How long do Viera live?

I wanted to throw this question out there for the folks better at math and picking out lore tidbits than I am.

There's a Viis in Rak'tika, I forget her name off hand, that casually mentions that they live about four times as long as elves. And that got me wondering just what their average lifespan really was. I did a little digging and found that apparently Elezen live around 120 years, which would make your average Viera lifespan between 480-500 years.

Does that sound right to you guys, or did I miss something somewhere?

That seems to be correct, and corroborates with what we know of Viera from FFXII lore, which states that can live for several Hume (Hyuran) lifetimes.

They also stay looking like young women until they're over 200-years-old.

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Originally Posted by Kytrin

I wanted to throw this question out there for the folks better at math and picking out lore tidbits than I am.

There's a Viis in Rak'tika, I forget her name off hand, that casually mentions that they live about four times as long as elves. And that got me wondering just what their average lifespan really was. I did a little digging and found that apparently Elezen live around 120 years, which would make your average Viera lifespan between 480-500 years.

Does that sound right to you guys, or did I miss something somewhere?

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They live three times as long, not four.

"URIANGER
I hope thou wilt not think the question impertinent, but did thy people's famed longevity perchance play a part in the emperor's decision to entrust this mission unto thee and thine?
ALMET
That was one reason, yes. We Viis would easily live to see three of your elven lifetimes."

Talk to the Wandering Dramaturge on the Prima Vista in Kugane:

For the Viera, the hands of time move at a far more leisurely pace than they do for the rest of us. Whereas a Hyur might consider themselves fortunate to see, say, eighty winters before her return to the Lifestream, a Viera can endure up to twelve score or more. It is estimated that upwards of eight in ten Viera are born female, though it is not until at least the thirteenth nameday─when the individual moves from adolescence into adulthood─that the individual’s gender becomes apparent. Then, for the next two centuries will the Viera maintain its physical youth, rendering it nigh impossible to discern one’s age simply from outward appearances.

Twelve score is 240, btw.

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Originally Posted by Wyssahtyn

They live three times as long, not four.

"URIANGER
I hope thou wilt not think the question impertinent, but did thy people's famed longevity perchance play a part in the emperor's decision to entrust this mission unto thee and thine?
ALMET
That was one reason, yes. We Viis would easily live to see three of your elven lifetimes."

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Ah. I misremembered then. I've since moved past to complete the story, but the question wouldn't leave me alone until I tried to solve it lol.

So if an Elezen lives around 120 years then that's around 360 years at minimum, barring getting yourself killed by something. If we go with the idea that they're 'young' women until around 200 before they start actually getting out of that youthful 20-30 something age then 360-400 average seems reasonable.

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Originally Posted by Kytrin

Ah. I misremembered then. I've since moved past to complete the story, but the question wouldn't leave me alone until I tried to solve it lol.

So if an Elezen lives around 120 years then that's around 360 years at minimum, barring getting yourself killed by something. If we go with the idea that they're 'young' women until around 200 before they start actually getting out of that youthful 20-30 something age then 360-400 average seems reasonable.

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I have a timeline for my character for roleplaying purposes, and she's 88, which amongst the Viera still makes her essentially a rambunctious teenager, despite living through and serving in two wars. Long-lived races are fun like that.

I sort of figured that age 200 would be equivalent to age 35 or so for a modern human, with 400 being equivalent to 70, and any time beyond that being 'elderly'.

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Originally Posted by FaerieAura

I have a timeline for my character for roleplaying purposes, and she's 88, which amongst the Viera still makes her essentially a rambunctious teenager, despite living through and serving in two wars. Long-lived races are fun like that.

I sort of figured that age 200 would be equivalent to age 35 or so for a modern human, with 400 being equivalent to 70, and any time beyond that being 'elderly'.

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The Wandering Dramaturge makes it seem like 240 is the normal expected lifespan. From what he says about their appearance of youth, I'd guess that everything past 200 is considered somewhat elderly. Viis might live longer than Viera or Elves might have shorter lives than Elezen from what Almet says.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

The Wandering Dramaturge makes it seem like 240 is the normal expected lifespan. From what he says about their appearance of youth, I'd guess that everything past 200 is considered somewhat elderly. Viis might live longer than Viera or Elves might have shorter lives than Elezen from what Almet says.

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Interesting. I might have to make adjustments, or maybe the Wandering Dramaturge is just wrong. He doesn't seem to have his stuff together, what with his constant making us run around doing errands.

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Originally Posted by FaerieAura

Interesting. I might have to make adjustments, or maybe the Wandering Dramaturge is just wrong. He doesn't seem to have his stuff together, what with his constant making us run around doing errands.

