Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-101.174.54.47-20130226060747/@comment-74.184.197.28-20130813102106

Lol so this is going to be some in-depth Lore coming from me, so heads up it’s a bit of a read.

It stated very clearly in one of the books in Skyrim, about Queen Barenziah (while she was in Riften), that elves COULD (could being the important word) live up to 1000 years. In retrospect, considering they apparently use to be immortal a 1000-5000 year old lifespan is nothing. Maybe to humans who live probably only live 80-100 years tops.

I took this as meaning that any pure-blood elf (regular normal elves) who can avoid getting sick, being exposed to fatal violence (which is kinda hard in Tamriel lol), and could avoid extremely hard living (like mining for a millennia) could reach 1000 years. Now take a wealthy elf into account, like Barenziah, who doesn't have to have a hard living, avoids disease, and violence and they probably can live possibly 1000 to 2000 years (in fact if she didn’t die in the Red Year Barenziah would be 638 years old by 4E 201 when the events of TES: Skyrim takes place). Finally, eleven mages have been known to live up to (Divayth Fyr is the oldest presented in Game/Lore) 4000 years. Divayth Fyr being 4000 in 3E 427 (when Morrowind takes place) would definitely mean he was born during the probably late Merethic Era.

Then we meet Gelebor in TES: Skyrim/Dawngaurd who is closer to 5000 years old. The 1st through 4th Era’s combined is 4450 years as of 4E 201, so Gelebor is older than that and still appears/sounds middle aged to upper aged (to me at least). While it’s possible that he could have been granted immortality from Auri-El, this isn’t ever stated to be the case. It is stated that he is going to guard the chantry till he dies which could imply he faces a natural death aka old age. Perhaps the Snow Elves are more closely related to the Aldmer than the other modern elven races? For all we know, Aldmer (first elves) could have lived anywhere in-between 1000-10,000 years, maybe more. It’s also interesting to note that Gelebor is not a mage character, but rather a warrior and yet he is so old. This makes me very curious about the mysterious Snow Elves and the Falmer (do they live as long?).

In the end, what we know is that normal modern race elves (the regular NPC’s in-game like Skyrim: Taarie) can possibly live to 1000 years old. Rich elves can possibly live longer than that, elven mages can live possibly up to 4000+ years, and certain races of Mer or perhpas I should say Mer closer related to the Aldmer such as the Snow Elves seem to live at least 4450 years.

What I’m curious about are “Half-elves” and Bretons. I know Bretons and Half-elves are said to age similarly (as is stated about Emperor Cassynder Septim who was the child of a Dunmer mother and Breton father) and that Bretons are frail when old, but do they live longer than the pure human races? Bretons in my mind are ¼ elven so could they live 200-250 years perhaps?