So I'm taking Genetics right now, and it got me to wondering about the ES races' genetics and how they transmit genes. I've read the lore books and understand the rule that the mother passes down the race... And all of that doesn't make a lot of sense, especially considering Bretons are supposedly a mixture of elf and human.


There should be a blending of phenotypes. I.e., whatever pigment gene is making Dunmer grey or blue or whatever should blend with, say, a white Cyrodiil to make an intermediately grey-white pigmented child. You kind of see that with the Grey Prince in Oblivion.


The genes would blend together in different ways: recessive epistasis, dominant epistasis, complete dominance, redundancy, complementary interaction. Throw in polygenic to make them continuous genes (good bit of review there for me, thanks for reading all that.)


It just doesn't make sense. And even if the child's "race" were completely six-linked on the mother's side, (and the autosomal chromosomes coded for scrambled eggs,) it's not like the X chromosome of the fathering Cyrodiil would just sit there and do nothing in daughters. Mendelian genetics just do not apply here.


So help, Bethesda Forums! Console this procrastinating college student who should really get back to his genetics textbook!

Well, mixed-race people in TES are only mostly the race of the mother:- they do inherit a few characteristics of the father (for example, Jagar Tharn was half-dunmer and had red eyes. Although the race of his mother is unclear, conflictingly having her as Altmer or Bosmer, while Tharn is a Nibenese family. But that's neither here nor there).

The ultimate and central fact here is: genetics as in the real world does not exist in TES. Just look at the Khajjit: within one species, they vary from almost-human to indistinguishable from a cat, and their form is based not on the form of their parents but rather on the position of the moons at the time of birth.

Now hold on there! If I want to be delusional, you're just gonna have to sit here and listen to me. Or leave... That's always an option.


In genetics, there are environmental factors that can change the expression of genes. Take a siamese cat, for example. It would be completely white if not for pigment regulation enzymes that activate at a certain temperature (in this case, the "cold" kind at the cat's extremities. )


Would it then be a jump to say that some magicka-concentration from the moons was altering the genotypic expressions of the Khajiiti? I think not, good internet traveler! Good day to you!


Magicka Transcription Factors. I should tell that one to my cell-bio professor.

Well, this is interesting!

I'm so glad that I failed Biology!