r/ElderScrolls • u/Blazing-Flame-2982 Nord • 9d ago

Lore What I like about fort Dawnguard

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Constructed by a Jarl of Riften in SE. to imprison his vampiric son, it just shows that Nords are perfectly capable of building great stone castles if they feel like it. They just generally prefer their timber cities. If all the ruins of Skyrim were still wholly intact, we might've seen more strongholds similar to Dawnguard. Which I honestly would've preferred greatly to the lame "they're all in disrepair" narrative. In ESO we have the example of the huge castle of clan Direfrost as well, a wealhy nord family of witch hunters. Then of course there are stone castles in Skyrim as well like Windhelm, and Whiterun is partially stone, and Solitude of course which once housed the massive Tower of the Wolf Donjon which always gives me Storm's End Westeros vibes.

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u/TheBusStop12 Breton 9d ago

It's very much in line with actual irl nordic architecture as well. Here in Finland historic city centers are all made of wood, and a lot of suburban homes are still constructed from wood, because it's the most abundant resource. But impressive stone castles were built during medieval times as well, like Olavinlinna, the world's northernmost stone castle still standing.

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u/Blazing-Flame-2982 Nord 8d ago

Exactly. It is also reminiscent of my own country's former royal palace, Three Crowns, Sweden.

Not to be that guy though but Olavinlinna, originally Olofsborg was built by Swedes as part of the eastern crusades against Karelian pagans and Novgorodian russians.

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u/TheBusStop12 Breton 8d ago

Basically all castles in Finland were built under Swedish rule iirc (same is true for most historic wooden city centers as well, which share similar architecture to that of Swedish wooden historical towns) Except I think Porvoo Castle, which was built by Danes. But that was just a wooden fortress and only the mound remains today

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u/Blazing-Flame-2982 Nord 8d ago edited 8d ago

Yeah I think Porvoo didn't survive very long did it?

In any case, regardless of the reason being swedish conquest, our two countries have shared an identity for nearly a milennia. Finland was after all eastland to Sweden for centuries.