Imp gear in Skyrim is largely based off of ancient Rome, but there are some significant differences, some rather significant differences. While legion armor imitates Lorica Segmentata closely enough unless you want to cherrypick one really big problem is the shield, it may be said that Roman empire could never exist without Scutum, it′s absolutely integral to the roman military strategy, it covers most of the body, it′s curved so it provides cover from multiple directions (unlike barbarian shields which were straight) and legionaries often used them to brace against the charge, also when attacking a legionary would hold his shield in front and push the enemy while stabbing with his gladius, leaving him very little opportunity to recover, those diamond shaped things Skyrim legions carry would absolutely not cut it, they are far to small for use with an armor so exposed, and when we are on topic of gladius imperial sword, while following same curves is much too bulky and large to be used as stabbing sword, gladius is meant to be quick and agile so the enemy has a hard time defending, imperial sword is clearly meant to be used as regular medieval sword. and there is one more piece of vital equipment romans had that imperials don′t. pila, it was used by romans to break up enemy formations and disable shields, of course imperials seem to have a tactical range of "rush it till it dies" but this is about gear, generally it seems imperials rely on weight of numbers to win rather than good gear and discipline which was what romans historically used since they were almost always outnumbered.

TES games have never really gone for realism with their armour and weapons. They've always gone for the artistic look.

Pretty much this, it follows the "Rule of cool" and doesn't go for realism or historical armors.

I see you really did your homework on Roman military doctrine. It's not often I meet people who actually took their time to learn something about history, before posting about video game weapons on internet forums. My hat is off to you!


Nothing in Skyrim looks even remotely practical, except for a few things here and there. Imperial armor, ironically, looks like the only thing you could actually use in real life. Steel and Dwemer weapons look mostly OK, but even they are to big, bulky and unwieldy. And I could nitpick many details that are the exact opposite of "practical".


But back to Imperials...


I agree with you about Imperial shield. It is nowhere near Roman Scutum, which was essential to the historical Legion Bethesda drew inspiration from. Now I know Skyrim is not Mount & Blade, and relism is not what they were going for. But to me it just seems silly to have my character climb snowy mountains in some sort of chainmail bikini. Or wield a sword that's 3 times his/her seize and looks like World of Warcraft paddle. Typical fantasy cliches nowadays... I like to see at least a tiny bit of common sense in my fantasy weapons and armor design...


Imperial sword, in my opinion, is the worst of the bunch. It is short, thick, and it looks like a sizeable part of the blade is not even sharp. Too thick for stabbing, too short for hacking. I understand it was inspired by Roman gladius, with an added fantasy twist, but the end result is something that looks utterly silly... There are a few things Elder Scrolls could learn from Dark Souls and Mount & Blade after all.

TES armor and weaponry used to be more "real-world." The Imperial shield used by the guards in Morrowind looks to be a Scutum, and many of the weapons in that game were designed and scaled after real-world weapons (although the relative weights were often way off.)

Roman and medieval history is one of my hobbies, and this has been bugging me for awhile now, how did this army ever conquer he world, and either way roman equipment was optimized for short,stocky people that romans were, IDK it would even work for big burly Nord types who have much more in common with Celts.

The Gladius were shortswords, more like big daggers. The swords in Skyrim are longswords, more akin to a Roman Spatha

Judging by the overall game design, it looks to me like the developers were inspired mostly by medieval period. While Imperial Legion is almost an identical twin of the Roman Legion, with some fantasy flavor added to the mix.


So I find a lot of their decisions regarding weapons and armour design to be simply... weird. Why the huge shoulder pads on some armour? Why SPIKES on a sword blade (Daedric weapons, Falmer, Forsworn...)? I remember Morrowind being a lot more "realistic" in that regard.


Anyway... ancient Rome was a melting pot of many different cultures and races. Kind of like Empire in Skyrim. But their equipment was standardized. Kind of like "One size fits all" rule, especially regarding the shields and swords. One more thing Skyrim got right... but it still doesn't justify ugly and impractical Imperial sword and shield design.


I'm kind of a history buff myself, and I know a fair deal about medieval martial arts and weaponry. So seeing stuff like this in a video game inevitably bugs me.

The oversized pauldrons were just as much an issue in Morrowind IMO. Oblivion actually was best in this regard.

Well I use a mod that replaces all Imperial armour and weapons with Roman weapons and armour.

Ask yourself this: If a roman legionary was facing someone using magic that actually worked what kind of of gear would he use?

This is not Real Life, so the considerations are changed by the additional aspects of the fantasy situation.

