Skaven longevity?

[Craze_b0i]

Maybe BL should release an edited edition where all the long-lived skaven characters hide themselves in stasis pods.

[Gorbad Ironclaw]

In the book they still have gold and use it as a form of currency. Can't they use both gold and warpstone for currency? Or was it in their fluff that they don't care about gold at all?

I'm sure it's been mentioned once or twice before that they don't care about gold. The only use they have for it is to bribe other races that weirdly do care about those yellow useless lumps of metal. I actually think the Skavens got it right there, it doesn't really have much inherent usability/value aside from being shiny.

[unwanted]

Sounds like a proper botch-job on the Skaven front. Too bad, considering it's a very defining time for both the Skaven race, and the Warhammer-world as a whole.

[woodster17]

It's a nonsense to suggest that Skaven use warpstone for currency. They use 'warptokens' which I always take for their equivalent of gold or coin- not containing warpstone themselves. If warpstone was that abundant high ranking clans who controlled it wouldn't be nearly as powerful. Considering how Thanquol seems to value every time bit of warpstone so highly (and seems to cost a bomb to buy in the Thanquol specific books) it can't be the main trading item for the entire race, there just isn't enough of it.

[Arnizipal]

Maybe it contains small quantities of warpstone, the way our coinage uses small quantities of various metals.

That said "gold coins" are a fantasy staple, despite gold being a rare metal.
Why shouldn't Skaven have their own equivalent made from their own rare metal/mineral?

[Urgat]

Haven't we had this conversation before?

[Arnizipal]

Yes, once or twice

[Urgat]

And you just start it all over just like that, you little stick devil on a beach?

[russellmoo]

I can't recall a single fluff reference where a Skaven dies of old age or natural causes- a skaven's life is cut short as a result of being killed, diseased, poisoned, starvation, or worked too death (exhaustion). Barring this it seems very apparent that a skaven who avoids these things will live forever. This is why the council of 13 have lived so long- they are so cunning that they are always thinking and watching out for attempts on their lives. Remember that skaven are a race created from the mutating powers of chaos.

[Craze_b0i]

I can't recall a single fluff reference where a Skaven dies of old age or natural causes- a skaven's life is cut short as a result of being killed, diseased, poisoned, starvation, or worked too death (exhaustion). Barring this it seems very apparent that a skaven who avoids these things will live forever. This is why the council of 13 have lived so long- they are so cunning that they are always thinking and watching out for attempts on their lives. Remember that skaven are a race created from the mutating powers of chaos.

Well regarding "natural causes" we know Skaven can die of plague. One reason they failed to conquer the empire in the years of Black Plague is that the plague spread to Skaven. In Lustria many of Clan Pestilens died of tropical diseases before they developed better immunity. Starvation is another natural cause of death often mentioned in the fluff.

Also just because skaven never live long enough to die of old age that does not prove they are immune to it ever happening.

[Arnizipal]

And you just start it all over just like that, you little stick devil on a beach?

If I keep repeating it enough it'll become the truth sooner or later

I can't recall a single fluff reference where a Skaven dies of old age or natural causes- a skaven's life is cut short as a result of being killed, diseased, poisoned, starvation, or worked too death (exhaustion). Barring this it seems very apparent that a skaven who avoids these things will live forever.

It's the same with Orcs & Goblins.
Nobody knows how long they live before they become infirm and die of old age because they always get killed (and possibly eaten) before that.

[Urgat]

Well... do you even remember a story about a human dying of old age? (oh, I'm sure there are, just so I can be proven wrong, but they sure don't seem to pop out that often )

[Danny76]

I don't know if anyone has taken into account the age of time it was set in.
They may have had longer natural lifespans compared to present day warhammer.
Certainly humans lived a lot longer in the books naturally than the men of the empire do now.
So same thing perhaps?

[Arnizipal]

Certainly humans lived a lot longer in the books naturally than the men of the empire do now.

Humans in the past lived longer?

[NixonAsADaemonPrince]

Humans in the past lived longer?

They did until the Ward came....

[Athelassan]

It was a Nehekharan thing, only in the Nagash novels. I've no idea why it was thought to be a good idea to introduce.

[Leogun_91]

It's a nonsense to suggest that Skaven use warpstone for currency. They use 'warptokens' which I always take for their equivalent of gold or coin- not containing warpstone themselves. If warpstone was that abundant high ranking clans who controlled it wouldn't be nearly as powerful. Considering how Thanquol seems to value every time bit of warpstone so highly (and seems to cost a bomb to buy in the Thanquol specific books) it can't be the main trading item for the entire race, there just isn't enough of it.

Slaves, servants and meat is probably far more common for trading than wapstone/warptoken but the former would be the main means of trading, the latter their main currency. I also expect that only high ranking skaven is in a position to own and trade with warptokens.

[stazba]

It was a Nehekharan thing, only in the Nagash novels. I've no idea why it was thought to be a good idea to introduce.

In the Nagash series (love it or hate it), the author seemed to have very little problems throwing out dates based on "dramatic" reasons than any consideration of "fluff" or "realism"

In terms of Human longevity-I think he was going for the biblical "People lived longer back when creation was newer/ close to when the fall happened". Your basic Methuselah 1000 year old guy. Futher away from creation and the fall, the younger people died.

In terms of Skaven longevity (on on topic yeah!)- I think he wanted characters you could connect with/ maybe root for over very long periods of the book. Author knew generally how long the war was supposed to take, so he decided "skaven create longevity medicine" and that his characters would be able to get it and not have to worry about any real backstabbing.

Does it make sense in terms of what we know of skaven or Nehekharan fluff and personality? Mebbe or more likely mebbe not. Was he able to make characters that people cared about throughout his book? In my case I think more yes than no.

edit: I cared about the Skaven. The years passing between chapters with Alicadazar were just stupid and unnecessary long imo

[Athelassan]

In the Nagash series (love it or hate it), the author seemed to have very little problems throwing out dates based on "dramatic" reasons than any consideration of "fluff" or "realism"

Yeah, I noticed... I must admit I didn't think the excessive lifespans really added anything to the story. In some ways and places, I felt that they positively detracted from it.

The Nagash series irritates me. It's not bad (although it could have been a lot better even ignoring the fluff contradictions) but it seems to change or ignore so much background for no good reason whatsoever. It's not like it's been replaced with anything better, or anything at all in some cases.

[Dnd_dad]

I thought the grey-seers had access to large amounts of refind warp stone that they ingested as a drug, and that was the reason for their long lives.