I was creating a new guy in TES: Oblivion and i was scrolling through the races and thought.....arent redguards only imperials who have different skin color (no offense intended) can someone tell me what keep them out of the category of imperial. bliviongate:

Reduards originate from Yokunda, an island that was destroyed. They invaded High Rock and declared war on the Orcs. And eventually the other races. They are entirely different. There is lore for The Elder Scrolls.

If you check out the Wiki (link is in Mr. Oblivion's sig), you can find Lore on just about every race and it will tell you all the differences between the types and origins as well. I skim through the wiki sometimes when I am bored

RACIST! RACIST.

Just kidding. That's what I thought when I first played an Elder Scrolls game.

Exsactly, the redguards are the true pirates of tamerial, only rivelled by the Nords on the seas.

The only race that has come from another are the Bretons, and i think Imperials (?), who both came from Nords.

I always saw them as black imperials honestly. No offence to any one.

There not from Tamriel. That's why they are 75% resistant to poisons and disease.

Would you like to know more:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Redguard

Why do people keep saying 'no offence'? There's no redguards on the forums.


Anyway, I believe the OP is asking about a game mechanic. Technically, the Imperials and redguards share the same character model, but with redguard physical features and skin colour set to be the norm instead of imperial norm. If you tinker a bit, you can create a white skinned redguard who is indistinguishable from an imperial. Aside from his voice.


They are like this purely for the convenience of the game makers, like how all Tsaesci were Redguards in Oblivion. In Lore, they are completely seperate from the Imperials.

To put it quite bluntly they're the black people of Tamriel, and they originate from Yokuda....


They have better combat skills than Imperials, but lack persuasion, intelligence, and willpower.

Also whereas Imperials are based of Romans, Nords are based off Barbarians, and Bretons are based of Medieval age people, Redgaurds seem to have more of a piraty culture.

But they're not black. They're red.

They're skin is literally red? Why not just call them "Blackgaurds" or "Browngaurds"

the fact that Romans, Barbarians (what ever you mean by this), and medieval people (once again, a horrible generalization) all had pirates makes your point sort of nonexistent. if you want to look to a real life parallel to redguards your safest place is Africa... though they are, like all other races, not a rip off of a real life peoples. The http://www.imperial-library.info/pge/hammerfell.shtml is a pretty good description of the Raga.

@Nero: read the lore, then get back to us.

The name comes from the Yokudan word "Ra'gada" which means warroir wave, referring to the exodus to Tamriel. The name has nothing to do with their skin colour, although to my mind they're certainly leaning over to the redder end of the spectrum.

Influence from another continent should make them much less resistant to poisons and disease, right? Ask Huayna Capac about about it. It depends a lot on which livestock you keep.

Speaks for itself, really.

And, no, for the last time, the races have no direct correlation to civilizations from the real world beyond a surface level -- their lore is a mix. The Imperials have a Roman gloss, but they live in the Amazon (in the real Cyrodiil, of course), build Aztec megastructures, and have a metaphysical system that resembles monastic gnosticism. Kinda.

And the Altmer are at once Egyptians and Nazis and Greeks and angels from another dimension. And the Dunmer are Hebrews with a Catholic Church and Native American tribal societies. And I could go on.

STOP DOING THIS

Well, the Bretons...

I disagree with the above poster with some of what he says, but the point is true. You can say the Dunmer are Assyrian, African, Israelite, or, as I have done, Gaelic - but if you do that you'll have to prove your opponent's argument to make them accept your own. The Dunmer are most likely based on each of those cultures.

I'd say the Redguards are far more similar to the Pacific Islanders than they are to the African tribes. But you can't say they are one or the other.

http://www.imperial-library.info/rgbooks/page.shtml?20
http://www.imperial-library.info/rgbooks/page.shtml?21

And have a look at the clothing in this one.
http://www.imperial-library.info/rgbooks/page.shtml?6

Well you might more accurately claim the dunmer are based on everyday DnD dark elves, with elements of their culture pulled and inspired from multiple real life sources that the devs would have knowledge about, plus a huge chunk of crazy stuff that they made up themselves. I mean, what is a nix hound based on?

This goes for the other races as well.

There's evidence to say the redguards were partially inspired by African or Pacific nations, along with what the devs pulled out of thin air, but this is different from saying they are based on them, which basically means the devs looked at cultures and thought "that's what we're gonna make".

They didn't, which is why although some TES cultures seem to be familiar, there's just as much about them that is completely alien. Deciding questions of lore by saying, "well X real culture were like this so Y Tes culture must be as well" is only conjecture, and often wrong.

Maybe cuz the name has nothing to do with skin color? :frog:

Its true the races echo of real world 'civilizations' from all over the world, there's not much more to say. The Bretons may resemble Three Kingdoms Chinese in an Elizabethan era Persia next time, who knows?

Nords are the only ones I consider to have a matching Earth equivalent. Imperials are sorta Rome-invaded-England-ish, but IMO all that's missing in Skyrim culture is the mention of Odin et al, and Ragnrok.

Of course, Cyrodiil has things like minotaurs, unicorns, and aloe vera, which kinda blows the alien environment for me a bit :shrug:

About the Redguards: also Samurai.

Like, http://www.imperial-library.info/obscure_text/viveccyrus.shtml.

EDIT: And, an addendum.

You know, I think it cheapens the artistry of how these various civilizations have been intricately constructed to be alien-yet-intimate when we try to make these sort of silly correlations. What Morrowind, in particular, did so well wasn't create a world that was a reflection of our own, like our likeness in a proverbial mirror; it was more like looking through a carnival funhouse mirror or, really, a pond of rippling water -- you can kind of recognize where the image resembles the familiar, and can perhaps learn something about the "real world" by looking at how the pieces fit, but in the end it's its own image.

If that made any sense. Anyway, point being this thread is kind of a waste of time, assuming it goes down the path most of these threads go.

"The Bretons are French!"
"No, they're British!"
"Shut up, they're obviously Swedes!"
"No, they're Scottish!"

WOAH I wouldn't go as far as to say that Imperial architecture is aztec...

The Ra'Gada are the BEST swordsmen EVAR. They have a blade move that can split the magical equivalent of an atom. Someone did it once. Now Yokuda is gone. Samurai? They're the ULTIMATE Samurai!

The city on the water?

Yeah but, still they're supposed to be based of the Romans! Just beause Cyrodiil was supposed ot be a jungle in LORE doesn't mean that the Imperial race itself is Aztec...