I've come to a brick wall in the backstory to my character for Skyrim. Before I can go any further in the writing, I really need to know what the lifespans are for all of the races. I've looked all over the place, but I haven't really found any information on this subject. If such information actually exists, does anyone know any of the average lifespans for any of the races?

Have a look in the Lore Forum, these threads pop up every day there.

25... dragon hunters tend not to live very long. :icecream:

I encountered a similar brick wall, until I added the cliched "frozen in a block of ice" concept into my backstory.

Do you mind pointing me in the right direction? I didn't see any threads on this subject? (sorry :sadvaultboy:)



I was going to do that initially, but it's just so overused. My kind-of plan is that my Oblivion character doesn't age in the Realm of Madness, and has been ruling on the throne there for 184 years, but it's really just a back-up for not being able to find the lifespans.

2 more seconds from the moment they piss me off.

For convenience's sake, I'll just post the rough estimates.

Elves can live to around 100-500 in general, but 1000+ at best. It all depends on your race, position in society, and lifestyles. Altmer and Dunmer in particular can and do live for thousands of years but it's rare. Because of this, their ages are spread out a bit and they mature a little more slowly, though they reach sixual maturity around the same point as humans. Orsimer are an exclusion to this and only live around the lifespan of a human, if not shorter, due to the actions of a Nordic death-god pinning his curse on these people.

Humans live roughly the same as we do. Bretons in particular with their elven blood can possibly live at around 100 years or more. Again, not commonplace.

Beastraces are a mystery. My best guess is that Argonians live slightly longer than humans, with Khajiit having similar lifespans as humans.

No worries. http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1169662-typical-life-span-of-the-races/ was the first one I saw.

Altmer can live for thousands of years and so can Dumner (but usually dont due to diseases while the Altmer have a high resistance to diseases so they tend to live longer) but im not sure about all the other races

Thanks for the help so far guys, I'm currently reading that linked thread.

I have read that Bretons have shorter lifespans than other human races. I'm not sure if Dunmer live for thousands of years naturally like Altmer. The Dunmer that were mentioned to be that old were also powerful sorcerers.

does it matter you probably wont play a character for more than a year

These are just guesses but from what I remember from the lore.

Orcs are the shortest at 60 years (Due to Arkay I think)
Bretons are around 80 years
Nords are around 100 years
Imperials, Same as Nord
Redguards, same as Nord and Imperial
Wood Elves are around 200 years
High Elves are around 500 years
Dark Elves I'm guessing are similar to High Elves although they could live longer. Divith Fyr (Can't remember his exact name) he lived for like 2000 years.
Argonians are around 80 years
Khajitts are also around 80 years.

I don't understand or follow what you're implying here?

There's I think five threads on the first page of the lore forum about this. For simplicity's sake:

Orsimer: 60-70 years
Imperials, Nords, Redguard: 80 years
Bretons: 100 years
Argonians, Khajiit: Probably comparable to humans, but unknown.
Altmer, Bosmer, Dunmer: Up to 1000 years if they take care of themselves. Peasants who work themselves to the bone typically don't make it to a century.

Humans live for like 70-80 years.Elves for about 130.If you are a good mage, age doesn't matter anymore.I don't think it really matters anyway

Damn good stuff.

Only thing I'd add in is that the length of lifespan for races like the Dunmer and Altmer is as much to do with bloodline as anything else.

Also something comes to me about the Altmer living longer because they walk shorter strides or something like that.