The Dunmer had to flee to Skyrim and Solstheim, and a lot of Orcs had to flee Orsinium when it was sacked again. I know there are Orc strongholds, but there should be more in the cities. And Dunmer should be everywhere.

Thoughts?

You need to compare the ammount of dunmer and orcs with the ammount of NPC in game. Despite all the events, the great majority of NPCS by far should be nords.

Maybe they don't like Skyrim.

nope, the dunmer dislike skyrim (as you can hear in the grey district) and the orcs have taken up banditry (at least i assume, warrior race and all that, maybe they became soliders though), and this is just a scale version of actual skyrm so the mer population is just a fraction of all through out skyrim (although still proportional with the nords, so the nords are still the msot numorus)

gimme proof

Read the books that came out, and the official lore. The books are counted as official lore btw.

I refuse to read the books. It really makes me sad that the books are counted as official lore.
So I just went to the Imperial Library to look on the "lore notes" of Infernal City and Lord of the Souls.
I found that about the destruction of morrowind:



There is no evidence that the whole race of the dunmer have to flee OR
that the dunmer in morrowind have lost ALL (yes all) control of the homeland.

Many things can change over 200 years.

But I haven't played Skyrim enough to know exactly what happened. So everyone is free to correct me.
Proof is all I ask for.

Go to Windhelm and talk to the Dark Elves about the cloud of ash that make it neigh impossible to breath. Then there are the Argonians that are invading (which means a lot of both races are occupied in a war of their own), and the fact that Vvardenfell if basically gone, yeah the gods have really abandoned the Dark Elves.

As for Orcs, they are still part of the Empire, so many of them are in the Imperial Army, working forges, and standing on the front lines. Then there is the fact that the old Orsinium was in High Rock and next to Hammerfell, which means a lot of them are in those provences. And there is supposedly a new Orsinium on the boarder of Skyrim.

Except it was the Redguards and Bretons who sacked Orsinium in the first place. I doubt too many Orcs want to go knocking on their doors.

More than likely they set up strongholds like in Skyrim. But as I said, I believe most of them would be in other parts of the empire.

Skyrim isn't Cyrodiil. That's like comparing Idaho to California as far as racial diversity goes.

Well, they did anyway. With giant axes and impenetrably-armored fists.

Some Dunmer have went back to Morrowind. They are still on Solstheim I am pretty sure. I do not think the Dunmer would want to stay in Skyrim with the Nords. They used to live in Winterhold until it fell in the sea.

Proof is what you ask for. Prove is a verb.

And the proof is in the books you, for some reason, refuse to read. Why is it sad they are canon?

Thanks for the correction.

There are three reasons why I won't read the books.
First reason is that I already read many summaries and notes about the lore which is introduced in the novel.

Second reason is: I don't trust books/comic about games. I was a huge fan of Warcraft 2 & 3 and of their lore. But World of Warcraft (which I played myself) and (some of) their books just destroyed a lot for me.

And the last one: I (think I) don't have to read the two novels to understand the "new lore" which is introduced in the novels, because there are websites like http://www.imperial-library.info/ to summarize all important facts about them.
So I don't have to read the books to understand them and to discuss them.

And why it is sad they are canon?
I simply don't like the story. It doesn't look very "elderscroll-like" to me.
And it seems the author is a little argonian-fanboyish.

So now back to topic.
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/infernal-city-lore-notes
http://www.imperial-library.info/content/lord-souls-lore-notes

Read the links and you know at least the same as me.
(I qouted any useful information already in my previous post)

Maybe it is better described in the books, but this is what they say about the Dunmer and Morrowind:

It's not cleary stated how much of Morrowind is left. Or how many dunmer died (can the lava even kill many of them?).
Or how the argonians control Morrowind. Or where are the argonians ...

