Posting it here in the Skyrim forum as I haven't seen this happening in TES Discussion or the Lore forum.

I constantly see people referring to the Falmer and the "Snow Elves" as two different races; usually, the Falmer are the blind, Dwemer ruin-dwelling variant that would like to make you into a stew, and the Snow Elves are the more human-like form seen in Dawnguard.

Why?

They're both the same races, with the only differences being in hostility and a little bit in appearance. But they're often being talked about as distinct races independent of each other.

Well no Falmer is just the Elven word for Snow Elves. Like Dunmer for Dark Elf etc. At least I think it is. The most likely reason for referring to them as seperate races is because they kind of are. The Falmer in the Fourth Era are feral and savage, their culture is crude and they're completely blind. The Falmer previously had a culture to make even the Altmer jealous apparently. Not to mention they could see and were relatively peaceful.

Yes, Falmer does mean Snow Elf, but no, they are not seperate races. Just because their demeanor is different doesn't make their species different.

The same way Chimer and Dunmer are referred to as different races......when a race is changed is such a drastic way, it is sometimes easier to refer to them as a different name.

Depends on if you consider divergent evolution to be true and working in skyrim lore.

What the people call Falmer, I now call The Betrayed. This topic really should be on the DG board.

To the best of my knowledge, Falmer is used to described the warped, twisted beings we find in Dwemer ruins and such. Snow Elf is used to describe the Falmer before they were enslaved by the Dwemer and turned into those horrible creatures.

That was my understanding as well.

Being a PS3 player, I don't have access to Dawnguard yet, but after skimming over the UESP page on the Falmer, it says that the "sane" ones in Dawnguard refer to themselves as Snow Elves rather than Falmer. Can anyone can confirm this? If true, it would explain a lot.

Spoiler Alert.

Geez

Honestly, I'm shocked that these "snow elves" do not call themselves "falmer". It's strange that they would take to being called by their mannish name rather than their merrish name.

The morlocks should be called "snow elves" instead.

they aren't really the same race, not really. They've devolved, they don't really have look like "snow elves" anymore, they look like the things in decent.

snow elves looked like high elves who needed a tan, so i can't see how you'd say falmer and snow elves are the same. Plus falmer sounds bad, like foul or something

I had assumed it was common knowledge by now. People openely talk about the Falmer and Snow Elves and even provide links to the characters in Dawnguard.

They still share similarities. Skin color, ear shape, the same basic facial features (not eyes and mouth, obviously, but things like the jawline).

"Falmer" sounds bad because of their reputation. When one hears "Falmer," one immediately thinks of an evil, bloodthirsty creature. Rome's name sounds powerful and commanding because of the civilization's history.

I can't recall ever seeing them referred to as separate races. OP can you please point to an example?

When I hear Falmer, I think Snow Elves; just like when I here Altmer or Dunmer I think High Elves and Dark Elves respectivly. Really, Falmer shouldn't be related just to the twisted visage of their once proud race, it should be connected to the historical race of elves that inhabited Skyrim. Its a sad state of things around here that their true name is being mistaken for The Betrayed.

so does every other elvish race? And the same could be said for imperials nords and bretons. If anything race seems to be just cultural (besides the bonuses, but were talking about looks right?)

And for all intents the falmer are different from snow elves, its not like they can just be magically changed back into tall pale high elves with a snap of a finger

It's kind of like a toad and a tadpole.

Tadpole = a young toad, very young

Toad = A toad, you know what it is.

Scratch that, that's a bad example.

Snow elves = used to be a civilized race.

Falmer = Snow elves eventually became uncivilized, and went back to their primal form, thus naming them falmer

The issue with that is that Falmer should mean civilized. The two words are synonomis, their not different racially nor are they origionally used to describe two different aspects of the race. Falmer is simply the correct, elvin name for their people while Snow Elves is the manish version. No self respecting Falmer would call themselves a snow elf in their prime.

And that's exactly what I thought, except, why the "snow elves AND falmer" then?

This thread just makes me more confused.

All of the Mer races are essentially subraces of the Aldmer, so it makes sense that they share similar characteristics.

My point is that the Falmer and "Snow Elves" are of the same race, yet people seem to refer to them differently. The Falmer were, at one point, "tall pale high elves" as you put it. Gelebor just simply wasn't enslaved and thus didn't develop the extreme hate that the blind Falmer have.

I'm talking about when people here on the forums discuss the Falmer, not any ingame sources. Is that what you thought I was talking about?

No. I understand you are referring to people on the forums talking about Falmer, not in game sources. I don't recall anyone on the forums referring to Falmer and Snow Elves as being different races.

Can you please cite examples? Because most or all posts I've seen understand completely that Falmer are Snow Elves after being corrupted by Dwemer. I don't recall "constantly see people referring to the Falmer and the "Snow Elves" as two different races". Can you please provide examples of this constant confusion? Thanks.

How is this even a question seriously?Unless ur one of does religious nut jobs who denies the existence of evolution ,it really makes no sense.

I'm sorry, but whaaat?

Well yeah thats it...the civilized Falmer prefer to be called Snow Elves because Falmer are denoted as monsters by the civilized world. In the game, though, they are technically different since Falmer aren't even a race,(they're considered creatures for gameplay purposes) so thats probably where the different races thing came in. Lorewise though, they are still the same race.
Nut jobs? That's utterly ridiculous. Maybe long ago, you could just find nut jobs in every household across Tamriel, but not anymore.

Perhaps it is best that people refer to Falmer and Snow Elves as different races because, as of the 4E, they are. 4th era Falmer have devolved and are genetically different from their ancestors and are no longer the same race. Consider it like chimps evolving into humans, but in reverse.

This^

Evolution. Snow elves were changed by their environment. Two actual snow elves remain: Gelebor and Vyrthur. The rest (the falmer) are a new species now, as they pass down traits the original snow elves did not have. They had adapted to a new environment. Finches of different species share more similarities than differences, but they are different species. Evolution. Now compare Gelebor (one of the last snow elves) to the falmer. Clearly related, but no longer the same species. Mutation, magic, whatever caused it - the DNA has changed, unless falmer offspring are like Gelebor/Vyrthur and then change into "falmer form" (which is not the case, AFAIK).

Also, looking at Mysterious One's post (above), and the OP's original post, I'm remiss not to remind: races are not the same as species. Humans (black, white, asian, latin, middle-eastern, etc) are all the same species - but different races. Just like dogs have breeds but they're still the same species. So, to reinforce, I feel that the falmer are a different species than the snow elves, due to evolution and, after their initial creation, natural selection. I believe Gelebor himself says so.