Bretons!

[Eversjm7]

Been playing a Breton since morrowind, yet I feel like I know so little of the origin of their race. I've begun to think of the future of Cyrodil and I could see Bretons, being resistant to magic, being very helpful against the war against thalmor. Is High Rock doing alright doing this time period? Is there a high population of Bretons? What is their origin?

 

Edit: Government as well?

 

Thanks fellas

Edited January 13, 2012 by Eversjm7

[Lachdonin]

The Bretons are a crossbreed between Men and Mer. In other words, their Half-Elves. They come from the same basic stock as other men (IE the Nedic settlers from Atmora) but have interbred with Elves to create a more magical ofshoot of the basic man.

 

As for how they are doing, we don't really know. Highrock never was the most stable place, which of course culminated in the civil war around the Nibany Basin during the Warp in the West. They also lost a good chunk of territory to the Orcs during the formation of Orsinium. Still, theres no indication they were actually touched by the Great War, asside from contributing to the Imperial Legions.

 

With the obvious exception of the Dunmer, i'd say all Tamriel's populations are doing rather well. 20 years is a lot of time to rebuild populations (Though, on Tamriel, things seem to chug along slower) so i'd imagine Highrock is much like it always was. Full of magic, intreague, and political assassinations...

 

On another note, did you know that the Foresworn are almost certianly Bretons?

[Eversjm7]

I did not know that actually, I should have guessed considering they all use a form of magic.

 

Thanks a ton for the info, hopefully more lore information will come with dlc.

[thesapien]

Yeah, the Bretons were trying to breed a superior race. Not sure why they ended up shorter.

 

Anyway, they tend to be my favorite pick when selecting a race, too. I like their magic without the funny elf look. They tend to look more handsome and beautiful to me for some reason, too.

[flobalob]

I must confess that I always played a Breton in Morrowind (mainly so I could wear the Boots of Blinding Speed, without going totally blind), it's a shame that the magicka reduction has been reduced to 25% is Skyrim though.

[Eversjm7]

Wouldn't you think Bretons would be the ones to beat the thalmor? Well, I have no idea of the number of Breton available but it seems logical.

[Khorak]

Wouldn't you think Bretons would be the ones to beat the thalmor? Well, I have no idea of the number of Breton available but it seems logical.

 

Too much is made of how supposedly awesome Thalmor magic is. It seems like people fall back on it to justify how they beat the piss out of the Empire as some sort of way to avoid admitting the Empire is...well...crap now. When it gets down to it, the Thalmor got fought to a standstill and ultimately defeated by a bog standard Imperial legion(s) that carved them up on the field of battle. Which is hardly without precedent, the Empire beat everyone else by deciding the issue with force of stabby arms, and the First Empire before then was also comprised of a lot of angry Nords whose only magic was some Voice users.

 

Magic can give you a strategic advantage, but it certainly doesn't seem to be insurmountable, and the entire history of Tamriel has still been decided by large numbers of men stabbing each other horribly to death in a very conventional way. Also, as far as I can see, the Thalmor and every Aldmeri empire before them have had to use magic as an equaliser if you think about it. The human empires of Tamriel seem to excel in heavy infantry far more than the elves (who have universally preferred lighter armour to the extent that 'elven armour' is the watchword for light armours), which means the elves would require something to stop the humans (Empire legions are heavy infantry, as are Nords in general who are the 'archetypical human') heavy armies just marching straight over them. In steps magic. Proper use of magic will allow such Aldmeri armies and their lighter infantry contingent to take on heavily armoured and quite likely very angry humans who have more of a penchante for the brute force solution.

Edited January 14, 2012 by Khorak

[Lachdonin]

First off, on a technical issue, the Aldmer are extinct. They are the mythic projenitors of the Elven races. What we have now are Altmer.

 

Second, as Khorak said, the magic issue isn't really that much of a leaning point. The High Elves are certianly more versed in it, and generally more skillfull, but its not the type of thing which generally wins wars. You also have to consider that the Crystal Tower was the main respository for Altmer magic in the world, and now... Well... Its gone. They have lost a lot of their superiority.

 

There also seems to be a general disslike of mages amongst the rank and file. You can hear guards in the Thalmor embassy talking about this. The superioristic attitudes of the mages directly affects the moral of the troops, so its likely that the presence of an abundance of mages would actually hurt the overall capabilities of the Domminion army.

 

One of the biggest advantages that Mer have over Humans in combat is experience. Elves lived for about 1000 years, which is 10X the lifetime of your average human. Most of their forces during the Great War probably had first hand experience agaisnt the Daedra, and had been fighting for centuries.

 

Of course, now with the slaughter at the Battle of the Red Ring, the Domminion is largely on the same footing at the Empire. They lost thousands of experienced soldiers, experience which can't be easially replaced.

 

Bringing things back to point, however, the Adamantium Tower in High Rock is one of the greatest remaining respositories of Magic on Tamriel. The Bretons, right now, proabably are on equal footing with the Thalmor when it comes to Magical knowlege. Of course, as we've said, Magic doesn't tend to win wars.

[justwannaddl]

I tend to disagree with the idea that magic doesn't win wars. It is just that lesser magic is so common that every army has battle mages at this point. Overpowering artifacts like the Numidium or the Heart of Lorkhan, which are pretty much the nuclear options in TES, have the kind of magic you need to win wars. That is why you have magic hunters looking for powerful artifacts like the Eye of Magnus to tip the scales in their favor. It's also why I don't trust those thieving Psijics stole my shiny glowy ball. :verymad: Edited January 14, 2012 by justwannaddl

[Khorak]

When speaking about magic in this regard, it's generally accepted that no-one is talking about such nuclear level artifacts. One doesn't make a thread pitting two modern nations against each other, for example, with the expectation that the answer will be "Both nations die in a nuclear fire that collapses the modern world as we know it for decades to come". No, they're probably going for a conventional matchup.

 

The Thalmor don't have any such massive strategic weapons in their arsenal....at this point nobody except the Psijic Order does. And that's because I let them have it.

 

The most brilliant example of how magic truly works for the armies of Tamriel (beyond being an artillery component of an army to be prioritised by enemy archers or cavalry) is provided by the Empire conquest of Morrowind. By casting Waterbreathing on their army, Imperial Battlemages allowed the Legion to quite literally walk across the bottom of a lake and thus catch their enemy entirely by surprise. Magic allowed for an excellent strategic maneuver, but ultimately it was to allow the conventional face stabbing forces a decisive advantage when they engaged the enemy.