Honestly, only choosing from 10 races in Vanilla Oblivion seemed too restricting. I really like the idea of modding characters into the game, but for players who wish to play without mods, the ability to choose your parents from either the same race or different races seems pretty cool to me.

As for me, I'd like to try all the different combos. Half Dark Elf and Half Nord (Nord Elf, lol). I'd def. like to see the spawn of an Argonian and a Khajit. Furry scales anyone? After all, interbreeding is mentioned several times in the lore, so why isnt this reflected in the game. Never saw an Ogregonian before, but if you believe that these races lived together all over the Empire, shouldnt that have happened at some point? Add to that the fact that several races of Tamriel came from other continents, and there should be more options for character creation. Tsaesci, Maormer, even Sloads should be bound to pop up somewhere in the Empire, yet you never see them. EverQuest has 17 some odd races and it isnt half the franchise ES is, but I do admire the diversity of it far more than Oblivion.

Sorry, but cross-breeds in TES result in a life-form that is basically of the mother's race, with a few traits of the Father. So Orc mother and Imperial father gets you a grey orc.

Nord father, Bosmer mother = Nordsmer.

That's what I would go for.

I would think that most of the races - with the exception of the Argonians - would be able to cross breed. Besides who wants a lizard baby! Mind you having said that I can't help thinking of V when I look at Argonians.



I seem to remember that there was a half-orc (more on the orc side) who was the product of a human mother who had been [censored] by an orc. Maybe that was just a break from the lore. I think you are referring to this excerpt from the book "Notes on Racial Phylogeny" in Morrowind, found in Eldafires house in Seyda Neen (thanks to the guy who originally found this):

"After much anolysis of living specimens, the Council long ago determined that all "races" of elves and humans may mate with each other and bear fertile offspring. Generally the offspring bear the racial traits of the mother, though some traces of the father's race may also be present. It is less clear whether the Argonians and Khajiit are inter-fertile with both humans and elves. Though there have been many reports throughout the Eras of children from these unions, as well as stories of unions with daedra, there have been no well documented offspring. Khajiit differ from humans and elves not only their skeletal and dermal physiology -- the “fur” that covers their bodies -- but their metabolism and digestion as well. Argonians, like the dreugh, appear to be a semi-aquatic troglophile form of humans, though it is by no means clear whether the Argonians should be classified with dreugh, men, mer, or (in this author's opinion), certain tree-dwelling lizards in Black Marsh.

The reproductive biology of orcs is at present not well understood, and the same is true of goblins, trolls, harpies, dreugh, tsaesci, imga, various daedra and many others. Certainly, there have been cases of intercourse between these "races," generally in the nature of [censored] or magickal seduction, but there have been no documented cases of pregnancy. Still the inter-fertility of these creatures and the civilized hominids has yet to be empirically established or refuted, likely due to the deep cultural differences. Surely any normal Bosmer or Breton impregnated by an orc would keep that shame to herself, and there's no reason to suppose that an orc maiden impregnated by a human would not be likewise ostracized by her society. Regrettably, our oaths as healers keep us from forcing a coupling to satisfy our scientific knowledge. We do know, however, that the sload of Thras are hermaphrodites in their youth and later reabsorb their reproductive organs once they are old enough to move about on land. It can be safely assumed that they are not inter-fertile with men or mer.

One might further wonder whether the proper classification of these same “races,” to use the imprecise but useful term, should be made from the assumption of a common heritage and the differences between them have arisen from magickal experimentation, the manipulations of the so-called "Earth Bones," or from gradual changes from one generation to the next."

In any case I would personally like to see half-races.

I don't think I would play as a mixed race character, I never liked half-elves in D&D, and I'm pretty sure I read a book in-game that said cross-breeding among the races was impossible. Maybe it just said that men can't breed with mer or beast etc.

I'm not opposed to more races, I would prefer to see the current 10 races expanded upon. I also don't think that a Breton/Imperial cross-breed would really be noticeably different from a Breton.

Dunmer/Altmer cross could lead to some interesting possibilities though, unless it just ends up looking like the mother.

Now, a Mer/Sload child, THAT would be something worth seeing.

Let's get some lore in here!

