Its the usual fantasy setting of the Middle Ages, 1000-1400 A.D.
All the usual Middle Age elements are present like castles, plate armor, clothing from that era. Skyrim is inspired by medieval Scandinavia, just as Cyrodiil was by medieval central and southern Europe.

It looks to me like its set in the 1980's. There seems to be an adam and the ants face paint theme going on with many of the people I see.

you are a big stick in the mud.

anyway I think it could be any time. cause of the introduction of magic to nirn. Magic changes the way a civilization develops.

The patching process suggests the game is stuck in the Dark Ages

Yup.
Theyve done things we cant do with our modern technology, such as build a giant timetravelling robot.

and as you may or may not know. Giant time traveling robots are not technology we can possess currently.

Yup.
Giant robots maybe, but not the time travelling bit.
We arent that advanced really.
I still dont have rocket boots or a summer home on the moon.

Vote for Newt Gingrich, you'll have it in just 8 and a half short years.

It's set a long time ago.

In a galaxy far, far away,.

1500 i just get that vibe. with the castles and dragons. Oblivion kind of gave me the same vibe. But in the 1500s there was still alcemy pardon my spelling but at that time rumors of witchcraft were brewing, also mabey 3000 like 1000 yrs from now nuclear wars ruin the continets and everyone is killed except the newborn babes who set up the new realm and the dwarven ruins might be our ruins i mean the are huge. the continets would of shifted hence the map.

No, just no. Nirn will never has never and can never be in any way shape or form be related to earth.

What! No......I thought?.... So that's why the crabs are so big...ah..haaa..!

Of course there is no real answer to this, because it is a fantasy universe.

But I'd say a lot of the general society, architecture, clothing, culture, technology is kind of 1000 AD-ish.

But this question itself highlights quite a bit of change in Elder Scrolls games since Morrowind. In Morrowind the world was so sufficiently alien that this question might not have made as much sense. But in Skyrim (and to a great extent Oblivion) the world is so realistic in many ways that it seems almost earth like in a particular time period. In fact the game looks so realistic and reministic of the middle ages that things like talking cats and lizards seem way out of place. Maybe.

1300. Really Skyrim is a mishmash dating from pre-Roman to 1300, but technology in Skyrim seems to top out at around 1300. They have steel plate armor, so it has to be after 1250. They don't have any guns so it has to be before 1350 (bronze cannon started to appear around then). The most advanced weapons are circa 1200 - also in use around 1300 and beyond.

Despite the advance of time in TES the answer that I gave applies to every TES game. They have had steel plate for hundreds of years but nobody has invented the gun to penetrate it. Heck, some time after Morrowind they even forgot how to make a crossbow. Time goes by but technology doesn't seem to advance much on Nirn .

Why use guns when you can just boil them inside the armor with the power of your hands?

Also crossbows (and spears) still exist just not in game.

well as it's set in a Nordic "viking-ish" one would think about the 11th century (1001-1100 ad) as that was about the time of the vikings, but on the other hand theres a lot of mechanical dwemer stuff thats like 19th century industial era, but as that is all ancient technology in Skyrim, who the f%/k knows, I'm saying 976 AD

Spoken like a true geek! .



Wait...THIS is pure geek!

On topic, My guess is that applying earth's social norms are beside the point as this could be a world parallel to our own.

It's pointless to try and draw parralels from a world in which the concepts in game were inspired from?

The Nords clearly aren't inspired by some elements of real life Scandinavian culture, they're just... Nords... Even their names weren't drawn from concepts in our world.
Eras and dating are something that definitely aren't in our world... I mean, it's not like it's CE 2012 or anything.
Literature and science..? Real life doesn't have books or science!

But to stay on topic: OP, I would estimate somewhere at about CE 500 - CE 1000 as stated above. The art style is the closest to what we'd know as the Middle Ages, here on Earth.

This is the best post of the thread. And to the OP: pay more [censored] attention in class.

The beginning of The Dark Ages and the fall of The Roman Empire, with a bit of 2011 California thrown in to make it palatable,

"Use your smarts." lol

Of course it is, when talking about a fantasy universe that combines so many influences from so many different time periods and cultures.
Its like looking at a bowl of alphabet spaghetti and asking what letter it is.
Many people here say something incredibly silly like 1000 AD or something. All fine and dandy, but they use a type of glass not invented since the late 1600's. The printing of books is ubiquitous and not just restricted to religious texts, again, late renaissance.
Then there is the space travel and the construction of pocket dimensions.
Good luck putting that in medieval times.

1066 battle of Hastings was won with dragons IRL

The real question is which "time period" or "age" would it most likely fit in our Universe.

I would say that Skyrims takes place before the Bronze age as the Bronze age had cannons. Nirn does not. I want to say the world and time period in Skyrim bests represents "The Middle ages" in our universe.

Check out more here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_time_periods

Might even be the Viking age which is around 793 AD – 1066 AD

Im sure the sixual equality is there just to not offend some players. Just like theres no slavery of any one race.

Doesn't matter. If it's in the game, regardless of the real world reasons, then that is what Tamriel is like.
And anyway, there was slavery in Morrowind, and there is racially motivated worker exploitation in Skyrim.