Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-2165692-20140531154239/@comment-84.196.186.69-20141114115531

The distinctions between the Atmorans, the ancient Nords and the Nords of the present day involve some subtlety. As others have pointed out, the Atmorans themselves were one of three groups of early Men who descended directly from the Wandering Ehlnofey (the second group being the Yokudans, the ancestors of the modern-day Redguards, with the third group being the ancestors of the now extinct humans of Akavir).

The Atmorans were the first of these three groups of the race of Men to (re)discover the continent of Tamriel sometime during the Merethic era, which at the time was dominated entirely by Mer. These Atmoran settlers established the first city of Men on the continent, known as Saarthal, in the nothern tip of Tamriel. After the Night of Tears and Saarthal's subsequent destruction by the Snow Elves, Ysgramor would return with the famed Five-Hundred Companions and went on a campaign of conquest against the Mer of Skyrim, and due to their actions and sacrifices Men would succesfully establish an independent foothold in Tamriel for the first time in history.

The ancient Nords were the people who arose from the Atmorans interbreeding with the local Nedic human population of Skyrim. While this mixed "Normanesque" culture was something new from a biological perspective, it's important to note that the first generations of Nords were still entirely steeped in the Atmoran culture, practices and belief systems. Also of note here is that the "ancient Nords", as a group, must still have included "pure-blooded" Atmorans at this point in history, as not all the Companions and Atmoran settlers that came after would marry Nedes -- some also still wed amongst themselves. (I have this pet theory that the rare "Hulking Draugr" enemies you sometimes encounter in Nordic ruins were actually "pure-blooded" Atmorans rather than ancient Nords.)

Over the countless centuries, and indeed millenia, the population of Skyrim gradually became completely mixed between these Atmoran and Nede bloodlines, until there were only modern-day Nords (people of Skyrim who are of mixed Atmoran and Nede descent) and no longer any "pure-blooded" Atmorans left. This state of affairs thus describes the present-day Nord population of Skyrim.