Just curios.

It's proportionate to how badass they are as far as I can tell. Divayth Fyr is still poking around I think, he's probably sustained by magic though, I'm not entirely sure.

The Dunmer i have is a Nightblade. [magic thief] but i'm leaning towards him being more of a champion of Nocturnal and Azura. so he has magic swords, bows, and staffs.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Interview_with_a_Dark_Elf says that the usual lifespan is 120-130, 100 is old, and some reach 200+.

Cool. thanks.

ANd some nobles (Barenziah) can pull off the 500 range. The Telvanni mage-lords probably manage longer life-spans.

@Brugdush, Divyath Fyr isn't a good example of Dunmer lifespan. He wasn't even born a Dunmer. Divyath Fyr was born a Chimer, and was around hundreds of years before the ascension of the Tribunal. (He's around 4,000 years old, which is most of Tamriellic history) He's the worst outlier in the history of outliers.

A Dunmer peasant would probably live to ~120, but if the living conditions were right he might be as old as 200 or 300.

Magic users can prolong their lifespan - see Divayth Fyr, he's 4000 years old now. He's one of a kind, though. Royalty will obviously live longer - Barenziah was alive after the events of Morrowind, which would make her well over 400 years old.

General inclination to magic helps - Brand-Shei is 195, which is quite long for someone of his social position, but given his ancestry it's not entirely improbable.

I don't understand. Do you mean that the more magic a person can cast, the longer he or she can live? If so, is that because there is more magicka from Aetherius passing through you which is prolonging your life more?

As others have stated a Dunmer's lifespan depends on their lifestyle. If they're a peasant they'll only live about 100-150 years old. Since nobles have access to better healers, they'll live up to 400 or more years. Wizard lords can extend they're lifespan indefinately with sorcery.


It's never been said how the Telvanni live so long. It most likely has to do with centuries of research.

I don't think your magicka pool has a correlation to your potential age. What I believe it is, is that some mages and wizards 'discover' spells or magical/alchemical arts to cast spells on themselves or drink potions to slow down or even stop the aging process.

Wow! You mean in terms of lore, not game mechanics, some mages who are super gifted in magic can cast spells that render themselves ageless? And so they could look in their mid hundreds forever? Has any person in Tamriel been able to do this?

http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Divayth_Fyr among others.

As several other people pointed out, Divayth Fyr He was born in the beginning of the First Era (second century probably), around the time Alessia founded the First Empire.

Powerful mages are known to live much longer than ordinary people. We don't know by what means they achieve it, but it obviously has to do with magic. However, it's suspected that lifespan is also affected by general magical aptitude, even if you don't use magic yourself. That's why mer live longer than men, and we can even see differences between races of elves - Altmer live the longest, followed by Dunmer, with Bosmer having the shortest lifespans. Orsimer live even shorter than Bosmer, but their transformation might have had something to do with this, so I don't know if they should be counted. They fit into the pattern though.

A few of the other Telvanni Mage-Lords have been around for around 1000 years or longer. Stories involving Neloth and Gothren date back centuries, and they were firmly established as local Lords even back then. Supposedly, Therana is in the same or older category, but not handling her advancing years nearly as well, so it's not an "automatic" kind of thing. One of the Telvanni starting "fetch" quests has you pick up some ingredients, which turn out to be for an ointment for sore joints for another aging Mage-Lord, so there is still some decline despite the magical prolonging of life.

One book on archery (about "The Greatest Archer") puts into writing a tale told to "cheer" an aging Altmer whose brother has just passed away from old age. The Altmer's own age is listed as well into the upper hundreds, if I recall, but not 1000. The Dunmer have lost some of the longevity of their Altmer origins, but not all of it by any means.

It's rarly an exact thing. The Nirnroot farmer in Skyrim is still hale and appears about middle aged on the Sarethi farm, and she's at least 200. Bran-Shei is also in the more-or-less 200 range. Barenziah was over 400 by a wide margin when we saw her in Tribunal, and looked old but that may have been from her full and often traumatic life.