Which Elven culture does the Elven Armor in the last couple of games represent? Ayleid? Aldmer?

It kind of bothers me to have such a generic label for such an interesting/unique looking style of armor. I would be just as bothered by seeing a suit of armor simply called "Human Armor".

And is there a reason mithril was left out of Skyrim? Is it a material unique to Cyrodiil or the Ayleids?

I would imagine that Elven armor from both the past 2 games are based around Altmer designs, and that pieces of these armors being found (as well as all other kinds of armor for that matter) where they really shouldn't be found can be chocked up to game mechanics.

As far as mithril is concerned, who knows.

The Elven weapons we see in Skyrim and Oblivion scream Altmeri decent, I always felt that they seemed to look natural on the Altmer. I'm not sure what type of weaponry the Ayleids used, however going by the Aurorans, its safe to wager that their somewhat similar. (Even though their weapons were basically enchanted elven weapons.) Also, if its anything to go by I've seen the Thalmor use Glass and Elven weaponry exclusively. As for why Mirthril was left out of Skyrim, I don't even want to touch that subject. I'm still miffed on the scarcity of silver weapons.

Mithril isn't metal at all, but tighty woven ancestor silks.

In Oblivion, Ayleid. In Skyrim, Altmer and (pre-degeneration) Falmer.

Moonstone crafting could be very common amongst the Elves.

I never knew that Daedric was made of Ebony till Skyrim came out. Good point on the mithril tho. But you know Daedric armor is actually Dremora armor but they just call it Daedric armor.

I was under the impression that Dremora armor was just fancy-looking ebony, while Daedric involved the infusion of the heart or soul of a lesser daedroth in addition to being made of ebony.

As for Oblivion's elven armor, we see it equipped on the ayleid statues, but that might have just been the devs being too lazy to make ayleid-specific armor.

On the topic of the Auroran armor, it seems very elven (golden, lots of feather motifs). It was most likely made by the Ayleids and given to the Aurorans to use, rather than having been developed independantly by the Aurorans. A pity there's no real lore on the Aurorans.

But it's almost always made and worn by Dremora. The Dremora designed it, not the Aurorans, Mazken, Golden Saints,or Hernai.

glass and elven seem to be made by altmer, I think mithril was left out because the devs thought it sounded to lord of the rings

As for why the elven armor in ob also was on alyied ruins...maybe altmer fashion at the time was into aylied culture

I'd just say the Ayleids and Altmer have similar tastes in armor design. Altmer = High Elves, Ayleid = Heartland High Elves.

So if I'm getting it right so far, no one knows where the mithril went in Skyrim and the Elven Armor is most likely Ayleid or Altmer. Cool.

The Ayleid statues (like the one with the giant bird found in many Ayleid exteriors) suggest that they wore a more lightly armored variant on the elven armor with a different, more practical helmet. But given the similarities, and the Ayleids propensity for nature/bird imagery, it seems likely that Ayleids invented it, and the Altmer rediscovered and adopted the style after they joined the Empire.

That's not it. From Oblivion's Light Armor Repair, "Non-Metallic armors are Fur and Leather... Metallic armor will occasionally need a patch. Usually it can be repaired by hammering the torn pieces back together. Elven and Mithril will repair better when heated."

Well, not all elven armor should be the same. Different smith = different design. same with all other armor types.Unless it's a standard issue, generic design created for droves of soldiers.

I was citing http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1226932-on-silk/page__fromsearch__1 which regardless of canonicity, gives us a better, more fanciful explanation for the lack of Mithril in Skyrim.

I've read it before, I don't share the interest.

But Glass Weapons and Armour come from Morrowind, no? They come from the volcano there. Or perhaps it isn't limited to Red Mountain and there are volcanos on Summerset/Alinor?

Glass is an originally Altmer design made with Malachite (sp?) Morrowind's glass is a regional flavor made with volcanic glass.

I wonder why Dremora don't have a Standard-issue light armor set for mages and archers... It would probably be the only light armor set that has a decent lookin helmet, besides elven.