Ideas about new playable races/sub-races/ethnicities and race-bound classes

Vaeloria_Sereth

I am pretty sure some people got bored to stuck with 10 playable races in every Elder Scrolls game. This should be changed, I believe. New races, new sub-races, new cultures and some unique classes for some races should be introduced.

NEW RACES/SUB-RACES/CULTURAL GROUPS/ETHNICITIES [NOTE: Some of their backstories are made up by me.]

DIRENNI, type: altmer sub-race or entirely new elven race
- They are last members of Direnni heritage in High Rock (excluding Isle of Balfiera). When breton revolted against their elven masters, some Direnni ran away with some of their most loyal servants (generally half-mer with some men), they isolated themselves and took shelter in several caves and mountains of High Rock, they started settlements and intermingled so; they are not pure elves but; much purer than bretons for sure. Blood purity can change from 5/8 to 7/8 for each person. They generally have softer facial structure than other elves but; their eye shape, skin color etc. gives away their heritance. To be able to build new settlements, they carved mountains and caves with magic, they bent earth and stone to their will. And these practices became their trademark known as "geomancy". They live in isolation on several points of High Rock so; political matters does not affect them too much except for a minority. And they also do not have central authority. Each settlement governs itself.

MAORMER, type: new race
- They have increased regenerative abilities near or inside water. Some of them defected to Aldmeri Dominion for various reasons such as; running away from tyranny and brutality or mere pragmatism.

WOOD ORC, type: orsimer sub-race
- They are more agile than their cousins, can make camouflage pretty well. They are worshippers of Mauloch not; Malacath. Eventhough; they are generally not in good terms with neither altmer nor bosmer, they reluctantly joined Aldmeri Dominion to protect their lands and welfare.

HONORABLE MENTION

KHAJIITI MORPHOLOGY
- The most unique thing about khajiiti is their drastic morphological differences related to shape of the moon they born under. So; some khajiiti sub-races (Morphology might be more appropriate to use because; they are part of the same race with different physiology.) especially bipedal ones should be introduced as a sub-race such as; cathay, cathay-raht, dagi, dagi-raht, ohmes, ohmes-raht etc. It is very hard to implement maybe but; it should be considered. Even if it means to give different racial skill trees to these sub-races.

NEW PLAYABLE CLASSES [NOTE: Some of their backstories are made up by me.]

ASHLANDER, exclusive to: dunmer
- The Ashlanders (or the People of the Wastes) are dunmeri nomads that traditionally hail from Morrowind's wilderness. They refuse to worship Tribunal so; they are looked upon by their more "civilized" brethren and cast aside as heathens, heretics and barbarians. Eventhough; they are generally not in good terms with their more "civilized" brethren, some of them reluctantly joined Ebonheart Pact to protect their lands and welfare.

GEOMANCER, exclusive to: Direnni
- They are known to develop geomancy (They maybe invented it too.) to shape mountains and caves to make new shelters and settlements for themselves.

HIST-MAGE, exclusive to: Argonian
- They are users of unique kind of magic which draws power from the Hist. Its nature is not well understood by outsiders.

HYDROMANCER
- They are magicians who can manipulate water and water-related phenomena such as; ocean, rain, weather, fog and body fluids.

MOTH-PRIEST
- They are known as keepers of the Elder Scrolls. To be able to read Elder Scrolls, they must study various topics such as; magic, history, language for years and this is the thing that makes them powerful. They are not known for their battle tendency but; when dire times come, they can show what they can do. They are known for practition of a martial art called "the Way of the Peaceful Fist" to defend Elder Scrolls.

PNEUMANCER
- They are pursuers of ancient dwemer knowledge about pneumatics and tonal magic.

SHOUTER, exclusive to: Nord
- They are militant nords which have been diverged from the way of voice. They also have lower age limit in the character creation screen because; mastering in thuum takes very long time so; shouters cannot be younger than middle-aged.

SPINNER, exclusive to: Bosmer
- They are Bosmeri priests and historians, who record the story of their people—past, present, and even future. Principally associated with Y'ffre, Storyteller and chief god in the Bosmeri pantheon. They serve as highly-influential advisors and bards, as well as helping to enforce Y'ffre's Green Pact. THEY ARE NOT WARDENS!

