The Witch King and his dear old mum seem to bear that out, indeed they would indicate that elves too can be 'technically immortal'.
Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest
- Thread starter Boney
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The Witch King and his dear old mum seem to bear that out, indeed they would indicate that elves too can be 'technically immortal'.
- Location
- Aotearoa
Per the wiki, Marrisith is the fourth Queen of Laurelorn, with the first Queen being crowned at the outbreak of the War of the Beard- so what, well over 4,000 years ago. Granted Queens probably get some of the good healthcare, but generations spread out over a millennia or so would seem quite possible. Also speaks to the very low reproduction of Elves.
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- Location
- Utrecht
Vlag probably has some.
Thorek is one.
All slayer kings tend to be unfortunate enough to survive that long.
I would say dozens, at the most.
Dwarves seemed to have longer lifespans in the Golden Age, though whether this is just due to lack of attrition or there's something more going on is an open question. Elves seem to have something similar to Dwarves going on, where some who are suitably driven just keep kicking indefinitely while others start growing frail after 'only' a few centuries.
Single digits amounts in every major Karak, so a few dozen across the entire Karaz Ankor. They last as long as they have something that drives them.
It's not uncommon, but it's more often due to the violent death of the husband, not the age disparity. Every adult male Dwarf serves in the Throng when needed.
- Location
- Finland
Personally i would discard anyone with free access to powerful enough magics as an outlier.
Skaven have very low lifespans, couple decades if they lucky, but grey seers can survive much longer thanks to magic, alchemy and "favour" of their god.
- Location
- Aotearoa
Hmm. Ageing and dying defined by having a clear purpose in life, or not. These are creatures designed with a clear purpose in mind by the Old Ones, right?
Slann and some Lizardmen can also live a very long time, though they also tend to stay very tightly locked to their designed intent, as I understand it.
I wonder what the difference would be with humans and halflings etc then, who generally don't have many individuals living five+ times a typical lifespan.
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Codex
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I'm trying to figure out the whole Hunting god mystery that's being sprinkled around in the background here:
The only thing I can point to that is happening in Talabecland and Ostermark is their ongoing trade war from the Canal that's being opened up. Both provinces are focusing their attention on the rivers and naval channels and ignoring the Wilds that they're surrounded by, and maybe that's allowing other Gods to take prominence in the background.
This is the first hint that something odd is happening. A god named Karnos increases their influence in Taal's backyard. Not a big deal, until Gehenna comes in and we get another piece of the puzzle:
This is more malicious. Styriss is the Ostermark God of Poachers, and they were "hitting above way above their weight" according to Gehenna, and using runes related to Anath Raema, the Elven Goddess of the Savage Hunt. This was concerning, First a Kurnous lookalike, now Anath Raema? What's up with the Elven Gods of the Hunt and what are they doing in the Empire?
Then we infiltrated the Cult of Karnos and didn't find any evidence of shenanigans. The population is local, not made up of foreigners and agitators, and they weren't causing any trouble. But somehow they have two of the three runes representing Kurnous, perhaps inherited from the ruins of Athel Maraya, the former Elven City that formed the bones of Talabheim. The question is why is the Cadai mark not included? What caused this increase in his worship recently? Is it somehow connected to the Cult of Styriss in Ostermark that invoked Anath Raema?
The only thing I can point to that is happening in Talabecland and Ostermark is their ongoing trade war from the Canal that's being opened up. Both provinces are focusing their attention on the rivers and naval channels and ignoring the Wilds that they're surrounded by, and maybe that's allowing other Gods to take prominence in the background.
Designed, yes. With a clear purpose... that's more an open question. If you look at the entire range of species present it does seem hard to make all of them fit the same technical spec.
- Location
- Aotearoa
Yeah, long-lived (when fulfilling a purpose in life) seems only part of the earlier(?) species design.
Humans and halflings etc are built for different reproduction strategies, and not (m)any of those exceptionally long lived outliers.
Humans and halflings etc are built for different reproduction strategies, and not (m)any of those exceptionally long lived outliers.
Design compromises to get the reproductive rate up? I wouldn't be surprised if it has something to do with souls, for all we know shorter lifespans are a feature if they somehow benefited from those souls rapidly living out their lives and then passing on to do... something.
