http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Pelagius_Septim_III and let's not forget http://www.imperial-library.info/content/2920-last-year-first-era oh and of course the http://www.imperial-library.info/content/wolf-queen-v1

I wouldn't say that about Julius Caesar, TBH. The guy killed, according to some estimates around 2 million celts, including a substantial number of defenseless women and children, to gain access to their gold mines. That's what the Gallian campaign was all about. He also destroyed the Republic, which, even though it wasn't anywere near a paradise, was still damn sight better than what followed. I'd say he's up there with other mass-murdering monsters of history.


An empire is still an empire. It exists to leech wealth and resources from the provinces to support and enrich the central province. It's clear though, that Bethesda writers don't intend the Cyrodiilic Empire to be as bad as the Imperial Rome in it's worst days, even though they've always been expansionistic, and dismissive of the populations of the provinces and client states.

Judging Julius Caesar only on the amount of people he killed is ignoring the society of those times. It was completely normal, and most of the "great" rulers from that time are responsible for hundreds of thousands if not millions of deaths.

Roman?

I think it helped that Sparticus was a http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:The_Song_of_Pelinal powered by a radioactive blood-stone.


edit, link

What I don't undertsand is why Bethesda made Skyrim more like if it was set in our past medieval history rather than set in a fantasy world.

Just look at the Imperial Legionnaires outfit(s) from Morrowind http://images.uesp.net/0/02/MW_ImperialArmor.jpg

to the Imperial Legionnaires of Skyrim http://images.uesp.net/f/fe/SR-concept-Imperial_Armor.jpg

I fail to see why this game wasn't renamed Roma: Battle for the Nordic territories, I mean seriously just look at the real armor from the Roman Empire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzTt2uKUhYk

In the end the question is: is Bethesda running out of creativity?

Dragons, magic, elves? Seriously the look and feel of every armor has changed since Morrowind. They just moddle it the way they think is coolest at the time of the creation.

The sources we have from that time tend to be largely Roman, to my knowledge, so it's fairly hard to substantiate any numbers. The Romans were masters of propaganda, and would tend to overstate the bloodthirstiness of their rivals. Hannibal was said by them to be a cruel man, for one, but there seems to be very little evidence for this. Julius Caesar however himself estimates in Commentarii de Bello Gallico that he killed around a million Gauls during the Gallic Wars.

Where the hell is that Imperial armor with cool fur cape? :\

Where are fur capes in game, in general.

*Don't answer that. I'm not serious.

I think spears were omitted because they were mainly used during organized group battles between soldiers, rather than for adventuring/exploration. They are practically useless in a close range one on one situation after your opponent gets inside the minimum range of the spear.

With Skyrim's gameplay almost exclusively consisting of small scale 1 v n situations, a spear will not give you an advantage over any of the weapons already included in the game. Plus, you wouldn't take a spear with you into a cave or bandit hideout due to space constraints.

So I think it is only logical that they decided to not include it in the game at all.

I know, but even romans would have had reason to overstate their effectiveness in combat and the amount of people they killed. I'm not saying the Romans were nice guys though, don't get me wrong. But it was common practice for some of the "greatest" leaders of those time to fight bloody wars and kill many people. So I feel it's unfair to judge a leader of those days by how cruel they were against people that didn't live in their country.

Militarily, yes, it's not admirable. I'm just saying he wasn't batsh*t crazy. Nor was Augustus. He had actual political reforms that tried to benefit people other than himself. He was for Plebs, for example. Augustus had (you could say misguided, if you want) ideals about the "Pax Romana". In fact, his reign was probably the least upsetting of them all. I think it went relatively smoothly, until his death. For 40 years, I think. Some other emperors otoh liked impaling random people, setting them on fire, and lighting up the whole city with their burning bodies. At the very least, it's a step up in cruelty.

