Western Tamriel, the lands later associated with Hammerfell, is a broad region of mountains, drylands, canyons, coasts, and isolated valleys. During the Late Merethic Era, it has not yet developed the later Redguard identity for which the region becomes famous.
Instead, it is inhabited by Nedic peoples, Orsimer clans, Goblins, Dwemer communities, and smaller local powers whose territories overlap across difficult terrain.
The west is geographically varied.
Mountain ranges divide fertile valleys from dry interior regions, while coastal settlements connect the region to the Iliac Bay and Abecean trade routes. Rivers and springs are especially valuable where rainfall is limited.
This terrain encourages political fragmentation. A single valley or mountain pass can support an independent community for generations.
Ancient human communities are established throughout the region.
Later historians often group them broadly as Nedes, but these populations possess their own local identities, rulers, languages, and religious traditions.
Some build fortified settlements or farming communities, while others live through herding, hunting, mining, or seasonal movement.
Their presence predates the later peoples who will eventually reshape the region.
Orsimer strongholds are common in mountainous and frontier areas, especially around mines and defensible passes.
Goblin tribes also occupy caves, uplands, ruins, and remote valleys.
Relations between these peoples and nearby humans range from trade and mercenary service to territorial warfare.
No single power dominates all of western Tamriel.
Dwemer communities are established in some mountain regions.
Their settlements, mines, and underground routes give them access to resources difficult for surface peoples to reach.
Relations with nearby Nedes, Orcs, and Goblins vary by city-state. Trade can exist alongside disputes over mineral wealth and access to mountain territory.
Travel through western Tamriel is controlled largely by geography.
Mountain passes, wells, river crossings, coastal ports, and caravan routes are strategically important. Merchants move ore, metalwork, livestock, food, hides, and crafted goods between High Rock, the interior, and the western coast.
Beyond these routes, large regions remain difficult to cross and only loosely controlled.
During the Late Merethic Era, western Tamriel is a frontier of competing local peoples rather than a unified realm.
Nedic settlements, Orsimer strongholds, Goblin territories, and Dwemer holdings divide the land.