Didn't you know, since he wrote the books before all these games (derh) everthing is a copy cat that involves any similarities.

Jeeze Skyrim has Orcs.. darn LOTR influences and rip-offs.

Yeah that was me. I was actually talking to the big red guy behind you. You probably didn't notice. He was all covered in shadow and fire. shadowy wing things. Pretty inconspicuous.

NNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

*cough*

Sorry, had something in my throat.

Doesn't remind me of anything except itself really. I'd imagine you'd have to watch a lot of LOTR to know that lol.

Underground Dwarven cities, Markarth bears similarity to Minas Tirith (for me at least). Daedric (at least on Oblivion) armour = Sauron's armour. Orcs, Elves, Dwarves. Falmer = Gollum.

Just my 2 pennies.

I don't think you realize where you are.

maybe some of the music gives that LOTR feel, but when i climbed a mountain in the night, in a major blizzard and come across azura's statue for the first time, it made me think of films like clash of the titans (not the pretty faced, clean shaven mummy boy modern version, the golden oldie), and sinbad. those sort of films.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbG6GGqL4x0

Considering Tolkien created the term "orc"...

And people have been confusing orcs and goblins as separate races ever since.

Some of Jeremy Soule's tracks reminded me of things Howard Shore did. Good stuff. Riften also reminds me of Bree.


You know what we need? Lord of the Rings Mod.
- M?makil (Oliphaunts) to replace the Mammoths.
- Dunlendings to replace the Forsworn.
- Easterlings to replace the giants and walk with the Oliphaunts.
- Fell Beasts to replace the dragons (Mabe some Nazgul on top).

Oh man. Getting too excited. Haha.

If I remember correctly, When they were showing the game of at an interview, the player was using a staff in one hand and a sword in another. The interviewer said something about Gandalf and I think it was Todd playing and he agreed and said that was the look they were going for.

Did he invent trolls as well?

So if Tolken used Trolls in The Hobbit he is just ripping off Norse Mythology, what a [censored].

All this logic makes no sense to me. There are similarities in most things, most ideas have been done/mentioned/used somewhere before. So we can sit here and say x had what y had at some point so they are copying.

He did invent Orcs.

ORC, stands for Oxford Rugby Club. The people on the team were brutes, and he designed a brutish race after them. The term Orc is not in the mythologies of ancient cultures. Trolls and Elves were but even so not in the form Tolkien portrayed them, which is the modern form. Tolkien was the first to makes elves appear as tall, fair, wise and ageless. Prior to that elves in ancient mythologies were genreally like pixies or sprites. Tiny winged creatures etc...

Tolkien is the father of modern fantasy, yes there are similarities but it is presented and doen in its own unique way in the Elder Scrolls series. Not too mention the many new creations and takes on other creatures. Eg: Dwares are always portrayed as having the best crafting and being short. In the Elder Scrolls they take it up a notch and make them incredibly technologically superior and not short but of the normal height.

I've also noticed more similarities, like people holding swords by the not-pointy end and the sky being above, and not below, like in China.

Im not arguing with the Orc fact, I didn't realize that and now I know. As for Elves I always thought of Nymphs/other Fey creatures to be pretty much elves or similar. Elves in my mind are like Bosmir.

I have no problem with admitting what he has added to the community, the problem I have is people actually trying to use it as some sort of weapon against the game's originality. Tolkien made the ideas, D&D did a lot from their but as parents who make a child these creations have a life of their own now and belong to none.

I think he would be happy to see that his ideas and writings had such a large influence on a great many things. I would be.

I have no dislike for LOTR, I just hate straight up comparisons such as when people say every other MMO is a WoW clone. That is all.

We all have imagination but besides things from scratch we often take other ideas/our history and tales and turn them into something else within our fantasy.

Inevitably, some things will be inspired by LOTR just as they are from every other piece of fantasy created when you begin making a fantasy game. As far as direct inspirations, Whiterun is the prime and only example I have seen so far in my 110 hours of gameplay. Whiterun itself does indeed closely mirror Edoras, as does the surrounding region. That's Jackson's Edoras anyway, as in the film version. The layout of the city and even the Jarl himself resembles Edoras and King Theoden. Aside from the fairly obvious resemblences in Whiterun, there's not many other direct nods to the LOTR series.

Haha if anyone done the main quest, maybe you heard it too.

There is an interesting Khajiit (I think his name is J'dar or something, talking with himself, and with another 'invisible' Khajiit named J'zhar or something like that - like a split personality, one good, one bad.
When you proceed forwards you'll see that J'zhar is dead, possibly murdered by J'dar

Any LOTR fan would understand that reference, I'm not sure if it's an easteregg or not though xD

Well, other than the fact that they both take place in a similar fantasy setting I think that Whiterun is heavily inspired by Rohan. Other than that, nothing screamed Lord of the Rings to me.

I remember that, darn you forums.. you win this time..

I'm not disagreeing with you, I am agreeing with you.

Most people claim that every fantasy universe stole everything from Tolkien. I was posting one thing about the Orcss adn the rest of my post was about the originality of the ES universe.

Sorry my post became a general comment to the forums on my opinion so.. I love you are we still besties?

Hmm not just me then.. I thought Whiterun looked familiar...

At least we dont have to worry about the Cirth Ungol pass.. Though "Her" off spring throught Middle earth svcked and moved to Skyrim

The Falmer origin story.

Que Saruman: "They were Elves once!"

i would say the 13th warrior has more influence imo

(not directed @ you D4, just agreeing with you)

Anyone who says Skyrim stole from LOTR in some sort of accusing way is basically trolling.

Skyrim is a fantasy world that has a lot of similarities to LOTR, as every fantasy game or movie probably does.
That doesn't mean stealing or copying, it just means doing their own version of a great genre, in which LOTR has a big influence.

I like LOTR and I like Skyrim. There are some things that remind me of LOTR, like the rich world history & the lords of the land etc
But it isnt LOTR, its different. You can play & imagine you are in middle earth if you like, or just take it as Skyrim - either way its fun, you don't have to be a dike about it.