The Geopolitics of Tamriel: Geography & the Elder Scrolls

as fearless in death that's he was in life careless again did you hear that yell bet your sweet bippy I did I am done with freshman year yes welcome world builders eldest girls fans and other cool people you are watching a look at how the geography and environment of the fantasy continent Tamriel would affect its countries and empires some of you may already be thinking hey what's the point of going so in-depth about a fantasy video game thing welcome to this world building channel looking at how unrealistic and obviously fantasy continents would realistically function based on its land and environment can be enlightening for GM's writers and world builders for making consistent and believable worlds that being said I'm not here to explain the broad and narrow Elder Scrolls lore look here if you're interested in this how would the people on these lands fight each other where would the centers of power be who would fight who and would each province be able to unify like in this classic map let's get to it hi Rock hi Rock is a very funky place because it's a big peninsula that just sticks out of the land on top of Hammerfell with higher arc shape I think there would be a big power at its tip because this is largely flat it's productive it's mostly forests like in the Daggerfall map and most importantly a power at the tip would only have to worry about land invasions from one side of the border if there were to be a power like Daggerfall here it would first want to extend out like that and then push up the peninsula like this that way it only has to worry about land invasions from one side and it would be relatively easy to defend as opposed to something like this right here is the shell gora as opposed to the shell gora region right here all it would take is two powers to decide to attack it at once and it really wouldn't be able to do anything about it a power at that tip of High Rock would not have that problem that's not to say that it's the only place where a power could arise but it's realistic that one would arise right there now up in the north of High Rock there's more Mountains this being a mountainous place with valleys and forests it reminds me a lot of Japan now the world-building geography we see there is that those mountains are not very fertile and not very productive so what ends up happening is there's a bunch of separate places with high population densities and therefore there's a bunch of disparate centers of power there until somebody comes along and unifies it of course this is more in line with how the game shows it although I find it kind of unrealistic that it decides not having apologies in the mountains themselves because there have often been kingdoms and things that have existed inside of mountain ranges like the shishya or armenia one big thing that any polity at High Rock has to worry about is Hammerfell the illiac Bay kind of acts as the center of this world because it would easily facilitate travel and invasion even though amphibious invasion is difficult it's very possible William the Conqueror Knut not the Mongols they got wiped because of this high rock and the northern part of hammerfell would interact with each other pretty often whether it's trade invasion people going across they would be familiar with each other I would be surprised if there was a high rock Empire in hammerfell and vice-versa to rennie hegemony and because the proximity of the two powers gets closer together as you go up north east and the coast would be surprising to find influence of the other on either side so could high rock form a united province yeah I think so but it might fall apart right after and go back to like in the game [Music] hammerfell Hammerfell is unique not just because I think it would be the best place for the Elder Scrolls six I can't but I would consider that it's split into three different geographical regions the North will be more influenced by high rock and the more north east you go the closer you get to this river the more that will be true the south is mostly desert and stepping and the north east kind of reminds me of the Tarim basin in the northwest of China and we're about a jaques tannaz the north east of hammer fells border will be especially influenced by the Breton's because it seems to be a forest like in this map of Daggerfall which is the same environment that the people in high rock are used to and people tend to be more effective ruling and fighting in an environment like their own home they're more used to it the western part that is on the al'akir desert will kind of be affected but who knows I'm looking forward to the next game then there's the northeast part of Hammerfell which is mostly mountains deserts and dry steps because of that it reminds me of the northwest part of China the Tarim Basin which is basically the same environment to layout which has given rise to pretty isolated kingdoms like the soap dance because of that I don't think this place will be home to a large power center but it will have its own Kingdom controlling its own people I don't think it has much to worry about from Skyrim because it has the mountains to its north and the Jura mountains to its east so it's mostly protected from the people in ceará till 2 and then there's this southern part most of the maps and everything that I've seen pick this part of hammerfell as a big Plains area with some mountains at the southern part of it that's in line with having a desert right here