I think it would be more correct to say that the Roman Empire was inspired by the Imperial Legion in TES

How about the Imperial names, just a few for examples:

Morrowind: Caius Cosades, Attelivupis Catius, Cocistian Quaspus, Segunivus Mantedius, Syloria Siruliulus, Crulius Pontanian, Larrius Varro

Oblivion: Adamus Phillida, Audens Avidius, Carmalo Truiand, Claudius Arcadia, Giovanni Civello, Servatius Quintilius

Skyrim: Captain Metilius, General Tullius, Gianna, Legate Adventus Caesennius, Sergius Turrianus

Yeah, they might have been based on Ancient Romans.

Hmmm. Nothing`s changed in real life then.

*Ducks-Runs!*

Your actually spot on by the way,but this isn't the topic for it.

On topic, I thought it was obvious that the Imperials were based on the Romans. I even gave my Imperial Battlemage a Roman name, Scipio Africnaus, the most badass name I have ever heard, screw Marcus Antonius(commonly known as Mark Anthony) and Marcus Brutus.

Right I think they called them pila or pilus.

I'm surprised you only noticed it right now. Imperials had the same armor and similar ranks in morrowind. The reason why they broke lore and were different in Oblivion was because Todd Howard watched a lot of LoTR during the development of Oblivion and liked the armor in the movies (No, I'm not joking, he said that himself). Anyway, yeah Imperials have been inspired by the Romans.

The similarities don't just end at similar names and armor. Oblivion takes place during the peak of civilization, similarly to the Roman Empire circa 1-2 centuries AD and in Skyrim, the Empire is in similar state as the Roman empire around 4th and fifth century AD. A huge step back in terms of being civilized and less freedom for citizens. Also, the banning of Talos could have been inspired by Romans accepting Christianity and forsaking their ancient gods. Even the fact that the Imperial City was sacked by Thalmor is similar to the sacking of Rome in early 5th century

Some may even say that the fact that Thalmor and the Empire are 2 different states might have some similarities with division of Rome in err.. 395ish...

He's not actually. I live in Providence and have also been a huge Lovecraft buff (even though he was racist bastard even for his time). Read some Machen. His stuff is incredible and directly influenced Lovecraft both in style and substance. Machen used otherwordly, long forgotten races, these monsters inbreeding with humans and them being so far beyond human understanding as to be existentially horrifying and leading to madness. He also used framing stories much like Lovecraft did. Read The Three Impostors, particularly the chapter The Black Seal. It's truly a prototypical Lovecraft story. Also the Great God Pan and The White People. The White People is often called the best horror short story ever written.

Okay, so that was very off topic. Uh, yes, they did base the Legion on... well the Roman Legion. Just like the Legion in Fallout is based on... well the Roman Legion. Except in Fallout that was conscious choice of the leaders of the Legion.

This is a "I want my spears back!" thread. On the flimsiest of pretenses. Those "Spears" you see are Pilum - Throwing weapons meant to destroy shields. The primary weapon of the Roman Empire was the Gladius - a short sword.
Yes, but they weren't always. Just a symptom of Ken Rolston dumbing down the world.

It's true that the military commanders of those days weren't known for their kindheartedness. It's also true that they didn't have any concept of human rights or any other clear moral framework that would inhibit them from killing people outside the protection of the Roman law.

But "genocidal Julius" really was in a class of his own. What he did to the Helvetians alone ...

With it being cold in Skyrim, one would think that the medieval style of armor would have been more practical. How do those soldiers get along without wearing any pants?

Rome used spears early on when they used a phalanx style of combat. When that system didnt work anymore they used Pilum and the gladius. To start off every battle, soldiers would throw their pilum at the enemy, hoping it would get lodged into a shield rendering it useless. These soldiers would then retreat to the rear and more soldiers would throw their pilum, etc. When they finally advanced for close combat they formed a shield wall and the front ranks would bash back and forth and push the enemy. Once the enemy was exhausted then theyd start stabbing with the gladius. War was NEVER how it is depicted in the movies with guys running up to each other mano y mano and having duels...lol. People were scared to die for the most part and they relied on protection and cohesiveness

yah the empire IS based on the some roman-esk ideas (notice some names) and I think is great since I love rome

don't ask don't tell.....

I really am not tracking here. What's the beef?