Previous games have pointed to the Dunmer as have an oriental inspiration . now it's been confirmed that there will be a Dunmer city do you think it will be heavily Asian esque?

Hope it will be Balmora Style with a big Vivec temple in the middle

I just hope they get the Morrowind voices. Gruff and cultish. Not sure about the city though. I would like them to do something different with it, some sort of multy cultural feel between Nords and Dark Elfs.

One thing i think we can expect is the undeniable tension between the two races.

I've never ever seen the Dunmer as "oriental" in any aspect, certainly not how they look, act or sound.

I also don't see how any of their architecture could be seen as such, it all looks so unique to their race and unlike anything in the real world.


If there was a race I would have to label oriential it would High elves for the way they look/sound/their basic traits and Orcs for their armor and weapons (Using Samurai type stuff)

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://elderscrolls.neoseeker.com/w/i/elderscrolls/thumb/4/41/Dunmer_official.jpg/180px-Dunmer_official.jpg&imgrefurl=http://elderscrolls.neoseeker.com/wiki/Dunmer&usg=__YG3rrQeyoO_ViDMB8zWmuDMh3j0=&h=209&w=180&sz=19&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=U0yvPte-m7yxcM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=127&ei=3ClRTdbFIoL8vQOsnOT5CA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddunmer%2Bconcept%2Bart%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D588%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=357&vpy=330&dur=5664&hovh=167&hovw=144&tx=84&ty=143&oei=3ClRTdbFIoL8vQOsnOT5CA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:17,s:0 Looks oriental to me

The Dunmer in Oblivion looks more like aliens to me. I don't believe in artworks, I believe in in-game renders

I'd say they'll look just like they look in Morrowind, nothing more. Okay, maybe graphical improvements after 8 years, but that's it

The most "oriental" aspect of the Dunmer I can think of is the Ashlanders - quite reminiscent of Mongol/Turkic tribes. Dunmer architecture, accent, armors and art in general are quite unique and I definitely would not call them "oriental".

I guess we will have to agree to disagree then because that picture looks nothing like a oriential man/woman to me, it looks like a Dunmer.

Honestly the only races I see that relate to real world nationalities are Imperials, Redguards, Bretons and Nords. The rest relate to nothing really, they have small similarities but nothing beyond that.

When I look at Dark elves, I think "Dark elf" not "Oriential"

You know, I don’t think you could put the Dunmer under a category. From what I have seen of them from Morrowind, they are a race that adapts well to their environments which in turn, makes their cities unique and different. For example, Ald-ruhn they live in the shells of giant creatures which provide protection from sand storms. In Sadrith Mora they grew their own buildings in the form of plants. The tribes themselves have to survive in barren conditions, only living in tents. And of course Vivec which is a massive complex city.

I could go on but the conclusion is this city in Skyrim could look like anything. A city built around its environment I hope

I could strike that same pose and take a picture...would I look oriental? Hell no, I'd look like a skinny white guy in a silly pose. There's nothing oriental about the Dunmer.

The picture you posted kind of looks like a kung-fu pose, but aside from that, nothing oriental. The race that is most equated with oriental culture / the east is the Altmer, and even then, only somewhat.

I've never seen any oriental influence in Dark elf architecture nor do I expect to in Skyrim.

I have a question to the OP. Have you played Morrowind? Have you seen the architecture?

Let's do a comparison:

http://www.wallpaper4me.com/images/wallpapers/travel_0059-77689.jpeg vs http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/32639-3-1277777052.jpg

Yeah, those are really similar...

It's a simple matter to infer whatever we like;

http://images.uesp.net//c/c7/MW-Places-ArenaCanton.jpg
http://images.uesp.net//3/38/MW-npc-Aren_Maren.jpg

Of course this is conclusive of absolutely nothing. I'm just illustrating inference, whether logical or not.

Alright, I concede. The gondolier's hat looks oriental. Said hat should obviously define all of Dunmer culture, even though the vast majority of Dunmer architecture and design is hardly oriental at all.

In my opinion the Dunmer, primarily the ashlanders, are based on the native americans; not only is their history extremely similar but their culture is too. I believe the legions conquest of morrowind is similar to the natives americans colonisation (just the fact that they got conquered by a superior force, not the actual war itself). Also the great houses (which were clans before) are similar to the different native american clans. Another similarity is the fact that the dunmer worship their ancestors just like the native americans. The ashlander camps themselves resemble native american camps, be it ever so slighty. I do noot see the dunmer as being oriental, the high elves and orcs bear more similarites in that aspect.

Of course! How could we have missed it Urge, it's all in the hat. You and me sure are unobservant.



I don't get it guys..

Why does a race in Elder Scrolls have to be based on something from the real world? Is it not possible that just perhaps they are a made up race with their own identity? Does everything have to be based on something from the real world and not just something from our imagination?

Dunmer are not oriential nor do they share enough qualities/traits with them to be considered "like" oriential people.. Just as Orcs are not Samurai because of the small amount of similarities they share with them, the samurai-like armor and weapons..

They are all have their own, individual image and are not representations of or based on anything from the real world.

It's simply MUCH easier for a designer to draw ideas from real-world culture than it is to whip something up on the spot.

For instance, the Orcish culture is based quite heavily (and pays homages in armor design) to Samurai, but it isn't a direct copy it simply has similarities. Dunmer draw apparent inspiration from both Chinese and Native American cultures. Their history and culture are anologous to both.

Being the HUGE Elder Scrolls nerd I am, I'm sorry but they really aren't.

All of the races of Tamriel are very unique and individual. Do some of them have a few *slight* similarities with real world cultures? Yeah, sure. Do those few, *slight* similarities define what the extremely culture rich races of Tamriel are like or justify calling them inspired by these real world cultures? No way, man. No way. Not even close.

Ashlander names, however, are Assyrian. Their residences look like and are called Yurts, wich is what Turcic and Mongolian nomads traditionally lived in. I see them closer to nomadic asian tribes than native americans. They probably draw some aspects from various cultures however, but have very few, if any, influences from the Far East (wich is what most people think of as "oriental").

I have to disagree in part here. The Imperials are blatantly Romans, they have roman names, roman armor, roman government (Or they used to anyway). Allthough they do also draw heavily from British culture, especially in Oblivion. At their core though, Imperials are roman.

There is a tiny amount of Native American influence in the Ashlanders perhaps, but much more so Mongolian and Turkic nomads. Their names, as has been mentioned, are primarily Assyrian/Babylonian, which also hints at Semitic/Canaanitic nomads.

i think dunmer have more of a desert isolated society inspiration like the people in the movie stargate.
no i don't think it should be oriental because this is a western rpg and that would be stupid.
the oriental stuff is for the akivar and blades.

Jeez, guys, dontcha know? Every single race is actually Japanese.

Orcs? Japanese.

Dunmer? Japanese.

Altmer? Japanese.

Akavir? Japanese.

Cyrodil wasn't just meant to be jungle, it was a bamboo jungle, in Japan, until BGS changed the lore out of racism.




No seriously, can we stop having threads about HEY HERE'S A SUPERFICIAL CULTURAL SIMILARITY, CAN YOU JUST MAKE THEM A BAD EXPY FOR A REAL WORLD CULTURE PLOX?

I've always liked to imagine the Imperials originating from a group of Roman / Medieval British soldiers being svcked into a wormhole and landing in the middle of cyrodil.