Many of the universes in today’s popular culture show direct inspiration from many civilizations of the past. The Elder Scrolls (TES) series is no different. Though some of the playable races in this fantasy role playing game (RPG) draw quite obviously from real life civilizations, there are other races that can only be defined by their characteristics and lore.
	Ten playable races are included in The Elder Scrolls series as of the most recent installment The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Playable races within the game are split into three categories: man, mer or elves, and beastfolk. The man races include the Nords, Imperials, Redguards, and sometimes Bretons. Mer races encompass those that are Altmer or high elves, Bosmer or wood elves, Dunmer or dark elves, and Orsimer or orcs. Lastly the beastfolk races include the Khajit, a cat-like people, and the Argonian, a lizard-like people.  All of the playable races within TES, including man, mer, and beastfolk, have been inspired by at least one real world civilization.
	Races in The Elder Scrolls are most often defined in one of two ways: their names, or obvious reference to real life civilizations. Roman civilization is an example of a society that has given inspiration to a race within the games without being explicitly named after, as seen with the Imperial race within TES.  The races most easily defined are those that are named after certain people groups throughout history. The Nords, for example, are a hearty bunch of men in the northern province of the continent in which the games takes place.  Nordic countries, or Scandinavia, is an obvious source of inspiration for this race. Even with the superficial name of some of the playable races, like the Nords, their real world connections go much deeper.
	Nords are the most obvious race to determine which people group inspired their creation. The similar traits of the Nords and Scandinavian people groups go deeper than just the name. Government within Skyrim, the region of the Nords, is broken up into regions with each region having a jarl. These jarl’s holding can range from farms to holds as seen in The Holdings of Jarl Gjalund, a book within the game series.   The jarls of Hlaoir is a dynasty of jarls in northern Norway, a region in Scandinavia, serve as an example in our universe of the same government that the inhabitants of Skyrim are under.  Apart from government, their religion is also similar. Both are polytheistic, but more specifically the afterlife in both civilizations theology is similar. The Nords believe in the afterlife of Savngarde, a place where brave and heroic warriors spend their time after death.  Scandinavia is home to Norse mythology which has the afterlife of Valhalla, a hall for valorous warriors who have died in battle.  Burials within both civilizations are similar. Burrows litter the landscape of Skyrim holding treasures and the dead.  Similarly, burrows in Scandinavia are used to bury individuals as well as to hold relics. In addition burrows in this region were a place for sacrifices to be offered.  Being that both of these regions are in the north of their universe, the climate is quite similar. Skyrim is a harsh environment containing mesa and mountains.  Tundra stretches across Scandinavia. In addition it is populated with lichens, low shrubs and wildflowers.  Rune stones populate both of these regions. Uppland in Scandinavia is a province that is rich with rune stones.  Being that the universe of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim takes place in a fantasy role playing game, the rune stones within it possess magical powers.
	Just south of Skyrim lies Cyrodiil. This region is home to the Imperials within The Elder Scrolls universe. Imperials have many similarities with Rome. The first of these similarities are the extensive empires that the Roman and Cyrodiilic empires had. Rome had an empire that stretched over the Mediterranean world.  The Imperial Reman dynasty in TES also had a holds on lands outside of their homeland of Cyrodiil.  Reman is also a superficial name reference to the legend of Romulus and Remus founding Rome.  The armor used by Romans, more specifically the lorica segmentata, is also similar to the armor being worn by imperial soldiers in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
	More so than the Imperials, the Redguards are a people group based on a soldier culture. Spartans are a real world civilization that align with Redguards. Redguards live in a martial culture and are trained at a young age to be warriors.  Xenophon also noted the Spartans lived by laws that encouraged the toughening of its citizens.  There are a couple other civilizations which the developers of The Elder Scrolls draw inspiration from as well. The first of these is the Mughals for their architecture. India is famous for the Taj Mahal and some of the architecture within Hammerfell, the Redguard region, is similar.  Climate within Hammerfell is similar to that of Persia, modern day Iran. Hammerfell is noted for taking more time to conquer due to the desert in the center of the region.  Silk Road merchants in Persia had to stay away from the desert in order to business effectively as well.  While militaristic, they are saints when compared to their Forsworn Breton half-brothers.
	Races in Skyrim are based on the system of man, mer, and beastfolk. One of these races is a cross between man and mer. Manmer, also known as Bretons, have very superficial name ties to Britanniae. More specifically the Forsworn is a mainly Breton people group within Skyrim and has ties to the Celtic tribes within Europe. To most of the inhabitants of the Reach, the area in which the Forsworn inhabit, the Forsworn savage barbarians. This information is presented this way mainly due to citizens of nearby holds being at odds with the Forsworn.  The information that exists for Celts today comes mainly from enemy eyes as well. Pliny writes in his books of natural history that the Celts were barbarous. Celts are also noted for one of their more unique social roles: the druid.  Within many of the Forsworn camps the role of druid is filled by a witch creature called a hagraven.  Rituals of these tribes both used fetish-like items as well. Mistletoe was often used in Celtic rituals, which can be interpreted as a type of fetish.  Within the game of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, hagraven dens tend to be littered with more gruesome fetishes, such as goat heads on pikes.
