So as to avoid relocation, I'll explain firsthand that this thread is meant to gather opinions on how the Falmer should be presented.

To me, Dwemer lore is much more interesting than Ayleid. The dungeons were better done. Dwemer had an impact on the story. Dwemer are mysterious.

Ayleid. Blue. Everything blue. Mundane caves with traps. Boring lore. No influence on main quest (other than great welkynd stone). No cool Ayleid weapons. Just lame.

Any other opinions?

More importantly, how would you like the Falmer to be presented in TES V? More mysterious and important like Dwemer? Or as optional folk lore beings, with little effect on the main story?

I don't know. I don't like an advanced techno race. I prefer to have evil slave drivers with crystal white ruins with names like: "Miscarcand"

I didn't find the Ayleids at all interesting in Oblivion...but that doesn't mean they can't be interesting in Skyrim.

Hopefully we'll get a little bit of both Falmer and Dwemer in Skyrim.

you prefer dwemer over other racers?
juding by your name i never would have guessed! xD

anyways, who the hell are the Falmer?

also i think you can compare that dwemer to aylied comparison to any MW to OB comparison (well, mundane/boring)

Both of them had names that were terribly hard to pronounce so I hate them both for that. :C In all seriousness though, I prefer the Dwemer mainly because of the lore behind them.

Short Answer: Snow Elves

Long Answer: http://oblivion.wikia.com/wiki/Falmer

In a nut shell they are the "lost" ancient elves of Skyrim. Kind of like how Morrowind had the Dwemer and Cyrodiil had the Ayleids.

The Ayleid's had lore, quite interesting lore, the problem was that everything interesting about the Ayleids was found in books. They didn't infuse any Ayleid lore into the actual Ayleid ruins, and that was the problem - whereas with the Dwemer you could learn alot about them by their ruins, and then could learn more from the books, with the Ayleids there were only the books, with the ruins as a pretty accent.

The fact is that we don't know much about the Dwemer, and even less about the Falmer.So Bethseda can actually introduce them to us, in much greater detail than before.I personally like the Dwemer much more than the Falmer, because they are kick ass crafty folks.Bethseda could change my mind tho.Maybe we will see more about the Falmer in Skyrm, who knows.

You mean Chimer?

I'd imagine he meant Dwemer. The Chimer aren't "lost", they just changed (and there are some still around anyway, likewise with the Ayleids).

Ah yeah thanks, I read Dwemer as Dunmer for some reason. Thought he had made a typo. Didn't know there were Chimer around though, cool.

Well, I would love the Falmer to be a deep and interesting extinct race and that we would get many interesting ruins to explore, but there is a problem with that. The Lore says that we know next to nothing about the Falmer, and that they left little if any evidence behind. So... unless their many ruins have been hidden for all these years and we'll be the first ones to discover them, which seems unrealistic, I don't really see how we can have much. I suppose its possible there are ancient ruins that no body has connected to them, but that seems unrealistic as well.

There is also that I think the Falmer might still be around, and could play a major role in the plot. I do agree, I found the Dwemer much more intersting than the Ayleid, who on the surface seemed a little to typical elven for my taste. I always liked how the Dwemer, who were referred to as Dwarves, were really Elves and didn't really conform to much the typical fantasy ideas of either. It made me want to learn more about them, because I couldn't guess what I might find.

I'm quite interested in the lore of both races equally. I wouldn't want to see too many dungeons of either in Skyrim though, unless they're deep within the mountains or near the lowlands of Cyrodiil and Morrowind. Personally I'm hoping Bethesda uses something different - I don't want TES V to feel like an obvious compromise between Morrowind and Oblivion.


The Dwemer had some pretty cool location names too. http://uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Arkngthunch-Sturdumz

I'm not sure if I have a preference between the Dwemer and the Ayleids. The whole tonal architect thing is pretty interesting (I'm still not really sure what a "tonal architect" actually is). I wouldn't say that one is better; rather, they are different. I like both.

As for the Falmer, I'm looking forward to more developing lore in regard to them, but I don't want Falmer ruins to dot the landscape like Ayleid ruins did. That's the main comparison that I can think of: Dwemer ruins seemed fewer and harder to get to, while Ayleid ruins were all over the place (albeit usually infested with things that want to eat/kill/disembowel me). I'd rather Falmer ruins to be buried or hidden (perhaps under layers of snow and ice in the (I'm assuming here) colder northern reaches of Skyrim.

I don't want the Falmer to be anything like either of them. Each living race of elves is highly unique, and each extinct race as well. I see no reason why the Falmer would break from that pattern.

And, for the record, I think the Ayleid lore is fascinating. There's quite a bit there, it's just more obscure than the Dwemer lore (understandably, I think, since the Imperials wouldn't be inclined to give history lessons on the race that enslaved them and killed them en masse for entertainment).

EDIT: Just wanted to add, similarities between Ayleids and traditional fantasy elves are entirely superficial. If you delve deeper, they really are quite distinct.

I myself loved the Dwemer in Morrowind, there was just something about the look of their armour and the lore behind them that made me happy everytime I came across one of their ruins.

There is also lore which states that :
"In the The Late Middle Merethic Era, the Velothi Mountains were settled by the Dwemer, who created cities beneath the mountain range. Presumably these cities followed the fate of their counterparts in Morrowind and Hammerfell and now lie deserted, but no further information on the cities exists."
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Velothi_Mountains
So we may see some of these as the Velothi mountains border on Skyrim Yay!

Sweeeet!

I loved the Dwemer in Morrowind.

I remember I first came upon Snowy Granius and Arkngthand completely by accident just exploring around Balmora.

Guy freaked me out and then the dungeon....yeah that really freaked me out.

Good times.

yeah if your looking for some Snow elves lore read "The Snow Prince" a book found in one of the borrows in bloodmoon. Its a pretty cool telling of how the Nords pretty muched drove the Falmer from Solstheim through war and the last battle in which you hear about the Snow Prince and how he was apperntly a badass :toughninja:


edit: Scratch that its called "Fall of the Snow Prince"

Falmer > Dwemer > Ayleid. Because they give toys to all the good little mer every year.

agreed, but I may be a little biased, because I love steampunk stuff