How large are Skyrim and its populations?

[ifoolb]

And is it possible for Skyrim to defend itself from Aldmeri Dominion? Some farmers say a united empire is better for everyone, while even forsworn of the reach wants to declare independence.

[Delta 1038]

Well, I like to think what you see in-game isn't a 'realistic' intrepetation on what's 'real' in Tamriel. So isn't really Whiterun isn't populated by 30 people and bandits don't outnumber law-abiding citizens 2 to 1 but for the sake of gameplay, what you see is an abstract on the 'real'.

EDIT: In other words, it's actually pretty big.

[Cobbler]

Skyrim has no chance in hell to defend against the Thalmor, unless a higher power steps in. Unfortunately true, but basically all of Nirn is doomed unless something major happens.

[Zulu]

Originally posted by Cobbler:

Skyrim has no chance in hell to defend against the Thalmor, unless a higher power steps in. Unfortunately true, but basically all of Nirn is doomed unless something major happens.

Skyrim has Dragons, so.. Yea
Elves have Magic.
Nords have cold.
Nords are good with weapons
High Elves, not so much.
Skyrim also has the Dragonborn, Draugr and Ulfric, so that's pretty good.

I would like to see the HE try and fight the Tsaesci though, show them how little their magics really are against a much more powerful race.

[Cobbler]

Originally posted by Zulu:

Originally posted by Cobbler:

Skyrim has no chance in hell to defend against the Thalmor, unless a higher power steps in. Unfortunately true, but basically all of Nirn is doomed unless something major happens.

Skyrim has Dragons, so.. Yea
Elves have Magic.
Nords have cold.
Nords are good with weapons
High Elves, not so much.
Skyrim also has the Dragonborn, Draugr and Ulfric, so that's pretty good.

I would like to see the HE try and fight the Tsaesci though, show them how little their magics really are against a much more powerful race.

The elves outnumber Skyrim greatly.
The people of Skyrim don't trust the Redguards, the Bretons, views their own Empire as betraying Talos.

The Thalmor control sections of Tamriel, and the Legion has been decimated in the Battle of the Red Ring.
Basically all who oppose the Thalmor are weak or have infighting.

The only way for them to actually beat the Thalmor, is most likely to merge the forces of the Redguards, High Rock, the Dragons, Skyrim, the remaining Legion, all other forces they can muster. Even with this, the battle would likely require divine intervention.

[Zulu]

Originally posted by Cobbler:

Originally posted by Zulu:

Skyrim has Dragons, so.. Yea
Elves have Magic.
Nords have cold.
Nords are good with weapons
High Elves, not so much.
Skyrim also has the Dragonborn, Draugr and Ulfric, so that's pretty good.

I would like to see the HE try and fight the Tsaesci though, show them how little their magics really are against a much more powerful race.

The elves outnumber Skyrim greatly.
The people of Skyrim don't trust the Redguards, the Bretons, views their own Empire as betraying Talos.

The Thalmor control sections of Tamriel, and the Legion has been decimated in the Battle of the Red Ring.
Basically all who oppose the Thalmor are weak or have infighting.

The only way for them to actually beat the Thalmor, is most likely to merge the forces of the Redguards, High Rock, the Dragons, Skyrim, the remaining Legion, all other forces they can muster. Even with this, the battle would likely require divine intervention.

The Redguards hate both the Empire and High Elves so it's likely that they would help the Nords against them.
Dragons alone could kill the Elves, especially if this was pre-Alduin death. Or just by having Durnehviir. The Draugr and Dragon Priests along with the Dragons would be a very considerable force to be reckoned with.

Tsaesci would still beat the High Elves, as well as every other Tamrielic race at the same time - as they have before.

[jackdaniels5091]

For referance an Imperial legion is based on a roman legion which consists of around 6000 men. the lore typically describes each province in a way that the player can infer populations are high in the thousands atleast. The only population number known is daggerfall had a population of 110,000 in 3E201. The imperial city is 10x larger than any provincial city so at minimum you can assume the imperial city had over 1 million citizens at its height in the third era.

[Cobbler]

Originally posted by jackdaniels5091:

For referance an Imperial legion is based on a roman legion which consists of around 6000 men. the lore typically describes each province in a way that the player can infer populations are high in the thousands atleast. The only population number known is daggerfall had a population of 110,000 in 3E201. The imperial city is 10x larger than any provincial city so at minimum you can assume the imperial city had over 1 million citizens at its height in the third era.

Noting that the Thamor control multiple regions of Tamriel, their numbers would be much, much higher.

[jackdaniels5091]

The thalmor numbers would be much lower than that of humanity. Thalmor have long lifespans but less fertility, most elves only have one child some have none and those that have two are lucky, the thalmor make this worse by believing in pure bloods which is two high elven parents. This is why the thalmor need to constantly insure infighting and descent.

