What?

To be honest this is the only reason I wish TES5 was set somewhere else.... the constant bragging and ethnocentrism on the boards these days is getting irritating. I do not recall Oblivion having such an over zealous lot playing as the Imperials.

Honestly, by the way people are speaking, you would think their ancestors were truly Dragon conjuring 6'5 Goliaths of the ages. You may also think Skyrim actually takes place in Europe - but it doesn't. So I dont much care if you are German, Norwegian etc etc. Everyone has a culture and history... does it make any of us particularly awesome? I dont think so.

Thats because Imperials are boring as [censored]. Who wants to play as an uppity, short white guy? Plus lets face it, the Norse are the new Ninjas.


I plan to play as a Nord just because it is the most fitting in Skyrim (and I love the norse). Instead of being the typical big brute Nord I plan on being cunning and foxley. Mostly a stealthy ranger, but also an axe and short sword wielding hunter. Light armor all the way, a nice big beard and unkempt hair. A true woodsman. Hopefully a hooded cloak if possible (please be possible)

You won't like my character then. He's an Imperial, wearing light armor, using blade and bow, stealth, parry, speechcraft and security. He's a servant of the Empire.
No spellcasting of any kind, because after all: Suffer not the witch to live.

Pretty Extremely zealous.

Thats fine. That is exactly the man that tried to conquer my country (only with guns), but at least the Imperial players dont come here trying to brag about Imperialism every chance they get

Well, if Imperials were actually still Romans they would be very awesome.
Now, not so much.

I am waiting for a few more game details, so background storybuilding can be authentic, and within the lore of the Skyrim setting.

However, I am in the process of shaping a rough draft, or thumbnail sketch for my first character, as follows:

My first character will be a teen-age female born Breton, but because of certain family ties and conflicts, was raised in the Nord culture.

Details are still in the works, but in Viking history, women were often married early, and it was not uncommon that there were arranged marriages.

One possible scenario is that she resists an imposed marriage, and as a result of resolving that experience are sown the seeds for conflict that may lead to her being a prisoner, or some sort of captive when the game starts.

In her upbringing, she will have began to study the ways of Nordic shamanism, as described http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B6lva, as she seemed to have a natural talent for this occupation. Perhaps something to do with her mixed Breton blood.

Ever since she can remember, she has had those dreams. Dreams in which she can hear the whispering of dragons. She can hear, but she does not understand. There is within her an unbridled urgency to learn of what the dragons speak. And that will be her quest.

Her general attire will mostly consist of cloth, leathers and furs. Her weapons will include staves and wands (actualliy used by those charcters in mythology and history whom she emulates). Further, she will use a dagger for gathering herbs and alchemy preparation, a bow for hunting, and as a token of her Nord upbringing, a small axe. These devices may also be used as weapons, as she is a survivor.

At this time, I do not forsee her as being a full fledged warrior, or shield maiden type. Magic and alchemy, and her own determination to survive will be her strengths.

I am currently considering the name "Sibyl" as one of several possibililties for her first name. Note the spelling. Sibyls were prophets in pagan Norse history, as well as in Judeo-Christian theology.

CAUTION:

There is no nudity, or violence in the following image, however, discretion is advised, depending on who is looking.

http://www.my-pin-up-girl.com/images/Fantasy-Women19-Royo.jpg is a beautiful piece of work by the famed fantasy artist, Luis Royo. I plan to have my character look as much as possible like the image, within the limits of the character creation system.

I hope this is the type of information you were looking for.

That's very impressive...I don't want to sound like a kill joy but I imagine creating something like that piece of art will present quite a challenge. Good luck!

There is one thing I'd like to say about this thread. Stop whining! Probably half the posts in this thread are criticizing forum members of being ethnocentric, because they're worked up about Skyrim and the ability to play in a Nordic culture.

This has nothing to do with being ethnocentric. It has to do with the fact that mass culture, be it video games or movies, allmost never portray Skandinavia and the skandinavian culture, and if it does it portrays it poorly and extremly stereotypic. When bethesda makes a videogame that actually portrays this culture in a way that at least makes the atmosphere feel realistic, Skandinavian people are alowed to feel excited.

And yes, the Nords of the TES games aren't exactly skandinavians or germanics, but come on, it's easy to see that the whole inspiration behind the TES nords are the medieval skandinavian culture. Half the native nord names and words in the TES games are americanizations of either Norwegian or old norse. The whole visual style is Norse/viking added a cup of fantasy.

It allways bothers me that native americans, people with african heritage, and so forth, are aloud to be proud of their heritage, while germanics are labelled as white supremacists if they show just a little pride. The culture of Norden Europe is rich and has a compelling history of oral tradition, seafaring and art that few people outside Skandinavia really knows, and we are definetly alowed to be proud of that cultural heritage, and to be excited when mass culture once in a while tries to protray it a bit honestly.

Damn! :flame:

Well said!

The funniest thing is I imagine nearly everyone who has placed a negative comment would have some ties to Norse culture. as a said in the OP. Here is a basic history lesson:

Saxons invaded Roman Briton (a country made up of Britons and Romans)
The Saxons conquered (apart from a small contingent from Penzance)
Years later the Danes invaded, taking most of Northern England (Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia), Wessix held (at one time the British with King Alfred held a land mass of one football field of marsh land as an empire)
Americans are settled explorers led FRANCIS DRAKE from Plymouth, Yep chances are you come from a Saxon or Dane

So if your English, chances are your heritage is part Dane or Saxon.

NORSE is a a religion that worshipped the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_mythology before Christianity took hold, BTW I am English born in London, this thread stems from my purely historical interests to the influences to MY culture. It truly is fascinating if people actually took the time to care instead of judge, "this thread stinks of arrogance" lol, how silly do you sound now.

