Lifespan/age of different races?

I don't think we're Ramza or Tenzen. Ramza used themselves as a ward and we're told our soul is like Tenzen's in that we're both WoL. Those with the echo aren't always a WoL. They just might be souls of shattered Ancients. It would be nice if we knew if the 7th Calamity was the 1st time we've been popped out or the 7th and we just don't remember the other 6 lives we've had. Concerning we don't seem to remember we most likely used to be an Ancient. I think there's two sets of WoLs one that is brought out when shard rejoining events are happening and ones that seem to be Source only events where the Ramza and Tenzens are popped out. Either way if it has always been us for the major ones then our life spans until now have probably been short. Or because the Source has had a lot happen to it records of our past selves must have been lost or corrupted. Are we this world's Link?

It's funny how we don't even know what a life span for a Dragon is since we know they're at least 5,000 years old. I know the question was about the playable races but it would be interesting what some of the other non playable races are. I want to say the only exception of out living one's normal life span would be the lalafell that were turned into Tonberries and the elf boy from the caster role quest line.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

I don't think we're Ramza or Tenzen. Ramza used themselves as a ward and we're told our soul is like Tenzen's in that we're both WoL. Those with the echo aren't always a WoL. They just might be souls of shattered Ancients. It would be nice if we knew if the 7th Calamity was the 1st time we've been popped out or the 7th and we just don't remember the other 6 lives we've had. Concerning we don't seem to remember we most likely used to be an Ancient. I think there's two sets of WoLs one that is brought out when shard rejoining events are happening and ones that seem to be Source only events where the Ramza and Tenzens are popped out. Either way if it has always been us for the major ones then our life spans until now have probably been short. Or because the Source has had a lot happen to it records of our past selves must have been lost or corrupted. Are we this world's Link?

It's funny how we don't even know what a life span for a Dragon is since we know they're at least 5,000 years old. I know the question was about the playable races but it would be interesting what some of the other non playable races are. I want to say the only exception of out living one's normal life span would be the lalafell that were turned into Tonberries and the elf boy from the caster role quest line.

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Cyella is another one.

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Originally Posted by purgatori

Cyella is another one.

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Isn't her case kind of like how Ardbert and the others came to the Source? Her 'soul' basically came over and she got a body, but she isn't really 'alive' in the same sense? I always wondered.

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Originally Posted by Kidria

Isn't her case kind of like how Ardbert and the others came to the Source? Her 'soul' basically came over and she got a body, but she isn't really 'alive' in the same sense? I always wondered.

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I think she might be more like he who lives in the Solar now.

The lorebook mentions that Elezen have "lifespans one- or two-tenths again as long as their fellow races", implying that all the others (including Au Ra) have similar spans. It doesn't mention anything specific on any of the other races' profiles.

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Originally Posted by Astrid_Stormborn

Lalas can potentially live to over a hundred, if this quote about Ququruka Tataruka from the Black Mage questline is anything to go by-

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In prison, a man will do most anything to keep his mind occupied. Of late, one inmate claims to hear the voice of Nald'thal. No doubt he has lost his mind after serving one hundred years of a life sentence.

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I'm not sure that Ququruka's long lifespan is necessarily a natural one. I did the Lv50 quest on an alt the other day, and he specifically mentions that his aether was corrupted by the failed rite he was attempting - and he deliberately had himself locked in the Marasaja Pit because he was "unsure whether he could hold his powers in check". He also dissolves into dark aether when he dies at the end.

I'm not sure if there's any specific lore about the Pit, but that sounds like it might be designed to seal prisoners' aether, or something like that? And perhaps combined with there being something unusual about him to begin with, it allowed him to live well beyond what should have been possible.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Well, given that multiple sources seem to suggest that Warriors of Light existed in every era and on every Shard, and specifically seem to appear just prior to a Calamity on the Source, only to then "vanish again as Calamity rains down from the heavens", and what we now know about Ardbert... it would not surprise me if the WoL is the same person on every Shard and at every time in history, but continously reincarnated by Hydaelyn.

[...] the WoL is born and lives and dies normally like anyone else, with our (superpowered) soul, returning to the Lifestream at the end of our mortal life, to await the next Calamity (the only time this didn't seem to happen is the prime timeline where the 8th Calamity occurred because we were already alive at the time and died during the disaster, so Hydaelyn did not have time to reincarnate us to make a difference...

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Even in this version of the timeline, where the specific Eighth Calamity of the other timeline never happened, it's quite likely that the WoL will be seeing - and presumably averting - an incoming Eighth Calamity by the end of the story. If the WoL is indeed reincarnated "at the right time" for each incoming calamity (which implies She has some degree of foreknowledge, whether it's general omniscience or by observing the state of the shards), there are two ways to look at this depending on whether a character is a legacy WoL or not:

For legacy WoLs: Hydaelyn knew there was going to be another calamity within a human lifespan, so didn't recall the WoL after averting the Seventh - assuming such a thing happens and it's not just a natural tendency for heroes to make dramatic sacrifices when the Calamity hits.

For non-legacy WoLs: there isn't a "one WoL per shard per instant" limit, and Hydaelyn had two different WoLs prepared for two different calamities.


(Honestly though, the whole thing sounds a bit messy and may be one of those early lore decisions that they now have to try to wrangle into where they've taken the plot since then.)

It seems much more straightforward and obvious to have the specific soul that is the WoL (since this now seems to be a thing) be reincarnated into a body cyclically just as all other souls are reincarnated. Sometimes there is a Calamity to deal with, sometimes they just do a Tenzen, sometimes (probably most often) they do nothing particularly extraordinary. I really don't see why they have to be sat in stasis all the time while Hydaelyn waits until she thinks she needs them. That implies a level of foretelling on Hydaelyn's part that seems like an unnecessary complication and also indicates that she can interfere in the natural cycle to an ominous degree.

I'm pretty sure there's nothing that directly says this kind of meddling is what happens, if there are direct instances where this is referred to please point me towards them as it will very much change my character back story.

The reason there's no reference to the WoL when there is no Calamity is because they're happily married with a little farm near Summerford and they've not picked up any Crystal of Light because they're not currently needed as the WoL

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Originally Posted by Elladie

It seems much more straightforward and obvious to have the specific soul that is the WoL (since this now seems to be a thing) be reincarnated into a body cyclically just as all other souls are reincarnated. Sometimes there is a Calamity to deal with, sometimes they just do a Tenzen, sometimes (probably most often) they do nothing particularly extraordinary. I really don't see why they have to be sat in stasis all the time while Hydaelyn waits until she thinks she needs them. That implies a level of foretelling on Hydaelyn's part that seems like an unnecessary complication and also indicates that she can interfere in the natural cycle to an ominous degree.

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Good point. It makes a lot more sense if they're always there and just get "called" at the right point that Hydaelyn needs someone.

It still makes further sense if there are multiple WoLs in play at any one time though. We might still be extra-special because of our past identity, but that doesn't mean every WoL had to be that specific soul.

Well, considering Unkulhaili was too young to save the 13th though he is heavily implied to be a shard of us it does seem more likely we are simply reborn in the course of things in the cycle.

I may be blind but where are the heavy implications at that the kid is our soul shard from the 13th?

The OP thread's subject has been derailed. :p