The "Beast" Races

[Adipose]

Okay, the Argonians and Khajiit were apparently created by spell casters waaay back in the deep depths of time...or at least so I've been told by other gamers when I questioned the validity of their appearance.

Frex, in reality, with their mouths being shaped as they are, intelligible speech would be well nigh impossible...at least speech as humans think of it. However, since they were magically created it's all good. I've also been told that human/beast miscegenation wouldn't be possible, which kinda rules out the various hybrids that people've modded.

 

HOWEVER, having said all that, lets go back to the magical angle. Assuming that the Beast races were magically created in the first place, then it's perfectly logical to assume that they'd be able to engage in fluent verbal communication with humans. Also, it's perfectly logical to assume that miscegenation would be possible and that racial hybrids are not out of the question. Personally, I wouldn't, mostly because it'd be kinda like...well, you should get the picture.

 

Thing is, and this is a point that I've had trouble getting around since the beginning of TES, if the Beast races were magically created, why'd the creators leave them with bestial heads and tails? Personally, I think that a lot of the beast/human hybrid mods are attractive and with a little work would be even more attractive. I run a mod that removes the tails, mostly because I think the bipedal process would make the tails unnecessary...they're there in the first place to help with balance when jumping and running, or so I understand. Croc forms use them as weapons of course, and as an aid to underwater locomotion. In bipedal form, would they be necessary? Besides, tails look goofy on nice suits of gear. Had the feline and reptile forms evolved into bipedal entities what would they have looked like? I'd run the various Raht mods, but with a very few exceptions, my comp doesn't like them. Got no idea why. BTW, with the huge mouthful of fangs present in the Beast races, why don't we see them ripping out throats when engaging in combat? I mean, hold'em with the claws and rip'em with the teeth. Makes sense to me. Hmmm, kissing a human is probably out of the question, as would be certain other amorous activities. I wonder if the Argonians can catch insects with their tongue? I wonder if the Khajiit...no, better not discuss that on the Nexus. Actually, Argonian heads are more like those of various raptors than a lot of the modern lizard forms. Doubt that they have tongues adapted to snatching prey.

[Jannifer]

You know, I seldom think this deeply into the various fantasy races I've seen over the years. The Argonians and Khajiit, like all TES races, have their own creation stories. The Khajiit credit their existence to Azurah, as they call her. The Argonians believe that they were given their souls by the Hist. The Hist are sentient trees which are the earliest forms of life on Tamriel. So, we don't have mage magic creating the beast races, according to their own Creation stories.

 

The beast races evolved on Tamriel just as the human and elven races did. It's worth noting that according to lore, there are many more forms of Khajiiti and Argonians than we see in the game. Their appearance can vary from nearly human to more animal, some even travelling on all fours. However, all forms are sentient and intelligent. While their mouths would not, in reality, allow human speech, there are animals in our own world whose mouths would allow speech (the great apes, for example) but who do not use it.

 

While the Khajiit do use their claws in battle and have their own martial arts forms, they have also created and are adept with weapons, as are the Argonians. Since the two races do not actually seem to have evolved from the animals they resemble, then their behavior wouldn't be any more primitive than other races. Plus, biting animations are a pain to animate. :P

 

As for their tails, they may see them as a mark of who they are or a form of identity. Since Khajiit are known for their acrobatics and Argonians for their swimming, the tails are still functional.

 

You might find these two articles from the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Project interesting -- Khajiit and Argonian.

[Adipose]

Well, it's been a slow morning here and I'm still working on my first cup of coffee. Idle hands and brain ya know. So, no creation by mundane spell casters, but, rather, standard snail paced "evolution" with accompanying creation myths in the process. Anyway, this is all moot. It's a game after all and when my brain's not in the game I sometimes back off and take a look at the conflicts. Beats the h...l out of reading the news and touching base with reality...which is easily just as absurd in many ways. Btw, you are undoubtedly correct on all points, and we should throw in the fact that various bird forms are capable of speech, either naturally or with physical modification. Dolphins are also capable of human speech apparently. They just don't do it 'cause it's not compatible with their environment.

 

Good articles. Thanks for the references.

[Gaerzi]

Created by spellcasters?

 

 

Khajiit are descended from shapeshifters. Their shape is now fixed and depends on the configuration of the two moons at their birth. Bethesda never bothered showing several different types of Khajiit in a game, though (well, except Legends). In Arena, they were basically tattooed humans who claimed to descend from desert cats. That shape has been later called "Ohmes". In Daggerfall, they started getting more feline, with tails, and a light coat of fur on their back and sides, but not arm, belly, or face. That shape has been called Ohmes-raht. In Redguard and Morrowind, they were given the full furry treatment, with cat head and digitigrade legs that couldn't wear normal shoes and boots. That shape has been called Suthay-raht. In Oblivion, Skyrim, and ESO, they've remained furries but they now have human-shaped legs and feet, which conveniently reduces the amount of work animators have to do. It's never been officially confirmed what that shape is called, but I'd say it's Suthay (slightly less animalistic than the Suthay-raht of Morrowind, just like the Ohmes of Arena are less animalistic than the Suthay-raht of Daggerfall) as that's the one that makes sense to me. Cathay and Cathay-raht are often hypothesized by fans for the OB/SK catpeople but they're supposed to be bigger and stronger than the Suthay-raht so I don't find that very convincing, especially when you look at the OB stat bonuses and penalties.

 

 

See http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Khajiit for full details.

 

Argonians are lizards who are mutated by the sap of the Hist trees. The Hist trees are on the the big unexplained things in the Elder Scrolls. All we know is that they are very intelligent, very alien in their mode of thinking, very powerful, possibly hive-minded, and also they're still trees. Not dryads or ents or other sort of moving plants; they're stuck where they are. So they need agents that can move and do their biddings, and they changed a species of tree-dwelling lizards into an intelligent race of humanoids by feeding them their own sap, imbued with magical effects. Contrarily to the Khajiit, they have always, since the very start in been described as reptilians and obviously not humans or elves. That said, the reptilian appearance did increase considerably in Daggerfall where they gained a tail and replaced their hair with horns and fins. They went digitigrade in Morrowind and the lizard women lost their boobs, and went back to human-like legs and feet (and boobs!) Oblivion, Skyrim, and ESO. Without the excuse of being former shapeshifters now locked into several different shapes on a human-werebeast-animal spectrum, these differences in shapes have been explained instead by being differences in mutations. The argonians take the shape that the Hist thinks they will need wherever they are supposed to go.

 

There again, see http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Argonian for details.

Edited November 28, 2017 by TR Gez