Lifespan/age of different races?

[Recon1o6]

I've been thinking for a while about developing the head canon of my character and her alts, yet i came to realise i didn't know the lifespan of different races

I know Hyur live between 70-100 depending, while Elezen typically get to about 110-130 years old.
Bunnies are considered to be getting old by 240, but 300-400 years old seems to be their typical old age with dialoge from Ulmet stating that 3 times the life span of elezen is about average.

But I can't find any information on Miqo'te, Au ra, Popoto or Roegyden lifespans.

Does anybody know them?

[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-

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.

[Fayt1203]

Well the Localization Lead and Lore Team member Michael Christopher Koji Fox said, in a lore Panel at the Las Vegas Fan festival that Hyur, Miqo'te, Lalafell, and Roegadyn have generically human lifespans (80-100 years at the outset), though the harsh world of Eorzea often cuts lifespans short dont know about Au ra though

[Cilia]

Unless it's mentioned otherwise, the best thing to do is operate under the assumption that a fantasy race has the same lifespan as humans. The only known exception to this rule are elezen, who live a little bit longer, though as others have mentioned the dangers inherent to Eorzean life cut most short (i.e. few die of old age or natural causes).

[purgatori]

Bunnies also don't appear to visibly age over the course of their lifespan. I'm not sure if this applies to the other races, but I don't think we've seen any old-looking Miqos or Lalas, whereas we've definitely seen old-looking Hyur (and Elezen?).

EDIT: Slightly off-topic, but I'd be very curious to know what the WoL's lifespan is supposed to be. Is it just the same as the race we've chosen, or will all the aether we have chowed down on over the course of our adventures confer super-normal longevity?

[Enkidoh]

EDIT: Slightly off-topic, but I'd be very curious to know what the WoL's lifespan is supposed to be. Is it just the same as the race we've chosen, or will all the aether we have chowed down on over the course of our adventures confer super-normal longevity?

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.

They would certainly have a normal lifespan for whatever race they're born as (which raises questions about how long lived a viera WoL would be ) - Hydaelyn Herself after all outright told the WoL to "be as a beacon for the world, through all the days of thy life" in the ending cutscene for ARR's main scenario, suggesting for all their power and their apparent Ancient origins, they are still just mortal and have a normal mortal lifespan just like anyone else.

Because we are not like the Ascians who have achieved mastery of the Echo and no longer require our soul to be directly maintained by a mortal frame and such are virtually immortal, 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, there was certainly no indication of someone appearing with a potent Echo and the Blessing of Light 200 years later by all accounts).

I could speculate how and why this specifically occurs with us... but such speculation is just a tinfoil theory I have at the moment so I'll keep it myself for now. But either way, the WoL would have a normal physical lifespan of whatever race they are incarnated as, not taking into account that alas it seems their lives are often cut tragically short, due to the nature of the work (ala, saving Hydaelyn) - again, you only have to look at Ardbert and his unfortunate friends to see how being the WoL is not conducive to having a long peaceful life and happy retirement.

[purgatori]

They would certainly have a normal lifespan for whatever race they're born as (which raises questions about how long lived a viera WoL would be ) - Hydaelyn Herself after all outright told the WoL to "be as a beacon for the world, through all the days of thy life" in the ending cutscene for ARR's main scenario, suggesting for all their power and their apparent Ancient origins, they are still just mortal and have a normal mortal lifespan just like anyone else.

My musings over the longevity of the Viera actually served as the main impetus behind asking the question :P The long lifespans of the Viera, along with their almost all-female societies, were a big part of the reason I picked Viera in the first place, and when I recently made the switch to Miqo'Te, I engaged in a bunch of rationalisation about the WoL "probably being nigh-immortal" anyways.

Thank you so much for that info, though. Now I realise I'm going to have to switch back (SE must love indecisive players like me, and the Fantasia bucks we generate for them) lol But it's probably for the best: I wrote a pretty comprehensive backstory for my bunny, and I just haven't had the lightning bolt come down where my kitty is concerned.

All that aside, I'm a little confused about a couple of things. When you say that the WoL is "the same person," this makes sense to me given that the game seems to heavily suggest that Ardbert is the Grenoldt to our Gerolt. However, weren't the other members (excluding you-know-who) of Ardbert's party also WoLs? Isn't Krile sort of a WoL, without the warrior bit? Are they all ultimately one person as well?

Because we are not like the Ascians...

Wait, 8th calamity? Do you mean the 7th, or am I reading the timeline wrong? I always thought that the reason the WoL stuck around after Cartenau is that the apocalypse was at least partially averted, whereas on previous occasions, the destruction seems to have been pretty comprehensive, and thus one of the shards was absorbed.

Also, aren't we like the Asians? Like, really like the Ascians? Maybe this is my own crackpot theory, but I thought that the end of the ShB was trying to push the idea that we were one of the dissenting members of the Convocation pretty forcefully? I don't suppose that would change much, though, in terms of what happens to our mortal bodies... Or would it?

[Enkidoh]

All that aside, I'm a little confused about a couple of things. When you say that the WoL is "the same person," this makes sense to me given that the game seems to heavily suggest that Ardbert is the Grenoldt to our Gerolt. However, weren't the other members (excluding you-know-who) of Ardbert's party also WoLs? Isn't Krile sort of a WoL, without the warrior bit? Are they all ultimately one person as well?