[Zulu]

Originally posted by Cobbler:

Originally posted by jackdaniels5091:

For referance an Imperial legion is based on a roman legion which consists of around 6000 men. the lore typically describes each province in a way that the player can infer populations are high in the thousands atleast. The only population number known is daggerfall had a population of 110,000 in 3E201. The imperial city is 10x larger than any provincial city so at minimum you can assume the imperial city had over 1 million citizens at its height in the third era.

Noting that the Thamor control multiple regions of Tamriel, their numbers would be much, much higher.

You wouldn't think so though, with Cyrodil being the largest Province in Tamriel by quite a bit.

[Solomon Hawk]

Originally posted by ifoolb:

And is it possible for Skyrim to defend itself from Aldmeri Dominion? Some farmers say a united empire is better for everyone, while even forsworn of the reach wants to declare independence.

Ysgramor and 500 companions nearly wiped out the Snow Elves.
An independant Skyrim isn't going to wait for the Thalmor to come to them.
They plan on invading Somerset and Valenwood.
Now, with the Dragonborn (Ysmir) and and least two named dragons as his allies ..
The Thalmor will pay.

The old empire must dissolve (die) to give way to the birth of a new empire.

[ifoolb]

Originally posted by Tempest Stormcaller:

Originally posted by ifoolb:

And is it possible for Skyrim to defend itself from Aldmeri Dominion? Some farmers say a united empire is better for everyone, while even forsworn of the reach wants to declare independence.

Ysgramor and 500 companions nearly wiped out the Snow Elves.
An independant Skyrim isn't going to wait for the Thalmor to come to them.
They plan on invading Somerset and Valenwood.
Now, with the Dragonborn (Ysmir) and and least two named dragons as his allies ..
The Thalmor will pay.

The old empire must dissolve (die) to give way to the birth of a new empire.

Speaking of the Thalmor, it's not very clear to me what their motivation of starting this war is. Frankly war is almost always bad for a country. It seems that they're not for resources at all since they have low birth rate. They fight this war completely out of intolerance against other nations. If so they'll suffer the same fate as Nazi. But it doesn't matter whether Ulfric will win the war, this is a lose-lose situation for the damage to all sides is done.

[Washell]

Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim are build on a 1/10th scale according to an interview I read sometime between Morrowind and Oblivion.

[Solomon Hawk]

Originally posted by ifoolb:

Originally posted by Tempest Stormcaller:

Ysgramor and 500 companions nearly wiped out the Snow Elves.
An independant Skyrim isn't going to wait for the Thalmor to come to them.
They plan on invading Somerset and Valenwood.
Now, with the Dragonborn (Ysmir) and and least two named dragons as his allies ..
The Thalmor will pay.

The old empire must dissolve (die) to give way to the birth of a new empire.

Speaking of the Thalmor, it's not very clear to me what their motivation of starting this war is. Frankly war is almost always bad for a country. It seems that they're not for resources at all since they have low birth rate. They fight this war completely out of intolerance against other nations. If so they'll suffer the same fate as Nazi. But it doesn't matter whether Ulfric will win the war, this is a lose-lose situation for the damage to all sides is done.

Some of the lore I get from it seems to suggest to me that the Thalmor think of us as nothing more than a waste product after their "separation" from the Aedra in their creation.
A bitter resentment.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by jackdaniels5091:

The thalmor numbers would be much lower than that of humanity. Thalmor have long lifespans but less fertility, most elves only have one child some have none and those that have two are lucky, the thalmor make this worse by believing in pure bloods which is two high elven parents. This is why the thalmor need to constantly insure infighting and descent.

Elves have low fertility, that's true, but any species that has one child between two parents isn't going to last thousands of years. The fact that the various species of Elf are still around makes this "Fact" patently absurd.

Elves have multiple children, just like Humans, they are just spread out more, say one every Decade or so. Furthermore Bosmer are more fertile than Altmer, with Dunmer falling somewhere between the two rates of fertility. There are several elves who make references to brothers or sisters, not to mention references in the books in game that state various elves had brothers and sisters.

In short, I don't know where you got that fact from, but it is patently false.

The Elven populations would be lower, but not by as much as you seem to think, they would have slightly fewer children, but more would survive into adulthood (better spellcasters healing them). The real limiter for them would be once they turn adult, with a greater portion of them dying in the first few adventurers, esecially since they have a habit of going on quests to find this or that lost relic.

[Washell]

Originally posted by jackdaniels5091:

Thalmor have long lifespans but less fertility, most elves only have one child some have none and those that have two are lucky

That means that if the first generation has a thousand elves, they beget 500 children. The second generation has 500 elves, begetting 250 children. The third generation has 250 elves, begetting 125 children, and so on. One child does not work.

The birthrate for a stable population in our current western society is 2.1 children per couple. Between the medieval society, and the brutal warfare and banditry of Tamriel, though alleviated by Restoration magic and Alchemy, though worsened by Destruction magic, the birth rate should probably be 4 or 5 kids per couple, assuming Restoration/Alchemy take care of child mortality rates.