Having read the diaries of Lorgen Banerius (could be mispelling his name) in the Where Spirits Have Leave quest upon buying the haunted manor in Anvil, I knew that Carahil, the chief of the local mages guild, had been involved in the assault that killed the wicked old recluse/necromancer a century earlier (being Altmer, the time passage would have harmed him/her none). In a recent replay, however, I noted something I had largely ignored before. The activated corpse persistently reffers to Carihil as a male "he," "him," "his," etc. Queries arose. Was it the same Carahil? Was the current Guild leader merely a relative of a former leader who bore the same name? Or was the Captain of The Anvil Mages Guild keeping secrets from her Archmagister (i.e. me)?!

I decided to go and speak to him/her about my purging of the Manor's evil. And lo, he/she had already heard about it, and their was a dialouge option concerning it. He/She thanked me for my great deed, and confirmed that it was it him/her who had assailed the evil mage so many decades ago. And there it was. A century prior, Carahil had been known by all to be a male, and had since used Alteratuion to shift the physical details!!!

Could it have been that Lorgen mistook her for a male back then? Could it have merely been the ugly slander and aspersions of a vanquished foe against a hated nemesis? Could it have merely been an oversight on the part of the developers?

All remote possibilities. . . and all far less amusing and more boring than the factual conclusion I have come to. LOL.


Carahil, leader of The Anvil Mages Guild. . . is a Male Tranvestite turned Transgendered person!

Wow! That is one amazing discovery I believe it will harm some people's RPs though. I think I've read one or two fanfics where the main character was friends with fema---- fe/male mages guild head.

Interesting to read that though

Wow man, that's a nice catch. I have actually just bought Benirus Manor with one of my characters, and I shall have to investigate myself. Do you have to be in the Mages Guild to have that dialogue option, cause my guy is not...

Wow, you win the internet.

Interestingly enough, Carahil i not the only trasgendered resident of Cyrodiil. In Bravil, City Swimmer refers to herself as "he" and "him". Residents of Skingrad continually refer to Falanu Hlaalu as "he" and "him" even though Falanu is clearly a female. Oddly enough, I know of no instance in which a Cyrodiilic female became a male. There is a male Orc in the Shivering Isles who was apparently once female, but what do you expect in the realm of madness?

Maybe she's female but for some reason passed herself off as male when she was young. Or maybe the voice actor's script was just written wrong.

Just take a look at Orlando Bloom in LotR. Anyone can get Elven genders mixed up.

And I don't think the Orc in SI used to be female, he's just a lisbian trapped in a blacksmith's body.

That's pretty cool. I never knew about that one.

Also, Mach-Na, of Mach-Na's Books, is always referred to as a man by the citizens of Chorrol, despite being female. They also seem to think she's very mean, despite her seeming very friendly.

I like to think the people of Tamriel can use their magicka to perform six changes.

Lol. You know I am not sure. I have been an archmage sense Anu was a young lad, it seems, and none of my chararacters have remained uninvolved with that guild for long, but I would guess so. The Guild halls are open to all for basic visitin purposes. They have to be in order for you to join up. My guess is, yes she will still speak to you about Lorgen.

City Swimmer is an Argonian, and thus lizard kin. I know some fish change gender naturally, and it wouldn't surprise me much about lizards. But Men and Elves. . .whoaaa! Lol.

Lol. Yes, any Elf can have a beautiful face. . . but Carahil went and added briasts to the equation. That is serious. lol.

Elves 'nuff said

Really I wouldn't have thought that.

Seconded. Nice find.

I'd personally chalk it up as a mistake. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Falanu_Hlaalu and http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Thamriel are also mistakenly referred to as male in some dialogue.

All that speech means is that Lorgren Benirus only ever saw Carahil in a suit of summoned Deadric armor. Any race or gender looks the same in that (OK, you might guess a male bosmer from the size).

Possible. . . but as I said, immeasurabley less entertaining and comic, so, sticking with option one for the hell and humour of it. lol

Did you also know that Falanu Hlaalu is a necrophiliac?

A transvestite necrophiliac..... OH THE HORROR

That's almost as worse as leveled cliff racers!

Transvestites aren't bad.

Rohssan also has gender issues. About 50% of the time people on the streets refer to her as "he". And S/he's a Redguard.

I don't think all these people were intended to be implied as transgender.... the developers just switched their genders a some point in production and forgot to fix the prerequisite dialogue.

You mean Renoit of Renoit's Books in Chorrol.
Mach-Na is in Cheydinhal.

Deetsan is also referred to as "he" a lot by people outside the Mages Guild.

There are a lot of instances in this game where Bethesda got the NPC genders mixed up.

Or maybe the voice actors were only given NPC's names, but not their gender and just picked one of the two pronouns or whichever one they thought fit best from what they read out of the name of the NPC?

Not really breaking news. As stated already, many characters are referred to as the opposite six