Imperials, Nedes, Colovians background and cultures

Araneae6537

After seeing discussions of Nedic and Colovian Imperials, I did some Googling to bring myself up to speed but a lot was unclear. Please correct me if any of this is incorrect or if I’ve missed anything important!

The Imperial region consisted of mostly Nedes in the east and Colovians in the west. The Colovians are descended primarily from Nords and retain a number of aspects of their culture. The Nedes are descended from ancient Nedic tribes (as to my understanding are the Bretons and Reachmen), have a sophisticated culture, and were known as diplomats and traders.

What I think of as the Imperial culture seems to be primarily Nedic then? And the Romanesque names? This was most difficult for me to find information on, what comprise Nedic or Colovian names.

Froil

The Nibenese are from eastern Cyrodiil, Nede is an umbrella term for either early humans or aboriginal humans on Tamriel. But other than that yeah, Colovians are more likely from some Nord ancestry, strength and religion are big for them, and the Nibenese are more charismatic and had the Roman/Italian names.

kaushad

This describes the fundamental differences between Nibenay and Colovia, although it's written from a time(line) in which Cyrodiil was tropical. I'd also recommend taking anything there about the origins of Cyrodiilic people with a pinch of salt; it was politically expedient to play up mankind's connections to Skyrim and Atmora.

Supreme_Atromancer

Nedes are ancestral to Bretons and Imperials, both. The Reachmen are a branch of the Bretons.

Present-day Imperials are comprised of two distinct cultures; The Colovians in the west, and the Nibeneans in the east.

I think the idea with the Colovians is that they had some Nordic admixture, which expresses itself in the pragmatic, regimented and pious aspects of their character, but ultimately they are descended from the Nedes.

The confusion comes from a long-running debate in the lore community as to the origin of the Nedes themselves. Some sources described them as aboriginal to Tamriel, and some describe the Nords having descended from them.

Important lore and story also describes the Nords as having colonised from Atmora, which might imply that Nedes must have come originally from there. In fact, one of the most popular theories is that the Nedes moved in waves from Atmora over very long periods of time, resulting in the differences in descendant Nedic cultures, with the final, Ysgrammoran wave being the truly Nordic ones. Much like the Dark Ages' Migrations of Germanic peoples resulted in Franks, Saxons, Frisians etc, but only the last, late waves of the 8th and 9th centuries being "Viking".

In my view, its fans trying to make sense of the sometimes egregious retcons that happened when transitioning the classic lore into the more developed and refined more recent lore. But its an interesting topic, and could be seen as another reflection of the unreliable narrator device the Elder Scrolls is known for.

wenchmore420b14_ESO

Araneae6537 wrote: »

After seeing discussions of Nedic and Colovian Imperials, I did some Googling to bring myself up to speed but a lot was unclear. Please correct me if any of this is incorrect or if I’ve missed anything important!

The Imperial region consisted of mostly Nedes in the east and Colovians in the west. The Colovians are descended primarily from Nords and retain a number of aspects of their culture. The Nedes are descended from ancient Nedic tribes (as to my understanding are the Bretons and Reachmen), have a sophisticated culture, and were known as diplomats and traders.

What I think of as the Imperial culture seems to be primarily Nedic then? And the Romanesque names? This was most difficult for me to find information on, what comprise Nedic or Colovian names.

kaushad wrote: »

This describes the fundamental differences between Nibenay and Colovia, although it's written from a time(line) in which Cyrodiil was tropical. I'd also recommend taking anything there about the origins of Cyrodiilic people with a pinch of salt; it was politically expedient to play up mankind's connections to Skyrim and Atmora.

Along with ESUP mentioned above, on YouTube there are lot's of VERY good "Lore Hounds" with really nice videos about all areas of canon TES lore. A few are:
Camelworks, Imperial Knowladge, ShoddyCast, Lady of Scrolls, Whitefox1225, Zaric Zhakaron and many more.
They are worth a look.
Good Hunting! Huzzah!

Araneae6537

Thank you all for the information! I see that a large part of my confusion was from conflating Nedes with Nibenese!

Now I need to find the right Nedic Nibenese name and then I will create my Imperial character!

(Edited — thank you for the correction!)

Supreme_Atromancer

There doesn't seem to be a big difference in naming conventions between Colovians and Nibenese by the second era (eso's timeframe).

Here's some examples of Colovians: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Legion_of_the_West_Weald

And some Nibenese: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Euraxians

If you wanted proper ancient Nedic names, you could look at some of the Craglorn stuff, like the various Skyreach locales, or Shada's Tear. Stuff like Kestic and Kuamac, but I don't know if there's any sort of established naming conventions really. Maybe lots of hard K and C sounds?

Araneae6537

Supreme_Atromancer wrote: »

There doesn't seem to be a big difference in naming conventions between Colovians and Nibenese by the second era (eso's timeframe).

Here's some examples of Colovians: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Legion_of_the_West_Weald

And some Nibenese: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Euraxians

If you wanted proper ancient Nedic names, you could look at some of the Craglorn stuff, like the various Skyreach locales, or Shada's Tear. Stuff like Kestic and Kuamac, but I don't know if there's any sort of established naming conventions really. Maybe lots of hard K and C sounds?

The names you give as examples seem, to my limited knowledge on the subject, much more Colovian than Nibenese. Aren’t Colovian names more often hard sounding? Of course there are Roman-style names that also have harder sounds but from what I’ve seen, most end with -us.

Still pondering over the right combination of sound, meaning and lore… Silvanus, maybe, a Roman name and fitting for a ranger, but perhaps too on-the-nose…

joseayalac

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Thank you all for the information! I see that a large part of my confusion was from conflating Nedes with Nedic!

Now I need to find the right Nedic name and then I will create my Imperial character!

Actually Nedes and Nedic are the same!

What you're conflating is Nibenese with Nedic/Nede.

Can be confusing as they are similar words, just remember "Niben River" which is the river that runs from the Imperial City sothwards through Blackwood and then Southern Elsweyr. This is where the Nibenese come from, known as the Nibenay region.

The Nedes on the other hand, are the humans that built all the -Nedic ruins- you see in Craglorn.