Does ES have a playable race for every real world race to play?

Gothlander

I think it's cool you can see many people from different backgrounds in the game.

Lenikus

Do furries count ?

Katahdin

My dog likes to play his Kajiit.

Lynx7386

Lenikus wrote: »

Do furries count ?

This one counts rather well when pocketing your coin.

rotaugen454

Human race, cat race, lizard race, elven race, orc race. Outside of that, you are out of luck...

Callous2208

Yes. Every real world race can pick any in game race, equality all around.

waterfairy

Except asians...the execs at Zenimax are against asians.

imredneckson

Vigarr wrote: »

Except asians...the execs at Zenimax are against asians.

Chinese= Dark Elf culture
Japanese= Akaviri culture

TheShadowScout

Well... let's see...

Medieval Faery Tale/Sidhe = Altmer culture
Native North American/Jungle Tribal = Bosmer culture
Medieval India/Gypsies = Khajiit culture (rakshasa, anyone?)

Medieval English/French = Breton culture
Medieval Middle-East/1001 Nights = Redguard culture
Medieval Mongol/Hun Hordes = Orsimer culture

Ancient Southeast Asia/Chinese/Korean = Dunmer culture
Dark Age Vikings/Germanic Tribes = Nord culture
Native South American/Inca/Aztec = Argonian culture

Ancient Rome/Greek = Imperial culture

Mythological Atlantis = Maormer culture
Ancient Slavic/Russkies = Reachmen culture
Middle Age Japanese = Akaviri culture
Primitive Bronze Age Tribal = Goblin culture
Steampunk Babylonian = Dwemer culture

I suppose it covers the basics...

imredneckson

TheShadowScout wrote: »

Well... let's see...

Medieval Faery Tale/Sidhe = Altmer culture
Native North American/Jungle Tribal = Bosmer culture
Medieval India/Gypsies = Khajiit culture (rakshasa, anyone?)

Medieval English/French = Breton culture
Medieval Middle-East/1001 Nights = Redguard culture
Medieval Mongol/Hun Hordes = Orsimer culture

Ancient Southeast Asia/Chinese/Korean = Dunmer culture
Dark Age Vikings/Germanic Tribes = Nord culture
Native South American/Inca/Aztec = Argonian culture

Ancient Rome/Greek = Imperial culture

Mythological Atlantis = Maormer culture
Ancient Slavic/Russkies = Reachmen culture
Middle Age Japanese = Akaviri culture
Primitive Bronze Age Tribal = Goblin culture
Steampunk Babylonian = Dwemer culture

I suppose it covers the basics...

You forgot Akaviri and we all know what race they're based off of

dodgehopper_ESO

TheShadowScout wrote: »

Well... let's see...

Medieval Faery Tale/Sidhe = Altmer culture
Native North American/Jungle Tribal = Bosmer culture
Medieval India/Gypsies = Khajiit culture (rakshasa, anyone?)

Medieval English/French = Breton culture
Medieval Middle-East/1001 Nights = Redguard culture
Medieval Mongol/Hun Hordes = Orsimer culture

Ancient Southeast Asia/Chinese/Korean = Dunmer culture
Dark Age Vikings/Germanic Tribes = Nord culture
Native South American/Inca/Aztec = Argonian culture

Ancient Rome/Greek = Imperial culture

Mythological Atlantis = Maormer culture
Ancient Slavic/Russkies = Reachmen culture
Middle Age Japanese = Akaviri culture
Primitive Bronze Age Tribal = Goblin culture
Steampunk Babylonian = Dwemer culture

I suppose it covers the basics...

One could also say that Imperial covers asian more or less, due to their intermixture with the Akaviri. Then again Imperial also includes a mixture of redguard, nedic, nord, breton, etc. Imperials are just the mixed crowd, but their organization 'The Blades' certainly has its Samurai armor.

FLuFFyxMuFFiN

Well technically speaking the only race in the real world is the human race when referring to humans. There is no such thing as a "racial" gene.

TheShadowScout

imredneckson wrote: »

You forgot Akaviri and we all know what race they're based off of

Sez who?

TheShadowScout wrote: »

Middle Age Japanese = Akaviri culture

See?

FriedEggSandwich

TheShadowScout wrote: »

Well... let's see...

Medieval Faery Tale/Sidhe = Altmer culture
Native North American/Jungle Tribal = Bosmer culture
Medieval India/Gypsies = Khajiit culture (rakshasa, anyone?)

