Are giants actually an elven race?

I know this sounds far-fetched, but hear me out.

Orcs (orismer) are elves (hence the -mer), even if they are just being accepted as people in general. They were previously thought to be monsters.
Their physical similarities with Orcs (jutting lower canines, tapered ears and the presence of stumpy horns on the temples), makes it possible for giants to be elves too?
Even if they seem crude, they are able to hoard and milk mammoths. They can make the milk into cheese, as well as setting up camps, starting fires and carving symbols into rocks and tusks. You can hear them talk when fighting, but it's deep and guttural.

I am thinking, that because of the long elven lifespan, that elfs might actually evolve as we watch.
Humans are born, learn some stuff, teach it to their kids and then die. But elves (depending on race) live so much longer. This might also explain how the falmer devolved from snow elves to monsters in a time span short enough for people to record it in books and such.

Therefore, giants are the elven version of a neanderthal. Orcs are a bit more evolved. Then you dumer (explaining their inhuman looks and sometimes bright red eyes), wood elves (who are cannibals and live in trees, but are highly intelligent), high elves (with a very human lifestyle), snow elves and at the top of the evolution chain the dwarfs.
Dwemer are by far the most complex and intelligent life forms that ever were. So hard to understand that there is not a single scholar in all of Skyrim that get how they really worked.

Never really thought about this, very interesting, it is possible I suppose. I feel it's worth nothing that in TES Arena the Orsimer were not a playable race, and were monsters, like you said. So maybe we will be able to play as a Giant in TES 6 doubt it, but just an idea.

I never thought about the possibility of Giants as being some kind of Elven race They sort of look more 'organic' to me, like they came from trees or the ground. I don't know...it's such an interesting thought.

GratuitousViolets said:

I never thought about the possibility of Giants as being some kind of Elven race They sort of look more 'organic' to me, like they came from trees or the ground. I don't know...it's such an interesting thought.

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The bosmer have a deep connection with the nature, refusing to harm plants and building houses in trees. Maybe giants look like they could just stand still and moss would grow because of this spritual connection with nature that is in their genes?

I believe giants are a seperate race from elves. They might be descended from elves but they are still (i believe) a seperate race.

The main issue here is that lore says that in Tamriel, there were initially two main races of elf, the Dwemer and the Aldmer. (The Dwemer and Aldmer have a common ancestor but they split apart before both races arrived in Tamriel. I'm actually pretty sure that the Dwemer migrated to Tamriel before the Aldmer, but I could be wrong.)

Whereas I'm pretty sure that the giants were recorded as native to Skyrim.

In any case, the Aldmer themselves (that's where Aldmeri as in the Aldmeri Dominion comes from) spread across Tamriel and then evolved to adapt to where they landed. Which also gave rise as to why the Altmer are supremacist jerks. The Altmer stayed on Summerset Isle and instead of having to spend energy on adapting to a new environment, they ended up evolving their society in a way that they see as superior to the other elven races.

So, technically, on an evolutionary scale, all the Elven races (minus the Dwemer) are equally evolved, having the Aldmer as a common ancestor.

(tl;dr) Giants are native to Skyrim pre-Dwemer and Aldmer arrival. They share a common ancestor, The Ehlnofey, who they also share with all races of Man and Mer but are still far removed on the evolutionary tree.

CaptainPollux said:

(tl;dr) Giants are native to Skyrim pre-Dwemer and Aldmer arrival. They share a common ancestor, The Ehlnofey, who they also share with all races of Man and Mer but are still far removed on the evolutionary tree.

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Oh, thanks! I didn't know this.
That is so cool though.

I would contest that falmer's life span caused them to evolve more quickly- changes in a species by what you'd technically call evolution occur with each generation, hence a species with a short lifespan and frequent mating would evolve more quickly. With the falmer, i was under the impression that being underground for so long had caused each falmer to lose their mind. Still maybe if giants have really long lifespans and rarely mate they could well be underevolved elves.

P.s: my science is a bit rusty so I may be wrong about some things

I doubt they are mer. I've never observed anything elvish about them, and they have no place in the elvish lore. The way I figure it, giants are to humans as orcs are to mer.

I would have thought they evolved from Nords... even at one point I thought they could be the Dewmer? (Because no one have seen them...) But I like the point you made. Now that I look at them, (As closely as I can without going to the Cloud District... *you jelly Nazeem?*) they do resemble Orcs.

Giants have the same ears as elves and many facial features alike to Orcs. On Aldmeris though, written by Michael Kirkbride who was responsible for most of the lore. Confirmed or unconfirmed, there area few hints within Skyrim towards the Nu-Mantia Intercept.

This sundering of purpose is the myth of the "destruction of Aldmeris." Outside of the Dawn, and even then only in the dreamtime of its landscape, there was never a terrestrial homeland of the Elves. "Old Ehlnofey" is a magical ideal of mixed memories of the Dawn.
Do not believe the written histories.
All mortal life started on the starry heart of Dawn's beauty, Tamriel.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/nu-mantia-intercept


Many of his texts do find it's way within the games and lore. Such as From The Many-Headed Talos. "You have suffered for me to win this throne, and I see how you hate jungle. Let me show you the power of Talos Stormcrown, born of the North, where my breath is long winter. I breathe now, in royalty, and reshape this land which is mine. I do this for you, Red Legions, for I love you." Which some would remember Heimskr shouting things similar.

As described in an earlier thread, Giants are the male form, and Mammoths the female form of a unique race.

what if.......elves are actually a tiny-smart giant race?