SWORD-SINGER, exclusive to: Redguard
- They are knightly practitioners of the ancient yokudan "Way of the Sword" tradition.

WINDCALLER, exclusive to: Nord
- The Windcallers, also known as the Blessed of the All-Maker are Skaal witches who adeptly invoke the winds. I don't know if male are allowed to become windcallers per se.

What do you think? And, also I would appreciate if some of the staff saw and left comment.

The great thing about Elder Scrolls is its lore. So; I don't want to play generic MMORPG under the name of Elder Scrolls, I want diversity and freedom which I tasted in other Elder Scrolls games. And; I want to have more diversity and freedom in new Elder Scrolls games. ESO is an MMO so; we can consider is as new-ish game eventhough; it's been released in 2014. I hope you understood my goal.

Vaeloria_Sereth

Not even single comment? It is upsetting.

Soarora

RonFSwanson wrote: »

Not even single comment? It is upsetting.

I didn’t see this before but I gotchu. I think this is a wonderful idea though I’d definitely need more character slots for all the ideas I’d get!

drkfrontiers

These are amazing ideas. Really like the ideas on the Pheumancer and Hydromancer. Hell these could become skill lines even.

AScarlato

A lot of people in ESO are very against exclusivity, favoring "play your way." A lot of the orders even in lore that I feel would be a bit more cool as exclusive to different races usually have members of all races.

That said I personally like races feeling more unique, and them having unique disciplines would be a lot of fun - but I think this is probably the wrong game and audience for it.

With only so much dev resources also, it would probably take another decade for each race to have their own class, with many years of "nothing" for a lot of players.

LunaFlora

i really want Maormer as a playable race and Ohmes and Daghi-raht would probably be possible.

but i really dont want something like classes exclusive to races.
Wardens are sorta spinners but warriors so Spinner wouldn't really work well as a class.

Hydromancer seems fun, but it doesn’t have to be exclusive to Maormer.



crowns and forebears aren't sub races, they're just social groups.

and wood orcs are just orcs that live in Valenwood.

Lazarus_Rising

These are good concepts. I think Maormer are wanted for a long time anyway.

What i would love to see is a undead race with skeletons. The polymorphs are just to restricting

Vaeloria_Sereth

LunaFlora wrote: »

i really want Maormer as a playable race and Ohmes and Daghi-raht would probably be possible.

but i really dont want something like classes exclusive to races.
Wardens are sorta spinners but warriors so Spinner wouldn't really work well as a class.

Hydromancer seems fun, but it doesn’t have to be exclusive to Maormer.



crowns and forebears aren't sub races, they're just social groups.

and wood orcs are just orcs that live in Valenwood.

Actually, I have used "sub-race" term for each of social groups, biological sub-races, sub-ethnicities etc. Because; sometimes it is hard to differentiate. For example; Wood Orc is certainly a geographical identity but; can we really say their habitat didn't make them evolved in a way different than their Orsinium cousins? If I recall correctly, wood orcs have inhabited Valenwood before Bosmer did so; it is highly probable they have differentiated from their cousins in time either biologically or culturally. If bosmer differentiated from aldmer, why can't wood orc do same thing? They came before, they had longer time to develop unique characteristics, etc. Or let's talk about redguard cultural groups known as Crowns and Forebears. Do we exactly know if they don't have different customs which give them different abilities. Think like this, what is the one main difference between an average Afro-American and an average African? African people knows deserts very well and developed an adaptation to it. This adaptation became a tradition, affected their social life, culture, stories, myths etc. On the other hand Afro-Americans (unwilling immigrants unfortunately) adapted to both suburban and urban culture so; they know how to live in metropolitan area, to practice metropolitan customs etc. The thing I am trying to say, your cultural heritage also affects your abilities. For example; House Telvanni is known for magnificent wizards and House Redoran is known for strong warrior culture. They are both dunmeri houses but; their culture gives them different innate ability. (Innate is not biological in this sense but; educational.)

About; the difference between spinners and wardens. Spinners are followers of Green Pact and their all members are bosmer. Also, when I think about Warden, its aesthetics gives me LOTR's Mirkwood-esque vibes with Cryomancy elements. On the other hand, because of Green Pact, Spinner aesthetics should have more Hircine-esque vibes than Kyne-esque vibes. Also possible "ritualistic cannibalism" skill should grant them different bonuses and possible bounty on their head if they are caught during eating a human corpse and they are outside of Valenwood.

