NPCs refering to our character's age

Not sure if the lore forum is the right section for this, but it was the closest I could find. Please redirect me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, Hyur and Elezen both have an old/mature face to choose when creating a character. In addition, players can tweak their characters to look older with grey hair and such.

I play an older elezen (see my avatar picture or signature), and I'm not the only one. But quite often, NPCs will refer to him as young. Young, I imagine, as in 20-30 years or so. My character looks to be maybe 50+.

When there's an option to create an aged character, it strikes me as a bit wrong to always be refered to as "young" "wise for your young age", "young adventurer" etc.

Or is it just me...?

The young might be a reference to your time spent on a certain profession. While my Hellsguard looks well up in his fifties he is a "young" carpenter.

Or the localisation team made it that way due to the "Young hero" trope.

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Originally Posted by Enur

Or the localisation team made it that way due to the "Young hero" trope.

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Pretty sure it's more along these lines - they expect you to be young. And appearance-wise, they're right 99 times out of 100, because we don't have a great many "old" options. I consider the few who use the old options "collateral damage" of that.

It's probably worth noting that FFXIV is significantly different from other titles in the franchise, in that many of its key characters are in their 20s and above. Most of the Scions, notably, are in their mid- to late-20s, if not in their 30s. For that reason, I've been quite comfortable imagining my character to be in his 20s as well. Lyland, in my mind, arrived in Eorzea in the autumn of his 20th year, and is now 23.

The trope in anime and JRPG is that of characters being considered over-the-hill by the time they're 20. Heck, they're ancient by the time they're 29, and are, for most intents and purposes, already in retirement by that age. I'm glad that FFXIV is generally bucking the trend.

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Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

It's probably worth noting that FFXIV is significantly different from other titles in the franchise, in that many of its key characters are in their 20s and above. Most of the Scions, notably, are in their mid- to late-20s, if not in their 30s. For that reason, I've been quite comfortable imagining my character to be in his 20s as well. Lyland, in my mind, arrived in Eorzea in the autumn of his 20th year, and is now 23.

The trope in anime and JRPG is that of characters being considered over-the-hill by the time they're 20. Heck, they're ancient by the time they're 29, and are, for most intents and purposes, already in retirement by that age. I'm glad that FFXIV is generally bucking the trend.

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That's a good point, and I'm glad young does not have to equal 13 years. I still wish they were a bit more broad in their phrasing, as I'm left feeling I'm not playing who I should be playing. :/

If you become a lala you'd be forever young, XD. Just look at Papalymo, his close to 50, 48 I believe, book's at home sorry. But how old does he look, honestly. I think for the most part all adventurers are 20 or older, since 20 is a significant age in Japan.

Well, to be fair, adventuring really isn't an elderly person's passtime, for the most part. It's very taxing and dangerous. There's even a couple of NPCs (An elderly Elezen and a Doman man) in the Rising Stones who discuss it. They do what they can, but that's unfortunately not a great deal at their age, what with their backs aching and joints getting stiff on damp nights (Which is when the best hunting is!).

And then you have our dear Scions, who are actually on the older side and concealing it with high-grade Sharlyan cosmetics XD. One of these days I'd like to catch Thancred complaining about his back and hastily trying to cover it up when he realizes you were listening.

Wouldn't you have to be 70-100+ to be considered elderly, though? 40-50 is more along the lines of midlife, or 'Veteran Adventurer.'

^ We don't really know the life expectancy of the average Eorzean, though. In the real world, most people up until the 20th century could only expect to live to about 35 or so, before war, famine or disease claimed them. Life was harsh, and people were forced to "grow up" a lot sooner, shouldering "adult" responsibilities by their mid-teens. Heck, Alexander the Great was only 20 when he became the King of Macedonia, and by the time he was 30, he had conquered the known world. So, yes, there is good reason why a 30-year-old would be considered an antediluvian in a mediaeval setting. :p

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Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

^ We don't really know the life expectancy of the average Eorzean, though. In the real world, most people up until the 20th century could only expect to live to about 35 or so, before war, famine or disease claimed them. Life was harsh, and people were forced to "grow up" a lot sooner, shouldering "adult" responsibilities by their mid-teens. Heck, Alexander the Great was only 20 when he became the King of Macedonia, and by the time he was 30, he had conquered the known world. So, yes, there is good reason why a 30-year-old would be considered an antediluvian in a mediaeval setting. :p

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Aegis is seen by the NPCs as completely ancient if that's the case. :S

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Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

^ We don't really know the life expectancy of the average Eorzean, though. In the real world, most people up until the 20th century could only expect to live to about 35 or so...

