For what it's worth, I didn't know either and I love the character.
I'd have put my two cents in on creation, but I haven't been on my laptop in a few days ;-; sorry. I'm now wondering why Drevin seems so dry to me >_< I need to look over his stuff again.
Not too late to flesh him out! I'm setting up a tavern scene so we can have a chance for characters to talk and to reflect!
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Reachmen
http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/2m3bmp/reachmen_an_independant_race/
http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/2z0q3z/tribes_of_tamriel_volume_v_the_reachmen/
http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/24c581/myths_of_the_eastern_reach_revised/
http://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/2radc8/tales_of_the_reachmen_life_and_darkness/
While you had it that Madanach and your character both considered themselves Bretons, that is only partly true. Bretons as a term is a blanket statement for a lot of different cultures in the same way European is a blanket statement for a lot of different cultures within Europe. Even more correct it would be to equate the relationship between Reachmen and the term "Breton" with Bretons and the term "French."
Bretons have a different language different from French and an arguably distinct culture apart from what we call French. While they live in France and the prevailing term for people in France is French, the Bretons of France are wont to recognize that they have differences to the stereotypical blanket term of French.
What one has to understand is that while Reachmen can technically be called Bretons, what we consider "Breton" blood makes up only a part of their genetic makeup and they are a very distinct culture from the rest of High Rock. The same can be said for Colovians and Nibeneans in Cyrodiil, as in, while they are classified by the player and foreigners in-game as simply "Imperial", "Cyrodiilic", or "Cyrods" a person from Cyrodiil would tell you that they are Colovian or Nibenean, and each has a distinct culture and history.
Reachmen are only a part of what makes up the Breton peoples of High Rock. They are Men-of-the-Reach, hence Reachman, and this is why the Forsworn started in the first place - Reachmen Nationalism. Which brings me to my next point.
Your character need not be completely changed if you don't want him to be, but it could be an interesting thing to have Madanach be the one that makes him recognize his Reachman nature. What I'm saying is that you can keep Markain as is, as it is entirely possible and I would posit a very common thing, for Reachman families to assimilate culturally but not genetically into High Rock proper rather than live in the Old Ways of the Reachmen, hence why they are even called the "Old" Ways. It is possible for Reachmen to not fall in with the Forsworn, as evidenced by the
Reachman gentleman you meet in
Karthwasten.
As such, appearance-wise, Markain would look like your average Breton. A couple things would seem off to people though, where Markain has the longer fingers that Bretons usually do and a higher affinity for magic than is common among the other Man Races, they would also notice that he's probably taller than the average Breton on account of more Nord blood in his family's tribal line. Residual tusks if his family's tribal line had Orc blood and a little more pronounced point to the ear on account of Reachmen keeping more Merish traits than Bretons on account of having fewer Nordic dilutants in their blood. A last thing about culture is that Reachmen have more Celtic-Gaelic sounding names rather than French/Saxon, hence Madanach, Ainethach, Faolan among others. As it stands, Markain sounds just about right.
Yes, I am a huge nerd when it comes to Elder Scrolls and obscure facts not commonly known to gamers.
