So people who look at Skyrim for the first time will think it is about vikings (due to the Helmet the character is wearing - even though there is no evidence suggesting that real life vikings actually had horns on their helmets, its a common misconception).
With Oblivion, I saw it more as a medieval age (say 1100 to 1200), but Skyrim is set 200 years in the future, even though Vikings are more associated with around the 900 mark?

Yeah I know its a game and everything, but was the "theme" of Skyrim designed around Viking culture, just like oblivion was designed around medieval ages? Or am I talking jibberish and just accept that this is a game?

Fun fact for you: In popular culture we see vikings wielding massive double bladed axes which swing around their heads, but in real life, these were not practical. It should be remembered that no double headed axe has ever been found from early medieval Europe. Instead they had lighter axes and were single handed. The most common weapons however found on viking sites were SPEARS. Are there going to be spears in this game? It would be a shame not to

You are arguing the logic of a fantasy game, really?

Kind of looks like the viking age, but i prefer to just think of the elder scrolls as a fantasy game rather than compare it

The TES world is older than our own modern world, so no it's not "the Viking Age."

Nordic culture is very similar to viking culture so the similarity and "theme" is there.

Just because the Nords are a bit "Nordic" in theme doesn't make them Vikings. Or match them to any particular time period in Earth's history.

TES world isnt even real. What im trying to ask is the THEME. god.

Since Nords seem Norse in design, (Look at the Bloodmoon expansion for Morrowind and Bruma in Ob) I'd say its theme was inspired by Scandinavia but doesn't take place during the Viking Age.

In my opinion Bethesda should try and distance Skyrim as much as possible from the Viking Age. It's just too cliche and boring.

Yes, the race of Nords in previous TES games have clearly been heavily influenced by Scandinavian history. That much is pretty obvious. But for me personally, that's one of the reasons why i've always found them to be one of the least interesting races.

Now that the race of Nords have their own game, I'd like to see them come into their own a bit and have a lot of unique aspects about their culture which are completely different to early-Medieval Scandinavian culture.

The Skyrim theme is Skyrim...........


in a perfect world anyway.....Todd says they are shooting for an Age of conan vib....personally Skyrim can kick the **** out of Conan anyday....when you can SHOUT SOMEONE BLIND you do not need to take influences from anything else....

Well what is TeS Oblivion than supposed to be The Roman Age ?

Serious Imperials are Romans, ... Bretons are Bretons ...

Many roleplaying games, tabletop roleplaying games , fantasy novels are insipred yes on our own world that isn't very strange it's pretty difficult to make a complete alien world, not only to make it, also to attract people towards it , even the races in a SciFi serie as Star Trek are inspired on our world, Klingons resemble Chinese Culture, Romulans Resemble the Soviet Union during the cold war ....


Yes the Skyrim Nords are inspired on our Vikings but there it really, really ends ....

What is cliche and boring about the "Viking Age.?"

Guess it must be the "different strokes for different folks," factor...

The 1980's movie? Probably. The original 1930's stories? Unlikely.

Anyway...anyone who denies the Scandinavian influence on the Nords is deluding themselves "Tehy're not ViKings!!111!" No, but their names, weapons, armors, ships, and buildings are all suggestive of their Viking Age counterparts.

Now, when I say "Viking Age" I mean merely the style that was common at the time and in those regions, the actual time frame is irrelevant. Certain parts of the game will have to imitate reality...you cannot reinvent everything. But the chronology of the games will never match historical progressions. I mean, the Dwarves, who are extinct, had steam power and gundpowder. Morrowind would therefore take place around 1750-1800. Of course, there was gunpowder in China during what, AD 1100? And steam "engines" as far back as Hero of Alexandria in Hellenistic Greece.

If you think Skyrim/Nords are the only TES culture than you can draw parallels to Earth's native cultures/peoples, you need to broaden your horizons a bit.

The boring part is maybe due to the fact that I've studied that period of history so much that seeing it in a game just doesn't excite me at all.

The cliche part is the whole horned helmets and manly man of manliness stuff, which seems to be a very stereotypical view a lot of people have of the Viking age. It makes me cringe a little.

That image came about in Scandinavia and Germany in the during the 19th century when nationalism was very popular, and they wanted to paint up a more romantic view of their cultural heritage.

As said before .... Skyrim = The Viking Age, Oblivion = The Roman Age ... Daggerfall The Breton Age ...

And even the elves are a bit fantasy cliche but with there own 'draw' in it ...

Orcs being former Elves .... Is something you can refer to j.r.r Tolkien

I think that because it is set in Skyrim, home of the Nords (Italian for north), and because Nords practically are Vikings, the game made for them has to suit them.

True...

Ok, scratch the American part. It's just a common stereotype in general.

its based in the most northern region, and the vikings were known to come more from the north so im going to have to say yes but only to some extent... as far as the spears thing goes Todd already confirmed that they wont be in game

And Morrowind had a lot of Native-American and Egyptian (Particularly Hlaalu stuff) influence behind it. People are acting like Skyrim being "Viking age" is a bad thing. It gives the player a reference point and makes it easier to get into the world.

One of the things I like, are people talking about how "Alien" Morrowind was, particularly referencing the "Mushroom" Trees, which fossil records indicate existed on Earth before flowing plants took over after one of the great mass-extinction events.

it probably will have viking influence, during one of the interviews one of the peoples had a big book of vikings

I don't know what you guys are going on about in ages etc etc...for thousands of years each region -Skyrim- -Daggerfall- -Morrowind- -Oblivion- have ALL been as they are now they don't go through "ages"

It isn't a bad thing but it isn't just a 'the elder scrolls things' since 'vikings' have nothing to do with 'tamriel' 'nirn' , the gods the Nords worship are different from the gods the Vikings did worship ....

Viking Ages yes nice for a Age of Empire or Civilization game I am totally for that, but not for a The Elder Scrolls game, it doesn't make sense if you ask me ...

I understand why they do it, but I really wish that Beth wouldn't hammer so hard on the corollaries between Nirnian races and cultures and Earth ones.

I thought it was pretty cheesy when Star Trek did it too.....