Argonian life span? : The Elder Scrolls Series Discussion

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 11:45 pm

I think they can breath water. They did it in both MW (activated via spell) and OB (innate). I'd guess they'd be almost like a lung fish, in that they have lungs for terrestrial environments, and gills or something similar for water.

And they can't be amphibians. To be an amphibian, they need to constantly moist, no scales, and go through a tadpole-like water phase and a terrestrial advlt phase. Argonians do not need to be moist, they have scales, and do not have two life phases like an amphibian.

Just a nitpick, but Argonians do have a tadpole-like stage. They're born as little lizard things, then they lick the Hist sap, and metamorphasize into humanoids.

I don't think Argonians can really be categorized by Earth terms. They're sort of a reptile/amphibian/mammal* hybrid.

*The females have mammary glands, and they appear to be warm-blooded: I've never seen an Argonian lie in the sun for hours to regulate his body temperature. Not to mention their clearly primate-like bone structure.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 4:32 pm

This has gotten waaaaaaaaaaay off topic, but another option is that they may just have hyper-oxygenated blood. Thereby doing away with the need for either gills or permeable skin. In Oblivion especially, this seems to me to be the most plausible explanation. As I have never seen anything resembling gills on an argonian, and they obviously don't have frog skin.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 11:46 am

Just a nitpick, but Argonians do have a tadpole-like stage. They're born as little lizard things, then they lick the Hist sap, and metamorphasize into humanoids.

I don't think Argonians can really be categorized by Earth terms. They're sort of a reptile/amphibian/mammal* hybrid.

*The females have mammary glands, and they appear to be warm-blooded: I've never seen an Argonian lie in the sun for hours to regulate his body temperature. Not to mention their clearly primate-like bone structure.

The primordial little lizard thing rings a little hallow when we compare the only evidence of how Argonians go through puberty:

My parents told me not to lick the Hist tree until my Naming Day, so I did. My parents caught me and a boy from my nest in a soft-leaf patch right before the naming ceremony. I feared I'd get more of a licking from my parents than I gave the tree... So I ran as fast as I could through the swamp and into the rest of the kids waiting for their naming ceremony. Everyone had a good laugh and the name stuck.

It sounds they're still humanoid lizards, just not as the more developed advlts.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 11:29 pm

The primordial little lizard thing rings a little hallow when we compare the only evidence of how Argonians go through puberty:

It sounds they're still humanoid lizards, just not as the more developed advlts.

I was going to point exactly that as they are already intelligent before licking the Hist.

» Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:08 am

Just a nitpick, but Argonians do have a tadpole-like stage. They're born as little lizard things, then they lick the Hist sap, and metamorphasize into humanoids.

I don't think Argonians can really be categorized by Earth terms. They're sort of a reptile/amphibian/mammal* hybrid.

*The females have mammary glands, and they appear to be warm-blooded: I've never seen an Argonian lie in the sun for hours to regulate his body temperature. Not to mention their clearly primate-like bone structure.

Yea I'm thinking they are warm blooded, there's the argonian on solstheim so they would have to be warm blooded. He also makes the joke about there being no boots to keep his feet warm and to add to that his name is Basks in the Sun.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 11:03 am

well most reptilian creatures are rather long lived box turtles can live roughly 200 years *i think thats what i read* so one could assume that most argonians live quite a while *if tamriel where a real place*

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 11:20 pm

well most reptilian creatures are rather long lived box turtles can live roughly 200 years *i think thats what i read* so one could assume that most argonians live quite a while *if tamriel where a real place*

Not necessarily. Real life reptiles are cold blooded giving them a much slower metabolism. Which equals a longer life span (I think). If Argonians are warm blooded, which I assume they are, they would have a higher metabolism and therefore a shorter lifespan, than a comparitively similar sized reptile.

» Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:04 am

Argonians have always been mystery to me

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 9:55 pm

I'll just speculate that such matters are highly dependent on the individual Argonian's interaction with the Hist Trees.