I think many of the weapon designs in the game seem to mimic a certain look from an old weapon but completely ignore the specific purpose for which that weapon was made. Take the daedric blades for example.. the large, backward pointing serrations along the cutting edge are not meant to be swung like a slicing weapon. It's a stabbing weapon feature that's meant to lock on and hold, like those seen on old African and Nordic fishing gaffs and spears. To swing a daedric sword in a typical manner against someone with even moderate covering would only yield surface wounds, and probably just piss them off more than it would do any kind of serious damage. I've also seen 2-part, or vacated blade designs like the greatsword, but only on weapons like a spear or halberd, as a means to reduce weight and usually for mounted combat. I don't let any of that lack of practicality or usefulness bother me though, not in a game that has orcs, elfs, dragons, draugr, magic, etc.. I just have to go with the looking cool thing, and forget that I'm aware that "this one would be totally useless", and "that one would be 5x more deadly than the game says it is".

Probably something enchanted with resist magic, current designs are no more useful against magic wielders then original roman ones would be, that is to say not at all, magic completely circumvents armor, luckily there are not that many mages in the armies or they would be more focused on fighting them, since all military equipment is not enchanted with resist magic by default it would suggest it′s not such a big factor.

The gladius was not like a dagger, it was used as a sword, designed for cutting and thrusting. The average length of a gladius blade is 18 inches, so we're definitely in sword territory. Sure it was shortish, but the spatha was only about five to six inches longer. The Roman Spatha was also far more narrower, so really what we see in Skyrim is a grossly oversized gladius. 'Gladius' is Latin for 'sword', after all.

Which mod would that be?

I use Roman Imperial armor and weapons by Jedo_Dre that one puts all imperial solders in roman gear both light ( chain mail) and heavy ( Lorica segmentata) plus helmets swords shields and cloaks. Plus you can craft all the gear so should you fancy it you can go around as a full roman centurion complete with fancy helmet gladius and scutum. There is also by the same guy Historical Revival - the roman era which is somewhat bigger and puts the stormcoaks in celtic gear but iv found it to be less stable and don't use it. Nether of these mods have been updated in quite some time but I have no problem using them both can be found on the Nexus.

Ask yourself if you would wear a little skirty and bare legs in the blizzard snow and cold with only your boxers to protect????

I would not.. Not a chance.. I would not wear the leather skirt either.. What's up with the skirts in this game...-eyeroll-

No it is not realistic in my opinion. This is NOT Rome!

The roman empire did reach to great parts of Germany and Great Britain. That where cold lands at that time, but the people did not wear much of clothing.

There is the theory, that the legends of dragon-slayers go back to the barbarians like the Ger-mans, that did fight roman troupes with a dragon-flag, like the one in the game.

There is also the claim, that the old Ger-mans could only succeed because in their land, the roman way of dressing and fighting turned out to be impractical.

As far as I know,

Roman soldiers did adopt pants at some point. What made the Roman war tactics impractical, is that you can't exactly have a proper phalanx deployment in a forested area and on top of that, have it deal with guerilla tactics, employed by the German -and British, if you look how things turned out there too- clans. Roman legions were used and trained to fight armies -which was not the case, either in Germany or Britain. Guerilla tactics won.

I like the look of the segmentata Imperial armor in this game. I especially like the Imperial General briastplate. I think that the imperial armor would be almost the same as traditional imperial Roman armor minus the shield. The Stormcloaks themselves look to be wearing a mixture of gambeson, chain, and scale armor, all things that the Roman legion went up against and and came out victorious against. As for cold weather clothing, Romans would have had capes (the paenula and the sagum) and of course socks or 'udones', Romans also would have had not necessarily pants, but leg bindings. Caesar Augustus was said to have worn at most, four tunics at once along with his toga, to keep the cold out. So I would imagine Roman soldiers would have done the same. There are even depictions of Romans wearing scarfs. Romans did not usually wear what we would consider pants, there was actually a taboo against them, as they were seen as the mark of a barbarian. Though there is some evidence that Roman soldiers wore pants, the deceptions come from around the reign of Trajan when Rome was at its greatest extent. So I would say that if game was going for an imperial Roman style, then the developers got the shield and the warm clothing wrong. Though originally the legion soldiers were supposed to have capes, but they were cut out of the game for some reason, there is a mod that puts the capes back in http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/7354/?

Roman soldiers definately wore trousers in the wet English climate. They apparently still wore the sandal-like Caligulae boots though, although with thick socks inside them.