Overview of Elder Scrolls Races
@nightyknightowo
It's been a hot minute since I got deep into the lore but I'll do a general ADHD fired overview of the races.
OVERALL there are mer, men, and beastfolk. Of the men there are breton, nord, imperial, redguard, and reachfolk. The reachfolk are sometimes thought to be the same, or descended from, as the breton but that conversation is up in the air (depending on who you talk to). The bretons are thought to be descendants of mer and nords combined. The nords are largely a bunch of racists motherfuckers that deserve annihilation. They were originally referred to as Nedes or Atmorans who arrived from, you guessed it, Atmora which is later on just a glacier. It is uninhabitable and frozen, like how Skyrim is getting to be. They arrived in Skyrim to find a new home and met the snow elves, also known as Falmer, and supposedly struck an alliance. In Skyrim there is this thing called a skyforge and the snow elves did not fuck with it. The nedes, however, went with the motto of fuck around and find out. Do NOT trust anything from the only nede who was capable of reading and writing, Ysgramor. He came up with the system of writing and counting as a means of keeping track of how many mer he killed. I'm not kidding about that. At some point, the nedes find this thing that becomes known as the Eye of Magnus and meet a mining robot from the future who then gets tortured by said Eye of Magnus. The nedes trapped it inside the eye where it emitted a nearly silent scream that alerted the snow elves leading to what is known in-game as the Night of Tears. The nords are by and large played by white supremacists who use slurs against anyone and everyone in the fandom.
Imperials are boring as shit and reign from the Empire. Their lore correlates with one of the worst characters ever known as the....dude I forgot his name. He's considered heartless and wore a depiction of a red diamond on his chest as a reference to his earlier lore. His names are a dead giveaway as to his original identity but he killed everyone who ever figured it out. He had a husband who was killed by a race of Mer known as the Ayeleids. This race of mer is horrible and reminds me of the Aldmeri Dominion as it is portrayed presently. The Ayeleids were basically of a bunch of supremacists and puritans.
The Aldmeri Dominion was forged by the Altmer, the high elves, but not all agree with it. The Dominion was used to eradicate the original political dynamic for the Altmer and so most people in the fandom recognize the Dominion and Altmer as synonymous. The Dominion, especially with how it functions in Skyrim, is basically the Ayeleids all over again. Racist and puritan bullshit. The Altmer are obsessed with ascending into Godhood basically but in a different way than from a number of other races, like the Dwemer. Basically they just want to go home to how the Mer used to be.
That gets into the conversation of the Aedra and Daedra which are simply the 'ancestors' and not ancestors. The Aedra led to the birth of Mer and man while the Daedra remain as chaotic as ever but that gets into a deeper conversation.
The idea was that all mer were collectively known as Aldmer and thought that they shared the same origin. That's arguable.
Bringing us to the Bosmer, my number one, my shayla. The Bosmer or the Tree Sap People or the Boiche are created by the first of the Ehlnofey, or earthbones, Y'ffre. She created the concept of stability with nature and laid the very foundation of the earth or planet known as Nirn. Hence why I compared Him with Gaia. He essentially became the Bosmer's home of Valenwood all the while creating Valenwood's sentience known as the Green. In an effort to ensure both Bosmer and the Green were safe, Y'ffre created the Green Pact which is an agreement where no Bosmer harmed the plantlife resulting in a purely carnivorous diet. HOWEVER the Bosmer were free to use wood and consume plants if said materials were traded from outside areas like Skyrim or the Summerset Isles (home of the Altmer). Now, the Bosmer are thought to have two or technically three creations. The first is one of the more popular -- apparently -- which entails that all mer are descended from the same Gods. The second and third may be related but may touched upon when hearing how the Bosmer are not always considered mer. Mainly by the Thalmor, the most hated faction of the Altmer of all time, which are the puritans. The Bosmer, per the second myth, are born from chaos where they were not of a stable form and kept changing shape into mer, animal, beastfolk, plant, etc. So Y'ffre, the Singer and Storyteller, gifted the Bosmer that stability so that none changed shape. See? Different origin. The THIRD creation corresponds with the catfolk of Elsweyr known as the Khajiit. In that myth, the idea is that Azurrah was trying to trick Nirni (personification of Nirn) with the creation of the catfolk. Y'ffre, or Yffer in this portrayal, whispered to Nirni of a trick that Azurrah was supposedly trying to do which saddens Nirni so Yffer then created the Bosmer to cheer Her up. Giving us the possibility the Bosmer and Khajiit may have been the same. Back to the instability part, Y'ffre gave the Bosmer the ability to change shape one last time if the situation was dire. Mind you, this was considered taboo and was not performed normally. This also was considered a condemnation with the Green Pact where the Bosmer essentially violate part of the agreement and revoke the concept of that stability. This means they returned to a state of formlessness but changing shape inconsistently, unable to remain in one form for long. This is known as the Wild Hunt where the Bosmer turn into horrifying monsters for a limited time in a last ditch effort to protect the Green. Ultimately, this resulted in the Bosmer being removed from Y'ffre's Song or Story. So the Bosmer that engage in the Wild Hunt basically cease to exist when that ritual is over. That is known as the Ooze, the formlessness or chaotic beginning.