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Let's be clear here. Life expectancy is based on the sum total of ages at death divided by the number of the dying.

If you lived to 35, you were as likely to reach 70 as anyone today, as most of the deaths figuring into that sum total were under 1 year of age.

To be clear, life was harsher, and there were more opportunities for accidental death, but "you live to 35 and then, poof, you're gone" wasn't a real thing.

It is weird that almost half the male faces available looks like they are in their mid thirties to forties. This is especially prominent in Roegadyn, Highlanders and to an extent, Elezen.

All of the female faces however looks like they are in their late teens to early twenties. I'd like an older female face option to remedy the gap.

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Originally Posted by DPZ2

Let's be clear here. Life expectancy is based on the sum total of ages at death divided by the number of the dying.

If you lived to 35, you were as likely to reach 70 as anyone today, as most of the deaths figuring into that sum total were under 1 year of age.

To be clear, life was harsher, and there were more opportunities for accidental death, but "you live to 35 and then, poof, you're gone" wasn't a real thing.

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Eh... I would have thought I made that very clear: Most people up until the 20th century died because of war, famine or disease, and that had an overall effect of lowering average life expectancy to about 35 years or so.

Life expectancy is simply what it is: a statistical measure of how long an average person can expect to live in a given environment. It says nothing about how long a person can actually expect to live, biologically, if war and natural disasters don't take their toll.

And it has relevance in Eorzea, given that we do in fact know that the realm is really not a very nice place for the average dude who is not the Warrior of Light, the Scions, or among the leadership of the city-states.

Lalafell and hyur constantly fall prey to all kinds of carnivorous flora and fauna. Smallfolk around La Noscea and its nearby islands and seas are at constant risk of being kidnapped and sold into slavery by pirates. Women, especially, are sold into prostitution, and we can expect most were raped before being auctioned off.

And then there's the constant threat of war, not just from the Garleans, but also tempered beast tribes. The various Grand Companies always talk about how they're stretched for manpower; they may not say so directly, but it's clear that attrition rates among their ranks are quite high.

So sure, we will see the occasional old folk or two; but for every one we see in the villages and city-states, it's worth bearing in mind that there were likely hundreds more that didn't make it to that age, simply because life sucks for the average Eorzean.

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Originally Posted by Leowilde

Aegis is seen by the NPCs as completely ancient if that's the case. :S

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My character is on the older side too - not on the level of your wonderful Elezen gentleman but certainly closer to 40 than 20, and I just assumed that most of the NPCs were stupid. Like the way several of them stand around insulting Duskwights right to my grey-blue face. It's the only way I can stay sane; they're not doing it on purpose, are they?!

Do one multiply Miqo'tes age by 7 to get their Hyur equivalent?

Didn't we get some answers regarding life expectancy a while back? Something to the tune of most of the races having approximately the same life-spans as humans (About 100 years in good conditions), except for Elezen who live a bit longer (up to about 150)?

Though obviously that's all assuming excellent health, nutrition and them never running afoul of the local primal.

^ I agree it was mentioned once in a live letter (not sure which as it was linked to a post on these forms once & I forget which post) so yah cocidering u don't run afool of bandits, assasination, death by ilness, random wildlife while not geared, enemy factions, tempered by beast-tribes, sacrificed by anyone for power, random bad luck or end up an enemy of the PC player... the average NPC lifespan would be 20th century average (slight longer for Elzan)

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Originally Posted by Lukha

Well, to be fair, adventuring really isn't an elderly person's passtime, for the most part. It's very taxing and dangerous.

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Isildaure would disagree about adventuring being only a young man's game.

While not directly related to character age, I have had issues with the dialogue when playing a Hellsguard and the NPC uses your first or last name only. For instance, I had one for a short time named Silent Shield and in most conversations he was simply referred to as Silent. For the Hellsguard in particular this is bothersome because he's taken the whole name to identify himself as an individual, yet everyone still treats his name as though it's a given name plus a surname. It's a small, perhaps insignificant to some, portion of immersion that just obliterates the idea of playing such a character for me.

Isildaure is an adventurer we can all aspire to be, tbh