How long is the elf people's natural life span in the Elder Scrolls universe?

AvalonRanger

How long is the elf people's natural life span in the Elder Scrolls universe?
I did some thief guild sub quest. According to some romance story of that, elf people has
long life span than non elf category race in the Elder Scrolls universe.
(By the way, why thief guild people in ESO has so much sentimental personality...)

High Elf
Dark Elf
Wood Elf
Sea Elf
Snow Elf
and Orc (this is interesting for me)

They are people who has common ancestor in extremely ancient age.
Are their life span all long enough? Then, how long?

Or each of those variant of elf race's life span are very different?

joseayalac

I don't remember how long but elves do live longer lives than Humans.

Orcs descend from elves but had their long lifespans taken away from them when they became orcs, so they live lives as long as human lives.

Dr_Con

depends on their magicka pool

Elsonso

The number I see is 200-300 years for Bosmer, Dunmer, and Altmer, or about 3x that of Men.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Mer

The Snow Elves (Falmer) don't live long because my characters tend to kill them all pretty quickly.

NotaDaedraWorshipper

We don't know.
There are several references that vary greatly, some even contradict eachother, but we have nothing precise or certain of their lifespans.

Most common estimation is that they on average live around 200-400 years without being skilled mage, alchemist or such.

AvalonRanger

I met dark elf sword man mercenary in the Skyrim of TES5.
He was more than 200 years old. But, still not so old man like the average human.
That meant their life span is more than 400?

NotaDaedraWorshipper

AvalonRanger wrote: »

I met dark elf sword man mercenary in the Skyrim of TES5.
He was more than 200 years old. But, still not so old man like the average human.
That meant their life span is more than 400?

As I said, there are numerous references which vary a lot. Some says this is old, other says that is old and on it goes. Only powerful mages, skilled alchemist or healers, or people who have access to such seem capable of reaching above 400-500. The average joe mer does not.

And why would their lifespan be more than 400 because one is over 200?

Dr_Con

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

AvalonRanger wrote: »

I met dark elf sword man mercenary in the Skyrim of TES5.
He was more than 200 years old. But, still not so old man like the average human.
That meant their life span is more than 400?

As I said, there are numerous references which vary a lot. Some says this is old, other says that is old and on it goes. Only powerful mages, skilled alchemist or healers, or people who have access to such seem capable of reaching above 400-500. The average joe mer does not.

And why would their lifespan be more than 400 because one is over 200?

I think he is saying that the mercenary seemed young comparatively speaking to what a Man would appear to be

ex. character looked 35 but was 200, assume Man life expectancy is 70 in this world. Half of life is used, therefore life expectancy is 400. It seems logical, some biology is shared. they eat the same things, and do the same things- all that's different is species really. The same thing can be done for animals, though many can outlive their lifespan based on size and diet.

NotaDaedraWorshipper

Dr_Con wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

AvalonRanger wrote: »

I met dark elf sword man mercenary in the Skyrim of TES5.
He was more than 200 years old. But, still not so old man like the average human.
That meant their life span is more than 400?

As I said, there are numerous references which vary a lot. Some says this is old, other says that is old and on it goes. Only powerful mages, skilled alchemist or healers, or people who have access to such seem capable of reaching above 400-500. The average joe mer does not.

And why would their lifespan be more than 400 because one is over 200?

I think he is saying that the mercenary seemed young comparatively speaking to what a Man would appear to be

ex. character looked 35 but was 200, assume Man life expectancy is 70 in this world. Half of life is used, therefore life expectancy is 400. It seems logical, some biology is shared. they eat the same things, and do the same things- all that's different is species really. The same thing can be done for animals, though many can outlive their lifespan based on size and diet.

We meet a nord who is in his 70s or something in Blackreach and is adventuring. Sure he's likely quite healthy and it is more his last big adventure but still.

Also, why do mer's lifespan stages have to match in % to the races of man? They age into adulthood at the same speed as them, not 2-4 times slower. So it makes sense their prime would last a lot longer, then their declining years up to death goes faster. Or he was just frisky for his age, like the 70 year old nord.

But as previously stated, we don't really know with certainty mer lifespans or how much they vary between the different mer, because the info we have is so varied.

Dr_Con

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Dr_Con wrote: »

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

AvalonRanger wrote: »

I met dark elf sword man mercenary in the Skyrim of TES5.
He was more than 200 years old. But, still not so old man like the average human.
That meant their life span is more than 400?

As I said, there are numerous references which vary a lot. Some says this is old, other says that is old and on it goes. Only powerful mages, skilled alchemist or healers, or people who have access to such seem capable of reaching above 400-500. The average joe mer does not.

And why would their lifespan be more than 400 because one is over 200?

I think he is saying that the mercenary seemed young comparatively speaking to what a Man would appear to be

ex. character looked 35 but was 200, assume Man life expectancy is 70 in this world. Half of life is used, therefore life expectancy is 400. It seems logical, some biology is shared. they eat the same things, and do the same things- all that's different is species really. The same thing can be done for animals, though many can outlive their lifespan based on size and diet.

We meet a nord who is in his 70s or something in Blackreach and is adventuring. Sure he's likely quite healthy and it is more his last big adventure but still.

Also, why do mer's lifespan stages have to match in % to the races of man? They age into adulthood at the same speed as them, not 2-4 times slower. So it makes sense their prime would last a lot longer, then their declining years up to death goes faster. Or he was just frisky for his age, like the 70 year old nord.

But as previously stated, we don't really know with certainty mer lifespans or how much they vary between the different mer, because the info we have is so varied.

The consensus seems to be related to magicka pools. Psijics and telvanni magisters are among some elves with incredibly long lifespans, but in your defense psijics can control time and exist in their own little pocket dimension and telvanni magisters sometimes make deals with daedric princes, so these could have "relative" and "special" circumstances revolving around longevity. We also have unnatural things like vampirism and the red mountain. Divayth Fyr lives for a long time but he also travels to daedric dimensions where time travels faster, so his 3.5k year lifespan might be as little as 70 years for all we know. One of the only examples of long living Orsimer seems to be one in the mage's guild, while Orsimer in general are prone to violence and practice blood magic, which can shorten lives in classic fantasy logic. Generally speaking, most tend to live natural lives unless they dabble in magic, which according to Todd Howard is more of an uncommon thing that many on Nirn wouldn't know that it disappeared if it did, but would be an extreme loss to those that are attuned.

Krist

200 to 300 is the generally accepted answer without the prolonging of life, which elves tend to be able to accomplish better than most considering their higher affinity to magic. Remember Elves were immortal, before losing that immortality, which is why some of the animosity they have to other races.
They physically age 2 to 3 times slower than humans. 2 to 3 times however is a very large gap when talking 200 to 300 years. They reach 18 kind of normal like a human, then the process slows down. At 50 they would hardly look 25. At 100 they may only look to be in their 30s. Which means their body does not break down as human bodies do.