Beast-bearers in the crosshairs

The idea for this message was born quite some time ago, in the wonderful era of the release of Oblivion. More specifically, during the viewing of another thread roughly titled "Where do beast races fare better?". They compared those from Morrowind and Oblivion. In general, the argument is pointless; they are both good (*side note: though Morrowind is undoubtedly better*) or the comparison of Argonians and Khajiits (*though Argonians are certainly Forever*) - I am troubled by the arguments put forth by the followers of the Morrowind version: "The developers broke the canon". If there are any of those here - drink valerian/prevent yourself and read on. Others - also read if you are interested in the evolution of beast races.

Once upon a time, a role-playing game called The Elder Scrolls: Arena appeared on the store shelves. Actually, it was originally a gladiatorial game, but that’s not the story here. Essentially, look:


If anyone doesn’t believe it - you can convince yourself by downloading the game, as it is already free. As you can see - there's footwear, a human head, but no tail (!) - one acquaintance described Argonians as: "a repainted human". By the way, regarding the paint - if what you saw on the Khajiit’s face seemed to you like a mask - that’s not the case. It’s paint (or a tattoo, hard to say for sure) - one of the Khajiit traditions. An interesting fact:


"White Hand Disease" =) All races have the same fist models.

However, let’s move on to Bug Daggerfall:


I hope I won’t be censored - the fact is that until Battlespire, the developers... um... did not render underwear. And showing skin, no matter how you look at it, must be done - hence I chose neutral screenshots. By the way, what do we see in the screenshots? Well, Argonian fans can rejoice - they (the Argonians, not the fans) have become more like "modern" ones. However, the heads of Khajiits can be quite disheartening. By the way, in Daggerfall, "white hand disease" progresses - even if the hero walks around naked, he still visually (from the first person, of course) wears gloves, a white shirt, and brown leather boots.

In Battlespire, there were no beast races (nor Orcs). Therefore, we move straight to Redguard:


Here the situation changes: Khajiits became "normal", whereas Argonians approached the beasts, becoming similar to crocodiles and showing a rather neutral attitude towards clothing. And another "interesting fact" - a parrot:


Here we are nearing Morrowind. I think screenshots aren’t necessary. But if you want to refresh your memory - check here. Beast races were given "beastly" legs, banned from wearing shoes and closed helmets (the head shape was altered) and added a "swaying" walk (while logically they should often fall like that, everyone just closed their eyes - because it’s beautiful). But - you’ll laugh - Daggerfall fans received the game coolly, and those among them who hadn’t played Arena... Remembered the breach of the canons. It seems the developers listened to such complaints (as well as to those who said that lacking shoes and closed helmets felt a bit uncomfortable) and returned the old version from Daggerfall - of course, in higher quality and with the addition of Khajiit heads that have quite cute, moving ears expressing mood.

No one can say what awaits beast races in the fifth installment - maybe even the developers themselves. Perhaps - we’ll return to the Morrowind variant. Likely - the Oblivion variant will remain. Or who knows? - they might be remodeled again. In any case, these truly marvelous creatures will always remain one of the main symbols of the series...