I disagree on the redguards, the name al'akir, headscarfs and scimitars are all indicators of arabian influence. They live in the deserts as well if I'm not mistaken.

Totally agree but i would say persian though it looks funny with redgaurds with black american features rather than a purple black skin and hawkish noses and thinnish facial frames.

actually your right,arabic it is.

Heh. For me it is
Nords-Vikings/norseman
Orcs-Mongolian
Khajiit-gypsies
Dunmer- Maybe jews or some middle eastern people.While playing morrowind they remind me of that.
Also dwemer remind me of some old babylonian
And altmer seems to me like a mix of japaneese and English men.
But also. of course the elder scrolls and the world of tamriel have it own culture and stuff.. But yeah this thread is about inspirations
also am i the only one that think argonians are like native americans?

Well yea but if you go by how they live forsworn are significantly different than bretons arent they?

Breton is a race. Forsworn is an organization around specific beliefs.

Meh, Khajiit seem more like savvy Arabic merchants to me. If you've ever been to the grand bazaar in Istanbul, you'll know what I mean. Also the accents are Arabic.

Here's how I look at the rest.
Breton; British
Forsworn; Celts/Gaels
Nords; Vikings
Dunmer; French
Altmer; German
Redguard; African
Bosmer; Eastern Europe
Argonian; Native Americans
Imperial; Italian
Orc; Uruk-Hai

This topic is a bit stupid. Not all the races are based on real-world people. Only some of the humans are. Here's what I have to say:

Nord: Obviously based upon the Norse people, not necessarily Vikings though. Despite the horned helmets (which weren't strictly in Viking Culture), the Nords aren't known to be profound in the art of Naval Warfare.

Breton: Seem to be based on the French and English, given their names. Also, due to their adept intellect and proclivity to the Arcane Arts, I would guess that the Enlightenment Era had some influence.

Imperial: Based on the Romans, no question.

Redguard: Probably not based on Africans. They seem a lot more organized. I would say Arabs/Muslims.

Orc: Orcs have been existing in Mythology a lot longer than Elder Scrolls has, this was taken straight from that. Although, the Orcs have Tribes/Strongholds and seem more 'Nomadic.' So I guess they could be related to maybe Spartans, African tribes, etc. However, their new armor seems very Samurai-esque.

Khajiit: They're walking cats, so it's pretty obvious they were influenced by the idea of Tiger-people. Although they do have an Arabic flare to them.

Argonian: They're Lizard people. I've never seen any Lizard people on Earth, this idea was clearly thought up or inspired by another fantasy. Although, some of the Hist names with hyphens make me think that there is some east-Asian influence in them, maybe Korean.

Elves: Again, Elves have existed in Mythology for hundreds of years, I don't think they were based on any real-world people. And don't argue Altmer are based off of British. They hired British voice actors for the Altmer to portray their race as a very proud, stuck-up one. And not all the British accents in the game are like that, see the Dunmer. Bosmer, Eastern European? [censored].

Forsworn would be birthers, tea partiers, sovereign citizens etc.

argonian=Native americans

This thread isn't referring to pre-existing ethos of Elves and orcs...It it referring to their representation within the Elder Scrolls Universe. If you find this thread stupid go post somewhere more to your liking instead of lavishing an entire page of your opinions.

Orc's being mongolian makes perfect sense actually.

this is actually one of the most accurate racial comparisons ive seen

Their representation? I read your thread, you know. You asked which real-world peoples the races were inspired/by modeled/after. Well, not all the races were inspired by/ modeled after real-world peoples. Altmer Dunmer and Bosmer are just Altmer Dunmer and Bosmer. What about Falmer, I wonder what they were inspired by? Maybe blind midgets.

Not all of the races are necessarily representative of such. And that's why I branded this thread 'partially stupid.'

Heh yeah They seem more like a barbaric asian people.

Makes perfect sense. Can't believe I never looked at it that way!

Orcs and Altmer take a lot of Japanese influences as well but I still agree with Orcs being African and Altmer being English. At least, Altmer being English to an American's (Bethesda) point of view.

Oh jeez. On another note. Would anyone want to take a stab at figuring out where the Dwemer fit into this discussion?

Ancient Egyptians? Nah. That's a good question and I've no clue.

I guess the only real example we have is that dude in the Corpus lair in Morrowind. But he is insanely fat and half robo-spider...and shirtless to boot. Not much culture apparent.........perhaps the Dwemer might fit into the "Atlantis" types of people? Forever lost to time, however insanely sophisticated?

That's sort of what I was thinking and most likely the best answer.

Closed for review.

I have trashed a lot of posts but not re-opening it for the moment as we are still reviewing those posts that went away.