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• SpookyBorn2021

  

  • 1467 posts
   

  June 14, 2015 8:17 PM EDT

  I hadn't read this before but it is very interesting. I'd never thought about the similarities but hats off to Grubbi for noticing it.

  The Altmer to me are simply regular old Fantasy Elves, they don't have anything that really matches them up well with any real life civilization. Although the Ayelids or Aldmer seem to have connections to the Ancient Greeks, or possibly Persians. Thinking off of Imperials obviously being based off of Romans (I mean they could make it a tad more obvious) and considering the people who would become Imperials took over Cyrodiil from the Ayelid's. Well that could be a link to the Roman's conquering most of the land previously held by the Greeks/Persians.

  Actually they really do represent the Greeks when I think about it.

  Ayleidic society was an alliance of kingdoms united under one empire, (Link)

  That is fairly similar to the Greek City States that existed towards the end of it's time, then of course you add on the fact that the treatment of Slaves between the two are fairly similar. 

  Few blanket statements can be made about Ayleidic religion. They began as splinter groups, and they were never totally united in their beliefs (From UESP again)

  The similarities between the Religions of the Greek and Ayelids are fairly similar in this regard, that and the presence of an over arcing council of Gods and then many less worshiped gods. 

  Anyway, Ayelid seems to equal Greek, I got a little of topic talking about the Altmer but they are pretty similar. The Altmer are probably similar in the same way to the Greeks, considering how much they took and look up to the Altmer.

  TL:DR Altmer = Greek

• Veloth the Prophet

  

  • 641 posts
   

  June 14, 2015 9:09 PM EDT

  Reachmen = Picts

  I disagree with the Khajiit being Egyptian. If you look at the Khajiiti culture it's very similar to Buddhism and Taoism and also Moon Sugar could be seen as the Opium trade.  

• Fights

  

  • 72 posts
   

  June 14, 2015 9:13 PM EDT

  Watch out guys, we got ourselves a necromancer on the site.

• Idesto

  

  • 394 posts
   

  June 14, 2015 10:57 PM EDT

  Altmer all have posh / upper class English accents and often in Hollywood films & TV that's your standard bad guy accent. The English are often - wrongly in the present day - associated with cold hearted oppression, so i had assumed their racial inspiration was old-fashioned ruling class English. 

  I had the Khajit as Romany - aka gypsies. 

• Aaron Matthew Martin

  

  • 170 posts
   

  June 15, 2015 9:12 AM EDT

  The khajiit culture isn't based on caravans all the time, on caravans, like gypsies, its based on a more nomadic tribal social structure. They only do the caravan thing out of eleswyer.
• AJ

  

  • 47 posts
   

  June 15, 2015 1:11 PM EDT

  The Nerevarine is mentioned as a messiah of some sort, saying the Dunmer see the Nerevarine as the jews see Jesus. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe the jews say Jesus isn't the messiah because he didn't succeed in completing his/the task (whatever that may be). So that comparison would be wrong.

• J. Byrd

  

  • 2 posts
   

  June 15, 2015 5:48 PM EDT

  What are the snowelves? 

• Veloth the Prophet

  

  • 641 posts
   

  June 16, 2015 7:19 AM EDT

  Yeah I never understood why people associate Khajiit with gypsies. I mean every culture has had trade caravans at one point or another. 

• Veloth the Prophet

  

  • 641 posts
   

  June 16, 2015 7:19 AM EDT

  The whole Dunmer exodus from the Summerset Isles is lifted right out of the bible.

• SpookyBorn2021

  

  • 1467 posts
   

  June 16, 2015 7:39 AM EDT

  I've never seen the Altmer as British, nor have I ever really connected there accent with a British one. 

  As for the Khajiit, well to me they are the most unique and more fantasy based then some of the other Races. They seem to have a Native American feel to them (I'm no expert on this subject, in fact I know very little) but the whole province of Elsweyr seems slightly similar to both South and North America (areas of both Forest and Deserts with more forests). 

