Interracial offspring possibilities

Dr_Con · October 2022

Reason: Unsure if anyone has ever quite broken down a list of possibilities.

Purpose: The purpose of this topic is to explore which races can procreate and have offspring that is "mixed" as few or none currently exist.

First off, I separate Man from Mer

Playable:
Dunmer - Dark Elf
Altmer - High Elf
Bosmer - Wood Elf
Orsimer - Orc

the unplayable races of
Maomer - Sea Elf (for argument sake let's leave it at this)
Falmer - Snow/Ice Elves, possibly experimented on by Dwemer to lose eyesight and their insanity, though non-blind variants who fled the dwemer may exist- they fought dwemer under blackreach until the dwemer disappeared in 1E700, and with a taste for battle they would later return to the surface and cause trouble
The nearly Extinct/mutated and unplayable Mer races of:
Aldmer - First Folk, from which all other elven races are descended
Chimer - Veloth's Elves- immigrants from Summerset who were changed by Azura into Dunmer
Dwemer - Deep Elves - extinct due to some cataclysm occuring on 1E700, likely due to tampering with the Heart of Lorkhan and imbuing their own genetic information into it to power some war marchine. Dwemer who weren't on Nirn were unaffected.
Ayleids- Heartland Elves

Before I will discuss the "Man" races I'll do the one exception of a "Manmer" where it is generally recognized that these are a species of man who have elvish blood:

Bretons - who are stated to have elvish and nedic ancestry, be it through nordic/nedic and/or ayelid/aldmer copulation.

Next we will list the races many of us would consider human:
Playable:
Nords
Imperials
Redguards

unplayable:
Akaviri

Extinct/mutated:
Nedes - it is said that Redguards wiped them out, but are the ancestors of Imperials
Atmorans - it is said that they are the ancestors of the Nords, or that they are one and the same
Ra'Gada - Later became Redguard. Yokudan and the various warrior tribes are included here, though it should be said that they sunk their own continent and that combined with old age is what made Yokudans extinct.

Keptu
Orma
Kothringi - said to be due to interbreeding of Nedes and Argonian

Next is a brief mention of the man-beast category, of which there is little evidence to confirm, so this may not need to exist at all.

Tsaesci - Akavir, either Man or vampiric snake-like creature

Finally we have the beastfolk-

We have the playable races of:
Argonian- descended from the Hist
Khajiit - Cathay Race. Said to be blessed to adapt

And the unplayable races of:
Dragon - (Widespread)
Dreugh - Morrowind, Iliac Bay (Glenumbra, Stormhaven, Alik'ir), Abecean Sea, Black Marsh, Cyrodiil
Giants - Skyrim, High Rock
Goblins - Originally from Summerset, now widespread. Clan system of living. Often used as cannon fodder or servants. Highly adaptable creatures.
Hist - Black Marsh
Imga - Valenwood
Ka Po'Tun - Avakir- tiger-like race resembling Khajiit
Kamal - Kamal, Akavir- aka Snow Demons- responsible for the attack that led to the formation of the Ebonheart Pact
Lamia - Swamp areas
Limothiit - Black Marsh - fox-like race that may be related to Khajiit (foxes are dogs and khajiit are cats so I find this unlikely)
Mushrooms under Blackreach (certain species, mostly under The Reach) - it is learned that these are living beings who become those mushrooms, if this is reversible it may free aspects from the past.
Nymph - Widespread
Riekling - Solstheim, NW of Vvardenfell- like Goblins but smarter
Sload - underwater continent of Thras- Sea Creature
Tang Mo - Tang Mo, Akavir - Simian-like in appearance

Then we have a special mention of a Monster, much like Ogre or a Troll, who may be considered sentient by some standards
Minotaur - Cyrodiil. Mancow, possibly of daedric origin

more discussion to follow

Jacen_Veron · October 2022

According to the book ‘Notes in Racial Phylogeny’ the child will typically bear the race and traits of the mother, with some traces of the fathers’ traits. It also states that there are no known records of Argonian and Khajiit breeding with anything outside their race, and that the genetics might make the beast races incompatible with anything other than themselves.

In terms of actual crossbreeds we know of, Bretons were made by generational breeding of the Nedes and the Direnni, which implies that if two races breed together enough over a generation that a new race will be eventual. There’s also the implication of the Akaviri interbreeding with the Imperials, but it’s debated which “Akaviri” it was, whether it be snake people or the equivalent of IRL asian people. Another one I can think of is the Gray Prince in Oblivion, who was an Orc/Vampire hybrid, which creates an entirely new question of how Vampire breeding functions. The father was a Breton Vampire if I remember correctly, and the mother an Orc, so the child was born an Orc with his father’s features of vampirism, but only partially, I guess? The only other case I know of is Alessia’s son with Morihaus, Belharza, who is thought to be the first Minotaur, which implies that at the very least mortals can breed with the Ada. Whether it means that mortals could breed with beast folk or other beasts is unknown, the cultural repercussions of such an act also prevent these occurrences from being recorded, as mixed race couples of any kind are considered pretty cringe in Tamriel.

I think the only culturally acceptable race mixings occur with the races of man alone, as the elves are so culturally different. No one bats an eye if a Redguard bares children with a Breton or Imperial, but if a Dunmer and Altmer were to do the same, they would be outcast from their society. Perhaps in Cyrodiil and Skyrim, where marriage and child bearing is a flippant thing, it would be easier to see the results. But as far as we know it seems like the mothers’ race is guaranteed with minor traits like maybe hair color or slight facial features coming from the father.

Ultimately, it’s plain to see that man and mer can produce healthy children bearing the mothers’ race, with the possibility of a completely new race over generations. Beast-folk of any kind seem to be incompatible with man and mer, most likely due to straightforward scientific reasons. Breeding with daedra or spawn of Aedra often seem to result in some new monstrosity, like vampires and minotaurs. As far as things like the Akaviri races, it’s unknown, but safe to assume that any beast race is incompatible with anything outside of its own kind. The only other way I could see any serious attempt at crossbreeding would be some weird alchemical nonsense to explain it away, like with the manticora.