how long can elves; altmer, bosmer and dunmer, live for?

I think I heard altmer can live up to...~600ish years (if they don't explode or die)
Dunmer usually around 200 (+1000 if they're Telvanni due to necromancy and other magics)
Bosmer I think around 150.

Most of it depends on the health of the elves, these numbers are if they lived a good life.

Quote from http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/realbarenziah.shtml.

Where did you get your info from, Hellmouth?

There is very little consistent information. Sources tend to contradict eachother. A good paraphrase would be "Longer than that of men, and with a little help a whole lot longer, but not infinite." I have personally always had the impression that the mer lifespan in general is a lot more stretchable (i.e. benefiting from mundane and magical effects).

Yeah, I noticed that; I did a brief search and found no stoneclad info about it.

A very generalized but consistent answer is just to say what you just said: not infinite, but considerably longer than Men.

Well, it is infinite if you're lucky enough to live near a dead god's Heart, or some other edifice of untold power.

Or if you happen to be the leader of the Maormer.
Then you even grow younger.

well berenzia has been alive since tiber septim so dunmer must live longer than 200 years

As Adanorcil said, there isn't much consistent information. http://www.imperial-library.info/interviews/alvur.shtml gives it as 150 to a little over 200 years for Dunmer, and Varieties of Faith describes Phynaster as a hero who taught the Altmer to naturally live another 100 years. Bearing in mind that Phynaster was a hero because of what he did, and an extra hundred years to a race that lives a thousand years would be negligible and hardly hero-worthy material, I think the author of the Real Barenziah was being a little wistful about elven lifespans. Thousand year life spans also makes a joke out of the chronology, and sounds more than a little silly. Stretchable lifespans work better keeping things consistent.

There is also "Poison Song" :

Altmer probably live over 200 years. Dunmer 150. All other probably less.

Powerful sorcerers and members of the nobility with access to expensive potions and enchantments can live to be thousands but this is not considered biologically normal.

By whom?

By people who don't naturally live thousands of years, I'd guess?

But if using magic to extend your life is common practice in the ES world, then why would people consider it biologically not normal?

With consideration of the word "biological", do I really need to answer that?

And on reflection on Hairdo's post, how is "powerful sorcerers and members of the nobility with access to expensive potions and enchantments" common practice? It's practically the botox of the TES world.

I wouldn't say that... Botox is relatively common among the upper middle classes here on Earth, whereas in TES, the life extending sorceries and/or potions of the Telvanni and presumably the Psyjics(sp?) are only available to an elite few.

You don't see thousand year old wizards around every corner in Morrowind...there are only a handful of wizards, possibly five or six,with the exceptions of the Tribunal and the Dagoths, who are over 1000 years old. Barenziah and other members of the nobility have extended lives, and this is due to their easy lifestyle and, I suspect, access to potions and other remedies too expensive for the average Dunmer.

American television is no good indicator of how many people on the planet choose to paralyse their face with poison to look younger. But whatever, it's rare. We've established that.

Well amen to that..I hear you and I'm with you 100% as far as that goes.

Of course..difference is, I would have no trouble with drinking a life extending potion but I'd feel like a sleaze ball getting botox..lol

That's entirely besides the point, which I concede. It's an adequate comparison.

I stand firmly by my biological statement of course, since the extended age of the Elves is not a product of biology but of "medicine".

Well, its easy to think that Mankar Camoran or Divaith Fyr are as old as they are. But when you look at a dunmer on for example Vvardenfell where we met many dunmer such as... Indrele Rathryon of Seyda Neen. (You know, or whatever. A random lower class elf like majority of them in actuality are.) It is hard to imagine them living much longer than 90 or even that much.

Even that smith in Anvil who looks quite middle aged already has an apprentice who is planned to take over after him when he's dead. Not like he would plan that two hundred years in advance.





I do wonder exactly what has kept Baladas Demnevani alive for so long. He has that awesome image of an ancient dude.

Necromantic arts, it is believed.
Same with all the other Telvanni mages. The old ones, that is.

The problem with that is that we could easily then say that the average lifespan of a human here on Earth is around 40 because that is when people usually die without access to modern medicine. And I don't think there is actually any life-extending potions, otherwise the nobility would never die and Phylaster adding 100 years to the Altmer life-span wouldn't matter. However, there are potions that cure disease and such, much like modern medicine. We know that a Dunmer that has a cushy life-style and access to medicine can live up to at least 450 (Barenziah, who doesn't have any special magic powers.) but that is really all we know about the lifespans.

Barenziah is over 400 years old. Divayth Fyr is over 4000 years old.

Although humans have been known to live for unnaturally long times given magical process; Ulfgar the Unending was affected by a petrification spell that caused him to live over 500 years old. And he probably could have lived longer. And Ciirta was around since the last Graymarch, although people may not age while in the Shivering Isles.

Modern legend bull.

Unless you're talking about life expectancies instead of lifespans, in which case it's still bull.

No country for old men indeed.

The maximum natural biological lifespan for humans has always been around 120 years, barring all disease and trauma. It's just that until recently not many people reached that age.

The things the Dunmer and some Altmer do to themselves to extend life are obviously more than just medicine..hence the quotation marks I used around "medicine". It was stated that the Telvanni often use some spells from the school of Necromancy to extend their lifespans but it's never said just what those spells do. I think it's entirely probable there's a such a thing as a "resist aging" spell..sort of along the lines of a "resist disease" spell. It would work much the same way in theory but may be considered a tad unnatural and bordering on Necromancy. (perhaps Necromancers use such a spell to keep their zombie warriors fresh?)

Or who knows? Maybe some of the Telvanni lords are actually Vampires...either or both could be true. The Lords don't come down from their towers very often after all...they could easily be Vampires in disguise although the CS shows no signs of this. (Doesn't mean it is impossible lore wise of course..game mechanic.)

We also know that the Neravarine gained eternal youth from being cured of Corprus. Apparently he/she was the first person to have actually been cured, although the Wise Women and Divath Fyr seemed to know with certainty that the Incarnate would not be touched by age...so maybe it's possible that many of the Telvanni sorcerors have Corprus on purpose but somehow keep the effects under control, possibly with an intense regimine of powerful potions and spells. That would certainly be considered a form of Necromancy, wouldn't it?

See..those are three completely different hypotheses which would defy the natural Dunmer biology and go beyond mere medicine.... it's possible none of my hypotheses are true of course. Only the Devs know the specifics of their life spans. Maybe the real answer is much more interesting than any of these scenarios.

The others might be theoretically possibly, but I doubt this one. Divayth Fyr seemed pretty groundbreaking in his research.

Oh, and there's also the possibility that it's just advanced Restoration magic. Fortify Health, for example, seems a fitting group of spells.