I was wondering what is the material used to create such weapons and armor, since they don't seem like regular metal to me. Also, are they supposed to be reliques of Ayleid origin? Or do other mer races craft and use them?

As far as I know, there isn't much information on Elven equipment.

I've always assumed that Elven = Ayleid in the Oblivion case due to the following factors:

1. Ayleid crowns from the Collector's quests are of the same design as the Elven helms.
2. The Ayleid statues/guardians in the final Thieves Guild quest are sporting the Elven gear.
3. In the Mages Guild quest, Vahtacen's Secret, the Ancient Elven Helm (locked away in an Ayleid ruin) is of the same cast as the other Elven helms (and your quest journal refers to it as an Ayleid artifact).

I realize those are all texture choices for the most part, but it seems to fit. Granted they could all come from a common design. I'm sure there are other items within the game that point one way or the other.

There isn't much information about it, but I prefer to see it as it's pretty much any ordinary Metal just crafted in a special way by the Ayleids.

Thanx, good point, I was wondering if Altmer or Bosmer crafted them too but now I see thats just impossible. There doesnt seem to be anything in the game pointing to other mer creating them, only Ayleids.
Still, why call them "elven"? It would be more correct to call them "ayleid" to avoid any confusion, but I guess its the same as "dwarven" instead of "dwemer", more appealing for those who don't know what a mer in TES is.
Any ideas about what are they made of?
Edit: is there anything about ayleids crafting gear from meteoric iron in lore? I know that's probably from a mod, but I recall reading something lorelesque about it.

I would assume they're an improved form of steel.

well considering aleids ARE elves, then obviously what you say is true. but what are these materials made of? Aleid materials? maybe we just dont know because the aleids are extinct like the Dwemer.

The culture is, the people aren't.

As to why "elven" armor is it not called Ayleid armor? I'd gander the same reason why dwemer armor and armament are called dwarven, dumbing down the armor name for newcomers.

Altmer have their own armor, which we have yet to see. Bosmer, well most likely your traditional bosmer from Valenwood, would wear raw animal hides, leather, and/or bone. Dunmer have their own armor, which can all be seen in UESP, that include chitin, netch leather, bonemold, dreugh, and indoril.

Not as much "extinct" as absorbed into other elven populations.

The battleaxes that Umaril's followers use are called Ayleid Battle Axes.

I suspect the original Aldmeri armor strongly resembled the Elven armor from Oblivion. The material is probably something similar to tempered Mithril coated with gold or something, since it can harm ghosts and undead. It's stronger than silver and obviously not normal iron or steel.

I suspect Dwemer armor is called Dwarven because that's the layperson term for the Dwemer.

I don't think that Elven weapons ignore normal weapon resistance unless they're enchanted.

I'm sure they do. Anything of higher value of silver does last time I checked. I may be wrong however.

Nope they don't, only silver, daedric and enchanted (and I guess mithril would too if weapons were still being made of it). The "has to be of quality higher than X to harm Y" was only present in Daggerfall.
Also, may I ask again, does somebody know something about meteoric iron being used to make special ayleid weapons? As I said those weapons were included in many mods, and I recall they have a lore basis but I can't remember where I read about it.

Okay then. To be honest I hardly ever use an unenchanted weapon after level 5 or anyway so I wouldn't be fully sure.

Although there's no hard evidence to support it, I highly suspect the armor the Ayleids used had its origins with original Aldmeric culture and that the only real difference was the coloration and the runes carved into the Ayleid stuff. The other cultures that split off, like the Chimer, probably were wearing the stuff during their initial Exodus too but discarded it somewhere between Sumerset and Morrowind in favor of lighter native armours.

Just like Indoril is an incorrect/generalized term for Ordinator armor, so is Elven and Dwarven incorrectly named based on common misconceptions and generalizations. Even Daedric armor fits into this, as it's Dremora armor, and other Daedric armors exist, like those worn by the Golden Saints/Aureals. So it actually fits in with how most other things have been named, in Oblivion and past games.

Elven armour is made of elves, just like how Daedric armour is made of Daedra. Duh.

And Dwarven armor is made of dwarves. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Manual_of_Armor

Apparently, there are people out there who mine "elven" and "dwarven", and bring the raw elven and dwarven to blacksmiths who can then forge this elven or this dwarven into armors and weapons.

Hah, I knew there was something about http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Magic_from_the_Sky. Such a common book in Oblivion and I hadn't noticed it... Apparently the mod I was talking about is much more than lore-correct!

Actually, Daedric Armour IS made of daedra - ebony infused with daedric spirits. It is not called so because the Dremora wear itr - in fact, as you can see in the games, most dont and simply give themselves the appearance of doing so, as Daedra (and all spirits in general) are capable of.


