Wait what... where is it confirmed there will be a Dunmer "city?" I looked before I asked too, and couldn't find any obvious updates, but I thought I had read everything and that would have stuck out to me.

If its new info, its kind of common curtesy to post where this info is coming from. Just saying... then I wouldn't have to ask now would I.

Same for me, when I heard the voices in OB I was like "WTF!!?!?! since when did Dunmer become wimps!" I also like what you suggested about the town.

I hope there's nothing as annoying to navigate as Vivec.

Loved Balmora and Ald Ruhn styles. Telvanni was a bit annoying but not too bad and could be fun if made a little differently than in Morrowind - mainly larger hallways.

i think the dunmer race is short and stallky and almost draf like but a little taller

Cheydinhal is a Dunmer city. Does it appear oriental?

OMG OMG OMG I LOVE THE DUNMERS HOLY [censored] I'M BUYING A HOUSE THERE

Never saw anything that pointed to oriental so no. Hope it will be Telvanni style.

WHERE, is it confirmed that there is a Dunmer city at all?

I'm hoping that this Dunmer city will just be an amalgamation of several of their architecture styles with a shanty-town feel. After all, they are refugees at this point and hopefully it will feel that way.

http://www.gamebanshee.com/oblivion/races/images/highelf.jpg And people still disagree with that notion quite a lot.

Frankly, though I have respect for eastern culture, I am getting very tired of hearing these repeated arguments of "X race had an asian-esque thing in Morrowind. They should be based on the Japanese in Skyrim" One of the themes of Elder Scrolls is that Akavir has had a small influence on Tamriel. They leave behind artifacts, which are adopted by other races. Because the Imperials had Cloud Ruler Temple, the most oriental-themed construct ever seen in Elder Scrolls, does that mean that the Imperials should be Imperial Japanese instead of Imperial Roman or Imperial British? (Hint: They're a combination of the last two). Because the Orcs had armor resembling samurai armor in Morrowind, does that mean that they, too, should be asian? Or that picture of the High Elf I liked above. Does that automatically make them seem Japanese?

These can all be dismissed as influence from Akavir. And that's just it, influence. Here in the USA, we like to play Japanese video games, watch Japanese anime, and read Japanese manga. Does that mean that our culture can be equated with Japanese culture because we share a few similarities? No. Everything relevant to oriental culture in TES comes from Akavir, and everything you see in Tamriel is simply a remnant of their past visits. Elder Scrolls is not a JRPG. It is a WRPG. Tamriel is a Western-influenced region. The furthest east you'll probably ever get in Tamriel is Elsweyr, which seems to be heavily influenced by old Persian culture.

I can't see why everyone thinks of samurai when they see Orc armour. In my opinion, it looks more Chinese than Japanese (samurai).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Chinese_Armor_4.JPG (and http://image.dhgate.com/upload/200712/82/ff80808116d8081b0116ee49b3de0fde/productimg1198684724079.jpg)

http://images.uesp.net//thumb/d/da/OB-item-Orcish_Armor.jpg/600px-OB-item-Orcish_Armor.jpg

http://www.japanese-somen.com/samurai_armor_all_for_sale/samurai_armor_for_sale_122/edo_samurai_armor.jpg

Then again, it could be a fusion of both, with a touch of Tamrielic Orc.

No, they aren't!

They are imperials!


Gosh I hate the idea that all of the races are just races in the real world retextured. It's annoying and silly.

Each race is individual and while they may have some qualities of real world nationalities, they are their own races and they are made up! They aren't Roman, Japanese, British, Chinese, African or anything else!

When people refer to Japanese Orc armor, they're most likely referring to http://images.uesp.net//2/23/MW_Armor_OrcishM.jpg. It looks very much like samurai armor. I've always thought the Oblivion set http://maisto.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/70208lunch_maisto_07.jpg




The Imperials are a mix of Imperial Roman and British.
The Khajiit are Persian
The Wood Elves are Tolkein Elves
The Orcs are reminiscent of Tolkein Orcs
The Bretons have some slight French influences, most notably in Oblivion
The Nords are Vikings
The Redguards are African
The Dark Elves, High Elves, and Argonians are all unique little snowflakes.

In what way are the Redguard people African, culturally speaking? Yes, I know, they're black. That's not a culture, that's an aesthetic. Explain their cultural similarities.

Please explain how the "noble warrior" culture of the Osimer correlates with the brutish culture of Tolkein's orcs.

