I agree, most of the upper level armor above steel looks like absolute crap if you want to actually role-play. I mean, I know the Dragonborn is supposed to stand out I guess, but DAMN! Some of the upper level armor, like Daedric and Glass, makes you look like you're from another planet. I do like Elven armor on females though, especially the helmet.

Thank Behesda for smithing and enchanting for this purpose alone. They get reamed in these forums for being OP, but it allows you to use the lower level stuff like fur, hide, and steel armor and keeps you looking like a freakin' human.

Orcs are Orsimer.
They were a group of Aldmer that followed a god-ancestor called Trinimac.

Trinimac was defeated by Boethiah.
Some say Boethiah tricked Trinimac to go in his mouth, so Boethiah could speak with his voice.
Boethiah then swallowed Trinimac and.. passed Malacath.

The followers of Trinimac then became Orsimer, followers of Malacath.

Here is a reality check for you you [censored] [censored]:

In my opening statements I specifically said that I wanted this to be a discussion and not an argument.

I also said that nobody is forcing you to read my post should you decide to read it.

So you calling me dense is a sheer provocation.

I am tempted to put you in your place, but I will just say this:

Petty namecalling after I already said that I wanted this to be a reasonable discussion is a cheap shot on your part.

Show some sophistication.

I personally like the look of most armor, though glass is still a bit wired.

A few points:
The word dwemer have been "corrupted" to dwarven by the human races IIRC, much like Ra'Gada became Redguard, and as I have understood it never was intended to be anything like the dwarfs of other fantasy other than being misnamed in that fashion.
The Orcs in TES are elves who were changed when Boethia ate Trinimac and became Malacath so having them being tall makes sense, and with their tribal warrior nature it is not strange that they become quite mucleled. Slim is not the word I would use to describe the race,

Agree with OP completely.

I am sorry to say guys, but the Dwemer actually work that armor. Here is some concept art showing them using some of their armor. I think the armor was considered dual use for protection and technology.

[img]http://images.wikia.com/elderscrolls/images/a/a4/Dwemer-Concept.jpg[/img]

"The Dwemer are often referred to as "Dwarves" in western cultures, although they were no shorter than a human and the name seems to have been derived from a supposed encounter with giants who saw the Dwemer as short. They were a reclusive, independent race, dedicated to the principles of science, alchemy, and engineering. They did not die out; instead, the entire race vanished into thin air all at the same time around the world."

In other words, the encounter was before the time of Oblivion and Morrowind. It was during the time that Nords and Dwemer actually settled Skyrim is when the Gaints encountered the Dwemer first. That is how that got named Dwarfs. Gaints are reclusive to Skyrim, so basically that is the reason we haven't seen them until now. Dwemer are actually an splinter off of Altmer, same size as Elves all over Tamariel.

So any race that is the same size as the Dwemer can wear that armor, even though it is nicknamed Dwarven Armor because the name stuck easier.

You know, I find myself wondering about the lore behind the dwarves/dwemer. Dwarves are much older than Tolkien, going all the way back to Norse mythology.Why did they decide to completely change what a dwarf was and make them tall elves? Did the people that write the lore just want to be hip and different? Or did they write themselves into a corner and had to come up with something to get themselves out? Or maybe it was due to technical reasons. Like the lore mentioned dwarves, but when it came time to put them into the game (even as ghosts), they had to make them tall. So they had to make an excuse for that? I don't know.

Either way, I do have a number of issues with the armor. They have never figured out how to make glass armor look good. I don't know why. It's been ugly since Morrowind, in my opinion. I'm also unhappy about the lack of "good" looking high end heavy armor. Both daedric and ebony are dark. They really need to bring back adamantium armor and make it high end.

That kind of makes me glad about the crafting system, though. Sure, it's easily abusable, but it also means I can use my favorite armor set at high levels without penalty. I love the look of scaled armor and I can wear it as long as I like.

My favorites, Glass Battleaxe and Claymore are especially pretty

Here's the thing: if you don't like a certain suit of armor, don't bloody wear it. You can hit, or get close to, the defense cap with just about ANY armor available in the game, given enough Smithing skill and perks. That aspect of the game gamesas got right, for a change.

As for the Dwarven vs. Dwemer. Most people in the Empire have never seen a Dwemer ruin or a complete Dwemer device. They saw: bits and pieces of automatons, armor pieces and assorted artifacts, which are, by the way, illegal to import and trade. They read books that say that Dwemer armor is often just shells of Dwemer automatons. So an average citizen of the Empire has no reason to believe that the Dwemer in fact were NOT short, stout, bearded humanoids that love digging in the dirt. In common parlance, the name "Dwarves" is firmly entrenched, hence everything associated with the Dwemer is called "Dwarven". Even the researcher in Markarth calls them "Dwarves" in his books just because it's an established and familiar term, and that guy studies the Dwemer for a living.

You could've just looked up TES lore before posting this thread.

