Why are there no Dwarfs in Skyrim? Has it always been so with TES games? I ask this as this is the first TES game I have ever played, but am no stranger to the D&D concepts contained within the game. I love the concept of Dwemer ruins, but thought it might be cool to make a mod where the Dragonborn happens on a long lost city of Dwarfs, complete with a list of short round stocky NPCs.

Dwemer*

And no, they are just a variation of Elves, at least were until they erased their own existence.

Dwarves have been gone since the First Era. They are most likely never coming back.

The Aurbis (universe) is a dream. The Dwemer were the only race to staunchly hold on to that belief. They tried to make themselves into a god or escape the dream (not sure which) and became http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Numidium's skin.

I would recommend people not to spoil it for him. I think there is a quest in skyrim that pretty much explains it. College of Winterhold (I think). I recommend that you find out yourself, better that way.

EDIT: Too late.

No such thing in relation to Dwarfs/Dwemer.

They were given the name Dwarfs by the giants who encountered them, but the were a subspecies of Elf. They are part of the Elven Mer grouping. Bosmer (Wood elf), Altmer (High Elf), Dunmer (Dark Elf), Orsimer (Orcs, corrupted elves) and Dwmer (Deep elves i guess)

And they basically unmade themselves out of all existence. Only a single living Dwmer has been encountered so far, in Morrowind and he searched for a long time and found no others (He was himself in a different demensional plane)

Would that be by any chance, Arniel's Endeavor? I never finished that one.

I never finished it either, but yes I believe that's the quest. At least, that's what I've been told in this forum.

Nope. I'll just repeat DevenTarn, but it can't be said often enough: Dwarves is the name giants gave them. Their proper name is Dwemer and they were elves. They lived mostly underground, they were good craftsmen, some of them had beards - that's where similarities end. They weren't short, simple-minded fighters. They were deeply philosophical, intelligent, skilled in magic and they tried to anti-create their way back to the divine, which led to their disappearance.

Good enough to bring Sci-Fi to Tamriel

As an AD&D gamer I hear you. ES however is a different universe and there are no dwarfs... or halflings. The fact that the ruins are often referred to in game as 'Dwarven' leads to some misconceptions, they should never be referred to as dwarven but as Dwemer. I also see many people on the forums making the same mistake. The Dwemer had nothing to do with Dwarves and as has been explained are a sub-species of elf or "mer" as they are known in -game.

We already have other dimensions (sort of), space travel, time travel, teleportation and robots. What else do you need?

The gods really, unarguably exist in this universe. The Dwemer still managed to be atheists. That takes proper dedication.

Falmer once rivaled the Altmer in cultural ingenuity you know. Perhaps Goblins would be a better anology.

Honestly though, the intelligence of the Dwemer does surpass all. But the Altmer are not far behind in "technological" advances.