Don’t misunderstand me, I think several of the Khajiit characters in Skyrim are very interesting, and as a Khajiit player, I dig the claws during the (unfortunately rare) bare-fisted brawls.
But why is virtually every single Khajiit in the game, a lowlife scumbag? They’re all either thieves, assassins, bandits, drug-dealers. Only a Khajiit Dragonborn can be incorruptible if you choose to play her as such. And there are no Khajiit marriage or adoption candidates in the game.
Seems terribly racist to me! I love Skyrim, but I hope the next Elder Scrolls game includes some Khajiit that I’d actually want to be friends with if they really existed.
(OK, J’zargo is charming, but I would have to keep an eye on my stuff whenever he’s around…)
Many people noticed this, too. I suspect there’s a system reason and a social one involved. First, Bethsoft’s development teams tend to be kinda… insane. Remember, these are the people who eagerly spend untold development time and dollars making sure single-use wall textures look fantastic, but just “throw something together” for faces and hairstyles. In Oblivion, they made random rocks in the woods with ten times as many polys as player characters you see constantly. And, well, Khajit have fur - which is rather difficult to make correctly.
For a social reason, it seems like the Devs haven’t been terribly interested in Khajit or Bosmer, who are often used as criminal or comic characters but rarely important ones. Which is odd because those two in particular sound as though there’s a lot of intriguing storytelling options. They have some interesting cultural notes and often travel widely.
That being said, the fact that the Khajiit living in Skyrim are all “lowlifes” is not necessarily fantasy racism as much as its a byproduct of a racist fantasy world.
First of all, Khajiit come from a desert slash jungle. They like it hot. Only very desperate cats would deliberately choose to go and freeze their tonkers off in Nowheresfjord.
Second, IIRC from the lore traditional Khajiit culture has some peculiarities when it comes to private property - from the cats’ p.o.v. it’s not stealing because… something something lore, I forget. So there is something to the stereotype that they’re all thieves, except they don’t understand why other races think it’s so bad or get so pissed when it works just fine in Elseweyr.
Finally, the Nords and Imperials (to say nothing of the high elves) are racist fuckwits who consider cats subhuman at best, slave fodder at worst. And since “everybody knows Khajiit are thieves and troublemakers !” the locals won’t trust them for anything, which consigns them to dead end jobs if that. Consequently the cats are relegated to slums or a nomadic existence because they won’t even get allowed inside city walls - so they *have *to be a little bad to make ends meet. Ghettos breed survivors, which people outside the ghetto tend to think are irredeemable criminal scumbags who’re just born that way. See: the plight of poor black people in America.
Finally, there certainly is something darkly humorous about Khajiit themselves complaining that they’re treated unfairly and pre-judged as criminals, then try to sell you moon sugar or fence your stolen goods in the same breath
BTW, you can absolutely choose to make the most of your claws even outside of the brawls, mate. Pick the heavy armour trait that lets you use heavy gauntlets as weapons (it stacks with the claws), never buy a sword. Beat up dragons for their lunch money. Might want to become a vampire cat if you have Dawnguard, they get a further poison dmg stacking and can also get a ring for an even further boost.
Fact is, because of a slight bug in the code that causes the Argonian & Khajiit claw dmg bonus to be counted twice, in the early game these characters will do a *lot *more damage unarmed than with a low-skill, low-smithing weapon. Lizards are base 20, Khajiit base 25 and fists strike super fast.
Beat up dragons for their lunch money? Hmmmmmmmmmm! And I’ve been using light armor all this time, darn it. I hope the heavy gauntlets perk isn’t too far up the Heavy Armor tree.
Two perks and 30 points. There’s also the Gloves of the Pugilist which can be disenchanted to make rings or gauntlets that further boost your unarmed combat damage.
At least they are allowed to wear goddamn shoes now instead of being street urchins (Morrowind). Eh, the caravan guys aren’t bad, except for one, even if they’re gypsy criminals. Weird that there is no marriage, yes. Even before, with Khajit like M’raaj-Dar being dicks in Oblivion. Although he did start to become friendly with me, so he’s not all bad! I can’t remember what happened after that…
I wonder if anyone did a race preference poll. I’m gonna guess generic Imperials or weird Bosmers are low on the list, even lower than douchebag Altmers.
