On dunmer voices.

As we all know dunmer are a lot of times described as "having a voice of ash" or "having an ashen tongue". However such descriptions in old literature seem strange for a lot of people today. Today you will only encounter such voices when dealing with Ashlanders living in remote locations and VERY old dunmer. Why? The answer would be very surprising to a non-dunmer person. Dunmer of old intentionally inhaled ash.

In the 3rd Era and before dunmer living on solstheim, North of mainland Morrowind and Vvardenfell would a lot of times experience ash-storms. Getting into such ash-storm can very easily damage your throat and make your voice very raspy. However there are ways to protect your throat against ash. The most simple of which is the use of special breather-scarfs. Those scarfs can protect you against ash going inside your throat. However, in dunmer culture of that time inhaling ash was considered a sign of "being a true dunmer" and being mature. Outlanders almost always used those scarfs to protect themselves against ash going inside their throats.

This cultural phenomena however started dissappearing after the third Era. Not wearing breather-scarfs during ash storms became associated with being an old-fashioned and not progressive. The use of breather-scarfs became a norm. There were also created potions which allowed curing your vocal cords. Today no dunmer goes into the ashstorm without wearing a breather-scarf.

• Imperial City Today. 5th of the First Seed.