No. I'm just pointing out the really odd, aggressive assertion (THe REDGUARDS ARE REDGUARDS, and IMPERIALS ARE IMPERIALS) that is continuously repeated on this board. Clearly these races are inspired MOSTLY from real earth races. Why have tall Nords in ES? Why mimic Roman culture in ES by having the imperials be so blatantly roman?

Exactly. If you took out all the similarities to Earth Races, the game would be unplayable. If you took out all of the invented stuff...it would still be a pretty kick-ass low fantasy game.

Yea i know but i'm just saying that's the whole theme of there race...sort of. And yes there were Celts in Britain.

Also Nords - Vikings

I'm all for it. I just don't get why some people deny any similarities between the races in ES and the races on planet Earth.

I don't see why people associate fictional races in a fictional universe of a fictional video game to real life.
Redguards are..Redguards.
Khajiits are..Khajiits.
Bosmers are..Bosmers.

That's pretty much it. They aren't real.

:shrug:

Why would you assume that? I realize that everything has influence from something, but I'm just trying to argue that this is a FANTASY game, the reason why we play these games are for the adventure and escape from the real world, so the cultures in-game should be thought of as "oh cool an Imperial festival/Orc warrior/Bosmer hunter!" instead of "Oh cool a Roman Empire-themed Festival/Mongol inspired warrior/Amazonian-like hunter!" and not only that, but the ridiculous stereotypes being made (Bosmer are cannibals, just like every amazonian, or that Imperials are all about ruling, just like every Roman ever right?) It's just, people should see this game and cultures as seperate entities from real life, or else we would just be playing a historical game.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. What kind of thinking brought you to that conclusion? Clearly the races in ES are inspired by real races. You think Bethesda came up with the concept of an Imperial empire with characters with roman names? Or tall, fair skinned nords? Or how about the tribal nature of the southern portion of Tamriel? All just randomly come up with?

This.

..there are these things called inspirations. Of coarse the races were inspired by real life things, just like everything in every video game has been.
But based on? No, not remotely.

Something serving as an inspiration is completely different than being based on something.

You're a good little fan aren't you

Good boy... :tops:

I think we're on the same page, and are just saying the same thing differently. I was going to use the word inspiration to describe the situation in that last post.

Clearly the Imperials are inspired by the Romans, for example. Obviously they don't share the same history given the fact that they're on Nirn, but there are some very close similarities.

We realize that the game takes inspiration from real life and other fantasy works, but why would you bother playing the ES games if all you did was try to figure out what culture is based on what? It's dumb, and part of the immersion in-game is to see each unique culture as a seperate entity from real life cultures, and appreciate them in-game (I hate Khajiits, but I don't hate Arabs, see where I'm going?)

While I have a hard time differentiating the nuance between "based on" and "inspired by" - "based on a true story/inspired by a true story" I agree. You cannot assume that the Imperials have a Senate. Do they? They also don't eat olives. But they do build Greek inspired marble architecture, they do wear http://www.google.com/search?pq=roman+helmet&hl=en&sugexp=gsnosc,n%3D4&cp=5&gs_id=1a&xhr=t&q=galea&qe=Z2FsZWE&qesig=YCkKJElaP4b0GH5uPkCWsQ&pkc=AFgZ2tlUJEvPwKaepx7K-pIRDrVk-nUaPeaYNwRKRRQKUUTItMDqcTJMYxQWoC_ZD-6KsaCKuSQWlNjFmutZajWhyk1LviPmwg&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=Njc&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1024&bih=617&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi#um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=L4H&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=roman+galea&pbx=1&oq=roman+galea&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=6896l7542l0l7796l6l5l0l0l0l3l246l908l1.1.3l5l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=806ef30e4525e6d5&biw=1024&bih=617 and http://www.google.com/search?pq=roman+helmet&hl=en&sugexp=gsnosc,n%3D4&cp=5&gs_id=1a&xhr=t&q=galea&qe=Z2FsZWE&qesig=YCkKJElaP4b0GH5uPkCWsQ&pkc=AFgZ2tlUJEvPwKaepx7K-pIRDrVk-nUaPeaYNwRKRRQKUUTItMDqcTJMYxQWoC_ZD-6KsaCKuSQWlNjFmutZajWhyk1LviPmwg&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=Njc&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1024&bih=617&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi#um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=L4H&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=corinthian+helmet&oq=corinthian+h&aq=0&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=667l4926l0l6555l12l12l0l1l1l0l291l2246l0.5.6l11l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=806ef30e4525e6d5&biw=1024&bih=617

Why don't the tree dwelling cannibal bosmer wear those helmets? Why don't the Nords live in adobe huts? Why don't the Bretons live in the desert?

