I'm reading http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Real_Barenziah_%28Daggerfall%29#Part_IV and in Part IV, Barenziah is 17 but is not yet fertile, as her friend Katisha states. Katisha also says that elves can live up to 1000 years old but usually die before then.
Does this mean that Barenziah could have six and not become pregnant? Do they choose when they become fertile or is it just a natural part of elvish physiology?

Now in J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy world, don't elves have an indefinite life span that is divided into stages of age? And can female elves in LOTR choose when they want to be fertile? Or is it at a predetermined age set? (I've never read LOTR)

Going back to TES, are elves in their teens just like humans in their teens? And when elves are in their young advlt hood, it is from 20 to 100 and then advlthood from 101 to 500 and then old age from 501 to 1000? There are no cold hard facts on this so I'm hoping somebody can deduce something more concrete.

Don't compare Tolkiens work to TES there are two completly diffrent things. To the question about the Elves age, as far as the lore I find says nobles live on average 500 years or so while commoners are lucky to see 150 there would be alot of guess work on teen years(Barenziah could of been a late bloomer) . For your question about fertility I cant find any other refererance to help you, sorry. When they say she is not fertile it means she can't yet or lacks the ability have children. You took biology right?

b.t.w. the real barenziah is a work of fiction and its hard to tell what will be true or not.

Mer develop and age more slowly than humans. They also have very low fertility, but if Barenziah is a useful example, they can't decide when to be fertile. Elsewhere in The Real Barenziah she's cautioned against too much six with humans, because it would make her come to fertility sooner.

The thousand-year lifespan is poetic and not borne out by other statements about the age mer can attain. Barenziah in her 400's is very old and has outlived her contemporaries. She has also led a pretty sheltered life after her youthful adventures and has had the best healers available. Mer who are much older, like the Telvanni Masters, have used magical means to attain great age.

I took anatomy and physiology back in 2006 but a lot of it has eluded me.
It's a fictitious book yes, but it doesn't necessarily mean everything in it is false.

Are you referring to this? http://www.imperial-library.info/interviews/alvur.shtml

...where Alvur Relds says: "Well, I'm fifty, done my twenty years in the Service, and I'm in the prime of life. I expect another fifty good years, and then I'll be old, and slow, chatting with gaffers around the hearth for another twenty, thirty years. I've known mer still mind-sharp in their late hundreds, and heard of folk 200 and older. My family usually makes it to 120-130, providing we don't get sick or poked in the eye."


He says that elves reach about 200 at max. But this is an "interview" type of text from Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages. The Real Barenziah, while a "fiction" book, is from the actual game Daggerfall. Wouldn't an in-game book be a more credible source than an unofficial interview that's not even part of any of the Elder Scrolls games?

Wow, you're right Dogsbody. Barenziah was born in 2E 893 and is still living to this day. Oblivion left off at 3E 433 approximately. So that would make her 437 years old.

I wonder, aside from maturing slower physically, does this mean that they mature slower mentally than Humans?

Sorry I was rude. I read that so long ago I forgot the name, subject, and canonity.But concerning the last paragraph though it is canon, it is also not likely an accurate description of things as (unless someone can find another source) we can only use Barenziah as an example of dunmer fertility. Or more likely I am just forgetful as you pointed out :sadvaultboy: .

Hard to say, because we know next to nothing about children from the games; what we know isn't contrary to a normal progression of maturation (except for Argonians, who have an altogether different origin and physiology).

Anyway, texts like Interview With a Dunmer are, even though out of game, largely the work of developers or others who have long association with the games and therefore a sort of secondary canon, especially when they supplement and do not contradict in-game material. The thousand years that elves may live in Real Barenziah is poetic and shouldn't be taken literally, whereas the founder of UESP speaking as a Dunmer commoner is more likely to be speaking down to earth.

I think the ages of 120-130 seem more real to me. Like Dogsbody said; the ancient Telvanni wizards are that old because of magical means (Divayth Fyr is over 4,000 years, I think). The avarage commoner Mer, who leads a hard-working life farming, herding, etc. without being taken care of by other mages (or having little experience with magic themselves) seem much more likely to get to the early-mid 100 years of age.

So Interview With a Dunmer is a more credible source because it is based on facts as opposed to The Real Barenziah which is "poetic"? What do you mean by poetic? As in, Katisha is using hyperbole?

Are you saying, Dogsbody, that one of the employees of Bethesda is playing the role of the Dunmer who is being interviewed? I'm kinda confused, is the Imperial Library a website created by fans or was it produced by the actual Bethesda corporation?

EDIT: http://www.imperial-library.info/about/ Looks like the Imperial Library is ran by the fans and not the official employees of Bethesda. So how do you know that that Interview was written by a Bethesda employee and not a fan?

Well put. Of course this is a pretty significant difference between humans and mer, seeing as a human living the same lifestyle would be pretty lucky to get to 80. And then Orcs are a whole nother matter...

Consider the context in which the real barenziah exists in-game. The Real Barenziah is more or less a dramatization of Barenziah's life, written in the late 3rd Era and containing a level of detail far beyond the capabilities of long-term memory. It takes major events in her life, made up stuff, and some stuff Barenziah wouldn't admit to in public and weaves it into a single fictional tale. It shouldn't be considered an authority on biology.

Aside from the fact that fanmade work tends to stick out as fanmade work, and that whomever's playing the part of Alvur Relds knows an awful lot about Morrowind for the interview taking place in 1999?

Near the top of the http://www.imperial-library.info/interviews/alvur.shtml:

From http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/poisonsong.shtml it seems that Dunmer develop mentally much the same as people do in our world, although it's kind of hard to tell from the small amount that's there. While it's a "fiction" book, I think this is one of those details that you can accept as fairly accurate, since it'd be kind of odd to write a story about people of your own race and then drastically change the rate that they mature at without calling attention to it.

Then there's also http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/axe_man.shtml, this part in particular:

It shows he's considered a "young man" before he reaches 18.

Then there's also http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/folly.shtml, which mentions that by the time she's 16, she's already a master thief.

You're right, ThatOneGuy. It is a work published by Bethesda and since it is solely about a guy trying to understand Dark Elves and the information is coming from a Dark Elf, I'd say Interview with a Dunmer is the most accurate source since The Real Barenziah is a fiction work by an in-game author. So with that in-game fiction book, the Bethesda employees probably muddled some things in it to make it not so true.

And Chance's Folly is a great read! So I'd say that an elf girl at 6 is the roughly the same as a human girl at 6, not like how a dog at 6 is the same as a human at 42. Am I catching on here?


EDIT: I even asked one of the developers last week about how elves age and I think I scared him off. Poor guy. I really hope that they write some book(s) in the next TES game that have to do more with science like anatomy and physiology and aging and stuff like that. I'm also curious about body hair and if they grow it and when and in what places of their bodies. Am I the only one who is curious about this stuff?

I wasn't around in Daggerfall's heyday. Both authors have long, extensive, and honorable standing, and formal association with Bethesda doesn't really matter. Yes, that statement is generally taken as hyperbole, not as muddled fact. Ramara doesn't muddle facts.

Marilyn Wasserman (The Real Barenziah), Ramara on these forums and the goddess Mara in game, was a writer and credited beta tester on Daggerfall.

Dave Humphrey (Interview) was the founder of UESP, which goes back to 1995.

Neither The Imperial Library nor the UESP is an official Bethesda site.