Since TES began, whispers of the Altmer's alleged racism and elitism has been a major, if unstated part of their racial identity. We have the xenophobic elves in the Dunmer, the naturalistic elves in the Bosmer, and the aloof elves in the Altmer. It's always been a game of "This Altmer is looking at me funny. I bet he thinks he's better than me", you know what I mean? Nowadays, we meet an Altmer in the street and he loudly proclaims his race's role as the "rightful rulers of Tamriel". I understand that the Thalmor are ultra-facsist, ultra-nationalist, and generally an expy for Nazi Germany (rising to power after raising their society from a great calamity), but running around proclaiming themselves to be superior to the masses of Tamriel is hardly the best way of gaining and securing power (unless they plan on literally killing every last member of every last race in Tamriel, which considering the Altmer's new characterization wouldn't be entirely off-point).

The Altmer, or Aldmer are an ancient civilization that obviously never would have become as advanced as they are today if they didn't have something positive to offer alongside the negative. As far as I can see, the Thalmor are simply aping their Aldmeri ancestors - I find it hard to believe they're being evil for evil's sake. All in all, I'd like to see the Thalmor act more like a concerned, if aloof occupying force instead of moustache-twirling villains.

What are your thoughts? Am I being overly-sensitive, or has Bethesda sort of written the Altmer into the tired cliche of the "Evil Empire"?

Skyrim isn't a game for subtlety.

Bethesda has relied on cliches more and more since Morrowind.

You shouldn't lump all Altmer in with the Thalmor. Also i think it's perfectly in character for them and it seems that Elven nation's biggest downfall has always been their arrogance.

There has been bad blood between elves and humans for a long time. The direction the Thalmor have taken seems appropriate to me. Surely, they do not represent all of the Altmer.

So you're upset that Altmer Wizards look down on you?

In "Morrowind" the Telvanni live in houses that have no stairs to prevent themselves from being disturbed by those unworthy of their magic.

They have a pretty good reason for thinking everyone else is beneath them.

Azrael
The Nord with the Sword

Thalmor and Altmer are two different things. There are plenty of perfectly friendly Altmer in Skyrim.

I need to buy the novels to be sure, but my understanding is that the Thalmor are a smaller group that has taken control of the Summerset Isle and are using it to advance an agenda through war and conquest. More details of what I think I know would be major spoilers.

After talking with a Altmer captain from the Legion in one of those camps, I was persuaded to join and combat this idiotic rebellion. Ulfric completely got his own province whooped because he drew attention to it, whilst the Imperials turned a blind eye to the worship of Talos. When he murdered the High King, things got nasty.

At any rate, I am an Altmer Mage and I will certainly be opposing the Dominion whenever I can or just retreat and be aloof at the Winterhold college.

They arent being evil for evils sake.
They are playing a long game with the eventual intent of uncoiling the dragon and returning to the mythic.
They want to rectify the loss that Altmer have been lamenting since the dawn, their seperation from the divine.

Outlawing Talos is the first step in that.
Talos-who-is-Lorkhan fortifies the Wheel of Convention that is the Mundus.

This is where it's always been heading. Their stance on Lorkhan forshadowed it pretty well. And this isn't even the first Aldmeri Dominion.

When you believe that you're essentially gods and that lesser creatures are keeping you from that, it can only go downhill.

Mer blame men for losing immortality. End of story.

You'd think for being the most intelligent race, they'd be able to figure out that their superiority announcements are pissing people off.

Anyways, Bethesda's just bad at writing roles and characters. You'll rarely find a character who's subtle about who they are; they're all hyperboled to an extreme.

These articles come to mind to describe Alduin and the Thalmor:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ObviouslyEvil
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StupidEvil

Not all Altmer support the Dominion, infact some are against the Thalmor

Where they took the Altmer? What do you mean?

They were always snotty and full of themselves.

