The elusive snowelves have caused a stir this month as it
emerges that they could be showing up in the upcoming Elderscrolls V: Skyrim.
It came to light as the Gaming site Rockpapershotgun, in
their article “A realistic hour with Skyrim”, mentions an encounter with the
Snow elves:
“As the fight moves on
we face Falmer, “twisted, evil creatures that dwell in Skyrim’s deepest
reaches” and which basically look like goblins wearing spider’s faces as
helmets, we move more into melee.”
Could this be the graceful and proud race mentioned in the
fall of the snow prince? It would seem not, as there is no mention of the race
looking like “goblins” in that book. However before those who believed the
Riekling ( A race of Snow goblins from Morrowinds expansion pack Bloodmoon)
rejoice let’s take a look at the “Skyrim Falmer” (note: these pictures were taken from the offical elderscrolls site.):
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| This image was titled "Spider Hero" which fits in with the article quoted
above. |
Lets look at some enlargements:
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| Interesting armor |
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| Ugly? No I didn't call you that.. |
As you can see they certainly look grotesque but they do
have that “Skyrim feel”; which is to say that the elves shown to be in Skyrim
look rough, angry and plain ugly:
And before you even question their uglness as an excuse not to be Falmer - You do realise that Orcs in the Elderscrolls universe are Elves right? And well.... just look at them:
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| Give us a kiss |
They certainly don’t look like goblins in the sense of small
creatures running around and being a pain but indeed look more like a race that
has been forced to hide underground for 4000 years. If they are indeed the Falmer I wonder what
their role is within Skyrim?
But who are the Falmer and why are they skulking in caves?
It is believed that the Falmer are the original inhabitants of Skyrim – a race
of Mer (that’s elves) that at some point in their history came into conflict with
the Nords who drove them out of their homeland.
It is thought that the Falmer either died out in this “purge”
with any survivors having fled, eventually interbreeding with other Mer and
thus becoming extinct.
This is not the first time that a Falmer type creature has
been seen in an Elderscrolls game. As already pointed out the Riekling of
Solsthiem are considered to be decedents of the Falmer by the Skaal, the local
Nord population. But an Altmer (thats a High Elf) in Raven Rock states that they are nothing but
snow goblins and the Falmer did interbreed – blending into other elven societies.
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| Riekling - this is a Falmer? I dont thinks so... |
Then of course there are the residents of Glacier Crawl from
the Elderscrolls Travels: Shadowkey. Blue skinned humanoids who live
underground in the ice – sound familiar? It is believed that these could be
Falmer:
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| These actually look very similar to the Skyrim ones. |
Finally there are the mysterious Snow warriors of the Ice
Tribes which attacked the city Dawnstar in the the Elderscrolls Travels:
Dawnstar:
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| Tall and ugly - Just like Skyrim's! |
So we are left to ponder how the Falmer will be represented in TES:V - if at all. There has been no confirmation of their appreance by offical sources so treat this as rumor for now. However, if the Falmer are in Skyrim, perhaps we will finally get some answers as to what happened to them, what they have been doing since and what the future may hold for them!
Special thanks to River from the
UESP forum for digging up the images.
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