*cringes*
Funny, though...

But that gear that the Dremora wore provided protection and wore down like any other armor, in the Shivering Isles, it's even established that the Golden Saints and Dark Seducers are wearing real armor. And the palace guards had unequippable armor as well.

Aside from that, I wonder if this infusion is why Daedric weapons can harm spirits.

Normal ebony and glass can, too. Hell, even silver can, IIRC.
Yes, Dremora can wear daedric armour of course, though your other point is more valid: One can say that would be Daedric armour then, too (Provided its possessed by daedric spirits), but a more specific definitions would then probably indeed make sense, heh.

most likely... because enchanted weapons are infused with magic, they can harm spirits. and since daedric weapons are infused with daedra, which are ultimately magical creatures, they can also harm spirits.

I've noticed many of you try to mix lore with game mechanics, men, thats just crazy! I mean, of course dremora, golden saint and seducer armor wear down and give protection! And you can equip it yourself making it playable in the CS if you feel like it! But its just a game mechanics neccesity, they couldn't just create NPCs with armor meshes built onto them just for the sake of lore!
Anyway, this is drifting away from the original question too much. I'm actually starting to think that the regular elven weapons and armor from Oblivion could actually be made from that meteoric iron mentioned before, but I'm not sure since apparently welkynd and varla stones are made from it too.
Probably not, you can't arm a whole army with just what drops from the sky...

A note on game mechanics:

Actually you don't even need the CS. You're given a full suit of either Golden Saint or Dark Seducer armor depending on the path you take in the game. I think the real reason the devs didn't always let these armors and the armors of Dremora be lootable is game economy balance in the early levels. Players under level 12 could have been raking in thousands of Septims for every Dremora they killed, and that would have made them able to purchase the most powerful armors and weapons from the various Smiths and other enchanted items from other merchants way too early in the game, making them essentially overpowered.

One suit of Daedric armor that's never attainable is that of the Aurorans, and that's a shame because it looks so freaking cool. I understand their physiology would make it seem incompatible with a human sized warrior but we could have at least gotten the helmet and chest piece.

Another example would be Knights of the Order armor. The CS lets you equip their lowest quality stuff but it's weaker than Iron. The stronger sets are able to be emulated by altering their stats however.

A note on lore:

Meteoric Iron seems a likely and believable explanation. The Welkynd and Varla stones were a big part of Elven culture, so perhaps they used the same metals/ores to craft their armor and weapons.

:rofl:

Does this mean orcish armor is made out of orcs as well?

Can we also assume that Indoril armor is made out of members of House Indoril? And Dark brotherhood armor is made from actual Dark Brotherhood assassins?

I'd say that book is a pretty poor representation of actual lore, though, it doesn't explain anything about the origins of the materials, or their properties, and the author (The Bethesda employee who wrote it, that is, not the unnamed writer of it in the Elder Scrolls world.) seems to assume that just because many armors in the game bear the names of the materials they are made of means that the names of all armor types must be the material from which they are made, not to mention what it really is seems to be a brief in-character explanation of game mechanics.



I believe this is indeed the case, I suspect that elven armor and weapons are made by Ayleids, though, some of the Ayleid artifacts in the game do look a lot like elven items, and of course, there's the Ayleid statues in the Thieves Guild quest, not to mention the design of the elven armor and weapons seems to be sort of compatible with the Ayleid sense of aesthetics to me, not to mention with all the Ayleid ruins in the game, it would seem rather odd if there isn't at least one type of item of Ayleid craftsmanship.

As to the material they're made from, I can't guess, it's obviously some kind of metal, but in a world like the Elder Scrolls full of crazy fantasy metals used to make armor and weapons, it's kind of hard to guess what kind unless the game tells you.



I don't think game balance would be too much of a problem, since the unplayable armors used by lower level Dremora in Oblivion are probably actually weaker items that just look like Daedric, just as their shields and weapons are. Only the most powerful ones seem to have real Daedric armor, and it seems plausible that in the lore, they could actually be given real Daedric armor (After all, Dremora often had Daedric weapons in Morrowind too, though obviously they wouldn't have Daedric armor which could be looted as they were considered "creatures" by game mechanics, and therefore could not wear any armor or clothing that was not part of their model.) but lower ranking ones would not have access to such powerful items, and either use replicas, or just take on forms that make them look like they have Daedric armor, I don't think the game mechanics should be trusted to answer this question, since gameplay often does not accurately reflect the lore, given that with the former, designers must think about what makes a fun game and what the engine can do, with the latter, designers can just focus on what would make an interesting story.

Of course, some can argue that the lore Bethesda writes doesn't always make for a good story anyway, but I never did say that just because designers can focus on something means they will achieve it.