Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-2165692-20140425203121/@comment-24590102-20140825103229

Harold Burned-Mane wrote: It doesn't matter what the game mechanics make it seem like, the Falmer are blind. Lore clearly states them to be. In-game characters confirm the lore, and so they are blind.

Gelebor, the Snow-Elf, even says so:

"...Surprisingly, they agreed to protect us but demanded a terrible price... the blinding of our race..."

"...The blinding of my race was supposedly accomplished with a toxin..."

He should know, he is a Snow Elf and has encountered 'the Betrayed' on many occasions.

Thanks for the dialogue quotation - the details really tell a story of their own. The use of the word supposedly communicates Gelebor's tacit admission that what he is saying is unconfirmed and based on hearsay in the absence of any facts (i.e. as pure supposition). What Gelebor is saying, by using the word, "supposedly",  is that he doesn't know and he is meagrely passing on someone-else's supposition.

Was he there? If what he is propagating is true, then he could not have been there or he would have been taken in and transformed too. So the question is not so much how he could not know but, rather; how could he possibly be sure?

And, as for the "betrayed"? There is only one such people to whom this term can, by definition, apply and they are the Nedes of Saarthal who really were betrayed by their Snow Elf "friends" who slaughtered them. Read it:

"After their arrival, the Nedes began a great alliance with the Snow Elves" (Night of Tears)

Remember, the Falmer are still the same deceptive predators they were when they were called "Snow Elves". They sneak out on the roads, they attack unsuspecting travellers and residents alike, they exceed any other race at avoiding sighting by the Thalmor, the Stormcloaks, The Legion or any of the various city watch guards, they take slaves with impunity and there is no reason to believe that anything about them has changed bar posture and a little physiology - perhaps not even enough physiological change for speciation.

Words require faith but deeds always reveal some truth - and by their deeds are the Falmer known. :^)