Elder Scrolls Lore » Discussions

Altmer Part 2: The Highborns

• TheNextShalidor

  

  Member
   

  October 7, 2015

  You know...I double-checked Minorne, and honestly her hair isn't brown.  It seems more of a dirty-blonde color than a dark brown.

  As for the idea of mixed ancestry, I think I might be wrong looking back at it.  There are Altmer in ESO that come from Auridon/Summerset who have black hair, and brown hair that looks to be a somewhat dark brown shade.  It's hard to tell, it could also be a medium brown.  And regarding the black only some NPCs have it since players can't make use of it or darker hair colors for unknown reasons.

  I also looked at Arena and Daggerfall both and, at least for males, both games have one or two options for a dark brown color (although they have reddish brown tones to it), in addition to a number of black hair colors.  Even Battlespire allows for dark brown and black hair colors.  Yet Morrowind lacks them and the darkest color an Altmer can receive is a reddish brown color (unless a mod was used of course), which makes things a bit odd. 

  Then of course, Oblivion has characters who are Altmer that I mentioned before with dark brown hair colors, and some with black to black-gray hair as well.

  If there were images of random, say....Thalmor or Altmer enemy mages whose hair was exposed in a properly lit area like outdoors during the day, it could probably shed some light if Bethesda took that into consideration.

  ....I might also be overthinking things.   :P    I just like understanding the tiniest details a lot, I suppose.

  You know...I double-checked Minorne, and honestly her hair isn't brown.  It seems more of a dirty-blonde color than a dark brown.

  As for the idea of mixed ancestry, I think I might be wrong looking back at it.  There are Altmer in ESO that come from Auridon/Summerset who have black hair, and brown hair that looks to be a somewhat dark brown shade.  It's hard to tell, it could also be a medium brown.  And regarding the black only some NPCs have it since players can't make use of it or darker hair colors for unknown reasons.

  I also looked at Arena and Daggerfall both and, at least for males, both games have one or two options for a dark brown color (although they have reddish brown tones to it), in addition to a number of black hair colors.  Even Battlespire allows for dark brown and black hair colors.  Yet Morrowind lacks them and the darkest color an Altmer can receive is a reddish brown color (unless a mod was used of course), which makes things a bit odd. 

  Then of course, Oblivion has characters who are Altmer that I mentioned before with dark brown hair colors, and some with black to black-gray hair as well.

  If there were images of random, say....Thalmor or Altmer enemy mages whose hair was exposed in a properly lit area like outdoors during the day, it could probably shed some light if Bethesda took that into consideration.

  ....I might also be overthinking things.   :P    I just like understanding the tiniest details a lot, I suppose.

• Sahvedfo

  

  Member
   

  March 4, 2016

  I know I'm pretty late to the party on this, but I figured I'd chip on this matter.   :)

  Darker hair colors, I think, are rare for Altmer of pure blood, though still 100% possible.  That could explain the lack of darker color options for player Altmer in ESO.  Speaking of ESO though, I found a number of Altmer with either dark or darkish brown, black, or black-gray hair on the Dominion side, or at least would be a pure-blooded Altmer more than likely.  Isiraamo, although he's in Craglorn, could have descended from Altmer once native to High Rock or could have came from Summerset.  His hair is dark brown if you zoom in and check.  Ealare, a bard in Firsthold, has black hair if you look under her hood.  She's from Summerset so she's definitely pure-blooded.  Eambar, in Dune, has dark brown hair - if you look at the image closely despite the lighting, you can tell it's dark brown.  He's in Dominion controlled territory, so it's very likely he's a pure-blooded Altmer.  This Mercenary from Phaer has, I think, dark brown hair.  The lighting doesn't help though...  Direnni Commander Parmion has dark brown hair if you look at his eyebrows carefully, and the Direnni are definitely pure-bloods if you look at the actual Mer and not the proto-Breton offspring of their Nedic slaves.  Then among the Veiled Heritance - Altmeri nationalist at that who disapprove of the Bosmer and Khajiit - Ondendil, Nenaronald, Canonreeve Valano, Palomir, and Varustante all have dark hair it would appear.  

  These are just a few examples of what I found though.  And also, couldn't be possible for an Altmer to be considered 'impure' - or any Mer really - would be if their height, skin color, eye color, and ears were not what the typical colors, size, and shape their people's are?  For example, a short Altmer with skin that's more gray or flesh-like, or ears that are shorter or rounder.  Or a Dunmer with eyes that are gold or amber, or any non-red shade, and ears that are either shorter, rounded, or lacking the curves they seem to have.  

