Hey everyone. So, I know I posted a similar topic to this a long time ago (if you don't remember it, don't worry about it), but I figured I should rephrase it and share my own insights and gatherings about it.

So, before I start, I know this may sound like a rather odd thing to ask but this is something that has bothered me - and for those who play TESO and have Altmer, I'm sure there are those bothered by it as well or have been bothered by it before - for awhile now. My question is this: can a Altmer of purely Altmeri ancestry - meaning no Bosmer, Dunmer, Orsimer, or Human ancestry anywhere in their bloodline - have dark hair colors? Is it rare in pure-blooded Altmer, or are pure-bloods only capable of having fairer colors as Altmer in general are typically depicted as of late?

As for my gatherings about this, I had a look through each game to see how the Altmer are depicted. Arena shows them as capable of having black, gray, dark red, and (for men at least) dark brown hair with streaks of gray, and having dark gold to bronze-like skin. Then Daggerfall depicts them with a more fair complexion and their hair being red-orange, black, white, brown, and even a dark brown (or a dark red-brown, it's hard to tell really). Then there's Battlespire, which depicted both male and female Altmer with many black and dark brown hair colors and some of their more commonly seen white and blonde hair colors. Now we look at Morrowind - where a change in how Altmer are depicted begins. The Altmer shown - both the Nerevarine (if one chooses Altmer as there race, mind you), and those who moved to Morrowind or were based there if they're part of the Imperial Legion - are depicted with blonde, white, and even regular brown hair - the dark shades no longer present.

Oblivion is next - which takes place at the closing of the Third Era in the melting pot of Tamriel known as Cyrodiil. Many Altmer, once again, are shown with fair hair colors, yet some such as http://www.uesp.net/w/images/0/08/OB-npc-Caranya.jpg, http://www.uesp.net/w/images/e/ec/OB-npc-Areldur.jpg, http://www.uesp.net/w/images/d/d6/OB-npc-Hlidara_Mothril.jpg, and http://www.uesp.net/w/images/6/6e/OB-npc-Henantier.jpg are depicted with black and dark brown hair (though I refuse to count Mankar and his children). Then comes Skyrim and the Fourth Era. Altmer in the land of the Nords all seem to have only white, flaxen, blonde, auburn, and gray hair - not a single one seems to have brown, dark brown, dark red, or even black hair. The Thalmor are especially noticeable of this as both the common soldiers and high ranking members such as Elenwen and Ondolemar are shown to have blonde and white hair (whether this is to give a comparison to the Nazis of the real-world who were obsessed with 'racial purity' as some like to compare to the Thalmor to is intention or otherwise, who can say). Perhaps the reason the Altmer shown in Skyrim - both Thalmor-aligned and those unaligned with them - lack dark hair colors could be because those darker shades aren't as dominant in the genes of Altmer from Summerset/Alinor (assuming we can apply real-world genetics to Tamriel and racial phylogeny) - which could also be applied to the Altmer depicted in Morrowind. Although in the case of the Thalmor, it could very well be there way of promoting the 'unified ideal Mer' image to the Nords by sending 'poster Mer' - regarding their soldiers, high-ranking Justiciars, and representatives.

Finally, we look to TESO and the Second Era. Many Altmer of the Dominion sport white, blonde, gray, auburn, flaxen, and regular brown hair - however, there are a number in the Dominion who are shown to have dark brown, black-gray, and even black hair. http://www.uesp.net/w/images/3/30/ON-npc-Aldarch_Colaste.jpg, http://www.uesp.net/w/images/f/fd/ON-npc-Atalmo.jpg, http://www.uesp.net/w/images/e/ea/ON-npc-Canonreeve_Valano.jpg, http://www.uesp.net/w/images/7/7e/ON-npc-Coinclerk_Arawe.jpg, http://www.uesp.net/w/images/e/e2/ON-npc-Ocando.jpg, http://www.uesp.net/w/images/d/de/ON-npc-Ondendil.jpg, http://www.uesp.net/w/images/4/41/ON-npc-Palomir.jpg, http://www.uesp.net/w/images/b/b6/ON-npc-Sanessalmo.jpg, http://www.uesp.net/w/images/f/fc/ON-npc-Telenger_the_Artificer.jpg, and http://www.uesp.net/w/images/3/3b/ON-npc-Varustante.jpg. These Altmer are almost certainly pure-blooded Altmer. Some of these individuals are even members of the Veiled Heritance - Altmeri nationalist who oppose the Ayrenn's decisiion to align the Altmer with the Bosmer and Khajiit. Yet Altmer players have, as the darkest hair color they can obtain, a regular shade of brown - perhaps contributing to the idea that darker hair colors are rare yet possible and by not including these hair colors (though I'm still opposed to it) it keeps those hair colors rare and avoids a majority having black hair. I know, however, that Zenimax has claimed the choice of hair and eye color for each race Online is 'going by the lore' - however this is something I don't fully buy into, looking at the evidence presented, as well as the eye color options of Dunmer...

