Just curious to hear from those High Elf fans out there.

I've been on a very strong Nord kick for years now. I love the lore, and the culture/history/ethos ties in rather well to other things I like - Beowulf, Vikings, Old English/Norse poetry, sagas, etc. It's easy for me to make just about any Nord character fit very well in the game, whether he's a warrior, a warped wizard, a thief, whatever.

My least-played race may be Altmer. I think part of this is that their lore doesn't tie in to 'real-world' stuff as well as the Nord lore does. Altmer seem to come from some rather generic fantasy tropes: Elves, magic, yadda yadda. I am aware that there is some interesting and very strange lore about the Altmer, but it doesn't ever get explored in-game - at least not in Skyrim, Oblivion, or Morrowind - and the Altmer are mostly left feeling like elitist, snobbish, moustache-twirling villains or power-mad mages.

I don't mind playing a power-mad mage, but when I do, Dunmer seems like the more interesting choice.

So how do you envision your Altmer characters? What makes them stand out? What about their lore and history is compelling to you? What am I missing?

They do have a fascinating history, like most of the Tamriel races, but this particular segment is false, IMO. Not all Altmer are Thalmor.

Like all my girls, each has a backstory to explain why she's stuck in Skyrim.... and none of them are Thalmor - in fact the latter few I've had (in the last year or so) have been actively embarrassed by, and completely against, what the Thalmor are doing. And in fact, they haven't seen any good reason for the Thalmor to WANT Skyrim.... Anyway, why not play them? I have some of every race.... except orc. Just can't go there.

@Kane - You're right, not all Altmer are Thalmor. But even apart from the Thalmor, the descriptions of Altmer as a race in-game perpetuate the stereotype. Now, I know you don't have to play by stereotype. But this is a difficult one to see past, for me anyway. I guess what I'm looking for is an alternative to the stereotype. If not all Altmer are Thalmor, what are those other Altmer like? What's interesting about them?

For example, look at Children of the Sky. Awesome stuff. The old Nords took their enemies' tongues and wove enchantments into them. I don't know of any similarly badass activities carried out by the Altmer. Maybe I'm too much of a barbarian at heart.

I am no Altmer expert.......but to really understand them.....where they came from and what they went through.......you need to dig back to the early first beginnings of Nirn. The spread of the godly proto elven kind Ehlonfey and how they colonised Tamriel. Whilst the pure non-wild originals took Summerset Isles, another off shoot was sent out to colonise, eventually spawning the Heartland High Elves, Alyied race.

Follow their growth and collapse......Wiki will help as will the many books on it. One word of caution....the in-story authors of those books are what's called 'unreliable narrators'. In otherwords some if it is wrong or contradictory to other texts.....this IS deliberate by Beth...to add spice and uncertainty to the time line. ( Its all in their interview videos from years ago).


It is deep....very deep and fascinating. All elven kind (anything with pointy ears) had devine roots and is the reason for their particular affinity with magic.


BTW......its only obvious when you think about it.......who discovered Cyrodiil in the first place......when its only inhabitants where virtually non speaking beast folk......yep....Torval 'The Pilot'. He and his crew where the first Elves to find and explore right into the middle of Tamriel....and that was by accident! Because they were in the wrong place and misread the coast line.


Anyhow look it all up.....the Altmer have a huge fascinating history that has nothing to do with the elitist fascist Party.....Thalmor. Also btw....the Thalmor are not supported by all Altmer.....there's a lot of dissent!


Hope that helps kindle your 'explorations'

Rick

One of my longest played 360 characters was Altmer... http://zanegreymore.blogspot.com/2014/02/looking-back.html... I used lore and my imagination to write out her story... they are inter-woven... It doesn't take much to come up with some bit's of Lore or even read a good bit and come up with an idea. I used the idea behind the Thalmor to make her story interesting.

I think stereotypes are great, because we can play against them. One of my most fun TES characters (in Oblivion) was a fur-clad Altmer barbarian who used absolutely no magic but was extremely weak to it.

Its odd, because in this game I can't conceive of playing an Altmer.....yet in Oblivion I played nothing else. I do little magic in Skyrim yet in Oblivion my beautiful 'Vulnavia' was an Altmer battlemage in Glass armour. I almost always play on max difficulty in Skyrim yet in Oblivion I played Adept.

I feel like if I was going to play any character other than a Bosmer, it would be an Altmer... I don't know why, I just love their lore and the way a story can be written for them; anything from Betraying the Thalmor or (for the more evil) being an undercover agent sent to join the Stormcloaks and kill Tullius to gain their trust, as well as inside information. The possibilities can very easily fit in to Skyrim if you try hard enough. However, this is mainly from a role-playing point of view.

I played an Altmer Mage a couple of playthroughs ago. I don't know anything about the Lore but their magica boost is useful at the beginning of the game.


My abiding memory is that they are too tall though, just felt stupid standing next to any other character!

When i want something high and mighty, regal.

The Psijic and the Direnni are quite interisting.And they have some quite unique architecture oh and [censored] eso:

"Human traders were only allowed at its ports, and they described the city as "made from glass or insect wings." Less fantastic accounts come from the Imperial emissaries of the Reman Dynasty, which describe the city as straight and glimmering, "a hypnotic swirl of ramparts and impossibly high towers, designed to catch the light of the sun and break it to its component colors, which lies draqed across its stones until you are thankful for nightfall."

Have you played the games?I don't really want to list every non Thalmor Altmer npcs in TES.

And power mad mages?Most Altmer mages are scholars.

