How long does an elf live?

Hello there! I recently created this void elf monk on a RP realm and I want to write something about his history but the timeline confuses me a lot. I don’t really know what age to give to the character.
I said he was born 500 years before the First War. I want him to be young at age for an elf.
I read somewhere that the start of the First War is day 0.
So in the present my character should be around 540 years, am I correct?

But, how long does an elf live? I know that night elves were immortal until the the destruction of Well of Eternity but what about high elves, blood elves and void elves?

Thank you!

Too long, usually.

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During War of the Thorns, Lorash (blood elf) told that he have seen how High Elves were kicked out from Night Elves lands. That have happened ~ 7 k years ago.

Ofcourse in both books writers made mistakes (Like Golden have transformed Night Elves sacred Moonwells into a SPA for Dwarfs, with Priestess of The Moon passing towels. Or that all Night Elves souls transforms into Wisps. Or that Night Elves have never invade Blood Elves lands. Or that Night Elves did not knew about secret pass to DarkShores, on a lands where they live for 10k years. Or that sea crab could kill 10 druids in a forest … e.t.c), so probably we should not take those numbers seriously.
But I think elves do live more than 1 k years.

I’ve got this, give me a moment, I need to run to the shop, covering my face, before it closes…

As long as you want them to live.

We know they age to a point, the same as humans, Sylvanas was a fully fledged Farstrider aged 20,(We don’t know -when- that was, but we do know she was an adult at the age of 20) whereas Vereesa was too young to have served in the Second War, so presumably late teens (I mean you’d hope so, or her relationship with Rhonin takes on a deeply troubling aspect) We know that Lor’themar, Liadrin, Halduron and Dark’han Drathir, as well as the other dude whose name I always forget served in the Troll Wars, as did Alleria, and those ended 2,800 years ago. We know Lor’themar was a Lieutenant at that time, and Liadrin a Priestess, so again, adults. We know that since they are not Immortal anymore, that Night Elves (and presumably Nightborne by extension) have “The Same lifespan as High and Blood Elves, that being several thousand years”. We know that Lor’themar’s hair colour is his natural colour, not due to age.

Alleria must have been at least 2,820 by the time she went through the Dark Portal, we know that “A Thousand years of War” actually meant that span of time for those involved, and that unlike Turalyon, she was not Lightforged so immortal, so we know that she is currently at least 3,820, and still seems pretty physically chipper (This is pre:Void consumption).

We know that Lorash Sunbeam is supposedly of the first generation born in Eastern Kingdoms, but before the High Elves had founded Quel’thalas, this makes him at least 7,000 years or so.

All of this is consistent, because of the use of the word ‘several’. As in ‘Several thousand years’. You only use the word ‘Several’ to mean 3 or more, but less than 10.

We also know that since their immortality wore off, some of the older Night Elves are dying of sickness or age, but that they are basically picking up from where they left off, when they became immortal, the years they ‘cheated’ are not suddenly piling on them, or Tyrande, Malfurion, Thalyssra, Elisande and co would all be dead now.

We can therefore, say with current lore certainty that elves live at the very absolute least, 3,000 years, at the most 10,000, and it seems likely to be closer to the 10,000 than 3,000, as Liadrin, Lor’themar, Halduron and Alleria all seem to be perfectly spry, and Lorash at 7,000 or so was able to physically take on Malfurion (even if he then died in that combat)

Basically the age you have selected for your elf sounds perfectly possible, and completely within the lore guidelines we have.

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Them night elves usually live about as long as it takes for me to put a knife in them. *shrug *
Void elves wriggle a bit longer with all those tentancles, but they’ll stop moving pretty soon too.

As for horde elves, not sure.

Seams that I will have to open my Fox Skin Shop again. :smiling_imp:

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*bows * Thank you all for your answers, especially Brigante for a really elaborate one.
Kettu, pray to your God to keep you out of my way. I can’t promise to offer a swift death like you deliver.

The Sunwell apparently made the High Elves something “akin to immortal” whatever that means. I’d imagine it still does for Blood Elves.

We don’t know the Night Elf age limit yet since they only recently lost their immortality, though age does definitely kill them now.

Void Elves and Nightborne I have no clue on. The Nightwell probably did the same thing as the Sunwell since their story is a cheap copy/paste of ours with a different ending.

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To be honest, I think most people agree with me when I say that Lorash Sunbeam was more likely an unfortunate mistake on the writer’s part. Especially since his mother supposedly also lived until the Fall of Quel’thalas. I think he was given this age by the writer to give him some weird personal grudge with Malfurion.

That aside, I think all elves can live up to 5000 years on average, without anything but a passive link to, for example, the Sunwell or the Second Well of Eternity.

Aside from Alleria, who I believe is indeed nearing 4K years of age, there was also Anastarian who ruled Quel’thalas for about 3000 years. I doubt he was crowned when he was just 18, so he was at least 3018+ years old when he died, possibly nearing 5000ish.

But Anastarian is mainly why I think Lorash is a mistake, since there has been no mention of him at the time of the founding of Quel’thalas, yet he was elderly and worn by the time Arthas invaded his kingdom, which makes him younger and…far less lively than Lorash who was still jumping around and climbing trees at the time of his death.

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Thank god humans have brief fleeting lives tho

As shown with Shalasyr, wife of Jarod in Wolfheart.

It’d be hard to argue otherwise, especially after she gave Genn a tail and had to correct herself on twitter.

With elven lifespans being what they are, it’s quite likely that he was crowned much later in life and was genuinely elfishly elderly by the time of his death but even then he’s not portrayed as a feeble slouch in the heritage armour questline.

Were they still asleep at the time? Because that would make more sense.

At least humans aren’t going to rust.

Yeah they just rot away with those shoddy irreplaceable parts. You’re so right.

I believe this short story “A Good War” was not written by Christie Golden. This one was Robert Brooks, but yeah, it’s still almost a certainty that it’s a mistake.

Elves are immortals .they dont die .they live in hearts of people .

Look at a gnome! Grab a camera!

…What? :joy:

Well actually they were a little bit off. It was pretty stupid. Druids were jumping from tree to tree. Lorash rogue trowed a knife that managed to cut the trees, and forced druids (that could actually fly) to fall on the ground. All 10+ of them in the same time.
After felling from the tree, they were dazed a little bit, and in that moment goblin hunters pet (sea crab) attacked them, and killed them all.

Damn, when I was reading all of this “Rambo” Blood Elves, and supper crabs, I was thinking, who the hell allowed those people to write that nonsense?