Let me preface this by saying that I’m a Gentile, so I’m sorry if it’s out of place for me to be saying any of this, and I will delete and apologize if anyone takes issue with the post. I want to make it very clear that I am not expressing agreement or affirmation of the stereotypes being presented, but am solely commentating on how they are used harmfully in this example of media. That being said, there’s an aspect of Skyrim that has been bothering me the more I think about it.
The whole lore pertaining to the Altmer (an elven race, known as the “high elves”) seems deeply antisemitic in terms of coding. I’m not incredibly well-versed in Elder Scrolls canon/mythology/whatever, and I’ve only played Skyrim, but I’ll try to frame it as best I can, but there’s gonna be a lot of explanation of terms.
So there’s this whole faction in the Elder Scrolls called the Thalmor, described by the Elder Scrolls Wiki as: “‘elven supremacists’ who seek to end the Empire and eradicate the worship of Talos.” Talos is a pretty direct parallel to the Christian Jesus (his symbol is even a cross, like it’s pretty obvious, even though his religion is polytheistic, unlike Christianity, but anyway). The Thalmor are shown to control basically the entire world, and the Empire that rules over Skyrim (and some other countries) is basically a puppet government controlled semi-secretly by the Thalmor. Historically, the Thalmor are blamed for this thing called the Oblivion Crisis, which is basically a battle between the mortal world and the underworld. Specifically, they’re blamed for being responsible for the sacrifice of this figure named Martin Septim, who is also very heavily coded as a Christ-like figure (last son of the king, divinely blessed, messianic figure, sacrifices himself to save the world, etc). I feel like I should also mention that all Altmer characters are able to gain access to the Thalmor Embassy (basically a big exclusive mansion for the Thalmor hierarchs and their kin) by virtue of their ethnicity.
The Altmer themselves have a few distinct features, racially and culturally speaking. Most prominently, they excel at magic, and make excellent mages. Their strongest magical powers are in the field of illusion. They are among the very oldest races in the world (traditionally claiming to be, and largely accepted as, the original race of humanoids), and their name translates to “High Ones” or “Cultured Ones”. Their original ethnic group was considered to be associated with divinity. They fled from their original homeland, Aldmeris, and took refuge in a province in an island called Summerset Isle. They were highly influential in terms of culture and religion, but face discrimination in modern times due to their perceived connection to the Thalmor. Physically speaking, they tend to have prominent, pointed features, tall and slender stature, and light skin (but not white, like Nords or Imperials, it’s described as a “pale gold hue” ). From the Elder Scrolls Wiki, again: “As a race, the Altmer strive to maintain the appearance of their ancestor race, the Aldmer, primarily through highly selective traditions surrounding marriage and reproduction.” They tend to be associated with great wealth, and are stereotyped as arrogant by the Nords of Skyrim. (The Nords tend to be very nationalistic, and generally believe the Thalmor seek to undermine the Nords’ claims to their “homeland” and culture/religion of Skyrim, often exclaiming “Skyrim belongs to the Nords!” and bitingly referring to/shouting at “damn elves”.)
I won’t go through and make parallels from everything I just talked about to real world stereotypes about the Jewish people, but I think it’s pretty clear based on what I’ve written. If you have any questions, though, I’d be happy to answer. Also, if you are Jewish and more familiar with the Elder Scrolls, I’d love to hear what you had to say about it. Once again, I’m sincerely very sorry if this is out of place for me to be speaking on. I am not trying to claim I have any level of experience concerning antisemitism, I’m simply trying to point out what I think is a prejudiced and harmful example of coding in media. I will delete this if anyone objects, though.
Not reading the lore beyond the wiki is a huge problem with this post.
1) The Thalmor did not have anything to do with the Oblivion Crisis. The “present” incarnation of the Thalmor did not even arise until after the crisis was over, claiming to have helped in its end. They are NOT responsible for the death of Martin Septim.
Martin Septim is not Talos, nor is he worshipped akin to Talos (or Jesus Christ.)
2) “…the Thalmor seek to advance their power and influence across Tamriel with the specific intent of establishing the racial superiority of Mer over Man” In TES fandom the Altmer get called NAZIS quite a bit.
eta: husband says Argonians, if anyone, are more like Jews, in that they were enslaved, have risen up against their masters, and have quite the diaspora “now”.
also, if you really want to get into stereotypes about Jews/anti-semitic coding, there are a whole bunch more that have absolutely nothing to do with Altmer but are extremely prevalent in the real world and can be a lot more clearly seen in, say, Tolkien’s Dwarves.
gifs of tamriel 