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Don't forget that the Viera are great warriors, so they are more likely to die in battle and met their death that way taking their natural longevity down.

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Originally Posted by AkaeiNox

Don't forget that the Viera are great warriors, so they are more likely to die in battle and met their death that way taking their natural longevity down.

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That is entirely fair. My numbers are based off of an ideal situation. No dying in battle. No major illness or injury to shorten lifespan. No curses. None of that. You die of ripe old age in your bed.

Also, I think that was supposed to be 240+80, which is 320. It's still somewhat off from the implied numbers in ShB, and what was previously said in a lore panel about Elezen lifespans though, and I suspect a bit of a lore inconsistency there. For my money, I'll roll with the Elezen live an ideal 120 years, multiply by 3, and round up to 400 total as they live 'easily' to 3 times the Elezen lifespan. Which would make 200 middle-aged and a reasonable point for Viera to start showing their age a little.

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Originally Posted by FaerieAura

Interesting. I might have to make adjustments, or maybe the Wandering Dramaturge is just wrong. He doesn't seem to have his stuff together, what with his constant making us run around doing errands.

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Considering information sources in-game and even in the lore books aren’t entirely reliable, I’d take the word of a viis over that of the dramaturge in regards to viera longevity.

It may confuse players, but characters telling you about the world as they know it makes the lore richer than every character being pure truthful exposition.

They live as long as the servers do

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Originally Posted by MikkoAkure

Considering information sources in-game and even in the lore books aren’t entirely reliable, I’d take the word of a viis over that of the dramaturge in regards to viera longevity.

It may confuse players, but characters telling you about the world as they know it makes the lore richer than every character being pure truthful exposition.

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Exactly my thought. My assumption is that the Viis are more correct about their biology that the dramaturge is, given that, let's be real, it's not entirely likely that City Viera are entirely truthful about their ages. Someone who looks like she's in her twenties telling someone that 'Ah, no, actually, I'm 178...' isn't going to be a fun conversation to have more than a couple of times.

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Originally Posted by JeanneOrnitier

Talk to the Wandering Dramaturge on the Prima Vista in Kugane:

For the Viera, the hands of time move at a far more leisurely pace than they do for the rest of us. Whereas a Hyur might consider themselves fortunate to see, say, eighty winters before her return to the Lifestream, a Viera can endure up to twelve score or more. It is estimated that upwards of eight in ten Viera are born female, though it is not until at least the thirteenth nameday─when the individual moves from adolescence into adulthood─that the individual’s gender becomes apparent. Then, for the next two centuries will the Viera maintain its physical youth, rendering it nigh impossible to discern one’s age simply from outward appearances.

Twelve score is 240, btw.

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So, does this quote imply that after 13 years, they grow discernible and simply stop aging? Or does it mean that when a Viera becomes the equivalent of a human 13 year old (which would mean many more years have passed in actuality) they grow discernible?

TLDR; do they turn 13 and stop aging or do they just age really slowly?

Apologies if I’m not making any sense :confused:

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Originally Posted by Vuekkun

So, does this quote imply that after 13 years, they grow discernible and simply stop aging? Or does it mean that when a Viera becomes the equivalent of a human 13 year old (which would mean many more years have passed in actuality) they grow discernible?

TLDR; do they turn 13 and stop aging or do they just age really slowly?

Apologies if I’m not making any sense :confused:

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It's poorly worded but what it means is that, generally speaking, Viera begin puberty at around 13 years old. As in real life, puberty lasts several years. It's not getting Thanos Snap'd from precocious genderless child to Vieran supermodels.

That generally speaking is important, as not every person will begin puberty at the exact same time—for us real life, flesh and blood humans, it typically starts as early as Age 8, and as late as Age 15. It then lasts for about 2-5 years. But until we start running into Viera children with listed ages, we'll probably never know for sure.

For what it's worth, one of the fiew viera we've got an age for right now is Lilja, who's nineteen. So it generally seems to vibe that they run on Fantasy Novel Elf Rules: reaching adulthood at the same rate as humans, and then just staying there for way longer.

(Ironically, this isn't true of FFXIV's actual elves; elezen seem to have somewhat later puberties to match their somewhat longer lifespans.)

The way that Viera puberty is setup is like rabbits IRL. You can totally not know the rabbit’s gender until it’s like 3-4 months old.

Givwn the pair of points we have

3 times Elzen (3×120=360)
12 score (12×20=240)

We can assume that Viera have a life span that varies fair enormously but doesn't go past 400, with that being about as rare as a human centennial, but their elderly or even middle age period being approximately around 220ish