For anyone who has ever fought a Forsworn, one thing is immediately obvious; they were practically no armor, use rock/bone weapons, and are for all intents and purposes, savages.

However, if we look at the history of the Forsworn as shown in-game, there are massive contradictions and logic pitfalls.
For instance, "Madmen of the Reach" states that the Forsworn are infact several thousand years old, and have resisted Nord rule for all that time. Fine.
Now go into Markarth and do "The Forsworn conspiracy" [Spoiler alert, do not read ahead if you haven't done this excellent quest].

The Forsworn turn out to have a king, not only that, they have infiltrated the upper class of Markarth, and many of the workers at the smelters in Markarth are natives of the Reach.
Madanach, king of the forsworn, is anything but a fur-clad savage. He adresses you in a civilised tone, states his arguments, and tries to convince you to help him. Likewise, Nepos is completely civilised and lives in comfort surrounded by equally well-spoken Forsworn in Markarth.

Now you may say "Whats the point of all this?" and it mostly comes down to one thing: Steel.

If the Forsworn have lived in the Reach, resisting Nords for thousands of years, and if they have infiltrated and integrated into Markarth and have people working at the smelters, why is it that two minutes down the road from the city gates, we are assaulted by scantily-clad barbarians using rocks and bone? I refuse to believe that the Forsworn have not developed Smithing techniques over thousands of year in close contact with Nords, especially since in several Forsworn camps we see forges complete with ingots. Yet the visual style of half-naked savages persists. Its jarring, to say the least, and especially if you take into account Skyrim's climate, since most Forsworn armor looks like it would belong in Fallout, not a tundra.

So, to remedy this, I request that Forsworn Armor and Weapons be remodelled, and re-textured. That alone would serve to bring much needed realism and logic to this faction.

I myself cannot mod, I lack both the modelling and texturing skills, but I thought I would post my thoughts here, incase it caught the eye of any skilled modder.

As for what to replace the current Forsworn style with, thats largely up to the modder who undertakes the task, but i've given some thought to it.

Skyrim's armor and weapons are largely influenced by Scandanavian/western european armor styles. If the Forsworn are a seperate culture, it stands to reason that the style of their armor would be different. Forsworn also seem to shun long-term settlements, preferring to pitch tents in ruins and near caves. For this reason, I would love if someone could put a Mongolian flavour on the new armor.

Some examples;
http://cdn1.iofferphoto.com/img/item/117/926/637/LPXUm1A6g59Cd2J.jpg

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/34/mongol01.jpg/

http://www.newyorkcool.com/archives/2008/June/Images/film_mongol1.jpg

http://cdn1.iofferphoto.com/img/item/117/926/637/VF821RQ84cCUa5H.jpg

The above examples show the range between clothes, to light armor, to much heavier and rarer variants. I think that these would fit well into Skyrim and the Forsworn, as they are very different visually form a lot of the other armor in-game, while still being practical and suited to a cold climate. Once the armor and weapons are changed, there isn't much else that needs to be done. Forsworn settlements are tent-based and littered with animal sacrifices, but this IS part of their culture, so doesn't need to be changed. Thank you for your time.

TL,DR: Forsworn are visually silly and hypocritical, replace with something more functional and cooler, like Mongols.

I'm pretty sure the Forsworn's manner of dress and equipment is a cultural thing. It's not that they can't use steel or don't understand it, they don't on principle. I believe Madanach or someone like that specifically makes that point.

I thought that they used iron and steel weapons.... idk havnt ran into any lately but it is something i'll check on when it presents itself.

Either way if this is the case you make many valid points.

Skyrim has always been cold, hasn't it? How would that type of culture even develop in that environment in the first place.. ? And if that's what they believe in, what's with all the ingots, smelters, and need to take over mines?

Forsworns use stone weapons and fur armor only because they want to live like "in the old days" or something... Its a culture thingy.

Well, they are in the southern part of Skyrim, which isn't quite so cold. Mind, that only makes it slightly less silly, but at least it puts it in the area of "highly unlikely but possible" rather than "completely ludicrous". Still think the Forsworn should be wearing more than they do, of course (to say nothing of the aforementioned weaponry).


(As a note for cultural inspiration: The Forsworn are descended from Bretons, who are basically medieval French/English, and therefore would probably wear similar clothing. How easy that would be to make them look different from the Nords around them, I'm not sure.)

Actually, there currently seems to be an ice-age on Nirn. Atmora, the native continent of the humans, is completely frozen over, and Skyrim is just bitter cold. During a warm period, Cyrodiil might be tropic and Skyrim might have a moderate climate. (And no I don't know why there are polar lights in Skyrim when there is a vast ocean and another continent to the north, maybe the magnetic pole is much more shifted from the rotation axis than on Earth?)

The ancestors of the Nords and Imperials moved to Tamriel in the first place because in Atmora there was a war over green land during the beginning of the ice-age. The Bretons and Forsworn are descendants of earlier human settlers and elves, and were treated as second class citizens in elven society until the rest of the humans immigrated to Tamriel and broke the elven rule.

