We all know how diverse the race of Elves are. You have the Altmer, high-elves masters in the Arcane. Pretencious, with every right to be. Their wisdom and abilities are unmatched, their purity is a key part to their society, why shouldn't they be arrogant and proud?
Because they look like this..
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2723/4256809454_b32e1dd772.jpg

When I think High Elves, I think Celeborn, and Lady Galadriel of Loth'Lorien an idea playable character should be modeled after Haldir, or ideally the most powerful elf in Imladris; Glorfindel.

Bethesda's creation of high elves:
http://images.uesp.net//4/4f/Altmer_official.jpg

Peter Jackson's vision of Haldir:
http://padawanjenn.tripod.com/LotR/haldir7_lrg.jpg

In my opinion, the High-Elves should visually be modeled in that fashion. Their attitudes are portrayed well in the games.

For Wood Elves perhaps a bigger overhaul is necessary. Bethesda describes Bosmer as:
"preferring a romantic, simple existence in harmony with the land, its wild beauty and wild creatures. These country cousins of the High Elves and Dark Elves are nimble and quick in body and wit, and because of their curious natures and natural agility, Bosmer are especially suitable as scouts, and thieves. But most of all, the Bosmer are known for their skills with bows; there are no finer archers in all of Tamriel."

Yet when we get in game the character are a mockery in both appearance and behavior

Example 1a:
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs17/f/2007/157/d/6/Oblivion__Glarthir_by_drakkenfan.jpg

1b:
http://images.wikia.com/oblivion/images/d/dc/180px-AdoringFan.jpg

Wood Elves should represent the strong silent type. While the may seem "dainty" they will kick your butt. They should show a disconnect from the society, and its power struggles. They enjoy the simple things in life, sitting in a forest is adequate enough for them. In contrast to the Altmer, Bosmer should be less self centered and instead of focusing on how amazing and how pure they are, they see how amazing and pure the world is around them. When you speak to a Bosmer, they should be short in response, and speak poetically. That could be a crucial game element. This reminds me of a Legolas type character.

Bethesda's visions of a Wood Elf
http://images.uesp.net//8/87/Bosmer_official.jpg

Legolas in the films
http://images.hugi.is/tolkien/106432.jpg

A Mirkwood Elf from the Hobbit
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l80rvbEEao1qd79ozo1_400.jpg

All in all I think The Elder Scrolls have a great history and lore with their elves..on paper. However, when it comes into the games I think an extra step can be taken to make these great races reach their full potential. Drawing inspiration from Tolkien may help to make these races come to life in the game and take on serious role, not just for comedic relief. Their looks and portrayal, in my opinion, makes these fantastic characters nearly unplayable in game.Hopefully the new models we seen for Khajits and Orcs is just the beginning of the race overhaul, and we'll improved Altmers and Bosmer

What are your thoughts on this? Keep them how they are or should they experience an overhaul? If so, explain what you are wishing for.

inb4TL;DR

"How Skyrim should take a little more from Tolkien"

Except that it shouldn't. TES should be TES, not "just another LotR wannabe." It's not like Tolkien "devoted fans" aren't already catered to enough.

I thought they always looked strange too. It's the same thing with Bretons. They look nothing how Bethesda imagined them.

yea lord of the rings elves looked well elven like oblivion apart form graphics looked like plastic

If there are any overhauls of any of the races, they should be to make TES more unique, not more like generic fantasy.

It's funny because if you actually read the thread you would see how I didn't add or take anything from TES lore or history or suggest anything new. I simply described how their characteristic, how they are already described, could be improved upon by taking some ideas from Tolkien, which obviously Bethesda has never done.

Edit:
Redguard King:
I can agree with that. I'm not suggesting the characters become more streamlined, just take the character they already have and make more alive.

Agreed.
I would like some core themes, almost everything modern day takes from Tolkien on this subject and it's unavoidable.
I LOVE Tolkien's work, but I greatly admire originality and variation. So I'm happy with the amount already.

The Elves in Tolkien stay in Tolkien.
The Elves in The Witcher and later on in The Witcher 2 stay in there.
Let the Elves in Elder Scrolls be like in Elders Scrolls not from some other game or movie and they complain of copy write.

As for poster 3, when I fist got Oblivion I thought Breton's will be lankier taller, thinner with long thine fingers. But they are shorter version of Imperials with magic properties.

