What would have been the name of the Imperials if they never had an empire?

The_Smilemeister · February 2016

This is something I've recently began wondering, being a fan of the Imperials since I first played Oblivion. Every other race has a unique name which most wouldn't consider a nickname or a reference to their native province. Nord, Breton, Redguard, and Khajiit are names unique to their respected peoples and aren't nicknames, nor do they reference the name of their homelands. High Elf, Wood Elf, Dark Elf, and Orc are nicknames often used in place of their actual names, Altmer, Bosmer, Dunmer, and Orsimer. Argonian is a name used to refer to the reptilian Saxhleel, in reference to the province they hail from, Argonia, also known a Black Marsh.

Now think about this one carefully. Imperial could be seen as a nickname as it refers to something they are known for. Imperial is a term used to describe anything to do with an empire. If they were named in reference to their province (Cyrodiil), they would be called Cyrodillics. If you excluded those two names, they wouldn't have a name unique to them, unlike the other races. Now if the Imperials never established an empire and if races weren't called by a name in reference to the province they come from, what would they have been called?

I'm looking at this from a more alternate history standpoint. This is more of a discussion based on if things were different and the Imperials were united under one province, but never had an empire, or if the Imperials decided that an empire was no longer a necessity and they dissolve it permanently. Feel free to include any opinions or theories.

Acrolas · February 2016

Imperials minus the Empire are the Nibenese and the Colovians, which are two distinct cultures even if outside eyes don't care to distinguish them apart.

LadyNalcarya · February 2016

OpponentSmile66 wrote: »

What would have been the name of the Imperials if they never had an empire? Bookmark

Ill just leave this here:
http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Alessian_Empire
http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Second_Empire

Bossdonut · February 2016

Console peasants

The_Smilemeister · February 2016

Bossdonut wrote: »

Console peasants

Not sure what consoles have anything to do with this topic considering we're talking about a race that appears in every game since Morrowind, regardless of the system you use. We're talking about lore, not the system the games run on. If you don't have any useful information, not willing to share thoughts or opinions on the subject in question, or if you have nothing nice to say, don't bother posting.

Acrolas wrote: »

Imperials minus the Empire are the Nibenese and the Colovians, which are two distinct cultures even if outside eyes don't care to distinguish them apart.

I'm well aware of the cultural differences between Nibenese and the Colovians. The Nibenay region is more cosmopolitan and is more open to different cultures as evident by Nordic and Dunmer architectural influences in the cities of Bruma and Cheydinhal. The Colovians are more rugged and martial as evident by the Legion's Imperial population being made up mostly by Colovians. Whilst they may have different cultures, so do the Ashlanders of Morrowind in comparison to the rest of the Dunmer, but they aren't classed as separate races and are all referred to as Dunmer, regardless of their background. The question I'm asking refers to Imperials as a whole, not one culture in particular. Thanks for your input anyway as this may have educated others who were ignorant to Cyrodiilic culture.

KoshkaMurka wrote: »

OpponentSmile66 wrote: »

What would have been the name of the Imperials if they never had an empire? Bookmark

Ill just leave this here:
http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Alessian_Empire
http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Second_Empire

This doesn't really answer the question, although it does provide interesting information regarding the Imperial's rise to power. Speaking of the Alessian and Second Empires, I was wondering if they had a different name, would they have been named after a notable figure from their history? If so, would they have been named after Alessia, the Nede who lead the rebellion against the Ayleids and freed the people who would become the Imperials, or would they be named after Reman I, the emperor who united all Imperials into a single province and made them Tamriel's leading power?

Ra'Shtar · February 2016

Well according to my understanding they where the nedic people before they where imperials.

Draxys · February 2016

Caucasian.

laksikus · February 2016

Cyrodiilians

The_Smilemeister · February 2016

Ra'Shtar wrote: »

Well according to my understanding they where the nedic people before they where imperials.

We're talking about the events after the slave rebellion. At this point their culture and possibly even their biology would be too different for them to still be referred to as Nedes.

laksikus wrote: »

Cyrodiilians

Did you read the first post? We're talking about a name unique to the race that doesn't refer to their homeland.

The_Smilemeister · February 2016

In case people are wondering, I'm looking at this from an alternate history point of view, where either the Imperials united under one province, but never established an empire, or if the Imperials decided to give up trying to create an empire. This discussion is based on personal opinion and group theories. I apologize if I didn't make this clear before as that would explain some of the responses. Anyway, feel free to voice your opinion on the subject.

Danikat · February 2016

In real life many countries actually take their name from the people who live there, particularly in Europe and Asia.

For a quick example any country with the suffix -stan means 'land of the [prefix], e.g. Pakistan is 'land of the Pak'. (And I just found out from Wikipedia that this comes from a Persian word, istan, meaning 'place of'.) I was going to give some European examples too, because there are fairly clear modern examples (e.g. Deutschland, England etc.) but the history is far too complicated. Too many root languages and borders changing over time for a forum post.

But this doesn't seem to be the case in Tamriel. Many of the names for the different races are based on other aspects of their culture (e.g. Bosmer is 'forest elves', and Redguard is 'warrior wave'), although if I remember correct Khajiit means 'one who walks in/lives in the desert' (the two are synonymous because if you're in the desert there's not a lot else you can do) and some names I'm not sure about, like the Nord. (Which is obviously from the fact that they're based on real-life Nordic people, but I assume there's an in-universe meaning too.)

So Cyrodiilics (people from Cyrodiil) is one possibility. Another would be something that references their hybrid culture and ancestry, but I'm not sure what that would be, I'm not that good at TES languages.

Vrienda · February 2016

Cyrods or something like that. I swear that something like that was used in a book before.

