Racial Sizes

[Midgefidget]

Since we are in Skyrim we'll set Nords as the standard. Thus Nords are 1.0 on the scale.

How would the other races compare in order to fit the lore?

I would like to RP the size difference. All I know for sure is that Orcs should be bigger, but by how much?

And what of the other races? Where do they "stand"?

[TheMango55]

Nords and Orcs should be about the same size.

 

Altmer should be taller but thinner (1.05). Redguards perhaps a little smaller but around the same size (.95), Bretons, Imperials, Dunmer and the Beast races are all around the same height and smaller than the warrior type races (.9) and Bosmer significantly shorter (.85)

 

I think the game did a pretty good job representing them.

[Khorak]

I'd go with the_mango55 in terms of lore, though I'd put Orcs at 1.0 just like Nords.

 

The problem is that if you allow significant height changes, God forbid a slider, some minmaxing goons will stir up whiny controversy because the smallest possible player character will have a far smaller hitbox without any loss in stats. By keeping the available options relatively the same in this regard, the designers can be sure no midgets or giants get places they shouldn't.

[QDX2000]

Weren't Orcs taller than everyone else in morrowind? Or is that just my memory?

[Midgefidget]

Thanks for the input people. Just to clarify this is just for setting my own height based on my race. This will help.

[Lachdonin]

While i think that breakdown works good for a guide, i'd like to point out that Khajit varry widely. Their appearance is determined by the lunar phase in which they are born, with some cariations being only 3ish feet tall but otherwise humanoid, some having digigrade legs and being taller than Altmer, to some being roughly the size of a Gorilla. While the playable ones in Oblivion and Skyrim are the most common outside of their own province, you'd almost need a gradient for them in isolation because of the huge variety of Khajit.

 

Just to clairify, because its the phases of the moon that determine it, you can have siblings which look radically different. In the Infernal City, they mention that the gorilla like Khajit are ridden by their more humanoid siblings, and while they can't talk, they are just as intelegent. As such, there are not different 'races' of Khajit, and you can have the diminuitive 3foot tall ones being the older brother of a toweing gorilla cat.