Who are the bad guys in The Elder Scrolls?

[pffh]

The only steady villains that I can think of are the Aldmari Dominion, though they always seem to take a back seat to the main villain of each game (if they're shown much at all).

What? The Aldmeri Dominion didn't exist until Skyrim. They formed in the 200 years between Oblivion and Skyrim.

Shit, you're right. I was referring to the elves of Sommerset Isle (whatever they were called).

Well while the Altmer have always been dicks I wouldn't say they were the bad guys until they formed the Aldmeri dominion. Similarly the Bosmer are dicks but you wouldn't say they were the bad guys.

 

[Torrasque]

The only black/white bad guys, are the people who are set up as the bad guys from the get go. Mehrunes Dagon and the Mythic Dawn in Oblivion, for example. Nothing these guys do, is good. There is that one guy you meet in Paradise that seems ok, but I wouldn't count him as part of the cult.

Besides that, the only other "bad guys" are just people who are dicks. This may be high elves, the Dominion, the Imperials, or Ulfrid, it is up to you. The ES games are good at throwing in moral choice, and--in Skyrim especially--the people you thought were the bad guys, may not seem so bad after all.

 

[gigastrike]

The only steady villains that I can think of are the Aldmari Dominion, though they always seem to take a back seat to the main villain of each game (if they're shown much at all).

What? The Aldmeri Dominion didn't exist until Skyrim. They formed in the 200 years between Oblivion and Skyrim.

Shit, you're right. I was referring to the elves of Sommerset Isle (whatever they were called).

Well while the Altmer have always been dicks I wouldn't say they were the bad guys until they formed the Aldmeri dominion. Similarly the Bosmer are dicks but you wouldn't say they were the bad guys.

Was it really "Altmer"? I was looking for some nation name. Anyway, as far as I can tell they opposed the Imperials, who seems to be set as the protagonist group. It's not that they're dicks, it's that they're the only legitimate anti-protagonist.

 

[Torrasque]

Molag bal, he is the king of rape and father of vampires! Mehrunes Dagon is a daedra who wants to destroy everything, true. But Molag Bal is a daedra who wants to torture you.

Hey now, he just likes that stuff because it makes him lol. He seemed pretty chill in Oblivion when I freed those Ogres.
None of the Daedra are bad per-say, they are just (for the most part) not good

 

[pffh]

The only steady villains that I can think of are the Aldmari Dominion, though they always seem to take a back seat to the main villain of each game (if they're shown much at all).

What? The Aldmeri Dominion didn't exist until Skyrim. They formed in the 200 years between Oblivion and Skyrim.

Shit, you're right. I was referring to the elves of Sommerset Isle (whatever they were called).

Well while the Altmer have always been dicks I wouldn't say they were the bad guys until they formed the Aldmeri dominion. Similarly the Bosmer are dicks but you wouldn't say they were the bad guys.

Was it really "Altmer"? I was looking for some nation name. Anyway, as far as I can tell they opposed the Imperials, who seems to be set as the protagonist group. It's not that they're dicks, it's that they're the only legitimate anti-protagonist.

Yup the Altmer are from the Sommerset Isles. Originally it was the Aldmer but they spread throughout Tamriel and become the Bosmer, the Dwemer, the Falmer, the Aylied, the Maormer, the chimer (who later became the Dunmer), the Orsimer (Orcs) and mixed with the Nede in high rock to become the Manmer (Bretons) and the ones who stayed in Sommerset became the Altmer.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

I rather like working for daedric princes. Their disdain and desire for fucking with us make for a nice change of pace from the usual fantasy quest where everyone is grateful and all that bullshit.

In all reality, I'm not a fan of the Empire, simply because they call themselves the empire, but that comes from watching too much Star Wars as a kid. Truth be told, in Skyrim, I think they would function better without the empire.

 

[F4LL3N]

I'm going with the Thalmor too. I've hated them since the first time I saw three of them with that prisoner. Who the fuck do they think they are banning Talos. I freed the prisoner, if you were wondering.

What's people's opinion on the Forsaken? What about them blind alien looking dudes? Does anyone have any back story on them? They're spread out pretty far but I don't exactly know who they are.

 

[ultrachicken]

There is no antagonist race, simply antagonist groups. The Thalmor come to mind as the most recent group of evildoers. Before them, it was Mehrunes Dagon and the Mythic Dawn. And I haven't completed the main stories of any other TES games, so I can't comment on them.

 

[pffh]

I'm going with the Thalmor too. I've hated them since the first time I saw three of them with that prisoner. Who the fuck do they think they are banning Talos. I freed the prisoner, if you were wondering.

What's people's opinion on the Forsaken? What about them blind alien looking dudes? Does anyone have any back story on them? They're spread out pretty far but I don't exactly know who they are.

