TheCatsofSanktPetersburg
Learned
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2011
- Messages
- 163
The sources of inspiration. Some of the people behind the lore really know their stuff. Some knowledge of Eastern cultures and religions will help you spot them.
I'd also argue that in the case of the dunmer culture, the sources of inspiration are so varied that it creates a sort of inspirational ambiguity. I'm going to pick a terrible example here, but the orcs from Warcraft 3 are carbon copy of African tribesmen, and that's about it, that's all the cultural equivalents they have to real world models.
But the dunmer have both a tribal society, a certain jewish xenophobia, south italian numismatics, bedouin lifestyle, an honor code, sharp class distinctions, strict religious orthodoxy, monastic institutions and pilgrimages, saint worship, etc.
While the nords are clearly inspired by scandinavian culture, the dunmer sources for inspiration are so varied that it leads to a sort of blurring of the line between the real world (inspiration) and the fiction (outcome), because there is no single equivalent in the real world for the dunmer culture.