Anyways... If you managed to get through all of my possible madness (blame Sheogorath or obsession...), I thank you for bearing with me. And please, share your thoughts and your opinions on this matter - confirmation of pure-blooded Altmer being able to have dark hair or not will be reassuring in one way or another.

To be honest I would go with the longest lasting evidence. A game's mechanics does not necessarily mirror the lore. And as for TESO, the character customisation will come soon, and who knows, you might be able to have black hair for Altmers as well

I assume you're referring to the barbershop for TESO? Well, regardless, if they do work on the customization in Online and add more options, they must add in dark brown and black as hair colors.

But back on subject... the longest lasting evidence? Forgive me, but could you elaborate please?

Sorry, I didn't word my answer well. What I meant was that you have presented us evidence from previous games that show that Altmer can have black or dark-coloured hair. So the colour options of just one game shouldn't necessarily change your mind. Especially if upcoming changes in said game might feature dark hair for Altmer as well. I suggest you also look through lore books or in-game books which describe Altmer to fully complete your research, if you so want!

It is possible to get dark or brown hair for Altmer in Arena,Daggerfall,Morrowind,Oblvion and Skyrim ,I wouldn't really consider the Eso system as evidence for anything.

My feeling is its an oversight in skyrim and they mainly used white/blonde hair for males and reddish for females


Of note altmer in skyrim dont get any unique tatoos but 2 presets have unique noses and if you change to another nose you cant go back to it unless you start over

I think I quote this last time, but:

"He was a tall, dark-haired fellow with sharp features -- but that description would fit a lot of High Elves." - Kaye describing Caryarel

"A lot of High Elves" could be any proportion of them; it just meant that it wasn't much use for tracking down an individual High Elf on Vvardenfell. But whoever wrote those quests clearly wasn't working under the presumption that dark hair was unusual for a High Elf. The concept artists or modellers may have have had other ideas.

I haven't noticed any patterns personally otherwise. I rather like the idea that the 4th Era Thalmor are basically rewriting racial history in a way that wouldn't even occur to the Veiled Heritance. That would be no mean feat in Summerset Isles. It could even be a knee jerk response to Queen Morgiah's contribution to the royal gene pool.

Ah yes, I think I remember your response from the original post. Although I may go back and double check it to get a refresher.

And it could be possible the Thalmor of the 4th Era are acting in such a way - perhaps, as you said, in response to Morgiah's contributions or to stand behind a unified Mer image. Who knows exactly with these Altmeri extremists though?

That could also be a possibility - oversights are definitely worth keeping as a possible reason for a number of things in regards to the Elder Scrolls. As for the hair colors used in Skyrim, yeah, I noticed. The reddish and auburn is mainly used for the Altmer females - though Northwatch and Thalmor soldiers and justiciars seem to mainly be blondes and white or gray haired as well. Again, it could be oversight - it could also be (at least from what I see) rare for Altmer going by the NPCs shown and only one single Altmer preset having black/dark hair present on it.

Although looking through the console commands an unusued male NPC simply named "High Elf" was shown in iron armor and had very dark hair. ... Though it could have been a test character of sorts seeing as it's one of many unimplemented characters.

And really? I guess I never noticed that before about them...

More so as the ESO team was pretty fundamentalist regarding TES lore and setting as they was outsiders and would get criticism that ever they did. Same with Bethesda in FO3.

So they assumed Altmer was all blond and did not add other hair options. Made more fun with the racial mix in Auridon, yes its some override who keeps tails from being common among Altmer.

For Skyrim they did not have many of the long hairs for male Khajiit for females, unknown reason and my first skyrim mod. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=9274

And no its no reason why Khajit females should not have long hair. That is outside of cultural ones who has no reference.