I was having this discussion the other day with a friend about the identity of the Imperial race. While I feel it would make sense that the Imperials have some sense of cultural and racial identity, the fact that they weren't recognised as their own race until Morrowind interested me. There's also their other name, "Cryod" with "Imperial" becoming the accepted nomenclature of course due to their Empire. However, would they still be called Imperials now that their empire encompasses at most one and a half foreign Provinces? Would they want to keep the name, a name outsiders would most likely call them by as a jape?

And from an outside perspective, would you prefer Imperials to again not 'exist' as a race and instead have a Imperial identity apply to all peoples living in Cyrodiil? Would you like the game to acknowledge the lore of Cyrodiil and split the Imperial race into their two distinct cultural variations - Nibenese and Colovian? They are supposed to be considerably different to each other culturally, and physically there are differences, too.

Just a question I thought I'd share here.

EDIT: Changed the wording for the third answer as it seemed not to allow for much leeway in hindsight.

I wouldn't say 'Post Empire', as i sincerely hope to see the Empire surge back from the brink of defeat... But i do, personally, prefer calling the Cyrods.

As far as most of the cultures of Tamriel go, the Cyrods are more homogeneous than others. Whereas the Nords are arranged by Clans, Holds and even whether or not they wear clothes, the Dunmer are arranged by House and Tribe, and the Bretons are arranged by whatever they please in any given moment... The Cyrods have only ever really been divided by Colovian and Nibenese.

In general, i think they were a worthwhile addition to the game. The idea that the Imperial heartland was a happy-go-lucky cultural melting pot without it's own identity never sat well with me. While i don't view Empires as inherently bad, they do exhibit their own culture and cultural spread, and have to have their own identity to do that.

Similarly, i'm all for cultural and sub-race distinctions, but i don't think it's something that could honestly be limited to the Cyrods. Nords, Argonians, Khajiit and Dunmer already have ample distinctions to develop that idea as well, so it's something that probably has universal value.

I'm not sure which to vote. My opinion is they are a single race called Cyrodiils.

That's the third answer.

If they did something with them, I'll be in favor of having the Imperials in the games, but given what we got in Oblivion I'm mostly wondering "What was the point of adding them?"

But i've always seen them as Cyrodiils / Cyrods (not sure the correct term). Imperials has always been more of a faction to me and not a race.

Maybe there are a race, maybe not. In a way, I like the concept of them not being a race - but I'd rather have them as two or more sub-races!

I like the way each human and each elven race has a society geared towards a different identity.


Breton = masters in the schools of magic

Nords = hardened warrior

Imperials = jack-of-all / warrior mage

Redguards = light warrior with archery


Altmer = master in the schools of magic

Orsimer = haredened warrior

Dunmer = jack-of-all / warrior mage

Bosmer / khajiit = light warrior with archery

Stereotyping, much!

That's what I love about fantasy. I allows what the real world doesn't. As a result we get races of big people, races of little people, a race of mountain people, a races of sea people, a race of desert people, races of green people... damn I love fantasy!


Take this away and for me it ruins the core of what fantasy is.

Dwemer, Orsimer, Altmer, Bosmer, Manmer, Chimer - we're all Elves, I guess.

And there is a distinctive look for elves to that of humans - with the exception of Khajiit who were mostly transformed (some can still look like a Bosmer).

Really?

The Ohmes

oh, ok!

Though I find them boring. I like the idea of Imperials and an Empire. Oblivion really dropped the ball not fleshing them out. It just made them a boring and bland race.

Far too much for me

Half the fun is playing against type

I don't mind races having advantages that nudge them towards a particular style of play but please nothing that forces them into it

I am an Orsimer, and an author, amateur herbalist/healer, and history enthusiast

There's no point in having the Bretons and Cyrods be separate races since they're all Nedes with possibly some Elf or Nord ancestry here or there.

But if you don't have a type in the first place, you are not able to play against them. There are those that want to be the American Samurai, the Arabian viking or the Chinese cowboy, but with out seperate cultures, society and skills this isn't possible.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Stereotypes, especially in Fantasy. They're too often used as a crutch to define a wide swath of peoples, instead of taking the time to flesh them out into their own culture and identity. I don't use them in my world building, and I guess I just generally expect more out of people who do the same thing for a living. But then again, I don't even use the D&D alignment chart unless I'm dealing with magical, extra planar entities.


I do think that the Imperials/Cyrods add a great deal to the equation, and the ebb and flow of their authority, along with the cultural drift they both drive and experience, creates for a more interesting world, though. But trying to narrow their identity down to 'Jack of all trades' just feels wrong, and over generalises their culture and diversity. Though, the same could be said for all races.


Frankly though, I'm pretty over the concept of Race in general...

They become the same when every race is everything. The same is with elves. If a Bosmer society has warhammers and heavy armor, it destroys the identity of the Orsimer.


Too me it's like somewhen not having dwarves in LOTRs as short stocky people good at forging weapons or having wood elves as a slim built refined and arty race but instead make every race as being anything. It destroys the heart of what fantasy races are. It is all about stereotypes.


ESO has destroyed the identity of the Bretons for me. Making them like European knights makes them no different to a Nord or a Colovian. To me the Bretons were a race of wizards and far from chivalrous knightdom. Knights I imagine more to be rich Nords or Nordic inspired Colovian nobles. Imperials (Cyrods / Cyrodiils) for me as a whole are nothing like the boar eating steel and iron weilding war loving Nords, but a race more like the spartans or the romans sitting in marble courts eating graqes and dressed in fine linen.

We've had this discussion before and arrived at the conclusion that fitting each race into little categories does the very thing you're trying to prevent.

I have no clue, lore-wise, but voted "Not a Race." An Empire seldom is a singular race. But there are 2 races that "Imperials" include, the Colovians and Nibenese. Even with that, I don't see them combined into one race, but 2 separate races. I see "Imperial" and think, "Faction." That's my ignorant viewpoint

I debated between the "Not a race" and "Colovians and Nibenese" choices, but that "Faction" thing helped me choose. It's like saying Stormcloaks and Thalmor are races

But you can have those factions within a race. The Colovians and Nibenese are like the Great House Dunmer and the Ashlanders. One ethnic population, with very different cultures.


In order to really establish that the Imperials were somehow not a race, you'd have to show that they are ethnically the same as either the Nords or Bretons. But they aren't really either, physically or culturally. If anything, they're more pure-line Nedic.