why do people like the high elves???

Girl_Number8

Because they are tall and have a touch of jaundice jk

On the PvE side of things, I think all the races have a unique and well thoughtout perspective to add an enjoyable experience for the player. It is nice to play through each race and get more out of the game's rich tapestry of lore friendly quests and hidden gems that surprise you here and there.

SewerFairy

High elves... I like everything about them

There are many different kinds of Altmer. Some are nice and friendly and others... I like this diversity.
I think there is some kind of misunterstanding Altmers as all beeing snobish, arrogant and racists. To me it seems, most of them just feel pity for the other races, cause of their short lives and that they can't long for perfection. They believe, they have to protect the other races from their own weakness and lead them, like a mother leads her child. I think they feel a strong responsibility.

However, I like their lore and the clean design of their environment. Also I like their look the most, matchs my taste of beauty.

StormeReigns

Nothing feels better then playing a bosmer and slaughtering altmer npcs. Their dialog going from snide and snooty to panic and desperate is fantastic.

Grentek

SkerKro wrote: »

Nothing feels better then playing a bosmer and slaughtering altmer npcs. Their dialog going from snide and snooty to panic and desperate is fantastic.

That's why the Thalmor executed every single bosmer before the Great War.

Hymzir

It's just an elf thing a lot of people have.

No matter the game, no matter what fantasy world, there are some people who will play an elf no matter what.

They will project their own take on elves on them, and ignore how elves are actually portrayed in the lore, 'cause it's the elf thing behind their choice, not the fiction of the world in question.

It does come in several flavors though, so some will lean towards woodsy elves and others to what ever the local flavor of fell elves are, but most will learn towards what counts as the local variant of the generic high elf type.

You could blame Tolkien for a lot of this, but it's deeper than just his writings. It's an older thing too.

Elves serve as idealization of our hopes and dreams and yearnings, they represent an otherness we can never reach ourselves, and play an important part in the way we structure our myths. And in this modern secular age we live in, fantasy fiction takes the role of myths of old.

Even if you do not subscribe to this elven thing yourself, it's quite common to at least go through an elven phase at some point. I sure did, as did pretty much everyone, who was into fantasy, I've ever known.

Ultimately that is behind the fixation on Altmer in this game too. Well that and the racism thing...

Some people just like to play make-believe fantasy racists, and Altmer offer a handy way to do this in Elder Scrolls games. Personally, I don't get the appeal at all. But then again I don't generally like playing evil characters either, so can't really say much about that. Beyond noting that it is a thing, and some people seem to enjoy that aspect of the Elder Scrolls Elves.

One needs to keep in mind that the elves in Elder Scrolls are mostly a deconstructive take on the elven trope. An attempt to make them more realistic and to give them all the warts and foibles that humanity is burdened with. Remember that "if all magic in Tamriel suddenly turned off, nobody would really notice." and that "[Tamriel] is very mundane at its heart" - both being quotes attributed to Todd Howard. At the end of the day, in Elder Scrolls, high elves are just another race of poor pig farmers, the only real difference being that they have this odd genetic ear mutation and an inflated sense of self worth.

In fact, I feel that high elves in Elder Scrolls, and especially so in ESO, are very close to being flanderized around that haughty racist nonsense. I found most of the NPCs encountered in Summerset as being infuriatingly one dimensional and centered around the tiresome superiority complex, that the whole of Altmer culture seems to be build around. There were few exceptions, but mostly it was very disappointing fare.

While deconstructive fiction has it's fans, I don't really care for that notion, and believe that most of the Elder Scroll fanbase doesn't subscribe to it either. Personally, I prefer a reconstructive approach to fantasy tropes, and would very much prefer to have the elves in Elder Scrolls to be more elven, and to include that otherworldly otherness that most of us, I'd wager, do attach to the concept.

Furthermore, I do believe that it is what most people, who are drawn to high elves, are actually looking for and why they mostly ignore all that uppity bs Altmer are cradled with. In my head canon, most of the stuff officially said about Altmer, is pretty much rewritten into something more traditionally elven, and thus more fitting to my personal taste in fantasy tropes. The same goes for most things Bosmer too. Am really not a fan of the Elder Scroll interpretation on Wood Elves either, but do find the Dunmer as perhaps the best take on Dark Elves to date. So at least there's that, as far as elves go, in Elder Scrolls for me.

Oh yeah... And the there is that small subsection of people who just focus on the mechanical side of things. Altmer were, for a long time, the only choice or go home for magicka builds. And some people got used to that way of thinking. And as always, people are resistant to change.

