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Hailing from Cyrodiil, for thousands of years the Imperials have been amongst the wealthiest
and most well-educated races in all of Skyrim. It’s probably no coincidence then that they
also have the largest and probably most well-organized military in Tamriel. Now, when talking about
the inspiration behind the Imperials, one civilization springs to mind immediately:
the Latin Roman Empire. Sure, it’s an obvious comparison: one look at the armor of the Imperials
gives you a pretty strong indication of the Roman influence. But when you take a closer
look, you may just find a few things that surprise you.
Let’s start with the Imperial Legions, who take their inspiration from the Roman Legions.
One example of this is the Imperial oath, which all new recruits must recite: "Upon
my honor I do swear undying loyalty to the Emperor... and unwavering obedience to the
officers of his great Empire. May those above judge me, and those below take me, if I fail
in my duty. Long live the Emperor! Long live the Empire!". This oath has a lot of similarities
to the Roman Legion’s sacramentum militare, a very similar oath made to the Emperor of
Rome to “swear that they shall faithfully execute all that the Emperor’s commands,
that they shall never desert the service, and that they shall not seek to avoid death
for the Roman republic!”. That’s not all the two militaries have in
common. Not only are both organizations well-oiled fighting machines, they also share a lot of
the same ranks. The Imperial’s Legate’s are very similar to the Roman’s “Legatus
Augusti pro praetore” or as they’re commonly called, the Imperial Legates...so yeah, that
one lines up pretty well. And how about the Imperial’s rank of Praefect, which is likely
derived from the Roman’s “Praefectus castrorum”, or in English, the Camp Prefect. Going to
show that when Bethesda designed the mighty army of the Imperials, they took more than
just a bit of armor design from the Roman Empire.
In a previous episode of Hidden History we brought up the connection between Skyrim’s
General Tullius and Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome. That’s not the only Imperial
to have a connection with the ancient empire though. Yes, there’s the obvious ones like
the Dark Brotherhood’s Cicerio, who many believe to be named after one of Rome’s
most famous philosophers of the same name. Some are much less obvious. Like the Imperial
Emperor Titus Mede the Second, a ruler who you assassinate in the Dark Brotherhood storyline.
Some believe that this character could be based off the Ancient Roman Emperor Titus.
A ruler so badass, he apparently only needed one name. Much like how Skyrim’s Titus was
well-known for planning and taking part in the Battle of the Red Ring, which successfully
retook the Imperial City; Rome’s Titus is famous for his Siege of Jerusalem which took
place in 70 AD and led to the Roman Empire’s takeover of the city. That’s not the only
thing they could have in common though, much like how you assassinated Skyrim’s Titus,
many believe that the real Titus was assassinated as well...although some ancient texts, like
the Babylonian Talmud, say that an insect that flew into his nose and picked at his
brain for seven years. So who can really say for sure...and yes that’s their actual story.
Next up let’s talk about the capital of the Empire itself, the Imperial City. As many
of you probably already know, the city is divided into seven distinct districts. This,
maybe not coincidentally, mirrors the seven hills of Rome, much like the districts, these
hills served to help separate different parts of the city. One of the most prominent districts
in the Imperial City is the Market District, the heart of commerce and trade. This is very
much like Rome’s forums, a place that was usually reserved exclusively for businesses
and one of the economic centers of ancient Rome. Then of course, there's the Arena District
which is clearly influenced by Rome’s infamous Colosseum. and here’s a bonus piece of trivia
for you: the very first Elder Scrolls game, Elder Scrolls: Arena was called that because
when development began the idea behind it was a more simplistic arena fighting game.
I guess we can all be glad that Bethesda grew a bit more ambitious, or we could have spent
all five games in the Arena District!
Don't know how that would turn out.
Now let’s move on to our comment showcase,
this week’s good comment comes from Mendek1000, who let us in on the origins of Skyrim’s
iron swords. There look is actually taken from Ulfberht swords, serving as kind of a
transitional sword between the 9th and 11th centuries, these blades improved on the older
viking swords and proved very popular for hundreds of years before being replaced later
on by more advanced medieval weaponry. Thanks for that comment Mendek.
Next up is our bad comment, coming this week from John Vasquez who asks us all: “Did
u know I have a Daedra in my pants and he's fighting a aedra and well my friend it tickles”.
We didn’t know that John, but we definitely do now. So thanks for that.
Moving on, we have our trivia, on our previous episode on Ghouls in Fallout we asked
you what is being referenced by Veronica Santangelo, who is voiced by Felicia Day, carrying sporks
in her inventory, and many you guessed correctly, it was D) Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
This week our question comes from Skyrim: In Swindler's Den you’ll come across an
archery training dummy with an apple perched on its head, this is a reference to what famous
master crossbowman who was forced to shoot an apple off his son's head?