First of all, I am not a lore buff. I enjoy reading occasionally but I am far from it. Now, I have a question. Playing oblivion for 3 years as an Imperial, I never had major problems with other races. But there is something on Dark elves that just make me be suspicious about them. They seem so sneaky and no trust worthy, but the thing is, I do not know why. It's just their attitude or something on them that doesnt make me trust them.

The question :


What kind of people are Dark Elves? Do they like outsiders? Are they offensive? Racist? Are there any specific dark elves faction?

Have you played Morrowind? The most reliable way to gain a good understanding of Dark Elf culture would be to experience it first hand in their homeland.

If you don't want to take the time to play Morrowind, I'm sure someone could point you to some material to read on Dunmer, but first, I shall say that yes, there are different factions of Dunmer, in Morrowind, there are the Ashlanders, nomadic tribes that cling to the traditional ways of the Dunmer, you can see four major tribes of them in Morrowind, each of which has a somewhat different attitude, there are the Great Houses, those are the settled Dunmer peoples, at the time of Morrowind, there are five Houses, those are Hlaalu, Redoran, Telvanni, Indoril, and Dres, though only the first three of those appear in the game and can be joined, then there is the Tribunal Temple, the native religion of the settled Dunmer, generally, most Dunmer do not like outsiders very much, but it also depends a lot on who you are dealing with and where you go, the Dunmer in Imperial settlements, of course, are more open to foreigners, and of the great houses, Hlaalu is the most open to Imperial ways, so in Hlaalu towns, people would also likely be more friendly to outsiders, Redoran, on the other hand, is big on honor and tradition and close to the Tribunal Temple, so while they might not be so welcoming to outsiders, they are probably the least likely to stab you in the back, the Telvanni are mages who tend to dislike outsiders quite strongly, many of them are... eccentric, and don't want anything to do with anyone else, so of course, they're not too friendly with westerners, I don't know too much about Indoril or Dres, though.

In Cyrodiil, of course, most Dunmer are western-born, or left Morrowind for one reason or another, so they may not be the best representatives of Dunmer ways.

I agree with Selbeth. Not only is Morrowind a great game, but it also gives you a vast amount of background for Dunmer.

I think you may perceive them to be snoody, sneaky, untrustworthy because Azura, the daedric Prince, cursed them to be the dark skinned, red eyed elves they are today. They were once not so different from an Altmer, believe it or not. It was the Tribunal's fault, and given that the dunmer worship them, they can give off the idea of being pretty messed up people.

I would say more, but Selbeth has an excellent description.

I tried to play morrowind but it's a bit dated for me at 2009. Is morag tong also a dunmer exclusive guild?

It's almost exclusively dunmer. Odds are you won't find them out of the Morrowind province, where they're a legal assassin's guild. Yes you read right, they're legal. Basically the Tribunal acknowldeged the rivalries dividing the dunmers and choose to channel some of them through an authorized assasin's guild...

Kay there being "almost". While most Morag Tong members are Dunmer, they are not a segregated order. A quick search reveals a Nord, an Imperial, two Redguards, two Orcs and even an Argonian. The Argonian, Huleeya, is of particular note as he demonstrates the lack of racial discrimination within the guild.

I wouldn't call Dunmer sneaky or untrustworthy. If you play morrowind, you'll note that they never lie to you, even when they are plotting against you. Take, for example, the Telvanni Hortator quest. You can trust their word, for whatever that is worth.

I see. But is every dunmer like that?


On morag tong : So basically Morag Tong does not exist in other parts of Tamriel? What about the assassin that appears in Cyrodill with the DLC? Are they capable of taking a contract and travel to other provinces to complete it?

Morrowind dunmer, I found, tend to be pretty forward if they like you or not. Some do lie...but it's more like withholding the truth and information if anything.

For the Morag Tong, they only have bases in Morrowind. However, that is not to say they won't cross the border and slay a fleeing target, but they HAVE to be REALLY careful. Once they leave Morrowind, they are completely on their own. The lawmen of the land would hunt them down should word of their existence be known. Even worse would be if the Dark Brotherhood found out there was a Morag Tong agent in a land outside of Morrowind.

Actually this is what I meant. I did not mean to call Dark Elves sneaky but call them moody, arrogant, scared of the outsiders and generally, they keep an eye at everyone for some reason. It is like when you are going for dinner to a friend's house. If a dunmer would not like the food, they'd say '' This is horrible. '' They are too straight on what they say, in the bad way. They do not hesitate to be rude. This is how I feel about them, maybe I am wrong.


@Morag Tong : Well this is weird. I mean they are an ancient assassination guild, it sounds strange to me that they do not have bases across Tamriel, even if they would be illegal. Assassins seem too cold blooded to actually care about the law.

You can't make a blanket statement of whether "every Dunmer is like that" or whether they lie, etc. It'd be like me asking you the disposition of people from Sweden, its going to be different from person to person, and since the world of TES is supposed to represent one with 'real' individuals, the people in it are going to be as diverse as the people in the real world. Sure, its safe to say that Dunmer are xenophobic, but that'll only take you so far in understanding their personality and doesn't limit them to any one disposition. Some are backstabbing s.o.b's, some aren't, just like in real life...

