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• Curse Never Dying

  

  • 485 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 10:40 AM EDT

  Shor's rantings about Skyrim belonging to the Nords has gotten me pondering this question lately. To say the races if Tamriel don't get along is grand understatement. But what if they put it all behind them and did? What would that even look like? How would the races to about achieving this glorious age of peace harmony and understanding? How many elven lifetimes do you suppose it would take to get there?
• Curse Never Dying

  

  • 485 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 10:58 AM EDT

  Even with the high elves removed from the equation, Tamriel is a time bomb of racial discord. The dark elves are allowed to live in Skyrim, sure. But they live in squalor with none of the protection and rights offered to the Nords. The Argonians workers aren't even allowed into the city. They live in some putrid hole out by the docks. And that's just the issues going on in Windhelm. The root problem is an inability for some races to see the others as equals.
• Vazgen

  

  • 1483 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 11:00 AM EDT

  Khajiit/Bosmer, Argonian/Dunmer, Breton/Orc wars disprove your assertion.

• Vaaljørn

  

  • 92 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 11:05 AM EDT

  The post was about Tamriel.

• Edana

  

  • 694 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 11:17 AM EDT

  The area called the "Gray Quarter" was never on par with the rest of the city. At least, my understanding is that it was always a slum. Perhaps I'm wrong. Furthermore, Ulfric does nothing to make it remotely equal to the rest of the city. Let alone the awful situation the Argonians find themselves in. That's the thing. It's willful neglect and blatant unequal treatment. Any concerns raised by the Dunmer fall on deaf ears and the Argonians have basically no voice at all.

  It's easy to say "if you don't like it just move" (in my mind, that's victim blaming) but it's the same reason people get "stuck" in real life. Picking up and moving is never easy, especially when you have to do it by like... a horse-drawn cart.

• Matt Feeney the New Guy

  

  • 1124 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 11:43 AM EDT

  Hahahahahahaha, no. The hatred between certain races is often intrinsic and fundamental (Bosmer vs Khajiit is like Azurah vs Yffre, Nords vs Altmer is like Auriel/Akatosh vs Shor/Lorkhan, etc).
• Edana

  

  • 694 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 11:44 AM EDT

  http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Gray_Quarter

  Essentially, it's a makeshift refugee camp. The area was a slum, the interior of the buildings are in disrepair, and it was the only option afforded to the Dunmer. Previously it was called the "Snow Quarter" and once the Dunmer came in the Nords changed the name to make it about skin color. The fact that it's a slum named after the inhabitants who are treated unequally, that all the Nords avoid I might add... I mean how do you not see that as xenophobic or racist? If Nords residents won't do business with the Dunmer, then the chance that your average Dunmer living there would be able to improve their circumstances are significantly diminished. Fewer customers, less business, less money, and therefore reduced access to resources for improving their homes or relocating. The deck is stacked against them and the Argonians have it even worse.

  Also a five minute real time walk is so much longer than that in Skyrim time. I mean it's a country so I feel like distance between cities is significant.

• Xeelus

  

  • 145 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 11:46 AM EDT

  Yeah, but...

  1. Not everyone is equipped to take the hike from Windhelm to somewhere else. For an adventurer, it's easy, but for a commoner, snow bears and ice wraiths aren't easy to kill.
  2. If they did manage to get to another city, they'd have to have thousands of gold saved up to buy a home and to furnish it. It's obvious that those living in the Gray Quarter barely have money to get by, so how will they have the gold to buy something like a house? Even staying at an inn would be difficult.
  3. Dunmer don't defend the walls of Windhelm because it's "not their fight," to quote Suvaris Atheron. Maybe if they were happy with where they lived, they would.
  4. The Dunmer moved to the Snow Quarter after the eruption of Red Mountain. They were faced with more hardship when they moved in, and the inhabitants of Windhelm started calling it the Gray Quarter, which is an insult to them already because of skin color. The area then became neglected and disgusting. Dunmer are most likely refused jobs in anywhere BUT the Gray Quarter (ever seen a Dunmer shopkeeper in the main part of town?). This means that they receive a TON less pay because the local Nords refuse to come to the Gray Quarter (other than to shout racial slurs at the Dark Elves).
• Matt Feeney the New Guy

  

  • 1124 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 11:50 AM EDT

  Correct, in-game size is not indicative of lore size. The Imperial City is absolutely enormous, for example. A Skyrim example, the distance between Whiterun and the Ritual Stone is a few hours by horse.
• Henson

  

  • 490 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 11:51 AM EDT

  Sure, it's possible, but what causes problems are those arrogant, individual leaders who supposedly speak for an entire race that get people into trouble. As a whole, the races would probably be able to get along with each other. It is the foolish military and spiritual leaders who incite war and racial division.

