Are there any in-game examples of babies/toddlers or interracial breeding in the Elder Scrolls universe?
Edit: I removed the somewhat "silly" parts that I originally included in the question for fun, since it appears some people didn't appreciate it.
In the Elder Scrolls games I played previous to Skyrim, there were only adults. Now, Skyrim has clearly shown that there are, without any doubt, children in the Elder Scrolls universe. However, we still don't see any infants/toddlers or any adolescents apart from young adults (even worse, there are no elvish, orcish or beast (argonian, khajiit) children/cubs that I'm aware of). Further adding to the mystery is the fact that we don't see any pregnant women. While I'm sure the reasons game design related (and ethical, considering the hardships that plague the inhabitants of Tamriel), I wonder if there are any in-game mentions of younger children.
Also, when you think about it, we have a lot of different races in Tamriel, and interracial couples aren't uncommon. However, we never (as far as I know) see any evidence of mixed-race offspring. This would suggest one of the following things:
- A couple of different races cannot produce offspring
- The race of the offspring is always the same as one of the parents
- It's easier for the developers to just have everything as one of the race presets (practical answer, I'm looking for in-universe answers or examples if possible)
Now, this could definitely become very speculative, something I'm sure we want to keep at a minimum. So I'm looking for official sources (primarily in-game, but dev/writer statements are also interesting). I'm not looking for answers like "it's hard to program" or "having infants would mean complicated ethical issues if you could kill their only parent, or maybe even them", as I am very aware of these issues.
Are there any examples of there being small babies or toddlers in the Elder Scrolls universe? Is there any mention or case of interracial couples having children? Is there any mention of elvish, orcish or beast race children?
Best Answer
Mixed-race children like Jagar Tharn exist, but are exceedingly rare
The prototypical example of a mixed-race individual is Jagar Tharn, villain of the first game: Arena.
While there was a lot of in-universe debate over what he was, it was clear that he was an Elf mix, but didn't have human lineage (i.e. Imperial, Nord, Breton, or Redguard).
"I just don't trust that mongrel Elf. Part Dark Elf [Dunmer], part High Elf [Altmer], and part the gods only know what. All the worst qualities of all his combined bloods, I'll warrant." He snorted. "No one knows much about him. Claims he was born in southern Valenwood, of a Wood Elven [Bosmer] mother. […] Human blood seems to be the one missing component in Tharn's ancestry."
The Imperial Library article on Jagar Tharn also weighs in:
He is said to be part Bosmer and part Dunmer.
I think this assessment is plausible, given that he has the skin tone of a Bosmer, but the eyes and height of a Dunmer.
To my knowledge, there are no other mixed-race individuals in the games.
Among species that can interbreed, children match the race of their mother
The in-game book Notes on Racial Phylogeny states the following:
- Elves and humans can mate and produce fertile offspring
- Offspring of such unions match the race of the mother, but "traces of the father's race may also be present"
- Argonians and Khajiit are believed to be infertile with humans and elves
- Insufficient evidence exists to determine if Orcs are infertile with humans or elves
Regarding Orcs, Oblivion has a sidequest involving Agronak gro-Malog discovering that he is the son of a vampiric Imperial, so interbreeding between Orcs and Humans, even vampiric ones, must be possible.
Note that this report, especially with phrases like "traces of the father's race" does not match Jagar Tharn's situation, lending further evidence to mixed-race children being very atypical.
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Can Elder Scrolls races breed?
After much analysis of living specimens, the Council long ago determined that all "races" of elves and humans may mate with each other and bear fertile offspring.Are there hybrid races in Elder Scrolls?
Other than the Bretons there aren't really any other "mixed breeds" simply due to the fact that, when someone has parents from different races they take on the race of the mother. That's true for parents that are both Man, both Mer or Man and Mer. There have certainly been NPCs like that appearing throughout the games.Why The Elder Scrolls is the GREATEST Fictional Universe (to me)
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