- Location
- Aotearoa
Cycling tiny, unformed, small-c chaotic Warp Entities (unused souls) through to Labelled, Approved Afterlife sections of the Warp?
- Location
- Europa, Jupiter Orbit
What does this mean in the case of Ghyran? "Plants" doesn't seem like much of a mindset or emotion. (Striving towards or wanting to provide) growth or nourishment on the other hand does.
Which in human minds is strongly associated with farming and gardening, and therefore with plants.
Note that Karnos is also the name of a god that the Tileans used to worship that Imperial scholars identify with Taal, who was replaced by the Cult of Taal that spread from the proto-Imperial tribes apparently after the Tileans introduced them to the idea of priests and cults.
This was back when the Tileans worshipped a deity called Ishea that was replaced by/renamed Rhya and one called Mathann was replaced by/renamed Mannann. It seems pretty clear the Tileans were worshipping elven deities given these names. They're so close that it's well within range for them to be the same name spoken with a different accent or transliterated differently.
How worship of Karnos survived there is a different question I don't know the answer me to, if that's what it did. Perhaps an ancient proto-Tilean trade post somehow had it's beliefs survive for three thousand years?
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Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
I mean, "a vegetative state of mind" is a pretty common saying.
- Location
- Aotearoa
Ogres are eating straight from the pot.
Halflings are a teaspoon, so every serving looks huge in comparison.
I'm not sure if the timeline really works out, but is it possible that the Old Ones saw the gestation of the Gods the Elves managed, and then decided to follow up on that via humans? Humans excel at feeding warp entities via worship, and growing relatively... energetic(?) souls in short periods of time?
- Location
- Aotearoa
Some long delayed, crazy research project or other.
"We discovered Aethyrric Entities being distilled by the E-type servitors centuries ago!"
Thread proposed action:
[ ] See how the Aethyrric Entities react to accelerated belief-shaping. Cobble together a bundle of spare parts and create a fast-replicating servitor class to feed them.
"We don't have time to do a full design. We can't keep ignoring those power fluctuations..."
"How about instead of crafting each Subsystem individually we can save a bunch of AP by slapping in some of our invention, Mi's Malleable Multipurpose Modules. What could go wrong?"
"Can we amp up their Warp Conduit rating?"
"We discovered Aethyrric Entities being distilled by the E-type servitors centuries ago!"
Thread proposed action:
[ ] See how the Aethyrric Entities react to accelerated belief-shaping. Cobble together a bundle of spare parts and create a fast-replicating servitor class to feed them.
"We don't have time to do a full design. We can't keep ignoring those power fluctuations..."
"How about instead of crafting each Subsystem individually we can save a bunch of AP by slapping in some of our invention, Mi's Malleable Multipurpose Modules. What could go wrong?"
"Can we amp up their Warp Conduit rating?"
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Codex
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I mean yeah sure both of them worshipped a god with the same name, but I don't think this Karnos came from Tileans. The Karnos that Tileans had came from their own Elven ruins, the Karnos that these guys are worshipping is almost certainly from Athel Maraya, the ruins that Talabheim was built on. Sure they both worshipped the same god in the beginning, but that was two groups independently finding out the same god, and considering this cult doesn't even use the Cadai Rune for him, there's a good chance some things were lost in the translation. I think these guys are just straight up descendants of proto-imperial Karnos worshippers, and his prominence has recently spread.
I don't think there's a reason to attach Tileans to this. Tileans aren't the only ones who inherited Elven ruins.
Presumably, nourishing (and being nourised by) animals is overshadowed by Ghur? But in something like modern industrialized animal husbandry, there wouldn't be any wildness/ghur, and you'd be left with Ghyran.
Incidentally, Dhar-Ghyran is probably some variant of cancer, or pretty much Nurgle's shtick. Come to think of it, the Skaven Plague monks are really good candidates.
If someone got really into their crystal growing kit as a child (obviously not in the game), would their mystical Ghyran come out as making crystals and such?
- Location
- Aotearoa
It's a bit of both. There are Jade spells for things like improving the fertility of cattle, and Amber spells for things like taming animals.
If they thought of the crystals as living things that were being cared for by them, it's possible.
K von Carstein
Likes to go for a walk
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The Bitch King and his mother are some of the most powerful magic users in the world, I wouldn't count them as typical Golden Age elves.
Slaans and Saurus are explicitly immortals until killed.