Elves of Skyrim

You may remember the game Skyrim. Whether you played it or not, you have to admit, you heard of it or seen someone playing.  It became a popular RPG game after its release in November of 2011 causing it to win the “VGX Award for best RPG”.  We could go further into what made it a famous game that is still being played to this day with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition being released in October of 2016, but what I would like to talk about are the races that are in the game; Elves to be more specific.   In the games, there are three races of elves; The High Elf, Wood Elf and Dark Elf or Altmer, Bosmer and Dunmer as they are commonly referred to by veteran elder scroll players and in the game. This is my general overview of the three so let’s start with my personal choice and favorite of the elves the High Elf.

High Elves

High Elves (Altmer) are very proficient in the magical arts and make for very powerful Mages, Alchemist or Enchanters. Many of the high elves you will encounter in the game are one if not a combination of the three but what aids the player to chose a high elf are their two Magicka regeneration traits. First is their well known Highborn ability that gives the player the ability to replenish any lost Magicka for only 60 seconds, a good trait as this became very useful when I was being attacked and would need to heal or I needed to deliver a finishing attack. Second is the Fortify Magicka that will increase the players Magicka by only 50pts when it is used this is also a big help as it was a quicker to equipt and unlike the Highborn it could be used more than once per day.

Once you start leveling up and finding other ways to help regenerate your Magicka quickly with trinkets, apparel, and accessories, I found you did not need to use these abilities as often. However, they were very helpful when I was starting out in the game.  When I was fighting against a fellow high elf I found it seemed like my opponent had unlimited Magicka or replenished more quickly than I was able to during battle. which resulted in a quick death or me making a hasty retreat many times during my travels.

Dark Elves

Dark Elves (Dunmer) are a race I’ve never personally played as, but much like their high elf cousins, they make very powerful mages and necromancers. Their added stealth bonus makes stealing and pickpocketing a lot easier for them to accomplish. Playing as a dark elf gives the player bonuses in destruction and Alteration as both are very useful if you were to pursue becoming a mage but are the complete opposite if you were to come across a powerful dark elf in your travels as I had many times.

The dark elves have a natural resistance to fire with fire attacks dealing 50% less damage when compared to the other races. This caused me a lot of pain and frustration as a high elf who leveled up his fire spells first, making any battle against a dark elf longer than necessary. Dark elves are also able to call upon their Ancestors Wrath ability that will cause a small amount of fire damage to any enemy that gets too close to them. This being my main cause of death when faced with a dark elf as they preferred to approach me until they were within range to attack me with a poisoned dagger causing major amounts of fire and poison damage early in the game.

Wood Elves

Wood Elves (Bosmer) are my second favorite race to play as they are resistant to disease and poison meaning it was less of an issue when I was attacked with a poisoned weapon. Wood elves happen to have excellent archery traits since they start out with an archery bonus similar to their dark elf cousin they can be used as thieves given their sneaking and stealth bonus in the game. I leveled up my lockpicking and pickpocket skill very quickly in the game both skill very helpful when I needed to retrieve an item or had to hide from enemies and angry guards.

Fighting against a wood elf was very similar to fighting a dark elf in my experience. Both attack with ranged attacks up until a certain distance, then lash out with a poisoned dagger.  I occasionally was shot with a poisoned arrow first, then attacked. A noticeable trait that comes with choosing a wood elf is their Great Power. This gives them the ability to command a nearby animal to become their ally for 60 seconds. I for one found out that if that particular animal was a bear and they should accidentally attack the bear, you would have the bear turn on both you and the enemy after the 60 seconds were up. This ability, however, was difficult to fight against at first being a lower level and new to the game but after reaching a certain level it would be the same difficulty as walking into a low-level bandit camp.
Written By:  Allen Ward