I'm actually glad we're having such boundaries to have some sort of consistency with races and imagery. Generally it's written vague enough for you to decide if that's fitting for your personal narrative but not supported by basic character creation which you can at times surpass by cosmetics in this particular game or mods in other titles if it's so desirable.

Honestly that looks like a dunmer serial killer who is wearing the skin of a nord or breton

Naryu is that you?

Where I come down on the topic is that interracial couples aren't that uncommon in Tamriel, so it says something when the common wisdom is that the children take after the race of their mother.

Like, yes, we can claim "unreliable narrator," but if they were wrong, it's exceptionally easy to disprove. The children of interracial couples have innate racial skills that match their mother. It's particularly obvious in past games, where you've got racial powers such as the ability of a Dunmer child to call on their ancestors in the Sanctuary spell or the Nord Battle Cry. Unlike in the real world, it's very easy to determine what race someone is in Tamriel.

It's very tempting to say "Oh, but that's gameplay" because the Devs clearly aren't going to design a bunch of intermediate appearances for interracial children. But even then, we don't see a lot of mixed appearances in lore OR gameplay.

What we see in game and in the lore is pretty simply explained by the common wisdom that the children take after the race of their mother in every major way. There's no body of counterexamples that I'm aware of, even though if that book were wrong, we'd expect to see plenty of contradictions. On the flip side, when gameplay matches lore, I think that's a pretty strong argument in favor of the lore being accurate.


As far as the original question, to be Dunmer is to be under Azura's curse, shown through the changed ashen skin and eyes. That's a magical change and thus a major part of their racial identity. So I'd argue that just as the child of a Dunmer mother is going to have the racial skills/passives/powers of a Dunmer, they would also have the Azura-cursed skin and eyes.

VaranisArano wrote: »

Where I come down on the topic is that interracial couples aren't that uncommon in Tamriel, so it says something when the common wisdom is that the children take after the race of their mother.

Like, yes, we can claim "unreliable narrator," but if they were wrong, it's exceptionally easy to disprove. The children of interracial couples have innate racial skills that match their mother. It's particularly obvious in past games, where you've got racial powers such as the ability of a Dunmer child to call on their ancestors in the Sanctuary spell or the Nord Battle Cry. Unlike in the real world, it's very easy to determine what race someone is in Tamriel.

It's very tempting to say "Oh, but that's gameplay" because the Devs clearly aren't going to design a bunch of intermediate appearances for interracial children. But even then, we don't see a lot of mixed appearances in lore OR gameplay.

What we see in game and in the lore is pretty simply explained by the common wisdom that the children take after the race of their mother in every major way. There's no body of counterexamples that I'm aware of, even though if that book were wrong, we'd expect to see plenty of contradictions. On the flip side, when gameplay matches lore, I think that's a pretty strong argument in favor of the lore being accurate.


As far as the original question, to be Dunmer is to be under Azura's curse, shown through the changed ashen skin and eyes. That's a magical change and thus a major part of their racial identity. So I'd argue that just as the child of a Dunmer mother is going to have the racial skills/passives/powers of a Dunmer, they would also have the Azura-cursed skin and eyes.

I don't recall any interracial lore figures who are stated to be the race of their mother, though I will not claim they do not exist. I like your thinking despite my disagreement. And I didn't even think about the curse, oops.

I believe bretons tend to be the loophole argument but I suppose one could argue that the nedes as a "proto-race" had some kind of innate ability to change, like how the aldmer were able to completely become different races fairly quickly.