How could he?
The Orcs/Orsimer have pretty much always existed as have the Dwemers.

What do you mean? How is it he cant be half orc?

He isn't. Proweler gave an example as to what "dwarf-orc" really meant. It's like saying "your mom is so fat, she's half whale." Basically, they wanted to make him look villianous by attaching "orc" to his name. To the chimer, they probably tried to make him out to be a big, dumb, and ugly oaf.

And Adaqueril, the orsimer have not always been orsimer. As pointed out earlier, they were aldmer (proto-elves) who were followers of Trinimac, an elvish god hero person thing who in myths tore out Shor's heart and cast it to what is now Red Mountain. When the chimer were leaving to Morrowind, Trinimac sought to stop them. Boethiah then came around, swallowed Trinimac, and pooped him out, transforming him into Malacath. When that happened, the aldmer who followed Trinimac also transformed into what is now the orsimer, or the orcs.

Also, the dwemer seemed to pretty much stick only with themselves. Even when the chimer and dwemer were "allies" it was about as close as the US was with the USSR in WWII, which is to say they're not going to try and kill each other.

So Malacath looks like an orc?

Hideous is in the eye of the beholder. I believe the Orcs to be beautiful.

Daedra are protean: they look like what they want to look like. Malacath pretty clearly looks like an Orc in Daggerfall, and his statues could pass for Orcs in Morrowind and Oblivion.

Just to clarify the Dwemer were not short.http://www.imperial-library.info/dwemer/guide.shtml

Yeah. They're about as tall as a human. And no, they did not have a special affinity towards beer and axes. Think of them as Mesopotamian elves that rejected reality, are trying to escape it, and knew a lot about machines and electricity. And before you ask, no, they did not have guns.

Depends on whether you're a Velothi.

Who are they?

surely you jest

Velothi = Dunmer (When the prophet Veloth lead the Chimer exodus)

Dunmer = Dark Elves

Dark Elvers = Chimer before they came "Dark" from Azura's curse.

Chimer = Velothi.

Sorry. I'm bored. The Velothi are basically the Dunmer.

No I've been playing Oblivion for forever and now that I've started morrowind I would like to learn everything I can about the lore. So is velothi a translation of chimer or their original name?

Velothi comes from Veloth. Veloth was the prophet that led the Exodus. Think of Velothi meaning that they Dunmer are Veloth's people.

What was the Exodus?

The Chimer held beliefs that were different from the other Aldmer. So, the three Good Daedra (Azura, Boethia, and Mephala) convinced the Chimer to leave the Summerset Isle. Veloth was their leader, and he eventually lead the Chimer into the land of Dwemer, or Resdayn as it came to be called.

It went something like that. There is a fair amount of deception on the part of the "Good" Daedra.

Read the FAQ. Will answer most of you rudimentary questions.

Didn't I say that a bit further up?

Oh yes, here it is... "I'm not 100% but I'm sure the Orsimer changed apperances when Trinimac was "eaten" by Boethia. ".

That's because they're also called dwarves, "dwarf" is the western name while "Dwemer" is the elven name, so it's kind of like dark elf versus Dunmer or wood elf versus Bosmer.

Most likely, when Bethesda first decided to put "dwarven" weapons and armor into the games, they really were meant to have been made by generic dwarves, but as the lore got fleshed out they were eventually retconned into techno-elves, so they would seem a bit less cliche.

As to orcs, I do get the impression that in terms of gameplay, they're meant to fill a similar niche to dwarves in other RPGs, but in terms of lore, beyond a few superficial similarities, they have nothing in common.



As far as I know, no, but I'd have to agree with those saying that they probably looked a bit like Altmer, so really, I think Boethia did the right thing with eating Triminic, because of it his worshipers are no longer boring elf-things.



Specifically "Good" Daedra are those Daedra that the Tribunal Temple won't burn you for worshiping, they're not really any more "good" in the moral sense than the "Bad Daedra". Granted, Azura might not be as prone to wanting to destroy things as Mehrunes Dagon, but that's just because she isn't the Prince of Destruction, it has nothing to do with being good or bad.

I think what the OP was asking is do TES Orcs fit the DnD "Dwarf Archetype".

My answer would be, as a race, yes and no. They are skilled in axe warfare and the art of blacksmithing and in this way they are similar to Tolkien's Dwarves. However, another attribute to this race which is the love of Mead was given to the Nords instead. Yet another item commonly associated with Tolkien Dwarves, Mithril, is said to be of Elvish origin in Tamriel.

None of the Elder Scrolls races really exactly matches DnD archetypes. Maybe way back in Arena they were more stereotypical but by Morrowind and Oblivion they have come into their own. Dark Elves aren't like DnD Dark Elves or WoW Night Elves. They're their own type of person with their own history and attributes. The Orcs from this universe aren't your every day Orcs either. While they share many common attributes with the RPG Orc archetype they have a rich history and several skills not commonly associated with the Orc (Heavy Armor and Blacksmithing are not typically Orc oriented abilities in table top RPG games...Orcs are often depicted as marauders with minimal clothing who scavenge weapons and armor pieces from fallen foes. These Orcs are different..they have a society, with artisans, their own weapons, etc.)

As for the Dwemer themselves, they were also accomplished smiths in their day, but their real skills were in Engineering. Their steam powered constructs and corridors have long outlived their bodies and souls. No other race of people as a whole has mastered or even tinkered in this skill. Only the Dwemer and the god-wizard Sotha Sil of the Tribunal ever used Mechanical Technology that I am aware of.

Right.

Ok people, in Area the dwarves were actual Dwarves, squatty little men that liked forging metals. They had lived in Hamerfall and Morrowind before mysteriously disappearing. It can be assumed the same was true in Daggerfall, but they really weren't mentioned much there. By Redguard, they were retconned into being a type of elf, and their habits were changed but other then that the retconn was actually surprisingly smooth. This is one way in which it was not. So there you go, dwarves were once dwarves, now they are elves. The Orcs also used to be Goblin-ken (and thus assumed to hail from another dimension along with the goblins), and now they are also elves.

Dwarves were never a playable race in TES, they were always extinct. The Orcs also used to be big barely sentient Goblin-ken, and thus were also not playable until Morrowind. If ANY race filled the classic "dwarf" niche, it would be the Nords.

So my answer to your poll is Nords.

I kind of see where your coming from now that I think about it, with the nords having the fullest beards, also being proficent in axework, and their affection for mead.( in fact I probaly should have put nords in the poll as well.)

Elves and humans think orcs are ugly, orcs think mer and men are ugly. (Notes on Racial Phylogeny and the comments from the Malacath worshippers in OB suggest this.)

It's always a quality of TES I've enjoyed, that the races aren't limited to DnD stereotypes, but have unique histories and abilities.

No because "dwarves" exsist.

Also, most of TES was founded on DnD stereotypes, but fleshed out on it's own.