Were atmorans cave-people?

[Horror Pigeon]

Do you know what the merethic era in the wiki sounds like to me? The elder scrolls', or at least skyrim's stone age. I have never delved into elder scrolls' lore. That ysgramir statue could be an artist's post-era supposition of what they looked like. Do the humans of elder scrolls games have common ancestry in apes?

[Fear2288]

It’s probably more accurate to say that the Merethic Era is to the Fourth Era as the Ancient Era (600 BC - 500 AD) is to the early Medieval Era (900 AD - 1400 AD).

No large, significant leaps in technology, civilizations rose and fell or evolved into new/different ones, areas once wild and undeveloped have since been settled and populated, etc.

No - Atmorans weren’t Neanderthals.

The Atmorans had whole towns and cities back in Atmora, it was at one time a cold but still inhabitable land - like Skyrim - but for whatever reason it started to get colder, and colder, and colder. Forests and plantlife died out, followed by most of the animals, and everything became covered in snow and ice.

This - plus fighting over dwindling resources and livable territory - is why groups of them began to head south to Tamriel.

At the time of TESV, Atmora is still there beyond the Sea of Ghosts, but it’s a virtually uninhabited land, dotted with the ruins of this ancient civilization partially or fully covered by snow, and is so cold that even Nords wouldn’t be able to last long exposed to the elements.

Though I have my reservations about them, the Beyond Skyrim project is currently working on an Atmora mod. It sounds rather interesting as you’ll be heading to this frozen hellscape to assist a Legacy of the Dragonborn-like expedition in their pursuit of studying the Atmorans and collecting artifacts and relics. Supposedly, a “localized” kind of survival mode will be in place too - forcing you to manage your exposure to the harsh climate so as not to freeze to death.

It was once slated to be the first full release for BS as it predominantly used vanilla environmental and ancient Nordic assets, but supposedly the team experienced some kind of infighting and most left the project…then they found out that the assets made for it were done so poorly and incorrectly that the game would constantly CTD when trying to play it. So the new team just threw 3 or 4 years of work in the garbage and started from square one only a year or so ago.

[Steelfleece]

Humans in TES do not have common ancestry with apes, but instead giants and, more distantly, elves including Khajiit, as far as I've read.

Ancient Atmorans probably had slightly less architectural knowhow and possibly slightly more primitive metalworking but as one can see from the ruins, weapons and armor left behind from the migrations, they weren't -that- far behind. They clearly worked steel and other metals, built ships of some size capable of standing up to rough oceans, and built quite large, if often megalithic, structures. My guess is the Merethic Era would probably be comparable to the Bronze Age or perhaps the onset of the Iron age.

[Fear2288]

Originally posted by Steelfleece:

Humans in TES do not have common ancestry with apes, but instead giants and, more distantly, elves including Khajiit, as far as I've read.

Ancient Atmorans probably had slightly less architectural knowhow and possibly slightly more primitive metalworking but as one can see from the ruins, weapons and armor left behind from the migrations, they weren't -that- far behind. They clearly worked steel and other metals, built ships of some size capable of standing up to rough oceans, and built quite large, if often megalithic, structures. My guess is the Merethic Era would probably be comparable to the Bronze Age or perhaps the onset of the Iron age.

While apes and monkeys do exist in TES, and there are/were a race of intelligent apes (the Imga), I don’t think the races of men are related to them.

Most sentient life on Nirn is attributed to the Ehlnofey - a group of beings said to be the first inhabitants of the world.

The popular Elven belief is that the Ehlnofey were the et’Ada (original spirits) who chose not to flee Mundus with Magnus and the Magna Ge, and instead stayed to stabilize and complete the mortal realm. Some sacrificed themselves to create the laws of nature - becoming known as the Earthbones - while the others volunteered to inhabit Nirn and in doing so relinquished their immortality.

Elves believe that they are direct descendants of these Ehlnofey - who progressively lost their god-like powers little-by-little over generations, while men believe that the races of Nirn were created by the Ehlnofey.

The only race this doesn’t apply to are Argonians who are created by The Hist - hive-mind trees said to have been on Nirn as far back as the Ehlnofey (possibly coming from someplace beyond Nirn).

Of course, some races have their own ideas about where they came from too.

For example, Khajiit believe that they were created by Azura who was taking the “forest people” of Y’ffre (possibly Bosmer, but not specifically named as such) and transforming them to her liking until someone gave Y’ffre a heads up who stopped that nonsense.

