I think the point a number of people are trying to make is that the races used to have a certain stereotype to them.
Redguards = light armored offensive warriors
Nords = heavy armored balanced warriors
Orcs = heavy armored, defensive warriors
Argonians = medium armored defensive warriors
Imperials = jack of all trade types, though generally typecasted as medium-light infantry warriors.
Bosmer = stealth archers
Khajiits = stealth melee
Dunmer = spellswords
Altmer = offensive mages
Bretons = defensive mages

Unfortunately, when you reduce armors to two types and take out the significance of weapon types, there's only so much you can do to accentuate cultural affinity for some partilar skillset. In TES 6, this will be even worse since there's probably only going to be the skill "combat" and then all weapons and armors and whatnot will fall under that.

The Imperials seem to have lost their aptitude for Speech(craft), which I guess got passed along to the Nords and Bretons.

Considering we have 3 stealthy races (Khajiit, Bosmer, and Argonian), 3 Mage Races (Altmer, Breton, Dunmer), now TWO warrior races (Orc and Nord), and the Imperial, who's racials are balanced to be a mage or warrior, I'm gonna say making him a mage was the redundant thing to do.

Lol what? Where the hell did that come from? Isn't this the Skyrim forum?

I have learned how to cry the most of anybody fyi

You might as well ask why Imperials have +10 Restoration and not a single bonus to Speech. Or why Altmer have +10 to Illusion and not Alteration.

Think of it this way. Redguards do hate the use of magic, but that doesn't mean that they do not have an apptitude for destruction or alteration. Perhaps budding mages in redguard society are persecuted and treated as lepers leading to the arguement "Redguards hate magic," hence leading to the one magic using reguard in Oblivion who had to leave Hammerfall to escape their societal stigma against magic so he could practice freely.

It makes me happy you used "No" for "Know" in the same sentence you referred to something someone else said as "stupid"

I agree that the magic bonuses don't make sense for a Redguard.

However in Oblivion arguably the most skilled mage in the game was Borissean (a Redguard), master spellmaker in the Arcane University. And Delmar (also a Redguard) is perhaps the only mage skilled enough to make a mage's staff.

And the mage you mention in the OP, Traven the Redguard, mostly complains about illusion and conjuration magic, not so much alteration and destruction. In fact Traven sells some low level alternation and destruction spells.

But yes lore-wise, those bonus don't make much sense. Speech would have made more sense, and maybe light armor.

Hey now, I have ADD and I do not approve of this outright offense against the lore.

They have no bonuses towards illusion or conjuration, so alteration and destruction can enhance their prowess in battle without doing anything that goes against Redguard traditions. After all, they need some advantage against orcs and nords to be the greatest warriors of Tamriel. Destruction and alterations seems like a good one.

Now, Nords on the other hand absolutely hate magic, I think way more than Redguards. Redguards just seem to hate wizards and spellcasters, not so much magic in general.

The quote helped clear this up for me, thanks

That one guy said that, but it doesn't seem to be a big part of Redguard lore as far as I can tell. It's more about them being the best swordsmen than saying they hate magic. Could well be wrong though.

Re. the War of Betony, seems like mostly they considered that the Bretons cheated at certain points by using "black magic" instead of fighting honorably. However this can be interpreted as making excuses for losing to the Bretons rather than saying it's never allowable to use magic... I dunno.
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Fav%27te%27s_War_Of_Betony

Open up console, knock the two down to 10-15 w/e and put the 2 ones that fit in with lore up. If you're on ps3 or xbox, tough noodles :\

I never actually noticed that.

If it's true then Bethesda quite clearly overlooked that- because there is no lore or gameplay reason for having the Redgaurds with those skill bonuses. Must have been a development mistake.

Ditto. More or less, anyways. I have ADHD.

It's like they threw lore out the window in favor of making all the races fairly well rounded.

Redguards, according to lore, don't like necromancy, conjuration, or anything involving souls. That's obvious. However, they ARE somewhat fond of destruction. As for the Alteration, I can't quite explain that. But the Redguards don't hate the Bretons as
much as you think they would. They DID ally withthem to defeat the threat of the orca in 2E or 3E, but I can't remember which.

Dumb Bethseda

I find a few skill increases a bit dumb aswell.

Imperials don't seem to have a bonus to speech. And Bretons have one?

Someone's angry that the lore has been changed.

Lore changes, Bethesda changed the entire of Cyrodiil from a jungle to a happy forest. They can do whatever they want with it.
If they've changed the redguards description, then that's your reason why.

The +5 & +10 bonuses in the game are not exactly character-defining. My Redguard character is a rogue; I'm more interested in what an individual character is doing or skilled at than what the racial dispositions are. So ... o/p may technically be right to say that's a transgression of the original lore, but it seems like a fairly trivial transgression.

Exactly. Just because a race is inherently good at something on a biological level doesn't mean they actually need to have a history of liking/using it.

Why shouldn't they be angry? One of the many reasons people played (and purchased) TES games is because of the lore associated with them (and spell making). If Bethesda is simply going to ignore that, we have every right to complain.

I expect my TES games to have amazing lore and spell making, just as I expect my cars to have cup holders and brakes. What's wrong with that?

Because Bethesda MADE the lore. They can change it, scrap it, modify it, add to it, do whatever the hell they want with it. Its their lore, their games.

As things progress there are going to make adjustments and changes to the main lore. Lore should be something Bethesda use to enrich their games, not something that constricts development of their games.

I really don't see why people are getting so worked up over this.

The problem is that they were never inherently good at using magic until Skyrim.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Arena:Races#Redguard
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Redguard
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Battlespire:Races
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Redguard
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Redguard

Because the changes don't make sense. If they actually offered something useful in terms of gameplay, sure, I'd be all for it. But they don't, and completely contradict everything concerning Redguards from previous games and lore. If you want to be a mage, don't play a Redguard (or if you really, really want to be a Redguard mage, don't expect to be as skilled as, say, a Breton, Dunmer or Altmer). It's that simple, and there's no reason why Bethesda should have changed it.

No just like other races like Orcs, Redguard, and Nords. Most are against magic or do not have the apptitude for it. There are however cases that some individuals like to use magic and become mages. Go back through the games and lore and you will find some redguards using magic. This is what has killed the fantasy game world of today. Too frikkin many people want everything to make sense or try to put logic into a video game. IT IS A FANTASY RPG! You can do anything you want in the story. Everything doesn't have to make sense.......

Just don't play a redguard mage then

It's a valid question, sure. But they've changed the racial abilities and given a reason behind it in the game guide. It might not make the biggest sense but it doesn't have any effect on gameplay at all. It's not a big deal.