Last night I toyed around with the CS and created a Half-Orc race. What advice would you give on creating a race that's lore friendly and balanced without looking too much like any of the races present in the game? If you want, I could post the current stats and you could give advice where you see fit.

EDIT: Here are the stats:

Half-Orc
Strength: 45/45
Intelligence: 40/45
Willpower: 40/40
Agility: 35/30
Speed: 40/40
Endurance: 40/40
Luck: 50/50
Personality: 30/30

Armorer +10, Block +5, Blunt +10, Heavy Armor +10, Conjuration +5, Destruction +5

Abilities: Resist Magicka 20, Fortify Magicka 20
Power: Arcane Rage: Fortify Strength 20, Fortify Willpower 20, Fortify Health 20, Fortify Magicka 50

These sons and daughters of Orsinium and surrounding High Rock are the result of unions between Breton fathers and Orc mothers. Shunned by both races, their status as outcasts has spurred them to prove their worthiness as some of the fiercest warriors to be found in Tamriel. Their Breton ancestry gives them an affinity for magic not found in their Orcish cousins.

On an additional note, how do I set my race to be considered Orcs by the other races? For purposes of dialogue and questing and such. Thanks

SetRaceAlias is an OBSE function that can make your new race equivalent to an existing one for any checks on race, if that's what you need. You'll also need to set the voice the same way as for the Orc race (IIRC it has a unique male voice, but shares female with Nords), if you have any NPC's of the race.

I'd recommend you change your history a little, as the union of a Breton male with an Orc female would produce a full Orc. The mother's race decides completely - Agronak gro-Malog (the Grey Prince) is an example. You need some divine intervention to deviate from the "rules", but once you have that single incident, the new race will perpetuate from its (female) ancestor. So I'd suggest a demi-god father for the first half-Orc daughter, or something like that.

I read this after going through and manually editing everything related to Orcs that I could think of. :facepalm:

And as for the history, I really just wanted some Orcs that were handy with a fireball or summon spell. I figure since Orsinium is within High Rock's borders, some Bretons have to be getting it on with Orcs. They don't use new meshes or anything, and essentially take after Agronak gro-Malog. And everyone sees them as Orcs (albeit, Orcs with an interesting skin condition, a la the Grey Prince). No Chimer-to-Dunmer or Aldmer-to-Orsimer transformations here. In that context, would my history still work?