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/oblivion-racial-phylogeny-and-biology

Mother's genes win in cross-breeding.

wow, really quick feedback! Of course this is a hypothetical situation, but you never know when it comes to these games. Bethesda changes lore and conventions so often. Not to mention Greg Keyes ruined the 4th Era, so the rest of the conventions might as well muddy up themselves. lol

*A dark elf guy + a argonian female= A Black with glowing blue stripes and red eyes Argonian.

*Argonian male+ Dark elf female= a cliff racer

"Still the interfertility of these creatures and the civilized hominids has yet to be empirically established or refuted"

This leaves the door open, since scientifically there is no telling what may happen in the future.

Our buddy Greg will ruin the 5th era also. Yay!!!

Everything seems to have gone as intended with the 4th era. Was Expecting something a bit more widespread, but destruction certainly was never unexpected for the 4th.

Ah, thanks, that's the book I was thinking of.

So it looks like men and mer can in fact impregnate each other, but the child often bears close resemblance to the mother's race.

Boo... Sload aren't interfertile, there goes all my zany plans.

Ach! double post

Nord mother, Breton Father. The strength of a Nord, the magical affinity of a Breton. You'd be unstoppable.

Eh...no, there aren't any I'd play as. I tend to play Khajiit and I like my cat people to look like cats, not humans with cat ears, which is all a Khajiit hybrid would be.

Only ten races was too restricting? How many games offer even that? As it is, I would have zero interest in mixed races. The existing ones are poorly defined and boring as a result. Racial abilities are pretty much minor spell buffs anyone can duplicate by walking into a magic shop. Skill bonuses are even less significant and, as skills are universal, do almost nothing to separate one race from another. Impact on gameplay and social interaction is effectively limited to (completely insignificant) changes in initial disposition and the occasional unique sentence, which follows into the usual canned dialogue. Why would I need dozens of half-breeds whose primary feature is to blur the already blurry lines between the races?

Yes, this would be cool.

I'd probably go for some half-elf of sorts.

No. But I would like to see some of the other breeds of Khajiit as playable...

Interestingly enough I once played a Dwarf/Orc halfbreed in D&D. He was short for a Orc and had a great beard. And perhaps a unhealthy interest in Dwarven things and activities, such as mining and smithing. Which ended up in a landslide destroying our parties wagon and all that was on board.
It was awesome though. :whistling:
So as you can see mixing fantasy races just leads to trouble!

Actually in place of complete half breeds, it would be awesome to play as some of the mut races we hear about in the lore but never see. Like the Reachmen.

Mayve, but probably not.

Imagine a orc mixed with a khajiit. :ninja:

Isn't Bretons halfbreeds?

Well, being a mixed race IRL I'm probably more likely to say "Yes".

So my view is biased.

The race gets on the mothers side, mostly. So Imperial mother and Altmer father? Imperial child. Perhaps the child will become slightly over the average in height and have a very light skin, but perhaps the child wont.

Argonian and Khajiit arent likely to be able to crossbreed. Argonians are... Trees. Atleast they were sort of made by trees, or are related to them in a way. But they are completely different from Men and Mer. Khajiit have the lunar laticy (or whatever its called, I dont even know what that means if you translate it...) which makes them into a different specie of the Khajiit specie. Some of them look like Bosmer... some of them are like Cat-Elephants.

Ogregonians arent very likely because of the former things I mentioned but also because Ogres are aggresive and kill non-ogres (it is the same reason as to why there exists no bears crossed with humans).
That there are no Tsaesci, Maormer or Sloads is a slight oversight by the devs. They wont do a completely new race for something which isnt in the main quest or a main story. Thats why the Akaviri leader in that hidden mountain fortress is a Imperial and not a snake-thing (right?).

You can ofcourse do as you want in the Character Creation (a slightly green altmer so that it looks like a altmer/orc).

Wasn't there a case of inbreeding before in Oblivion with a vampire and orc?

All the races aside from Argonians are descended from a common, elven ancestor, often referred as the Aldmer. Some races are closer to the Elven roots than others; obviously the ones that are still elves, but also the Ra Gada and the Bretons are close as well. IIRC one of the Et'ada transformed a group of elves into the Khajiit, don't remember which one though, and before the disappearance of the Dwemer, they, the Chimer, and the Altmer looked pretty much the same. Dwemer are of course gone now; Chimer are now Dunmer, and Altmer retain their Aldmeri appearance. At least that's the impressions I get. As far as Argonians, they're related somehow with the Hist and are not descended from the Aldmer at all.