Medieval English/French = Breton culture
Medieval Middle-East/1001 Nights = Redguard culture
Medieval Mongol/Hun Hordes = Orsimer culture

Ancient Southeast Asia/Chinese/Korean = Dunmer culture
Dark Age Vikings/Germanic Tribes = Nord culture
Native South American/Inca/Aztec = Argonian culture

Ancient Rome/Greek = Imperial culture

Mythological Atlantis = Maormer culture
Ancient Slavic/Russkies = Reachmen culture
Middle Age Japanese = Akaviri culture
Primitive Bronze Age Tribal = Goblin culture
Steampunk Babylonian = Dwemer culture

I suppose it covers the basics...

I always saw bosmer as representative of celtic/pagan culture. Mainly cos they have westcountry acccents in eso, which is where I'm from

Recremen

Gonna be real here for a second, trying to map Elder Scrolls races to real-world ethnic groups is setting yourself up for a bad time.

Let us take for our example the Khajiit.

• Some Khajiit live a nomadic lifestyle. There are people who equate this with Romani culture but that's an incredibly hollow comparison since there are dozens of other nomadic cultures they might be modeled after.
• There are several different systems of traditional Khajiiti martial arts, including Whispering Fang, Rawlith-Khaj, and Goutfang. This is reminiscent of Chinese traditional martial arts, which has several large styles and hundreds of family styles passed from generation to generation, and thousands of temples/schools both ancient and modern where you can be trained. (disclaimer: other cultures have also developed martial systems, but outside of modern convention and what's called "invented tradition", such a breadth of styles is only found in traditional Chinese martial arts as far as I'm aware)
• Much of their art resembles folk art of India.
• Many of them have a kind of Eastern-European accent. Slavic-themed Khajiit? maybe, maybe. I mean in some of their lore the economic system is literally socialism, so who knows. The whole "nobody was using this thing, so I took it" is a direct cognate to the socialization of the means and fruits of production.
• Generic Arab influences here and there, if I recall this is more common among the desert-dwelling Khajiit.
• Maybe some savanah Africa influence? Hard to say.

With all of that going on, it would be incredibly inappropriate to say that the Khajiit are "for" a real-world race (real world race itself also being an extremely loaded term). The Khajiit are a fictional race and the creators drew and continue to draw inspiration from an enormous variety of real-world cultures while adding a bit of their own to the mix.

We also don't see this just in the Khajiit, we see this either already in place or beginning to develop for every TES race. Look at the Redguard. A lot of people say "Oh, they're the Moors!", but are they? Not even a little bit. Unless the Moors have Ra-Netu and mythical spirit swords it's safe to say that there has been influence from a variety of cultures, plus some original work.

Even the Nords, who are "just vikings" to some people have a way more complex culture than people give credit. Just read Children of the Sky. Would have been cool if Skyrim did more with that, but I guess dragons are cool too.

Artis

TheShadowScout wrote: »

Ancient Slavic/Russkies = Reachmen culture
)

Awesome, but I disagree with quoted. I think reachmen are inspired by celtic tribes (druids and all that). Russkies/Slavs were a part of what inspired Nords: drinking, fighting, appearance (fair hair etc).

TheShadowScout

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

I always saw bosmer as representative of celtic/pagan culture. Mainly cos they have westcountry acccents in eso, which is where I'm from

Well, I went more with the "naturebound forest-dweller archer" viewpoint then the "naturebound forest-dweller woad covered swordsmen" theme of celt tribes, but... I suppose it is a valid point.

Artemis wrote: »

Awesome, but I disagree with quoted. I think reachmen are inspired by celtic tribes (druids and all that). Russkies/Slavs were a part of what inspired Nords: drinking, fighting, appearance (fair hair etc).

Actually ancient slavic cultures were definitely not about drinking or fighting, but much closer to celtic ones - nature worship, etc. And all dark-haired and eyed as well.
That part of russian culture was imported with the european part of the equation, namely the intermixing of viking raiders with local slavic tribes during the dark ages... that's also where the fair complexion comes from.


But for both these cases, it is true that the ones I stated are just from my point of view, quite a few are probably mixed enough that you could see several different cultures in them...

ListerJMC

I always thought Altmer had some Japanese influences as well. For example, the trees in the Isles remind me of cherry blossoms; and some of the views make me think of Japanese gardens I've visited. I'd say they're also a little Sparta-inspired. It's still not known if this is true or propaganda but I'd say it's Sparta-inspired either way (From "Pocket Guide to the Empire 1st Edition: Aldmeri Dominion):

"The theory that the High Elves do not reproduce as quickly or as often as humans is false. Rather, and to my horror, they kill nine out of ten babies born to them in their obsession for purity."

But I think all of the races in this game take influences for multiple real-world sources, it's not that clear-cut and different people are going to make different associations.

