User blog comment:Zippertrain85/The reasons why Serana is not from the First Era./@comment-3217145-20130508163206

Third: (1) The point I was making is that we don't know how old any specific court member is. Vingalmo apparently is old enough to recognize Serana, but we don't know about anyone else. Based on him, we might guess that the other members are also this old, unless otherwise specified. Garan would count as "otherwise specified."

(2) This is exactly what I was talking about in my previous statement. Here's another quote of his: "I saw more than enough political maneuvering in my time in House Dres. I was tired of it then, and I'm tired of it now." This goes to what I was saying before. He can be "old" and tired before ever being a vampire. He also never says "I'm 400 years old," he says "After 400 years, you think you'll be the one to take me down?" After 400 years of what? This may not be his age; it could also mean "after 400 years of people trying to take me down," or "after 400 years dealing with you stupid vampire hunters" (since there's not much reason to kill him unless you're with the Dawnguard), so he could well have been an old man before turning. He looks old, after all, and "old" for an elf is old. Serana, Harkon, Valerica, and Babette all seem to have frozen in age when they were turned, so we can guess the Garan was already old when they turned him.

We can't take the statement "I'm too old for this," then come to the conclusion "therefore, he must be as old or older than everyone else, and therefore know Serana personally, so Serana must be under 400 years old." There's just nothing connecting those conclusions. If we assume that ALL the information presented is true, there are no inherent contradictions. Serana is 4000 years old, Vilgalmo is a little younger, the other court members are whatever, and Garan is 400 and just doesn't care for politics. There is only a problem when you insert your own interpretation, claim it as fact, then say the information conflicts with that assertion.