User blog comment:Kidtragic/Elder Scrolls Races and Cultures Compared to Real Life./@comment-74.181.124.60-20130702172607

I think a lot of them are eclectic variations. I mean, yes, the Imperials seem to try to combine the best (occasionally the worst) of Classical Greco Roman Empire, Roman Republic, and Holy Roman Empire. (Actually the Imperials would also represent America in the past century).Most people seem to be spot on about redgaurds (persian moors/tribal africans and arabs who once had a very powerful empire) and Nords (celtic highlander vikings, possibly some rednecks) and bretons are obvious.

I think the mindset of the gold elves is like that of all the Axis Powers combined, if they kept the Soviet Union as a member and even let them take the lead (going to other countries to stop people from believing in a certain god?). I mean, it would be a merciless introspective society like Japan during ww2, along with Nazi German influence (combining oppressive aristocracy that is both intellectual and militaristic) not really respecting the other people tagging along with them.

(Wood elves being like New Zealand and Native American tribes make sense, but in the Axis Italy was like the first to surrender and was hated by it's former allies, even having a special place in concentration camps for them. Italy joined but they didn't really want to fight other countries as much as Germany and Japan, they were a joke at this point. But they got dragged along, just like the millions of wood elves you DON'T see with the Thalmor. Also, there was reference of woodelf genocide by the altmer by that woodelf you helped out in the thalmor mission.)

Khajiit being an eclectic (and possibly furry) mix of persian/egyptian remnant (former glory), especially since egyptians were obsessed with cats, and the egyptians seem to know a lot about sex(furry side of khajiit, often described with a hedonistic outlook on life) and torture (cats like to torture their prey. Even if they are against it, they know how to.) Also have wry sense of humor. Of course they might have some philipinoe, South American, African, Asain and cajun, too.

I dunno, I wonder if the Dark Elves and Aldemeri Dominion represent the flipside of what the Empire is supposed to represent. Law and order but with a reasonable amount of freedom and equality, while the Aldmeri just want to have people at the very top controlling a bunch at the very bottom. I guess the Dark Elves would be representing a small but well to do plantation based society, possibly greek, middle eastern, CSA, and maybe philipino where human trafficking is bad but tolerated. Somebody once compared them to Israelis under Rome! Israelites at that time was bad about slaves and human trafficking? Who would the argonians be, Samaritans? I don't follow that but they do. I dunno, Argonians seem to have native american names, cajun accents, and cultures similar to a reserved tribal but surprisingly timid and forgiving people that get taken advantage of wayyyy too much.