Orcs (or Orsimer) are elves, too. They used to be Aldmeri followers of Trinimac, one of the most popular gods of the Aldmer. Not going into details here, a Daedric Prince called Boethiah ate Trinimac and transformed him into Malacath; all his followers were corrupted as well, now ugly and physically strong. Thus the Orc were created.
Because of their transformation, they were at first despised by everyone. That's why they are sometimes called "the Pariah Folk".

That said, I agree with your opinion on armor. Glass looks funny, Daedric is an overkill, Elven is ugly. I actually like Dwarven, but for heavy armor I usually choose Ebony. My light-armored characters always wear leather or hide. In general, only the lower tier armors look good.

To be fair, that's pretty much exactly what Daedric armor is.

a dlc where you could change the look of the armor at a workbench (like in nwn) would be awsome. this would be major important for the helmets, i would love to see some open helmet alternatives for the heavy stuff, like daedric, steel plate and ebony.

So just level up enchanting and blacksmithing then make whatever gear you actually enjoy the look of extremely powerful. Upgrade standard iron/steel/plate sets if you want a typical look for a nord warrior.

I really miss the Morrowind Glass Armor. The Oblivion Version was a joke, and even if the Skyrim Version is an improvement over Oblivion it still can't match Morrowind's Glas Armor:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:MW_GlassArmor.jpg

Sorry if im not the first to say this, but if you're a smith you can create your own sets of armor...if you were creating armor for yourself, you'd make it fit yourself, right? Just imagine your character taking the Dwemer technology and features and scaling them to the proper size...a good smith who can work the specific metal would be able to get any size with enough material.

But that is exactly what he wrote in his post... what have you been reading?

I like the Dwarven Armor in this game, although the helmet has a little to much going on, I like the more Greek/Roman look to it.


Where'd you get this information? (Not bashing just curious)

I remember it quite well. But it almost seemed fitting in Morrowinds more alien atmosphere.

SKIRIM IMPROVED THE ARMOR LOOK ISSUE MASSIVELY
You are no longer forced to use specific armor or weaponry to be efficient
Read on

NOTE: personaly I think they should have allowed improving ALL gear to the best stats
Because daedric katana or iron katana, a katana is still a katana
if you can cut anything how could it get any better ....
But anyway, Skyrim is close to that

(I absolutely refuse to wear some of the disgusting looking gear that TES has always annoyed me with)
Then get smithing and alchemy and enchanting
Craft yourself some alchemy+enchant clothing and jewelry
As well as enchanting and smithing potions

Then use that crafting equipment to create the best armors and weapons YOU WANT
AND I DO NOT MEAN DAEDRIC, DWARVEN OR GLASS
You will be surprised at the stats you get
It may not work with everything, for example it may not work with Iron

(rather than equipping the gear with the best stats.)

Actually legendary gear of any kind is decent.
And for that matter, with alteration, fighting wearing clothes might just work
Remember that you can also use ward from restoration
Or that you can fight as shadow warrior
Or using two weapons or two handers

If you are really fast, with a lot of stamina, you may be able to play as a naked berseker

(My Huge problem with that is the fact that the Dwemer armor is called Dwarven armor!)
Dwemer are called dwarves because they are the shorter cousins of giant.
Does that enlighten you now
I think I got that bit from daggerfall ...


(Dwarves have been in RPG and fantasy stories LONG before TES was ever invented, and they have ALWAYS BEEN SHORT!)

See above. They are giant dwarves. There was one in morrowind. A single one, dammaged by corprus disease.
Also try to remember the link between Lorkhan and the dwarves.

Dwemer height notwithstanding, they could have always built that armor for any reason. A real life crippled short guy can still assemble a piece of armor, doesn't mean he has to base it on himself and make the armor small and for a crippled guy.

Dwemer is the elven term
Dwarves were in verry friendly terms witth giants ...
And were seen as giant dwarves in the eyes of the nords

But I do agree they should have been consistent and use dwemer everywhere

I only like the armors that look more feasible and less fantastical. Leather, Scaled, Fur (Fur is my favorite) for light. Iron, Steel, Steel Plate for heavy. Orc armor for an Orc is pretty sweet! Ebony is ok if you want that black knight look. I hate the daedra and their armor looks like a bad anime armor. I don't enjoy the dwemer armor either, it seems too shiny.

I don't know about you, but the vast majority of Dwemer armor my characters have seen was made by their own hands. Why would they make the armor not custom fitted to themselves (or to a certain customer if the goal was to sell the piece)?

As far as that rare piece of Dwemer armor that's found out in the world, who's to say it was actually crafted by the Dwemer, and not by some other race? If your character can learn to craft Dwemer armor, cannot some random man or mer do the same?

Dwarven isn't really Dwarven. It's Dwemer. Dwemer weren't short, either. It's just a misname.

You said you were going to post a reasonable discussion, but WTF. Dwarves are tall in TES, so they're called Dwemer, but people started calling them dwarves, without knowing that on earth, dwarf means short. That is why they're armor is called dwarven, because "dwarven" is the new term (but really, it's because giants called them that). You also said Tolkien invented dwarves...WTF is wrong with you...dwarves have been around for ever. Tolkien just depicted the dwarves as they are now, adding some more possible standard dwarf characteristics.