Before their not-so-subtle Skyrim fascism, were there hints of their villainy in earlier titles? I know there were several Altmer goblin trainers in the ruins underneath Mournhold. Yet there have been references that speak of the Summerset Isles as a place of mystery and magical scholarship. In Morrowind, Divath Fyr was said to perhaps be the oldest and wisest Tamriel wizard who was not in the Summerset Isles. In my recent Daggerfall replay, I found nothing in the lore suggesting that the Altmer were potential bad guys. I can't remember if the Thalmor is referenced in Oblivion.

I'm replaying Oblivious now and I haven't seen any reference to Altmer douchebagery. It's entirely possible I haven't scene it yer tho

There is a rumor mentioning them in Oblivion if you listen to NPC small talk

Besides, their ''natural'' arrogance is referenced throughout many of the games, as well as books.

That's because there's only two Altmer in the entire game. http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Mannimarco

I believe some books in Daggerfall make reference to Altmer being snooty and arrogant and having feelings of superiority.

It's not going to be referenced in Oblivion because the Thalmor weren't around back then. There were 200 years between Oblivion and Skyrim and a lot changed. Before Skyrim, the Thalmor were only called the Aldmeri Dominion, and I don't know if Oblivion has any books that reference it, but I know the Aldmeri Dominion was mentioned as early as Redguard, with the first Pocket Guide to the Empire.

That's such a perfect typo. Altmer are practically the villains of the entire game. Mankar Camoran and his kids, Mannimarco, Umbacano, Falcar, Earana, the list goes on.

And Medora, while technically Altmeri, looks more like a Breton and acts like one most of the time.



That guide also mentions the Thalmor in passing, as well as claiming the Altmer would kill their children in order to ensure purity and hated all the other races, even other elves. Not from an unbiased source, of course, so who knows how accurate that's supposed to be, but the seeds for that portrayal did exist.

Wow, great stuff. Very interesting information everyone, thank you. And how the heck did I miss that the King of Worms was High Elven? Wow.

Lol I was defeated by my Droid's auto correct

Well to be clear every race is generally stereotyped to all kinds of hell in the TES series but if you look closely at your interactions with most of the races you will see there are plenty of exceptions and often times the stereotype is actually a minority.

The Altmer have EXTREME xenophobia and really dislike outsiders in their homeland. I believe there are cities which humans and other races are forbidden to enter as well. Though whether that is the case or not after the Empire conquered them idk.

As a culture they are obsessed with magical pursuits and obtaining anything resembling the ancient Aldmer. Including their own children. They may or may not kill the children if they do not look like the ancient Aldmer but they certainly try to breed to make themselves look like Aldmer. They definitely have a sense of superiority though I think that is just the High culture and not the low culture of the Altmer. I am sure the everyday working Altmer may be different. Though they are likely taught that they are superior to the other races because of their vaunted purity. They do have lots of cool things and good things about their culture but they also have a lot of bad things. Like most people. Because they are so different from most of the other races on Tamriel though, the negative differences are naturally the ones that are focused on. They are just an alien culture for the most part.

Historically they were a massive user of slaves prior to them getting conquered by the Imperials. They also have been the enemy of "man" many times and so as they attacked people many people remember them as villains. The Thalmor really did not help their reputation much but if you read the books in Skyrim there seems to be indications of many Altmer that are more 'Humane' and those were the ones who were killed or exiled by the Thalmor.

The Thalmor, it seems, were present as a loud minority before that were mostly written off as they worked from the shadows. They are everything bad people say about Altmer made true, but until they seized power in the Oblivion crisis they may well have just been another group of fringe extremists. Now that they rule the country, well, just think of Nazi germany. Normal people who may have had some bad thoughts but didn't usually act on them very much whipped into becoming worse by charismatic leaders being hailed as saviors of an ailing land.

Well they were around during the last Aldmeri Dominion too...so it is more like Nazi Germany than you think. Just WW1-WW2. Hard times hit and shady organization claims to save the day and bam. Nazi elves stomping around in their elven armor.

Yup. That's pretty much exactly it.

"Oh look, we saved your economy! Oh look, we banished all the Daedra!"

Fixed that for ya.

Well, right. I think that was implied in his statement.