Archon Theorizing

[Naria]

. . . I think that people just age differently there than we do in the real world.
I can't remember well but I'm pretty sure in some other thread, someone theorized that lalafell stop physically aging after a certain age (in some cutscene you can see a lalafell as a teen during an echo and later see him as an adult in present but there is no changes besides his clothes)
But now that I start to think of it.. What if this theory is not just for lalafells but for every one in Hydealyn?

I think you missed my point What I meant is that people may age slower in Hydealyn than in our world, so the fact that there are indeed old people is kinda off topic

When I read over your post you seemed to speculate that since Lalafells seem to stop ageing that may be true for all the other playable races as well. I was just pointing out that Hyurs at least do age. It is certainly possible that Hyur lifespans are longer than humans unlike what we have been assuming or that the game’s years are shorter etc since we don’t really have much of that context right now.

EDIT: . . . For some reason I'm recalling that there was info from the Dev's about Hydaelyn's year. Does anyone remember/have a link or am I just misremembering?

[IrisBlanchimont]

EDIT: . . . For some reason I'm recalling that there was info from the Dev's about Hydaelyn's year.

I buy in to the idea that years are 'short', mostly because the years follow a lunar calendar, not a solar one. The world shows minimal effects of 'seasons', so it makes sense that a solar year wouldn't have meaning to them, but that leaves us no idea how long their year is relative to what we think of as a year. It could be remarkably shorter or longer than their rotational period. I think the dev note you're mentioning is the statement that years are made up of twelve lunar months, an Astral and Umbral month of each element. Theorized elsewhere in the Lore forums, though I don't remember where, is the idea that an "Astral" month centers around a full moon and an "Umbral" around a New Moon, which make sense. If that's the case, Hydaelyn's year is made up of six full lunar cycles, broken into Astral and Umbral months.

[IrisBlanchimont]

That said, it makes sense that the races would have different life spans and it's possible all might live longer than humans, but given the rate at which things change and events develop mythologies and knowledge of things is utterly lost, I'd say very few of the races exceed one hundred Hydaelyn years. I think one of the reasons most people are young is that in a world like this, old age isn't the thing most likely to kill you; monsters and war probably are the top killers in Eorzea. And for aging, it could be in part that the changes in appearance over five, or even fifteen years are not hugely dramatic for a lot of people, but I think mostly it a convenience thing from SE's perspective - it both is convenient on the graphics team and is easy from a narrative setting as well. Everyone knows Cid is Cid before even Cid does, because he looks like Cid; narrative simplicity.

Sorry for double-post. Limits on text entry.