Almalexia seems to be traditionally depicted with catlike eyes - there's at least the original concept artwork http://www.imperial-library.info/content/page-24 , and there are mods that adhere to this, too. But what about other Mer?

As far as I can see, ingame models don't really support the notion of Mer having slit pupils, but as we all know, any ingame representation of characters is too often a case of "gameplay!=lore" (Oblivion, anyone? then there's the case of Dunmer losing their original uniformly glowing eyes over the course of the series...).

So, from the lore-friendly point of view, would it be completely wrong to assume slit pupils were at least characteristic of the Chimer, or maybe even common among the general "purer" strains (Aldmeri - Altmer - Chimer and Dwemer)? Bosmer would most likely have round pupils since they "soiled Time's line by taking Mannish wives"...

Remember, MK also calls her "the Snake-Faced Queen". It could be an attribute of Boethiah rather than an Elven one.

Face-Snaked actually. But the whole Chimeri exodus was fueled by Daedra, so they could receive a physical mark of being the Changed Folk, too...

The Bosmer are known to have http://ladynerevar.tumblr.com/post/48393969254/cannibal-sarracenian-jesuslizardjournal at times, and I wouldn't put it past them to have shared blood with the Khajiit, so I wouldn't be at all surprised by Bosmer particularly having slit pupils.

Dunno about the other Merrish races.

Well I'd imagine it a bit differently: a surefire way to tell, say, a true Ohmes from a tattooed Bosmeri impostor would be the eyes (the Khajiit would have catlike ones).

I would assume that slit eyes were one thing that Chimer received when they followed Veloth, both Golden saints and Dark seducers seems to have slit eyes.

Almalexia isn't exactly a normal Mer.

True, but she's still considered the most beautiful woman ever, and it makes me think she cannot be "completely unique", so to speak, as far as her looks go. Beauty is a standard, after all.


Hmm interesting, thanks for the info... gotta take a closer look at the ingame textures for lack of a better resource. Or are there any concept artworks of them around?

...drawing from real-world mythological reference: does anyone remember any spirits/gods/races that would be depicted as having catlike eyes?

excluding gods with cat heads and any ghost or spirits that are supposed to be closely cat related, then the only thing that comes to mind is I think judeo-christian iconography cat eyes aren't really that much of a popular thing