Please don't forget the Norwegians (they differ from the Danes) which invaded England, just as much as the Danes and fought the Danes in several battles, both to rule England and as Englands allies. Scotland was until the late medieval ages the rulers of Scotland, but parted with it as a wedding gift. The inhabitants of Orkney and Island are descendants of Norwegian Vikings. The French Normans of Normandy where descendants of Norwegian Vikings from the West of Norway (Norway and Denmark are currently disputing it, but whatever) and Norwegian Vikings sailed to America. :thumbsup:

BTW I am Norwegian, and though my posts stem from historical interest and a wish for people to learn before judging, i have to admit I'm a bit jealous that Danes and Swedes are more often mentioned than the Norwegians, since they made just a big contribution to the old nordic culture :huh:

But don't get me wrong, I love s?ta bror and I think it's lovely to be norwegian in Denmark. :yes:

Apologies, to be honest my knowledge into that area is lacking, I know a bit about Orkney (subject to a lot of media for the reasons you stated) and that the Norwegians visited America, what did they call it though? The Icelandic people thought it to be a mysterious land of ill omen due to the death of settlers and the perilous journey to get there.

Also did you know the Chinese conquered large parts of America long before we even developed a stable language!

No need to apologize. The norwegians called America Vinland. I probably know too little about british history, so. Ah the chineese. They were quite early when it comes to developing a civilization. They drank tea out of porselain cups, while norwegians drank water from streams. :blink:

Anywho, history is interesting.

i'll never play as a brainless nord brute its a shame the game is taking place in skyrim in the first place where we have to endure having nord this and nord that shoved in our face i hope its not as bad as mw was the last thing we need is an army of nord [censored] like mw did for dark elves if im gonna play as a fighter it'll be a redguard other wise i'll be a altmor mage like always the next game really needs to be set in a decent place like summer set isle

Yes I could. They can do whetever they want in the game. Most probably they'll have a culture that's similar to the viking, but also deviate wherever they want (eg we already know they have a Dunmer town in there). One of the big complains of Oblivion was how it didn't feel new and felt generic. I certainly expect the game to have unique stuff in it.



You seriously think that Altmer, the most arrogant race of TES, would be better hosts than the Nords? Forget that.

If you had problems with the Dunmer of Morrowind, then you could probably have the same issues with every other region. You seriously reek of arrogance and stereotyping.

"norse" is not the name of the religion, norse is the name of the language,culture and norseman people(Norr?n).
The religion is generally called ?satru (Aesier-belief) or just norr?n gudetro, though it was(and still is) a fairly open religion. There were plenty of people who only worshipped one god, or they had one favorite god they worshipped more then others(Frey and Thor were popular). Few actually worshipped all the gods. They generally had a temple to their favorite god.
In tons of places in Norway still carry the names where these temples stood, for example Torshov(Tors temple), they often teared down the temples, when christianity came, and built a church upon it with the same wood, though often the name of the temple survived and kept being used for the area.

There were also some people who were atheists, one of the most famouse one is the last non-christian king in Norway, King R?rek of Hedmark.

my fav race is altmor what do you expect plus it seems like every other race has got a game to focus on there region and lore while the altmor have to sit back and take the backseat again it gets old and even you have to admit that mw brainwashed tons of people that dark elves are the greatest thing ever that could stomp any race just because it was some decent fire resist and a little destruction omg it can do eveything puke now it looks like i'm gonna have to deal with it in nord form

Good summary of ?satrua. It was short, to the point and quite correct. Thanks.

Well if anything, you fit the description of an arrogant Altmer.

one of the reason why i picked them as my prefered race plus i like magic i pick a mage type in every game i play and i've never been into the whole viking thing

I'm going to play (my first character at least) as the distant descendent of my Morrowind character, which was an Orc adopted by Redoran Dunmer as a child and raised in their ways. After the Red Year, his family immigrated to Solstheim and, eventually, to Skyrim proper. He lives in a city in the volcanic tundra of Eastmarch. As an Orc bound to Dunmer traditions, he honors the ancient Redoran virtues of piety, service, and gravity, but is loyal to Skyrim as the home in which he has lived all his life, and as a land of warriors and an honorable people worthy of respect. Politically, he favors Nord independence from the Empire, and an end to the Argonian occupation of Morrowind. He will do what he must to preserve his current home of Skyrim, but is leery of the Imperials and their gods.

"You wouldn't understand - it's a Jersey thing!" :laugh:

I'm definitely planning on playing a Nord at some point, but not a viking kind of character. Just a Nord in Heavy armor, with shield and axe and a bit of magic. Your standard classical RPG warrior.
More often, I hope to be playing elven thief characters. A character like http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Redguard:Characters#Dram could be pretty cool, too; maybe even with a deeprooted hatred for Nords...

But I also hope I'll be able to get a party together, since that's apparently possible in Skyrim. Then I guess I want to play a charismatic fighter like http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0114.html...

I know this. Tim Severns "Viking" books are an excellent read for easy learning. I know it as Aesir, people who follow this religion tend to believe in all the old gods, superstitions and myths but you are right in that they normally follow one god, a god they associate their wants and desires with or one they believe will hear them. Most people didn't pray or beg, but revered and respected them, looking for subtle signs of the God presence and in some case guidance.

I am sad to say my knowledge is lacking in modern day worship/ belief. Norse was in reference to the peoples of that culture of that time.


P.s. the Norse tended to be branded as pagans and even were discriminated against when some started following Christianity

On the topic of Norse Mythology, Did you know that Odin or Woden (depending on your cultural beliefs) was hung on the tree of knowledge for the same amount of time as Christ was on the cross to gain knowledge of the runes to give to humans and that he was also stabbed with a spear.

I think?