• Idesto

  

  • 394 posts
   

  June 16, 2015 8:28 AM EDT

  Their accent is definitely upper-class English. When you say "British" keep in mind that UK has the most regional accents of any English-speaking country. English does not equal British, England is just 1 part of Britain. 

  Also the Khajit accent does sound eastern European to me

• Idesto

  

  • 394 posts
   

  June 16, 2015 8:30 AM EDT

  yes Jesus is not the messiah in Judaism. For me the Dunmer are definitely Jewish-inspired

• Idesto

  

  • 394 posts
   

  June 16, 2015 8:33 AM EDT

  Lissette could answer that: her Aelberon I think is a snow-elf, a type of Altmer

• The Long-Chapper

  

  • 295 posts
   

  June 16, 2015 9:11 AM EDT

  Snow Elves are not a type of Altmer, they are a distinct race in their own right, though all the Elves claim Aldmer ancestry. Not sure when the Snow Elves branch off and form their own group. I need to reread their lore article. Pretty far back they settled in Skyrim though. 

  Aelberon's Snow Elf ancestry is complicated. He considers himself an Altmer, but because of Racial Phylogeny, it may well be that he is predominantly Snow Elf in his genetic makeup. While you have some minor traits of the father, you carry your mother's race and appearance. His mother has his look and coloring and once we get into his narrative more, you'll learn that he's descended from a direct mother to daughter Snow Elf line, which would, even though much time has passed, preserve much of the genetic material.  But this gets into Aelberon's story more than the subject of this thread. 

  As for what culture Snow Elves represent. Not sure. I see some Early Christian in them, ala the old kingdoms of Jerusalem from the Middle ages and perhaps elements of the Crusader or Pilgrim. Not Templars, as they were a bit rough around the edges, but there were a few more Early Christian orders that were less corrupt and more devoted to Religion and service. I'll need to research my Medieval history a bit. There is also a wee bit of sun worship in them, so you have that whole Akhenaten vibe. At least I get that. Who knows?

• SpookyBorn2021

  

  • 1467 posts
   

  June 16, 2015 10:09 AM EDT

  From what I read to back up my earlier point on Altmer, it seems that all Elves proclaim (or truly are) ancestors off of the Aldmer. The Altmer are the closest relatives (being pretty much the same) and the Chimer/Dunmer, Orsimer, Bosmer and Falmer are simply off shoots that developed differently because of location, beliefs or events. 

  Anyway. I can kind of see the relation to the Christians but there isn't all that much to go off of (mostly because Snow Elf lore is rare) in some way perhaps they are more in line with Middle Ages British (well when they were ruled/terrorized by Scandinavians and whatnot). The Christian Routes can be made, especially with the massive splits that occur even within different Elven societies and the fact that they worship Auri-El (a comparison to the Christian God) above all others and then have a few (if only it were 3) other minor deities they worship. 

  Back to that link to the Britons. The way they dealt with the Atmorans is pretty similar to how the Scandenavians and British treated each other. Mostly peaceful until something sparked a war (By peaceful yes I realize that it's a bit of a stretch but compared to later events, peaceful is real). The Snow Elves also favor Archery (I mean the British are generally associated with Archery if you go back to about the 100 Years War and before) and the previous connection made by someone between the Altmer and British also hold true here.

  Sorry I rambled for so long, I find this topic insanely fascinating and just started writing. The Elves are a really deep society and it's fun to look into them and try and figure them out (I probably missed a lot of stuff and said things that were wrong. Oh well )

  If anyone makes it this far, then damn, congrats to you and sorry that I wrote so much,

• Delidas

  

  • 71 posts
   

  June 16, 2015 10:31 AM EDT

  I actually agree with all of these parallels, so good job! Like some others have mentioned, I think that Orsimer are definitely inspired by Mongols, and that there is a bit of a parallel between the Ancient Greeks and the Altmer, though it's a bit more subtle. I'm not sure if anyone else see's it, but I also feel like there was a bit of a Moorish influence on the Redguards, but maybe it's just me.  

