Here’s a question for AD, what are creature lifespans like, the ones not found in real life : aka Dragonhawks, hippogryphs, gryphons…
Would you say a dragonhawk lives as long as a blood elf, or is it shorter?
Do Hippogryphs and gryphon have similar lifespans… if so are they as long as a night elf, or a humans?
What about Crawgs, we know they’re corrupted frogs…but just how long does a giant frog live and is it different when corrupted?
Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated!
Hello there!
These are good questions, which was mine aswell some tome ago.
However, there is no clear answer to this sadly.
I think it would be shorter, although i see it possible if a Dragonhawk gets blessed by Jan’alai, the Dragonhawk loa or something else. Maybe then, they would have a longer life? Although i personally don’t think they could live for 3000 years.
Hippogryphs are said to be “ancient”. I don’t know if that means their lifespan, or their species existing for a long time. Although, with them being created or blessed by Cenarius (it’s unclear which), i can expect them to live long, maybe shorter than night elves themselves but still long.
As we know, Frostsabers have a lifespan similar to Night elves, so the same can apply to Hippogryphs, maybe?
About Gryphons, i am really not sure. Although i can expect them to live as long as a Dwarf, like 300 years or so. Although for safety, i personally went with something like Human age, like around 100.
The corruption may both reduce or increase the lifespan, so i really don’t know.
Like, it may grant power AND longer lifespan, or may grant power BUT reduce their lifespan.
Although, something in general:
When i was thinking about the age of my Wildhammer’s Gryphon, i wasn’t sure how to do it, especially him being an elder.
So i had him using the bloodline of his first Gryphon. Like of he had 3 overall, since 230 years ago which Wildhammers ventured to Hinterlands and befriended Gryphons. So basically his current Gryphon would be the Granddaughter of his first one. 
I think this can be done for others aswell, having the descendants of their first companion as their current one. It can cause a nice kinship IC, without much worry about going into headcanons.
Good luck! 
Indeed, it’s a bit of a lore stub, but that’s why we reach out to the community!
I agree regarding the Dragonhawk, I doubt it has as long a lifespan as an elf, but I wasn’t sure how others roleplayed it. It is a bit of a peculiar one described as a cross between dragon and hawk in wowpedia, so I imagine it has a lifespan of at least a century given dragons live for tens of thousands of years whereas hawks and other smaller birds live up to 20 years … macaws and the like being exceptions. In avian creatures lifespans are generally related to size… the larger they are the longer they live oddly enough. Though it’s not an exact relationship.
Therefore I imaginedepending on the size of a mature dragonhawk (aka hunter pet vs mount) the lifespan changes. Much like dragons from got, the smaller ones will be stunted and not live as long. I could see a larger dragonhawk perhaps even making it to two centuries.
As for Crawgs, it’s really up to personal opinion I suppose. Krag’wa does say it will have a long and happy life if taken care of, so I imagine it would be of a similar life span to thetoads themselves… which are huge. I assume they live about 20-30 years… the double of their smaller counterparts in rl.
Of course it is dependant on the roleplayer and it is a fantasy game, but it’s nice to have some opinions on the matter.
How do we know that frost sabers live that long?
Night elves have been eternal for the past 10000 years, do they live that long? ![:face_with_raised_eyebrow:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/face_with_raised_eyebrow.png?v=6" ":face_with_raised_eyebrow:")
Well, Tyrande has had the same frostsaber since War of the Ancients.
Technically the mount she uses now was only a cub in War of the Ancients, but yeah, the point still stands. They live a looong time
Ash’alah, Tyrande’s Frostsaber, as said above.
However! Frostsabers are revered by night elves, so there may be some differences between them and their siblings the nightsabers. Probably not much but some…
Its a really tricky one, and one that (obviously) my character has a strong interest in. The simple answer is simply “We don’t know”
However we can speculate.
Dragonhawks are an interesting one. I imagine they would live a fairly long time. They are classified as Draconic, not just reptiles, they are (And blimey I hate using this as a signifier of intelligence given my personal views on the subject) Intelligent enough to have a concept of internal racism. That requires cognitive thought, even if misguided cognitive thought. Before anyone says ‘Err Brigante ever seen red ants and black ants fight?’ That is pheromone based instinct and hive behaviour. Ants may have the largest brains in comparison to their size of any creature on earth, but they are not fighting out of racism, just instinct.
Dragonhawks are able to discriminate between the different breeds, and they will dislike some breeds, but be fine with other breeds. That’s selection, that implies a mind and motive behind it.
So they’re smart, a trait of Dragons, They’re Draconic, err, by definition a trait of Dragons, heck, they even have the breathing fire bit nailed. Dragons live for ages, in both ancient and modern myth, and in Azeroth, I don’t think they would live as long as an Elf, but I can’t see 1,000 or so years being out of the question.
Hippogryphs again are something special, They’re not ‘just’ a beast, or ‘just’ a mount. There has to be something about them, that appealed to the Kaldorei way back in the day, as after all, Wyverns were a ‘thing’ and the Kaldorei made no efforts there.