Recremen

ListerJMC wrote: »

I always thought Altmer had some Japanese influences as well. For example, the trees in the Isles remind me of cherry blossums; and some of the views make me think of Japanese gardens I've visited. I'd say they're also a little Sparta-inspired. It's still not known if this is true or propaganda but I'd say it's Sparta-inspired either way (From "Pocket Guide to the Empire 1st Edition: Aldmeri Dominion):

"The theory that the High Elves do not reproduce as quickly or as often as humans is false. Rather, and to my horror, they kill nine out of ten babies born to them in their obsession for purity."

But I think all of the races in this game take influences for multiple real-world sources, it's not that clear-cut and different people are going to make different associations.

This is definitely propaganda.

Lysette

rotaugen454 wrote: »

Human race, cat race, lizard race, elven race, orc race. Outside of that, you are out of luck...

Not really - Redguard have african traits.

Lysette

ListerJMC wrote: »

I always thought Altmer had some Japanese influences as well. For example, the trees in the Isles remind me of cherry blossums; and some of the views make me think of Japanese gardens I've visited. I'd say they're also a little Sparta-inspired. It's still not known if this is true or propaganda but I'd say it's Sparta-inspired either way (From "Pocket Guide to the Empire 1st Edition: Aldmeri Dominion):

"The theory that the High Elves do not reproduce as quickly or as often as humans is false. Rather, and to my horror, they kill nine out of ten babies born to them in their obsession for purity."

But I think all of the races in this game take influences for multiple real-world sources, it's not that clear-cut and different people are going to make different associations.

Hm, Altmer japanese influence?- Altmer are the tallest race in TES - while japanese are by far not the tallest on earth. The tallest are actually dutch and with this the caucasian ethnic group.

dodgehopper_ESO

Recremen wrote: »

Gonna be real here for a second, trying to map Elder Scrolls races to real-world ethnic groups is setting yourself up for a bad time.

Let us take for our example the Khajiit.

• Some Khajiit live a nomadic lifestyle. There are people who equate this with Romani culture but that's an incredibly hollow comparison since there are dozens of other nomadic cultures they might be modeled after.
• There are several different systems of traditional Khajiiti martial arts, including Whispering Fang, Rawlith-Khaj, and Goutfang. This is reminiscent of Chinese traditional martial arts, which has several large styles and hundreds of family styles passed from generation to generation, and thousands of temples/schools both ancient and modern where you can be trained. (disclaimer: other cultures have also developed martial systems, but outside of modern convention and what's called "invented tradition", such a breadth of styles is only found in traditional Chinese martial arts as far as I'm aware)
• Much of their art resembles folk art of India.
• Many of them have a kind of Eastern-European accent. Slavic-themed Khajiit? maybe, maybe. I mean in some of their lore the economic system is literally socialism, so who knows. The whole "nobody was using this thing, so I took it" is a direct cognate to the socialization of the means and fruits of production.
• Generic Arab influences here and there, if I recall this is more common among the desert-dwelling Khajiit.
• Maybe some savanah Africa influence? Hard to say.

With all of that going on, it would be incredibly inappropriate to say that the Khajiit are "for" a real-world race (real world race itself also being an extremely loaded term). The Khajiit are a fictional race and the creators drew and continue to draw inspiration from an enormous variety of real-world cultures while adding a bit of their own to the mix.

We also don't see this just in the Khajiit, we see this either already in place or beginning to develop for every TES race. Look at the Redguard. A lot of people say "Oh, they're the Moors!", but are they? Not even a little bit. Unless the Moors have Ra-Netu and mythical spirit swords it's safe to say that there has been influence from a variety of cultures, plus some original work.

Even the Nords, who are "just vikings" to some people have a way more complex culture than people give credit. Just read Children of the Sky. Would have been cool if Skyrim did more with that, but I guess dragons are cool too.

I agree with your point and I think it is a balanced approach. You can definitely see many different cultural flavors and ideas drawn from real life cultures in the TES series. The Dunmer for instance have a lot of asiatic influence in style, ranging from what one might consider Indian/Hindu, to Japanese. I think to limit them only to that would do them a disservice and not recognize their uniqueness from the real world. It is ultimately just different flavors being thrown into the mix. I agree with your assessment of the Nords as well, although I do think its clear that the Nords are represented as the children of Kynareth and Shor from the references given, much as Khajiit are the result of Azura mucking about with some proto-elves or Orcs are the result of the Trinimac getting devoured and wasted by Boethiah issue (which I take to mean that Trinimac was corrupted and turned daedric). Anyway I like your post, it sums up my general view on the topic as well.

CyrusArya

Lysette wrote: »

rotaugen454 wrote: »

Human race, cat race, lizard race, elven race, orc race. Outside of that, you are out of luck...

Not really - Redguard have african traits.

The hell is an African trait? Africa is the most genetically diverse continent on Earth in regards to humans.