So yes, it is possible that the Forsworn traditionally wore such gear, but it doesn't make much sense for them to still wear it. Well maybe to spite the Nords and the cold they brought with them? And maybe dealing with daedra keeps you warm at heart?

The Forsworn are Amish.

Well, that supposedly lasted until the end of the Second Era, and Tiber Septim/Talos http://www.imperial-library.info/content/many-headed-talos (the last line is in Skyrim, so this is presumably now officially part of the lore) because his soldiers started to get whiny, and was a localised thing. Depending on how you interpret the whole matter around that. It does make me wonder what would happen to Cyrodiil's climate if the Thalmor succeeded in getting rid of Talos, though...


As far as I'm aware Nirn doesn't have a rotation axis, being in the centre of the universe and all. The aurorae are probably just magicka from the stars dancing around in the air. Why only in Skyrim? I don't know, go ask someone at the College of Winterhold or something, they'd probably know.

They have Breton ancestry but the two share absolutely NO cultural similarities. Their claim on the Reach is truly ancient and goes back too far to even remotely resemble Breton culture. In addition,


They're a culture that holds Hagravens in high esteem. They want to get rid of the Nordic influence in their land and worship ancient, savage gods. That's why they dress and act the way they do. They reject the trappings of modern/outside influences in a very deliberate way.

Now, on the point of the PRACTICALITY of their gear, especially in relation to the climate, there's a disconnect. I'd agree they need to be wearing MORE but their appearance is very relevant to their culture, so making them look like Mongols might be a bit iffy.

Another point to chew on is how do these unarmored, practically weaponless savages resist the Nords effectively? Men loaded down with plate mail armor and giant great swords would crush an unorganized rabble rather quickly, yet unorganized rabble is exactly how they're portrayed.

By the 9! They are fast, they ambushed and killed me in seconds on my first encounter. Anyone find any info on their open heart surgery thing they do?

Judging from the fact that the Reach is part of Skyrim and pretty much always has been, the correct answer seems to be "they don't". Most of their survival seems to come from hiding off in the hills and only very rarely making trouble for anyone else.

This.

I would say on the point of how the Forsworn can resist the Nords would have to do with the powerful cultural magic they wield, in addition to their using guerilla tactics. See the Forsworn Conspiracy for an example. They don't siege a town, they take over from within. They don't just slaughter an imperial garrison, they kill & steal supply caravans to starve them before moving in for the kill, probably at night. (Hypothetical example, but you get the point!)

If nothing else, I would suggest more covered variations of their current armor/armor in the same style. Then use both. Increased appearance diversity never hurts.

Yeah, I'd be fine with a bit more leather/fur on their clothing but that'd be about it.

I always pictured them as more of a Scythian type of culture. Like the ancient peoples of the Russian steppes, the Greeks referred to.

Here is an example of what they would've looked like.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5004/5224430758_75caea9d23.jpg or http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4110/5223832387_1bcf7c290a_b.jpg

They dont need steel, when they've got Level Scaling.

I would have to agree on the issue of the practicality of their attire, but on the other hand, I do get kinda tired of seeing everybody in the game all bundled up... it's nice to have some variety

As for their culture, there are plenty of places in the world where there are enclaves of indigenous folk living in a very different way from the newcomers around them. And where preservation of those ways may be a more or less conscious decision. The plight of the Forsworn is one of the things that turned me away from the Stormcloaks and towards the Empire: the Stormcloaks' whole grievance rests on their rights as the indigenous group, but their treatment of an even more indigenous group completely undermines their moral claim.

But they aren't portrayed as unorganized. There's a king, they have hagravens with their groups, they attack caravans specifically and they live in organized camps. Also, they aren't really weaponless. They practice magic and are quite good at it. The ones that do might as well be mages.

Judging from names likes Madanach and Faolan, I'd assume they're based on early celts or picts (the historical picts that caused the romans to built Hadrian's Wall, not the ones from Howard's Hyborian Age).

Haha, I am actaully using a mod that makes 90% of all female NPC's wear various forsworn variants I love it. Realism, what is that?

Ratskeller - "I think this soup needs more substance - maybe some meat in it."

You - "I like soup."

Personally, I like the general aesthetic of the Forsworn, I just think there needs to be more of it. It's hard to judge the culture based on a single armor set and a couple of weapons. I'd love to see variant armors (heavy, light, mage-y), at least one of which offers more cover (cause seeing 90-year old ladies half naked is just ew). That would be where the Mongolian, Sythian, iron-age-y influences come in. Adding unique clutter to their camps would also greatly enhance the sense of them being a separate ethnic group.

So... Soup's nice, I wish there was more of it

Full disclosure: I had planed on doing something like this. The CS delay put a great dent in my plans, though, so we'll see.

Obviously. The Bretons are the mainland celts that were assimilated by Roman (elven) culture, the Forsworn are the Britain celts, that fought off the Romans just to be overrun by the Germans / Normans (Nords) a few centuries later.