And a heavy dose of Tolkien, who in turn was inspired by European folklore.

Doh, forgot about the elf transformation part and looking ugly. Otherwise, the orc attitude and culture is anything but the orcs from Tolkein.

Yeah, this is what I was thinking, based on the Orcish armor in Morrowind/Oblivion and the fact they don't even have their own true country.

Aside from the fact that horses are likely to end up in a stew rather than to be put to use for strategical and tactical advantages when it comes to orcs. But the correlation between the views on mongols in the eyes of the "civilized" civilizations and the views on orcs by their neighbours is evident.

Based on their nomad ways, plus terms such as Khan, yurt etc, it's much more Mongols than native americans.

In general, the Dunmer are probably the most varied race of TES, and have a LOT of different influences and inspirations. I spot antic greek, Assyrian, Egyptian, middle age arabic, and many more, depending on the social status.

I've heard that Dunmeri culture and architecture was inspired by Star Wars.

In name only.

Tolkien's orcs were neither green, porcine, nor, primarily, big and strong. And don't forget the pure evil bit.

If you must, ES orcs are more Warcraft.

Not even.

The Orcs of Morrowind were a subversion of the common image of Orcs, just as the Dwarves were. They were corrupted elves, yes, but in a much more ambiguous sense.

I came from the Orsinium topic at the Library, with the the notion orcs are hypersixed, fecund gapeseed, in love with the clang-clang of iron. Their Lord is a nebula metal, personified. Their modus operandi is the Alchemy To Make Clouds Iron, which is what Orsinium is built of: metallic clouds.

Or such. [censored] if I know.

Too much moonsugar, that one.

I've never touched it.

sujamma, on the other hand...

Dunmer were obviously modeled after the former American Confederacy.

Slaves?

Plantations?

GUAR?!


Surely you must see the signs.

Most ancient civs used slaves for farming.

Anyway


Breton -- Celic
Imperial -- Somewhere between Rome and Italy
Dunmer -- possibly East Indian (East India does have a trinity)
Bosmer -- Native tribal
Orcs -- don't know exactly, but I do see traces of Vikings???
Nords -- Scandinavia
Altimer -- Greek
Redgaurds -- North Africa and Arabia.
Khajiit -- Persia or Eygpt
Argonians -- Natives

Imperials = Imperials
Argonians = Argonians

etc.

Truth of the matter is, each of the races takes inspiration from different sets of memes and tropes and were molded from there. While these memes and tropes are commonly associated with certain cultures, it would be a mistake to say that any particular culture directly inspired the devs unless the devs themselves do confirm a particular culture influenced or inspired them. It would be better to assume that certain memes and tropes are what inspired them, and then work to identify those tropes and memes. It would also be a mistake to say that the devs necessarily exercised concsious choice when chosing these memes and tropes. Some aspects undoubtedly arose organically in the dev enviroment or without any express intent.

Native Welsh?

I decide to write here, though there is a new thread, cause this is the older one.

Maybe someone brought it up, but doesn't the dunmer resonate with the ancient hebrews, and st. Veloth to Abraham, or maybe Moses?

I think guys like Saint Veloth are supposed to serve as an archetype of what happens in our own world whenever a new religion or nation is founded. You could make just as strong an argument that he's Thomas Paine as Abraham or Moses. (Who did you expect? George Washington? I haven't forgotten who the true father of my nation is.)

The same could be said of Alessia. The rebellion of the humans against the Ayleids is an archetypal revolution.

We looves our archetypes. Looves 'em.

I thought the Bretons were Feudalist French?
The Khajjits are more Nubian than Egyptian and the Bosmer are archetypal fantasy elves, the Argonians are possibly Aztec or Mayan

Dudes, we have one of these yawn-inducing topics every week. "Hey hoo ar the X most like the RL Y?"

C'mon.

So... who is Pelinal Whitestrake based off of?

Which means that it is still a good topic then.

Though people probably should be better to look if there allready is an existing thread on the topic, or not.

Frequency doesn't make a thing good.

Yes, good in that sense, that many users think it is a good topic.

Maybe the mods can mash the different threads on same subject into one?