Races (Skyrim)

There are ten different playable races in . Each one possesses its own unique racial abilities and powers. Each race starts with +10 in one skill and +5 in five other skills. However, this doesn't mean that a race is restricted to a certain play-style, as it is possible to develop any skill over time. Unlike other games, Skyrim does not feature classes, so in character creation, the race is the only major gameplay choice that the player must make.
==Playable races==
Tamriel is the home of all the ten main races, each occupying a different portion of the continent.
Image	Race 	Effects 	Power
 	Argonian	Waterbreathing and 50% Disease Resistance 	Histskin: Regenerate health 10x faster for 60 seconds
 	Khajiit 	+15 Base Unarmed Damage 	Night Eye: Night vision for 60 seconds
 	Redguard	50% Poison Resistance 	Adrenaline Rush: Regenerate stamina 10x faster for 60 seconds
 	Nord 	50% Frost Resistance 	Battle Cry: Nearby enemies are Frightened for 30 seconds
 	Breton 	25% Magic Resistance 	Dragonskin: Absorb 50% of magicka from all incoming spells for 60 seconds
 	Imperial	Find more than usual 	Voice of the Emperor: Nearby people are Calmed for 30 seconds
 	Orsimer 	Can enter Orc Strongholds without becoming Blood-Kin	Berserker Rage: Take half damage and do double physical damage for 60 seconds
 	Bosmer 	50% Disease & Poison Resistance 	Command Animal: Make an animal an ally for 60 seconds
 	Altmer 	+50 Magicka 	Highborn: Regenerate 25% of your maximum magicka per second for 60 seconds
 	Dunmer 	50% Fire Resistance 	Ancestor's Wrath: Surrounds you in fire for 60 seconds
==Starting skills by race==
The following table shows the starting skill statistics for each race. The higher the number (over the base level of 15) the better. Values of 20 indicate this is a favored skill of the race. Values of 25 indicate this is a primary skill of the race. Skills can be improved to a primary group.
Every race has their own unique skill which they excel at and will start at level 25 with that particular skill. For example, Bretons start at level 25 Conjuration as they are naturally skilled at it.
Races →Skills ↓	Altmer	Argonian	Bosmer	Breton	Dunmer	Imperial	Khajiit	Nord	Orsimer	Redguard
Smithing 	15 	15 	15 	15 	15 	15 	15 	20 	20 	20
Heavy Armor 	15 	15 	15 	15 	15 	20 	15 	15 	25 	15
Block 	15 	15 	15 	15 	15 	20 	15 	20 	20 	20
Two-Handed 	15 	15 	15 	15 	15 	15 	15 	25 	20 	15
One-Handed 	15 	15 	15 	15 	15 	20 	20 	20 	20 	25
Archery 	15 	15 	25 	15 	15 	15 	20 	15 	15 	20
Light Armor 	15 	20 	20 	15 	20 	15 	15 	20 	15 	15
Sneak 	15 	20 	20 	15 	20 	15 	25 	15 	15 	15
Lockpicking 	15 	25 	20 	15 	15 	15 	20 	15 	15 	15
Pickpocket 	15 	20 	20 	15 	15 	15 	20 	15 	15 	15
Speech 	15 	15 	15 	20 	15 	15 	15 	20 	15 	15
Alchemy 	15 	15 	20 	20 	20 	15 	20 	15 	15 	15
Illusion 	25 	15 	15 	20 	20 	15 	15 	15 	15 	15
Conjuration 	20 	15 	15 	25 	15 	15 	15 	15 	15 	15
Destruction 	20 	15 	15 	15 	25 	20 	15 	15 	15 	20
Restoration 	20 	20 	15 	20 	15 	25 	15 	15 	15 	15
Alteration 	20 	20 	15 	20 	20 	15 	15 	15 	15 	20
Enchanting 	20 	15 	15 	15 	15 	20 	15 	15 	20 	15
==Starting spells by race==
Every race begins with Healing and Flames. Dunmer start with an additional Sparks, whilst Altmer instead start with an additional Fury, and Bretons instead start with an additional Conjure Familiar.
==Survival Mode==
 The following are the additional racial effects in the Creation Club of .
*Argonian: "Argonians become colder 25% faster in cold environments.", "Your Argonian blood allows you to eat raw meat without risk of disease."
*Khajiit: "Your Khajiit blood improves your resistance to cold environments by 15 points.", "Your Khajiit blood allows you to eat raw meat without risk of disease."
*Nord: "Your Nord blood improves your resistance to cold environments by 25 points."
