In the GI magazine, there is a screenshot showing what looks like a levelling-up screen or something, showing a characters skills. The character's name is Bendu Olo (hehe) and the race says "Dark Elf".

I would've thought by now that Bethesda would've changed the names of the elven races to their proper mer names. They're hardly called "High Elf", "Wood Elf" or "Dark Elf" anymore. We all know them now as "Altmer", "Bosmer" and "Dunmer".

What do you guys think? Elves or mer?

In this pic it says dark elf. I want the talk to be what they call themselfs. But I want the names as they always were. http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim/b/xbox360/archive/2011/01/28/skyrim-menu-system-overhaul.aspx

Edit: I deleted my vote because I can not vote on this 50/50.

Refuse to vote

I like having them both. And anyway, if Bethesda took either away they'd be accused of dumbing down the series, so it's best where it's at.

Well, this is Skyrim, land of the Nords, don't the Nords and other races of men refer to them as "____ Elves" instead of Mer? I know they were still called "Dark Elves, etc" in the race menu of Morrowind, but hindsight is 20/20, so maybe that was just for convenience back then.

Either way, in Oblivion I'm pretty sure the racial description called them Dunmer, Bosmer, Altmer, Orsimer, and I imagine the Skyrim descriptions will too.

Well for the sake of keeping it simple for those that don't follow lore, their simple names. It doesn't really matter to me what they are called. Everyone knows what they are anyways.

I can't decide... Sorry.

Personally I always think of Dunmers as Drows.

Um, both will be used. Just like Oblivion.

I think that's the best answer. I remember when I was new to the series, it was very welcoming to see "High Elf, Dark Elf, etc" because it gave me a one-word description and told me they were elves. It allowed me to get into the series more easily. Familiar yet different.

I would die if they did start removing all reference's to Mer names in game.

Any Mer saying Dark Elf or some such should probably be some exile or lunatic who thinks he is of human race. No self respecting Altmer would say High Elf to another Altmer. Just would be a bit wrong.

You have to remember things will change from now to release day and the polish will be on the game so what we are seeing is not what we will get those scans are just what they have right now I hate to compare this to a FPS but look at the Halo:Reach beta the interface looked really bumpy and not well done now it looks fine

This. Voted for -mer. Although we'll hear a lot of -mer in-game, it'd be a bit silly to see "---- Elf" in the menu each time you open it.

The system is pretty well established by now. The game itself uses human terms, and humans call them Elves. The Elves themselves, and people trying to be polite, call them Mer. All the Elven races have multiple names, that can be used interchangeably to establish something about the character using them. There is absolutely no indication whatsoever that this is changing in Skyrim. Seriously. None.

Are they not the same?

As for the menu? Judging from past games it will be ___Elf. As for NPC's talking to you? Again, judging from past games it will be both. With Mer calling other Mer, __Mer. And the races of men using __Elf.

This is a stupid question.

I personally like the altemer, bosmer, dumner better than high, wood, and dark elf. However, the "elf" i think of is kinda like slang for the human like races for the elves.

Who cares? Not me. Both mean the same thing, just from different perspectives - we are given the human perspective, that's all there is to it really... makes sense since all of us are humans in RL.

The hard-line Nords would call them devils, and mean it.

Where is your both option? I use both depending on the circumstance. Seems to me that mer is the proper term while elf is more like slang. If I'm referring to my characters I always use mer out of respect. Yes, that does sound silly... :teehee:

It's the same difference as Human or Homosapien.

Wouldn't the Nords have their own words for the races of Men, Mer, and Beast?

The western names have always been used in the character screens, even in Morrowind, while the elven names were often used in dialog (And the dialog topics on different races were written as Dunmer, Altmer and Bosmer.) when you chose your race, it still said "Dark Elf" or "High Elf" or "Wood Elf". If even a game that takes place an an elven province doesn't call them "Somethingmer" in the character screen, do you really expect one set in a human province to do so?

I'd imagine it's going to be like in pretty much every other game, where they're called "Something Elf" in the menus, but in dialog, they're either "Something Elf" or "Somethingmer" depending on who you're talking to, and this makes sense, because both terms are recognized in the setting, even if "Somethingmer" is what they prefer to call themselves, and using the western names in character creation makes sense because we're in a province whose natives would likely call them elves, not mer.

I think both should be used, but as it's a human dominated province, I would expect to see Dark Elf, High Elf, and Wood Elf used more prominently. If they scrapped the Elf names altogether, that would be pretentious. They are elves, and calling them "mer" won't really disguise that fact.

According to the http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-first-edition-morrowind the Nords called Morrowind Dunmereth - land of the Dunmer - so it should be fine for Nords to call the Dunmer by their real name - it was the Imperails who had the practice of just calling everyone by more basic names, perhaps as conquerors they felt the right to do so to deprive or subjugate the initial inhabitants of their true identity - am looking forward to seeing in Skyrim lore how the mer have taken back lands from the Imperials

I meant it being the actual name of the race, so like when you access your character menu is says "Dark Elf", or something. Both the terms "elf" and "mer" have been used together in the games, as it is appropriate for different circumstances or cultures to use the "elf" term sometimes.

What I meant was the actual, "game-name" of the races. That's why there's no "both" option. It seems like the proper name of the race is what they call themselves, not what the Imperials call them. Like a previous poster stated, it wouldn't be usual for an Altmer to call themselves a "High Elf". While the "elf" terms could be used in other circumstances, should the "mer" names not be fitting to use for the names of the races?