i decided to re-write this thread so it is much more clear and understandable. In The Elder Scrolls Universe there are 7 human and elf races. Only 1 of these races appears to be Black. Another are dark elves and the rest appear to be white (high elves and wood elves only to a certain extent). For Immersion purposes i would like the option to be able to make any other race appear to be black. This was an option in oblivion but you could not make them look realistically black and they came out very goofy and ridiculous. You should have the option to make better tweaks to the facial structure and color option for every human and elf race (excluding dark elves) within the game. I do not beleive this makes other races look like redguards because redguard is not necessarily proxy for black. I never complain that nords look too much like imperials based on their skin color so i figure it should be possible for their to be a dramatic difference between a black imperial and a black nord. this game is a personal experience so even if people think it breaks lore which i highly disagree with since most of the lore does not state the color of any race HAS to be any specific way it should not matter because only the player character should be able to make large differences in appearance. One thing that worries me is that attributes and class are gone so it is going to be increasingly difficult to make up for racial differences by using class and attiributes so lets say if i want to be as good as magic as a high elf and still appear black i cannot pick a mage class and get high intelligence to help catch up. I would love to have a dark apperance and still share the history and advantages of being a nord and in my opinion i can still loook like a nord. A nord is supposed to be like a scandanavian but this is nirn and not earth so its okay for them to look a little different because scandanavians did not fight dragons or use magic so one more difference can't hurt. I hope this one is alot more clear to understand than my version of the post.

It's pretty easy to create a custom race in oblivion, and will probably be just as easy in the creation kit.

I assume you are going to be playing on the pc, otherwise you will be playing an orc again.

Go to the modding forum for help making a brown imperial, breton, or nord. or in changing the redguards racial abilities.

dude wut... no. I'm not talking about modding this post is not about modding. this is about Vanilla skyrim options. I play on my xbox becuz i refuse to dish out money for a new pc just to play a game. I don't want mods i dont find that to be fair to need a mod just to make someone a different skin color and have different facial features. there is only 1 black race in the entire game yet there are like 5 white races. and if u try to make them look black they come out funny. I dont think thats fair i would like to see it changed without mods.

The thing is though... This is Nirn. Not Earth.

Also, Imperials are portrayed as the imperialistic whites, Nords are portrayed as the brutish Scandinavians, and Bretons are portrayed as these high class, British gentlemen. It's in the lore.

It would not make sense to make a black Nord. PLEASE don't take that as racism, I'm just viewing this at a lore standpoint. It would be breaking the lore if there was a black Nord (again, please don't take that as racism.) It's like me wanting to play as an Indian, but wanting him to be white. That does not make any sense at all.

well let me put it this wya... its nirn not earth. a nord is liek a brutish scandanavian...but its not. its a nord. nowhere in the lore does it say a nord can't be black. an imperial is a rip off of the romans. but its nirn its not a roman. y cant they be black? there shuld be a tendency for them to be a certain color but having a few colored ones here and there is not bad. or maybe just one. that one culd be ur character. nothings wrong with that. i feel like everytime i want to play a black character im forced to pick redguard.

What? No. I mean, yeah, you should be able to change your skin tone and all, and if, for some reason, you want to make a Nord with really dark skin (like in Oblivion) then that's fine, but...it's still a Nord. Nord's have specific body types, they're tall and muscular and white. They've lived in the snow since forever.

You're asking to make one race look like a different one, and to that I say hell no.

You can make any race look black in Oblivion.

@Vespaman

This.

im not asking that. he can be tall and musuclar and black. a black imperial does not have to look like a black nord. just like a white imperial does not look ilke a white nord. there are differences. im not asking to make nords look like redguards. im asking to make nords look black. in real life im not a redguard but im black. so redguard shuld not be proxy for black if u know wut im trying to say by that.

just chose the skin tone.

well one point that i have. even tho i understnad what ur saying is that u can make them look black but its not realistic. they look really weird and goofy when u try to do that. i tried forever to make a black nord but no matter what i did he just looked ridiculous. alot of people here seem to think that becuz i want to black versions of other races im trying to make them look like other races. thats not true. i dont say that imperials look too much like nords. they are obviously different despite skin color being the same.

I really don't see what you're asking for then, because it seems like it was in Oblivion. Yeah, as you mentioned, the skin tone in general in Oblivion was bad, and obviously Skyrim is going to fix that. So I don't think you really have much to worry about.

I also really don't understand how you like Nords for their attributes in Oblivion but not Redguards. They were very similar, but Redguards are better melee fighters. Plus, attributes aren't even in Skyrim, so it's even less relevant.

I don't take that as racism. Some folks like to stick to the lore and that's cool.