It is human, well, lets say, ‘Bipedal and Sapient’ nature to like things that you like, to stick around for a while. I mean if you consider the cost of keeping a pet mouse, as opposed to a pet Dog, and how high Maintenance Dogs are, then why the heck are Dogs such a popular pet as opposed to mice? (Nothing against mice…Jaysis even as I type that I’m like 'As if a Mouse is going to be reading the WoW forums, sees my post and flags it as racism! ![:smiley:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/smiley.png?v=6" ":smiley:")
)
We like dogs more for several reasons, but one of them is, that all things going well, a Dog is going to be with us for ten or more years, as opposed to the House Mouse which is lucky to make one year.
Why ‘Waste’ your time in an emotional attachment to something that is going to be dead next Wednesday, in terms of your lifespan?
I think that’s why the Elven races choose the mounts they do. Life Expectancy being a large factor. As such I can see Hippogryphs being capable of reaching fairly venerable ages, certainly much older than a human.
Wyverns… Sighs and gets his pedant rant out of the way first Which are not even damned Wyverns, if you want a Wyvern from mythology then you take a damned Dragonhawk and give it two back legs, -That- is a Wyvern, What you, Blizzard are calling a Wyvern is a Winged Manticore, two totally different mythological creatures with different cultural origins!
Ahem. Calms…
‘Wyverns’ are a really tricky one, even trickier than the others, for one primary reason (and I hate that Blizzard put this in, because it makes no damned sense). Apparently they can talk. I know. I know, that makes no sense. Not a jot of sense. Why didn’t the Kaldorei reach out to them in the first Legion Wars. You’ve got another Sapient Race who can talk and fly and don’t you think they would be good people to get on side to save your mutual home? I don’t think Blizzard thought that one through, it suddenly makes the Horde an absolutely hideous thing “I used to be a poet you know? I would tell tragic romances that would have people weeping in despair and ecstatic joy…Then the Horde got me ferrying lazy murderhobos around Stonetalon mountains… How the mighty have fallen” Adventurer: “Shut up, I don’t need a sob story from a glorified teleportation device!”
Age has to have been a factor as to why Kaldorei and ‘wyvern’ never made contact or common cause before. As such I’d reckon that 'Wyvern’s (No I’m not going to let that go) have a lifespan more in line with an Orcish or Human one. Lucky to hit 100. Also, fun fact, ‘Wyverns’ are definitely Mammalian in nature, but they lay eggs. Know what that makes them?
Monotremes. So they are in such good company as the Duck Billed Platypus, and the Echidna, which are the only two mammalian species to lay eggs.
Who knew…
Gryphons…I’m gonna go with my ‘Wyvern’ theory. They’re associated with humans, and with Dwarves, Humans live 100 years absolute tops, Dwarves about 300 (I believe) It makes sense for a Gryphon to live as long, to be desirable as a mount to both species, You’ve got to be looking at, well at least a human lifespan.
Crawgs? I have no idea, all I’ve got there is “Have you looked at a Crawg?”
If I were a Crawg, I’d want my life expectancy to be as short as possible…
Can you link source for the Dragonhawk details?
You mention some things that are new to me and as you know I have a Dragonhawk character. We run Dragonhawk events in some guilds I’m connected to so I’m always interested in increasing my knowledge of the lore.
Eta: @kump I think your definitions/assumptions feel pretty right! It’s roughly what I’ve always gone with too.
I can tell you where to find it in game, if that helps? Some of it amusingly comes from the ‘Battlepet’ details.
If you look at every Reptile Battlepet, they are classified as a ‘Beast’. The only ones classed as ‘Draconic’ are, well, those who are Draconic. Dragonhawks are classed as ‘Draconic’
The ‘Racism’ aspect come from the same source, where it describes two breed of Dragonhawks hating each other, whilst not hating other Dragonhawks of a different breed. That is what I basically meant by distinction. Its not like Ants where it is ‘The Other’, it is “Some of The Other is alright, but some of The Other is not alright” which obviously requires cognitive thought to make such a leap of judgement. I’m trying to remember what two breed, hang on, its in their text, lemme find it…
Ahah, Yes, the text is referring to Red Dragonhawks and says “Mortal enemies with silver dragonhawks; on pretty good terms with golden dragonhawks.” Which you can check just by buying a Hatchling from Jillanne in Eversong woods.
Ah. I hadn’t lept from “mortal enemies” to “racist” as they are still animals and not people.
The question here is:
Why does it matter? Creatures and Pets are here like in the present.
I don´t see any real need to know how old my raptor is, can be or which roleplay situation can be pushed further with that knowledge.
But I always like to learn a new trick. ![:slight_smile:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
I like the idea of having gotten the pet when it was almost newborn when I was a Child, and growing up together with each other.
Maybe too basic.
Yeah, the implication being that there is effort and thought behind being mortal enemies, and not simple Instinct, which does indeed make it racism. Couple that with the Draconic aspect and its a pretty good indicator of Intelligence.
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