Well, I suppose if you consider Morrowind, that's understandable. My first game was Oblivion, and that's where I started playing roguish Khajiit and mad power hungry Altmer. Those first impressions have followed me through the games, although since playing Morrowind, my appreciation for Dunmer mages has increased.

I don't like how the Thalmor were portrayed in Skyrim as shallow mustache twirling villains, but like others have said, not all Altmer are villains and there are some interesting Altmer mages in Oblivion. That got me interested in the race, and not all of them are unfriendly or overly arrogant. Sure there are some evil Altmer in Oblivion like Falcar, Caracya, Carminalda, and Mankor Camoran, but they seem more multi-dimensional than the way the Thalmor are portrayed in Skyrim.

There are also quite a few warm and friendly Altmer in Oblivion, like the alchemist Sinderion, for example. Perfectly charming fellow. So is Calendil, who runs the Mystic Emporium, and Suurotan who runs the shop in Bruma and many other similar characters. Then there is the tender love affair between Eilonwy and Orintur.

But what drew me most to the Altmer were the mysterious mages, like Ancotar, who's quite eccentric, to the point of being a bit anti-social and somewhat uncaring about the side effects of his experiments, but he's not that a bad guy once you get to know him and more than ready to undo his unintentional spell on Aleswell; he's quite an ingenious researcher and singlemindedly focused on his project. There is also Arkvid, who lies sleeping in his strange tower.

Something about their arrogant and eccentric ways, that were often portrayed more as quirky, focused, eccentric and a bit anti-social (like Christopher Lloyd's character in Back to the Future) than the evil boring Nazi's we see in Skyrim that drew me into playing them.

I also liked their combination of high magical power coupled with moderate weakness to elemental magic more than Breton's lower power/higher magic resistance. That gameplay distinction was erased in Skyrim, but I have added it back with mods (Requiem).

Edit: Almost forgot Torval the Pilot, who taught the beastfolk to read and write. Best Altmer ever!

Yeah I've enjoyed playing an Altmer in Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. Both for their lore and magicka boosts. But Dunmer are my favorite elven race in TES.

The non Thalmor Altmer in Skyrim are usually pretty cool, too. Calcelmo, Arivanya, Nurelion, Niranye, Nelecar, Nirya, Faralda. That's all I got off the top of my head, lol.

My first impressions of Altmer were formed in Morrowind and were all very positive. Arrille was helpful and courteous. Eldafire welcomed my character to Vvardenfell, offered to explain local customs and was very upset about the existence of slavery in Morrowind. In Balmora, Tyermaillin was modest and helpful and gave my character a free Alembic. Because of this I have always had difficulty seeing Altmer as elitist snobs.

The Altmer I have played have been as various as all of my other characters. Looking back on it, I probably modeled many of them on my first impressions of Altmer in Morrowind: they generally tended to be helpful and considerate.

I feel like doing an Altmer RP in Skyrim now.

This one does not play Altmer. Ever.

Altmer were the original OP race. Immunity to paralysis is just too good. As for the 'stereotype', here's the description:

Thy race is tall and stately, for thou art kings among princes. Thy people were first on this land to breathe the spring air and first to leap, nimble with the wind. Thine eyes canst see all even when naught is out but the Mistress of the Night...

Can't you just feel the humility and 'salt of the earth' coming from them?

Personally, I've played everything except the beast races (and I've given them brief tries) and orcs (who are really just animals who can speak). Altmer make great characters, when you're not getting stuck because you're just too tall for the balconies... But to be an Altmer means you are inherently better than the other races of Tamriel. To deny that would be like denying that water is wet. Not every Altmer is a Thalmor, some do tolerate the lesser races, but why pretend that they are your 'equals' when as surely as the sun travels across the sky they are not.

Yes. I've played the games. What I'm looking for here is some discussion on what makes Altmer an interesting choice to some players.

Good points, thanks! Torval is an interesting character.

Headcanon.

My Altmer in Skyrim is the Daughter of the Champion of Cyrodiil, Who in turn is the Daughter of the Eternal Champion (Arena: TES 1 protagonist). The Nerevarine is (Fraternal) Twin of the CoC.

Daggerfall's Protagonist, The "Imperial Agent" Is unrelated to that family. The Eternal Champion was pregnant at the time.

Now: Why was the Eternal Champion an Altmeri woman? Because of the immunity to paralysis mentioned above. My first arena char was actually a Female Dunmeri Healer, who got incessantly paralyzed.

I play Altmer for gameplay reasons. I don't enjoy playing smug banana men too much and I'd rather be a dunmer or breton wizard but considering Altmer are built way better for magic than the other races I'm not left with much of a choice.

Even with Mage hybrids with other classes (Nightblade, Spellsword, Sorcerer, Battlemage) I'm still better off as an altmer cause it's easier to level warrior/thief skills than it is to level magic skills.

Oddly enough I play Altmer because of ESO. Queen Ayrenn was the only leader I cared for and the Dominion areas were just aesthetically better than the others. Plus Khajiits. So although I was a Covenant pvp'er I found that whenever I had downtime I was logging in and playing my Altmer mage and templar. Being freakishly tall, also awesome. (I'm 6'5" for real and I like games where not everyone's the same height.) Until ESO I was pretty neutral about the Altmer. I didn't really care for them but didn't hate them either. My favorite race is still Nords and always will be but I create a shiny golden god from time to time now as well.

In prior games that was true but in vanilla Skyrim, I haven't noticed much of a difference between my Dunmer and Altmer mages, at least not after a few levels. The 50 magicka is noticable in the beginning but not once you get a few levels under your belt. I've never even noticed the difference in starting skill since skills level so quickly in the beginning, catching up doesn't take long.

I play Altmer because they can run faster, when I need to get away.