JJBoomer

I like them simply because I love elves, no matter what fantasy world it is. Whether its middle earth, or TES, or whatever. Elves are just my jam. And with every group that has racists, there are always a percentage that are not. I play my elves not racist, because honestly *** that. lore be damned in that regard. My high elf dude would totally bang one out with a slick scaly dude hands down.

So yeah lol. Also what the person above me said as well, that was also pretty accurate.

zaria

LMar wrote: »

What you are witnessing is the Veiled Heritance which has taken over the College. They are a nationalistic isolationist group. Complete the quest and the Altmer there are very welcoming and courteous to their students

This, the 3 first zones in AD faction quest is about killing extremists, this make it an good quest line
And its nice how doing quests changes the environment.

BretonMage

Much of the lore about High Elves, in most fantasy series that I can recall, whether it's Tolkien, Dragon Age or Elder Scrolls, have held them out to be a race for whom culture, learning and magic are intrinsic values, and I think that appeals to many of us - at least, that's what makes them appealing to me. I guess there might be some (??? are there really?) for whom the racist idea of a "superior race" is the draw card, but to be honest, I've never known or heard of anyone who thinks that way (edit: about elves, that is).

dodgehopper_ESO

SosRuvaak wrote: »

They really bother me to be honest, ive always wondered why people like them.
I dont mean to spark hate or negative arguments/comments from this thread, im just generally curious for everyone's reasons.


I personally cant stand the high elves and any time im in the zones where theres high elves i really try to not pay attention to what they're doing. It seems to me they're the most racist and classist race on tamriel. I play an argonian 99% of the time i am on eso, and the comments from high elves just irritate me. I often leave auridon with a big ol bounty during this jesters event for having to please undeserving professors that are giving rude and condemning comments to their students.

by all means, im all for quests and details that are dark and closer to the honest real world, but there is soo much of it in the high elves, it confuses me as to why soo many people like them.

Dunmer are like Altmer only worse. Other than that elves in general are alien and they lean evil in my opinion. There's good ones but if the general people you run into in the series are any representation, Elves are generally awful people, with the exclusion of a lot of Bosmer (who still get creepy when it comes to things like meat mandate).

ToRelax

Tasear wrote: »

SosRuvaak wrote: »

Tasear wrote: »

SosRuvaak wrote: »

Tasear wrote: »

Their culture in that focuses on perfecting skill to the highest degree. A desire to be best of best. Some can be snobs but I have a respect for roots of the culture.

do argonians, nords, or dark elves not have enough culture??
i personally like argonians because i like reptiles in general... but they have a ton of culture, along with the other races over ebonheart, much like the altmer.

i mean, the argonians are basically missing their own game full of lore, the other 2 races in ebonheart have 2 games full of lore for their own race.
most atmer in TES games are butts. lmao.

Can't I like more then one race? You asked why I like them and this is why.

Go ahead and enjoy as many races as you want, I was just curious why you liked a particular race.
I like lizards so I play an argonian.
I like humans so I play an imperial
I like fire and lore so I play a dark elf.

You can have as many reasons as you want to play eso how ever you like.

You asking a responsimg question so I did. High elf culture the way lawerance told appeals to my inner perfectist. It reminds me of the old me. Also I like there driven culture way better then dark elves.

* perfectionist

Bobby_V_Rockit

Better than the dirty little lizards in their mudpile homes, ugly cannibal bosmer, drunk arrogant “look at me!” Nords and pansy redguards who so detest harming zombies but come crying to you all the time

rG_Kub

I like being tall

Bobby_V_Rockit

Tasear wrote: »

You asking a responsimg question so I did. High elf culture the way lawerance told appeals to my inner perfectist. It reminds me of the old me. Also I like there driven culture way better then dark elves.

* perfectionist[/quote]

*Their

Galarthor

They are the most sophisticated and magically talented race.

Just look at their clothing and architecture and then look at what the rest is wearing and living in ....

technohic

Tommy_The_Gun wrote: »

Because...they are... "high"

You would think they'd be a little less uptight.

psychotrip

Hymzir wrote: »

It's just an elf thing a lot of people have.

No matter the game, no matter what fantasy world, there are some people who will play an elf no matter what.

They will project their own take on elves on them, and ignore how elves are actually portrayed in the lore, 'cause it's the elf thing behind their choice, not the fiction of the world in question.

It does come in several flavors though, so some will lean towards woodsy elves and others to what ever the local flavor of fell elves are, but most will learn towards what counts as the local variant of the generic high elf type.

You could blame Tolkien for a lot of this, but it's deeper than just his writings. It's an older thing too.

