I am going to start writing a journal to go along with my RP and a question popped into my head, 'Do Argonians have warm or cold blood?' being similar to lizards, I immediately thought they would have cold blood but after thinking about it, I am unsure. Any thoughts? if there is a similar thread, post a link. thanks in advance.

Given their weird biologies, I'd almost go so far as to say the ones you might find in Blackmarsh are Cold-blooded, but if you go further north and into Skyrim and Highrock, etc. Then they turn warm-blooded. It's implied rather heavily that the Hist dictate and adapt the Argonian's biology to the goal they have for them, so if they are slated to travel into cold weather, the Hist make them able to.

Hmmm.... I never thought of this, maybe warm blooded because if an argonian sets foot in Skyrim and is cold blooded it would be hazardous for their health.

With them living in black marsh it could go either way. I am in no way a reptile expert, but it seems they would be warm blooded. But Black Marshes climate could make them cold blooded, it'd be funny to see an Argonian guard laying on a rock spread eagle and saying,

"Sorry I have to warm myself up before i can kill you."


But you can make it what ever you want it's your journal.

thanks guys. I was recently traversing the swamps of Dementia in the Shivering Isles and I imagine Black Marsh to be similair, I think I'll go with warm blood, it makes more sense.

B) that was a thought I had as well, I might just put the blood temperature down to 'magic' and hist sap,

the hist do seem to have an important role in an argonians life, my character is a 'marsh guardian' so the hist could dictate a 'medium' blood temperature for travel throughout the various climates of Tamriel.

Well... If I am not wrong they do refer to non-argonians as "warmblood" sometime. I have no proof for this however, just my memory (which is slightly hazy). This seems to incline that they are cold-blooded.

They say that in Morrowind.

The Argonians in Morrowind did stand in one place for long periods of time..

It seems that they're cold-blooded, but it also seems that they can live in cold climates (even if they may not like it). If they were purely reptilian, this would seem strange, but they're not purely reptilian, they also possess characteristics of fish, such as water breathing and fins. And because some fish, while cold-blooded, can live in cold waters, I see it as a reasonable assumption that Argonians may possess this trait as well.

The hist have an important role in Nirn itself. They were part of the first beings of Nirn.

The Hist...maybe they were dinosaurs before the mythic era. :hubbahubba:

Probably cold-blooded.

Like the Khajiit, they are descendants of the beast-people.
And people sound and probably are warm-blooded. Maybe they've kept the warm-blood.

The Argonian who's in Solstheim says that he doesn't like being there because he can't wear any shoes, and they named him "Basks-In-The-Sun". So it seems like he hates the cold, but doesn't stop moving because of it or anything.

Potentially, rhey can act in cold areas by warming themselves and then donning warm clothing which will minimize heat loss. Of course, not being able to wear boots creates a problematic leak, but they probably have pretty thick skin on the soles of their feet. While they probably wouldn't be able to operate for too long outside, if they have a nice, warm fire at home, they can operate in the cold. One of the chief differences between an iguana and an Argonian is that the Argoinian can wear a fur cloak and make a fire... which helps quite a bit.

Have you ever seen any Argonians in Bruma? Or Skyrim?

I guess what you're saying is that there is a rumor that TES V will be in Skyrim. And if Argonians are cold blooded they would need to be left out of that game.

I have seen argonians in bruma an in solsteim.

I guess your character could be an Argonian in Bruma and Solsteim. And so it would have to be warm blooded, I guess.

Basks-In-The-Sun tells you he's cold-blooded, so I'd assume cold. I also assume they have a sort of protective layer of skin, kinda like blubber, to allow them to live in colder areas.

I doubt Skyrim would be devoid of Argonians, but it would be rare, and the few there would have dry crackly skin

They're still humanoids, so I always figured they were warm-blooded.

Being bipedal and sapient doesn't make one warm blooded. There are billions of stars in our own Universe. It's possible other bipedal species live on other planets, and the likelihood they're all warm blooded because they're bipedal makes no sense. It's like saying all quadrupeds should be cold blooded. It's more complicated than that.


There's a precedent in our own planet's history for warm blooded reptiles and reptile-like mammals. Many forms of Dinosaur fit into this category, etc. It's possible Argonians are warm blooded, but I wouldn't say it's because they walk on two legs.

Biology in Tamriel is different anyway. Things like evolution and genetics work differently. In this Universe gods definitely exist and all the sapient humanoid races appeared almost fully formed shortly after the world was formed as the descendants of greater spirits who helped form the bones of the world. The Argonians are closely related to the Hist whereas Men and Elves descended from Aedra.





"Beast people" is a highly subjective term. Until recent history Orcs were considered beast people. Argonians and some nationalist Dunmer consider man races to be apes and not human.

I'd be loathe to put too much stock into a biased and loaded term like this.

Having a layer of blubber wouldn't help you if you were cold blooded, you aren't regulating your own body heat.

Cold blooded creatures have varied enough metabolisms from the temperature change that they usually can't support larger brains.

I'll just throw http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Right-Wind out there, I'm not sure he really helps but...