>>714901763 (OP)
I think they were given a lot of sympathy during the main markarth questline, but them serving as the main bandit type enemy of the region and the gore you see around their bases somewhat offsets this. They were definitely portrayed in a positive enough way that many early players took to the internet to ask about joining them, or to lament not being able to join them.
I think the nords first took markarth something like one or two thousand years ago though, then madanach and his people took it back for a few years during the great war. It was built by dwarves originally, though the reachmen are the natives of the land itself. It's complicated at least.
>>714903916
This is something most people seem to miss, but I think you're right that the blame is mostly on bethesda. The largest ethnic group of friendly npcs in the reach are also reachmen, and from them you learn that most modern reachmen are actually heavily imperialized now. You also learn that the forsworn dress in the hide of animals to tap into old god juju, not because they don't understand how to work metal (half the friendly reachmen work in and around mines+smelters ffs).
Even a lot of people who sympathize with the reachmen seem to miss this, instead believing the reachmen are just savages with a low tech level. All of this was spelled out during the main markarth questline, where all but two or three named forsworn were former city reachmen that went IRA mode after bad interactions with the nords.
