Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-28157605-20160511181059/@comment-28388246-20160517014450

Part of what happened to the Falmer was due to the poisons the Dwemer gave them to render them blind. It's hard to tell how else the poisons might have affected them physically or mentally - somehow I doubt blindness was supposed to be the only effect.

There is also something called "Stockholm syndrome" where prisoners form emotional bonds with their captors, sometimes to the point of trying to be like them. Since we see quite a few human slaves in Blackreach, I wouldn't be surprised if most of the Falmer were trying to be just like the Dwemer that enslaved them.