Okay, perhaps a lil background on Charles and I.
Charles is of Nordic descent, I am of Celtic descent. Over the years we have been delighted and amazed at how the two cultures overlapped and adapted to each other throughout history. The end result of this being that between the two of us we have learned a lot about ancient Celts and Nords.
I am 50 years old and, thanks to my closest companion: Arthritus, I have a lot of time in which to do nothing, or play with things on the computer. Even that gets to be too much at times, however I do tend to have more time than I know what to do with on this beast.
I have been a gamer since DnD and raised a full complement of gaming children. While the boys were in high school our house was often the site of weekend long marathons of Final Fantasy, SimCity, Art of War and many other games. Now that I no longer work, I am again a gaming nut from hell.
Enter Morrowind and our discovery of Nords and Bretons (Celtic/Gaulish).
Samhain Isles is our version of how an isolated Nordic/Celtic society would develop. The main storyline goes something like this:
A small group of Nordic adventurers are shipwrecked during a terrible storm on the shores of a previously unknown island. Upon exploring the island the survivors discovered the ruins of ancient Imperial seeming forts and a small scattering of Breton-like inhabitants. Over the long years the two cultures have intermingled and a distinct Nordic culture has developed, one with decidedly Bretonic (Celtic) overtones.
The harshness of the mountains girdling this island chain, as well as it's location off the main shipping lanes, has left them isolated and unknown to the rest of Tamriel. In the third age the people of Samhain Isles are once again forging out into the seas in search of new trading partners and new knowledge. With them they bring their own unique offerings and lore.
That's how Samhain Isles began.
Now, while I'm waiting for Oblivion to come out, I've been doing some new Nordic style items as well as trying to dig out some lore on the Nords. I've learned that compared to the other humans on Tamriel, little is know of the Nords since their downfall in 1E. They have been content (to all appearances) to contain themselves in their own home of Skyrim and leave the rest of Tamriel to its own devices.
I want to try and create (or recreate) this Nordic province, complete with books, lore, legends and of course, it's starkly beautiful mountainous terrain.
Yes I would prefer to work together with you, to be honest. Much of my texturing, etc is on hold until I see what exactly Bethesda means by "more" Nordic meshes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I am hoping they will introduce the beautiful woodwork that the ancient Nords were once famous for. If they didn't .. well I have textures to correct that oversight. hehe
I was a website designer for years, a programmer before that (till I burned out) and have literally played with many versions of Photoshop since 3.0 till now. A few months ago I got myself a copy of Photoshop CS and have finally started trying it out (thank you Bethesda for inspiring me again), trying to remember as much as I can while learning all the new tricks. I haven't messed with it since 5.0 so a lot has changed. (I think I'll leave 3DS to Charles since he is used to working with vertices and splines and they just leave me gaping.)
At this point in time I am putting together a bit of the missing "lore" for Skyrim, in the form of books and ideas. I figure this is a relatively safe area to start in until Oblivion is released, mainly because up till now, Bethesda has left the Nords alone for the most part.
I think the difference in style from the elven/redoran/hlaalu and the nord/bretonic could make for a beautiful contrast to each other.