Nothing to warrant them getting passed level 1, apparently.

I don't see the point of an RPG being able to play a character that's completely unique from start to finish. As long as the character individualizes themself and I can have unique play throughs, what's the big deal? As it is, this is an improvement over Morrowind and Oblivion's character building, where you individualized yourself early on via pre-selected class/birthsign/race/gender bonuses, then were encouraged to become a more generic master-of-everything as you played on. In Skyrim, you start out as a level 1 nothing, then carve your own path in the world and become who you play.

Birthsigns are static choices that you make at the very beginning of the game. Perks are choices you make throughout your gaming experience which make your character much more of an individual than birthsigns could ever hope to do. If you want to write a book that details what your character did before you started playing the game, I don't see anything that's stopping you. But birthsigns seem like a trivial decision that has little effect on the game apart from a few bonuses and a spell.

And believe it or not, most people aren't concerned with what their character was doing before the game started. They just want to play the game.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1195460-bethesda-what-are-you-doing-part-deux/