I was browsing UESP and read the page about the ayleids. One line says:
"It is possible that some tribes of Ayleids may continue to live deep within the forests of Cyrodiil even today. Yet the most recent reported sightings are more than 1000 years old.[8][9] These Ayleids, or Wild Elves, are at best a rarity and may not have actually survived into the Third Era."
Is there any evidence of the ayleids still being alive in Oblivion? The references on the page don't work, so if someone could link me to the source of this stuff, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks!
Also, here's the page:
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Ayleids

i dont remember anything but if you seach in the forests is probably that you find something but i would love to see a future quest about theme

There are a few mentions in various lore books of the Wild elves, such as http://www.imperial-library.info/content/oblivion-wild-elves They are not encountered in the game oblivion though. The key thing to understand about the "wild elves" is that they are very far removed from the ancient ayleids that ruled Cyrodiil before the Alessian Empire. The wild elves are little more than savages, and any connection they had to ancient ayleid culture is as dead as the culture itself.

Aah, thanks alot.

This pretty much covers it, though I would stipulate that we don't actually have any evidence that their connection to ancient Ayleid culture is dead. Mer are long lived, and while we have no information on how long lived in the case of the Ayleids, I would put a conservative guess at at least 500 years average. Perhaps less, if we think they've been living like savages (though personally I'd place that at doubtful). Sorcerers live longer, and if they've got a Divayth Fyr hiding out it's entirely possible that there is a direct link to the original culture. Note that this is unlikely: wizards that powerful are also usually renowned.

One other point: Just personal speculation, but Valenwood is probably the best bet for harboring culturally and racially pure Ayleid 'tribes'. We know, at least, that the Bosmer welcomed their elven cousins as refugees from the pressure of the Alessian Order, though they fled to other elven settlements, such as High Rock, as well. Jungle's pretty good for disappearing into, and keeping hidden from the rest of the world ('Ayleid' does actually mean something like 'hidden', doesn't it? Check me on this, I don't remember if I saw this in actual lore or discussion.) for long periods of time. Frankly, they should be in Cyrodiil as well, but then Cyrodiil should be thick jungle as well instead of hardwood forest. Chalk it up to gameplay limitation (i.e. the misalignment of our expectations for Oblivion and Beth's objectives).

A compilation of links for further reading:
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/oblivion-wild-elves
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/pocket-guide-empire-third-edition-wild-remain-valenwood
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/oblivion-last-king-ayleids - Illustrates that Ayleid withdrawal from Cyrodiil was a gradual thing and the Alessian Order's part in accelerating that retreat.

If they were civilized, they wouldn't be "wild" elves, and their existence wouldn't be such a mystery.

Any actual Ayleid still alive is likely of http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Umaril_the_Unfeathered_%28person%29 nature

...because no one's ever heard of hidden civilizations. 'Civilized' is such a judgmental term, anyway. Seems to me that the Imperials (or whoever else spots the random elf out in the wilderness) would call them 'wild' if they were running around in loin cloths or something, but that doesn't necessarily say anything about the rest of their culture. It's pretty much a blank, to be frank. Also, 'wild' seems to me a pretty good adjective for the Ayleids even when they were in their heyday. (On another note, I also wouldn't be surprised if a lot of folks thought they saw an Ayleid when they were really looking at a Bosmer.)



An interesting point: I hadn't thought of the possibility of Ayleids besides Umaril surviving in some Daedric realm. But Umaril himself wasn't pure Ayleid - half Ayleid, half Daedra or Aedra (his father was 'a god of the [previous kalpa's] World-River', http://www.imperial-library.info/content/oblivion-song-pelinal-7), or something like that. As interesting as Ayleids mingling their bloodlines with gods might be, I can't think it was a common thing or Umaril wouldn't have been so proud of it. Half-Divinity is no prerequisite to being bound to a plane of Oblivion; I'm just trying to point out that Umaril was most likely an exception, not the rule.

I must disagree.

That's probably the least likely form a surviving Ayleid or Ayleid descendant would take, since Umaril was an extremely unique person who was part Divine and bound to a Daedric realm. Most Ayleids didn't look very much like him at all.

Most of them would have interbred with various Elven races and would be by and large indistinguishable from their neighbors. They'd appears Bosmeri, Altmeri, Dunmeri, etc. The rest would live deep in the forests in seclusion and would resemble tall, athletic and probably unclothed Elven shape shifters with a skin tone darker than that of an Altmer but lighter than that of a Dunmer. There have been no reliable reports of Wild Elves in a very long time, though.

