of High Rock.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/high-rock-map

If not, then why?

Bretons of High Rock don't like the idea of an enclave full of Orc on their Province or on their map.

I'm pretty sure that map is from Daggerfall, before Orsinium became its own city-state.

Orsinium was a large and pretty well off city in the first era but ended up being destroyed and razed to the ground following a thirty year seige by Wayrest, Sentinel, and the Order of Diagna. It wasn't until the third era that orcs took control of the land agian when Gortwog gro-Nagorm won it back in a duel and rebuilt Orsinium. Nowadays it is quite large and orcs control not only the city but a substantial amount of land around it and before the Oblivion Crisis were actually petitioning to make it its own province, so i would assume it is a full fledged city and more.

I think Hairdo is right. That map was made before the developers made MW and OB and so the lore of Orsinium being it's own huge city-state wasn't though of yet. Times change. I think the Morrowind map from the Arena days in 1992 have some cities on it that aren't even in the 2002 Morrowind map. The lore changes as the games progress, especially since the story writers were different from the ones in the ninties. Just imagine if Tolkien had stopped half way through LOTR and some other author picked it up and finished it. I'm sure it'd be quite a mess of conflictions.

Silmarillion turned out OK.

Hairdo is wrong: that map comes from the most recent Pocket Guide to the Empire, written just prior to the Oblivion Crisis, by which time Orsinium is fully recognized. Qawsed Asap is probably more right: despite the advancements Orcs have made, they are still disliked by many, and Highrock might not have wanted to show the city of their longest enemies in their province. It could also have been a purely artistic decision on the cartographer's part, as Orsinium is pretty close to where Wayrest is marked.

I stand corrected. It would fit in the biased universe of TES that the cartographer is prejudiced towards Orcs. So that really doesn't surprise me. Good work on research. :thumbsup:

From what I remember (now, I could be wrong, it's been years since I last had a character get that far in Daggerfall), Orsinium was quite large even in the days of Daggerfall.

Judging by the way Orcs are portrayed in Morrowind and Oblivion, ie the engrained cultural perceptions we are presented with, Orcs are still quite widely unaccepted in the population at large.

However, here's a thought: We know that Wayrest and Orsinium are allies. Depending on how things play out and if Gortwog is any bit as shrewd as he's portrayed as, Orsinium could've become quite powerful by the time TES V comes around.