Your comment isn't in vain, though. I don't think the Colovians are bland either. Maybe bland compared to the vibrant Nibenese, but they're not all bland.

They might be blander in more obvious aesthetic, but what is most important is politics and subtle aesthetic choices. I think those wind bone-chimes in ashlander villages, the occasional Tribunal shrine in the Dunmeri houses, ect. make the culture feel alive. The mushroom buildings make it feel alien.

Colovian culture would also feel more alive simply by having Nibenay to compare to.

Colovians being based on central European / German style knights as opposed to High Rock makes much more sense as Imperial are blessed in the racial bonus of heavy armor and block. Bretons having a society centred on armor clad knights seems a bit daft as Bretons don't have any racial bonus in neither armor nor melee combat so it makes no sense that they would live in a society centred on such a culture. Bretons are more magic lore like that of the Celtic pagan druids and their believe in power from nature and ancient ley lines. Merlin the wizard from the legend of King Arthur was a Celtic druid. Bretons are the masters of Conjuration. Hardly Medieval knight material.

I can understand the Nobility of High Rock be more this way as according to TES lore the nobility of High Rock are racially Imperial and not Breton. Much like the reachmen (Forsworn) of Skyrim are racially Breton and not Nord.

I never get where people keep seeing the similarities between the Altmer and the Japanese. Besides that piece of art that depicts them with a katana, I can't see any similarities.

There's also them situating themselves on a island and not exactly taking a shine to outsiders running around on they're island, but beyond that I got nothing.

Where did you hear that?

Well, like every Elder Scrolls race, there are connections to many real-life cultures. Like Nords and the Scandinavian cultures, the Altmer just have a lot of Japanese imagery and themes tied to them.

In Morrowind, for example, a description of Summerset Isles goes something along the lines of describing their policy of isolation and not being affected by Imperial commerce and culture because of this (unlike Morrowind, where the Imperial presence is everywhere). This is basically the same policy the Japanese where famous for, until Admiral Perry broke down the gates, as it were.

Another thing from Morrowind comes from the description of http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P9jnEJZzHrQ/TVn6o6AUc0I/AAAAAAAAAik/LDLm3ZCQDn0/s1600/Morrowind+2011-02-14+21-47-55-59.jpg, which describes it as a derivation of Altmer armor. The similarity to Samurai armor is unmistakable. This was all, of course, before http://chorrol.com/files/62/obliv26B.jpg http://www.axfiles.com/images/ss/skyrim/001.jpg made its debut in Oblivion, and Orcish armor was turned into something more http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5281/5243099611_ae56c47602.jpg-http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111214004959/elderscrolls/images/e/e7/SR-concept-Orc_Armor.jpg.

And yes, there's the fact that they live on an island, and have been depicted in Japanese-like attire, and that they've been pinned as, like the Dunmer, an ancestor-revering people.

Certainly, with Oblivion, Altmer and Orcs turned towards a Tolkien inspiration rather than a Japanese one, but since we really don't have a lot of information on Summerset and its people, we don't have a whole lot to compare them to. Just a lot of Japanese and Tolkien-elf imagery and themes. So when people pop the age-old and exhaust-less question of "What Real-World Culture?" people say Japanese. And I think that's the best correct answer, because "the elves of Tolkien" doesn't really answer the question.

What's the difference, an architecture style between Total War expansions?

Akaviri, proud sons of Germythica.

ha. They'll switch from northern to southern european in the set-up screen.

I love those games. And I can count on my hands how many battles I've manually overseen. As any true conqueror, I can spot AIs talent. if I don't like his work, I reload exile the bastard's family!

Surely this is the most German side to Tamriel??

http://www.iguanadons.net/files/gallery/6047f21a91c1ecc7b668258c3e8703b4.png

http://images.wikia.com/elderscrolls/images/3/33/Skingrad.jpg

http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/tcoc_skingrad_castle.jpg

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/3508/411967-city_cheydinhal_large.jpg

http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/tcoc_skingrad_spires.jpg

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT6gnAdzCo6LMDM5x9n2nx_BXN74OT-G8_nm3V1elNUvxg7_5Hg00n8cTCHcw

http://images.wikia.com/elderscrolls/images/1/11/House_cheydinhal.jpg

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTKfgONDEqmd7LaUMa43IFUXfEnWlhus2HCBNoYXjNmfj2Z6fviI2d2vK33

http://news.filefront.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/kvatch_rebuilding.jpg

http://www.impulsegamer.com/ps3/elder2.jpg

http://www.impulsegamer.com/ps3/elder2.jpg

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/19628-1-1234225943.jpg

Ahhh I see now. Thanks for extra info

None of the Elder Scrolls races are Based on a real life counterpart. Their cultures and ideals are tiny fragments of every other culture to start with and have since been simmered and mixed with the lore of the Elder Scrolls world to give them all a unique culture of their own dependant on their geolographic locations in Elder Scrolls, and not The Real World.

They might of took the armor design for Akaviri from japanese samuri sure, but it does not define their culture. The Bretons who's general social society has a strong resembelance to midevil eruope in the idea that it was many small waring kingdoms is nothing knew in any history Real Life or Fantasy. Breton culture is a mix of two other Elder Scrolls cultures, who were very very loosly based on a multitude of different real life ideals so as to make it entirely its own.

We can remake an Elder Scrolls culture right here, its very simple.

Lets have a race.. of grey skinned humanoids.. from north east blackmarsh, they use hopolite spears and large shields like the greeks, they live in the swamps and wetlands like a few tribes in south america, they have a strange system of gods very loosly based on pagan ritualism, they eat their own children who die of natural casues to keep their soul from being eaten by some horrible demon thats apart of a their lore that was somehow loosly associated with an Elder Scrolls event in their ancient past. They kidnap and marry dunmer women because they cannot reproduce with argonians and have included small parts of dunmer culture into their own culture and now worship their dead ancestors, and were the original cause of hostilities between the dunmer and argonians through their odd 'Marriage ritual'.

This is of course complete fictional and only to prove a point of how you can take tiny pieces of other cultures, mix them into a single one and then evolve it into something entirly new based within the Elder Scrolls universe, which is exactly what all cultures and peoples in Elder Scrolls are.

PS. Its a complete fictional slander to say Breton nobility is actually Imperial. That goes completely against their culture of conquest through politics by marring Breton women to imperial nobility with the main prize getting Breton blood into the imperial family. Not the other way around.

PSS. The Breton's culture of playing political games actually comes from their Elven, Direnni culture who absorbed the Nedic people and their culture in a political move to keep them safe from the Nord and Elven war of the time. Did no one else think it funny that the Nord's have been at odds towards elves almost their entire history yet Bretons are their strongest allies through out history and at the same time they are half-elven in blood? Politics... Politics..