I must disagree with your disagreement. I'm not contesting that Ayleid survivors breeded with/ intermingled with and became indistinguishable from the Altmer, Bosmer and Dunmer.

I'm saying any actual Ayleid who was not recycled in the dream sleave, who remembers being overthrown, and who has been 'alive' since then most likely resembles something like Umaril as they have prolonged they're lives through whatever means so they no longer look like what they remember being.

Edit:



I believe so too, i'm not saying thousands of actual Ayleids could have potentially survived by binding themselves to planes/princes of oblivion, I just mean any actual Ayleid survivors from that era are probably(in the event that some do exist) not recognisable as Ayleid anymore anyway due to the means they prolonged they're lives with.

"Civilzed" is a descriptive term. It carries no inherent judgements.
And civilization is a fairly objective and definable thing.
It implies food production, large populations, cities, etc.

Unless Tamriel is VASTLY more unpopulated and unexplored than we've been shown, there is no possibility of a civilized culture of Ayleids on anything larger than a tribal scale. The trademarks of civilization can not go unnoticed by other civilization in such circumstances.

Furthermore, "wild" in this context clearly means "untamed, undomesticated, 'natural', chaotic"- as in "wildlife" or "the wilderness".

Wild elves cannot be civilized. That is a direct contradiction in terms. Both logic and simple definitions decry the existence of Ayleid civilization.

Most of the Ayleids who shaped and corrupted their bodies into monstrous forms ruled as Sorcerer Kings and http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Song_of_Pelinal. I doubt any of them survived. http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Cleansing_of_the_Fane . If there were any still out there who weren't trapped in an Outer Realm or by other means we'd have heard about it by now. The Oblivion Crisis was the perfect time to strike and only Umaril appeared.

I know there were theories here a while back Chancellor Ocato might be an ayleid, based on some dissimiliarity between his facial features and CS character than that of other elves.

It might very well be possible that some Ayleids were intregrated into nedic society, and survived the alessian order along enough to be forgotten about and pass for high elves.

As much as I love the Song of Pelinal, it's probably not an objective and unbiased source with regards to Pelinal's enemies.

I disagree. To my mind, every culture regards itself as 'civilized' or some equivalent term, and others sufficiently different from them as 'savage' or an equivalent term, just because people find difference difficult to understand and respect, for the most part. 'Civilized' is fully subjective outside the context of any given society. By your definition, any small population is uncivilized...which just doesn't make sense to me.



Yes, I agree with you. The population would have to be very small. As I said before, though, I don't see why a small society is inherently uncivilized.



Did I say different? It's a good term for the Ayleids.



Well, I disagree, but I don't think you're going to reevaluate cultural bias here. What's wrong with having a savage civilization, anyway? To me that is the essence of the Ayleids. An inherent and necessary dichotomy.



Yes, Ayleid blood in integrated mer in the Third Era seems inevitable.

It describes Umaril's physical appearance pretty much spot on how it appeared when he shows up in person. I have no reason to doubt the descriptions of the other Sorcerer Kings.

The fact that it's a complete oxymoron.
A savage is the exact opposite of a civilized person, regardless of your standard for what constitutes civilization (and while I could argue that point as well, it's futile [and I'm too tired, lol] to make a weaker and lengthier argument about the nature of civilization and subjectivity when we disagree on something as fundamental and simple as this).

This isn't meant to be disparaging towards the one or praising of the other, or to even make statements about what they consist of (though as I said, we can get into that still), but they are by necessity contradictory. You can't have a savage civilization any more than you can have a black white, or a positive negative.

And regarding "wild", you did imply otherwise. In suggesting that the ancient Ayleid were "wild" you were either invoking the word in the sense of "crazy, brutal, uninhibited, etc.", or you were speaking nonsense. The nature of their "advanced", urban civilization precludes being wild in sense I enumerated earlier.
You can't build and live in cities and still be considered wild.

Except Ocato is known as Ocato of Firsthold. Firsthold as in the major city of Summerset Ilse. Can't be an altmer of high standing, if you're "tainted." Also, not all the Alyeids fought Alessia, a bunch joined her campaign, though it was probably to save their own asses rather than believing in her cause. However, it was because of radical followers of Muhkajaskfjasjdkljhoweverthe[censored]youcallthatmonkey that, pretty much, tried to remove them all.

I knew how to spell it before you typed that. Now I can't think of it. :confused:

And yet, I know how to spell Aldudagga without help

Consider the subject dropped, as this is devolving into stubborn squabbling. But I don't speak nonsense.

My apologies, if the implication offended you.