Honeslty same!! I love hearing about other ppls interests too for the exact same reason, I don't really need to understand it for the conversation to be fun !
Also, TLDR: THE REAL WORLD STILL INFLUENCES VIDEO GAME DESIGN AND LORE TO THIS DAY!!
Skyrim Carpets rant ahead!!!
First thing to note is that the "carpets" in some skyrim homes are based off of the lands of "elsewhere" another fictional land in the world of Tameriel. The key thing about elsewhre is Sand! It is the DESSERT!
And what is Elsewhere based off of ??? The Ancient East! Alot of lore in Skyrim is based off of real life historical facts / artifacts/ or myths. One such "lore" is CARPETS!!
Carpets in skyrim are based off of Persian carpets irl. The key thing to note is that the west and the east, despite having centuries old feuds with one another, continued to trade to this day.
Side note, the west in this case is Europe and east is, take a guess!, the eastern countries. Unfortunately, America doesn't appear for another few centuries, rip.
Well, back to carpets. Persian Carpets today are still famous in none eastern countries purely because of the "intelectual" aesthetic they bring to an individuals home. This has been a trend for a long time too! Ever since the 15th century, and possibly longer than that!
For example, if I had a hand made carpet from the east in the 1600's. It would most likely be purely non figurative designs, so floral patterns, the key thing is that none of these carpets, or other art objects like pottery, would have people in them because of one key fact. Allah!
In the Islamic faith Allah has no face, nor does any of the prophets, and back in the 15th century, and before then, it was purely an oral religioun! So, to help spread the idealogy of Islam, not only did the east start writing their holy book, known as the Qu'ran today, but they also created physical objects like carpets and pottery to trade with the west!
This brings me back to skyrim...
Eventually, the world becomes what we know it as today. Interfaith, mass communities etc. So, video games like Skyrim, begin to add real life objects, like carpets, to inform their in game lore :3
Thank you for coming to my ted talk ! 🤣🤣
Thank you for sharing. I do know carpets and tapestry are a big deal in some cultures but I didn't know some of this. Thank you for informing me