TheMajority

These are great concepts. I have personally wanted Maormer for a long time.

The ears and shiny scales that came on the models from Summerset looked fantastic. It would be great if we could have these things as options for the race.

Really like their eyes too.

Syldras

It sounds like you think the "average African" nowadays lives as a tribesman in the desert unless he's living in the USA, then he's a hip city dweller. This sounds a bit... well, let's say I have a different impression. Let alone that there are many different cultures on the African continent who all have very different traditions.

RonFSwanson wrote: »

The thing I am trying to say, your cultural heritage also affects your abilities. For example; House Telvanni is known for magnificent wizards and House Redoran is known for strong warrior culture. They are both dunmeri houses but; their culture gives them different innate ability. (Innate is not biological in this sense but; educational.)

But they are still Dunmer, share the same religion, the same societal structure, the environment they live in isn't different (except for the style of their architecture), they have mostly the same mindset in cultural questions (some may be more tolerant, some more traditional, but many aspects are identical, like for example the acceptance of the Morag Tong as an institution of their society - something that other cultures find more than strange). Yes, they have some different skills, but that's not different to, say, a tailor and a miner. Or a soldier or a painter. It's more like different professions. Some people have compared the Houses of Morrowind to something like a caste system, with a warrior caste, a mage caste, etc. There are real-life examples for something like that. This doesn't make them different cultures, though. It's still one culture with different groups.

There are always differences within one culture. Compare the life of, let's say, a poor garbage man and a wealthy actress. How much do their lives and skills have in common, even if they're both Americans living in the USA? Still, you wouldn't talk about a "garbage man sub-race" and an "actor sub-race".

Vaeloria_Sereth

TheMajority wrote: »

These are great concepts. I have personally wanted Maormer for a long time.

The ears and shiny scales that came on the models from Summerset looked fantastic. It would be great if we could have these things as options for the race.

Really like their eyes too.

Thank you. Actually; lots of them directly taken from the lore which already exists. I just fill the holes for the other things. I think about; a city for Maormer defecters. It is not actually a city in common sense but; a fleet. Ships have bridges between them for connection. For example; one ship include a blacksmith while the other one include a bank. For transportation reasons; there is a portal in one of the ships (because; I don't know if something like "portable wayshrine" exists or is lore-accurate. But; I have also thought about portable wooden wayshrine which is carved (with Maormeri aesthetics) from destroyed ships).

Only thing which bothers me is why the staff ignores my ideas and why they didn't put a single comment. Is it because of not being a member of the staff or not taking payment at all from Microsoft? I don't know. It would be an awesome thing to contribute to Elder Scrolls lore (with a hope a minor NPC which is named after me ofc.) Each concept can be tied to a new zone DLC with a proper lore-accurate story to delve and experience.

Most of people is talking about Maormer but; I personally hope for Direnni story with geomancy.

Syldras wrote:

It sounds like you think the "average African" nowadays lives as a tribesman in the desert unless he's living in the USA, then he's a hip city dweller. This sounds a bit... well, let's say I have a different impression. Let alone that there are many different cultures on the African continent who all have very different traditions.

Berberi, arabic, egyptian, nubian, other sub-saharan etc. there are different magnificent cultures ofcourse; I just wanted to use popular stereotypes to prove my point. It wasn't my intention to show African people as culturally homogeneous, savage folk or Afro-African people as hip city dwellers or something like these. I am sorry if it is understood in this way.

Syldras wrote:

But they are still Dunmer, share the same religion, the same societal structure, the environment they live in isn't different (except for the style of their architecture), they have mostly the same mindset in cultural questions (some may be more tolerant, some more traditional, but many aspects are identical, like for example the acceptance of the Morag Tong as an institution of their society - something that other cultures find more than strange). Yes, they have some different skills, but that's not different to, say, a tailor and a miner.

That's correct. But; for example if some people come from a heritage which specialized on a pursuit (for example; jewellery, cookery, musicianship, masonry, painting etc.); the pursuit and related knowledge become part of their cultural heritage. They also develop their own secret techniques, secret recipees, tool, magic... Telvanni, Dres, Redoran or even an ashlander can become a mage for sure but; techniques and cultural heritage of Telvanni gives them higher ground.

