I finally was able to come up with the perfect idea for a character. An Imperial who is a renegade, who is a descendent of Tiber Septim, and sides with the Stormcloaks in my game.

After creating my character with light skin ( 3rd slider right from ALL left)

His face is extreme dark when OUTDOORS. Not so much inside houses, or caves, etc. But outside in the wilderness, from every angle, at all hours of the day, his face mainly his upper cheeks are black.

Please someone else tell me that this is a typical problem with Imperial MALE CHARACTERS.

I do not have the strength to create another.


Thanks so much, please share.

I never had that problem and am always going for a pale look with most of my characters. Have you tried turning up your monitors brightness or messing with the shadow settings?

Imperials (for the most part) are supposed to be a lil more darker skinned. Me and a friend discussed it and we think Imperials are kinda like Italians but kinda like Spaniards in a way. Not quite "white/caucasian" just darker skinned.. more european to them in a sense.

IDK it's hard to pinpoint what I'm trying to get across lol.

These are the screens of my imperial inside Helgen Keep / cave. He looks totally fine. But when I am outside, at all hours of the day, his face looks black and extremely shadowy. Especiall the left and right sides of his face. Total black. I thought it was angle shades, but I tried every angle view, at every daytime hour. Same.

[IMG]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m287/james_bartee/2012-02-03_09-17-39_809.jpg[/IMG]



[IMG]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m287/james_bartee/2012-02-03_09-17-45_94.jpg[/IMG]



[IMG]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m287/james_bartee/2012-02-03_09-17-39_809.jpg[/IMG]



[IMG]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m287/james_bartee/2012-02-03_09-15-35_478.jpg[/IMG]



[IMG]http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m287/james_bartee/2012-02-03_09-15-06_719.jpg[/IMG]

That is likely a DIRT issue.. try making a character without any dirt.

For the most part, all of the Imperials in Skyrim are dark-skinned.

During my first playthrough, I assumed that many npcs that I saw were Redguards, only to find out that they were Imperial.

I wonder what happened in between Oblivion and Skyrim? The Imperials must be spending a lot of time tanning in the snow. I assume that Bethesda just wanted the Imperials to look more Italian to go with their Roman theme, and to not have the Imperials and Bretons look identical.

Have any of your characters been imperials, though?





...I am on 360



...thanks everyone for your input, but can someone tell me if they have ever created a male Imperial, and ended up with this same problem and complaint?

If I start over and recreate the character, I do not want to waste my time lightening his skin tone, when it is already almost at the lightest, and risk having the same exact problem in the end.


Thanks so much.

I pretty much exclusively make male Imperials and I've never noticed that problem. Then again I never utilize the "Dirt" slider either. Could be the issue.

I've had this problem with numerous characters of various races, it's just difficult to tell how a skin tone will look in different setting (indoors, outdoors). I would suggest restarting, but you might have made to much progress for that to be an option.

You used the first preset I imagine. That one has coal-cheeks no matter what

It looks as if I will be starting over. No, I didn't use the first preset. I used the 2nd or 3rd preset. The one that by default has an extremely black face. Darkest black eyeliner, eye tint, cheeks, and everything.

I guess these features just always remain.

I will start over with much lighter features to try to get rid of this.

Hello again Bleakwail sorry i didnt get back to you sooner. Am on Pc and yes i've played Imperials a few times already. They all had a Italian look about them with a light skin tone not dark at all. Its most likely a dirt issue where you have to remove it with the slider to get the cleanest look and lighter skin tone. I do the same thing for cheek,chin and anything else that allows me to lighten skin tone so its all even.

The 360 version of Skyrim is exactly the same as the Pc so i doubt thats where the problem is.

Best wishes on getting this resolved and thanks for your patience

i maybe being special but i cant see the comparrison in the screenies could you just post on labeled inside on labeled outside as i see nothing wrong. i would worry about him being a little dark around the eyes hes of age and a bit of an ugly geezer anyway lol.

I slid the tone, complexion, and dirt sliders all the way to the left and didn't have problems.