Elves serve as idealization of our hopes and dreams and yearnings, they represent an otherness we can never reach ourselves, and play an important part in the way we structure our myths. And in this modern secular age we live in, fantasy fiction takes the role of myths of old.

Even if you do not subscribe to this elven thing yourself, it's quite common to at least go through an elven phase at some point. I sure did, as did pretty much everyone, who was into fantasy, I've ever known.

Ultimately that is behind the fixation on Altmer in this game too. Well that and the racism thing...

Some people just like to play make-believe fantasy racists, and Altmer offer a handy way to do this in Elder Scrolls games. Personally, I don't get the appeal at all. But then again I don't generally like playing evil characters either, so can't really say much about that. Beyond noting that it is a thing, and some people seem to enjoy that aspect of the Elder Scrolls Elves.

One needs to keep in mind that the elves in Elder Scrolls are mostly a deconstructive take on the elven trope. An attempt to make them more realistic and to give them all the warts and foibles that humanity is burdened with. Remember that "if all magic in Tamriel suddenly turned off, nobody would really notice." and that "[Tamriel] is very mundane at its heart" - both being quotes attributed to Todd Howard. At the end of the day, in Elder Scrolls, high elves are just another race of poor pig farmers, the only real difference being that they have this odd genetic ear mutation and an inflated sense of self worth.

In fact, I feel that high elves in Elder Scrolls, and especially so in ESO, are very close to being flanderized around that haughty racist nonsense. I found most of the NPCs encountered in Summerset as being infuriatingly one dimensional and centered around the tiresome superiority complex, that the whole of Altmer culture seems to be build around. There were few exceptions, but mostly it was very disappointing fare.

While deconstructive fiction has it's fans, I don't really care for that notion, and believe that most of the Elder Scroll fanbase doesn't subscribe to it either. Personally, I prefer a reconstructive approach to fantasy tropes, and would very much prefer to have the elves in Elder Scrolls to be more elven, and to include that otherworldly otherness that most of us, I'd wager, do attach to the concept.

Furthermore, I do believe that it is what most people, who are drawn to high elves, are actually looking for and why they mostly ignore all that uppity bs Altmer are cradled with. In my head canon, most of the stuff officially said about Altmer, is pretty much rewritten into something more traditionally elven, and thus more fitting to my personal taste in fantasy tropes. The same goes for most things Bosmer too. Am really not a fan of the Elder Scroll interpretation on Wood Elves either, but do find the Dunmer as perhaps the best take on Dark Elves to date. So at least there's that, as far as elves go, in Elder Scrolls for me.

Oh yeah... And the there is that small subsection of people who just focus on the mechanical side of things. Altmer were, for a long time, the only choice or go home for magicka builds. And some people got used to that way of thinking. And as always, people are resistant to change.

This is aggressively depressing to read. There was a time when high elves were much more interesting. Much more exotic or "reconstructive" as you say.

But this is what we're left with. Thanks Skyrim. Thanks ESO.

Riejael

SosRuvaak wrote: »

It seems to me they're the most racist and classist race on tamriel.

I always find it weird that people feel like they cannot play or enjoy a politically incorrect or antagonistic character. I can sort of understand peoples' reservation about RPing one. But it doesn't appear to be any Roleplay from the OP. But at the end of the day, Tamriel isn't Earth. Elves aren't real. The societies being portrayed are fictional, but immersive. What this means is the races act in the the ways that make sense for their presented cultures.

The way I see it, it doesn't bother me. I've played various racist or bigoted characters in RPGs before. Of course I myself are not either of those things. But those aspects can make for interesting story hooks and character developments. If everyone (or even some) are playing perfectly PC characters with little flaws, it makes things boring.

JinMori

A few points, the thalmor aren't representative of all high elves, how come that high elves are considered racist because of the thalmor, but nords aren't, even though the stormcloaks are just as racist, is it because they are losing, because they are on the defensive, therefore it's justified?

*** the thalmor, but the stormcloaks should be held to the same standard.

Another point pride in your culture is not racist.

Aside from that, they definitely aren't really superior, most of the reason why many think they are is because of lifespan, they live much longer meaning that they can accumulate much more knowledge over time, but they aren't smarter, they just have more time to learn.

Their culture is definitely very refined, which is why they think it's the best, and in many ways it honestly is.

Also, one of the reasons why the thalmor won the war was because of an artifact allowing them to peer into the future and see the adversaries moves, which is really broken op, in fact after the empire got their hands on it, they were losing, but the damages were already too high, so they stopped the war.