Seeing as Nords are heavily based on old Dane culture where Laws were primative and violence was an accepted, and people basically became vikings to get rich... im just wondering how far this might be taken in the game?

Personally Id love to become a viking and get rich by murdering everyone in a village then pillaging, punishing me some other way rather than being nagged by an all-knowing police-nord forcing me to go to jail to make me nice again......any thoughts?

On a side note im not trying to say all vikings/ similar cultures are bloodthirsty barbarians, more interested in how deeply that culture will be implimented in the game seeing as it is obviously influenced visually.

IMO, the Nords of Skyrim are more civilised than the Vikings, but seeing as how they attacked Morrowind, they may still be aggressive.

The Nords should practice some sort of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmgang process of settling disputes would be kinda fun I think. And even if this takes place in a civil war setting I don't think I can expect to see a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_eagle execution, which is a little sad however I don't think any video game will get through the ESRB if they included that, makes dismemberments seem like child's play.

However I don't like the thought of ripping them too much off the vikings, as I want them to retain some form of uniqueness.

The vikings actually had laws and everytime one was broken a "ting", a sort of gathering, was called together to solve it. Or bloodprice could be paid: if you take revenge before the gathering.

Yes, blood money is what I imagined would work well. It seems to fight wit the Nords idea of self protection. If you die, well, too bad.

I know what you, but from what ive seem skyrim looks like more wild and barbaric than cyrodiil. I could just imagine settlements isolated from major towns where murders might go unnoticed. I think the game should accommodate players who want to be evil like that.

I thought that it was the Saxons who formed the traditional laws initially and a bloodprice was a form of law called a werguild or something where you pay the value of the life youve taken...... Anyway, Id like there to be some interesting method like this rather than jail etc..

The pillaging was only ONE aspect of Viking-life.. the others were trading, exploring and being mercenaries..
Many kingdoms from the time of the Vikings payed Vikings for protection from other viking group that DID pillage villages and slaughter people.. one example is when the king of France payed a group of Vikings to protect the French coastal villages from raiders by giving them Normady (which translated means "Land of the Northmen")
Many Vikings that became mercenaries joined the Royal Bodyguards of the East-Roman Empire and became the feared Varangian Guard.

The vikings weren't as uncivilized as people seem to think. The word "law" itself in English comes from the time the Danes controlled England. It's Old Norse in origin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking. Here's something on viking http://www.arild-hauge.com/elife.htm.

Completely agree, but I cant help thinking that pulling off a traditoinal viking-style raid would be rather satisfying, especially if i didnt have to pay a weregild afterwards! :foodndrink:

The lawsystem in England is actually based on the lawsystem the vikings brought with them and established in England when they ruled there(both danish and Norwegian rule).

A Ting is a gathering where the king(or if he is unable, a earl or someone else sent in his place) listens to the complaints and problems the people have. There are many Tings, one for each region(and the law system in Norway still have deep traces from this, and we still use the word Ting, Borgarting etc.).
A farmer could come and complain that his neigbhour had stolen from him. Then they would bring forth witnesses, and the king would decide on judgmenet.
Often a jugdment would be that the one guilty had to pay a large sum of money, if it was something very bad he might have to give up his property, banished from the kingdom, or killed.

In addition to this, in early viking-age, they also often solved disputes by Holmgang, a duel 1 vs 1. A man could either chose to fight, or have someone fight in his place. The one who won also won the other mans goods and property. These duels were fought on hilltops, or other small places, sometimes at tiny isles in the sea(people watched the battle from the shore).


People who belive Scandinavia was lawless in the viking age are highly mistaken. In fact its been stated that we actually had a more well functioning lawsystem then many other european countries at the time.

The Old Saxon way of life is actually a lot similar to the Viking way, mostly because Vikings ruled for a time the British Isles, England, Wales, Scotland and also Ireland were for a time under Viking control. Their hold over the British Isles didn't end until William the Conquer came from Normandy.

Im not unfamiliar with Dane activities, I was mainly thinking of early ventures into britan, but seeing as mecenery type acitivities may well be included in quests, raids might be an exciting mechanic which might not be so obvious to include as a side mission..

I thought that Alfred the great united england under Saxon rule kicking the danes northwards. Im pretty sure Saxon law originated from christianity, whereas Danes werent. But to keep it game related id like nord law to be slightly different to the traditional oblivion style law in wways stated above

Why do you exclusively put DANES as the only Vikings..? When there were Norwegian Vikings and Swedish Vikings too.. (although there were no "real" swedes in modern sense.. back then the only great Viking kingdoms where Norway and Denmark.. the lands of Sweden was back then made up by a large number of independent small kingdoms..)

This might be a silly question and sorry if it is - but why would Nords pillage their own villages in Skyrim? Isn't that [censored]ting where you eat?

I'm betting many of you don't know that the many hobbies of vikings along with pillaging and killing were using make-up, braiding hair in elaborate ways and wearing accessories such as bracelets, necklaces ect whenever possible?

Because it's the other village/town/clan and not yours I would assume.

your right, but its not really their origin which im interested in, im just thinking about translating that over to the game and thinking about the posibilities for Nord Vikings or something along those lines so I could enjoy a good old fashioned raid

By Vikings im only really refering to raids and violence encouraged by wealth....not sure if im interested so much in having an in-game hobby, more in murdering innocents for my own personal gain :foodndrink:

thinking about all the different tribes that made up Britan once im sure theres space to have culture differences like that in skyrim, even if it is just an excuse to kill people :celebration:

I'm just trying to enlighten the people that don't know that Vikings weren't actually ruthless, bloodthirsty and dirty murderers with horned helmets.

Although I must say that I too enjoy the cliche more than the reality. Hence why my first character will be a Nord and I'm getting him a winged helmet as soon as possible.

I thought that the word 'Viking' only refered to people who raid etc....... the instant you stop raiding your a nord, dane, saxon, sweed or whatever....

yes i want my beard, round shield, axe and face covered helmet straight away!

The word "Viking" actually means many things, some say it means "Man from the bay/fjord" and some believe it comes from a form of fortification that was common in regions of Denmark at the time of the Vikings.
But it is also associated to different things that Vikings did, when they set sail to either conduct trade or going on a raid they used to say "going on a viking". So it does not only that people gone on a raid.

I enjoy the Nordic culture in the Elder Scrolls world becuase is takes it's overall feel from the Scandinavian cultures, but at the same time I don't want all the Nords to be Vikings. They need their own unique fantasy feel.