TheMajority

Thank you. Actually; lots of them directly taken from the lore which already exists. I just fill the holes for the other things. I think about; a city for Maormer defecters. It is not actually a city in common sense but; a fleet. Ships have bridges between them for connection. For example; one ship include a blacksmith while the other one include a bank. For transportation reasons; there is a portal in one of the ships (because; I didn't know if something like "portable wayshrine" exist or lore-accurate. But; I have also thought about portable wooden wayshrine which carved (with Maormeri aesthetics) from destroyed ships).

Only thing which bothers me is why the staff ignores my ideas and why they didn't put a single comment. Is it because of not being member of the staff or not taking payment all from Microsoft? I don't know. It would be an awesome thing to contribute to Elder Scrolls lore (with a hope a minor NPC which is named after me ofc.) Each concept can be tied to a new zone DLC with a proper lore-accurate story to delve and experience.

Most of people is talking about Maormer but; I personally hope for Direnni story with geomancy.

I really like the idea of the city of ships connected together via bridges and platforms. It could look really interesting if they made it a more vertical setting like Fargrave. Then, they could build things suspended between the masts of ships as well, if they built it on the remains of some wrecked ships. Could be very different and cool.

Vaeloria_Sereth

Is there any person who wants to add some corrections?

colossalvoids

RonFSwanson wrote: »

Is there any person who wants to add some corrections?

Just a small bit of info, thread bump can result in temporary ban here.

Syldras

RonFSwanson wrote: »

Only thing which bothers me is why the staff ignores my ideas and why they didn't put a single comment. Is it because of not being a member of the staff or not taking payment at all from Microsoft? I don't know.

I see you're new to the forum. With some time passing, you'll realize that developers normally aren't around here (unless there's a bigger announcement, mostly concerning bugs or downtimes). There are a few moderators, but their task is to delete comments and move threads, and that's it, mostly.

RonFSwanson wrote: »

It would be an awesome thing to contribute to Elder Scrolls lore (with a hope a minor NPC which is named after me ofc.)

Mind you, as much as I'd love to have my ESO main character (or even forum rp persona) becoming an official part of TES lore (although in case of my main that would cause other problems with ESO - having a character that shares the name with an npc is forbidden), I don't see that a realistic possibility. There are many users here who contribute to the forum in a positive way, over years, especially also in the lore subforum. They just can't name an npc after everyone.

RonFSwanson wrote: »

That's correct. But; for example if some people come from a heritage which specialized on a pursuit (for example; jewellery, cookery, musicianship, masonry, painting etc.); the pursuit and related knowledge become part of their cultural heritage. They also develop their own secret techniques, secret recipees, tool, magic...

But that's already true for families of craftsmen, they all have their secret techniques, family recipes, etc. If it was that, ESO would have to have hundreds of sub-groups that all would have to be balanced. The question is: When is a group big enough to be recognized as an own subgroup in the game?

RonFSwanson wrote: »

Telvanni, Dres, Redoran or even an ashlander can become a mage for sure but; techniques and cultural heritage of Telvanni gives them higher ground.

Creating different Dunmer subgroups as playable "races" in the game still feels somehow inaccurate to me. Especially as there are Dunmer who don't belong to the Great Houses, or who were born and lived abroad all their lives, maybe for generations, who don't have a real link zu Morrowind's society anymore.

What I could rather imagine would be an extra skill line for factions. Even joinable factions. It seriously bugs me that my Dunmer character cannot officially join a House in ESO (or even already have a House background), yes. I just don't think subraces would be the best solution in this case. (Also, non-Dunmer can join the Houses too. If you made House-affiliations a subrace, then no one could "officially" play, for example, a Telvanni Altmer, although they do exist).

LalMirchi

Old ideas repacked do not make old lamps new.

Vaeloria_Sereth

Syldras wrote: »

What I could rather imagine would be an extra skill line for factions. Even joinable factions. It seriously bugs me that my Dunmer character cannot officially join a House in ESO (or even already have a House background), yes. I just don't think subraces would be the best solution in this case. (Also, non-Dunmer can join the Houses too. If you made House-affiliations a subrace, then no one could "officially" play, for example, a Telvanni Altmer, although they do exist).

