Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-9062114-20140323022721/@comment-17114085-20140323164207

80.216.220.71 wrote: They're most definitely not the same species and it's blatantly ridicoulous and absurd to claim otherwise.

If they were the same species there would be humans with the same racial traits as elves and vice versa, there aren't.

We'd have Bretons with Nords frost immunity, Redguards with Altmers enhanced magical abilities etc.

We don't.

Biology has no place in fantasy, because it doesn't explain anything there. Please explain to me oh Mr. Expert on fantasy reproduction how they can't be considered the same species. I've already said that Men and Mer could be different subspecies of the same species. Do you know what a subspecies is?

Members of one subspecies differ morphologically or by different coding sequences of DNA from members of other subspecies of the species. Subspecies are defined in relation to species. As knowledge of a particular group increases, its categorization may need to be re-assessed.

See how your argument of a Breton not having frost resistance is illogical? Different subspecies have their own traits, this is why you'll never see a redguard with frost resistance or a nord with magic resistance. Those are traits specific to a different subspecies.

As for Men and Mer being different species already I've already told you that is possible, meaning that they are in a situation similar to wolves/dogs/dingoes. But that would mean that only recently that the two subspecies have separated into different species, making interbreeding still possible.

Biology can be applied to fantasy, though obviously, because of magic and other things that the creators of said fantasy take liberty with, it can't be applied to everything. For example: Biology can't explain the Khajiit moon cycle influencing which type of khajiit is born. Or the fact that female Argonians now have breasts(since Oblivion, for Bethesda laziness reasons.).

Men and Mer were part of the same species originally, if they still are or not is up for debate. Khajiit were Mer before being changed into Khajiits, Azura was most likely involved(which would explain the moons having influence on their births.). Argonians aren't related to Men nor Mer for all we know, they were always from Black Marsh and it was the Hist that made them sentient. These are facts.