Tamriel talk:Altmer

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[edit] Lifespan

Does anyone know the average lifespan of the mer?

I can't find anything definite but this article on TIL implies lifespans of at least hundreds of years. That article has the quote "Over the past thousand years, only seventeen new initiates were brought into the [Psijic] order. In the past two years, however, another thirty have joined." If only seventeen joined in a thousand years, there wouldn't be much to join if they didn't live a long time. --Rpeh^Talk 03:24, 3 October 2007 (EDT)

Divayth Fyr claims to have lived for thousands of years, though he is described by others as one of the oldest mortals in Tamriel. --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 09:35, 3 October 2007 (EDT)

The Real Barenziah, v 2 mentions that "the gods granted elves thousand-year lifespans." Twentyfists 21:46, 23 January 2008 (EST)

[edit] origin of Mer names

Can someone add to the article that 'alt' is German for old, and in the Bosmer article that 'bos' is Dutch for forrest

Dun(from Dunmer) is Dutch for thin, but i dont think that has anything to do with the Dark Elves ^{—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.206.147.51 (talk • contribs).}

If you had a reference to an interview or other source where a developer stated that these languages were the sources of the various prefixes, then the information would be relevant and it should be added to the article. But otherwise, it seems like unsupported speculation. In particular, the fact that "alt" is a German word meaning "old" seems to me to be coincidence rather than intentional. Given that the common name for Altmer is "High Elf" it would seem far more likely that the derivation is Latin, since "altus" in Latin means "high." --Nephele^Talk 01:44, 22 January 2008 (EST)

Hooray for Latin! Twentyfists 21:40, 23 January 2008 (EST)

Additionally, "bos" is similar to "bois", which is the French word for "wood". Since French is derived from Latin, I'd say that's probably where that comes from. The Dutch word is a possible cognate or borrowed word, but I'd say the Latin has more credence. (Much of the ancient language in these games seems to have Latin influences.) --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 23:35, 23 January 2008 (EST)