The Imperials evolved from Nords too, yet they are shorter aswell. Sometimes it's best to just accept things rather than ask why.

No. You assume that the appearance of a race is only based on it's inherited traits. In a fantasy world however this generally never is the case. Races are more often shaped after how they are perceived.

Another factor that influences length is the availability of food and the amount of heavy work somebody has to do during their youth as this can severely limit growth as well.



The Altmer believe they are descendant from the Gods and that each generation became weaker. Now the Gods were had the size of giants but the Altmer aren't so they've come to associate length with strenght.

This might have caused them to grow taller then the Aldmer.

Imperials are mixed man. Colovians obviously have more Nordic blood, but they also have Nedic blood. Nibenese have more Nedic blood and some Nordic blood. They both probably have some Ayleid blood in them (the whole slavery deal).

They all shrunk. Terribly.

I'll accept that, thus saying that there is no reason that Bretons should be taller, since even pure mer have shrunk a great deal.

Yes, they do, especially if you're actively making sure that there isn't any.

They did shrink... If you're saying they didn't then why are the Altmer tall?

This is irrelevant. Bretons came from Aldmer, not Orcs or Dark Elves. Aldmer were tall, they passed their genetics on to Bretons so it stands to reason Bretons should be tall, at least slightly taller than other men and mer.


Again, if you're just going to keep trolling, stop. You're not adding anything to the discussion, you're just asking questions that have obvious answers and then trying to refute things by basically saying "If it's in a fantasy world, a wizard did it!"


Just because other Mer shrank, why do Bretons have to? That doesn't make any sense since Bretons really aren't related to Dunmer or Bosmer.


Alright, that probably explains it (if you ignore Oblivon and Mankar Camoran).

Dunmer came from Aldmer too. They were a group of Aldmer who left for Morrowind and became the Chimer. After the little indicent at Red Mountain Azura turned them into Dunmer.

He's not trolling.

The main difference however is that the Bretons were creating by inbreeding and the dunmer (and orsimer for that matter) were created with divine assistance.

I'm aware of that, but it has nothing to do with Bretons.

You're the one who came up with Dunmer, not me.



The Divine assistance just changed their skin color though, it didn't exacly change their height as far as i know.

True, but I only meant to say that you can't say that Aldmer weren't tall, because the present day dunmer and orc's aren't tall.

The creation of the dunmer and orcs had nothing to do with genetics.

No, I didn't.


Exactly, which is why they are irrelevant to the discussion.

Dark Elves are Dunmer if you didn't know.

In addition to that, the Orcs came from the Aldmer too. They were the followers of Trinimac.

http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/truenatureoforcs.shtml



That's exactly it.



Hero's and Prophecy are real tangible parts of the world but those are strictly fantasy elements, in so Tamriel this sort of reasoning is valid. More about that when Tonal Architecture comes up.

Bretons are short because they're the quasi medieval guys, they're small because they have to fit into the harnesses from those days and there is as of yet no other explanation. Not unless somebody things one up that's interesting enough to be true.



Genes are irrelevant.

Uh, duh. If you didn't notice I've used the terms interchangeably throughout the thread. I wasn't the one who brought them up.

I did. And I said this to point out that Bretons don't have to be taller because Aldmer are tall. Dunmer and Orsimer are direct descendents from Aldmer. And they are not tall. So why do Bretons have to be tall? Even pure mer aren't tall, and Bretons aren't pure.

Again, Orcs and Dunmer have both have had some kind of "godly" intervention which resulted in their current appearances. They aren't relevant to the topic.


Oh my god. Dude, Dunmer and Orcs both have had gods alter their appereance, Bretons are genetically descended from Aldmer and have not had anything except their genetics alter their appearance. Altmer are tall and they are the closest living relatives to Aldmer, they haven't changed, so again, your point is irrelevant.

And all of this is irrelevant, Apophis2412 already answered my question in this post:
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?s=&showtopic=824785&view=findpost&p=11989769


Bretons are "short" because their genetics are determined more by their mother than their father and Nedes weren't necessarily tall. Not because Elves changed over time.

No? The Gods toying with them didn't add or remove anything to their height, and that just happens to be what this topic is about.

As proweler said, diet and the amount of labor one is forced to do has a lot to do with height. The Nords and Altmer civilized relatively early, ate well and did not spend their lives working to survive. As a result, they grew taller. Breeding and perhaps magick had something to do with the Altmers being tall as well.

Either way, it's a moot point. Nords grew tall after they broke off from other Nedic peoples, and Altmer probably grew tall after they parted with other Aldmer. All other descendants of the Aldmer are relatively short, which suggests that the Aldmer were themselves not particularly tall.

Nords weren't civilized early.

They had the First Empire, didn't they? Though I may be misremembering, it's been a while since I've gone through and read all the lore.

The Dunmer's height didn't change due to the curse. And the Chimer you do meat (Almalexia and sort of Vivec) aren't taller than an average Dunmer. So why aren't they relevant. And what about Bosmer. They are a mix between mer and man as well, leaning heavily to the merish side. Yet the are short. I'm going to change the arguement now. Why are Bretons shorter. They race most similar to them are the Bosmer. Why aren't the the same height as the Bosmer?

It's because they are different peoples living in different conditions. Bosmer don't eat plants, which could stunt their growth. Altmer go to extreme measures to make sure that they stay the same (Knight Mariel convinced me here) whil Bretons do not. That is enough. My dad has darker skin color then a spaniard even though Argentines are descended from spaniards (me mum's of African descent so I'm much darker). Why? Because his ancestors have lived in different conditions for a long time.

Except it doesn't suggest that at all. Altmer are the closest living relatives of the Aldmer. They breed specifically to resemble the Aldmer, if the Aldmer were shorter the Altmer would be breeding with the shorter members of their race. And none of this matters anyway because Apophis already answered the question with an answer that actually makes sense.

By the time the men arrived, there were already the sophisticated elves in Tamriel.