The OP said and I deny that. If you say THE dunmer (the whole race) have to flee to Skyrim, this automatically implies that everyone is either enslaved (?) by the argonians or died by the eruption of the red mountain or fleed to Skyrim.
And I want proof is that is true or not, because that would mean there are no free dunmer in Morrowind.
I mean even UESP.NET only has a single sentence about the future (it's already past in Skyrim) of the dunmer.
200 years about the history of the dunmer can't be just describes like this:

[from uesp.net]

Is Cyrodiil by any chance Cali?

I don't know the u.s. very well, but I think his point was that skyrim and cyrodiil are different and NOT that skyrim is similiar to Idaho or Cyrodiil to California.

I only have one problem with the novels being canon.
No one in Skyrim mentions it. Except for Ysolda's rumours Umbriel is not spoken of.
A flying city is sure too at least get some attention.

Most dunmer returned to Morrowind after Winterhold sank and the persecution in the Gray Quarter of Windhelm started.
However, there doesn't appear to be much for them to go back to, for Vvardenfall was destroyed and most of southern Morrowind is under Argonia now.
But we might see a lot more of them if we happen to get a Solstheim dlc in the future, as it seems likely they would have developed a new capital there.

And what about the orc population? well to be honest I thought that them & their strongholds were just half-hearted thrown in at the last moment.
I mean they've always had good relations with the nords and easily related to their beliefs, so they should have integrated well into nordic society.

Yet once I played Skyrim I was disappointed not to witness this. But well I guess I shouldn't of gotten my hopes up when it comes to lore continuity.
Heh, I'll just have to hope yet again that they'll fix this in a dlc or the next Elder Scrolls game.

I don't know about the Drunmer but there are lots of Orcs in Skyrim. They are not living in cities among the Nords because it's hard for them to fit in Nordic society. They live in strongholds, many of them are bandits and you can see several wandering Orcs around the roads and wilderness if you are not using fast travelling.

Look around Skyrim as a whole , not just the strongholds , we have orcs in the imperial legion , in most of the major towns and capital cities on the road traversing the region , we can find more of them making their living like bandits or in the mines. Thats not exactly a low count. Take into consideration that this is in fact a Nordic land and most of the population should be Nords. Played the game 3 times from scratch with 3 different characters with the means to get a general understanding of the new game, i must say i am quite impressed of the balance of races in the game.

The OP was asking why there isn't more dunmer and orcs. It seems correct to me. Proportionally, there should be mostly Nords in the Nord homeland with a smattering of the other races. In the rural areas you rarely find other races. Maybe 10%(or less) of other races? And in the 'cities' their numbers are higher, but again that is fairly correct proportionally. If you were to count absolutely every NPC you would have a total city population of a hundred or so. That is not a 'city'. It would barely count for a village. It is merely to give the feel of a city. And of that 100 or so NPCs about half are going to be represented by the other races(other than Nord). So, it seems to me the numbers are reasonably close. Also, just as there is in RL there are 'natives' that predated the Nords....the Forsaken. And while they are represented, they are much reduced and are primarily located in the west. And also, the Orcs have been here awhile as well.....which is why they a have clan enclaves that are known (and therefor on the map) that are purely Orcish. There is a book that talks about the Orcs and it names several major enclaves-more than what you can find. This means that there are more Orcish clanholds out there, and so even if you can't see them, Orcs are well represented.

And what's the reason to come to Skyrim exactly, a province in the middle of a war and dragons?

After Red Mountain erupted it killed all the Dumner nearby. So very few in Skyrim as well no longer part of the Empire. As for Orcs they are mostly bandits and don't live that long so I thonk they just avoid the cities.

The Orc's have their own strongholds around Skyrim, if you havent found them yet.

Now the Dunmer , i have seen a few in some CIties, Windhelm has a living quarter for them especially. Dont think i recall seeing many of them in the Thieves Guild, apart from Karliah. And apart from the East Empire contact, i dont think there were any Khajiit or other Argonaian's in the Thieves guild either were there ?