Ok, so, I am a very dedicated Breton roleplayer. From Oblivion, to Skyrim, to ESO, I always choose Bretons, mainly because of their lore and because they are the only race described with tons of positive adjectives (passionate, flamboyant, eccentric, willful, intelligent, resourceful, excellent cooks etc.). On the ESO forum, however, a lot of Breton roleplayers keep venting out anti-Altmer propagada and how Bretons intensely hate the High Elves. I suppose this rhetoric makes sense for the second era, but when I thought about it - are Bretons actually antagonistic against the Altmer? Are they ashamed and resentful of their elven lineage?

The "Pocket Guide to the Empire, 1st edition" on High Rock describes the Aldmer in High Rock as essentially being the Ayelids version 2: brutal opressors that took some slaves from Saarthal after the Night of Tears and then began to [censored] and desecrate these poor, poor souls until the Nords found out the "manmeri" in the Western Reach. Then the Nordic heroes come and liberate the poor Breton brothers. To me, it's utter rubbish and just Nordic propaganda, but apparently a lot of people buy into that, considering there is an updated and better description of High Rock history in the Third edition.

The Third Edition Pocket Guide actually makes perfect sense. The Breton ancestors were not "nordic slaves taken by snow elves", but actually just nedic tribes that either a) were native to Tamriel to begin with; or b ) migrated from Atmora, which means they came to Tamriel A LONG time before the dirty Nords stood on frickin Skyrim, and then the nedes migrated west to High Rock. Going with option b ) these nedics went to High Rock and stumbled upon the Aldmer who were ALREADY living there, and being utter barbarians and illiterates, were simply assimilated into the Aldmeri culture. Not treated equals for sure, but I get the feeling they were treated as a peasant/servant class rather than actual slaves (so far we know for sure that only the Cyrodiils were treated brutally as slaves by the Ayelids). This actually makes sense, considering that Breton society is still very hierarchical and feudal, probably a remnant of how the Aldmeri used to run things in High Rock?

The "Racial Phylogeny" book actually explains how mer and men can interbreed, and completely shatters (in my opinion) the Nordic propaganda that elves simply [censored] some poor breton women for fun. Considering that you simply can't get a half-race from one interbreeding, it makes me think that the Aldmer made an actual, DELIBERATE effort to make these lowly human servants more like them, which means there was extended interbreeding over many, many generations, until you get to the point where you have proper half nedes-half aldmers (which the Nordic raiding party stumbled upon, apparently). This effort to make the lowly proto-Bretons more "elven" also explains how the Bretons have inherited almost all of their traditions, crafts, arts, knowledge about politics, war and diplomacy and most importantly, their magical skills, from the Aldmer. In "Racial Motifs 5: The Bretons" it very clearly states that even Breton weapon and armor design is, to this day, subtly reminiscent of elven designs.

So, were the Bretons ruled and controlled by the Aldmer? Yes. Did they hate it? Possibly, but we do know that when the nords invaded there were Bretons fighting both for and against the Aldmer. Should they appreciate the very roots of their own culture, social structure, and magical talent? Yes, because if it wasn't for the Breton's "lamentable" interaction and intermingling with the elves, they would be a mediocre, boring and talentless race. I personally always roleplay Bretons who are, if not proud, very satisfied with their elven genes and actually like and appreciate elven culture, and instead dislike and dismiss Nordic culture as primitive. Hell, the Bretons are more similar to the Altmer in terms of mentality and culture than the frickin Nords!

So, my personal opinion is that Bretons shouldn't really be very aggressive and hateful of the Altmer, or ashamed of their elven lineage, simply because it defines the very roots of their civilization and has contributed immensely to their achievements. Bretons already hate the Orcs, and are distrustful of the Redguards. Why add another race, when it's just stupid?

I would love to hear your opinions, guys.

http://esohead.com/books/25-the-bretons-mongrels-or-paragons, which agrees with your points over how early Bretons were treated by the Direnni. It's always been my opinion that it's more ambiguous than Ayleidesque slavery, otherwise the PGE 1 would never have deigned to mention the way that "many of the Bretons aided the Elves against their would-be liberators". Of course, the book goes on to note how the Bretons distanced themselves from their elven heritage, as well, but that just goes to show how complicated the whole affair is.

Overall, I'd say that the perspective of the Bretons is impossible to hone in on, because it varies from community to community and from person to person. As a broad people, the Bretons hate and love merkind just as much as they hate and love mankind. I'd even go on to say that they're more tolerant of the Orcs than most people would think — no purely happy-happy relationship, but something along the lines of the Direnni-Breton relationship, something confused and ambiguous and unsure, changing from person to person and moment to moment. Somebody please tell me that I'm not the only person who sees huge potential in the possibility of lower Orcish castes in certain Bretonnic hierarchies.

From what I've seen, Bretons don't seem to have a great deal of racial pride. If anything, they seem more nationalistic and I think that any biases they have against other races would be more parochial. I wouldn't expect the average citizen in Daggerfall to care about Orcs, whereas the ones In the Wrothgarian Mountains and the Bjoulsae River coast would.