Maormer appearance

adriant1978

The Maormer in Summerset sure look a lot different to those seen in areas such as Khenarthi's Roost and Auridon. They not only have a new gear style but also a new skin tone, eyes, and new fin-shaped ears. Does anyone know if there's a lore explanation for this, or is it just a straight up example of ZOS polishing something in a new chapter and forgetting all about the base game?

Bruccius

From a lore-perspective, one could argue that they may be from different parts of Pyandonea.

The ones with the pale eyes might live more land inwards, while the one with fin-ears might live more on the coastal areas.

As far as gameplay is concerned, it's probably to make them stand out more than their normal-game counterparts.

notimetocare

adriant1978 wrote: »

The Maormer in Summerset sure look a lot different to those seen in areas such as Khenarthi's Roost and Auridon. They not only have a new gear style but also a new skin tone, eyes, and new fin-shaped ears. Does anyone know if there's a lore explanation for this, or is it just a straight up example of ZOS polishing something in a new chapter and forgetting all about the base game?

Old world tends to be left as is in most games. The few that have updated them, WoW as an example, did it much later in major overhauls (WoWs best example was when the expansion took places on the old continents)

adriant1978

notimetocare wrote: »

Old world tends to be left as is in most games. The few that have updated them, WoW as an example, did it much later in major overhauls (WoWs best example was when the expansion took places on the old continents)

And yet there have been cases where they went back and touched up in the base game: overland Dro-m'Athra, for example, were adjusted to reflect the new appearance introduced with the Maw of Lorkhaj.

elias.stormneb18_ESO

adriant1978 wrote: »

notimetocare wrote: »

Old world tends to be left as is in most games. The few that have updated them, WoW as an example, did it much later in major overhauls (WoWs best example was when the expansion took places on the old continents)

And yet there have been cases where they went back and touched up in the base game: overland Dro-m'Athra, for example, were adjusted to reflect the new appearance introduced with the Maw of Lorkhaj.

Indeed; but that was done in the first major patch after the Thieves Guild – three months afterwards. I imagine that the same will be the case with the new Maormer appearance; we’ll likely see them updated in the next major patch, or whenever they have time to update old content instead of focusing on the new.

Shgon_Dunstan

... I’m not even sure this is a lore issue. I mean, most races in TES come in different “forms”. Even the playable elves, and especially the beast races.

Bruccius

Shgon_Dunstan wrote: »

... I’m not even sure this is a lore issue. I mean, most races in TES come in different “forms”. Even the playable elves, and especially the beast races.

Aside from the Wood Elves with their horns, I don't recall any other elven race having such drastic appearance changes as the Maormer in this image do.

Eporem

I wonder too if this is true of them

RouDantes

I love the look of the new skin, though I definitely prefer the original white eyes.

I REALLY hope the Maormer Fish Skin ends up making you paler and that the datamined pic is a work in progress image. I'm holding out hope since datamined pics don't always represent the final product. It would also be awesome if it gave you those awesome fin ears too!

I have two characters that I made to look Maormer, they're white haired Altmer vampires with Oracle Eyes. I would LOVE to be able to get the pale complexion without having to futz with managing vampirism stages anymore.

notimetocare

Bruccius wrote: »

Shgon_Dunstan wrote: »

... I’m not even sure this is a lore issue. I mean, most races in TES come in different “forms”. Even the playable elves, and especially the beast races.

Aside from the Wood Elves with their horns, I don't recall any other elven race having such drastic appearance changes as the Maormer in this image do.

Wood elf horns are cosmetic, not natural

Shgon_Dunstan

notimetocare wrote: »

Bruccius wrote: »

Shgon_Dunstan wrote: »

... I’m not even sure this is a lore issue. I mean, most races in TES come in different “forms”. Even the playable elves, and especially the beast races.

Aside from the Wood Elves with their horns, I don't recall any other elven race having such drastic appearance changes as the Maormer in this image do.

Wood elf horns are cosmetic, not natural

IIRC they're actual horns, and a hold over from back when the bosmer had no set form, but were rather just randomly shapeshifting blobs.

Bruccius wrote: »

Shgon_Dunstan wrote: »

... I’m not even sure this is a lore issue. I mean, most races in TES come in different “forms”. Even the playable elves, and especially the beast races.

Aside from the Wood Elves with their horns, I don't recall any other elven race having such drastic appearance changes as the Maormer in this image do.

