What about a child born today that is of mixed human and elven parentage? Are they considered Bretons by default or how does it break down?

Depends where he would be born. He would be a Breton if he was born in High Rock; a simple half-breed if born anywhere else. Don't you think?

Childs race is always based on the mothers gender in TES so it can be both human or Elves dependent of her race.

That's the question I'm asking, how or what a "simple half-breed" would be considered as.


So if the mother was a Dark Elf, the child would be considered a Dark Elf? Or a human, or what?

Yes the child would be Dark Elf.

Yes, I had forgotten that. If the mother is an Altmer and the father a Human, the child would be an Altmer.

I always assumed that Bretons were created after generations upon generations of men and mer interbreeding. It's not about having one of your parents human and one elven - this would just result in you being human or elven, depending on which one your mother was. But Bretons have mixed ancestry many generations back. They're not one or the other anymore, they're something in between - because their blood is mixed. Probably more human, though.

Same thing with Bosmer, they're obviously elven - but "watered down" due to them taking human wives.

It didn't happen in one generation, but after many years so much elven blood accumulated in Bretons that it started to show.

You're right, bretons heritage are from lines of elven and humans but they're are considered human with some elvish blood rather than half elf and if bretons or any other race does breed the race will always be that of their mother but how Breton was created for first time is obviously different but this is how it is in these games timeline atleast.

According to various Editions of the Pocket Guide to the Empire and the UESPwiki--Bretons are the result of interbreeding between the Aldmeri and the Nedes (the original race of Men) in High Rock. They were known as the ManMer. After the Nords conquered High Rock the Bretons gradually after the area was completely freed of Aldmeri domination. You can read their history in more detail http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Breton.

According to the book http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Notes_on_Racial_Phylogeny
"Generally the offspring bear the racial traits of the mother, though some traces of the father's race may also be present."

But game wise there can be no weird mixes of a character's race, so both game and lore go with the mother thing. I think this mostly came about because there cannot be any beast race mixes for design purposes. Skyrim already created a huge amount of speculation about inheritance and parentage just by giving Karliah purple eyes.

Obliviously Karliath has her Dunmer mothers racial traits but her fathers unusual eyes. As the book I quoted is where people get the mother thing. They just forgert the rest of the book.
Bretons are the way they are because after generations of intermingling those "races of the father's race" built up

So what is a pure Breton with Breton parents considered? Since they have both Mannish and Merric blood, they're called Manmer. Is Manmer a distinct "species" (or whatever you want to call it) of its own? I mean, they're not considered elves, but they have enough elvish in them that I wouldn't really consider them human either - they're both.

Modern Bretons are a human race. They are descendants of the Manmer (Aldmeri plus some ancient humans called Nedes). Manmer existed in ancient times, and I don't think they are considered to exist any longer. Nedes no longer exist either.

A breton is a half human, half dark elf. That means that whether you have two breton parents or a dark elf father and human mother you would be breton and I think have similar features. They look human due to dominant genes I believe.

Speaking of kids, why aren't there any beast/mer kids in Skyrim? And i've always assumed all the kids were Nords because they all look exactly the same. This is an annoying flaw from Bethesda's side. They did it better in Fallout 3.

I think Skyrim has children of all human races.

when the humans came to tamriel from atmora they made enough half breeds for the bretons to have thier own race now.

Technically, Braith is a Redguard, though she looks just like the other Skyrim kids, with a barely noticeable tan. Amren is her father. http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Braith

The original champion of the arena in Oblivion was an Orc, who's parents were an Orc (mother) and Imperial (father). Although he was a mix-breed, he looked completely Orc.

I'm sure the mix-breed children taking the same race as the mother is out of convenience, so Bethesda don't have to create mix-breed models. Many other games do something similar.

The only Argonians are the dockworkers in Windhelm, it'd be impractical to make the art assets for a single argonian child at most; and the only khajiit we see are the travelling traders on the road. It'd take unimaginably shortsighted parents to take children... kittens... cubs... whatever you want to call them - all the way to a warzone during the apocalypse to sell wares for risky profits ;p

to that end, why isn't there an option for hybrid pcs

Because as established earlier in the thread there isn't significant visual results to cross-breeding. The individual primarily appears as a member of their mother-side species, possibly with a few minor inherited traits like odd eye or skin tone for their race. (See Karliah - purple eyed dunmer. Grey prince - Orc with grey-white skin), most these effects can be achieved in the normal character creation screen by messing with sliders.


...on that basis; maybe the dragonborn somewhere down the line actually HAS a dragon in their lineage? - afterall, if the mother was a humanoid.

Best not dwell on the http://www.funnyjunk.com/youtube/2862634/Where+Dragon+Born+s+Come+from/ (NSFW)

Ha! guess I could have read more ... although I'd still like an imperial-wood elf and make him look like legolas, well a 40ish legolas considering the wrinkles.