I have also since I started playing TES thought that the wood elves did not meet my expectations of a wood elf. First they were all theives or assassins. Second they had really strange voices. Third they were midgets compared to everyone else in Tamriel and being that other larger races were just as agile I didnot see why that was necessary. I expected more like a Legolas kind of wood elf. They seemed stronger, more powerful, more likely to match the other races in the Lord of the Rings Universe than the Tamrielic wood elves. What do you guys think?

MK avoided the Tolkien stereotype ON PURPOSE when he created lore for the bosmer. The Bosmer are carniverous little blighters, and are so out of strict religious tenets.

They are shorter, probably because of their diets. (Bugs, Meat, Rotten milk juice, etc...)

I suggest taking this to the Lore forum though. You will get a much better turnout.

who is MK?

Micheal Kirkbride

He penned a GREAT deal of the morrowind lore, including the 36 lessons of vivec.

I still dont know who vivec is because I have barely played morrowind. I guess he is one of the tribunal

I still dont know who vivec is because I have barely played morrowind. I guess he is one of the tribunal

Yea. He's the guy living in the big locked palace in Vivec City. If you finish the game you'll have to meet him eventually...

"They are exclusively and religiously carnivorous. They cannot, or will not, eat anything that is plant-based. They eat game, beastfolk, each other, or meats imported from other regions. This part of the Green Pact is known as the Meat Mandate, and, among its other rules, it requires that a fallen enemy must be eaten completely before three days pass. The family members of the warrior that slew the enemy may help him with his meal. Needless to say, the Wood Elves do not like to engage in large battles if they have not undergone a suitable starvation period.

"Though they are excellent archers, the Green Pact forces their bowyers and fletchers to use bone or similar materials, or to buy bows and arrows from other cultures. The use of woodcrafts created by another race is not forbidden, nor is the sale of their own Valenwood timber as long as it is collected by a non-Bosmeri.

"The Wood Elves, of course, cannot smoke anything of a vegetable nature. Bone pipes are common, however, and are filled with caterpillars or tree grubs.

"For a brief time the Colovian armies used Wood Elf archers, as in the War of Rihad two years past. The Bosmer proved to be too undisciplined and prone to desertion for further use. They would sometimes walk into the shade of a single tree and vanish. Their forest-coupling skills are remarkable. The title of their most famous poem, the Meh Ayleidion, means "The One Thousand Benefits of Hiding."

"At the trading posts of the Empire, the Wood Elves become very happy. Some creations of carpentry delight them to no end. Most of it has never occurred to them. They bring their own trade items: hides, river pearls, finger-bone charms made from the still-magically-charged hands of their dead wizards. They often buy woodcrafts that they have no use for or whose use they never bother to find out. Some of the bravest Wood Elven warriors use wagon wheels as shields, or as (they think) impressive headgear.



"While sometimes amusing, the Bosmer have a bestial side. They can resort to animal shapes if they need to, or water. Their most dreaded transformation is the Wild Hunt, which killed King Borgas for the "iniquities" of his Alessian faith. The Wild Hunt is a pack of shifting forest-demons and animal-gods, thousands strong, which sweeps through the countryside killing everything its path. The Wood Elves do not like to talk about the Hunt, and I gather they do not feel proud of this power at all-Gomini, my Bosmer companion of late, tells me that the Hunt is used for justice, but that also, "every monster in the world that has ever been comes from a previous Hunt. Those Bosmer that go Wild, they do not return.""

No, the Bosmer must hold to the "http://www.imperial-library.info/pge/aldmeridominion.shtml" which forbids them from eating plants, or from harvesting plant materials. (They do however, buy plant materials from other races.)

The same religious tenet forces Bosmer to eat their slain adversaries within a fixed period of time after they have killed them. It is one of the reasons the bosmer do not like to go to war, and only do so when they are very hungry.

If this stuff is supposed to happen then why doesnt it. I havent seen glarthir try and eat any body and I could of sworn he was eying that grass next to the chapel in skingrad

If this stuff is supposed to happen then why doesnt it.

I have also since I started playing TES thought that the wood elves did not meet my expectations of a wood elf. First they were all theives or assassins. Second they had really strange voices. Third they were midgets compared to everyone else in Tamriel and being that other larger races were just as agile I didnot see why that was necessary. I expected more like a Legolas kind of wood elf. They seemed stronger, more powerful, more likely to match the other races in the Lord of the Rings Universe than the Tamrielic wood elves. What do you guys think?

Altmer/Highelfs - Both are kinda "gracefull" right, but Altmer has a more japanese kind of architecture right?
Imperials are pretty much the same right?
Bosmer, being half nord half Altmer is kinda unique.
Orcs are a civilized race not walking bent over.

MK avoided the Tolkien stereotype ON PURPOSE when he created lore for the bosmer. The Bosmer are carniverous little blighters, and are so out of strict religious tenets.

True, doesn't make them all that different from several other Tolkien-inspired settings. Notably, Warcraft. What does make them different is that they changed when their god passed through the digestive tract of another god.

If that was the goal, he shouldn't have called them elves. If he calls them elves, people WILL expect them to meet stereotypes.

The part about them that is original is also the part that makes no sense no matter how you look at it.

If that was the goal, he shouldn't have called them elves. If he calls them elves, people WILL expect them to meet stereotypes.

Actually, wood elfs are just like hobbits - vile, hateful, compact, and frazzle-headed little thieves. Just like Bilbo.

4. True, doesn't make them all that different from several other Tolkien-inspired settings. Notably, Warcraft. What does make them different is that they changed when their god passed through the digestive tract of another god.

Who?