Orcs tend to subscribe to the legend that they’re descended from the Elven followers of Trinimac who were transformed along with their god after Boethiah consumed and “expelled” him (turning him into Malacath). A likely false alternative theory is that they’re the result of genetic mixing between Elves and goblins/ogres/trolls.

Bretons are known to be from racial mixing between Altmer of the Direnni clan and men (likely Nedes) from High Rock.

There’s some speculation that Atmorans/Nords share genetics with giants, but this is likely just supposition due to giants being native to Atmora and Skyrim, the Atmorans/Nords’ generally larger physical stature and strength, and the stereotype that Nords are “big dumb brutes”.

[Emperor Prussia]

Originally posted by Horror Pigeon:

Do you know what the merethic era in the wiki sounds like to me? The elder scrolls', or at least skyrim's stone age. I have never delved into elder scrolls' lore. That ysgramir statue could be an artist's post-era supposition of what they looked like. Do the humans of elder scrolls games have common ancestry in apes?

Yea. Atmora was the home of the Nords, Bretons and Imperials.

[Fear2288]

Originally posted by Prussia:

Originally posted by Horror Pigeon:

Do you know what the merethic era in the wiki sounds like to me? The elder scrolls', or at least skyrim's stone age. I have never delved into elder scrolls' lore. That ysgramir statue could be an artist's post-era supposition of what they looked like. Do the humans of elder scrolls games have common ancestry in apes?

Yea. Atmora was the home of the Nords, Bretons and Imperials.

No, friend.

Bretons are the result of mixing between Altmer of the Direnni clan who at one time colonized parts of High Rock and the native human population (Nedes).

Imperials are a genetic mix of mostly Nedes and Nords, but also likely with a splash of Altmer (Ayleids), Yokudan (Redguard), and possibly even Akaviri. Imperial genetic makeup comes from both the days of the Ayleid Empire’s enslavement of humans in Cyrodiil as well as the Empire of Man’s early history and contact with the Yokudans and Akaviri.

Granted, there is a theory that Nedes are descendants of Atmorans who arrived on Tamriel before and after Ysgramor’s conquest of Skyrim, and both Imperials and the human natives of High Rock have some Nordic blood, but saying that Imperials and Bretons are from Atmora is a gross over-simplification.

[Emperor Prussia]

Originally posted by Fear2288:

Originally posted by Prussia:

Yea. Atmora was the home of the Nords, Bretons and Imperials.

No, friend.

Bretons are the result of mixing between Altmer of the Direnni clan who at one time colonized parts of High Rock and the native human population (Nedes).

Imperials are a genetic mix of mostly Nedes and Nords, but also likely with a splash of Altmer (Ayleids), Yokudan (Redguard), and possibly even Akaviri. Imperial genetic makeup comes from both the days of the Ayleid Empire’s enslavement of humans in Cyrodiil as well as the Empire’s early history and contact with the Yokudans and Akaviri.

Granted, there is a theory that Nedes are descendants of Atmorans who arrived on Tamriel before and after Ysgramor’s conquest of Skyrim, and both Imperials and the human natives of High Rock have some Nordic blood, but saying that Imperials and Bretons are from Atmora is a gross over-simplification.

Site the sources, then we'll talk.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by Prussia:

Originally posted by Fear2288:

No, friend.

Bretons are the result of mixing between Altmer of the Direnni clan who at one time colonized parts of High Rock and the native human population (Nedes).

Imperials are a genetic mix of mostly Nedes and Nords, but also likely with a splash of Altmer (Ayleids), Yokudan (Redguard), and possibly even Akaviri. Imperial genetic makeup comes from both the days of the Ayleid Empire’s enslavement of humans in Cyrodiil as well as the Empire’s early history and contact with the Yokudans and Akaviri.

Granted, there is a theory that Nedes are descendants of Atmorans who arrived on Tamriel before and after Ysgramor’s conquest of Skyrim, and both Imperials and the human natives of High Rock have some Nordic blood, but saying that Imperials and Bretons are from Atmora is a gross over-simplification.

Site the sources, then we'll talk.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Breton
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Imperial

[Emperor Prussia]

Originally posted by alexander_dougherty:

Originally posted by Prussia:

Site the sources, then we'll talk.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Breton
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Imperial

Okay, I believe you now.