• Edana

  

  • 694 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 12:09 PM EDT

  The attitude of many of the citizens there says everything. When I went into Windhelm for the first time on my initial playthrough with my Dunmer character... well, let's just say it the first city where I earned a murder bounty.

  I always avoid Windhelm, no matter what kind of character I'm playing. What a hateful hellhole.

• Curse Never Dying

  

  • 485 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 12:17 PM EDT

  Henson has a pretty valid point. Without the leaders mouthing off and inciting a divide, there's all sorts of cases of different races getting along. Hell, just the other day I was attacked by a bandit crew consisting of a khajiit, a nord, and an argonian.
• Curse Never Dying

  

  • 485 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 12:19 PM EDT

  Haha I don't blame you. That one hateful drunken commoner is the worst of them.
• Edana

  

  • 694 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 12:23 PM EDT

  You're from Euclid?! I'm from Perry originally! I was just there over the weekend.

  It's true, Windhelm is somewhat unique in that aspect. But there's also a geographic element involved too because of the Red Mountain eruption.

• Deleted Member

  
   

  July 7, 2015 12:50 PM EDT

  The thing about a perfect society is that it exists elsewhere. A khajiit told me that. There is nothing wrong with disharmony. Listen, harmony is what the Thalmor want. One monolithic culture that absorbs and erases all, remaking it something else entirely. Think what Ceasar's Legion in New Vegas did to the tribes they conquered . Either destroy, or absorb, erasing all that was either way.
• Deleted Member

  
   

  July 7, 2015 12:50 PM EDT

  A bandit Nord has no standards of the company he keeps.
• Deleted Member

  
   

  July 7, 2015 12:54 PM EDT

  The Dunmer inspire hatred of themselves, the Khajiit and the Argonians were enslaved by them, so no racial harmony there, most Nordic enemy that you come across will yell "Skyrim belongs to the Nords" to which I reply before lopping off his/her head fine keep it then, Nordic Khajiit relations are on such a high that they wont even tolerate them within cities. Guards will tell you quite freely" stay out of trouble Elf" , Imperial.

  Wouldn't it be just grand if everyone shook hands, paws, fins or whatever and started hating on the Thalmor, destroyed them totally, sell them at slave markets, or give them all work in a grand capacity of course within Divith Fyrs Corprusarium. 

• Deleted Member

  
   

  July 7, 2015 12:56 PM EDT

  The only paw I shake is my dog's.
• Curse Never Dying

  

  • 485 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 2:25 PM EDT

  I'm starting to think maybe the Nords are the biggest obstacle standing in the way of harmony.
• Deleted Member

  
   

  July 7, 2015 2:30 PM EDT

  

• Seeks-many-stars

  

  • 201 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 2:40 PM EDT

  Definitwly the Nords. Look at Windhelm. Terrible. Look at College of winterhold and their sayings about Nords. Dark elves hate Nords, High elves hate Nords, Argonians almost hate em. Vice versa
• Deleted Member

  
   

  July 7, 2015 2:41 PM EDT

  Shor's rantings about Skyrim belonging to the Nords has gotten me pondering this question lately. 

  

• Vazgen

  

  • 1483 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 3:54 PM EDT

  @Curse

• The Skooma Dealer

  

  • 3 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 3:59 PM EDT

  Hahaha yall crack me up.
• Curse Never Dying

  

  • 485 posts
   

  July 7, 2015 5:03 PM EDT

  Understand that by harmony I mean that all races coexist peacefully. No strife, no animosity. All sins of the last are forgiven and the races see each other's as equals. In this harmonious world the races trend toward cooperation, acknowledging this to be preferable to brutal competition for resources and power. It's more than just the Nords tolerating the dark elves within their cities.