	Most of the elves are tamer than the Forsworn Bretons. Mer, or elves, encompass a few different varieties. The altmer, or high elf, is known as a race that is proud of their “noble” genealogy, and because of this they often come off a bit smug.  The Aryans are a real world civilization that held that they were “noble people.”  The high elves are deeply intertwined with magic in the world of The Elder Scrolls so the similarities to any other races are slim to none.
	Bosmer, or wood elves, have an interesting religion and are a bit more humble than their Altmer brothers. The Green Pact, a set of rules given to them by one of their deities, states that they cannot use wood from their forest, and that they are not allowed to eat any vegetation. Because of these rules, the Bosmer are basically inverse vegetarians, or strict carnivores.  One faith in the real world encourages its followers to not eat meat. The Rig Veda, one of the books of Hindu faith, gives birth to the Brahmin diet. This diet restricts Brahmins from eating meat. Though these are the opposite the two can be related because of the strictness of their diet.
	Dunmer, or dark elves, have a deeper history than the Bosmer, and have a similar story to a popular people group in our world. Jews have striking similarities to the Dunmer within The Elder Scrolls universe. The Dunmer started as nomads under the rule of Veloth, a prophet.  Veloth was inspired a supernatural being believed to be Boethiah.  Upon reaching the land Morrowind it was already populated by another race called the Dwemer.  This similarities between the origin story of the Dunmer and Jews is uncanny. Genesis in the Bible tells the story of how Abraham was inspired by God and led others in search of the promise land.  The government of the two civilizations is also remarkably similar. Israel was split into two kingdoms due to tribal tensions.  Morrowind also uses a government similar to the tribes of Israel. Rather instead of tribe, the term house is used. Unlike the tribes of Israel these houses are all united under ruling body known as the Tribunal.
	Orsimer, or orcs, are the hardened race of elves. Like orcs from most fantasy universes they are overly bestial. Because of this, a term used for them within The Elder Scrolls universe is pariah folk.  Mongols are infamous for their brutality in the tactics they employed. They used fear, and used psychology in their warfare. If settlements didn’t surrender, all but a few individuals would be slaughtered. Because of this brutality, it is likely that villages weren’t too fond of Mongols.  Just because the Orcs of TES were brutal didn’t mean they were lawless savages. The Code of Malacath, is based on offenders of crimes paying back the offended with a reasonable reimbursement. Though this code uses blood price, so if one orc was to steal from another, the convict would have to bleed until the victim is content.  This is similar to the Code of Hammurabi from Babylonia in the sense that physical repercussions are taken, and in most cases the repercussions are lethal.
	Beastfolk races within The Elder Scrolls universe are unique and hard to pin to any certain civilization in the real world. The cat-like Khajit and lizard-like Argonians both share a trait that resembles the Incan civilizations. The Incas are noted for the affinity for coca. They used it religiously and in their general life.  The Khajit have a substance called moonsugar that can tend to be addictive, but due to their usual consumption, they are immune to its addictiveness. Even more similar to coca, moonsugar can be manufactured into a drug called skooma that is highly addictive. Argonians also have a type of tree they hold close to their heart. The Hist is a living species of trees within TES that the Argonians believe they originated from, and because of this the Hist is worshipped. Argonians also believe that when they perish their souls return to the Hist tree in order for their soul to be reincarnated.
	While the fans of The Elder Scrolls can speculate as to which races are inspired by which real world civilizations, only a few will ever be directly inspired by real world civilizations. The Nords and Bretons are the most obvious when it comes to their real world inspiration due to them being named after the Nordic regions and Brittonic regions respectively. Fortunately, the similarities between the real world civilizations and in game races go deeper than their names. The Imperials are the last of the races that can be directly related to real world civilizations. Most of the information for the other races in this paper may seem thin. This is mainly because the last three games to be made in the series included more information on the respective races the games focused on. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, released information on the Dunmer, Imperials, and Nords respectively. It is only natural that most of the information for the games are about those three races. Another reason for the lack of information across all races is the fact that a new edition of The Pocket Guide to the Empire wasn’t released with the each installment of the games, instead only two editions have been released with the last one being released with The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind twelve years ago. Because of the love for The Elder Scrolls universe, the desire to tie the real world within TES will never go away.