Blood elves and age.

[requiem225]

This may have already been answered in another thread so I apologize in advance.

But I was wondering how Blood Elves show there age?

Do the age slower then humans so by 1 thousand they look like a middle aged human?

Or do they always look youthful until they near the end of there natural life span where they will begin to age more rapidly?

Random question I thought I would put out there.

[flammos200]

From the way I see it, Blood Elves simply stop aging around the time they reach physical maturity and just remain like that until they draw near the very end. /shrug.

Blood Elves don't tend to show age any more than Kaldorei do, from what we know. Anasterian lived for thousands of years(extending his lifespan with Arcane), and only that way did he end up looking "as a highly aged man, with long white hair and a pale complexion, his skin thin and his tone having long turned soft. However, his powerful voice still carried the unmistakable hints of his authority. He had piercing blue eyes that had not been diluted by the pangs of advanced age, though little else had been spared of his once slender and powerful body. His anger flaring, even at such an age, was fearsome to behold." but he's the only elf to ever reach such an advanced age.

Lor'themar is also known to be moderately old.

But there's also no accounting for body types. For example, a 110-year-old Blood Elf might be gaunt, sickly and frail, whereas a 1500 year-old might be full of life, eager, and athletic.

...Basically, you end up looking like this in your old age:
http://www.wowpedia.org/images/7/79/Lor'themar_Wei.jpg

[requiem225]

Well that brings up another question then.

To other races a blood elf may look to be in there prime, but would other Blood Elves be able to see the subtle effect of there age?

I think it's a fair point to bring up.

[flammos200]

Very good question!

I'm afraid Lore doesn't answer it. The way I've handled it is, you tend to pick up from the way old elves speak, act and carry themselves, that they're of a venerable age. They have that presence about them, y'know?

It's been a bit of a joke in my RP that two people that look the same age could be granddaughter and grandmother, and be mistaken for sisters.

[Zhaei]

There is this picture, taken from here. Perhaps they also extended their age magically?

[Rowgen]

. . . I have a hard time imagining how ridiculously old those guys must be.

Unrelatedly; If only you could show signs of age, like that, on the ingame models. NO BEARDS!

[landashua]

I always assumed that, like Flammos said, there are subtle intricacies that come with age within the race. Perhaps a slightly slower pace of speech and movement.

[Sol]

Personally I had assumed that, where night elven aging might have simply stopped once they reached physical maturity (their lifespans being sustained by Nordrassil), high and blood elves simply had their aging slow to a complete crawl. Certainly, I was never given the impression in any sources beyond that image that Lor'themar was any older than middle age, and he looks highly wizened in that image. Moreover, there are a few faces available on the character creation screen for blood elves that look considerably older or younger than the others. I also believe those elves especially symptomatic of arcane corruption would show their age in a more pronounced way.

Regardless, I don't think blood elves remain in their physical prime until the very end and then begin to age rapidly before death. Agelessness of that manner is more the domain of fully-fledged immortality, whereas blood elves simply have incredibly long lifespans. I know some blood elf players like to roleplay the some subtle effects of aging without being of the age of venerability, and given how flexible and inconclusive the lore is on the matter, I say "let them."

[Wuvvums]

The old age chart used to include middle-aged which would be sort of useful in helping define anything other than adult age. Until the middle-aged numbers are picked out and made official, it may actually be a case of "your mileage may vary" in whether or not your character is sort of middle-aged or if they appear to be this age.


It seems at character creation almost all races have a variation of "old" face except for female BElves who seem to have a variation of "mean" and "meaner" face.

[CappnRob]

I mostly agree with Sol, but by and large it's really up to your personal tastes. My old BE, Aryeon, physically appears to be around 50-60, as he has 3/4 through the maximum life span (around 1500+).

[Sparkydog104]

http://www.wowpedia.org/Life_spans Blood elves average around 350.

[Reigen]

By CoTH rules, Blood Elves can live anywhere around two thousand years old. I agree with sol for the most part on what he said about aging. It's not stopped, it's just very slow after a certain point. There is that image of two high elves looking pretty bloody old with long, flowing beards. Though, I'll also point out that some effects of aging can start whenever, really. Grey hair for example can also come about from stress and unlucky genetics. My mother started to go grey at 17 while my grandfather had jet-black hair up until he died in his 60s.

For me, I sort of just go 'A blood elf is middle age at about a thousand, so they'll look middle-ageish there. My belf is in her five hundreds, so I suppose she looks in her twenties about.' In the end, it's up to the player in question.

Another important thing with blood elves: They likely do everything they can to not look as old as they really are. Silvermoon [in my head] is pretty much hollywood california. More plastic than my car [plastic being illusion magic and cosmetics].

As for if Blood Elves could pick up on the subtle aging as it comes about? I imagine they could. Watching humans age to a belf is like us watching those sped-up flower blooming videos.

Like this:

[Holynexus]

Blood Elves do not age. They sparkle


As Reigen says, though, I'm sure their ageing process is very subtle, and many humans couldn't tell a 120 yo Belf from a 520 yo one, even though a Belf would certainly know right away. Elves will be elves

[Herastean]

I like to believe that elves age, but does not suffer time like humans. While they get older they keep very beautiful features and remain quite "young". As Reigen stated, there are drawings of old elves with beards and stuff, but I prefer to think of them as slightly aging, at most growing humans 50-likes features at most.