You are right about dunmer houses. I remembered Sun-in-Shadow from Morrowind chapter so; the example I have given was inaccurate.

LalMirchi wrote: »

Old ideas repacked do not make old lamps new.

I beg your pardon, can you please be more specific? On the other hand, I am pretty sure some ideas made up by me because; I was there you know.

Tensar

really bad it look like you both don't know the lore (maormer in aldmeri) and the game (class lock on race)

Vaeloria_Sereth

Tensar wrote: »

really bad it look like you both don't know the lore (maormer in aldmeri) and the game (class lock on race)

Enlightenment about lore would be welcomed, please go on.

LalMirchi

Specifically there have been innumerable threads about the Maormer as a playable race.

Whether that will happen is very open to one's own perception. But, is it really necessary to beat that old (and probably dead) horse again?

Vaeloria_Sereth

LalMirchi wrote: »

Specifically there have been innumerable threads about the Maormer as a playable race.

Whether that will happen is very open to one's own perception. But, is it really necessary to beat that old (and probably dead) horse again?

Oh come on, we are just talking.

LalMirchi

RonFSwanson wrote: »

LalMirchi wrote: »

Specifically there have been innumerable threads about the Maormer as a playable race.

Whether that will happen is very open to one's own perception. But, is it really necessary to beat that old (and probably dead) horse again?

Oh come on, we are just talking.

No worries.

TaSheen

You could read the lore in depth, starting with The Imperial Library: https://imperial-library.info/

Vaeloria_Sereth

By the way, I ditched crown and forebear it seems more appropriate you were right people.

About; remnant-pneumancer and skaal-windcaller I have thought about alternative solution.

Pneumancer and ashlander may become a dunmeri class instead of sub-race, let me explain. First remnant and pneumancer will be merged into one single pneumancer class. So when creating new character you will choose dunmer then, choose pneumancer, lore information pops up and tells you pneumancers carry dwemer blood they are known as "remnant"s and they follow dwemer pursuits especially pneumancy and tonal magic then you will have option to customize your character with exclusive options such as magnificent beards. So pneumancer class "technically" be exclusive to dunmer. Similar thing goes for skaal and windcaller. You will choose nord, then choose windcaller, then lore pops up and tells you windcallers are members of Skaal village and worship All-maker yada yada yada. Then you will customize your character. So windcaller class "technically" be exclusive to nords. But; I said "technically". All windcallers are skaal (considered part of nords) but; not all nords are windcallers (only some members of Skaal can be).

TaSheen wrote: »

You could read the lore in depth, starting with The Imperial Library: https://imperial-library.info/

I am pretty sure I have made necessary research to make my ideas lore-friendly. I have watched different YouTube videos; I have read pages in UESP, Elder Scrolls wiki etc. So, you need to specify what exactly is wrong lore-wisely.

LalMirchi

RonFSwanson wrote: »

By the way, I ditched crown and forebear it seems more appropriate you were right people.

About; remnant-pneumancer and skaal-windcaller I have thought about alternative solution.

Pneumancer and ashlander may become a dunmeri class instead of sub-race, let me explain. First remnant and pneumancer will be merged into one single pneumancer class. So when creating new character you will choose dunmer then, choose pneumancer, lore information pops up and tells you pneumancers carry dwemer blood and they follow dwemer pursuits especially pneumancy and tonal magic then you will have option to customize your character with exclusive options such as magnificent beards. So pneumancer class "technically" be exclusive to dunmer. Similar thing goes for skaal and windcaller. You will choose nord, then choose windcaller, then lore pops up, then you will customize your character. So windcaller class "technically" be exclusive to nords. But; I said "technically". All windcallers are skaal (considered part of nords) but; not all nords are windcallers.

Somehow I feel that you have expertise in this game that I lack, being myself rather casual and treating this game as an absolute waste of time, but rather en enjoyable some such as it turns out.

So if I may be so bold, why and how does one one pontificate, demanding developer insolvent in what I see as quite trivial suggestions?

Vaeloria_Sereth

LalMirchi wrote: »

Somehow I feel that you have expertise in this game that I lack, being myself rather casual and treating this game as an absolute waste of time, but rather en enjoyable some such as it turns out.

So if I may be so bold, why and how does one one pontificate, demanding developer insolvent in what I see as quite trivial suggestions?