*Altmer: "Your High Elf blood gives you 25% resistance to fatigue."
*Bosmer: "Your Bosmer blood gives you 25% resistance to fatigue."
*Dunmer: "Your Dunmer blood gives you 25% resistance to fatigue."
*Orsimer: "Your Orc blood gives you 15% resistance to hunger and fatigue, and increases your resistance to cold environments by 10 points."
==Stats affected by character size==
Race specific scales can be found in the brackets when the getscale command is used on the player or a non-playable character. Non-bracket value is the default 1.00 console value and are unique for each specific race, for example, Altmer 1.00 value is different from Breton 1.00 value.
At least walking/running speed and jump height is affected by the height value. The console command player.setscale can be used to change the height of the character. Because changing the player scale in the console increases and decreases melee damage accordingly, there is a misconception that taller races do more base melee damage.Bethsoft forums Hidden stat differences based on race selection.
Attributes	Argonian	Argonian	Khajiit	Khajiit	Redguard	Redguard	Nord	Nord	Breton	Breton	Imperial	Imperial	Orsimer	Orsimer	Bosmer	Bosmer	Altmer	Altmer	Dunmer	Dunmer
Attributes	M 	F 	M 	F 	M 	F 	M 	F 	M 	F 	M 	F 	M 	F 	M 	F 	M 	F 	M 	F
Height 	1.01 	1.00 	1.00 	0.95 	1.00 	1.00 	1.03	1.03	1.00 	0.95 	1.00 	1.00 	1.04 	1.04 	0.98 	1.00 	1.08 	1.08 	1.00 	1.00
Weight 	0.50 	1.00 	0.50 	1.00 	1.00 	1.00 	1.00	1.00	1.00 	1.00 	1.00 	1.00 	1.00 	1.00 	1.00 	1.00 	0.50 	0.50 	1.00 	1.00
==Changes from previous games==
Character creation has been dramatically changed in . Previous games had the player choose from a list of classes that would determine the starting skills for the player's character and in some cases, how the player's character would level. The player also had the option of creating a custom class, selecting each skill individually. This system had a very large impact on player effectiveness in the beginning of the game, though Oblivion's system was able to lessen that impact. A player could spend hours working out the most effective way to build a character.
In Skyrim, however, that system has been removed, meaning that though the player will still select a race, the player no longer has to select a class. Skill set specialization is still possible in Skyrim, but instead of permanently selecting this during character creation, this is now done using the skill perks earned by leveling up (both skills and player level, as perks are earned by overall level while skill level is required to select any but the most basic perks). The birthsign system has been replaced completely with Standing Stones, which can be changed at any time by visiting and activating a new stone.
The Luck attribute has also been removed and is therefore impossible to increase. Skills have been further reduced from a total of 21 to 18. There are no acrobatics/athletics or speed attributes so it is not possible to increase your jump height or your character's running speed through stats.
If a player maxes out all skills, the character will reach level 81, meaning there are 80 (no perk can be chosen at level 1) possible perk points to choose from, out of over 250 possible places to spend them. Previously, this was the effective level cap for the player character, however this changed with Patch 1.9 and the introduction of Legendary Skills. Legendary skills allow the player to refund all the perk points from a single maxed out skill and set its level back to 15 (the game's starting point). Skills can be made legendary multiple times, allowing the player to level their character indefinitely.
A typical player will not max out all skills to 100, and will instead reach only around level 50 or so. A character designed around 30 perk points is a reasonable build that can be reached in-game fairly quickly and is a great starting point for those who want to design the character before playing.
==Elders==
In Skyrim, one of the races is called Elder. It cannot be chosen during character creation. It is solely composed of human characters that appear much older than most people. Arngeir, Esbern and Septimus Signus are some of the people who are part of the Elder race.Information from the Creation Kit
==Snow Elves==
The Snow Elves are a race of Mer that cannot be chosen during character creation. During the events of , two living Snow Elves are encountered, Knight-Paladin Gelebor and his brother Arch-Curate Vyrthur. They are, physically, very similar to High Elves, except for their white skin and hair.Events in 
==See also==
*Classes
*Skills in Skyrim
*Perks in Skyrim
*Character Creation in Skyrim
==References==
cs:Rasy (Skyrim)
de:Völker (Skyrim)
es:Razas (Skyrim)
fi:Rodut (Skyrim)
fr:Races (Skyrim)
pl:Rasy (Skyrim)
pt:Raças (Skyrim)
ru:Расы (Skyrim)
tr:Irklar (Skyrim)
Category:Skyrim: Gameplay
Category:Skyrim: Races