Nords, also called Northmen or Bron (sing.) in Draconic, are a race of fair-haired and tall humans originating from Skyrim, known for an incredible resistance to cold and magical frost. Many Nords are strong, fierce, and enthusiastic warriors, and many become renouned warriors, mercenaries, and soldiers throughout Tamriel. Nords tend to excel in all kinds of warfare and are known to their neighbors as a militant people. Once in the distant past, Nords were also known to be a people of exceptional nautical prowess when they migrated from their ancestrial homeland of Atmora. However, there are still some seafaring Nords in the relatively recent past, but it is very rare to see. The exact timeline of Atmorans starting to call themselves Nords is obscured; during the Dragon War, Skyrim's inhabitants were labled both Nords and Atmorans. While Nords and Atmorans are considered two distinct races, the men living during this transitory period have been labeled as proto-Nords.
Arena
In Arena, Nords are shown as a tall and fair-skinned people who tend to be strong, willful, and hardy. By living in the artic environment of Skyrim, Nords have become acclimated to all but the coldest of attacks, taking half damage from Cold based attacks and taking no damage on a successful saving throw. Nords make excellent Barbarians, Knights, and Warriors, with high prowess in all arts related to blade and shield. "Know ye this also: Thy race is strong as the northern winds which sweep through icy glaciers. The arctic clime hast hardened thy folk for life's cruel and bitter hand..."
Daggerfall
In Daggerfall, Nords are depicted much the same as Arena: tall, fair-skinned, strong, willful, and hardy, with a +30 Resistance to Frost.
Morrowind
In Morrowind, Bretons are portrayed as a passionate and eccentric people, poetic, flamboyant, intelligent, and willful. Also, Bretons feel an inborn and instinctive bond with the supernatural and mercurial forces of magic. In addition, High Rock has been home to many great Breton sorcers, and that besides just having a quick and perceptive grasp of the alchemy, enchantment, and spellcraft skills, all Bretons also posess a high resistance towards enemy magical attacts. In game, Bretons are know a lot more fleshed out, such now that we know a lot more about this race (a pattern that shall be repeated with the other races). For example, we now know that Bretons are descended from High Rock humans and an ancient elven race of the Aldmer (not to be confused with the Altmer) that intermingled during the period of time on Nirn known as the Merethic Era, and have now become inhabitants of the province as a whole. While Bretons tend to be united in language and culture, their race is divided politically. In feudal kingdoms that compete for power throughout their homeland, Bretons make up the magical elite, soldiery, and even the peasantry. Many of these Bretons are capable mages with an innate magicka resistance and tend to be known througout Tamriel for their peoficiency in abstract thinking and their unique customs. Physically, Bretons appear very similar to the other pale-skinned Man races, but tend to be less muscular than their Nord or Redguard cousins, with a great diversity in appearance explained from their politically fractured society, however similar their clothes, accents, customs, and names might be.
Breton Base Attributes (M/F): Strength(40/30), Intelligence(50/50), Willpower(50/50), Agility(50/50), Speed(30/40), Endurance(30/30), Personality(40/40), Luck(40/40)
Breton Skill Bonuses: Conjuration(+10), Mysticism(+10), Restoration(+10), Alchemy(+5), Alteration(+5), Illusion(+5)
Breton Abilities and Powers: Resist Magicka (Resist Magicka 50 points on Self), Magicka Bonus (Fortify Maximum Magicka 0.5xINT (50% more Magicka)), Dragon Skin (Shield 50 pts for 60 secs on Self)
To get a bit meta, if you are thinking about booting up Morrowind and playing a Breton yourself, you should know how to utilize their racial abilities most effectively (or at least be aware as to how best utilize them). First off, Bretons are good magical characters who are more interested in utilizing the arcane arts for their own personal use rather than for hurting others and recieve all their bonuses within the school of magic, giving them 50% more Magicka. In addition, choosing a birthsign that further effects Magicka boost can help greatly when relying on magic to kill ones enemies. It should be noted that a Breton's 50% Resist Magicka bonus can make many negative effects feel more manageable, and having a signifigant boost towards 100% Resistance to Magicka can be super helpful in wearing magical artifacts such as the Boots of Blinding Speed without issue or helping to defend against the magical attacks of Bonewalkers. However, there aren't actually that many enemies in Morrowind that posess such dangerous Magicka spells, and in Morrowind Resist Magicka doesn't affect frost, fire, or shock spells for some reason. As for the Dragon Skin ability, while useful early game for powering through otherwise near-impossible enemies, stronger shield spells with a similar effect can be used with high levels in Alteration. Nevertheless, Dragon Skin is a useful tool to have in anyones arsenal. Though it should be noted that Bretons have limited offensive skill bonuses, members of this race can compensate for this by skill-raising, and in the early game it can be a great asset to posess a non-magical way of damaging enemies while using magic to instead debuff enemies or to boost one's own abilities. Also, Conjuration can be used to summon allies to fight by your side (or to fight for you) and Misticism has a spell called Absorb Health, which while being expensive is very potent. A classic Breton archetype in Morrowind is a Battlemage with The Atronach as a birthsign, allowing your character to be basically immune to spellcasters with an additional 250 magicka at your disposal and 100 Intelligence. Because a Battlemage uses melee weapons as their primary damage output anyways, the lack of magicka regen won't be missed, and at level 1, the player will have the ability to cast almost every spell in the schools of Alteration, Conjuration, Illusion, and Restoration.