a great forest right here and the Gold Coast also being Plains because it's a large stretch of planes going all the way down here I think that horse riders could dominate this section of the map these two sections of geography could make it a little difficult because the Colombian Highlands as shown in oblivion are very rocky very mountainous and forced it which is not the best place for horse riders to go through but coming down here to the coast it's a lot more flat and it's a Plains so I think that the potential horse riders could pinch through here and come down to the Gold Coast in Seattle and control this entire area like that perhaps it's up to the al akir desert perhaps it's down to the Gold Coast and even into reapers March and to the desert in elsewhere because reapers March has seen an ESO looks kind of Savannah like which I think horse riders could take over pretty easily it's kind of far-fetched to say that the horse riders would go all the way down here without any problem because as it comes down here it starts to become more surrounded by different people and lastly Hughes Bain as elder scrolls online shows it it's a desert it's weird I don't know perhaps it would be its own isolated thing because it's protected from the outside by this C and this C and it would only have to defend this little part of land but depending on how the people around it COFF COFF Summerset Isles decide to feel about it they could probably go in and take it to who knows so could Hammerfell unify entirely soft no it's super diverse with different enemies from all sides but Never Say Never yeah yeah never ever [Music] CIRA do on the border of Serie Dell and hammerfell there are the collodion highlands these are hills that are rocky and forested because it's big and it's highlands that are above the rest of the area around it I don't think it's out of the picture that this place could be dominated by a state that arises out of the highlands sometimes highlands are very good for controlling the people around you because it's hard to penetrate into them because you're always fighting uphill one example of this is the kingdom of Aksum that existed in the ethiopian highlands which came to dominate the surrounding area as well as the trade that went through there because of that I think there could be a pretty powerful Kingdom in the Columbian highlands themselves especially if it's along this river which would be good for production and agriculture now the south of Cyrodiil is pretty vulnerable it can be invaded from both sides of the Niemen River and the only geographical features that protect the center of power in Seattle are these rivers rivers in order for them to work as defensive boundaries need to be heavily fortified with patrols going up and down them to make sure that there's no funny business going on on the other side you can cross a river secretly you know for an example of this look at both of the Rhine and the Danube frontiers of the Roman Empire by the end of it they were both heavily fortified to deal with Germanic invaders while these rivers are good boundaries for sea Rideau they're still very expensive to maintain that is in line with the lore that set up in Skyrim you know because cyrodiil needs to defend from people in the south and potentially also the west the only place I find extremely secure by the north and northwest corners that are on the Jura mountains and the Valles Mountains mountains are probably the best geographical feature for defense because it's very difficult to cross them and if there's only certain mountain passes that go through them it's pretty easy to defend because choke points because of that I don't think Skyrim would be able to mount an effective invasion into sierra del nor morrowind honestly why would they want to it's often very to maintain territory on the other side of a mountain range this section of serie de would be the only one that doesn't have a bunch of influence from the other powers now looking at the central part of the entire continent of Tamriel you have the Imperial City into the gigantic Nibin River which I'm kind of convinced is actually an inlet but hit whatever big rivers like this can often be a factor that centralizes a state like the Nile and Mississippi rivers you can control trade and you can move troops around very easily so in big rivers you can get large powers for the Nile River Egypt for the Mississippi River you have the Mississippi culture complex which is a bunch of similar cultures around the Mississippi River Valley because it's easy to travel along these rivers the Nibin River here in the middle is very much the same however in the north it's surrounded by these sea Radel people and in the south it's potentially surrounded by people from elsewhere and black marsh and people I mean Khajiit and argonians which if you ask the dunmer they're just farming tools in the lore elsewhere black marsh and sir adult do via watt for this lower River Valley and rightfully so if you have access to this particular choke point the city of Leia wean then you could cut off trade from the outside with all of these parts and you could also let in any kind of attackers that you want to for that reason I think elsewhere would definitely want this part and black marsh would definitely want this part but in the games so far the Empire has been in control and the Empire's in Sierra del Sol it makes sense that Sierra del would take these different places the Bethesda red has did take into account a lot of different