I love the story of those Ugly no eyed elves... But what I really wanna know is how they LIVED be cause I can see how they live now... Supposed advanced civilizations should have left some trace of existance... The Dwemer did... So will we ever see it? Why wasn't included with the build of the Folmer race? Ideas? What do you imagine they should look like style wise?

This is a discussion thread on the topic of Snow Elves and where they resided before they were forced underground. Please share your thoughts as to what you think about the lack of ruins, what you would like or expect to find in them and hopes for DLC or not!

Thanks

I've been curious about this myself but maybe they didn't have the time or space to add them? It also seems strange to me that it only took a few centuries for them to turn into the twisted monsters they are, wouldn't that take considerably longer? As for dlc I doubt very much they will expand on Snow Elves but who knows..

Malice understand what ya saying, but I have a discussion in lore going on, feel free to share thoughts there .

They were enslaved by the Dwemer after being run over by the Nords of Nede. They wouldn't leave any traces becuase they were forced into labor for the Dwemer. Later after the disappearnce of the Dwemer, the snow elves morphed into the Falmer of today. The inhabited Skyrim before the Nordic invasion.

It is more like 4500 years than a few centuries - and you'd be surprised how quick evolution can work when generation upon generation is subject to extreme environments. Also, the Dwemer forced them to eat toxic fungus that undeniably altered their appearance over time.

ooppps soory

I for one would love to see the Snow Elves expanded on big time!

Before being driven underground they had a civilization that rivaled the Altmer so I agree there should be some ruines.

I think the Nords destroyed them. They retreated underground, they didn't live underground. So I am to assume that all of their buildings were above ground and destroyed by the Nords.

Yeah I didn't think of it until I saw this thread but there should be at least a few ruins of the snow elves..... even after so many years.

The ruins would have been taken over and most likely destroyed by the Nords. Those big Ogres.

Maybe they lived in wooden buildings? If so then its hardly surprising there's nothing left because when civilizations are destroyed, fire is usually involved and fire > wood.

water > fire
wood > water

Skyrim version of rock-paper-scissors.

Maiq the liar says he kwow why the falmers are blind.

I was just travelling from winterhold to dawn star. There seems to be big stone blocks around in some places and things that look like door arches, the whole of skyrim is littered with debris
and ruins infact. Whats with all these big stone blocks all over the place?

Those are Nordic ruins, they date back to the First Era. They're over 1500 years old.

falmer, rightly, had every scrap of their existance above ground destroyed when they started a war with the nords

While back i saw in a post by someone that the Falmers Ruins are actually the Daedric Ruins. I'm not sure if it is true.. Maybe there underground? Very deep?

Even wood leaves traces of its existence archaelogically. If their buildings were made of ice or they lived in caves they still would have left traces of themselves in terms of artifacts like pottery, weapons, tools, etc etc. All that is in the game is devolved falmer. It really is pathetic imo. They did not give the falmer enough attention for me to realistically believe they ever existed as an intelligent race. All we have is one statue that may have been made by Dwemer. Check out the lore thread. There is lots of information about this subject there. With much better reasoning.


What Daedric ruins? The only place with those is Vvardenfell that we know for sure.

The Dwemer disappeared thousands of years ago, and before then is when the Dwemer enslaved the Falmer. They changed a long time ago. Much longer than a few centuries.

The Falmer may have actually been the ones that built the Nordic ruins (see Saarthal, which existed before the Nedic people of Atmora arrived), which housed the Eye. The ruins that Nords call their crypts may have actually been the homes of the Falmer before they were pushed away. Where the Nordic dead lie may actually have been beds for the Falmer, but were adopted as a place to put the dead followers of the Dragon Cult. Nords clearly do not build in stone, and I do not think they ever did. The advantages of the crypts are far too great to cast them aside in favor of cities out in the open. Yngol's Barrow and the Palace of Kings (Windhelm) are two exceptions that I can think of, and those may have been altered slightly by the Nords from an original Falmer site. Yngol's Barrow is clearly FAR less stony and is less perfect compared to the other so-called "Nordic" ruins. The only palces that heavily resemble the other ruins is the throne room where Yngol's Ghost resides and the area with the pillars prior to entering the throne room. Those may have been original Falmer designs that were adapted to Nordic use. The Palace on the other hand, was constructed by Ysgramor himself, but the same theory applies to this that is stated above and I think it was the head of the Falmer kingdom, almost completely opposing their Dwemer cousins, whom they called upon to aid them when they were pushed out of their land. Ysgramor using that place as his throne is symbolic of him completely defeating the Falmer by taking their throne and capitol as well (assuming my theory is correct).

Nords always seemed far more about direct power rather than sneaky traps, which the Dwemer use, so the Falmer (being cousins and perhaps being somewhat relatable in intelligence) may have actually been the ones to make the traps.

If that explanation isn't plausible enough for you, then maybe they were nomadic? If not that, then perhaps their architecture wasn't wrought of stone and metal and was perhaps simple wood (which is easier to work and keeps cold out much better than rock) that was ransacked by the 500 on their conquests.

It's said that the Snow Elf empire was vast and powerful, that they were highly advanced and also highly intellegent... Now discribing those charactoristics, one would need only apply a small amount of mental power to reach the conclusion that a vast, intellegent, superior, powerful race would have left vast city ruins EVERY WHERE... So, where are they? The answer that the Dragon cult or Nords adopted their old places of living is just not sitting well and really doesnt make sense... Also there's not a scrap of snow elf technology or weaponry... But there's plenty Dwemer... Just seems like a huge oversight

I think the simple fact there are no Snow Elves ruins is Beth decided on Dwemer and didn't want more work in making more ruins and locations.

I don't think that the Falmer built Nordic ruins. The Nords and Snow Elves did wage a war of extermination against each other. Ysgramor probably not only wanted to drive the Falmer out of Skyrim forever, but destroy their culture and legacy on the surface as well. In order to truly make Skyrim, the land of the Nords.

Ok, but why is there no writings or history about that though, see theres all kinds of questions that don't make sense about it and it kind of ruins me, I mean the contrast of the Snow Elves and the Falmor are so great, how could you miss something like this in a game like this? Ok think if you first ran into a Falmor and was like "Damn that thing is ugly and dirty..." then laster you stumble on a Beautiful, bright snow elf city and you're like"Wow, wonder what happened to them?" then you learn of there demize... Now in your head when you think about it that would probibly invoke a human responce... Empathy, pitty, sorrow... What ever it would be, it would enhance the gaming experience and you would remember that tragity.

The Snow Elves were surface dwellers. Their cities were probably destroyed and built over by the Nords. No one waged an eradication war against the Dwemer, they just simply disappeared. And the Falmer were not incredibly advanced. Their culture and society rivaled that of the Altmer, not the Dwemer. 'Snow Elf Ruins' would be nice but it doesn't irk me that they're not in the game like it would if Dwemer ruins weren't in the game.

If you want to blame anything, blame the lack of lore.