Instead of Tolkien how about R.A. Salvatore LOL

My point is, the Elves in Elder Scrolls aren't represented in game as they are in lore. That is my issue.

hes saying the demeanor of the Elve's aren't portrayed enough to be akin to an elf, and i agree. not basing it off a book or movie at all just base attributes aren't even close to anything at all about the Elves

I bet vsions is going to make a cool comment in this thread.

I have trust in his/her cunning and skill. Look at how cool and great the orcs turned out
I think it's vsions that is doing the elves.

I'm only worried about Bretons; I hope them NOT to be like imperial fatties anymore... It's VERY HARD to roleplay a shadow-assassin character when your cheeks suggest that you enjoy more eating candies than being stealthed-magic assassin.

More to the point, Oblivion's characters models looked like utter garbage across the board. This is obviously not the case with Skyrim already. I wouldn't sweat it.

I agree that they have not at all followed up on what's been stated in lore in far too many cases and Skyrim is a chance for them to get everything correct. Elves really need an overhaul, then work on Bretons!

I like you. Have a fishy stick http://www.imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/dogate_til_fishystick.jpg :biggrin:

Perhaps it was wrong of me to say "SHOULD" take from Tolkien. I'm using Tolkien Elves as an example, a baseline in terms of looks and characteristics. I don't want Bethesda to change any of their lore. Even from my knowledge about TES, Elves are meant to be majestic, beautiful, graceful, and wise creatures. That is not shown in the game.


While appearance is an issue, I want talking to an elf to be different from talking to an orc. I want it to be more than a skin deep overhaul.

Well a lot of these "mis-interpretations" of races came from the Facegen program they were using which is officially gone now, and in it's place is a new system, so guaranteed that the races especially the Mer, will be much more unique in terms of the looks of each race, in fact I think it is one of the cosmetic touches to Skyrim that they keep talking about, that each Race will be cosmetically different to each other, no more getting Bretons wrong with Imperials for example.

But that's the problem here. TES elves are what they are IN THIS SERIES, and should not be compared to elves from other places.

I prefer TES elves to look like TES elves.

i could care less if they looked like a dog as long as they acted like an elf LOL

No.

All elves are tolkienesque. Tolkien created the elves of high fantasy, it is not like somebody says "LOTR fans are catered enough". Thats an ignorant statement. Before Tolkien, there's no commercial fantasy, therefore, no elves as he interprets them. Elves in Norse mythology are not like he interprets them in LOTR. D&D took its elves from LOTR, and from then on, they have been used everywhere. And they always have similar characteristics.

So, they are always tolkienesque. Just because elves in a video game look different than an ACTOR PLAYING ONE IN A LIVE ACTION MOVIE means absolutely nothing. If you are talking about looks....then really, who cares?

Even Orcs in TES used to be elves (like in Tolkien). TES comes from an established fantasy tradition in computer games in the 90s. The fact that they played with their elves in a unique way since Morrowind doesnt mean their basis is tolkienesque. Its always gonna be like that, because that is what elves in fantasy is.

The DO act like elves...TES elves. They shouldn't act like any other kind of elves from any other stories, games, etc.

i want them to look like TES elves to, but go look at the cancept art of the elves and then see how they look in game, there is a major diffrence
i agree with what the OP is trying to say, all he is saying is that the elves should look more real and how they are described in the game, a wood elf should not be 3 feet tall because it dosent say anthing about them being small, they should be nimble but that dosent mean small.bretons are half human and half mer so why do they look completly human, throw some elven into them
as i have seen with the races so far it seems like they are getting closer to the lore with how the races look. im sure that Beth has listen to our complaints and fix them to be closer to lore.

The Bosmer (Wood Elves) are cannibalistic, while the Altmer (High elves) hate Mundus, and a great deal of them want to kill all humans. The Mer (elves) are supposed to be bizarre and alien. While mer are individuals with their own motivations, with some of them probably being kind and generous people, a great deal of them a violent, arrogant, and dangerous.

Actually there are quite a lot of similarities in the Germanic, Norse and Romantic period Elves and your typical high fantasy fare. Not to mention Lord Dunsany wrote about high fantasy Elves before Tolkien even wrote The Hobbit. also TS Elves and Tolkien Elves are very different.