Drak Elf voices : The Elder Scrolls Series Discussion

» Sat May 28, 2011 5:04 pm

If you play the game often enough you can recognise individuals. The same as real life. Sure, people in a row don't have heads that are circles, squares, triangles, etc. but you can tell them apart.

» Sun May 29, 2011 1:03 am

What they ought to have done is have modifiers that adjusted the pitch, tone, and other sound qualities of the voice on a per-NPC basis. That would have provided the needed distinctiveness without additional voice acting.

» Sat May 28, 2011 1:37 pm

One thing im sure about- the dunmer raspy voice in Morrowind, cannot be due to Ash breathing.
Otherwise the Dunmer females and all other races (most, at least those, who were born or lived long enough in Morrowind) would have sound raspy too.

I think it just sounded cool.

» Sat May 28, 2011 12:53 pm

Redguards are the only race with a unique voice for both genders.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0533053/ has voiced Cyrus the Redguard, male Redguards in Morrowind, and male redguards in Oblivion. Seems to be the only voice actor Bethesda likes hanging on to.

» Sat May 28, 2011 6:59 pm

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0533053/ has voiced Cyrus the Redguard, male Redguards in Morrowind, and male redguards in Oblivion. Seems to be the only voice actor Bethesda likes hanging on to.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1200405/ was in all three of those games, too. Lynda Carter (Nord females) was in Morrowind, Bloodmoon, and Oblivion, as was the woman that did the Dunmer females (which IMDB doesn't seem to list).

» Sat May 28, 2011 8:58 pm

I remember in the teaser videos (WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE KEPT IT LIKE THAT BETHESDA?!) the dunmer guy in Chorrol had that same raspy voice we all know and love from our days in Vvardenfell.

» Sat May 28, 2011 12:39 pm

No, there's no lore reason, it's a game mechanics reason - or more specifically, a budget consideration. They spent all their voice acting money on Sean Bean (and 10 lines by Patrick Stewart) and had to cut back on unique voices for the rest of the races.
All Elves of the same gender share a voice (High Elf)
Orcs and Nords of the same gender share a voice (Nord)
Khajiit and Argonians of the same gender share a voice (Argonian)
Imperial and Breton females share a voice (Imperial), but the males are distinct.
Redguards are the only race with a unique voice for both genders.

Thing is, the guy who voiced Nords and Orcs also did the voices of Khajiits and Argonians, but in a different tone.

» Sat May 28, 2011 8:42 pm

No, there's no lore reason, it's a game mechanics reason - or more specifically, a budget consideration. They spent all their voice acting money on Sean Bean (and 10 lines by Patrick Stewart) and had to cut back on unique voices for the rest of the races.
All Elves of the same gender share a voice (High Elf)
Orcs and Nords of the same gender share a voice (Nord)
Khajiit and Argonians of the same gender share a voice (Argonian)
Imperial and Breton females share a voice (Imperial), but the males are distinct.
Redguards are the only race with a unique voice for both genders.

I really dislike the female orc and nord voices. They all sound extroverted, and they sound the same. Come to think of it, I hated all the nords in Oblivion. I wasn't a fan of their voiceacting.

» Sat May 28, 2011 9:31 pm

I really dislike the female orc and nord voices. They all sound extroverted, and they sound the same. Come to think of it, I hated all the nords in Oblivion. I wasn't a fan of their voiceacting.

The female orcs in Morrowind sounded good, barbaric like they should sound, I don't know why they would make them sound like nords.

» Sat May 28, 2011 12:09 pm

Yeah, the Oblivion dark elves were intolerable. Fun fact: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1198561/ who voiced the raspy Dunmer also did Haskill in SI. They should get him back. Unless they can get http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tom+waits&search_type=&aq=f to do it of course... but that would be much too awesome.

» Sun May 29, 2011 12:02 am

This should be a better question:

Q: Is there a lore-reason why every elf has the same voice?
A: No, it's just designed that way so they don't need to hire 1000 different voice-actors....