I'm not saying that the game doesn't include invented elements that make the races unique. But there are literally THOUSANDS of clues that allow you to literally SEE what the devs were thinking when they designed this game, because YOU BETCHA they had anthro textbooks about Amazonian tribes, Vikings, Romans and Greeks, etc etc etc ad nauseum infinitim.

And guess what? The Amazons used blowguns. Guess who would most believable use blow guns? The Nords? The Imperials? Maybe the Kajhiits (it's a stealthy weapon) but the BOSMER are generally the masters of ranged combat. And guess what, they also have a hundred other similarities with the Amazons (except the Wild Hunt, which GUESS WHAT is lifted DIRECTLY from Celtic cultures. Same exact name and everything.

Cheezus Rhist on a trike.

I completely agree with your view. I never see an Imperial in game, and think oh, hes a Roman, or a Bosmer, oh he must be South American. But there is an undeniable link between specific cultures in game, and specific real world cultures. And we both agree. What I don't agree with is the black and white viewpoint that is BOSMER IS BOSMER.

Yeah, we're on the same page. :foodndrink:

Are the beast races and dark elves inspired by anything?

Of course they were based, to at least some considerable degree, on Earth races/nations/cultures. However, contrary to the OP's misapprehension, there is no one-to-one correspondence between any Nirnian race/ culture and any Earth one. Instead, the Nirnian races borrowed bits and pieces from many Earth races and cultures and cobbled them together with some measure of pure fiction and ended up with what they ended up with.

:twirl:

Based on: Hey, that book was great! It makes me want to make a book similar to it, but with some of my own unique writing elements in it!

Inspired: Hey, I'm writing a book, and I just remembered a really good writing element used in another book that I will add to my own!

See where I'm going? cultures in ES take influence from many real life cultures, fantasy cultures, as well as some uniquity thrown in by writers. Seriously, you guys are barely scratching the surface of the Lore, ES has some of the most extensive and unique lore in game, but yeah, how many cultures can you tell me that were enslaved by one race, but then a slave queen led a rebellion on a flying bull with an insane knight killing their slave masters, and then years later, have their empire being ruled out of their former (and now extinct) slave masters capital? Not many, if at all any, but I see what you mean, the aesthetics are derived from many real life cultures as well as imagination from writers/artists

I kind of disagree here. Some races have definite and specific links with real world cultures. The Imperials were clearly inspired by Romans and Greeks. There's a definite link. Nords were inspired by, well, Nordic people. The Khajit were definitely inspired African tribes.

I think I know what you mean, when I see "bosmer is bosmer", i just mean that they should be thought of as Bosmer, cannibal tribals from Valenwood, where when you see "bosmer is bosmer", you think people are trying to assert that ES cultures were the children of completely original imaginations from the writers. I understand where you're going, and I recognize the culture influences, but i just feel that ruins the immersion.

Yeah, and sometimes it just seems trollish. I'm sure they're also aware of the cultural similarities, but I just don't understand why they won't recognize it. I almost get the feeling that they're offended for asserting that "their" ES races aren't 100% original.

Yep, exactly. "Based on" and "inspired by" are two different things.

But you can still distill where those disparate elements came from. Such as Bosmers obviously Amazonian jungle dwelling cannibalism, and their Wild Hunt, which is obviously Celtic.



The Dark Elves definitely take a lot of cues from both pre-Islamic and post Islamic middle east. Hlaluu architecture is like that of Babylon or Sumeria, whereas the Ashlanders are much like the nomadic Beduoin, Tuareg, etc.

There are also other elements (some of the clothes were Native American inspired, the religious system of the Ashlanders is more matriarchal than any Middle Eastern religion I'm aware of)

There was some guy on the first page who cleverly explained the Kahjiits, the Argonians I would say are a little like Papa New Guinians, basically tropical tribesman with a lot of exposure to water (also, Trees were sacred to them as they were in limited supply on island habitats, could provide food (the pith, grubs) and were made into buildings and canoes.

There are probably more correlations I can't make. And most people wouldn't. Which is why they are convinced that ES races are complete fabrications which can never be compared to human cultures. Seriously, we could get a new race called the New Yorkers and they could ride subways and be rude to you and eat bagels and people would say that " TES New Yorkers =/= New York New Yorkers"

Because ES is for not talking about real life and real life cultures i guess, I dunno, OP's post really got me going because of how narrow minded he made the cultures seem. I mean, it's alright to say "Bosmer are influenced by South American tribals with some unique aspects" but it's not OK to say "Bosmer are from Paraguay, nothing else" Because not only is it wrong, but also a bit racist.