I'm wondering why Bethesda chose to make the black race into prototypical 'African Americans' as in they are of mixed race and not native Africans. I've seen this done in a lot of games but I find it a little off-putting. Why are caucasoid features favored over negroid ones? Wouldn't it be refreshing to see the Redgaurd possess 100% 'black' features and other generalities? By 'black' I mean characteristics predominently prescribed to the peoples of Africa and from whence their genotypes originate (seperated from later geographical 'variations').

It is easier to skin a model than it is to create a new one. The game is not based off of Earth or the reality we know also so they are not constrained to something like that.

In real life caucaisin people and negro people (and like asian people) are differernt races. So in Skyrim they just give those races differnt names, like causasians are Nords, negros are Redguards, ect.

Redguards are their own distinct race, like Altmer or Breton and are not 'black'.
Like with anything else in TES, they are a mixture of fantasy and real-life influences, in their case their history and culture is more reminiscent of Japanese.

Most of the men do have negroid features, whereas the women seem to have a more caucasoid look, kinda like a dravidian from India. And their attire looks more like moorish or berber gear.

To be honest, I think Bethesda doesn't really have a clue what they want them to be, and just went for "vaguely ethnic". But at least they don't glow red and have green lips like they did in Oblivion.

I'd actually like to see the next game in Hammerfell, just to see what Bethesda do with it.

OP, your question is wasted on this forum. For every informed response you'll get several idiots trying to incite a racial argument or giving moot points.

My thoughts would be that the Redguards originally possessed more negroid features, i.e. at the time of their exodus from Yokuda, but over time and through intermingling with the other (almost predominantly caucasian) human races, they developed more mixed-race characteristics. We only see a small selection of Redguards in Skyrim and most of them seem to be residents here - probably not original immigrants.

Also, the Redguards in TES don't seem to be predominantly 'African' either - they seem to be more of a medley of every non-Caucasian race. The Alik'r warriors in particular have very Middle Eastern / Arabain features such as paler skin and fair eyes.

Does it really matter that much what they look like when their lore and gods are so interesting?

The roman empire was as much north african as it was european. If that's the overriding theme.

And anyway the reason we think of distinct races is because our mental map doesn't include central asia and similar... in reality there's no distinct line where people stop looking caucasian and start looking asian.

The answer to the OP's question was in the second post.

This thread already has posts in it that warrant a Warning/Suspension. Don't look for the posts, I deleted them.

So, I am going to close it.