Blind dudes: You mean the Falmer? They along with the Aldmer are the original inhabitants of Skyrim slaughtered by the Nords and driven underground where they allied with the Dwemer. The dwemer then enslaved them and we don't know what happened next but they became twisted either through dwemer torture or by living for centuries underground in trap filled and empty dwemer ruins.

The forsworn are tribal people with Breton ancestry that settled in Skyrim before the Nords and like the Falmer were driven out of their cities and slaughtered.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Well Mehrunes Dagon was a dick in Oblivion for no apparent reason. He just wanted to destroy stuff and defeat the Septim bloodline for shits and giggles it appears, and uses Mankar to do it for him.

 

[pffh]

Well Mehrunes Dagon was a dick in Oblivion for no apparent reason. He just wanted to destroy stuff and defeat the Septim bloodline for shits and giggles it appears, and uses Mankar to do it for him.

Well he is the daedric god of destruction and more importantly change. You see in his home plane of oblivion he can't change anything or destroy anything permanently so after being blue balled for a few hundred millenia he decided he wanted some sweet mundus action and thus we have the oblivion crisis.

Don't get me wrong he's still a dick but it's kinda hard to fight against what is essentially your very being and the only reason for your existence. The daedric gods are more like forces of nature then beings of free will.

 

[F4LL3N]

I'm going with the Thalmor too. I've hated them since the first time I saw three of them with that prisoner. Who the fuck do they think they are banning Talos. I freed the prisoner, if you were wondering.

What's people's opinion on the Forsaken? What about them blind alien looking dudes? Does anyone have any back story on them? They're spread out pretty far but I don't exactly know who they are.

Blind dudes: You mean the Falmer? They along with the Aldmer are the original inhabitants of Skyrim slaughtered by the Nords and driven underground where they allied with the Dwemer. The dwemer then enslaved them and we don't know what happened next but they became twisted either through dwemer torture or by living for centuries underground in trap filled and empty dwemer ruins.

The forsworn are tribal people with Breton ancestry that settled in Skyrim before the Nords and like the Falmer were driven out of their cities and slaughtered.

Thanks. I have a deep hatred for both kind, but now I kind of feel sorry for them. Too bad you can't ally with either of them.

 

[gigastrike]

Thanks. I have a deep hatred for both kind, but now I kind of feel sorry for them. Too bad you can't ally with either of them.

You can at least help out the Forsworn. I don't know about allying.

 

[Vegosiux]

There are no overarching bad guys. I mean ok in Arena it was Jagar Tharn. In DF, there was...no bad guy at all, just politics. Eadwyre was the worst of the lot, the treacherous, double-crossing jerk. Morrowind? Well, Dagoth Ur did have a point, and maybe Almalexia could be counted as the "true" bad girl of that one, but then again, the gambit Azura pulled - and she's not even one of the "evil" daedra lords!

So yeah it's always someone different.

 

[Peteron]

Depends on your ideals. There is no good or bad. I tend to see Dark Elves and Imperials as the 'bad' races by my definition, but it isn't the race themselves, its the image they as a race tend to give off. There are plenty of 'good' Imperials and Dark Elves in the games.

 

[zenoaugustus]

Molag bal, he is the king of rape and father of vampires! Mehrunes Dagon is a daedra who wants to destroy everything, true. But Molag Bal is a daedra who wants to torture you.

Hey now, he just likes that stuff because it makes him lol. He seemed pretty chill in Oblivion when I freed those Ogres.
None of the Daedra are bad per-say, they are just (for the most part) not good

Have you done Molag Bal's quest in Skyrim yet? Because it'll change your mind. He's dead up evil.

 

[NickCaligo42]

There's a different antagonist in each game. In Morrowind it's Dagoth Ur. In Oblivion it's this weird cult. In Skyrim it's dragons. Get with the program!

 

[zenoaugustus]

There's a different antagonist in each game. In Morrowind it's Dagoth Ur. In Oblivion it's this weird cult. In Skyrim it's dragons. Get with the program!

I wasn't necessarily asking that. I think it's rather clear that the dragons are the true antagonists in Skyrim. The question posed was which of the playable races is the most nefarious, more or less.

 

[Drakmorg]

In Skyrim I'd say the Thalmor win the award for being the biggest assholes, with Ulfric coming in as a close second.
Actually no, Ulfric is the worst because not only does he prohibit people from observing their religeon, he also subjugates them and gets pissy and self-righteous when someone else does the same thing to him.
At least the Thalmor are upfront with the fact that they aren't nice people, that I can at least respect to a small degree.

 

[Wayneguard]

Telvani... aren't actually bad, just primitive and overly traditional. Morrowind is a fucked up place. Especially if you're a Khajiit or Argorian.

Overly traditional describes the Redoran more than the Telvanni. The Telvanni wizards mostly just want to be left to their own devices. I would characterize the Telvanni as isolationist but not necessarily primitive (and certainly not traditional. They are among the few dunmer who accept you if you are a necromancer and/or vampire).