History Characters / TheElderScrollsTheBeastRaces

* AlienHair: Being the most "alien" playable race, the Argonians have just about everything ''but'' hair treated like hair. Horns, spikes (both flexible and rigid), scales, fins, feathers (particularly females), etc.

[[folder:Faun]]

Deerlike bestfolk native to the Systre Archipelago, where they take on a similar ecological niche to Goblins in mainland Tamriel.

[[folder:Hadolid]]
!! Hadolid

[[folder:Minotaur]]

* ColdBloodedWhatever: They're LizardFolk whose physiology is chiefly and visibly reptilian, however they also have elements of amphibians (said to be "sequential hermaphrodites", meaning they can switch genders, confirmed by Argonians in ''Online'') and fish (gills which allow them to breath underwater, and shows up in-game as a Water Breathing racial ability).

[[folder:Hadolid]]
!! Hadolid

Crabfolk native to the Abecean Sea and ancient enemies of the Sload, whose outposts are commonly found in the Systre Archipelago.

* SapientFurTrade: While a sapient (If hostile) species, the inhabitants of the Systres are known to eat them and their brine glands can be used as an alchemical ingredient.

* SuperNotDrowningSkills: Not only are they naturally good swimmers that can breath underwater, they're capable of diving even deeper than Argonians.

* CultureChopSuey: Their caravans, nomadic lifestyle, and propensity for stealth recall medieval views of the UsefulNotes/{{Roma|ni}}. Like the Redguards, they also take a lot of cues from various "desert" cultures, including north African and Middle-Eastern cultures. Their cultural ties to the drug Moon Sugar are also reminiscent of the Chinese Opium culture.

* SuperNotDrowningSkills: Not only are they naturally good swimmers, they're capable of diving even deeper than Argonians.

* NonMammalMammaries: Female Argonians are depicted with them inconsistently throughout the series.

An even more reclusive variety of Sload, the Sea Sload, live the underwater kingdom of Ul'vor Kus within the Sea of Pearls to the west of the Abecean. They are known to form cabals that form and break up depending on whether or not their interests align.

A crustacean beast race native to the Abecean Sea and ancient enemies of the Sload, whose outposts are commonly found in the Systre Archipelago.

* ShroudedInMyth: Very little is known about the Hadolid's due to their hostility against other races and deep underwater habitat.

* ArchEnemy: To the Altmer in particular, who expelled them from the Summerset Isles, and to all Tamriel in general for inflicting them with the Thrassian Plague, to the point that Sload are often killed on sight.

Thras has a heavy isolationist policy, with extremely limited contact and trade with Tamriel throughout history. The Sload once claimed ownership of the Summerset Isles, but were chased off by the Aldmer when they came to Tamriel. The Sload continued to antagonize the Aldmer, and then their Altmer descendants, ever after. The most infamous act of the Sload was to inflict Tamriel with the Thrassian Plague in the 1st Era, which wiped out over half of Tamriel's population. In response, the navies of Tamriel united to sink Thras beneath the sea. However, the Sload survived and, some time later, brought Thras back to the surface. Many denizens of Tamriel still kill Sload onsight wherever they are found.

* ArchEnemy: To the Altmer, and to all Tamriel in general, to the point that Sload are often killed on sight.

* FatBastard: As they grow, Sload become more and more corpulent, to the point that only being supported by magic or water prevents them from being crushed under their own weight.

* WallCrawl: Due to their slug-like nature they have the ability to adhere to surfaces, allowing them to climb vertical walls to some extend.

Minotaurs, also known as "bull-men" or "man-bulls", are a large humanoid species with the body of a man and the head of a bull. Though said to possess intelligence, Minotaurs are best known for their massive size and immense strength. Minotaurs are most commonly found in the northwestern and north-central regions of Cyrodiil. The civility of Minotaurs varies greatly depending on the individual. Some prefer to be naked and fight bare-handed or with their horns while others craft rudimentary weapons and armors. Some, particularly their shamans, are capable of using magic. Female Minotaurs are known to exist, but are rarely seen by outsiders.

* BrutishCharacterBrutishWeapon: Axes, along with massive warhammers, are favored weapons of the Minotaurs. They are strong enough to wield the two-handed variants of these weapons with one-hand, sometimes DualWielding them.

* SlaveRace: For thousands of years to the Dunmer, who would raid Black Marsh from neighboring Morrowind to capture Argonians as slaves. Even under the otherwise progressive Septim Empire (which outlawed slavery everywhere else), Morrowind was allowed to continue this practice as one of their special privileges (for trading the Numdium to Tiber Septim). With Morrowind greatly weakened by the Red Year, the Argonians invaded in revenge.