I don't understand why you are so hostile to me.

Btw; what make the games like ESO, SWTOR and WoW so unique? Their lore. This is the difference between them and third-rate cheap asian MMORPGs (ofcourse there is gorgeous asian MMORPGs too such as Final Fantasy and Guild Wars.). So; what is wrong with demanding more lore content and contributing for this? Haven't you ever read or write fanfiction for example?

LalMirchi

Sorry, that was not my intent.

Vaeloria_Sereth

LalMirchi wrote: »

Sorry, that was not my intent.

No worries pal, all good.

Syldras

RonFSwanson wrote: »

Pneumancer and ashlander may become a dunmeri class instead of sub-race, let me explain. First remnant and pneumancer will be merged into one single pneumancer class. So when creating new character you will choose dunmer then, choose pneumancer, lore information pops up and tells you pneumancers carry dwemer blood they are known as "remnant"s and they follow dwemer pursuits especially pneumancy and tonal magic then you will have option to customize your character with exclusive options such as magnificent beards. So pneumancer class "technically" be exclusive to dunmer.

Why limit some kind of Dwemer machine engineer class to Dunmer, though? These machines can be researched by anyone. In fact, some of the well-known Dwemer researchers are non-Dunmer (Neramo, Tharayya).

Others are Dunmer, but part-Dwemer ancestry is very, very doubtful (Raynor Vanos, Revus Demnevanni) or even completely impossible (Divayth Fyr, Sotha Sil - they are much more than researchers now, but in the past they have definitively - also - been that, and Sil would probably be the most skilled "pneumancer" of all, while definitively being of pure Chimer blood). So I don't see a neccessary link between Dwemer researcher and Dwemer ancestry at all.

Vaeloria_Sereth

Syldras wrote: »

RonFSwanson wrote: »

Pneumancer and ashlander may become a dunmeri class instead of sub-race, let me explain. First remnant and pneumancer will be merged into one single pneumancer class. So when creating new character you will choose dunmer then, choose pneumancer, lore information pops up and tells you pneumancers carry dwemer blood they are known as "remnant"s and they follow dwemer pursuits especially pneumancy and tonal magic then you will have option to customize your character with exclusive options such as magnificent beards. So pneumancer class "technically" be exclusive to dunmer.

Why limit some kind of Dwemer machine engineer class to Dunmer, though? These machines can be researched by anyone. In fact, some of the well-known Dwemer researchers are non-Dunmer (Neramo, Tharayya).

Others are Dunmer, but part-Dwemer ancestry is very, very doubtful (Raynor Vanos, Revus Demnevanni) or even completely impossible (Divayth Fyr, Sotha Sil - they are much more than researchers now, but in the past they have definitively - also - been that, and Sil would probably be the most skilled "pneumancer" of all, while definitively being of pure Chimer blood). So I don't see a neccessary link between Dwemer researcher and Dwemer ancestry at all.

I just wanted genetic dwemer legacy to live (even if it is partially). Besides; it always makes me disappointed not to be able to see hybrids in Elder Scrolls universe. I know according to Notes on Racial Phylogeny, child is considered his mother's race but; also carries his father's race's some characteristics so; in Elder Scrolls they are basically hybrids with dominant maternally inherited characteristics. Dwemers were considered part of chimer in the past, chimer used to call them House Dwemer, even. They had relations so; intermingling doesn't seem impossible. So; is it really bad idea to write a history about legacy of chimer-dwemer hybrids?

Syldras

RonFSwanson wrote: »

I just wanted Dwemer legacy to keep going (even if it is partially). Besides; it always makes me disappointed not to be able to see hybrids in Elder Scrolls universe. I know according to Notes_on_Racial_Phylogeny, child is considered his mother's race but; also carries his father's race's some characteristics so; in Elder Scrolls they are basically hybrids with dominant maternally inherited characteristics. Dwemers were considered part of chimer in the past, dunmer used to call them House Dwemer, even. So; is it really bad idea to write a history about legacy of chimer-dwemer hybrids?

I have no problem with writing more lore about them, but I don't think limiting a Dwemer engineer class to them makes sense when the greatest Dwemer engineers known are clearly not of Dwemer descent.

And no, Dwemer were never Chimer. They were politically linked (Dumac and Nerevar were said to be as close as brothers), but not the same race.