So, if the Dwemer were actually just an offshoot of the elven race, and (as is written in lore books ingame) were no shorter than any other elves, why and how did they ever earn the moniker of 'dwarves'? I mean, obviously their lifestyle and proclivities mirror the Tolkienesque dwarves- underground miners and engineers, love stone, carve great underground palaces and disdain surface people, etc.... but since their is no connection between the dwemer elves and a lack of stature, tacking 'dwarves' onto them, just seems a little too cutesie and nod-nod-wink-wink at Lord of the Rings, to me. Out of place... like some kind of inane pop culture reference smuggled into the TES world.

Apparently the Imperials gave them the name, which they may have got from Giants, who would view them as "dwarves."

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Dwemer

giants gave them that name

Interesting. Never saw any giants do anything but grunt, roar and try to kill me, so didn't even suspect they had a language shared with men.

If you have the subtitles on, you get to see how some of their words are written phonetically, but that's not really anything in and of itself. You still don't know what they're saying.

They use to be legible, talk the same languages understandable to Nords/Dwemer, but as legend says they went up into the mountains and disappeared for a time. when they came back...a few screws were missing.

*Cue "Dueling Banjos"*

I think the giant language was a skill in Daggerfall, this means that some men must be able to speak giant.

And isn't this really more suited for the Lore section of the forums?

Well since of course they speak a language men can understand.

They also were a race who refused to see themselves as sub-gradient to the divines, thus http://www.imperial-library.info/content/final-report-trebonius into divinity with the Numidium (big stompy robot brass god used by Tiber Septim to conquer Tamriel).

There's an interesting theory floating around explaining why the dwemer built underground. The other elves built really tall towers (White Gold, Crystal-like-law, etc) as a means to get closer to their ancestors (among other reasons) a.k.a the Aedra. While the Dwemer ever defiant against the gods built below the ground.

Of course the towers have a more http://www.imperial-library.info/content/nu-mantia-intercept.

Well I would assume that they were more reminiscent to Tolkien Dwarves than Altmer if you know what I mean.

I imagine they would be roughly the same height as Bosmer, bearded (their automatons boast false beards, perhaps in the image of their creators). Aside from that and their love of stone, metalworks, and engineering, I couldn't really tell you much about them. Bethesda hasn't really made anything clear abotu them.

Dwe = Deep
Mer = Folk

Dwemer = Deep Folk