Ahhh... I assume you haven't reached the end of Shadowbringers yet? In which case, spoiler alert!

SHB's main scenario reveals that Ardbert is the player's character, in that both share the same soul, and he ends up Rejoining his soul to the WoL's during the climatic scene prior to facing the final boss, curing them of the Light inside them that was about to transfrom them into a Lightwarden. This is why Minfilia refused him to sacrifice himself to stopping the Flood of Light a century before - she knew he still had a final task ahead of him to Rejoin with US, trusting in our natural tendency to overcome the impossible and that we would eventually make our way to the First to do so.

As for Ardbert's friends, they're Warriors of Light in a sense, in that they too possess the Echo and gained Crystals of Light, but they are not part of us, they would have their own counterparts on the Source accordingly. They are not part of our WoL, think of them as being parts of other players from your point of view.

Wait, 8th calamity? Do you mean the 7th, or am I reading the timeline wrong? I always thought that the reason the WoL stuck around after Cartenau is that the apocalypse was at least partially averted, whereas on previous occasions, the destruction seems to have been pretty comprehensive, and thus one of the shards was absorbed.

You know, the Eighth Calamity that was

about to happen when the Garlean Empire unleashed Black Rose upon Eorzea that interacted with the First being Rejoined, thus turning it into an absolute weapon of mass destruction that wipes out two thirds of life on Hydaelyn, including completely destroying not only Eorzean civilization but the Empire too, and that the WoL was also a victim of, where even 200 years later things were still so bad that the only way out considered was to turn the Crystal Tower into a Crystal TARDIS and try and change history so the Eighth Calamity never occurred? Preventing the Eighth Calamity is the whole reason we go to the First, to prevent it from ever happening by stopping the First from being Rejoined, which we do by destroying the Lightwardens and defeating Emet-Selch, the Ascian responsible for it.

As events at the end of SHB show, this original timeline was 'cast adrift' rather than being replaced by our new timeline where the Eighth Calamity never occurs and we survive so still technically exists somewhere continuing on hopelessly... which is pretty depressing to think of.

Either way, trying to stop the Eighth Calamity from coming to pass is the central theme of SHB's main scenario.

Also, aren't we like the Asians? Like, really like the Ascians? Maybe this is my own crackpot theory, but I thought that the end of the ShB was trying to push the idea that we were one of the dissenting members of the Convocation pretty forcefully? I don't suppose that would change much, though, in terms of what happens to our mortal bodies... Or would it?

Again, big spoilers from SHB's story line:

I too have that same darksteel foil hat about the WoL's true origins, that what SHB's main scenario does strongly hint towards, that the WoL was the dissenting 14th member of the Convocation and, furthermore, was the one directly responsible for Hydaelyn's summoning and thus the Sundering as well. And more than that, the idea is that all life on Hydaelyn's Source and the Shards are originally Ancients, sundered when the Star was split by Hydaelyn's summoning into the Source and Shards. Only three Ancients survived unsundered, the method of how they did so has not been explained yet: Lahabrea, Emet-Selch, and Elidibus, and somehow managed to make themselves immortal beings beyond the normal natural laws of life and death (possibly a result of Zodiark's summoning in the first place intented to "rewrite the laws of nature").

The Ancients pre Zodiark//Hydaelyn summoning/Sundering were not Ascians, that is only what those that remained after the Sundering ended up becoming - as Emet's reconstruction of Amaurot showed (and if it is accurate), the Ancients were of impressive physical statue with immense personal wellsprings of aether beyond what anyone currently alive posseses, which allowed them mastery over Creation magic. So all current life on the Source and Shards are not descended from the Ascians, they're descended from the Ancients, which the Ascians are also 'final forms' of. Modern mortal life and the Ascians therefore originate from the same.. um.. source.

But yes, the game really strongly hinted that the WoL is this mysterious 14th Convocation member who resigned their position shortly before the Terminus, and the one assumed to be behind the summoning of Hydaelyn. They were also strongly hinted as being good friends with Emet pre Terminus, as in... really, really good friends, which frames Emet's interactions with the WoL throughout SHB's story in a whole new light... but I digress...

[Alleo]

Ramza and others had been WoLs too so I doubt we are always the same person who is there during the calamities. It could of course be that way but I believe that this might have been our first reincarnation after that day and that Hydealyn may have kept us until she was out of options. (Seeing how we are kinda important if we read the hints correctly)

In the end until they truly tell us we will never know if we have been reincarnated before or if maybe us (and our shards) are only coming out right now because the Ascians were winning more and more.

[purgatori]

...

Nope, I have finished ShB, but I guess I wasn't very clear with my WoL/Ardbert & Gerolt/Grenoldt comparison. :P I also totally forgot that the 8th calamity did, on one timeline at least, actually come to pass.

I hadn't really considered that the unsundered Ascians might be more powerful than the Amaurotines. If it was only after the Terminus event that they learnt some new tricks concerning longevity/practical immorality, then I guess that might mean that the WoL would still have a definite lifespan even if she manages to become unsundered. On the other hand, it seems that the Ascians also taught life-extending techniques to the Shadowkeeper...