Yeah, there are YouTube videos of people massacring with unarmed (not necessarily Khajit).
Imperials aren’t racist. They’re like the Romans (well, no, they are literally fantasy Romans) in that their way of life is best, but foreigners can excel if they conform. Paternalistic, basically. Altmer are racist (Altmer>Bosmer>the Scum, I don’t know if they really like Dunmer). Dunmer meanwhile are more xenophobic, as they hate non-locals, even if their n’wah skin is grey. Bosmer like all foreigners, as they are especially tasty.
Yeah, great life there, trading sperm packets externally. Okay, well actually I don’t know how they mate. Khajit are cats, and by canon (since suppressed!), they have barbed penises so that sounds fun for about 50% of the species. (see: Daggerfall’s unbowdlerized version of the Real Barenziah).
Perma-waterbreathing is way better than stupid Night Eye that you have to continually recast.
Whenever a waterbreathing piece of armor first pops up, I immediately raise coin, get it, disenchant it, put it on a ring and call it a Zora’s Ring. (I call the fortify carrying capacity items, Mark Henry’s such-and-such.)
Wish there was an option on the console to make transparent boots. I rather like my girls to go barefoot, but I have to balance that with armor rating.
Not as suppressed as you think - note the name of the inn in Riften. The Bee and Barb. Bee as in Barenziah, and Barb as in, well, barbs.
Those were two of the most commonly given reasons. Plus the sheer inconvenience of having a full body fur coat like a Khajiit; both keeping it clean and just how much hair a human sized cat-person would shed all over everything.
The very first mods that popped up, something like seconds after both Oblivion and Skyrim’s release, were ones to turn Night Eye into a toggle. I still don’t get why that’s not native, but there you go.
Khajiit aren’t lowlifes. What they are is non-humans. They have different morals and laws. If other people can’t hold onto their own property, well it’s very sad that they aren’t clever as Khajiit. Khajiit shed many tears for them.
Khajiit, you’ll recall, are actual an offshoot of the Bosmer. They were blessed, or cursed, depending on who you ask, to have various cat shapes. Their form is determined by the position of the moons. Some of them are small like housecats while others are enormous tigers. Some look like cats with animal legs, like the Khajiit seen in Morrowind and some have a more human stance. Some Khajiit are indistinguishable from humans. These are the Khajiit seen in Arena and Daggerfall.
Neither side likes to talk about why the Khajiit were separated from the other Bosmer. It might have had something to do with Lorkhan/Shor but in truth, it might just be a rumor. Neither side is talking. They’ve been fighting each other as long as anyone can remember.
The Bosmer in Skyrim are now part of the Aldmeri Dominion. Presumably, not a very enthusiastic part. The Dominion wants to return to a time when Elves ruled Tamriel and Humans were animals to be used and abused without consequence. The Bosmer are Elves but the brighter ones should remember that they’re Not The Right Sort of Elves, plus they have some connection to the beast races. (The Dunmer are stubborn and misguided but at least they’re true Elves. The Orsimer, of course, are just hopeless.)
The next installment is rumored to be set in Elseweyr, in which case Khajiit and their war with the Bosmer (and by extension, the Dominion) will feature prominently. I also suspect that the Dominion’s ultimate plan is going to feature as the main villains for the rest of the series. They’ve got way bigger dreams than the subjugation of non-Elven races.
I think it’s probably unlikely, as a more humanoid race is more friendly to sell, not to mention easier to animate. Let see though, games have taken place in:
Arena - everywhere
Daggerfall - High Rock, Hammerfell, and Orsinium (although I don’t think it had that name yet)
Battlespire - Oblivion
Redguard - Hammerfell at least
Morrowind - Morrowind (Vvardenfell) and Skyrim (Solstheim)
Oblivion - Cyrodiil
Skyrim - Skyrim and Morrowind (Solstheim, it got ceded). The Reach was influenced by crazy Celtic Bretons
That leaves us - Orsinium proper, Summerset Isles, Valenwood, Elsweyr, and Black Marsh, assuming they don’t revisit a place. I seem to recall rumors of Summerset before Skyrim was officially announced, and it does seem to be the most likely, but only if it can be squared with choosing your race in a xenophobic, Elf-supremacist society (and even then the grey and pink ones are inferior).
