Most people can agree that the Imperials are based on the Romans (and to a smaller extent, the Chinese), and that the Orks are Mongolian, but I'm getting a number of different ideas as to what Morrowind and the Dunmer are based on. Some say they're based on medieval Catholic Europe, some say they're based on ancient Mesopotamia, and some say they're based on feudal Japan. Maybe it's a combination of the three. So what do you think?

Which culture? At this point, all of them. Don't kid yourself, practically every race is a mishmash of many other cultures, it becomes only superficial to say x race is y rl culture. And it's bad idea to try and find what cultures they're similar too, it's better to see which RL cultures influenced the creation of each race and their culture.

Also, we get this question every other week, so look around for past threads. Each and every single one of them ends with pretty much the same conclusion.

The human races seem much less mishmashed. The Imperials are highly Roman, not distinguishing between Rome before and after Constantine. And the Nords are well, Nords. Hopefully they're not just vikings like they appear to be.

The games did bad when it came to culture representation of races, other than the dunmer. The first pocket guide is something I like much more when it came to the Cyrodiils, who were properly broken up into the Colovians and the Nibenese. As for the other races, too undeveloped for my tastes, unless one desires to really plow through reading material. Even then, it's limited.

Hopefully Skyrim will add some more flavor to the nords.

Yea, hopefully this is just because we haven't been to those places yet. Minus Cyrodiil of course, which they sorta missed the boat on.

Even the bretons, orsimer, and redguards feel more like a developed race, despite being in the 2nd game of the series.

Nothing to see here.

I've said it a thousand times! Smurfs!

That's just the Telvanni.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1161213-who-are-the-dunmer-based-off-of/At least put a little effort into seeing if this has been asked before.

http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/pge01_cyrodiil_art_02.jpg, http://gravitybong.net/files/public/1264360115_371_FT0_morrowind-screenshot.jpg Roman. This might be surprising, but there were plenty of people that conquered territories with professional armies and set up provinces. Imperials use some Roman-sounding names and borrow some of their armor, but just about everything else is not (specifically) Roman. Even the word "imperial" is an innacurate simplification - do you mean the Colovians, the Nibenese, the people of Anvil? The Nords are a mashup of pre-christian Vikings and classical Hindus, with a dash of wasabi thrown in for extra flavor. I'd even say they've got some Amerindian and Jewish references.

is it just me or do we get one of these all the time :sadvaultboy:

The Nords are Nepalese. FACT.

I think the Imperials might possibly be a mix of Colovians and Nibenese

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Imperial_%28style%29 http://www.jwaller.co.uk/nas/images/higham_ferrers.jpg http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:MW_ImperialWeapons.jpg. With castles and gothic cathedrals borrowed from the middle ages. There were no differences between the Colovians and the Nibenese in-game, which is what I'm primarily discussing.

If it looks like a Roman, sounds like a Roman, and acts like a Roman, its probably a Roman.

Except that, in the game where we get to actually explore their home province, there is nothing Roman at all about the Cyrodiils. Architecture, apparel, and even behavior certainly don't look Roman, except for maybe the Wayshrines.

In Morrowind...maybe. Not in Oblivion.

Holy Roman perhaps?

Hmmmm. I might buy that, actually.

They remind me more of the British Empire, or a heavily romanticized version of it, than the Roman Empire.

There are many similarities, some overt and some subtle.

East Empire Company is obviously based off the East India Company, etc.

Of course you could take any culture that is considered an Empire and find influences in Cyrodill. Look at how the honor guard of Uriel Septim dress and the weapons they use. Their armor is a mix between Samurai of the far East and Later Byzantine legionaire uniforms, and they use Samurai swords. The in-game lore is that these weapons and armor are based on Akaviri designs, but if you examine the pictures of armor from our own world you'll see the likely influences.

They're like Romans if you ignore all the cool things about them, stretch Roman to include several disparate cultures, and also add several things that aren't Roman.

Right..like I said. They're more like an amalgamate of different "Imperial" cultures from our own history and from other popular fantasy and sci fi literature. They're more like the idea of an Empire and what it would represent in a world of magic than a direct copy of a real Empire.

Native Americans.
Indians: We must defend our land from the white man!
Dunmer: We must defend our land from the N'wah!

You speak of both Native Americans and Dunmer as if each group were made of only one tribe or viewpoint, and in doing so you err greatly.

Several groups of Native Americans sided with the white nations on more than one occasion. Native troops were an integral part of French, British, American and Spanish armies. Similarly, House Hlaalu wisely sided with the Imperials because they saw which way the wind blows. Only the Ashlanders truly hate the outlanders, and that changed with the coming of the Nerevarine.

Africans: We must defend our land from the white man!
Indians: We must defend our land from the white man!
Chinese: We must defend our land from the white man!
Europeans: We must defend our land from the other white men!

The ashlanders are native Americans I think, and the Tribunal is Japan/China but also Babylonian etc. The Redoran are the most Japanese, what with honour fights and all, The Telvanni are, different, maybe Russian because of all the infighting?, The Hlaalu are like the Dutch, Indians or Koreans, due to their 'selling' out' to the highest bidder, and financial based culture