Heres a question.

Does anyone know the natural average live expectency of an Eldar. I know that its supposed to be a couple of thousand years for some, but what I'm also interested in is what are the stages of life they go through.

For example how long is an Eldar considered a child? How many years of age is equivalent to roughly 21 human years (the age where one is considered an adult) and how long must they live until they are considered to be old and wrinkly?

Keep in mind I do mean the average natural life span. So this is barring getting killed in combat, or being a Farseer who seem to live for freaking ages!

Does anyone has refferences to where it hints the life span of an Eldar as well?

Cheers, Cal

Maybe a quick google search would help. I wouldn't know anything on this though...

Well Eldrad is/was around 10000 years old, but he was an exceptional case. In most fluff that I read where there is a really old farrseer (on the verge of joining those in the Dome of Crystal Seers) they are usually not tooo much over 3000 years old.

Despite this, I believe that a farseer would have a long life span than most, so I would hypothesise that a regular Eldar wouldn't surpase 1200-1500 years.

I always believed that Eldar would live c1800-c4200, with Farseers being immortal up until the point they crystalise (remember that it is a great struggle for them to resist joining the crystal seers).

unfortunately there is little to no info on the life expectancy of an average eldar, but from what ive gleened an average eldar is considered to be a fully matured adult(21 relative years) quite early in his/her life. i believe that 21 years of physical development for us is achieved in basically the same amount of time, but the young eldar must work through several stages of "employment or tests or education" to reach mental maturaty. but you must remember that the eldar consider age to be a standard of mental capacity so basically all humans are considered children, exept for maybe the emporor. relative to the mental age of 21 is prbably 150 years, still naive to there elders but still remaining quite wise. if a human was t age a decade it would be relative in physical aging to be 180 years for an eldar.

its all very interesting, but keep in mind that an eldars mind ages slower that its body(on a wisdom point of view), this is why wraith constructs are still able to learn and comunicate instead of just being a spirit in a machine. (still learning and developing intelectually after death)

Well Asdrubael Vect, Archon of the Kabal of the Black Heart, was a young elder adept on the sacrificial alter when "the Fall" happened. And he is still alive today.
Now that is also due to the fact that he has fed on millions of life essences to appease 'she who thirsts'. But from what ive read ( correct me if im wrong here cause im not to sure) the fall happend about 10 000 years ago???
If this so then Asdrubael Vect would have to be one of, if not the oldest elder alive. An elder who was actually alive at "the fall" not just growing up in the aftermath.

yeah he probably is the oldest eldar alive today, but i think all the eons of corruption would have COMPLETELY changed him. dah. i think that there would be close to no memory of the old empire left within him. 10000 sounds right.

I doubt no memory. I believe if he had to recall what it was like he could rather easily, however he just doesn't care anymore. The past is the past and it can not be changed, but unlike the Craftworld Eldar, the Dark Eldar do not wish to learn from the past and so will continue to live twisted shadowed lives serving She Who Thirsts.

Cal

a fair point
_________

Calaith said

sound like my life a few years ago except i served "She Who Nags Endlessly" :D :rolleyes: and she sucked my life essence out for nearly 2 years.

Over time, Dark Eldar begin to suffer more and more from 'the Thirst'. They develop an all-consuming and ever-increasing need to drink the souls of other beings. It is postulated that the cause of this is the Chaos God Slaanesh, the Great Enemy of the Eldar, who leeches the soul-essence of the Dark Eldar while they still live. Dark Eldar drink souls to stave off this leeching - perhaps by sating the thirst of Slaanesh, or perhaps by replenishing the essence of their own souls with that of the consumed one. Slaanesh will also consume the souls of Dark Eldar whole should they die. Dark Eldar are long-lived but not immortal; drinking souls has a rejuvenating effect that reverses aging, thus Dark Eldar need not fear falling into the clutches of Slaanesh due to death from old age, if they have a constant supply of souls. The usual source of souls are those of the many captives taken during Dark Eldar raids, adding a desperate edge to an otherwise simplistic nature: they are inevitably damned, and so their thirst for death is in part motivated by the gnawing fear that in the end their souls will be consumed.


So there we have it ,the lifespan of a darkelder, pretty much next to immortal ( as long as the souls keep coming in) see what happens when you stick to the "true" elder way, you become nearly immortal. B) B) B)

Eldrad is old he makes an appearance in Fulgrim as a Leader of Ulthwe guess you won't become that overnight.

yes i think that he is the oldest "craftworld elder" that i know of.

The Dark Eldar aren't Immortal...and their lifespan is reduced dramatically when they find themselves face to face with the Craftworld Eldar ;)

Thanks for that little excerpt, it was entertaining and informative. Is it from the codex, or did you put it together yourself?

from wikipedi, appparently an old article from Gav Thorpe. was actually looking for more information on the fall and found this instead.

very interesing