Hi. I'm not trying to start anything racial but I just have to ask. Is it intentional for the Nords to be light skinned only? I ask because I am black and wanted to make my favorite race black as well. Just a bit upsetting that I couldn't. We were able to in Skyrim but not here for some reason.

Nords are actually based on the norse race. Scandinavians are the whitest of the white people, so it wouldn't make sense to have a darker skinned nord.

However, why not play redguard ? They're the black people and you can play them in any faction.

You could make black Nords in Skyrim? I can't remember that. If that was the case I can only assume that they wanted the races to look distinctly different in an MMO format; and as Chomag said, Nords are basically Scandinavians, who are generally considered pale.

I find it highly unfair that the only choices you have for dark skin is redguard or imperials. I really want to make a darker skin breton because that's what I had in Skyrim.

It's a fantasy game. Why wouldn't it make since? Who said they were based on Caucasians only? When was that decided and who decided it? Why should I be forced to play a race I don't want to. I want Breton because of their racial skill.

Edit: I don't see this game not making the redguards lighter. What about the lore there?

You also have Orcs, Dumner and Argonians, who all have dark skin/scales. You could even make a dark furred Khajiit. What they've gone for here are diverse races, all different and distinct from one-another.

They are all ugly. I want to play a HUMAN.

Nobody is forcing you to play any race. ZeniMax decided how the races were going to look in Elder Scrolls Online to answer your second question. I want elves to look like this; http://thanley.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/tauriel1.jpg instead of the bugged eyed ones we got, but we can't have everything we want.

I don't care what they really look like but skin color is important for some people. Dark is limited to 2 human races and the rest are furry. While everyone else has the pick of anyone they want. It is forcing me to pick which race I want because I want my character to look like myself. I am African American and I would like to play a dark skinned Breton. I could do that in Skyrim, what's the difference here?

That's just how it is, whats the point of having distinctive races if they all look alike.

The difference is this is an MMO. They want people to be able to tell the races apart by simply looking at them. You should send them some feedback though like Kinkerbell said; if enough people are concerned by this then perhaps they'll add some darker skin tones? It's worth a shot.

I can make a breton, a imperial, a nord, and any other human look alike. All I have to do is make them lighter. How is that being distinctive? Taking away the choice of making them darker?

I had no idea that Nords could be darker-skinned in Skyrim. I've found mods that make it possible, but I didn't know that it was possible in the vanilla game. That said, looking back at the lore (for all TES games), Redguards have always been the "dark-skinned" race for humans. As it's already been said, part of this has to do with the culture each race is based upon. Imperials would be the only ones that might be able to lean toward the darker-skinned (not including non-human, which seems to not be a choice for you), but I haven't really paid that much attention to what their culture is based upon...so...

Anyway, there is an image floating around the internet that compares the appearances of the races of Tamriel since the beginning of TES games. Redguards have been the only dark-skinned race for humans since the beginning. I'm not saying that it's "right" or anything, just saying that there's a certain continuity of lore. (Edit: I would have posted a link to this image, but cannot, so I'm sorry D:)

You can't make a dark-skinned Nord in any out-of-the-box vanilla version of an Elder Scrolls game. This is not new. This is like me saying I want to make a character with half bright red hair and half black hair because that's what I look like in real life. Just because I look a certain way in person doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to get those options in a game.

Well then if thats the case, why does the Red Guard also have lighter complexions if we are talking Lore? I am African American and I would like to have human character that looks like me other than Red Guard or atleast the imperial race after paying more.

Also, if we're going to argue for the making of characters that "look like me" with a certain set of racial buffs, then that throws the whole point of different races out the window. Maybe I'd like to build a character that looks like me (and I'm human, as far as I know) that has Khajiit racial buffs...but it can't be done. In fact, there are no stealth-based humans at all.

Thank you all for your feedback. To some, yes you could make a dark skinned Nord. I mainly only played a Nord in Skyrim so that's why I was confused about not being able to here. Not a problem at all though. I just wanted to be in the Ebonheart pack. But I will still make a Nord and maybe a Redguard.

LOL if this was reverse I'm sure you'd feel like I feel. I'm only talking about skin color wise. I've given my character blond, white. orange, red, and even green hair before. Just that all of my characters where dark skin and it didn't matter which race I chose.

Exactly!

Are you kidding? I'm a woman who has played fantasy games for years. Do you know how many times I've had to play as a guy because that was the only character option? It's a game, and honestly we get a lot more options now than we did a few years ago.

Seriously.

They are Nords, they have light skin. Get used to it.

Really this is like someone complaining in a game with African Americans that you cant make a white one.

Redguard isn't African American either its Redguard.

Sorry reverse racism lol.

get back under your bridge!