• The Long-Chapper

  

  • 295 posts
   

  June 16, 2015 12:06 PM EDT

  I made it and actually liked it. 

  19th century Victorian England is also interesting for the repressive culture. I had mentioned China earlier, as the Altmer also had a formidable naval presence and the Thalmor sometime smack of communist China, but they also smack of many oppressive regimes, so many shoes fit in that case. The image of the Altmer drawing in the official sites wields a katana and wears robes that smack of house of flying daggers, so this could be why so many tend to lump them in that group.

  I use Chinese culture in my narrative because frankly I wanted something so alien to the Scandinavian Nords with regard to music and aesthetics, that Ancient China popped into mind.  Greek and English culture would still be familiar to Nords. An Nord hears English music, they'd go "that's nice." A Nord hears classical Chines music, they'd be much more inclined to say "Damn Elves and their stupid music." LOL, that is strictly a writing decision I made and is not actually grounds for anything. I actually like the Akavir comparisons to the Asian cultures. It makes sense, but for writing purposes, greater impact for cultural difference is better served when the opposing cultures are more alien to each other. 

  I can see the following...

  Altmer - ancient greeks

  Altmer - Victorian English

  Thalmor - Nazi Germany

  Thalmor - Communist China

  Altmer - Hapsburg Empire - cultural elite of Vienna

  Altmer - Byzantine? That would be interesting. 

  Snow Elves - Middle ages crusaders and monastic orders. 

  I see the English as well in the Altmer.    

  I also see Beduin culture in the Khajiit. 

  Whatever. They are fantasy Elves. We secretly love them anyway.  Probably, at best, the Altmer are a mix of cultures. 

• SpookyBorn2021

  

  • 1467 posts
   

  June 20, 2015 5:04 AM EDT

  God the Altmer are complicated...I don't even want to get into all of the closer related Elven species at this rate,
  
  I have to say that I agree with all that you've said about the Altmer here, except I don't really see the Byzantines in them. The cultural aspects are pretty different from what I can think of and there isn't anything majorly connecting them. I'd be fascinated to hear where that comes from.
• The Long-Chapper

  

  • 295 posts
   

  June 20, 2015 3:47 PM EDT

  The Byzantine Empire represent the sort of vestige of the Old Roman Empire. If you see the Aldmer as Roman, which most don't, they see the Imperials that way, but bear with me. You can make an argument that there is some Byzantine in the Altmer race in that they are the continuation of a lost Empire (Aldmer), rather than think in purely Roman terms. The Byzantines endure for another 1000 years after the fall of the Traditional Roman Empire. They have this sort of East meets West culture. They were the keepers of quite a bit of Ancient Greek and writings from other cultures right after the Roman Empire lost this knowledge.

  The culture of the Byzantine Empire is rather mysterious, as are the Altmer. The art is also stylized and elaborate which seems to fit in rather nicely to the Altmer aesthetic with regard to architecture. Because Byzantium also had holdings in Ancient Greece and Turkey, you also incorporate aspects of those cultures as well. So it ties in nicely with the Altmer as ancient Greeks too. 

  Byzantium infrastructure is also similar to Roman infrastructure and the Altmer are an organized people. Also complex government ruled by a royal family and complex religious practices as the seat of the Eastern Orthodox church. 

  The Byzantium culture experiences a period of steady decline in territory and influence which can be roughly analgous to the Summerset Isles during the Septim dynasty. The Numidium's use on Summerset can represent the fall of Constantinople. Or, likewise, the conversion of the Haggia Sofia into a Masque can represent the destruction of Crystal-Like-Law which coincides with the sort of huge shift in Altmeri culture giving rise to the Thalmor. 

  Does what I say make any sense? May be a stretch for some, but I certainly see it. Granted, in my eyes, the Altmer are really an conglomeration of different cultures. 

• Gerandym

  

  • 17 posts
   

  September 5, 2015 2:45 PM EDT

  I have always thought of the Orcs as Mongolians because of their culture and style of armor however they don't ride horses and use bows that often so I could be wrong.