Actually, my biggest complaint about the Thalmor is that I can't join them when playing as an Altmer. I want to be Thalmor so bad.

All of my characters now take great satisfaction in slaughtering Thalmor whenever I get the chance. Imagine my delight when I discovered that the Thalmor Embassy respawns.

Everyone, I'm aware that not all Altmer support the Thalmor. I tried to get that across in my OP but I guess I wasn't clear. My issue is, the Thalmor obviously aren't stupid, yet walking around antagonizing the very people you hope to subjugate after you've already won is a stupid move if ever I saw one. That's not how one nation dominates another - history would prove, in both the real world and Tamriel, that mistreating the people you've conqueored is hardly an intelligent means of preserving power.

My issue is this: not all Altmer are Thalmor, but surely not all Thalmor are evil. In Skyrim, you never meet a Thalmor with more than a couple lines of dialogue who is not painted as evil. Where are the Thalmor moderates? And if they're all racist and truly evil, where are the intelligent Thalmor who realize you attract more flies with honey?

I've always savored killing Altmer. Very satisfying.

Yes, and Morrowind was so devoid of any cliche story-telling.

"An old hero is reincarnated and guided by a powerful and omniscient deity to realize his destiny." I can think of a few sacred texts that follow a similar story.

Don't let the odd scenery and fauna disguise the fact that Morrowind's story has been told before and was even told before then as well.

OT: I agree with whoever said not to clump all Altmer together. There are fanatics to every social order and they sometimes have more power than they should.

They're a group born out of a religious doctrine that dictates mankind should be wiped from having ever existed.

Where's the moderate position on "wiped from existence?"

The ambassador that throws parties for the rich and influential isn't doing that?

The rest of the ones you meet are soldiers tasked with massacring Talos worshipers. There's no way to candy stripe that.

Have you ever met someone who is truly arrogant? Not just in attitude, but in demeanor? Someone that has been raised to believe they are better than everyone else? That is exactly how they act, like they are better than anyone else.

If you really think that the story of Morrowind can be summed up like that, Im sorry, you havent been paying attention.
We are talking a bi-polar hermafroditic god who exists in multiple universes at once for our main protagonist, and the plot, the story of what actually happened at Red Mountain is better than a lot of novels I have read.

I doubt that's the whole of their position. Surely they have pragmatists among them who realize simply "killing them all" is an unrealistic goal, Thalmor more interested in political power than nebulous ideaology? Where are these Thalmor? Why don't Thalmor patrols kill human players on sight to expedite their sacred mission?

There may be Altmer like that, but not Thalmor, as it would go against the founding premise of their order.

"To kill Man is to reach Heaven, from where we came before the Doom Drum's iniquity. When we accomplish this, we can escape the mockery and long shame of the Material Prison."

Altmer are scarcely the only xenophobic race. Xenophobia is more the rule than the exception in Tamriel. Look at how the nords in Windhelm are. Look at how the Telvanni and Redorans in Morrowind were. Look at how the ruling families in Wayrest, Daggerfall, and Sentinel were in Daggerfall.

Just like there were many good germans in Germany during WWII, I'm sure there are quite a few altmer in Alinor that are reasonably okay people, its just that the most rabidly genocidal faction has risen to power in the vacuum left by the end of the Septim line. Hopefully a future DLC will explore this a bit more.

Due to long lifespans, altmer think in the long term, so they are pursuing genocide as a long term objective. They tried the short term solution and lost, though just barely.

TL;DR: We don't really see average altmer in Skyrim, just the fanatics who have seized power.

If they went in depth with thalmor, people would be complaining that it is the plot of Oblivion all over again.

If they consider it nebulous, they aren't going to make it in the Thalmor. They're not going to promote people who disagree. The supremacy of the Aldmeri is directly from their belief that they are divine. And that divinity is being destroyed by lesser races even existing.

Because they wouldn't get very far if they did that. They'd be at war again, which they're still trying to recover from.