factors controlling the Nibin River would be a pretty big priority for any power that arises in ceará dope other than that are you let it Seattle could exist if it controls the entirety of this river valley and then it could stretch itself out to be on the Gold Coast so it has trade with the a Batian sea and I love how that's s here so could Cyrodiil unify like in the game oh no just kidding it could but it would be hard [Music] elsewhere elsewhere is a very funky place on Tamriel as said before it is right on the Nibin River and has access to the Topol Bay so it probably has a natural power base just controlling the Nibin River and up here aside from that it has the disadvantage of being in contest with Valen wood and the south of cyrano when you look at in the game this edge of the Nibin River right next to elsewhere is all forests which essentially means that the desert and elsewhere exists as a pocket in a very large complex of jungles and forests that extends all the way up into southern Cyrodiil elsewhere having this desert could be a disadvantage because deserts are harsh they're not easy to live in and they're not good for agriculture and because this one's in the middle of all these forests it doesn't act as a barrier for anything however this desert could also be a positive thing because moving around in the jungles and forests is a very difficult thing to do especially for large amounts of troops for big trade caravans anything like that so because this desert exists in the pocket of the forest that needs to be a large transitionary ring around it that isn't just desert or forest but Plains these Plains could be productive with its animals with trade and with moving around war caravans so perhaps in this desert would be a very strategic thing to hold on to if you wanted to control a large region of elsewhere and Velen would and even into southern sierra del once again it's easier to control an environment that is like your own so an empire that exists in the forest of elsewhere could extend itself into the forests of Valen wood and sira del although it might have a lot of trouble in the desert region of elsewhere being on the Nibin River elsewhere could also extend itself across into Blackwood and maybe threaten Black Marsh but that's only if it's very powerful and unified so could elsewhere form lick on the map with just the desert in the north of the jungle in the south don't think so because those two environments are kind of opposites but there could be powerful states around here that are based off of that dynamic [Music] Velen would the Valen wood is kind of it's kind of just a blob of forests you know because of Aylan wood doesn't have a lot of diversity in its environment I think it could be unified but it could also just exist as a bunch of separate states that are divided by this thick ass forest however if somebody from the outside tried to penetrate into Valen wood the forest and jungle and it would provide very good protection for guerrilla fighters because of that I don't think it would be easy for anyone outside of a own wood to colonize them but they could certainly try there are rivers that go through it which could be important in controlling it I think if there were to be a center of power for a unified Velen wood it would have to be from the center because I think the rivers that flow through it would originate in the very middle which gives it access to project its power on the edges so could Valen would form a United province yeah absolutely but being a giant land of forests it could also form a bunch of separate entities [Music] [Music] Summerset Isles the Somerset Isle is an island Wow even if it's all just a big fantasy would land like ESO shows it being an island makes have very definite confines which makes unifying the entire thing a pretty obvious geopolitical goal maybe the island would pull a United Kingdom and have a unified polity on its own big island and then take a small chunk of auradon but I think the Somerset Isle would be able to dominate a lot of things around it and this is especially because the Navy is going to be paramount to the geopolitical strategy of anybody on these islands the only threat a polity here would face besides internal rebellion or discontent or anything would be outside invasion from these different powers of the a Batian sea and if anyone tried to invade they would have to use big boats and the best way to fight big boats is have more bigger boats so the Somerset I would definitely want to invest in a big Navy to project power the Somerset I would want to take all these small little islands around and kind of claim the Batian sea as its own aside from that having its capital on the west part of the island is good because any other power trying to take over the island would have to go around or fight its way through the island in order to reach the capital and that only works if you have a giant brass God on your side so could the Summerset Isles form a united polity most definitely yes and I think it would even go as far to colonize areas around it [Music] Skyrim Skyrim is completely surrounded by giant hard to cross mountains and there's only a few places where you'll be able to cross into the other provinces this makes it very easy to defend from outside invasion but that kind of security can give way to people just hating each other on the inside instead it being super cold and super north and also super mountainous doesn't bode well for the productivity of the area any conflicts inside