Are Argonians Reptiles?

[Lachdonin]

They're a magical cross between reptiles and plants, really. Best any of our sources (which are woefully few... Some of the bigger lore-fish claim there is some great information in ESO, but i'm not far enough to get to Blackmarsh yet to see it for myself...) indicate they hatch as relatively normal lizards. They are then given Hist Sap, and their forms are rebuilt by the will of the Hist to suit a particular purpose in Blackmarsh society. Lady N. and Mr. Flippers have both postulated that they resemble the Tsaeci in that, the more they drink (in this case Sap) the more 'human' they become. This would explain the difference in the Naga tribe, which are far more snake-like and dwell in the vast swamps of Blachmarsh's interior.

 

What i HAVE witnessed in ESO, however, is that the Argoians are able to meld with plants. This is supported by the Greg Keyes novels, in which Mere-Glim on several occasions almost loses himself in either the City-Hist, or one of the Ur-Hist.

 

Whatever the case, the Argonians have no evolutionary descent. They were created, as they are, by a race of sapient magical trees.

 

 

As far as the legs go... Howard stated years ago that the legs in Morrowind are canon. They ran into issues with the updated engine in Oblivion, and those problems carried over into Skyrim. ESO just got lazy. Which, i will admit... has been a surprisingly rare thing in my experiences with it. Lore wise anyway.

[mr3cman]

here is a kind of crazy thought that I had when I first read about argonians and the hist trees I thought that the hist had produced argonians and that they were plants...

[Relativelybest]

So in the shapeshift discussion, could they become some kind of weird feathery dinosaur?!

 

So, a normal dinosaur, then?