Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series is all about player choice. Players can choose how to approach any situation in the game, what weapons, spells, and skills they want to use, and which factions they wish to align themselves with. The choices that players make in an Elder Scrolls title enable their playthrough to be wholly theirs with its own emergent stories to discover, and incredible moments to experience. For players who really want to try and immerse themselves in the land of Tamriel, they can also roleplay their characters, drawing from the detailed cultures, history, and lore that is baked into every Elder Scrolls experience.
The first choice that players make in any Elder Scrolls title, however, is what race they want to play as. The Elder Scrolls features ten base races that vary from the more standard to the more fantastical, like Elder Scrolls' iconic Argonian race of lizard people. Another popular option that many Elder Scrolls players take advantage of is the cat-folk Khajiit. The Khajiit are a very unique race in the series that boasts a colorful culture and history, and that have spawned countless memes amongst the Elder Scrolls community to show for it.
The History of Elsweyr in The Elder Scrolls
The Khajiit hail from the province of Elsweyr, which lies on the southern border of Tamriel. The province was founded in the year 2E 309 and was named after a Khajiit proverb that said: "the perfect society is always elsewhere." The province was a big step for the Khajiit, who before then had lived in tribalistic feudalism that was stamped out with the establishment of the unified government. In 2E 560, however, the Argonians unleashed the Knahaten Flu to free Black Marsh of outsiders, which ended up running rampant through Elsweyr as well.
The next big moment in Elsweyr's history occurred after the Oblivion Crisis brought an end to the Third Era. The crisis saw the city of Rimmen declaring independence from the Elsweyr confederacy and became its own sovereign state. This eventually led to the province being divided into two nations with Anequina to the north and Pelletine to the south. Anequina is largely a sprawling desert-like badlands while the southern portion of Elsweyr is covered in dense jungles and woodland that is often compared to Elder Scrolls' province of Valenwood.
The Culture and Religion of the Khajiit
Khajiit culture has been influenced heavily by those of the Imperial Empire, especially in the southern areas of Elsweyr. This is evident primarily in how Khajiit cities in the region are built of more permanent materials that spring up along trade routes. However, the cities are known to be deconstructed and moved every once in a while, which can make travelers from outside Elseweyr easily find themselves lost.
Most of the money made by Khajiit in Elseweyr is made by exporting the plant known as moon sugar, which is used to make the highly addictive drug Skooma that many Khajiit are addicted to. The northern side of Elseweyr, however, is still very tribalistic with few Khajiit considering themselves aligned with any of their kin that is not part of their native tribe.
The religion of the Khajiit is also interesting in that it differs greatly from the common religions, but it is still derived from the Aldmeri pantheon. The Khajiit religion seems to rebrand the gods of the Aldmeri pantheon with different names and cat-like visages.
What makes their religion more unique is that they also believe in various moons that are considered deities as well. However, the Khajiit were present in Tamriel before the first recorded Aldmeri exploration, which could indicate that the Aldmeri pantheon was in some way influenced by the Khajiit's pantheon. The accuracy of the religion of the Khajiit is also in an interesting position, as their moon deities do seemingly appear to influence what body form Khajiit are put into, despite not being factored into most other religions across The Elder Scrolls.
Phases of the Moon and Different Breeds of Khajiit
There are many different types of Khajiit across The Elder Scrolls, with the shape a Khajiit takes being determined by the positioning of the Masser and Secunda moons at the time of their birth. The differences can be rather drastic, with the major change being determined on what phase the larger moon, Masser, is in. A full moon results in a large quadruped, waxing results in a large biped, new results in a small biped, and waning results in a small quadruped. This means that Khajiit can range from the more human-like that players are used to interacting within The Elder Scrolls to mountain lions and small domestic house cats.
Those large categories are then split into variations depending on the phase of the smaller Secunda moon. There are currently 17 known and recorded breeds of Khajiit, but it is commonly stated throughout The Elder Scrolls lore that there are upwards of 20 separate breeds. The Secunda moon's position does this by determining how bestial the Khajiit looks with the newborn looking more bestial during the waning phase and less bestial during the waxing phase.
A special breed of Khajiit, known as Mane can be born under the influence of an unknown third moon that could account for the other various breeds of Khajiit that are so far unaccounted for. This is one of the lesser-known details about the Khajiit, but it does add a lot of interesting flavor to the race that helps it really stand out from the others in The Elder Scrolls.
The lore and history of the Khajiit is very interesting and really help flesh out the world of The Elder Scrolls for any players who care to take the time to understand and know it. There are some races that Elder Scrolls fans wish they could play but can't yet, but the standard available races in the series are already solid offerings that provide players a variety of ways to play through the games. It will be very interesting to see how the future of the world of The Elder Scrolls turns out with the release of The Elder Scrolls 6. Hopefully, players will get some news on what could change with the newest entry in the series soon.