The Dunmer or the Dark elves were originally known by another name that I completely forgot. Originally they were not ashen grey in appearance with dark or red eyes but were originally similar to the Ayeleids and Altmer. They have two, past and present though arguable, pantheons depending on dunmer and what game you play. One is later known as the False Tribunal which you learn about in the game of Morrowind. There is a mod that includes a member of said Tribunal and is really comedic. In this 'false' Tribunal, one of the members is two-tone and intersex. They're known as Vivec and has some really weird and drug-induced lore. Highly recommend looking into. The reason why She's two toned is in reference to how the Dunmer used to be and the current appearance of the race. The second pantheon, the Tribunal, contains several of the Daedra like Azura. Unfortunately, if you get involved with any part of the fandom on any social media platform, you will be faced with the cruel reality of the sheer amount of white supremacists. The Dunmer have what is similar to the n-word that those white supremacists use CONSTANTLY to cyberbully anyone who plays as any mer. Said supremacists will use any and every slur they find in game and in lore to harass and bully everyone. Especially on the clock app.
The Snow elves are largely considered extinct. Going back to the bit on the Nedes, the nords of old went fuck around find out with that sky forge and started a whole ass genocide. They recruited more of the Atmorans and raided Skyrim. They murdered every snow elf they came across on the basis of whatever bullshit Ysgramor told them. Again, the only guy who could read and write...that totally sounds legit (sarcasm). During this genocide, the snow elves were approached by a mysterious God of Luck that only became a God out of like sympathy or by how impressive he was. In His lore, dude kept dying. He just dyed. A lot. Whoever he died for, won. No matter the war, no matter the army, that he died for that side won. Every single time. So He approached the snow elves, offering to help them and they turned Him down like absolute dumbasses. So most of them died. The ones that survived either formed a highly regretted alliance with the dwemer or deep elves or simply disappeared. The Dwemer are the only atheistic faction of the entire franchise in a universe that actively used the Aedra and Daedra in each game. AS in each God took part in the stories and were therefore unrefutable but the dwemer looked at Them and thought, "nope." Instead the Dwemer basically wanted to become gods, different from the Altmer, and proceeded to annihilate themselves. Only one was found in Morrowind, as in that was the last deep elf of their kind. According to Michael Kirkbride, one of the original writers who also wrote about the lore of Vivec, the dwemer did kill themselves. All of them. Completely gone. In Skyrim, the player can summon dwemer machines and weapons from what is known as the Plane of Oblivion, alluding to the idea that the Dwemer are in eternal captivity with the Daedra. Prior to this stupidity, the dwemer forced the snow elves to become their slaves and force fed them poison which turned them into goblin-looking blind elves. For generations, the afflicted elves that became known as the Betrayed tried to find a way out of their prison. In Skyrim, the player character can alert the Betrayed to some of the dwemer machines and the Betrayed will destroy them. Along with trying to kill the player character. There is a mod that will let the player create a snow elf in Skyrim, including wild dialogue from npcs. As of Skyrim, there is technically one unafflicted snow elf that the player meets and it is alluded that there are more snow elves in other regions.
There are Sloads which are disgusting Star Wars-looking slime slug things that kill their children to make soap. Said soap can be bought from the Khajiit.
There are sea elves known as Maomer which are generally only talked about in Elder Scrolls Online. There is otherwise no mention of them in a lot of the games. They are also not included in Skyrim.
The Khajiit themselves are varied and are born based on the placement of the two moons, Jone and Jode. They can be little kittens, tall humanoid cat people, or full on beast mode. None are allowed within city walls in Skyrim, once again forcing us to revisit how racist the fandom and series itself commonly is.
The last of the beastfolk refers to lizards. These are the Argonians which are also not allowed inside city walls but can be found on the docks in one of the most racist and overall worst place to live, Windhelm. This city was actually built by snow elven slaves. The Argonians have no need for genitals in order to reproduce but for some reason have them anyway. They are actually born from an awesome, sentient tree known as the Hist. The Argonians are also able to switch sexes, one time if I recall correctly.