of Skyrim would probably have to be small-scale otherwise it may devastate everything the landmass in Skyrim is really separated into two different basins one on the left and one on the right and you can get across from one to the other through different mountain passes or near this river next to Whiterun because of this I think the geographical split of the Stormcloaks and the Imperials makes a lot of sense the Stormcloaks exists on the east and the imperials on the west and Whiterun is a big strategic important place for them Skyrim could be divided like this but it could also be very easily unified because the entire thing is just a big basin of the surrounding mountains when it comes to controlling Skyrim I think the most important part would be this middle plain of Whiterun because plains are easy to move troops around if you control them and to this plane in particular ends right where the West basin moves into the east basin with this River even though there are passes that you can go around those would be relatively easy to defend and this one being wider with a river going through it makes a big difference now the problem with Skyrim is that if it wants to exert any international influence it has to control these passes and then push through them in order to go anywhere could Skyrim form a united province like in the classic map absolutely bonus round if based on the geography alone who will win the Skyrim Civil War it depends on who gets Whiterun [Music] black marsh [Music] black mush is a giant swamp marsh and swamp usually suck to live in because it's hard to move around it's hard to transform the environment and they're usually filled with nasty gross diseased swamp and Marcia also transitionary zones between land and water so realistically a marsh legatus could never exist but that's okay because it's a fantasy continent so on the conditions that only argonians could prosper and empire built from here what is black marshes geopolitical situation black marsh could pretty easily invade into Sierra del especially since this is Marcia around here and if it controls these hills around here there'd be much harder for the people in Sierra del to mount a defense against them the same goes for Southern Morrowind as that's all swamp and there are hills that they could use to control the surrounding area Morrowind poses a significant threat because of its closeness to Black Marsh the biggest thing about Black Marsh is because it's a giant Marsh it would be basically impossible for anybody but argonians to invade into it making it completely safe for the swamp based reptilians that live in its core so the argonians of Black Marsh could take an offensive advantage if they control to the hills around the core area of Black Marsh and if black marsh was so inclined they could easily invade across the Nibin river into elsewhere or up the Nibin river to take up here so could Black Marsh form United province only The Oregonian's could do it [Music] Morrowind Morrowind on its west side is very protected by mountains and on its east side has a giant ocean that will only be a problem if the continent on the other side of it decides to invade so for the internal aspects of marwan's power how would one control it well looking at this concept map for morrowind we can see a few things a central polity in morrowind could exert power using the Navy in this inland sea with that it could control any coastal settlements and have a power base that extends all the way up to the northern coast if there were a central polity in Morrowind I think it would exist right here in the very center this is because there are rivers that originate there that it can once again exert power through those two a lot of the settlements and if we're accepting this concept map to the mainland of Morrowind because the island of Vardhan fell is looking terrible they could also control this central plane which would give them access to about this area so I think a central Morrowind state could exist however the further away you get from the coast and to the higher up you get the harder it might be to maintain control which means that the inland in Vardhan fell might be compromised to rebels into the highlands on either branch pointing north might be difficult for them to control so code morrowind form a unified province yeah hail old city these aren't critiques of the map nor the world building in the Elder Scrolls games this map is just very simple and easy to understand each playable race comes from one distinct province except the orcs because they're outcasts does this mean we now know who will win the skyrim Civil War what about the Elder Scrolls 6 read fall dagger guard know nothing about any of that I just wanted to look at some wack-ass fake fantasy geography and see what it might mean for geopolitics and world building so I join the discord and give this video a dislike peace

Channel: Stoneworks

Views: 240,087

Keywords: geography, skyrim, world building, writing, elder scrolls 6, elder scrolls vi, how to, maps, tamriel, oblivion, morrowind, elder scrolls online, empires, skyrim lore, aldmeri dominion, the elder scrolls, elder scrolls, elder scrolls lore, place names, fantasy world building, khajiit, build, fudgemuppet, stoneworks, geopolitics, Skyrim, skyrim theme, skyrim build, fallout, mrmattyplays, letsplay, history, tiber septim, shoddycast, imperial library, redguard, daggerfall, d&d, stormcloak, greymoor

Id: K-8WUlEI7vU

Length: 23min 55sec (1435 seconds)

Published: Fri May 22 2020