UESP Forums

Thanks

Depends. The average lifespan of Elves in Skyrim is cut drastically short by my presence.

The lifespans are what you decide them to be. Average lifespans are irrelevant as per every Elf that lives to be 400, there is one that lives for only 20 years, as dictates the law of the averages. In Skyrim, I am the judge, jury and executioner. Pay attention most to the last word of the previous sentence.

I never bash Mer. Maces are too clunky, I prefer to slice them to ribbons with my sword.

I'd estimate they last a few hundred years on average. Thousand year life spans can't be anywhere near the norm; even allowing that 1st Era years are "years" in the literal, solar sense, there's only been a bit less than 7,000 years worth of history since the creation of Direnni Tower. That's a fair amount of time for humans, but for thousand year old elves, it would seem like only a handful of generations. Also, if Mer did last that long, why don't we hear about single Elven kings ruling for six, seven hundred years at a stretch?

Orsimer are considered mer so would they also have that long of a lifespan?

Assuming Divayth Fayr really is 4,000 years old, and that that story isn't just a bunch of Telvanni lies, the question is: did he live that long because of natural longevity, or because of his magic? I'd wager it's because of the magic, not because he's an Elf. If it was true that Elves COULD live to 4,000 years, on their own ticket as it were, then we'd expect to see a great many more of them doing so.

Yes; isn't that even mentioned in Morrowind at least once? I always believed Fayr was that old because he was an old, cunning Telvanni wizard, and not because he was an elf. Their lifespans are naturally long, but not that long, and that's without going for all the horrible diseases, skirmishes, stray arrows, and other things waiting to chop your head off.

It probably was. To be honest, I can barely remember any of the details surrounding Morrowind's main "plot". It's been a few years since I last gave it a go, and for me, Morrowind is a gentle haze of roof parkour, dropping candles everywhere, and cliff racers. Fraking cliff racers.

Doros, I'm disappointed: I thought you were made for tougher stuff, or at least stuff great enough for the gloriousness of the Morrowind main quest!

But I digress. I'm certain it was. The Telvanni wizards were odd and known to use their magic to live unnaturally long lives, which helps to keep their strange and creepy secrets.

Morrowind's main quest, off the top of my head:

On a boat! Off a boat! Blah blah House something. Blah blah blah Azura blah blah some kind of cave disease maybe blah blah fat guy and incest elves yadda yadda SUPER JUMP TO RED MOUNTAIN some dude in a cave with a glowing box kill done. At some point I think I may have met Vivec, or Ebonarm, or whatever that dude's name was. But why he wanted to talk to me I haven't the foggiest. And wasn't there some kind of floaty island thing? Or am I thinking of Final Fantasy?

Part of the problem may have been that I stumbled on that cult cave by accident, while off exploring, tens of hours after I'd decided to completely ignore the main quest. As a result, some of the dialogue glitched and skipped and I wound up halfway through the main questline with no clue what was going on. Not that I cared much, to be honest. The way I saw it, all that extraneous plot was just getting in the way of my real duty, which was jumping around Balmora.

(http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Calendar)

The year in Nirn is officially the same as Earth's year, but I have found no information in the lore of the races about their 'natural expiration date'.

You have to look a bit more closely to find that. For instance, there is an interview with a developer posing as a Dark Elf proceeding Morrowind's release that mentions Dunmer having long life spans - provided nothing awful happens, of course, and awful things abound in Tamriel. I do think a few in-game books mention similar things for other races, although I can't recall any properly, sadly. But always read the in-game books!

The random encounter with the Old Orc in Skyrim also gives you a small hint at Orc lifespans, if they follow the traditional Orc lifestyle;

Daynas Valen's journal indicates he is older than 80 or even 100, while in the game the character (the corpse) is around mid 30's. So I guess the Dunmer really can live at least a few hundred years.

If I recall correctly this fellow here http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Bala ... ni_(person) says something about being older than the empire when you talk to him, might have to be part of the quest with him.

Umm...I dont know if this has been said or not but I got this mod and it talks about Argonian lore, and says they live for...200 years? That could be answered as their lifespan.

Imperial = 105 years
Redguard = 110 years
Breton = 100 years
Orsimer = 160 years
Bosmer = 155 years
Dunmer = 225 years
Altmer = 310 years
Khajit = 75 years
Nord = 95 years

Well, he's a Telvanni wizard, and they are known for living long times - though not through natural means. Those Telvanni and their shady practices.

How did you figure this?

Orcs have the curse of a short life span, altmer live 100 years longer thanks to their god pynaster.

Argonians could be immortal with the fact when they lick hist sap they are born again.

Are these average life spans or average maximum life spans?

Orcs are cursed. They're mer and still have mer blood, as evidenced by a quest in Skyrim, but a curse meant for the Nords got thrown onto them instead and drastically reduced their lifespans.

Those are average guesses, but I disagree with most of them. They're just random numbers that don't seem to be based on anything substantial. See the discussion linked to in the second post for some of my reasonings on racial lifespans.

The maximums would be much higher. People blessed by gods or people like master sorcerers can live for thousands of years or even forever, until they die of some violent means.

On skyrim , i found an alchemy skill book (with a fancy Dunmer-ish name) .... in it , the writer -who is a dunmer- claimed to be 600 years old .... sinderion from Oblivion returned in Skyrim which is 200 years later

so altmer and dunmer live for many centuries , for bosmer it is unsure but i assume they also live pretty long live , orcs dont live as long as other elves .. nords,imperials,bretons,and redguards live for similar amounts of time as us earth people , argonians and khajiit are the true mystery ( though for some reason , i sense that khajiit can only live 40 years ...i dont know why ??)