Okay, well then scratch that.

No, they breed as they do because they're royal a-holes, and I do mean royal, if ya catch my drift.

1. The Dunmer only had their skin and eyes changed. Not their height.

2. The Altmer are not necessarily the closest approximation of the Aldmer. They try to approximate an ideal but as it goes with ideals, they have no negative qualities. So where some Aldmer were exceptionally tall, some were exceptionally pretty, some were exceptionally good at magic, the ideal Aldmer has all of those.

3. Genetics are somewhat irrelevant in Tamriel as it's a fantasy world where the mothers traits are most dominant.

4. You don't know the height of the Nedes.

5. Other factors then genetics influence height.

So all you could conclude is that the Nedes might have been as tall as the Bretons but not the other way around.



http://julia.hanovercomputer.com/toy/nov01/catalog/Uncle%20Sam/pict0082.jpg

And some Aldmer were exceptionally buff. And look wha happened. *sigh*

it's cause they are french... uuh O_O

no their british

I refuse to beleive Bretons are British. It defies all logic and plausibility...































... The British could never come up with such longwinded names.

Ainsborough-upon-Tyne?

Its beacuse the Bretens are descended from the Direnni and the indigenous Nedes, not the Altmer and the Nords. Since the two parent races are extinct, we have no idea of knowing how tall they were.

God!... What a lore freak! :facepalm:

I thought it was because they drank all kinds of strange, bubbly potions containing dangerous substances........ (Like belladonna!)

...


A prime example of french longwinded corruption from the Normans.

You're just sour that the Bretons arent ardent tea-o-philes.

"They cant be brittish, if they dont drink tea!"

:P

I wish I was little bit taller,
I wish I was a baller
I wish I had a girl who looked good
I would call her

I just knew Skee-Lo was a Breton.

Have you considered that selective breeding may end in extremes and some traits might "overgrow", the Altmer might very well be a perversion of Aldmer.

Kinda hard to miss.

According to the Oblivion Construction set opening just the Oblivion ESM, Orcs have a height ratio of 1.06 for both male and female, matching that of the Nords. The Altmer top out all races at 1.1. Imperials are both 1.0 as are both sixes of Dunmer, and Bretons are also 1.0. Breton females are 0.9. Bosmer are 0.9 for males and 1 for females.

The reason behind the Bretons being more human than elven is because of the nature of racial hybridization in the TES universe: hybrids tend to resemble their mothers more in race. Seeing that the mothers in this case were usually nedic concubines to the Direnni Aldmer (the branch of aldmeri society that conquered/colonized what is now Highrock), this is why they're "more human than elven". This would suggest that the Nedes were average height.

The Nords attribute their ancestry to giants. Their god Shor, http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/wulfharthsongs.shtml, was killed by "elven giants". Altmer claim to be descended from the gods and practice a form of selective breeding to retain those godly qualities. The Ehlnofey are called "titanic". Ergo, over the years, everybody shrunk. Some more than others, as some had more concern for their mythic proportions than others. And, yes, the Nedes may not have been terribly tall in the first place.

(I know this has already been mentioned scattered through the topic, but I wanted to collect it all into one cogent message.)

Actually, the real reason is beacuse the Atmoran Nords interbred with the Manmer after the conquered High Rock. So, the Manmer and Bretons are actually different races.

Direnni + Nede = Manmer
Manmer + Atmoran = Breton

so, if you want to simplify things, the Bretons are 25% Nede, 25% Direnni and 50% Nord. Thus, they are 75% man and 25% mer. Basically speaking.

Then of course we have minimal Redguard and Orcish interbreeding making weird sub-groups like the reachmen.

I find the whole idea that Bretons are somehow "half-elves" grossly overrated. The idea that they should somehow be tall because they are said to be the offspring of elves (regular Elves, not necessarily the Altmer) and men (Tamrielic men, not Nords) is, to me, quite ridiculous.

Even if we disregard historical inaccuracy and take it as fact that said ancestors would somehow result in a "taller race", there is still the factor of time to keep in mind. The Aldmeri rule over the territories that would later become High Rock is to be situated before, and during the first few centuries of the First Era. If we, for practicality's sake, take the beginning of the First Era as a starting point, 4249 years have passed to the current day. Extrapolated to our world, this would mean that say, the Dutch people are so tall because of a few sparse interbreedings during the Old Kingdom period of ancient Egypt.

All in all, I would say this question is gameplay. There are tall Bretons, like there are shorter Nords.

So far, I've heard two reasons given that are both valid for why Bretons are not taller. However, both reasons are most likely true, and since most people don't read every post, I'll just sum it up for ya'.

Bretons are not taller since they are descendents of manmer crosses. I can't stress this enough, they are NOT HALF ELVES!!!!! They have very little elven blood in this day and age. Also, the elves from whom they descend may or may not have been very tall, however they probably were. The thing is, that people in TES take after their mothers rather than their fathers. The manmer were crosses between Nedic (not Nord) slave girls and their Aldmer masters. This would mean that the offspring looked mostly human, but with a few elven traits. All of these elven traits except a knack for magicka have since been bred out. That is your answer. Bretons are mainly Nedes with a little elf for good measure.

Since the Nedes are the ancestors of the Cyrodilians, then why should Bretons be taller?

Right, if there really has to be a reason: it was magic.

'Sblood thou stinkard, I'll teach ye how to gust wolde ye swynke me thilke wys?

Because they didn't eat vegitibles when they were growing up, lol.

Here's the simple side of it (some people have already stated this). The "Half-Elves" that were bred from the Aldmer and man races were undoubtedly taller than Imperials. The descendants of these Half-Elves (the Bretons) have grown shorter over the many, many years they have had to dilute their bloodline by breeding with other shorter humans, and/or just evolving to be shorter based on diet or where they live or however you wanna explain it. Basically Bretons are too far removed from the elves to have to be tall.