I was pondering the other day about biology in Skyrim. I was looking at the "racial features" and started wondering (OK... min/maxing in my head) about half-breeds in Skyrim.

The Mer (Elves) are fairly close in physiology and I would think they could reproduce easily. Same with Men. Maybe it is possible to even cross between men and mer?

For example, if an Altmer mated with a Dunmer, would their offspring have both increased magicka regeneration and the ability to call upon their ancestors? Or would it be like some "earth human" biology and just be a coin flip to see which ability prevails? Are there receassive genes that we do not know about?

I don't know if this would be like "eye color" in us humans or not, but usually, we have just one eye color. Sometimes, one or both parents may have have a recessive color gene that kicks in. My Mother and Father both have brown eyes. I have 4 brown-eyed sisters, myself with brown eyes, and 1 brother with Hazel eyes. No, Mom did not have an affair

So, could a Breton and Nord mate producing a child that was both resistant to cold and able to call on Dragonskin? Or would each child just be a coin toss to see which they received in their gene pool?

Any thoughts on this?

Iirc the child takes after the mother, with some traits of the father. Remember the Grey Prince in Oblivion? His mother was an orc. His father wasn't. His skin color was more from his father than his mother, but he looked like an orc.

An interesting contemplation. One might construe that after millenia of cohabitation in Tamriel, that the absence of ANY half-breeds would suggest that cross-species impregnation was impossible. In fact, the interspecies dalliance suggested in The Lusty Argonian Maid may very well be possible because there would be zero chance of bastards occurring. [Come to think of it, is there mention of any bastards occurring anywhere in Skyrim? If there are, I seem to have missed them.]

Now, Argonians aside, it seems obvious that ALL of the other races are mammalian by nature. That would seem to suggest that cross-species impregnation should be possible. But if each distinct species has some kind of "lockout" gene in their chromosomes, making it impossible for mating contributors from different species lacking an identical gene to create a viable offspring.

At least, it would explain why we have NEVER seen a half-breed anywhere in Tamriel. (Arena, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, etc.) [At least, I have never heard of any half-breeds.]

Oops. Just saw the Mod's post. Any chance that the Grey Prince was only viable because of an application of Magic? That would explain the very noticeable lack of bastards in Tamriel. Given the LARGE amount of warfare that permeates Tamriel's History, and given one of the conquerors' troops' favorite celebatory activities after a victory, there SHOULD be lots of bastards and descendants of bastards popping up in those Historical accounts.

Bretons are mixed race mer and men.

Argonians are the confusing ones. They have briasts (the very definition of a mammal, from latin mamma, briast) but the load screen describes them as reptilian. Apparently vary in appearance from very human like to very lizard like.

Hmm.

If it were anything like in real life then there would be dominant and recesive (spelling?) genes.
Since all the races have very special abilities it could be that they can't reproduce with each other.

In the real world only species that are very similar to each other can reproduce.

I, too, only know the Grey Prince to be a bastard.

Accoridng to:"Notes on Racial Phylogeny and Biology
Seventh Edition"

"Generally the offspring bear the racial traits of the mother, though some traces of the father's race may also be present."

The Bretons are the result of multiple generations interbreeding with both male Mer and female Men/Humans and vice versa.With the modern Bretons being mostly human.

True. Modern Breton's are mainly human. But they are descended from the original man-mer race created by the Aldmer and enslaved Nede's. In a book in Skyrim it says how the Nords started massacring the early Breton's because they couldn't tell the difference, it wasn't until a Breton pleaded for their life in the Nordic tongue that the Nords stopped their attacks.