Aldmer

Aldmer, meaning First or Elder Folk, are a mythological race that was the first to appear on Nirn. The Oblivion game book Before the Ages of Man is the most comprehensive source of their history. It traces their origins first to the mythic continent of Aldmeris, noting the alternate rendering of Old Elhofney for the place. Certain maps are cautious enough to exclude the mythic continent from their mappings of the Elder Scrolls universe, while others place it to the south of Tamriel. Nu-Hatta of Michael Kirkbride's Nu-Mantia Intercept accords little credence to the Elves' tale, writing that that time that was once thought of as the sundering of Aldmeris was, in reality, a mere schism between Elven communities. "Outside of the Dawn, and even then only in the dreamtime of its landscape, there was never a terrestrial homeland of the Elves. 'Old Ehlnofey' is a magical ideal of mixed memories of the Dawn. Do not believe the written histories. All mortal life started on the starry heart of Dawn's beauty, Tamriel." Whatever one makes of the writing, it at least encourages caution in the credulent reading of any one source. Their first settlements are located in southwestern Tamriel, presumably Valenwood or the Summerset Isles, from which they moved on to settle the whole of Tamriel, moving as far from their home as Vvardenfell, to build Ald Redaynia, Bal Fell, Tel Aruhn, and Tel Mora. Following this, they disappear from record, presumably subsumed into Altmer or Bosmer races. The Tamriel Timeline reads the "Elves of the Summerset Isles" in the Pocket Guide's history of Cyrodiil to mean "Aldmer", although it is not certain how much this represents a judgement on the part of Xanathar or a mere slip of the pen. The term "Aldmer" is sometimes used to describe the entire Elven race, as in the "Aldmeri Dominion", or in common Elven usage, as evinced by the entry for "Aldmer" in the Elder Scrolls Treasury. To quote: "Aldmeri -- the Imperial usage is 'Elves'", indicating either a common misunderstanding of Elven meaning in the usage of "Aldmer" or the use of the term by Aldmer for themselves. Aldmer culture survives on in their language and religion. Again quoting the Treasury: "Aldmeris is the original Elvish language, still spoken as a first language among isolated Elven communities, and spoken and written by all educated Elves, and the language of the Elven arts".[7] Such important in-game terminology as "Daedra", "Mer", "Tamriel", and the prefixes "Bet-", "Dun-", "Alt-" each derive from the Aldmeri tongue.[8] The Morrowind game book Varieties of Faith in the Empire finds 7 of the 62 gods of Tamriel to be of positively "Aldmeri" origin.