It doesn't use our calander.

The similarities are just coincidence.

Just like the coincidence that the language happens to sound and is written exactly like English (at least in my game).

Boy im happy that they are using the same characters and language as we do. And no, I dont want to know why...and thats what Im thinking about the calendar.

I am under the impression that Reachmen are not Bretons
Although for programming sake they may very well be Bretons

The Reachmen are indeed Bretons, though their strain is inherently more elven than it is man where as the High Rock varriant is more man than elven. None the less their bretons all the same.

OT: I read a suggestion to change the real life calendar to 13 months of 28 days each, with an extra week added every 5 or 6 years. That way all months start on the same day of the week.

Imperials are "Roman", though the more common term (and considering the actual Roman Empire's history by the end of the empire, when it's population was hardly Roman), would be Latin.

Bretons = Angevin or Norman. That encompasses both Britain and France, though it's entirely possible some of the influences stretch as far back as the empire of Charlemagne.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Ch%C3%A2teaudun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolingian_Empire

Nords = Scandinavian, though I do wonder if there are some Briton (Welsh) influences too.

Elven names I find to be made of mostly fantasy, though I suspect there are some broad European influences throughout.

as for Nirn as a parallel of earth, this is close. There's an actual comparison that finds Nirn to be smaller than Earth, in between the size of earth's moon and the earth itself.

sig'd for epicness

I think its best to leave real world cultures out of it. No single race come to a 1:1 comparison with any other culture on earth. Nirn iteself isn't bound to the same laws of nature as our world is. The Sun itself is litterally a giant whole in the sky where magicka seeps in from realm of Magnus, as are all the stars in the sky. Not a giant ball of gass that warms the planet.

this.

besides, there's always wrenches in these attempts at real world/TES comparisons.

For example, a Breton, who we place as French/Norman/Anglo, is named Hannibal Traven.

They're still clearly influenced by real cultures. This is neither good nor bad and not every element of the cultures in TES needs to mirror the cultures that initially influenced their design. It ends up working well that many Bretons have French and English names while some don't. That's what happens in real cultures too.

Of cource their influenced, they have to be since nothing is 100% origional. However, most of its aethetics and if you get into the meet of it you'd find, say for instance the Imperials, are nothing like Romans.

I don't disagree, but I must say you've piqued my curiosity. I'd love to hear your thoughts on why the Imperials are nothing like Romans.

Why do Tamrielic humans look like Earthen humans? Why do each races have two different genders when they should be able to just magic a baby? Why do mortals die? Why does any of Nirn resemble Earth and our reality?

It's so we can relate to it and understand it easily. In order to make a successful fantasy setting, you have to know what to make fantastical and what to keep normal.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Pocket_Guide_to_the_Empire,_1st_Edition/Cyrodiil

lol

That sounds like something from one of the old Zork games from Infocom.


Bingo.


Tough to say. There are arguments either way for both French and British, based on names. I tend to think of them as related to pre-Saxon Britons, but there are certainly arguments for French influence. I expect somebody actually from France could tell you what part of the country the names mostly come from, and hence which of the older pre-French nationalities the Tamrielian Bretons most emulate.


Yup. I think even Tolkien's calendar for Middle Earth matched the Gregorian calendar, with (I think) names for the months and the days of the week created in Sindarin, Quendi and (probably) Numenorian.


Because even in Tamriel, God loves the infantry.


Heard about that - and it would be absurd. Also, historically, never trust anybody that starts making major changes to the calendar that aren't related to accuracy. Caesar Augustus named months after Julius Caesar (July) and himself (August) and the French Revolutionaries created a new calendar for no practical reason other than social engineering.


What did they base their estimate of the size of Nirn on?


There's no reason why both can't be true. For one thing, what shape is a "hole in the sky" anyway? A circle? Or a sphere? The geometry of space is a strange thing, and if space is four-dimensional, a hole in it would be a three-dimensional hole, just as a hole in the surface of a hollow three-dimensional sphere is a two-dimensional hole.

And yes, all four of the human races of Tamriel are very clearly based on Earth cultures, although with the Bretons it seems to be a mix of Briton and some French sub-nationality.


Still doesn't mean the Imperials aren't based at all on the Romans. Certainly their names show a clear Latin influence, and the military uniforms in Skyrim show it as well.

Influenced, yes, based off no. Don't want to get too far off topic but the lore is too complex to just say 'yeah Imperial are based off Romans' because that would do them injustice.

Names and uniforms are just aethetics, and not base for saying the Imperials are 'based' off Romans. Culturally, their nothing alike.

edit: Also, you'r not looking into the lore if you think any race is 'based' off one paticular culture. Its simply isn't true.

There are cultural differences, but again, names and clothing styles are part of your culture. I agree that they aren't totally derived from the Romans - there's no slavery, there's no legally-enshrined class difference between the plebs, the equestrians and the senators, etc. and so forth. But still, the influences are there. It isn't that they're exactly equal to the Romans any more than the Nords are identical to the real-world Norse, but the identification is still there.,

Certianly, I agree influence is there. Undeniably so. However, their not based on any one culture.

Assuming that almost every NPC in Daggerfall (the game) are Bretons... I wonder why did they have very English-sounding names back then?

Well, surely they aren't wholly based on the Romans, but the Romans seem to be the only real-world influence on the Imperials that I can detect.


Perhaps the guys that made Daggerfall didn't really have any idea how to differentiate between the Britons and the English. What kinds of names were they?

The only thing Roman i detect is their names, the legion dress (note the people don't dress like Romans), name military organization.

Well, I'm not sure even Romans dressed in traditional Roman styles if they went to the far north either. I expect a Roman who moved from Rome off to Britannia in the employ of the Roman governor of the province of Britannia would wear something considerably warmer than a toga, at least if he spent much time outdoors. I expect a Roman winter is downright balmy and pleasant compared to a winter in ancient Londinium.

Even in Cyrodiil they didn't dress 'the part'. Oblivion didn't do Cyrodiil justice however. Take the Nibians for instance. Tattoo played a huge roll in Nibian culture, and when they wed they had tattooed rings drawn on their fingers instead of the traditional ring. Nibians also used the ancestor moths who feasted on the flesh of their dead to spin intricant robes that told your families history. None of that was potrayed in the Nibian in Oblivion.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Breton_Names

Scroll down to the "Daggerfall" section.

I see nothing in Daggerfall names that hints at Britons, other than perhaps Gaer and Yeo, and even then that can be argued as not Briton.

I'm not sure if the point was made or connected, but the Britons were the Welsh. I don't think I've ever seen a pure, Welsh-influenced name in any TES game.