Oblivion
In Oblivion, Bretons are descended from the Nedes of High Rock and the Aldmer during the Merethic Era. Besides having a quick and perceptive grasp on spellcraft, all Bretons posess a resistance to magical energies and are particularly skilled at healing and summoning magic. In Oblivion, Bretons are particularly skilled in Mysticism, Restoration, and Conjuration, making them natural defensive mages. Bretons are also resistant to magic, making them especially useful when fighting magic users. Alteration can be particularly useful against physical attackers. However, unlike in previous games, Bretons no longer have any bonuses towards Destruction magic. The Dragon Skin greater power is powerful early game, and still manages to remain useful later on. As for enemy Bretons, encountering Conjurers and Necromancers, along with Heretics and Zealots in the Shivering Isles DLC, is common. In adition, all Bandit Hedge Wizards are exclusively Bretons, as are Vampire Agents, Mages, and Spellswords. Breton wizards tend to dress in robes rather than armor and attack with lightweight weapons such as daggers, shortswords, or maces, or attack with staves.
Breton Attributes: Both Sexes get +10 Intelligence and Willpower while recieving -10 Agility and Endurance, while Males get an additional -10 to Speed and Females get -10 to Strength.
Breton Skills: All Bretons recieve +10 to Conjuration, Mysticism, and Restoration, while getting +5 to Alchemy, Alteration, and Illusion.
Breton Traits: Bretons have the abilities Enhanced Magicka (Fortify Magicka 50 points on self, constant) and Magic Resistance (Resist Magic 50% on self, constant) and recieve the greater power of Dragon Skin (Shield 50% for 60 seconds on self, once per day).
Breton NPC Reactions: Bretons only have one NPC Reaction modifier of +5.
Skyrim
In Skyrim, like previous games, Bretons are the descendants of Merethic Era Aldmeri and High Rock Nedes and feel and instinctive bond with magic and the supernatural. In addition to posessing a quick and perceptive grasp of alchemy, enchantment, and spellcraft, Bretons also posess a resistance to spells. Perhaps because of this, many great sorcers have come from High Rock. Overall, Bretons are exelent choices for taking on mages with their Dragonskin and Magic Resistance supporting this and both being strong abilities even in the late game. In addition, Magic Resistance increases the survivability against enemy spellcasters by a not-so-insignifigant amount and Dragonskin is powerful for keeping Magicka reserves up. Both of these abilities together help a Breton to maintain Ward spells for defense. In game, Bretons are described as follows: "In addition to their quick and perceptive grasp of spellcraft, even the humblest of High Rock's Bretons can boast a resistance to magic. Bretons can call upon the Dragonskin power to absorb spells."
Breton Skills: Bretons recieve +10 to Conjuration and +5 to Alchemy, Alteration, Illusion, Restoration, and Speech.
Breton Traits: Bretons posess the ability Magic Resistance (Breton Blood grants a 25% resistance to magic, constant) and the greater power Dragonskin (Absorb 50% of the magicka from hostile spells for 60 seconds, once per day). Breton Males have a height of 1 while Females have a height of .95. Also, in addition to Flames, Bretons also start with the spell Conjure Familiar.
As for gameplay, Bretons are particularly skilled in Conjuration, so many players summon creatures and weapons to aid in battle. Also, Bretons are resistant to magic, so they are naturally resistant to enemy magic users. It should be noted that Bretons fail to recieve bonuses to Destruction magic, and Breton skill bonuses are well suited to support magic. Throughout Skyrim, many court wizards are Bretons, as well as many members of the College of Winterhold. Bretons are especially common in The Reach. Also, Bretons are frequently seen in many different roles, all the way from traders to battlemages.
Extra Breton Notes: One Skyrim loading screen claims that, like in Morrowind and Oblivion, Bretons recieve 50% Magic Resistance, but this isn't correct. Bretons in Skyrim only recieve 25% Magic Resistance. If a Breton utilizes the Agent of Mara, the Magic Resistance perk from the Alteration skill tree, and the Lord Stone, Bretons can have a passive maximum effective Magic Resistance of 85%, 15% stronger than any other race trying this same strategy. If one were to switch out the Lord Stone for Vampirism and the Necromage perk from the Restoration skill tree, a Breton can recieve 87.5% Magic Resistance. However, this is considered an exploit by most versions of the Unnoficial Patches and thereby "fixed". However, these can be bypassed with mods that can restore the function of this exploit and allow the Unnoficial Patches to still be on. In Skyrim, Bretons are capable of reaching 100% Spell Absorption base game by activating their racial power and having the Atronach Stone. Finally, while ingame dialogue sometimes distinguishes between Reachmen and Bretons, the ingame data doesn't and all Reachmen (including Forsworn) are classified as Bretons.
