Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-9687035-20130518004940/@comment-217.12.58.33-20150814092837

Hi everyone!

After studying history and cultural anthropology, I made the following connections between the races of TES and real life civilisations:

Imperials - Romans, Mediterranean people

Bretons - West European people; Celts or Anglo-Saxons

Nords - Northern Germanic people, Scandinavian Vikings

Redguards - mixture of various African tribes, but mostly Islamic Arabian people, with Saracen influence

Altmer - no real life connection. Elvish culture invented by J.R.R. Tolkien. Originally inspired by the Light Elves (Álfar) from the Scandinavian Mythology.

Bosmer - no real life connection. Elvish culture which is strongly associated with nature.

Dunmer - no real life connection. Originally inspired by the Dark Elves (Svartálfar) from the Scandinavian Mythology.

Orc - Mongolian tribes

Dwemer - no real life connection. Inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and the Scandinavian Mythology.

Khajiits - mostly Persians, and similar to Romani people too

Argonians - Meso- and South American civilisations, like Aztecs, Mayans, Incans.

Akavir - Japanese

The rest of unplayable races are mostly invented races with no connection with real life civilisations. Most of them are either representing a shamanistic tribal society (Reachmen, Sloads, Goblins, Imgas) or are inspired from different kind of mythologies (Giants - Scandinavian Jotuns, Lilmothits, Tsaesci - Hindu Nagas).