Obviously I know what you meant. Not making this post to hound on you, but rather point out how incredibly nuanced and *** the fields of anthropology and sociology are in the real world without adding fantastic fictional elements on top. Which leads me to strongly back @Recremen 's post. While surely TES races draw inspiration from the real world, so too does every work of fiction ever. At the end of the day, these races are all fictional constructs that have no exclusive connection to anything in the real world.

While these threads are surely fun and provoke interesting discussion, at the end of the day all it is is futile suggestions.

Lysette

CyrusArya wrote: »

Lysette wrote: »

rotaugen454 wrote: »

Human race, cat race, lizard race, elven race, orc race. Outside of that, you are out of luck...

Not really - Redguard have african traits.

The hell is an African trait? Africa is the most genetically diverse continent on Earth in regards to humans.

Obviously I know what you meant. Not making this post to hound on you, but rather point out how incredibly nuanced and *** the fields of anthropology and sociology are in the real world without adding fantastic fictional elements on top. Which leads me to strongly back @Recremen 's post. While surely TES races draw inspiration from the real world, so too does every work of fiction ever. At the end of the day, these races are all fictional constructs that have no exclusive connection to anything in the real world.

While these threads are surely fun and provoke interesting discussion, at the end of the day all it is is futile suggestions.

I was referring to that Redguard in all TES games had all shades of "african" skin colors, which is rather unique - on which other continent do you find this huge variety from just slightly "tanned" (I know it isn't tanned) to a deep black natively - well, Aborigines in Australia have a deep black, but otherwise that is pretty unique to africa - the whole palette of shades, I mean. As well the range of climates Redguards live in goes well with the diversity of climates in africa. These climates shape to a big part as well the body shape of people and Redguard are more suited to warm and sunny climates, seen from the body shapes and skin color - so africa is a good guess as source for the Redguards - that I meant with "african traits". I could as well point out that certain facial features of Redguards are typical for native africans as well, but I guess, you know what I mean.

ListerJMC

Lysette wrote: »

ListerJMC wrote: »

I always thought Altmer had some Japanese influences as well. For example, the trees in the Isles remind me of cherry blossums; and some of the views make me think of Japanese gardens I've visited. I'd say they're also a little Sparta-inspired. It's still not known if this is true or propaganda but I'd say it's Sparta-inspired either way (From "Pocket Guide to the Empire 1st Edition: Aldmeri Dominion):

"The theory that the High Elves do not reproduce as quickly or as often as humans is false. Rather, and to my horror, they kill nine out of ten babies born to them in their obsession for purity."

But I think all of the races in this game take influences for multiple real-world sources, it's not that clear-cut and different people are going to make different associations.

Hm, Altmer japanese influence?- Altmer are the tallest race in TES - while japanese are by far not the tallest on earth. The tallest are actually dutch and with this the caucasian ethnic group.

I was referring to the appearance of the Isles, not the Altmer themselves. Views like this:



remind me a lot of Japanese gardens like this:



A lot less formal as the latter is a maintained garden but that's what I meant . I don't think Altmer took their physical appearance from anyone in the real-world somehow.

And @Recremen yes I think it is propaganda as well, it just hasn't been formally disproved save for its lack of presence in the Isles currently. However, the text was written at the time of 'Redguard' and we haven't seen the Isles since that game - I still don't think it's true, but it hasn't been acknowledged as false anywhere in-game.

Artis

Actually ancient slavic cultures were definitely not about drinking or fighting, but much closer to celtic ones - nature worship, etc. And all dark-haired and eyed as well.
That part of russian culture was imported with the european part of the equation, namely the intermixing of viking raiders with local slavic tribes during the dark ages... that's also where the fair complexion comes from.


But for both these cases, it is true that the ones I stated are just from my point of view, quite a few are probably mixed enough that you could see several different cultures in them...

Partly correct. Definitely not about drinking, you're right. But from celtic druidism. Regarding appearance - no, I'm pretty sure I'm right. Slavs had fair hair (the most common hair color is still called "rusiy" in russian, which has the same root as.. well.. Rus). I'm talking about Eastern Europe of course, not Russia as we know it now. Slavs had fair complexion since long time ago. Russians are actually not slavs genetically btw - they are finno-ugrians (according to some relatively recent research, 2013-2014 or so), unlike ukranians, poles, belarusians, czekhs etc, who are slavic.

Anyways, I'm pretty confident I know something about Eastern Europe (Ruthenia, Polotsk, Novgorod etc) and slavic culture. They were nothing like druids But you're right about alcohol, people wouldn't have drinks stronger than our beer and only rich guys could afford wine which was imported and would be drank on rare occasions. It's the modern stereotype that I was referring to.