Obviously the races take some inspiration from real world cultures, but I wouldn't say you could simplify them into that.

I refuse to truly acknowledge this thread, for I strongly disagree with it... Sure, some of the races may take some influence from the real world, but not every race or bit of lore is based off of some sort of thing or cause in the real world... The Elder Scrolls has one of the richest lore-bases around, even more so than most modern fantasy literature...

Hi

I was reading the 'no love for imperials?' thread and I started thinking about why I naturally don't even consider
paying one, and I ended up realizing I consider all the races to be similar to some human culture from some point in time. Here's my take, would love to hear
other's views on it.

Imperial - Roman Soldiers
Yes. Greeks, too, and Brittish Empire.
Nords - Vikings or Celtic Pagans before christianization.
Yes.
Dunmer - Mongolians under Ghengis Khan
Nope. Dunmer race has different influence: Feudal Japan, Middle Eastern, Assyrian for the Ashlanders, even Egyptian.
High Elf - high ranking taoist sorcerers in ancient china, when they had sway in the empire as advisors.
No idea. Something Asian, I suppose.
Breton - Britton hedge witch types, hermits, mystics and druids. Ancient celt pagan spiritual magical types like Merlin.
French influence, as well.
Khajit - Samurai and Ninja
Not at all, even remotely. More Middle Eastern people, if you ask me.
Bosmer - EDIT: Native American Indians, Druids or Picts.
I don't really know.
Orc - Mercenaries with no native allegiances
Mongol Empire.
Argonian - Pirates of an african/east indian heritage.
No idea. When I think of Black Marsh, I imagine the culture quite Native American (azctec, mayan...)
Redguard - Ancient islamic warriors, think of the film Kingdom of Heaven.
Varied influence. North African (and in some aspects not so "Northern"), Mediterranean, maybe Middle Eastern.

Know what... You're completely right.

This was based on intuitive feels of characters, it's not what I imagine when I'm playing. I love Tamriellic lore - and at the end of the day we feel for characters through our cultural references and points of view. Many people in the 'no love for imperials?' thread commented on the fact that they felt like their race was closest to an in game race and so chose it. It made me think of how I think of the game, and how I relate to it from my real world life and knowledge...

I agree with you though - really!

Of course, finding a exact counter-part is impossible.

Imperial - Roman Soldiers -- Pretty much, though Oblivion essentially turned them into a mix of Rome and Gondor.
Nords - Vikings or Celtic Pagans before christianization. -- Straight-up Norse and Vikings.
Dunmer - Mongolians under Ghengis Khan -- There's too much variation to say this. Ashlanders are city-shunning nomads, mainstream Dunmer are theocratic xenophobes and all city-dwelling Dunmer have architecture, crafts and scholarly pursuits too complex to be modeled after the Mongolian horde archetype.
High Elf - high ranking taoist sorcerers in ancient china, when they had sway in the empire as advisors. -- This actually sounds pretty accurate in flavor, but given their architecture, I suspect we'll find them to be more idealized high-fantasy Greeks once we see what Summerset Isles are like.
Breton - Britton hedge witch types, hermits, mystics and druids. Ancient celt pagan spiritual magical types like Merlin. -- More the full range of Britons and French; your Arthurian Briton equivalents. Their architecture is very traditional medieval fantasy, with typical Western European castles and fortifications. Definitely includes all the things you mentioned, though.
Khajit - Samurai and Ninja -- More Arabian Nights, Persian influence, I would think. A lot of emphasis on the lunar phases and sands, on nomadic life. The East Asian peoples are roughly anologous to the Akaviri (see the Blades equipment in Oblivion for examples).
Bosmer - EDIT: Native American Indians, Druids or Picts. -- Taken to cannibalistic extremes, but yes, tree-huggers and forest-dwellers, but without the typical elven rainbows, meadows and unicorns.
Orc - Mercenaries with no native allegiances -- If anything, they're closest in origin to the Mongolian Horde depiction of any of the races, but have settled into their own lands and are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
Argonian - Pirates of an african/east indian heritage. -- I agree with another poster; more Meso-American, Mayan or Aztec, but with preternatural ties to nature and a hive-mind through the Hist.
Redguard - Ancient islamic warriors, think of the film Kingdom of Heaven. -- More North African if anything. Dunmer are the real theocrats.

This thread has the threat of "getting banned for using racial slurs" written all over it... so I will post no more in this thread. I don't want to get hit with guilt-by-association...

The khajit being japanese comes both from the way they look, their strengths when compared to stereotypes of ninja. They seem, in abilities like they would make better ninjas than desert crawlers. + The new pics of the male khajit look REALLY japanese. lol. Even those mustaches!


+5 Athletics, Blade, Light Armour, Sneak, Security
+10 Agility
+10 Acrobatics and Hand to Hand.

Eye of Night
Eye of Fear

All of these could work equally well with both Samurai and Ninja.

I refuse to truly acknowledge this thread, for I strongly disagree with it... Sure, some of the races may take some influence from the real world, but not every race or bit of lore is based off of some sort of thing or cause in the real world... The Elder Scrolls has one of the richest lore-bases around, even more so than most modern fantasy literature...

Argonian - ?