  I know I'm pretty late to the party on this, but I figured I'd chip on this matter.   :)

  Darker hair colors, I think, are rare for Altmer of pure blood, though still 100% possible.  That could explain the lack of darker color options for player Altmer in ESO.  Speaking of ESO though, I found a number of Altmer with either dark or darkish brown, black, or black-gray hair on the Dominion side, or at least would be a pure-blooded Altmer more than likely.  Isiraamo, although he's in Craglorn, could have descended from Altmer once native to High Rock or could have came from Summerset.  His hair is dark brown if you zoom in and check.  Ealare, a bard in Firsthold, has black hair if you look under her hood.  She's from Summerset so she's definitely pure-blooded.  Eambar, in Dune, has dark brown hair - if you look at the image closely despite the lighting, you can tell it's dark brown.  He's in Dominion controlled territory, so it's very likely he's a pure-blooded Altmer.  This Mercenary from Phaer has, I think, dark brown hair.  The lighting doesn't help though...  Direnni Commander Parmion has dark brown hair if you look at his eyebrows carefully, and the Direnni are definitely pure-bloods if you look at the actual Mer and not the proto-Breton offspring of their Nedic slaves.  Then among the Veiled Heritance - Altmeri nationalist at that who disapprove of the Bosmer and Khajiit - Ondendil, Nenaronald, Canonreeve Valano, Palomir, and Varustante all have dark hair it would appear.  

  These are just a few examples of what I found though.  And also, couldn't be possible for an Altmer to be considered 'impure' - or any Mer really - would be if their height, skin color, eye color, and ears were not what the typical colors, size, and shape their people's are?  For example, a short Altmer with skin that's more gray or flesh-like, or ears that are shorter or rounder.  Or a Dunmer with eyes that are gold or amber, or any non-red shade, and ears that are either shorter, rounded, or lacking the curves they seem to have.  

• Paws

  

  Member
   

  March 4, 2016

  Hey, good research mate

  Hey, good research mate

• Sahvedfo

  

  Member
   

  March 5, 2016

  Thank you.   :)   

  This is something that I was always troubled by as well - and with how things are handled in ESO character customization-wise, I felt a bit of research was necessary.  And this seems to be the only thing that makes sense - darker hair colors are rare but possible for a pure-blooded Altmer.  That would be the only way I could see the hair colors present as options for player Altmer Online as accurate - to avoid having those rare, darker colors be used and becoming more common than they are.  

  Plus, in each description of the Mer, the focus is on their eyes, height, and skin tones - not so much their hair colors.  The only thing I don't fully understand would be regarding Morrowind's depiction of Altmer - although it could be argued that there were no dark-haired Altmer in Morrowind because of either an oversight OR because those colors aren't as common for Altmeri hair, those Altmer we see that are either aligned with the Empire during the events that occur in TES III or just random individuals encountered have the more 'common' colors due to their numbers being the smallest of the game with only 87 named Altmer in the main game itself.  Which could also explain the Skyrim Altmer as well, in addition to the Thalmor of the Fourth Era having only blonde and white-haired members to draw rather obvious parallels with the Nazis.  

  Or maybe they chose to send only 'prime examples' of Altmer among their soldiers and representatives to Skyrim as a way to show off the typical Altmeri image as a way of saying 'This is what superiority looks like.  Bask in it, lowborn!'.   But... that's just a theory.  ;P

  Thank you.   :)   

  This is something that I was always troubled by as well - and with how things are handled in ESO character customization-wise, I felt a bit of research was necessary.  And this seems to be the only thing that makes sense - darker hair colors are rare but possible for a pure-blooded Altmer.  That would be the only way I could see the hair colors present as options for player Altmer Online as accurate - to avoid having those rare, darker colors be used and becoming more common than they are.  

  Plus, in each description of the Mer, the focus is on their eyes, height, and skin tones - not so much their hair colors.  The only thing I don't fully understand would be regarding Morrowind's depiction of Altmer - although it could be argued that there were no dark-haired Altmer in Morrowind because of either an oversight OR because those colors aren't as common for Altmeri hair, those Altmer we see that are either aligned with the Empire during the events that occur in TES III or just random individuals encountered have the more 'common' colors due to their numbers being the smallest of the game with only 87 named Altmer in the main game itself.  Which could also explain the Skyrim Altmer as well, in addition to the Thalmor of the Fourth Era having only blonde and white-haired members to draw rather obvious parallels with the Nazis.  

  Or maybe they chose to send only 'prime examples' of Altmer among their soldiers and representatives to Skyrim as a way to show off the typical Altmeri image as a way of saying 'This is what superiority looks like.  Bask in it, lowborn!'.   But... that's just a theory.  ;P