Exactly. It's only assumed, because they look like lizards.

Fact of the matter is, argonians are beings created by sentient trees to act as an extension of them. They are semi-controlled by these trees, called the Hist, and are completely alien to all species in Tamriel. Hardly anything is known, other than they need the Hist for rites-of-passage to literally become an advlt, and they can lay eggs or hold them, depending on the temperature outside. They're scaled with hard eggs, but can breath underwater and have aquatic features. Also, there have been argonians that do live in cold climates, but they're typically not happy about it without some warm fuzzy boots.

Point is, the argonians are too alien to certainly say something definite without official knowledge.

And if anyone is using UESP for lore, you're using the wrong place. Read the TES books, as that's the only way to get lore. Also dev quotes if you're feeling exploratory. Extrapolation from a wiki source that can be edited isn't going to cut it.

We do know they are highly evolved Reptilians. And we do believe they indeed lay eggs but not in the way most of us think of. We also know that or believe that they produce milk via briasts (or some nourishment) to feed their young. I'm no lore person and I hope someone from our lore community comes in to add some insight into this. But I have always believed them to be cold blooded but then again I'm not sure how they have evolved and now it's 200 years later.

Argonian quote: "I've rather be cold blooded than cold hearted."

I'm cold blooded and I live in the far reaches of the north.

Fact of the matter, summer, there really is no lore on Argonians. Only in-game quotes from argonians, the book series "The Argonian Account," the Pocket Guide to the Empire, Redguard, The Anuad books, a few dev quotes here and there, and The Infernal City.

TheCandleThief was kind enough to dig up a dev quote, and the rest is pretty much what I said.

To iterate, the argonians are completely alien to the other races of Tamriel, and have no connection to mer and men, only the Hist. In fact, the argonians are pretty much a moving Hist root, in a way.

Argonians are ovoviviparous (Pete Hines quote). Hellmouth is correct, there just isn't a lot of lore about them, and the lore there is contradicts itself sometimes.

There are also plenty of cold blooded creatures on earth that dwell in cold climates, such as salamanders and fish and sharks..

Well...the great white is semi-cold blood.

But with argonians, the point should be taken that no one should assume anything, unless stated.

Actually the ES lore IS logical, just using a different logic system than you're use to.
And never use USEP for a debate. it's really just a wiki in disguise.

The UESP can be used, as long as people use the primary source, the books. Not to mention summaries need references, which are sadly forgotten at times in favor of speculation.

Good, I use UESP. Who uses USEP?

And me.

Thanks Hellmouth. I don't study or dwell on lore but I read a lot of it here, at the Imperial Library and of course the Pocket Guide.

It is fun to speculate however and maybe Argonians are much like the great white and semi-cold blooded.

TheCandleThief, we have no salamanders in Alaska as it is indeed to cold for them here. We do however have one type of frog that burrows under ground to survive the cold. We catch a few fish through the ice as well from time to time.

The UESP is pretty awesome and most of us use it. But when looking for lore I search the forums here or go to the Imperial Library to read for a few hours.

Yeah its a wiki, don't see how thats hard to tell.

True, perhaps they simply have a lower body temperature, being cold blooded has the benefit of require far less food, downside is that then you are passive temperature falls and they get slow.

then they need to clarify it for some people......not me necessarily because i dont play beast races and could care less. but for the sake of consistency hopefully they will address it in skyrim. in fact i would put good money that this very topic came up in one of their initial meeting when deciding where to do TES V. occams razor comes into play here. is it more likely that he was referring to other argonians or is it more likely that he was referring to humans/elves. its far more likely that he is referring to the other races. someone mentioned that argonians repeatedly referred to you as warm blood throughout the game. you cant go entirely by lore because as i pointed out argonians in daggerfall had hair. clearly they dont anymore.

what i would like to know is if anyone was referred to as a warm blood during morrowind while playing as an argonian. if they were called warmblood as an argonian then that helps the case of argonians being both. if argonians were not referred to as warm bloods then that means that argonians are clearly cold blooded. hopefully someone has the anwer to that.

