Lets start this off by stating that all creatures in Tamriel have clearly developed from just one single celled ancestor, like us on Earth. You can tell this by just looking at various of the races - alot of them are humanoid, which suggests that orcs, elfs, humans, khajit and whatnot all came from 1 common ancestor.

Anyhow, I think I am right in saying that the Orcs come from a mountainous, rocky region do they not? I think its the dragontail mountains or something. The point I am trying to get at is WHY are they green then? Why would orcs adapt to have green skin, its not like its an advantage or anything? And the only reason things in nature will adapt is for their own benefit. Anyone have any ideas why?

They start of flesh coloured but are fed asparagus from a young age and that turns them green. In all seriousness I don't know, I suggest looking on USEP maybe.

hmm, it is actually highly confusing.

double post sorry, how do i delete this message?!

they are an envious race.....

I suppose this could also apply to dunmer aswell.. Y U SO PURPLE?!

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Boethiah likes the colour green.

Tamriel is an alternate universe. Perhaps natural selection/evolution doesn't work the same way as it does for us.
Perhaps Orcs are green because of magic or perhaps it's an untold "curse" similar to Chimer->Dunmer?

In seriousness keep in mind that Orcs were monsters rather than a playable race in Daggerfall and Arena. They were probably made green to represent their "hulk-like" rage.

Warhammer

The Orcs are Orsimer, they were once "proper" elves and followed the god Trinimac. Boethia ate Trinimac and... well je went to the toilet and thus Malacath was born. The Orsimer appearance was also changed in the process, so I assume godly poop is green.

I think you're forgetting that the gods in Tamriel play a more, uh, hands on role than that of our gods, i.e. forget Darwin and think more in the line of Boethiah. The latter played more of a role than actual evolution in the TES universe.

Orcs are green because it looks cool.

In Skyrim they're sort of greenish gray. I've often wondered myself. It seems most of the lore nowadays can be traced down to the seminal work of a few fantasy writers of the first half of the XX century, notably Tolkien when classic medieval fantasy is involved because he was first and foremost, an historian and an expert in ancient folk and lore.

Tolkien himself designed the orc roughly around the ogre, a humanoid monster that was popular in fables and tales throughout Europe in medieval times. Throughout times the ogre were always designed ad massive humanoids (bestial strength being a common trait) with beast like features like prominent teeth and an ugly face and hairy body completing its feral traits.

If you going with the common ancestor theory then that ancestor is a long long way back. It cant be a humanoid ancestor the Khajit are feline the reason there now humanoid is because its so advantages to be so. Real world serious science theorises that any highly developed intelligent alien races if they exist at all would likely be humanoid. As for why are they green who knows maybe they photosynthesise and thats what produces the chemical that gives them the berserker rage.

Almost correct.
Evolution as on Earth does not exist on Tamriel, there hasnt been enough time. Only about 6500 years have passed since the Dawn era.

In The beginning there were the Ehlnofey and the Hist.
The Ehlnofey wandered and changed, while the Hist are immobile and unchanging.
Everything on Nirn is descendant from the Ehlnofey, men, mer, akaviri, giants, plants etc.

Except for the Hist, and the Argonians, as the Argonians are of the Hist.

However this process is called subgradiation and not evolution. In the Dawn time many spirits had to become smaller and more numerous, to begat children and become mortal, in order to survive.
After the Dawn time many of the changes the lifeforms on Nirn were subject to were magical and/ or divine in nature.
Take for instance the Orsimer, who used to be a subsect of Aldmer who worshiped their god-ancestor Trinimac.
When Trinimac was defeated by Boethiah (some say he was eaten and passed) he turned into Malacath and his followers turned into Orcs.
Or take the Dunmer, who used to be Chimer (an Aldmer subsect who left the Summurset isles due to religous differences) until they were cursed by Azura.

Nirn is a magical and mythical place, not one of physics and mathematics.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/monomyth
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/ages-man

The minerals in their skin breaks the light so that our eyes persive the color as green.

Thanks for all the replies guys. From what I've gathered from the answers, instead of races being created through evolution, they were actually created by the gods? Hm, not exactly realistic, but then again it's just a fantasy game!


As for this, I highly doubt a humanoid being may possess chlorphil. If your theory was true, you wouldn't see orcs eating at all.

Because they have traditionally been green in other games.

Yes, even Bethesda are influenced by other game companies!

as ppl have said evolution doesn't really exist in TES.

but if you want an evolution like explenation to orc's green skin (even though there isn't any) it prob would have something to do with mating. females prob thought green was hot so males who was green got a biggare chanse to mate and in that way the green skin got preserved wile to other colors "died out".

same thing as the colors of birds feathers and things like that

Thats an interesting point - I was only really thinking of physical survival, and completely forgot about reproduction.

I'm gonna go with this.

And maybe the rods & cones in other races' eyes allow them to perceive colors our human eyes are not designed to register. Which might be why the Dunmer are grayish to humans, human eyes are not built to register their coloring.

hmmm.. that would be a cool Mod... making it so that each race has a slightly different perception of some of the colors around them...

not all orcs are green...even in OB there was the "grey" prince.
My orc is black and many i encounter aren't green

Why are we all the colour we are?

different species, different pigments/genes/DNA, live with it

Orcs are probably green because Malacath is green, since they were originally elves who were the followers of the god Trinimac. They were transformed into Orcs when Trinimac became Malacath, and they tend to resemble him.

I guess then the next question would be "why is Malacath Green?"

If he's into gardening, then maybe he's the one that's full of chlorophyll, and he'd be allowed to do that since he's a Daedra god.

Not created by the gods. They were gods.(This is why the thalmor are trying to end Nirn, they want to be gods again) The gods just like to change around their forms now and then.

The orcs are green because they were made into daedra poo like their patron god.