And best I recall the Morag Tong are forbidden from acting outside Morrowind, and they try and make it a policy of only targeting other Dunmer.
Edit:

"When the Morag Tong assassinated the Emperor Reman in the year 2920 of the first era, and his successor, Potentate Versidae-Shae in the 324th year of the second era, the assassins so long in the shadows were suddenly thrust into the light... The Morag Tong was instantly and unanimously outlawed in all corners of Tamriel, with the exception of its home province of Morrowind. There they continued to operate with the blessings of the Houses, apparently cutting off all contact with their satellite brothers to the west... In order to exist, the Morag Tong must have appealed to the highest power in Morrowind, which at that time, the Second Era, could only have been the Tribunal of Almalexia, Sotha Sil, and Vivec...http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/fire_darkness.shtml

Though http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/brothers_darkness.shtml makes it out as if the Dark Brotherhood is just the Morag Tong re-emerged in the west...

Yeah, the Morag Tong prides itself a great deal on the legality and "honor" of its assassinations, and scorns the way the Dark Brotherhood acts outside of the law. It would be very out of character for a Morag Tong guildsman to conduct assassinations outside of Morrowind, due to the illegality of it.

Off topic, I highly recommend Morrowind, even though its a bit dated, it blows Oblivion out of the water backstory and lore wise, and with some mods, it can be made to look tons better.

On topic, in my dealings I've always found Dunmer to be very trustworthy, with the exception of Dren and Neloth, they've been very trustworthy, more so then the Imperials in my opinion.

I've always compared, in my mind, Dunmer to people from the Mid-East, Ashlanders are much like Bedouin, the great cities are much like the capitals of the Persian, Babylonian, and Sumerian Empires.

There are those who are devout, to the point of fanaticism, and many distrust the West (justifiably) but most importantly they have a sense of family and tribal loyalty and honor, they would not harm someone who had not done them injustice, though they can be merciless when slighted. If they were indebted to an outsider, they would protect them even from members of their own family or village, I forget the Arabic name for that code of conduct however.

Also, even though you have nomads living a subsistence lifestyle, centers of learning and trade are abundant, you have ancient wizards studying the cosmos and so forth. That is very similar to the various mathematitions and doctors who abounded up to and during the Crusades.

They are no less trustworthy than any of the other races. They are just people - it isn't like they are biologically more prone to deceit or anything. Trustworthiness is based on an individual's values about trust.

Certainly culture plays a large part in it. The Great Houses use secret assassinations to deal with their quarrels - this is acceptable to them. To those from another culture, this sort of practice may seem untrustworthy. Likewise with slavery - both in the "real" world, and on Vvardenfell. Likewise with stratified classes or castes in society.

For example, I'm sure the Khajiit are puzzled over what seems to be the arbitrary appointment of humanoids to positions of power; the Mane, leader of the Khajiit, is leader because of his very physiology.

As for Dunmer, are you sure the red eyes and green-blue skin isn't causing you to be more distrustful of them than the familiar skin complexions of the other humanoid races?

They adjective I like to use is proud in a not-so-arrogant way. Whereas the High Elves are proud in an arrogant way.

If you want some quick information, they're most common patrons among Daedra Princes are Mephala, Azura, and Boethiah. While it won't give you complete insight into the Dunmeri character, it'll help.

Edit: Practically everyone here will recommend that you give Morrowind a try as it is a much more... detailed game.

Yeah.... seriously play Morrowind. These aren't the stereotypical evil Dark Elves of most fantasy games.

When I think of Dunmer I think of honest, honorable and hard working people for the most part. There's a certain nobility among even their thieves and necromancers that other races don't display.

There's also some plain scums in the lot too - the Camona Tong thughs in Balmora don't strikes me as having much of a noble bone in them. And their boss lies through his teeth when you ask questions about a murder he commited, pointing at someone else.

But one thing to keep in mind about dunmer culture is that it's extremely clanish. And the farther out you are from their clan, the less restrictions they have when it comes to interacting with you. Murdring a kinsman in secret is a Bad Thing.
Sneaking into some unknown outlander's tent to slice his throat before he gets a chance to speak to your leader and earn the protection of his hospitality isn't.

Greetings, serjo GreeK StorM.

The absolute very best in understanding the Dunmer comes from http://www.imperial-library.info/pge/morrowind.shtml

No other in-game book comes close to such Dark Elf flavor. Written by MK himself for TES Adventures: Redguard.

Enjoy.


___The Word Merchant of Julianos

The Morag Tong were established as a way for the Great Houses to settle disputes without resorting to full scale wars, which would have decimated the then unsteady Dark Elven nation.

Membership for the Morag Tong accepts members of any race even if most applicants tend to be Dunmer.

However, apart from the extralegal "gray writs", only a Dunmer may mark another for death using the Morag Tong, and only a Dunmer may be marked for death. The Dark Brotherhood has no such limitations, but is illegal across the Empire.

Sounds like Morag Tong have more of a limited experience on assassinations since they are legal and only execute in one region. While Dark Brotherhood will kill anyone under any circumstances, anywhere.

The Morag Tong will go into other provinces to complete a contract. And circumstances don't matter to them, either, but there are only three types of assassination to choose from: public, private, or House war.

They're like semi-metropolitan Fremen, I think.

If that helps.

The Dark Brotherhood may be more widespread, however it is believed that the Morag Tong was the organization that the Brotherhood sprang from, making the Morag much older and more... traditional, proud.