Summary
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remasteredhas quite a lot of subtle ways in which the game will change depending on your actions or character. Sure, there are the obvious ones, like howeveryone will note your achievements in the arenaor one of Cyrodiil’s major guilds, but even your choices in the game’s character creator can alter how many NPCs will interact with you.
For example,the race you choosecan actually have a detrimental effect on whether an NPC likes or dislikes you, even if you’ve never encountered the person before. Oblivion doesn’t outright tell you this information though, but thankfully, we do have a “racism chart” that lets you know exactly which races to avoid playing if your goal is to be liked by everyone right out of the sewers.
Oblivion Remastered PSA: Everyone Is Racist Towards Orcs
First shared by a Reddit user called Profoundly_AuRIZZtic, we can see what affect the race of your character has on NPCs in the game. You should immediately notice that Orcs get the rough end of the stick from every other race in the game, with a disposition decrease of 5 no matter who you’re talking to, unless it’s another Orc. Cyrodiil is just full of Orc racists, apparently.
High Elves and Dark Elves are also two of the more despised races in Oblivion, and it only makes sense that the two also hate each other. Only Orcs and other Dark Elves find the former tolerable, while the High Elves are looked upon a bit more favorably by Nords, which is a little surprising given all the High Elf hatred in Skyrim thanks to the Thalmor.
As for the races that people tend to like a little better, Bretons, Nords and Wood Elves all look upon each other favorably and are generally accepted by all other races, as well as Argonians and Khajits. I guess being a humanoid lizard or cat isn’t enough to bring the racism out of the citizens of Cyrodiil.
If you want to be truly neutral, tolerated by every single race in the game and adored/despised by nobody, then you’ll want to be an Imperial. It makes sense given that Cyrodiil is their homeland, so everyone else is technically an outsider, but you do have to deal with the fact that you’re playing the most boring race in the game.