Nah, if you start nit picking the little things like 'why aren't the argonians freezing to death' you have to take into account the big things.

Like the fact there there are freaking bipedal talking lizard men!

Sentient and extremely ancient trees that have lived since the start of the world made them. EXPLAIN THAT!

I use UESP as a base reference point. Just like any wiki it can be changed by anyone and therefore anything stated their can be inaccurate. So if you use UESP remember to check the source of the info (i.e books, developer posts) before believing it. A better place to reference is TIL.

its theorized that if humans had body temperatures that were 10 degrees cooler we could live an average life of 150+ years. i would put a link but it was in a discover magazine that i read the article.

that doesnt really apply here though does it?

thats one of the advantages to being cold blooded. you dont need to eat nearly as often as a warm blooded animal. crocodiles and turtles can live for decades compared to lions bears etc which have comparatively brief lifespans. the downside is that cold blooded species are not as intelligent, have less stamina and obviously are limited to warmer areas.

i was reading the article and it mentioned that they share some attributes with fish. this is a very good loophole for the argonians to survive in the cold because there are fish that survive in the arctic oceans by having a chemical in their blood that prevents them from freezing........a type of natural anti freeze. unfortunately i couldnt find anything to explain who they would be able to maintain a high level of energy and movement in a cold environment. the fish i mentioned is very slow and inactive. so unless you going to roleplay a depressed argonians that shuffles while stooped over everywhere they go and constantly complains about the cold i think this is just going to be one of those things you ignore in a video game. frankly of all the absurdities in fantasy games having a cold blooded being running and jumping around skyrim is fairly low on my list.

Yeah but that doesnt matter if your a vampire :wink_smile:




TBH, the only reason argonians are in, is because too many people would cry and pout over it. Though i have no doubt argonians could survive the cold with magic and really good gear, it just doesnt make sense to have them live in a fridge climate.

The problem i see is that there really isnt any concise source saying whether they are, or are not. So technically its justifiable, despite that what we know about reptillians it wouldnt make sense. Also, its solid speculation that they are indeed cold blooded, being that they tend to reference it in game.

So i digress, the main reason theyre in, despite sense and common belief, is that because it would cause too much of an uproar with the exceedingly touchy fan base, and we'd have another EvE Online: Incarna happening right here. (if your curious, go check out the EvE general chat forums... its on fire, theyres riots in game over some speculated change... its pretty crazy)

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I'll do quite well with my manic depressive argonian warrior... Every time he gets into a fight, it'll be "Ghod... why bother, he's just gana kill me anyway.... *sigh*"

Also, if argonians didnt freeze, then they wouldnt be affected by frost spells. Maybe the new ice lance think but we've yet to see that. However, intense cold hurts the body by freezing it and basically rupturing the cells it affects. If argonians couldnt be frozen, period, then frost spells would be rendered null.

who says the ones who live there grew up in black marsh?

*:nono: discussion of moderator actions or inactions are not allowed here.

I really doubt that Bethesda is only allowing Argonians in Skyrim because people will complain otherwise... they've been a playable race in every game in the series so far, it would be bizarre to remove them from just one game. They're part of what makes this series unique.

I always thought they were warm blooded anyway. A cold blooded animal coudn't be active at any given moment the way Argonians are. Their species would never have been able to do half of what they do if they had to spend ages laying in the sun to warm their bodies. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a theory that dinosaurs became the dominant species on Earth for roughly 160 million years because they were warm blooded and there's actually no proof that they were cold blooded. Given that birds are warm blooded and there are numerous evolutionary links between birds and certain species of dinosaur, the existence of warm blooded reptiles isn't that far-fetched at all.

EVERYTHING IS WRONG IN THIS THREAD BY FACTS

Argonians are cold blooded, yes, otherwise its a big mistake for them calling me "warm blooded" in morrowind.

BUT ------ SOME COLD BLOODED CREATURES CAN LIVE BENEATH 0 temp! I just saw a show about it in national geographic the other day