When I first read that the name for the fighters guild was the companions, I thought it was a pretty weak name. That was until I was reading some lore and came across where this name may have come from. The army that Ysgromor returned with to seek vengence against the Falmer for the night of tears was called the Five Hundred Companions. I think this may be the orgin of fighters guild name, which makes it much better in my opinion, any thoughts?

I apologize if this has been pointed out already, couldn't find anything in my search.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Atmora

I'm not very familiar with the lore, so this certainly made the "Companions" sound better. When I first heard that was the name for the new fighters guild, I though it was rather...lame, in all honesty.

If what you found is indeed the reason for the chosen name, it makes sense. And I suddenly like the name a bit more.

Good find, dude.

according to lore we also might be seeing a marines faction located in the city of Solitude. i'm curious to see what became of them.

I'd prefer a different name, but it's no big deal. I guess it's because being a Firefly/Serenity fan the term 'companion' paints the wrong picture.

There isn't really any lore about the time period Skyrim is in except legends about dragons. I mean, 200 years. Tens of new guilds could be formed. New settlements created. Noble families dying out. Etc

oblivon guilds didnt even have specific names
its just fighters guild, or mages guild

I'm not really sure of your point. I was just saying that the fighters guild in Skyrim, i.e. the Companions, may be named after the Five Hundred Companions Army, which was used to defeat the Falmer and re-establish Nordic settlement in Skryim.

Everybody thinks it's lame because they equate "companion" with "bestest buddy" or "life partner," but the original meaning is quite militaristic. Alexander the Great's personal cavalry was called "the Companion Cavalry."

Of course, having a basis in the lore is just as important.

makes me like the name much better

That could be true. That could also be a coincidence, which was my point. I suppose we could also take in account that Beth typically doesn't care much about old, semi-significant lore and sometimes ignores/rewrites it completely(for example Cyrodiil was supposed to be a jungle, but that wouldn't appeal to the masses so it was changed).
Still it would be really cool if they are diggin up some old info and using it in the new game.

One small point. If the faction is based on the original Companions, good luck joining if you play as a Mer.

"Massive army" "Five hundred Companions" Contradiction much?
Yes I realize "Companion" could refer to a small army but still.

Does make it sound better though, nice find, OP.

The lore link is probably accurate. More generally, 'companion' could refer to military followers, as KV pointed out. Powerful nobles among the Norse and other Germanic tribes often kept armed companions as part of their personal retinues or 'warbands'- which I think is what they are trying to suggest.

Fun fact: Latin 'comes' (companion, friend, ally) is the source of the word 'count'- in the sense that a count was supposed to be one of the 'companions' of the king/emperor.

Haha I see what you did there :wink_smile:

Anyway, even if it's not in lore now, it's been 200 years with no lore updates, so I guess after the crash of the Empire there could easily appear a new faction

I think it's the SpeedTree tech we should blame for Cyrodiil being not jungle. That random-generating procedure actually works only with regular trees, and Beth was too lazy to make something without it :confused:
But it would be a litte weird if the jungle slowly turned into a snowy mountains near Bruma within one province, so I forgive them :thumbsup:

Sorry for offtopic, just needed to get it out of me :twirl:

Highly likely unlikely to be a coincidence

Of all the words that they could possibly have chosen for a Fighter / Warrior Guild I'd wager that not a single one of us would have suggested the term 'Companion' as an obvious or likely choice. Then we discover that there is a lore background to the term in Nordic history.

No, definitely no coincidence in my view

Hopefully there'll be plenty of lore background, with books, notes, quests to find ancient artefacts etc

I like to think Bethesda called 'em "Companions" to troll all those guys who want turn TES into a team-based RPG:

"Will there be companions in Skyrim?"

Todd *snickering*: "Oh, yeah, there are 'Companions'..."