I was mainly talking about the shifts between the games. Like the "civilized" looking elves of Oblivion and ESO Vs the more "wild" looking ones of Skyrim. AFAIK both are appearances canon, not just game mechanics. Simply elves from different regions looking a bit different.

Then of course, there is simply the fact that all of them come in a variety of different skin tones... For all of Tamriel as a whole being only about half again the size of Alaska.

Eporem wrote: »

I wonder too if this is true of them

One way or the other, magic was likely involved.

What you must remember, is that "race" in TES isn't really a thing of genetics. It is a thing of magic. If a Breton and a Wood Elf had a child the kid would simply be of the race of whichever one was the mother. Inheriting at most some minor cosmetic aspects of the father. Then of course the are the different cases of something happening to the patron god of a race immediately causing drastic physical changing in that race.

WhiteCoatSyndrome

Shgon_Dunstan wrote: »

IIRC they're actual horns, and a hold over from back when the bosmer had no set form, but were rather just randomly shapeshifting blobs.

Some have actual horns, some have fake. *digs* Here you go!

Morriel: Well, fine, well fine. You think just because I have two mouths I'm the one that does all the talking, ugh. Companions, I mean, honestly ... Well, you see, there was a ... there was an elf, a Bosmer, I talked to recently, and he had a bit a question - I-I had no idea why he didn't know this - but, you see, I'd like to ask about Bosmer antlers. You see, the last time this has been asked, as far as I understand, I had heard that Bosmer have- wear a lot of cosmetic - or prosthetic, I suppose - antlers on their brows, and a few have them, you know, magically grown from their skulls. My question is, I've seen about three stages of antler growth when - well, observing things - and it makes far more sense to me, at least, that they're related to the chaos times, or so, one of the gods, like Hircine or Y'ffre. I mean, yeah, they're [elves] with antlers on them, but where do these things come from?

Phrastus: Well, I've never been to Valenwood [Vay-len-wood], but I ... I'd caution you against assuming any single or simple answer involved with those reprobates the Wood Elves. Now, I daresay that most antlers worn by Bosmer are cosmetic and removable, but I myself have met a Treethane who had a magnificent 6-point rack growing right out of his cranium, and it was no prosthetic! Now, he told me that he'd had it magically grown upon assuming his title, as a symbol of his authority. The spells were sung -

Morriel: Hm!

Phrastus: Yes, sung, by a particular kind of aether-priest called a Namespinner, and she was able to perceive the Treethane's protonymic, and unweave it slightly and then chant a new suffix into it, thus actually changing the Treethane's physical form. Or so he told me, if you want to trust the word of a Bosmer.

Countdownical

Either case, I love the changes - It looks better and it's nice to see some details. Lovely to see Zenimax is developing grander details and putting more effort into their game - even if it's just eyecandy in this case!

notimetocare

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

Shgon_Dunstan wrote: »

IIRC they're actual horns, and a hold over from back when the bosmer had no set form, but were rather just randomly shapeshifting blobs.

Some have actual horns, some have fake. *digs* Here you go!

Morriel: Well, fine, well fine. You think just because I have two mouths I'm the one that does all the talking, ugh. Companions, I mean, honestly ... Well, you see, there was a ... there was an elf, a Bosmer, I talked to recently, and he had a bit a question - I-I had no idea why he didn't know this - but, you see, I'd like to ask about Bosmer antlers. You see, the last time this has been asked, as far as I understand, I had heard that Bosmer have- wear a lot of cosmetic - or prosthetic, I suppose - antlers on their brows, and a few have them, you know, magically grown from their skulls. My question is, I've seen about three stages of antler growth when - well, observing things - and it makes far more sense to me, at least, that they're related to the chaos times, or so, one of the gods, like Hircine or Y'ffre. I mean, yeah, they're [elves] with antlers on them, but where do these things come from?

Phrastus: Well, I've never been to Valenwood [Vay-len-wood], but I ... I'd caution you against assuming any single or simple answer involved with those reprobates the Wood Elves. Now, I daresay that most antlers worn by Bosmer are cosmetic and removable, but I myself have met a Treethane who had a magnificent 6-point rack growing right out of his cranium, and it was no prosthetic! Now, he told me that he'd had it magically grown upon assuming his title, as a symbol of his authority. The spells were sung -

Morriel: Hm!

Phrastus: Yes, sung, by a particular kind of aether-priest called a Namespinner, and she was able to perceive the Treethane's protonymic, and unweave it slightly and then chant a new suffix into it, thus actually changing the Treethane's physical form. Or so he told me, if you want to trust the word of a Bosmer.

