The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP) (2024)

There are ten playable races in Skyrim, each of which has its own unique abilities and powers, as well as a +10 bonus to one skill and +5 bonuses to five other skills. Race is the only choice during the character creation process that has an effect on the player's skills and abilities.

The following table summarizes the differences between the ten playable races. Full details on all racial abilities and powers are provided on the individual race pages.

Race	Abilities	Powers	Initial Bonuses	Height (M)	Height (F)
Argonian 00013740	Resist Disease 50% Waterbreathing Higher unarmed damage Survival^CC: Weakness to Cold 25%. May consume raw meat without food poisoning.	Histskin Recover health 10x faster for 60 seconds, once per day	+10 Lockpicking +5 Alteration, Light Armor, Pickpocket, Restoration, Sneak	1.01	1.00
Breton 00013741	Resist Magic 25%	Dragonskin Absorb 50% of the magicka from hostile spells for 60 seconds, once per day	+10 Conjuration +5 Alchemy, Alteration, Illusion, Restoration, Speech Additional Spell: Conjure Familiar	1.00	0.95
Dark Elf 00013742	Resist Fire 50% Survival^CC: Resist Fatigue 25%	Ancestor's Wrath Opponents getting too close take 8 points of fire damage per second for 60 seconds, once per day	+10 Destruction +5 Alchemy, Alteration, Illusion, Light Armor, Sneak Additional Spell: Sparks	1.00	1.00
High Elf 00013743	+50 Magicka Survival^CC: Resist Fatigue 25%	Highborn Regenerate magicka 25x faster for 60 seconds, once per day	+10 Illusion +5 Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Enchanting, Restoration Additional Spell: Fury	1.08	1.08
Imperial 00013744	Imperial Luck: Imperials always find more gold.	Voice of the Emperor Calms nearby people for 60 seconds, once per day	+10 Restoration +5 Block, Destruction, Enchanting, Heavy Armor, One-handed	1.00	1.00
Khajiit 00013745	Claws: Claws do 12 damage (see notes). Survival^CC: +15 Warmth. May consume raw meat without food poisoning.	Night Eye Improved night vision for 60 seconds, can be used multiple times a day.	+10 Sneak +5 Alchemy, Archery, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, One-handed	1.00	0.95
Nord 00013746	Resist Frost 50% Survival^CC: +25 Warmth	Battle Cry Targets flee for 30 seconds, once per day	+10 Two-handed +5 Block, Light Armor, One-handed, Smithing, Speech	1.03	1.03
Orc 00013747	Survival^CC: Resist Fatigue and Hunger by 15%. +10 Warmth.	Berserker Rage You take half damage and do double damage for 60 seconds, once per day	+10 Heavy Armor +5 Block, Enchanting, One-handed, Smithing, Two-handed Additional status: Blood-Kin	1.045	1.045
Redguard 00013748	Resist Poison 50%	Adrenaline Rush Stamina regenerates 10x faster for 60 seconds, once per day	+10 One-handed +5 Alteration, Archery, Block, Destruction, Smithing	1.005	1.00
Wood Elf 00013749	Resist Poison 50% Resist Disease 50% Survival^CC: Resist Fatigue 25%	Command Animal Make an animal an ally for 60 seconds, once per day	+10 Archery +5 Alchemy, Light Armor, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Sneak	0.98	1.00

Notes[edit]

For each race, there is also a different race used by vampires. For example, non-vampire Bretons use "BretonRace" whereas Breton vampires use "BretonRaceVampire". However, this is not apparent in-game, as the traits of each race are usually the same for its vampire counterpart (except for a number of oversights).
The setrace, setplayerrace and showracemenu console commands can be used to change the player's race after character creation. Only player.setrace will not break your skills after switching a race.
The movement speed of each race is dependent on its height. High Elves have the largest speed multiplier due to being the tallest race, with Orcs being second tallest. This was likely done so the same animations (with the same speed) could be used for every character without them appearing to moonwalk.
- There is a persistent but false rumor that melee damage is also affected by height, apparently based off a misunderstanding of the setscale command. See this post on the Bethesda forums for reference.
There are many minor dialogue differences depending on what race you choose. However, the only two instances where an NPC's reaction to your race actually matters to gameplay are your Blood-Kin status and the quest Diplomatic Immunity.
Although the in-game text says "Khajiit claws do 15 points of damage.", the actual effect magnitude is only 12 points.
Along with information like height and skill bonuses, a weight value can be found in the game data. The meaning or impact of that value is unclear. However, it seems to have an impact on how easily a race is ragdolled or moved.

Weight	Argonian	Breton	Dark Elf	High Elf	Imperial	Khajiit	Nord	Orc	Redguard	Wood Elf
Female	1	1	1	0.5	1	1	1	1	1	1
Male	0.5	1	1	0.5	1	0.5	1	1	1	1

Non-Playable Races[edit]

Other NPC races that exist in the game, but are not available to the player, are:

Breton Child
Elders (a.k.a. Old People Race)
Dark Seducer^CC
Dremora
Imperial Child
Golden Saint^CC
Invisible Race, the race of the Ancient Dragonborn^DB
Mannequin are an NPC race for technical reasons, so that they can equip the armors and outfits they are meant to display.
Nord Child
Redguard Child
Snow Elves^DG

All other races in the game are considered to be Creatures (every variety of creature has its own race), but are not detailed here.

v t e Races

Playable	Argonian• Breton• Dark Elf• High Elf• Imperial• Khajiit• Nord• Orc• Redguard• Wood Elf

Other	Dark Seducer ^CC• Dremora• Elder• Golden Saint ^CC• Snow Elf ^DG