I am curious as to what everyone thinks about the races of Skyrim and what they are representative of in regards to actual ethnicities in our real world.

In other words, who do you think each race in the Elder Scrolls was modeled after/inspired by (if any) or the possibility of being representative of more than a single real world race.

These are my guesses:

Nords: Vikings
Imperials: Romans
Kahjiit: Gypsies/Jews
Redguards: Arabs/Persian
Argonians: Indians
Orcs: African
Altmer: English
Bosmer: Celts/Irish
Breton: Germanic/French
Dunmer: Eastern European/Asian-pacific

Please do not mistake this question as sounding in ANY way racist. I am only curious as to inspirations behind lore/characteristics/culture relevance, specifically answers from fans of the series.

Of course, people write from what they know. However, the Races of Tamriel are only similar to human races by coincidence.

Didn't realise Indian's can breathe underwater. And how are the Altmer British I take offence from that

Yeah the poms are altmer through and through lol

The only one that has direct allusion is the nords,should'nt it be cultural allusion?era allusion?

How?

Hm, you're probably right about the orc/redgaurd one based on the features

When I ran into two redgaurd men threatening to brutilize a redgaurd woman + their skin color, I just naturaly thought African. But Arabs are also harsh with women. I actually haven't run into many Orcs in the game yet, which probably helped scew it to.

By Indians being the Argonians, do you mean Native Americans? I'm curious to why you came to that conclusion (I'm native American btw)

Probably their names, and their tribal lifestyle?

Yeah, In Windhelm, the Argonians are separated from the general population, I found this similar to what happened in history. I think the Redguard people are pretty rad, curved swords ftw!

Not quite sure how you came to these conclusions.
I think it's difficult to attribute Khajiits/Argonians to a nation, although Khajiits would probably be most similar to Egyptian culture and I'd say Argonians are most like the Amazon dwellers in South America.

I'd say that Altmer are most influenced by Japan, or at least the far east culture. Definitely not England.

Ha! the english were the last great empire builders how can they not be Altmer

I dont think Orcs would be associated with africa. I dont see Africans as hulkish. Maybe russia or somewhere in that region? Forsworn could possibly be african.

Sorry but I just have to say, ITS A GAME!

And what race are the yanks then?

I was referring to the people of India. Not the native tribes of the Americas. However, there might be rough allusions to the Native American tribes specifically in their names, perhaps. You have to sometimes looks PAST the general appearances. All of my conclusions were brought about why everything BUT looks obviously...I've never seen a reptile man or a cat man lol.

For the Argonians I would say more Native American than the people of India. Their names, their secluded, simple lifestyle, their separate tribes, and their rituals (The Hist Sap with the naming ceremony, things like that).

Khajiits are bedouins, or some of the Northern Pakistani tribes. I really dont think you can nail it with the cats/lizzards the way you can with Nords/Bretons/Imperials

Orc have quite a bit of samurai in their culture, and Redguards seem to have drawn from the Japanese.
The Dunmer remind me of Babylonians.

East Asian influences have been divided between Orcs, Redguards and Akaviri. Redguards got the smallest piece of the pie IMO

How strange.How can one say the yanks are a race.i would say the forsworn are close to american indian of the past but have a megalithic influence aswel.Personally it dose'nt look right with megalithic and medievil styles side by side.

I think the orcs likely have some Spartan influence, as I belive they are more stronghold/city-state based rather than a centralized nation.

Well on the flipside, the Forsworn aren't a race. They are just a group that hates the Nords.

Gypsies without a doubt, but I'm still trying to fathom how you liken the Khajiit to the followers of Judaism?

I'm sure the forsworn are separate,the nords conquered them as they were the native peoples of the reach which means they were there before ysgrammor sailed from atmora?

Yeah. I can see that now, especially with the orcish helm in Skyrim. Good observation.

It's to do with way of life more than how they appear, I think african suits orcs quite well, forsworn are bretons.