The different races of The Elder Scrolls have vastly different lifespans, but this is rarely explicitly touched on the games, while some of the evidence given in older games is implied to be inaccurate by more recent additions to the franchise. Based on the lack of dialogue addressing the subject, Skyrim players might be forgiven for thinking that each race has the same lifespan as the average human, but there’s plenty of evidence in the lore that that is not the case.
There are many different accounts of the lifespans of The Elder Scrolls‘ races, however, and plenty of evidence that can be used to approximate how long each of The Elder Scrolls‘ main races can live for.
The lifespans of the humans of Tamriel are naturally the easiest to approximate. As in real life, most of the human races of The Elder Scrolls have an estimated lifespan of around eighty years. There is a possible exception, however. Bretons have a mix of human and Elven ancestry, which different books in the games suggest does have an effect on their lifespans. In Brief History of the Empire, Book 2, the emperor Cassynder Septim is described as having “aged like a Breton” due to his partially Elven – though not Breton – heritage.
Cassynder is described as middle-aged when ascending to the throne. He was born around 3E 150, and died in 3E 202 while in his early 50s. This might suggest that Bretons live shorter lives than the other humans of Tamriel. However, Cassynder was also described as being in poor health. It’s more likely that Bretons live slightly longer than their fully human counterparts.
It has been speculated that since Tiber Septim was from Alcaire, he was probably a Breton. Tiber Septim lived to be just over 100 years old, which also supports the idea that Bretons live slightly longer than the other races of man. Tiber Septim was no ordinary man, however, and if the difference was significant there would likely be more evidence of long-lived Bretons, suggesting that while Bretons age well the difference between their lifespans and the other races of man is ultimately negligible.
There is far more solid evidence for the lifespans of the Elves of The Elder Scrolls. Drelliane says to Queen Barenziah that “humans are short-lived” while “the Elves endure. We are as a year to their hour, a decade to their day.” The Real Barenziah, Book 2 suggest that Mer are able to live for around 1000 years, describing the “thousand-year lifespan Elves had been granted by the gods” before clarifying that “few of them ever actually lived that long as disease and violence took their respective tolls. But they could. And one or two of them actually did.”
This 1000-year lifespan appears to be an absolute maximum, however, if not an exaggeration. In The Elder Scrolls: Tribunal, Barenziah is 430 years old, as is considered long-lived for a Dunmer. This suggests that, while Mer are biologically capable of living for a millennia, they probably usually live to be around 300 years old.
In the book Varieties of Faith in the Empire, it is claimed that Phynaster, the Hero-god of the Summerset Isles, taught the High Elves how to live another century by using a shorter walking stride. This makes it likely that the Altmer are the longest lived of the Elves on average. The Pocket Guide to the Empire, Third Edition, describes many Altmer who remember Tiber Septim’s conquests, which would put them at over 400 years old when the book was published. This makes it likely that most Bosmer and Dunmer can expect to live to be around 300, while most Altmer can expect to live another 100 years.
It is not uncommon for individuals to be able to extend their lifespans using magic, however. In Morrowind, Divayth Fyr is described as a “4000-year-old wizard.” The exception to the longevity of most Mer are the Orcs. According to legend, Orkey the Death God once tricked the Nords into making a bargain which reduced their lifespans to just 60 years. However, the god Shor deflected Orkey’s curse onto the Orsimer, making it likely that Orcs have among the shortest lifespans in Tamriel.
Once again, however, magic appears to be able to give Orc mages longer lifespans, with Urag gro-Shub of the College of Winterhold implied to be over 600 years old. He suggests that his work as Librarian stopped the books of the Arcanaeum from being “dissolved to nothing before the Third Era.” Based on their warrior culture, it’s likely that most Orcs die in combat before reaching the limit of their natural lifespans.
Placing the lifespans of the Beastfolk of Tamriel, the Argonians and the Khajiit, is slightly more difficult due to the lack of in-game information on the topic. However, back in 2013 Zenimax did an Q and A on the Elder Scrolls Online website that helped clear some things up. In response to a question about the lifespans of the different races, Zenimax responded:
“Elves live two to three times as long as humans and the ‘beast-races’ (Orcs, Khajiiti, Argonians). A 200-year-old Elf is old; a 300-year-old Elf is very, very old indeed. Anyone older than that has prolonged his or her lifespan through powerful magic.“
This supports the idea that the long lifespans attributed to Mer in the Barenziah book is an outlier, and that most Elves live between 200 and 300 years. While the answer identifies Orcs as a beast-race, this is an in-universe distinction often made by Elves who don’t consider the Orsimer to be their kin. However, it does suggest that the beastfolk have lifespans which are approximately the same as humans when unaffected by magic.
There are two complicating factors. The first is the great physiological diversity of the Khajiit, who can be born as one of a variety of species depending on the waxing and waning of the moon. It’s possible that this has an impact of their lifespans, but it can be assumed that the subspecies that appears in Skyrim has a lifespan roughly equivalent to a human’s. Second, it has been suggested that Argonians might live longer in Black Marsh due to their connection to the Hist. Talen-Jei, the barkeep in Riften, implies that he is the same Talen-Jei who can be found in Arena’s Black Marsh a few centuries prior. This supports the theory, though it is far from confirmed.
Ultimately, these rough approximations are the best bet that the sparse and occasionally contradictory Elder Scrolls lore allows for. If The Elder Scrolls 6 sees a similar time jump to the one seen between Oblivion and Skyrim, however, fans might have another chance to clarify the longevity of Tamriel‘s races by seeing which characters return.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development.
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