* NonLinearCharacter: In a sense, but is both downplayed and a more mundane twist on the trope. Argonians as individuals has no real concept of time, be it beyond or before the present, as they generally view all of life from birth to death as a single moment. To them, time is an illusion established to create a linear version of events and is therefore considered a limited way of perceiving reality. This is even reflected in their native language, Jel, which completely lacks any tenses.

* GutturalGrowler: The Imga are described as speaking with very gravelly, baritone voices. Despite this, they attempt to speak with perfect enunciation and courtly manners to impress the Altmer.

* CatchPhrase: "May your road lead you to warm sands" is a common saying. Others including including the words "warm", "sand", and "sugar" are also common.

* EvolutionaryRetcon: In ''Arena'' and ''Daggerfall'', they look like a race of hardy and fair-skinned men/elves that hardly (if at all) resemble their supposed feline ancestors. In ''Morrowind'', ''Oblivion'', and ''Skyrim'', they're Beast Folk that resemble humanoid tigers. The retcon here isn't that they turned into different forms (like the Argonians), but rather lore has been added that explain it as being part of their biology. By the waxing and waning of the two moons Masser and Secunda, the children born to a Khajiit can range in appearance from a small house cat to a fair-skinned man/elf to a cat-man to a feline big enough to be ridden as a beast of battle.

* BrutishCharacterBrutishWeapon: Axes, along with massive [[DropTheHammer warhammers]], are favored weapons of the Minotaurs. They are strong enough to wield the two-handed variants of these weapons with one-hand, sometimes DualWielding them.

* ExoticEquipment: The penises of male Khajiit are said to be covered in tiny barbs, just like real-life cats'. The ''Real Barenziah'' book series in ''Daggerfall'' includes a scene where Barenziah, the titular LostOrphanedRoyalty, has sex with a Khajiit so that he'll induct her into the Thieves' Guild. She quickly discovers that there is truth to the "barbed penis" rumors. (The book series exists in later games, but this scene is censored.) Likewise, an exotic dancer in ''Morrowind'' will make a comment if the PlayerCharacter is a male Khajiit, complaining "not another Khajiit, I'm still smarting from the last one."

* PimpedOutCape: Wear fancy capes in an attempt to [[JustForPun ape]] the Altmer. One corner of the capes is perfumed, which they hold over their noses when humans are around.

** Most Khajiit furstocks have yet to make an appearance in the main series. Only the Ohmes (''Arena''), Ohmes-raht (''Daggerfall''), Suthay/Suthay-raht (''Morrowind'', ''Online''), and Cathay (''Oblivion'', ''Skyrim'') have actually appeared.

The Argonians refer to themselves as the "Saxhleel" in their own tongue (known as "Jel"). "Saxhleel" translates to "the people of the root" in Jel, a name which reflects the bond they feel with the sentient and ancient Hist trees which are also native to Black Marsh. Argonians believe that their souls were given to them by the Hist, and they drink the sap of the Hist to communicate with them and to grow. The Hist have a strange and often ambigious agenda of its own, and by pulling on the mystical bounds formed between them through their drinking of its sap, the Hist both subtly influences, or even outright directs the Argonians to do its bidding. The Hist has also been known to alter the Argonians both physically and mentally in times of crisis; making them stronger and more ruthless when invaders would impress upon their homeland. Most Argonians are able to feel the presence of the Hist in their minds at all times, but the further they travel from Black Marsh the weaker the connection gets. Additionally, the Hist are said to "acknowledge" Sithis as the true creator of the universe, and thus offer Argonians born under the sign of the Shadow (known as "Shadowscales") at birth to the Dark Brotherhood (which serves Sithis) to be trained in the arts of stealth and assassination.

Though sharing a basic morphological pattern and mostly known for being reptilian in appearence, several subspecies of Argonians that deviate from this pattern are described in different accounts, most prominently the snake-like Naga, the toad-like Paatru, and the winged Sarpa. These subspecies are, however, rarely seen by outsiders due to being natives to the inner and most impenetrable parts of their swampy homeland, and they rarely ever venture outside their stomping grounds and for the most part seem to be, if not uninterested in contact with non-Argonian outsiders, then outright hostile to their presence in their territories.

* ScrewYouElves: After being victimized by the Dunmer for thousands of years with other outside forces (including the Septim Empire) doing very little to stop it, the Argonians fought back ''hard'' following the [[ChekhovsVolcano Red Year]]. They invaded what was left of habitable Morrowind, drove the Dunmer out, hunted House Telvanni to the brink of extinction, and claimed large swathes of land (and its valuable Ebony deposits) for themselves. Though House Redoran eventually stepped up and rallied an army of Dunmer which did eventually stop the Argonians' advance, they were only partially successful in driving them back, and they still hold on to a piece of southernmost Morrowind by the time of ''Skyrim''.

* SuperNotDrowningSkills: Argonians can breathe water just as easily as air. They are known to use this as a guerrilla tactic, dragging their foes underwater and drowning them.