we have scandinavians (nords) celtic French (bretons ) Romans (empire) and Africans (redguards)

my question is, is there any Asian culture or race in the elderscrolls lore?

if so how come they aren't playable?

The Akaviri culture is Asian-inspired. They aren't playable because they're not on friendly terms with the Empire and live on a separate continent. You can find their katanas and other items, though.

The Nord's religion is strait up Hindu, the Redguards have had Japanese influences, and the Imperials have had Chinese/southeast Asian vibes at times.

Nope. Cultures in TES are only loosly based on real cultures.

Akavir has katanas, and some Japanese inspired buildings. They aren't playable because the immortal vampire snakemen (the Tsaesci) live in Akavir.

oh that's interesting. so they are the only ones the empire haven't been able to conquer yet?

Not the only ones, but the biggest ones. Besides Akavir there's also Pyandonea, Thras, and Yokuda, as well as various outlying islands. Of course, the Empire at the time of Skyrim doesn't seem to hold even Tamriel.

Even though you're right in saying Africa for the Redguards, I'd like to get even more specific and say that the Redguards closely resemble the Moorish in culture and custom. It's very interesting. They're more close to black Arabs than black tribals.

For Asian influence, I'd say that Altmers are pretty Asian, as are Dunmer. I mean, just look at the Altmer concept art: http://images.uesp.net/6/6d/Lore-race-Altmer.png

It is oversimplifying
In Tamriel Men cultures are a mix of existing real world cultures+some fiction
Nords are based on scandinavians, but they also have a lot of slavic influence in them
Bretons are based on medieval central/western Europe nations
Imperials are based around Mediterranean sea cultures (including Egyptians and Hebrew)
Redguards have little of classical "african" in them, they are closer to arabs and caucasian highlanders
As usual it is only my opinion and I might be wrong

Last time I started a thread like this it was locked within one hour.

Why? Despite being in wrong forum section I see nothing wrong in it.

"Occasionally these threads are posted and more often than not they require a lock after only a short while. This is a video game and by definition fictional. Trying to compare elements to real world situations can be tacky, and when racial elements are involved that quickly becomes iffy. It's too sensitive a subject to make reasonable comparisons with and sooner or later that results in insulting and degrading comments to a large group of members and that's also why we'd prefer these threads not be posted."


- Umrahel (mod)

So we can't have civilized discussion because of few morons?
(I don't mean mods, but those who can't handle racial/ethnical/national matters culturally)
That is just great

That's not really the moderators' fault, it's more a fault in the various posters who take things a bit too far and saying racially insensitive things, or those who are being too racially sensitive and start taking things out of context.

However, I do disagree with that ruling in that each E.S. race and culture has direct parallels to the real world. Fiction is informed by reality, and in the case of the E.S. races and cultures, I think that each race is intentionally influenced by a real civilization and culture.