I have been reading lore about several of the Empire's provinces lately and have found some real world parallels. Now maybe this topic has been brought up before but I wanna share some of these ideas and see if anyone else has noticed. For one Elsweyr, I believe, is like 15th Century Spain. In 15th century Spain, The Kingdom of Castile under Queen Isabella I, and the Kingdom of Aragon under King Ferdinand II, united to form the Kingdom of Spain (prior to this Spain had existed as many different Kingdoms). Elsweyr, originally comprised of more than twenty distinct kingdoms, was fashioned into its modern state in 2E 309 when Keirgo of Anequina and E[censored]a of Pellitine combined their long-feuding kingdoms. This seems to me to mirror Spain. The War of the Bend'r-mahk can be compared with the aftermath of World War 2, specifically in the division of Berlin between the Allies and Russia. The eastern part of Dragonstar city of Hammerfell falls to the Skyrim force led by General Duvais; while the Hammerfell force regroups and defends the western region of the city. Both forces build walls that separate the city permanently into two regions. In this case Skyrim is Russia and Hemmerfell is the Allies. Yokuda, I believe can be seen as Japan. For one it is an island (or was), for two it's people have a long tradition of swordsmanship. and For three many of the things that happened in Yokuda can be seen in Japan. For instance: "lords called Yokeda built huge stone castles to protect themselves and their lands, and castle towns outside the walls begin to grow up." This is just like the feudal system in Japan, with Yokeda being Daimyo. Another event :"Torn's Sword-hunt" in which "He [Randic Torn] revived the old gulf between the warriors - the sword singers - and the commoners by introducing restrictions on the wearing of swords. "Torn's Sword-hunt", as it was known, meant that only the singers were allowed to wear swords, which distinguished them from the rest of the population." The same type of thing happened during the Meiji Restoration in Japan, when Samurai were not allowed to caryy swords. Also, I believe that, the Sword-Singers of Yokuda are anologous to the Samurai of Japan.

And what value do these parallels you point out have? Enlighten me.

This topic has been brought up before and has been summarily suppressed.

It wouldn't be unlikely that some real world things have influenced things in Tamriel (most fantasies are like that). But it's futile to argue that the developers actually looked at particular real-world subjects and decided to "base" their lore off of it. It's arguing against the odds of there simply being some "similarities" in a world obviously designed to take a medieval/Romanesque look.

I wasnt suggesting anything like what you say Casey, I was simply pointing out things i noticed. And KM, I dont think they have any value, it was simply an observation

Oh. Well in that case I'm sure we could all find similarities if we look for them - after all, for Tamriel not to draw some influence from the world would mean it'd have to be entirely unique in just about every aspect there is.

Very true.

So...?

So... he was just making an observation. You know, something to make people go "hmm" and talk about.

In any case - BohrIII, what do you know about the sword singers? I've always been trying to find a similarity with Samurai in Tamriel - particularly in their style of swordsmanship, kenjutsu.

K, fine. I'll let this go.

Well all i know about the Sword-Singers comes from books (obviously) but i dont really know about any similarities between the Sword-Singers style and the Samurai's. What I mainly ment by drawing a parallel between the two is that both Sword-Singers and Samurai were both Swordsman ans Artists.

Well, Ansei are the Redguard "sword saints". Very similar to the Japanese kensei meaning roughly the same thing.

Hmmm. I never thought of that.

the blades have swords that look exactly like katanas.

...called Akaviri katanas. They also have Lorica Segmentata, a type of Roman armor, which is ALSO based on Akaviri design.

I bring that up because both are from totally unrelated regions in real life, yet combined in TES; gamesas didn't try to make each culture based off of one in real life, hence the futility of these threads.

yes, there are things that come from our world but not all in a specific order, there not trying to re-create events, just taking stuff they can use.