When I want to make a black Imperial/Nord/Breton, I role-play that his/her mother/father is a Redguard. It's not racism either, because I'm sure a Redguard would probably fall over for an Imperial/Breton/Nord and have a child.

its going to be very relevant this time around considering that there wont be any attributes u will no longer be able to make up for racial differences like u culd in oblivion. i think the differences in playing races will become much more obvious now since we dont have attributes. like in oblivion if u pick a race that has plus 10 to a skill that can easily be made up for at the end of the day 100 on that skill is going to be 100. or if u pick a race that has lesser magika but than u pick a class that makes up for that u can balance it out. there are no more classes or attirbutes so any differences between the races will be harder to make up for. And i was simply using nords and redguards as an example. u also have their history to worry about. i want a character with a nord history but to appear black. i dont think its alot to ask for considering how many white races u get to choose from. i just want their to be good tweaking so i can make a nord character who is beleivably black. i dont want a nord who looks like he's supposed to be black but u can tell he's not meant to be that color. also i think it should change a few things like their noses and etc to make them appear more black. i dont see a need to change hair all too much. at the end of the day this is going to be a single player game so however little sense my one nord out of a thousand makes to u it will only be mine and nobody else will have to see it. i dont see why people seem to be so againts the idea becuz u can all make ur white colored nords if that makes more sense to u but its not liek u will ever encounter mine at any point. it helps my immersion and there are others who feel the same way i do.

I get what the guy is saying, though I am unsure if it will be, or should be, implemented. The races of Men; Breton, Nord, and Imperial are synonymous with the evolutionary differences between 'races' here on earth. That is, our Scandinavians look like they do because of an evolutionary track. Of course it's more fantastical in Nirn (what with Bretons having elf blood), but the reason for skin color is evolutionary. Essentially Redguards are dark skinned because of some evolutionary trait their species picked up. Until a new group of humans that have evolved a high amount of melatonin is found on Nirn, I don't think we'll be seeing black humans.

This isn't racist, and it isn't meant to say only white people are in Nirn, it's simply that at this point and focus in the history of Nirn there hasn't been a dark skinned human race involved in the struggles of Tamriel. (The Redguard, as far as I understand it, aren't technically human.)

You shouldn't get too bent out of shape about your own skin color not being represented to all races. I don't want Argonians or Redguard to be caucasian; I want them to be what they are in the lore. I roleplay to become another character. So, go try a pale skinned nord for a time. Maybe you'll have a lot in common; maybe skin color isn't so important.

I'm gonna stop you right there. The lore DOES say that Nords are not black, they are described as having fair skin and light hair.(no racism intended)

Different ethnicity (Slight differences in appearance, size or even cultures and places they live on) would add a little bit of extra flavor and depth.

I wouldn't mind it that way, in fact I'd welcome it.

But from reading the OP I think the thread title should have been "Black versions of each race", quite misleading title.

This^ plus you can change skin color to whatever tone you want so I don't understand your issue.

Though it would be interesting to see mixed races in the game.

Well the key defining element to making a "black" character is afro textured hair.

When you consider the fact that Redguards (with a majority of the haircuts) didnt even have their characteristically "kinky" hair in Oblivion, I wouldnt be led to believe that other races will have the option of afro textured in Skyrim. No curly hair = Either a bald person or a black guy that looks like he got a http://en.olympiahall.com/jazz-blues-classical/cab-calloway.html


With that said, I think the devs should allow a certain degree of flexibility, but each race should retain their intrinsic physical traits. I just dont see the value in having white Dark Elves, black Nords, white Redguards and characters with hair colors that could be seen in a rainbow.

Yep, you are. Know why? Because that's the game Bethesda chooses to make. This whole "I want to make black Nords/Imperials/Argonians/Mer" thing is just another variant of the "remove spiders for arachnophobes" argument- which is to say claiming Bethesda owes it to anyone to make anything other than the game Bethesda chooses to make. They don't, sorry.

No to bogus race-mixing lore-breaking.

Alright bud. I made a new account specifically to tell you how you can work around your "black nord" problem. You want to have a Nord background, but be black, yes? Make a Redguard, say his family has been in Skyrim for generations. Problem solved. Just say your Redguard is a Nord. Deerrrp. The lore DOES say that Nords aren't black. To me, Redguards, Nords, Imperials, etc. are all humans, just with different skin tones. They're the same thing, albeit with slightly different attributes.

Not that skin tone has any importance whatsoever, excluding aesthetics.

I agree - despite the harsh nature of your post. At the same time, I believe it shouldnt just be guys like the OP who are limited to who they can make

The lore should be adhered to across the board. That means no more of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMNqrMSb4n4

Somebody once suggested that each race in the game be divided into one of several "lineages" you could pick for your character, which would affect your skills slightly and maybe give you a certain edge in disposition over certain factions/races. The races could be subdivided by regions or cultural views, for instance:

Imperials: Colovian / Nibenese
Dunmer: Great House / Ashlander
Bretons: River People / Imperialized

You see mixed races in the game all the time already.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Notes_on_Racial_Phylogeny



You just don't realize they're mixed races since they pretty much follow their mother's bloodline.

And I prefer it this way myself, I got rather tired of D&D (and other systems) trying to accomodate every possible combination and people playing blasted part-Drow-part-human-part-elf this and that. Bleah.



I completely agree. :thumbsup:

It actually is barely possible to make a passably "black" Breton or Imperial or Nord in the face gen in Oblivion - it's just not easy because the sliders are all interconnected, so there are lots of unintended consequences to moving them, and pushing the skin tone too dark inevitably makes it red. But it is still possible, at least up to a point.

Theoretically, the new face gen in Skyrim is going to work better, so theoretically it'll be that much easier to make a "black" Imperial or Breton or Nord.

Inspired by this thread, I think I might go make a black Nord in Oblivion right now.....