Do you believe there is no Celtic influence upon the Nords whatsoever? Not even with their racial power referencing "woad"?

Were the Feudal European inspirations behind the Bretons limited only to France? Really?

If you want to simplify things in such a reductive manner, I expect you to explain yourself. Until then, I will simply consider you Wrong.

Redguard: Came from a foreign continent, religious deities that sound similar to certain tribal African beliefs.
No, I don't think there was very much Celtic influence on the Nords. Every time Bethesda talks about coming up with Nord concepts, it's always Vikings or Conan the Barbarian.
I never claimed the Bretons were entirely French. Oblivion started that implication, most notably with many Bretons possessing French names and male Bretons speaking with a slight French accent. It is also important to note the real http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breton_people, a population in France.
I take back my sentiments about the Orcs. That was just a lingering thought in my head when someone suggested that Orcs should have a Japanese accent and I decided that the gruff voices you see of traditional orcs fits them much better, using Tolkein as an example.

If you want any further evidence to suggest such an idea, consider the old interview with Douglas Godall about Ken Rolston, lead designer during Morrowind and Oblivion.

Good points, and I will gladly concede on most. I still find it incredibly reductive to say X RACE IS Y CULTURE, however. No culture is exclusively drawn from a real-world counterpart, either due to the lore and mechanics of the world (I don't remember the French having elvish blood, for instance) or - in my experience - because drawing from several sources creates a more rich and interesting result than the thin stereotype that can otherwise be presented.

I suppose so. In fact, it can be argued that there is no culture that exemplifies the things they are based on. In Africa, for instance, there are people of many ethnicities, and many beliefs. In France, there are Bretons, but they themselves are a small subset of the French people and have their own culture. So maybe saying that they are based on specific cultures is a little out there because to say something is "French" is just a broad notion. At the end of it all, they're still unique to Elder Scrolls. But they were certainly influenced by cultures that people in the real world know, so that players who have absolutely no idea what TES is like can jump in and have a general idea what the people are like. For instance, in Oblivion, you go to the Imperial City and see the Romanesque architecture. That makes one go "Oh, they're like the Romans. The Romans had an empire. This one must work like that."

I must say though, looking through a few of the videos on Game Informer, there were a lot of Viking books lined up here and there for inspiration. I think Skyrim is going to be themed with traditional vikings, but that extra Elder Scrolls flair thrown in.

The Dunmer should look and sound more like the dunmer in Morrowind IMO. What i mean is when they started designing the dark elves in Skyrim I hope they still included what they looked like in Morrowind for referencing what they looked like. In Oblivion they sounded European and looked just like a dark skinned woodelf.

Also Dunmer should all have to have red eyes... like the lore says they should. something about Azura cursing the Chimer with ash-colored skin and red eyes..... i think... it's been a while since i played MW.

Oh, definite Viking thing with Skyrim. I just felt there were more Celtic influences in previous games personally.

I get what you're saying with the kind of, I guess "superficial" correlation between X race/Y culture - superficial isn't quite what I mean, sounds negative but I don't necessarily mean it to be. My main gripe is simply that voicing it in a way that reduces it down to "fantasyland expy of X real world thing" leads to people to suggest things to push it further in that direction, removing the blend of real-world elements which make the races more interesting than "magical Frenchmen".

building style is probably going to be dren or hlallu

Thank you, sir! Get it through your thick skulls already, guys. Each and every race is nothing more than a giant compilation of multiple cultural influences.

Simple as that. Stop trying to figure it out, you'll end up looking silly and only partially correct at best.

Seriously, the lore forum also get "this race is just like culture X" nearly every other week. At this point, everyone has argued that the dunmer are practically every culture that has ever existed. Give it a rest people!

Dunmer in general are really nothing like any culture in this world. Ashlanders reminds me of Native Americans though.

'Asian' is probably the most meaningless distinction I can come up with. The Dunmer are sufficiently developed that they can only be referred to as Dunmer-inspired. Drow, Egyptian, Mespotamian and Mongolian influences are so altered and crowded out that pointing at them is a boorish waste of time. You're not saying anything relevant.

I'm sorry but, what? Oriental? Since when have Dunmer been considered "oriental"..?

Since recent threads came popping out to make practically everything Asian, Japanese to be more specific.

Like I said, the races in Nirn are pretty much a giant pile of multiple cultures of the world, it's silly to say "This race is X culture."