We were in full lockdown here in Hanoi over the summer, and I decided it would be a good time to get back into some of the games I played as a teenager. In particular, I played through 3 of the Elder Scrolls games: Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. As I played I was inevitably drawn into the rich, complex, and hopelessly messy lore of the Elder Scrolls universe.
I ended up learning about the histories and mythologies of the different fantasy races in the games, and thought it would be fun to make an image showing how they are related. The fantasy universe the games are set in is full of unreliable narrators, bizarre theories, and cryptic lore, so a lot of these connections are kind of speculative or debated, but here I’ve tried my best to show the most likely connections between the races. So here it is, a sort of evolutionary tree of the main mortal races in Nirn, the planet on which the Elder Scrolls games take place.
Not included here:
- The Skaal, who are an ethnic group within the Nord race.
- The Reachmen, who are generally considered an ethnic group within the Breton race, but are considered a separate race by some.
- The Dereni, who are considered an ethnic group within, or close cousin of, the Altmer race.
- Colovians and Nibinese, which are ethnic groups within the Imperial race.
- Orma, Horwalli, and Yespest, who were Nedic subgroups of Argonia, similar to the Kothringi
- The Keptu, a likely Nedic group once native to Hammerfell.
- The many races of Goblinken, who are of mysterious origin, but come from be an early offshoot of the Old Ehlnofey.
- The many other beast races, such as Imga, Tang Mo, Birdmen, Lilmothit, Dreugh, Sload, Lamia etc, who have mysterious origins. Some of these may have come from the shapelessness called the “Ooze”, just as Bosmer and Khajiit did, but this is little more than a guess.
- Vampires and lycanthropes, who are just mortal races with curses.
- Daedra and Gods, which are not mortal races.
- Dragons, which are not mortals, and (as far as we know) cannot reproduce.
- Probably a bunch of other obscure races that have totally unexplained origins.
This is a different kind of nerdy to most the stuff I make, but if you like it, let me know with a comment. I might make more stuff about fantasy and sci-fi lore in the future.
And if you have something to add/argue on this topic, please share that too! 🙂