Tryxus · February 2016

CommonFolk

KochDerDamonen · February 2016

I thought I'd seed the term "Cyrods" somewhere. Don't recall specifically.

Veske_Valrune · February 2016

Bossdonut wrote: »

Console peasants

What

NewBlacksmurf · February 2016

OpponentSmile66 wrote: »

Ra'Shtar wrote: »

Well according to my understanding they where the nedic people before they where imperials.

We're talking about the events after the slave rebellion. At this point their culture and possibly even their biology would be too different for them to still be referred to as Nedes.

laksikus wrote: »

Cyrodiilians

Did you read the first post? We're talking about a name unique to the race that doesn't refer to their homeland.

Cyrodiilics Is actually the accurate term

Read - http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial

The_Smilemeister · February 2016

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

OpponentSmile66 wrote: »

Ra'Shtar wrote: »

Well according to my understanding they where the nedic people before they where imperials.

We're talking about the events after the slave rebellion. At this point their culture and possibly even their biology would be too different for them to still be referred to as Nedes.

laksikus wrote: »

Cyrodiilians

Did you read the first post? We're talking about a name unique to the race that doesn't refer to their homeland.

Cyrodiilics Is actually the accurate term

Read - http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial

You're missing the point. If they weren't called Imperials and they weren't referred to by the name of their homeland, they would be left without a unique name to refer to the people alone and nothing else. The Altmer come from the Summerset Isles and the Redguards come from Hammerfell, but you don't refer to an Altmer as a Summerset Islander or a Redguard as a Hammerfellic (not sure if the latter is the correct term). Cyrodiilic seems too broad a term to refer to the Imperials alone as anything from Cyrodiil can be Cyrodiilic. In my personal opinion, I would say that Cyro-Nord would be a better term as it refers to something specific, such as a people, which are what Imperials are.

It's odd how things are laid out in TES in terms of the provinces and the people who inhabit them. With the exception of Orsinium, none of the other provinces were named after the race who inhabit them and vice versa. Every race has a unique name, usually in reference to something. Imperials are called Imperials because they are known for establishing powerful empires, although they themselves weren't the first race to create an empire. For now, it makes sense them being called Imperials since most of the time they either have an empire they're trying to build or they're trying to keep it together. Now imagine that they didn't have an empire, either as part of an alternate history where they never established an empire, or in future lore, they decide to stop building empires and simply keep to themselves in Cyrodiil, they wouldn't be called Imperials as it wouldn't make sense.

This discussion is about people's personal opinions or theories as to what the Imperial race would be called if they never had or stopped building empires. The suggestions should be as close to Imperial lore as possible, including their history and biological relationships with other races.

Lokryn · February 2016

I think the answers given are the closest you're going to get.

NewBlacksmurf · February 2016

OpponentSmile66 wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

OpponentSmile66 wrote: »

Ra'Shtar wrote: »

Well according to my understanding they where the nedic people before they where imperials.

We're talking about the events after the slave rebellion. At this point their culture and possibly even their biology would be too different for them to still be referred to as Nedes.

laksikus wrote: »

Cyrodiilians

Did you read the first post? We're talking about a name unique to the race that doesn't refer to their homeland.

Cyrodiilics Is actually the accurate term

Read - http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial

You're missing the point. If they weren't called Imperials and they weren't referred to by the name of their homeland, they would be left without a unique name to refer to the people alone and nothing else. The Altmer come from the Summerset Isles and the Redguards come from Hammerfell, but you don't refer to an Altmer as a Summerset Islander or a Redguard as a Hammerfellic (not sure if the latter is the correct term). Cyrodiilic seems too broad a term to refer to the Imperials alone as anything from Cyrodiil can be Cyrodiilic. In my personal opinion, I would say that Cyro-Nord would be a better term as it refers to something specific, such as a people, which are what Imperials are.

It's odd how things are laid out in TES in terms of the provinces and the people who inhabit them. With the exception of Orsinium, none of the other provinces were named after the race who inhabit them and vice versa. Every race has a unique name, usually in reference to something. Imperials are called Imperials because they are known for establishing powerful empires, although they themselves weren't the first race to create an empire. For now, it makes sense them being called Imperials since most of the time they either have an empire they're trying to build or they're trying to keep it together. Now imagine that they didn't have an empire, either as part of an alternate history where they never established an empire, or in future lore, they decide to stop building empires and simply keep to themselves in Cyrodiil, they wouldn't be called Imperials as it wouldn't make sense.

This discussion is about people's personal opinions or theories as to what the Imperial race would be called if they never had or stopped building empires. The suggestions should be as close to Imperial lore as possible, including their history and biological relationships with other races.

Have you read about the lore?

Dread_Guy · February 2016

Maybe they would be referred to as Highlanders like how they are in Reaper's March

Recremen · February 2016

The established lore also has them referred to as Cyrods, Cyrodiils, or one of Colovians or Nibenese, depending on the region they reside in.

dodgehopper_ESO · February 2016

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it was their destiny to gain control of the white-gold tower. This is a story of myths, and men are the children of Shor (at least the Nords, Bretons, and Imperials) and Kyne. That's just my thought, but also they go by Colovian and Nibenese. Before Alessia, the humans were under the thumb of elven daedra worshipping slavemasters. Were it not for these who knows what would have happened.

Lyrebon · February 2016

Canadians.

potemathewolfqueen · February 2016

KochDerDamonen wrote: »

I thought I'd seed the term "Cyrods" somewhere. Don't recall specifically.

There was a time when the Imperial Motif was called Cyrods, I think. The racial motif names went through a couple changes since the game launched on consoles.