for me, i've only ever managed one at once. i'm playing a nord i really like right now, but i'd like to run an elf character as well. is this a reasonable thing to do? will it become repetitive?

I am currently playing 8 characters daily. I have about 30 characters that I have just left waiting for me to load up again.
I make multiple characters every day but dont play them (I'm addicted to character creation). I do pick one of them to play after a week.

One. I have yet to create any other character and use them for long. I always come back to play my Imperial. There is still plenty to do with him. I will eventually make that Dunmer Mage I always wanted.

I play three or four different characters on a regular basis. I have a character in the middle of the Dawngaurd Questline, a Mage redoing the Mages Guild (I forgot to activate a Vendor), A new Bound Sword Dual Wielder, that should have Daedric Armor before level 20 (If I can keep from being sidetracked, or use Fast Travel to recover from being sidetracked), A Warrior Mage buliding Homes for Hearthfire. I do have a few others that I keep around just in case.

Im sticking to one now. My Female Orc is my main, and my only character. I used to play on xbox and i had 4 running at all times. But now since I got PC, 1 is all I need.

I like to have one at a time. I had a nice character two weeks ago, she made it to level 62 but I felt it was time to retire her. Just recently I've deleted 2 characters within two days. I didn't feel it with them. One was a pure mage Altmer, another was a Khajiit (rogue I guess?). They both never made it to level 20.

I think I'm planning a pure Two-Handed warrior. It's either going to be a male/female Nord or a male Orc.

Only played as my Orc since 11.11.11.

But then I'm never one for multiple characters - got him leveled up to 65, and that's where's he's staying.

I only play one at a time. But I never have more than two created at any given time.

I only play one at a time, usually only restarting if the first few hours prove unreasonably dull or the saves end up succumbing to some nefarious error.

Right now I'm trying to find my "100% 'completion'" niche character who I'll play through every second of Skyrim's base content, the DLCs, and every last quest mod that makes it through the entry-level point of my scrutiny.

One at a time. I played my first character for about 4 months (i only bought Skyrim in Jan 2013) and now I've started my second character and am playing that.

Three characters that I cycle through every couple of days. Currently focusing on Barnum (Imperial thief) and Alessiel (Altmer Mage). I also have Ulburf the Nord barbadarian.

Personally, I find the idea of 5+ characters silly. Those characters obviously aren't going to get the attention to develop themselves as much as only 1-3, but that's just me.

i've been dying to play as an elf, sad that the face sculpter in riften can't change your race/gender

2 at the most. One serious and one for fun.

Typically just create one. I'm not one to run a bunch of different characters. I have "my" character, and I leave it at that.

Now, after awhile, I'll usually tweak around with some different roleplays and builds, but nothing that I keep for the long haul.

For Morrowind, it was Aalaan, my Wood Elf thief / assassin. (Marr'Taan in my signature is a remake with a few tweaks to how I wish I had created the character, looking back)

Oblivion is probably the game where I created the most amount of characters, because I was trying to find a build and roleplay that I wanted to go the distance with. I finally found that with Khulain after years of trying, and a couple other lost or failed playthroughs.

For Skyrim, I knew right away what I wanted to play. I debated for a bit between a Wood Elf or a Breton, but as soon as I popped in the game, Breton just felt "right", so I created Thadious and haven't looked back.

Aalaan, Khulain, and Thadious are my "head canon" characters, with Marr'Taan acting as something of a re-write / ret-con, though might join the "head canon" come Elder Scrolls VI.

4-6 maybe a few more than that. I love creating characters with the live another life mod. I have 3 that are heavily played and a few others for when I get bored of the main 3.

One or two. Not more than that. If I run more, then it takes too long between the gaming sessions for each character, and I feel like there's no progress at all (I don't have time to play every day, and often I don't have more than one or two hours to play - actually, right now, even two characters are a little too much.

I create a lot of characters, and have some ideas waiting, but I haven't had time to play them yet.

I usually stick to one at a time. I can't handle more than 2 at a time. Though I usually keep 3 or 4 characters on hold.

Considering I'm already burnt out on the 20%~ish of the early game that you essentially have to do to set most everything else up, doing it on multiple characters at the same time doesn't seem like a very good idea...

Plus I'm a "do everything if you can make it make sense" player and writer-in-my-own-mind so other than wanting to experiment with a different combat style, there's no real reason to. I always do the peace treaty now, and the only other decision is whether to crush or join a particular family, and I've recently decided to crush it from now on.

Never more than 2, cant divide my focus any more so.

I have about 15 or so right now. 15 completely different personalities and abilities. Who I play depends on my mood.

Most of my time right now is spent on my straight up steel wearing Dragonborn nord warrior.

Only one. I do such vastly different things with each character, I only have vague memories of some of the detail and layout of the dungeons. That is paramount in adding to the replay value. If i ran several different characters doing different parts of different things, it would spoil it.

Besides, I prefer to bond with a given character until that bond tires, they finish telling me their story or... they die.