Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-24241449-20131204014043/@comment-202.156.8.10-20131208110122

80.216.220.48 wrote:

Altmer and Nords are part of the same species since when?

Don't claim that they can breed makes them the same species, there is clearly magic behind the various Races capital R ability to crossbreed.

See for instance the fact that the child always takes on the mother's Race's characteristics. Duhh, that cause they have the mother's mitochondrial DNA - which affects people more than they think (yes, it really does affect you). Also, if they keep taking on the mom's race, by your logic, Bretons (the best munchkins out there) will not exist, as they will just be nords (as they were created by elf men and nord chicks having you know what). Neither will imperials (which were created when everybody went free for all)

In fact, I think the child takes on MOSTLY the mother's characteristics, but some trace of the dad remains there.

This is why the elves and humans are called races (its caps sometimes, but that means nothing), not species. I mean, unless you told me there was sperm magic or ova magic in existance (which I doubt, because nobody in the elder scrolls seems to know about the existance of individual cells), cross breeding by using magic (squick, when you think of spell casting towards each other's parts by talented mages, yuck) or magical processes seems like some really far fetched idea...