Altmer/High Elves

Altmer are the light-skinned and tall Elves of the Summerset Isles.  In the Empire, the name "High Elves" is given to the Altmer, with the word "High" being used to describe the Altmer as tall, proud, and culturally snobbish. The Altmer consider themselves the perfect race.
Personality + Traits:

• They are among the tallest of the humanoid races
• Their skin maintains a very pale gold hue, not quite the pale white of the northern human races such as Nords or Bretons, but far lighter than the Bosmer
• Slender, with prominently pointed ears and almond-shaped eyes that can be amber, green, or yellow
• Altmer are among the most intelligent and magically-inclined races on Nirn, surpassing even the Bretons in magical aptitude
• High Elves are well known for their noble countenance, and are arrogant or disdainful more often than not when addressing humans

Culture:

• The Altmer consider themselves the most civilized culture of Tamriel, a claim which holds some merit. 
• The common tongue of the Third Empire, Tamrielic, is based on their speech and writing. 
• Most of the crafts, arts, and sciences used in the Empire are derived from Altmeri tradition. 
• The clothing, manners, arts, and crafts of the Altmer are refined. 
• While their achievements are admired by the races of Tamriel, their culture is considered less important, as they focus on their glories in martial tradition and their mastery of sorcery and enchantments.
• The feudal monarchy in place in Summerset has a long history of conflict and instability, and the Altmer believe themselves to be proud, wise, and beautiful, and believe that their pure blood protects them from disease and makes them superior spellcrafters.
• Over hundreds of years, the Altmer have formed pure bloodlines. They reproduce as often and as quickly as humans do, but always killed nine out of ten of their newborn in order to keep their bloodlines pure.
• Uniforms and high speech are also regarded as important in Altmeri culture, and their wildlife and trees have, much like the Altmer themselves, been bred to be as perfect as they can be.
• It was suggested that the Altmer practiced eugenic infanticide, putting to death nine in ten of their newborns due to impurities, that Altmeri names are simply combinations of numbers in their own language, and that Altmer culture revolves around displaying social status.

Organization:

• Altmer society was highly stratified by the middle of the Second Era. The monarch of Summerset ruled as sovereign with the advice of the College of Sapiarchs (an elite and highly selective scholarly institute) and was sometimes represented by a viceroy titled the Proxy Queen or King.
• The monarch descended from an almost continuous line of royalty extending back to the Merethic Era.
• Their behavior was regulated by a set of written precedents known as the Scrolls of Praxis, whose chief interpreters were the Sapiarchs: these formed part of a broader system of inherited norms termed the Ceremoniarchy.
• The heir to the throne was required to study the Ceremoniarchy for 3,555 days in the Sapiarchs' Labyrinth before they could take the crown, and royal decrees were issued in its name.
• Hereditary nobles termed kinlords and kinladies held many of the Altmer lands in fief.
• Altmer royalty were assisted by lieutenants titled vicereeves, while cities that served as county seats were administered by canonreeves, civil officials equivalent to mayors in other cultures.
• The Divine Prosecution administers secular and religious justice, and is made up of jurisreeves overseeing investigations and rank-and-file justiciars. Jurisreeves travel and deliberate in groups of three, each with distinct responsibilities: a revelator-naganwe to conduct magical inquiries, an admanen to serve as an inspector, and a thalmilan who would weigh the evidence and render a verdict. The jurisreeves may have originated as a religious order.
• Under Queen Ayrenn's First Aldmeri Dominion, executive responsibilities were increasingly assumed by the Thalmor, originally a bureau for the protection of Altmeri heritage. The Thalmor incorporated the Divine Prosecution as a division at that time, but the Prosecution existed long before the Thalmor's rise to power.
• The Altmer stringently regulate traffic into Summerset, and they have banned the import of such foreign goods as books, foods and perfumes in the past. At the time of the First Dominion the roster of forbidden books included mundane foreign writings judged to be "coarse", but the Divine Prosecution devoted particular attention to the suppression of literature promoting Daedra worship.
• Altmer politics was transformed in the early Fourth Era by the return of the Thalmor as a militant Elven supremacist group following the Oblivion Crisis. In the wake of the chaos caused by the Crisis and the fall of the Crystal Tower, the Thalmor overthrew the Summerset monarchy in a coup d'état. Since then, officers of the Thalmor have taken direct charge of government functions such as diplomacy and espionage.

Religion:

• As their hierarchical society developed, the lower classes stopped worshipping their own "lesser" Aedra in favor of those claimed by their social "betters". Thus the Altmer pantheon slowly formed around the most popular and well-known of the Aedra, many of whom would later be incorporated into the Nine Divines.
• The principal Eight are Auri-El, Magnus, Trinimac, Y'ffre (or Jephre), Xarxes, Mara, Stendarr, and Syrabane – though any limitation to eight is unrecognized by Altmer outside the Empire – with significant additional cults dedicated to Phynaster and Lorkhan.
• A priestly hierarchy oversees Altmer worship of the Aedra. Some priests are monastics, devoting themselves to peace and meditation in monasteries led by Aldarchs. Others serve at public temples, where they instruct acolytes. Ascendant Curates are responsible for the refinement, conferral and destruction of calians, and preside over the expulsion and admission of particular mer from and into Altmer society.
• Though Daedric cults also exist among the Altmer, whose ambition and magical prowess sometimes tempt them to seek the powers of Oblivion, Daedra worship is severely reprobated in civil society. Moreover, at least at the time of the Three Banners War, the authorities in Summerset viewed the living gods of the Dunmer Tribunal Temple as enemies of the state.
• One of the dominant philosophies of the Altmer of Summerset is the "Path to Alaxon", the continuous striving for a state of perfection. Practice of the Path requires intense dedication and concentrated effort. At their coming of age, each Altmer receives a crystalline sphere of aetherquartz known as a calian, which represents their honor and social status. Those who are judged to have attained a degree of perfection are granted an additional trophy known as an alaxon sphere, which may be destroyed if they are subsequently judged to have fallen from it. The Path to Alaxon is reflected in Summerset's characteristic architecture, which builds on the aesthetic practice of past architects in a sequential process of refinement.

Altmer Statblock

Language + Names: The Altmer language, High Elven, High Elvish or Elvish, is the language used by the High Elves of the Summerset Isles.  It is descended from Old Elvish, and as such is very similar to its relatives like Ayleidoon, Ald Chimeris or the Falmer language. For the longest time, High Elven was the common language used in all legal documentation until it was later replaced by Cyrodilic (or Tamrielic) in 1E 2813. The common tongue of the empire, Cyrodilic, is based on the Altmer's speech and writing. To date, there are no known texts written in this language, but some words are known.
In Elvish there is no soft "c", so when a word begins with "Ce" or "Ci" it is pronounced with a /k/ sound. For example "Cey-Tarn Keep" is pronounced like "Kay-Tarn Keep".