Where did you hear that it is confirmed that there will be a dunmer city? Forgive me for being uninformed.

Edit: from the looks of this... I sense a coming flame war.

FLAMERS STOP, You realize not what you do!!! (By flamers, I mean flame war enthusiasts, not a derogatory term for people of certain sixual preference)

I...forget. May have been in the Italian magazine. But I do remember some magazine had it, or the podcast.

There is nothing to concede. Like I said, it's only cultural inference, and is a well worn foible that has pocked mark the forum for years, and will continue to do so for many more. But I will say that I'm fascinated by the inference into the game design of TES by an international audience.

Of course the Dunmer (insert Orc, Altmer, for convenience) are not influenced by Asian culture in any holistic sense. As that would by definition debase what we think of "culture".

Why do evryone start discusins on "what culture they are based on", it gets anyoing. Just because they have one small thing the same as a real world culture, dosent mean they ARE that culture. Its not so that Ork got Asian culture, they got their own culture, Ork culture. Just because thei got "samurai inspired armors", dosent mean they run aroind practising bushido, wears silly clothes, and living in houses with paper walls. And also. the only thing Samurai about their armor, in my opinion, is the mask in Morrowind. The Oblivion one looks like an comletly own armor style.

I'll say it this way. Cheydinal was supposed to have Dumner influence. Well, it could be the influence of the Morrowind mainland, but CERTAINLY not the Vvardenfell District. There was only so much that I found elven about that town. Hopefully, BG will do a better job this time around. :rolleyes:

I hate the dunmer.

And they hate you, n'wah.

I can see lots of similarities with mongols also. Just by the names such as Khan, yurt etc.


Huh... yes they are based of something from the real world. Doesn't mean they are simple copycats. And doesn't mean they have only ONE influence or they are based of every aspect from a culture.

I can't think of something created from scratch with no base, influence whatsoever.

I can see influences from mongols, assyrian, mid-oriental, egyptians, greeks and a lot more in Dunmer race.
It doesn't mean that Dunmer are one of these cultures. And it certainly doesn't mean that they don't have their own identity. But come on, it's no big deal to admit they are influenced or based from something.

I think in Morrowind the Dunmer were much more tribal than oriental. I can see how it would look oriental-esque in oblivion, but I think they're more renaissance in oblivion than anything. The Dunmer architecture and such suggested as much. And the voices fit that kind of culture for them in Oblivion. I think to bring back the gruff, throaty voices of Morrowind would be awesome, but it would have to fit with how they live in Skyrim, and their particular culture in that region. Perhaps a mix of both voices would work. Either way, the Dunmer are my favourite race, so I don't care. It's like an automatic AWESOME stamp from me. lol

Mehrunes Dagon once made an excellent post once about how Cheydinhal's architecture shared architectural principles with Dunmeri structures. pm him and ask him about it.

I'm amazed no one has mentioned Mournhold yet

that's probably where he's getting the Oriental anology as Mournhold IS very inspired by oriental architecture
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/4757/255436-00011146_large.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.giantbomb.com/mournhold/95-1940/&usg=__o38LFImpyhnOW0QjqW4CGVbpE0M=&h=225&w=300&sz=13&hl=en&start=0&sig2=vSGSQPhh5gKmP4vNlZfzHg&zoom=1&tbnid=LXOFWCktjHgMfM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=171&ei=u6tSTZiTKc3HrQeN7YCOCA&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMournhold%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D555%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C114&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=743&vpy=115&dur=1627&hovh=180&hovw=240&tx=116&ty=90&oei=u6tSTZiTKc3HrQeN7YCOCA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:0&biw=1024&bih=555

personally though I don't think the Dunmer are that Oriental in culture or nature. LIke another poster said they tend to adapt to their environments and whatever is practical

honestly I don't want a ton of Asian influence in the Elder Scrolls.

AND NO, I DO NOT MEAN THAT IN A RACIALLY BIGOTED WAY

I'm saying I don't want it because it's so over used, everyone in the west attributes Asian to exotic and thus try to shoehorn some Asian stereotype into everything they do. I like that TES does not try to adhere to any one major culture nor does it try to profit from any either, it just sorta calls on what they think is right at the time.

This is an interview with the developers when Morrowind was being made: http://www.imperial-library.info/content/interviews-MW-team



So I'd say there's some oriental in there, but it's jumbled up with a lot of other elements from other real-world cultures along with original ideas as well.

[quote name='Proditus' timestamp='1297225167' post='17147412']
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

Ahhh forgot about that. I lost my Morrowing disc, so I haven't played it in a while.

I would say that Dunmer have multiple influences (as every race does), but they are not asian, not assyrian, not native american, not nothing earthen... I can see the similarities, yes, but they are not the same at all.

The Mer aren't oriental, I don't think. The oriental architecture and weapons/armor come from Akivri men, who were eaten long ago by the Tsaesci. Though, that was not before they invaded Tamriel, leaving a permament mark on Tamrielic society.

nah man, dunmer are pretty much tribal, even though they have really big and awesome citys, but it looks like most of them( that aren't imperial based, like a colony or so) are build up using some kind of strong clay and GIANT animal carcasses, by what the buildings looks on morrowind, maybe they're done with some kind of kwama clay, well, at least for me their citys are a mistery, well, definitly there is nothing asian about then man, by what i know

one of the funny things is that todd howards him self says that fast travel ruins the sense of adventure, WELL LETS SEE ABOUT THAT IN SKYRIM RIGHT! :celebration: probaly the mapping its going to be so good and the enemys are going to be so less anoying and the dungeons are going to be so cool and the quests we are going to find out there are going to be so intense that fast travel is going to be nothing but a forgetable feature! I KNOW THIS IS NOT THE THREAD FOR THIS POST BUT I HAVE TO SAY IT SINCE IM TALKING ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW! the problem is not having or not a fast travel, as many people seens to think, if you take the fast travel from oblivion , it would make the game completely boring, because of lack of interesting places to go...