Keep in mind, that lore source is technically an opinion piece. The NPC in question tells you most are prosthetics, but then claims one is real to his belief and not really proving it as fact. I dont have the time to dig like you did, on break atm, but there are more things, a few in ESO, that point it out to be far more likely it is all prosthetics.

EvilCroc

ZOS should update original game maormer with summerset ones like they did with dro-m'athra NPC's

Kierro

Bruccius wrote: »

Shgon_Dunstan wrote: »

... I’m not even sure this is a lore issue. I mean, most races in TES come in different “forms”. Even the playable elves, and especially the beast races.

Aside from the Wood Elves with their horns, I don't recall any other elven race having such drastic appearance changes as the Maormer in this image do.

Falmer

Shadow_Akula

Kierro wrote: »

Bruccius wrote: »

Shgon_Dunstan wrote: »

... I’m not even sure this is a lore issue. I mean, most races in TES come in different “forms”. Even the playable elves, and especially the beast races.

Aside from the Wood Elves with their horns, I don't recall any other elven race having such drastic appearance changes as the Maormer in this image do.

Falmer

Changes between snow elves and Falmer happened over 4500 years (from what I can find the deal with the dwarves took place in the Merethic era - we only see Falmer in TES: Shadowkey (3rd era) and TES V (4th era) and in dawnguard, Gelebor states that the dwarves merely blinded the race using a toxin not enough to devolve the Falmer to their current state - so since it wasn’t the toxin it took years for them to devolve into their state) not so drastic considering these facts.....

I have a theory on why the base game Maomer not being upgraded to the new Summerset skins, after battling through Sunhold I noticed there’s 2 types of ‘new’ Maomer, there’s standard height and then there’s ones that are xivkyn height yet walk around like bloodfiends.... perhaps there’s different sub-species of Maomer? Perhaps evolving differently depending on where within Pyandonea they originate from? That or they’ve just not been upgraded yet.

TelvanniWizard

A trip to Pyandonea would be really clarifying about this question. And I would love to visit that island.

Bruccius

Kierro wrote: »

Bruccius wrote: »

Shgon_Dunstan wrote: »

... I’m not even sure this is a lore issue. I mean, most races in TES come in different “forms”. Even the playable elves, and especially the beast races.

Aside from the Wood Elves with their horns, I don't recall any other elven race having such drastic appearance changes as the Maormer in this image do.

Falmer

Falmar are a different case, as they are no longer an elven race, as we can see by their souls.

Aliyavana

.

LickingHistSap

Bruccius wrote: »

Kierro wrote: »

Bruccius wrote: »

Shgon_Dunstan wrote: »

... I’m not even sure this is a lore issue. I mean, most races in TES come in different “forms”. Even the playable elves, and especially the beast races.

Aside from the Wood Elves with their horns, I don't recall any other elven race having such drastic appearance changes as the Maormer in this image do.

Falmer

Falmar are a different case, as they are no longer an elven race, as we can see by their souls.

The souls are just a game engine thing, though. Any NPC that doesn't have the option to change armor and weapons counts as a 'white soul'. The Falmer are still an elven race, as shown during the Ohgma questline.

Bruccius

LickingHistSap wrote: »

Bruccius wrote: »

Kierro wrote: »

Bruccius wrote: »

Shgon_Dunstan wrote: »

... I’m not even sure this is a lore issue. I mean, most races in TES come in different “forms”. Even the playable elves, and especially the beast races.

Aside from the Wood Elves with their horns, I don't recall any other elven race having such drastic appearance changes as the Maormer in this image do.

Falmer

Falmar are a different case, as they are no longer an elven race, as we can see by their souls.

The souls are just a game engine thing, though. Any NPC that doesn't have the option to change armor and weapons counts as a 'white soul'. The Falmer are still an elven race, as shown during the Ohgma questline.

The Oghma questline is filled with holes. Please, don't use that as any means of ''lore''.

Septimus is a madman, would you really trust the words of a madman?

LMar

There's a lorebook that says there's many tribes of Maormer and the ones that stayed loyal to their immortal god-king are some lf the fiercest warriors so don't discount the Maormer threat simply because of other Maormer that show up. Or something along those lines

Eporem

there is this as well from the Skeleton of the Maormer Uldor



and the reason why I don't think all Maormer are bad if they are truly the Sea Elves

Araneae6537

I actually prefer the original appearance of the Maormer in the base game, personally.