» Sat May 28, 2011 11:32 am

The female orcs in Morrowind sounded good, barbaric like they should sound, I don't know why they would make them sound like nords.

Because Nords are also barbaric...

» Sat May 28, 2011 9:02 pm

I think they should've just stuck with the Morrowind voice actors, but they couldn't afford that after giving ten lines to Patrick Stewart and a small role to Sean Bean. Big mistake on Bethesda's part, they shouldn't have had those two.

» Sat May 28, 2011 10:03 pm

Because Nords are also barbaric...

But stil an Orsimer is a far more vulgar mer in many ways, and I dont think Nords and Orsimer sounds the same.

» Sat May 28, 2011 11:16 pm

But stil an Orsimer is a far more vulgar mer in many ways, and I dont think Nords and Orsimer sounds the same.

Too add, nords have more of an uplifting and booming voice, while orcs have a more grumbled, raspy, and lower voice, despite both being deep.

» Sat May 28, 2011 9:22 pm

Bethesda has to have a huge horde of money they should be able to hire more voice actors, in the demo i think the male imperial had a different voice to, and the raspy, coarse, dunmer voice was one of the things i liked about them they sounded distinctive they should bring that back in tes 5 the dunmer are not the same without their distinctive voice.

» Sat May 28, 2011 10:13 pm

It isn't that simple. There are several races.

» Sat May 28, 2011 3:47 pm

Well if they had the voice in the tes 4 demo and took it out for budget reasons I see no reason not to bring it back to tes 5

» Sat May 28, 2011 10:53 am

It makes logical sense that the Dunmer who live in Cyrodill wouldn't have the raspy voices, which are probably a result of breathing in copious amounts of Ash on a daily basis.

» Sat May 28, 2011 11:06 am

But then the other races in Vvardenfell would have that raspy voice.

It isn't that simple. There are several races.

In Morrowind almost every race had a unique voice.

» Sat May 28, 2011 9:24 pm

That's probably because it was likely specifically written for that video to show off the game's NPC conversations, and stop acting stupid. The NPC conversations in Oblivion might not be good, but the responses are at least usually grammatically correct, if you think you're acting clever, you're really doing the exact opposite.

Haha,i thought it was funny.But i dont like the Morrowind Dark Elf voices anyway...they sound too forced and cheesy,i dont get why everyone has a joygasm when they hear em.

» Sat May 28, 2011 4:46 pm

It makes logical sense that the Dunmer who live in Cyrodill wouldn't have the raspy voices, which are probably a result of breathing in copious amounts of Ash on a daily basis.

ok but in morrowind dunmer females didnt have raspy voices they sounded normal and the same in oblivion are you saying that only males are affected by breathing ash and what of other races who lived there for years they have to be breathing large amounts of ash why arent their voices raspy?

» Sat May 28, 2011 12:24 pm

Because they wasn't cursed from the beginning to look like Ash Ghouls with glowing red eyes like some kind of generic epic vampire/demon?

» Sat May 28, 2011 4:42 pm

An alternative hypothesis, with no known foundation in lore, but not inconsistent with game data:

Actually, male Dunmer have high tenor voices, not so nasal as Bosmer, but to their own ears still sissified. The ones in Cyrodiil have learned to speak posh, but the ones in Morrowind suffer from an excess of machismo and insist on speaking in gruff voices about an octave and a fifth too low. This leads to a prevalence of http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-88800/Are-suffering-Bogart-Bacall-syndrome.html among the male Dunmer of Morrowind, and their gravelly voices are the result of years of vocal cord damage, not from ash in the air, but their own attempts to one-up their compatriots.

» Sat May 28, 2011 11:18 pm

Why do the orcs sound so... un-orcish in TESIV whereas in Morrowind they sounded gruffer and orcier? Different game, different approaches to voice acting, different intentions on how various races were going to be portrayed. The Khajiit and Argonians in Morrowind had the animal leg thing going on while in Oblivion they have humanoid skeletal structures. They just wanted to portray them that way I guess *shrugs* Maybe to keep the Dunmer more in line with the other elven races?