Your Definitive Thread on Elven Lifespans (Patreon)

Textual Sources

There are three sources that outright state the lifespans of elves. Two of them are more or less in agreement, but the third gives a wildly different number. None are without problems. They are: 

The Real Barenziah (1996) - Although this book originally appeared in Daggerfall, it has been present in every main title since, with no alterations to the pertinent paragraph: 

“…contemplating the thousand-year lifespan Elves had been granted by the gods. True, few ever actually lived that long as disease and violence took their respective tolls. But they could. And one or two of them actually did.”

Interview with Alvur Relds (1999) - Another oldie, with a focus on the common mer and a much, much smaller number. Has not appeared in game. 

“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…” 

Elder Scrolls Online Lore Answers (2015) - An out-of-character source, and relatively recent. More or less agrees with Alvur’s numbers above. 

“Elves live two to three times as long as humans and the “beast-races” (Orcs, Khajiiti, Argonians). A 200-year-old Elf is old; a 300-year-old Elf is very, very old indeed. Anyone older than that has prolonged his or her lifespan through powerful magic.”

You’d think that the OOC aspect would make it definitive, but ESO’s then-Loremaster, Lawrence Schick, disagrees, saying: 

“Unless it's credited to a Tamrielic source, e.g., "According to Beredalmo the Signifier...", marketing copy should not be considered to represent in-world lore.”

Visible Examples

There’s a fourth source, though: the mer themselves. We have exact or approximate ages for nearly 25 mer, and, together, they paint a picture that’s closer to the Barenziah figure (up to a thousand, but generally die younger of disease or violence) than to Alvur or ESO’s (200 as old, 300 as hella old). 

First, a note on age distribution in a population. Here’s a handy graph from the US. You’ll notice that most folks are middle aged or younger, with the percentage of representation diminishing sharply the closer you get to the max lifespan. If Alvur’s and ESO’s numbers were correct, most mer we encounter should be somewhere around 100 years old. Instead, here’s what we see: 

While there are quite a few folks representing the 100-149, most are clustered around the 150-250 range, with another bump in the 350-400 range. Then, after a lull, we get some long lived mage representation. What’s more important, though, is that the majority of these elves are still going strong at 230+, and not showing signs of being very old, as the ESO answer would have them be. 

Let’s take a look at who is actually represented, starting with folks for whom we have exact ages at time of death: 

Symmachus, who was born a commoner and did not as far as we know practice any life-enhancing magic, lived 75 years past ESO’s “very, very old” mark before being killed. While we don’t know what Fyrre died of, he, too, lived quite a bit past the 300 years mark. The only one here who could conform to ESO’s numbers would be Ketil, if he died of natural causes as opposed to in battle. 

Next, let’s take a look at mer who are still alive and for whom we can at least guess at an age. 

Again, the majority here alive and doing well at 200 or over. Taken together, this gives us 5 examples of non-mage mer who are over 300 years of age (ESO’s lifespan), which is 20% of our entire surveyed population. Vorien Direnni, who is of noble birth but claims no special magical powers, lived to be at least 611 -- more than doubling ESO and Alvur’s supposed maximum.  

Editor Age 

Finally, there’s one more data point to consider - in engine age. Skyrim features a set of three age skintones for its NPCs - default, 40, and 50, with any human older than that being assigned the Elder Race instead. If we say that Tamrielic human lifespan is about the same as Earth human lifespan -- 85ish years -- then the 40 skintone corresponds to middle age and the 50 slightly past that. Obviously, these skins are used more as approximations of aged complexion than exact years, but they still yield interesting results when combined with the numbers above. 

Here’s what skin ages the Skyrim mer are given: 

As you can see, although the first four would be considered old by ESO’s and Alvur’s standards, three are given a “default” age, and Avrusa is only marked as middle aged. If Bethesda wanted to make these characters old, they could have represented it through their appearance. Instead, looks like they were all supposed to be around their 30s in human years, far, far away from the “a 200 year old mer is old” figure given by ESO. Neloth, who was already quite old in Morrowind, is appropriately given the maximum possible age of 50. 

Conclusions

Simply put, the notion that a 200 year old elf is old and a 300 year old elf is at death’s door just does not work with what we’ve seen in game and in lore. While there are a few examples that might fit, there are far more who exceed those numbers, sometimes dramatically so. 

Instead, the “thousand year” lifespan given in the Real Barenziah seems to be closer to the truth as far as maximum potential is concerned (just like humans are capable of living up to 120, though most make it to something like 85). Mages and nobility that live to be 500+ likely aren’t extending their maximum lifespan as much as curing/preventing the sorts of things that would kill regular mer (disease, injury, war, etc.). Once you approach and exceed 1000 is where you get into your actual life extension territory, as would be the case with powerful mages like Iachesis or Divyath, or gods-blessed individuals like Knight Paladin Gelebor.