Math is Hard! (age question)

[darkrose]

How old is Loghain at the beginning of Origins? How old was Maric when he disappeared? (I know DG has confirmed that he's dead, but for fic-writing purposes, as far as I'm concerned he's only comic-book dead.)

The inconsistency of dating between novels and game makes my poor little non-mathematically-inclined brain hurt.

Comments

[niniane]

At the beginning of TST, Maric = 18, Loghain = "about his age or probably a few years older", so 18-21, let's say.

The end of TST = 3 years after beginning of origins. So Maric = 21, Loghain = 21-24

Ostagar = 30 years after end of TST so...

Loghain = 51-54

Maric disappeared 5 years prior to Ostagar, so he got himself vanished at 46

Other ages we can guess at:

Cailan (as of Ostagar) = 25
Anora (as of Ostagar) = "almost" 30 (I'm going to go for 28, still, OMG, Loghain worked FAST)
Alistair = 22-25 (as he was born when Rowan was still alive. If he's the elf-baby, he's like 15.)

Teagan is 8 at the beginning of TST, Eamon is 11. So they'd be 41 and 44 respectively at Ostagar.

Hope that helps!

[darkrose]

At the beginning of TST, Maric = 18, Loghain = "about his age or probably a few years older", so 18-21, let's say

Thank you! That's going to make this tricky, but at least I know.

Alistair = If he's the elf-baby, he's like 15.)

How do you figure, if The Calling takes place 10 years after TST?

Teagan is 8 at the beginning of TST, Eamon is 11. So they'd be 41 and 44 respectively at Ostagar.

This has bugged me for some time. Why does Eamon look so goddamned old? If it's from being sick, no one comments on it. Are they just being polite. or did his age get retconned like so much else?

[niniane]

The Calling is sort of weird in that it has a typo. So it's either 10 years after TST, or 15 years. I think you're right, though, in that the typo was confirmed as a typo (that was one weird BSN thread...), so it's actually supposed to be 10. In which case Alistair = 20. On the other hand, on that thread, Gaider also confirmed that Alistair was supposed to be 22-25, so...yeah, I give up. No one has any clue how old Alistair is...

I figure that Eamon must either have either aged a lot from the poison, just had bad genetics...or, maybe it's the beard. You know, beards make people look older sometimes...especially if they're gray...but yeah, I do find it kind of goofy that Eamon is almost as close in age to Anora as he is to Loghain.

[klarabella]

Gaider never confirmed any age officially, I thought. The only sort of confirmation I'm aware of is when two guys asked him via private message and he answered that Alistair is supposed to be 21.

That fits nicely with the Fiona theory and the fact that Alistair spend half of his life at the chantry without becoming a full templar.

I would never take the head morphs into consideration. They don'Ät put too much effort into them. Loghain looks way too young, Eamon too old, Teagan looks about right, Alistair too old, Isolde too old, and so on.

[niniane]

Yeah, I agree that the head morphs are pretty off. Loghain looks too young, Eamon does look too old, Isolde actually looks too young to me (you figure that she's about 30), as does Anora (who is also supposed to be about 30). Alistair def. looks closer to 30 than 20. It's kind of strange...

I think that either theory works well with Alistair spending half his life in the chantry without becoming a templar. I mean, getting the son of the king addicted to lyrium seems kind of stupid. No matter who the Mom is.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/9/index/1054532

Confirmation of the rough timeline, anyway.

[klarabella]

Someone on BSN said that Gaider originally had other plans for Katriel, her pet theory is that Alistair was originally Katriel's son. That would make im 30-ish in Dragon Age Origins. :D

[aithne]

This has bugged me for some time. Why does Eamon look so goddamned old? If it's from being sick, no one comments on it. Are they just being polite. or did his age get retconned like so much else?

In my head, he's just one of those guys who stress ages pretty rapidly, and as arl he's under a lot of stress. (And Teagan looks like he's in his early 30s to me.)

Or, you know, limitation of the game engine. I've put together head morphs, there's not much space between "a little rough around the edges" and "decrepit".

[scarylady]

I have a theory that Eamon had a Dorian Gray portrait made, and it back-fired on him.

[darkrose]

Bwah!

[amhran_comhrac]

Actually, The Calling had misprints in the first edition (and ebook), which were changed in later editions. It took place in 9:10 Dragon, so the elf baby would be 19.
See his comments in this thread. (it's the filtered version so you just get the first post and any bioware posts. FYI, to do that if you're not on the main page of the forum looking at the thread title just add "&if=8" without the quotes to the end of the URL)

I suspect the comments from Loghain about how Maric would have shamed Rowan by acknowledging him were either about her memory or, more likely, a fuckup from when Alistair was supposed to be a disillusioned warrior in his early 30s that should have been changed or removed but got overlooked. (they scrapped and rewrote his entire character, but much of the game was done otherwise- it was because the first Alistair tested poorly)

This is his comments on a timeline someone came up with from that thread:

emynii wrote...
9:00 - Start of the Dragon Age
9:02 - Death of Meghren,
9:03 - Maric Crowned King (Age 24)
9:05 - Cailan Born
9:08 - Queen Rowan Dies
9:10 - The Calling (Cailan age 5, Maric age 31)
9:25 - Maric Dissapears (Age 46), Cailan takes throne (Age 20)
9:30 - Modern Dragon Age Game

I'm gun-shy of confirming any timeline at this point, and I don't have my notes from the novel on hand -- but at a glance this doesn't look too far off.

[niniane]

I'm still going for the Calling all just being a terrible, terrible nightmare...

And I will eternally be convinced that Alistair = 21-25...no matter what canon says. ;) (Seriously, his crows feet by the end of the game make me think that he MUST be 27! And it totally makes sense for Maric to be like "huh, Rowan is pregnant. Time to go bang a serving wench...")

[darkrose]

And it totally makes sense for Maric to be like "huh, Rowan is pregnant. Time to go bang a serving wench..."

I just can't see it. For one thing, the serving wench would have to take off his pants and sit on him, because Maric doesn't take initiative. Also, he has to be the hero of his personal narrative, and the king who takes advantage of someone who effectively can't say no doesn't fit that. Add in the fact that he's being unfair to Rowan and knows it; I can't buy him cheating on her.

[niniane]

You do make a good point about lack of Maric initiative. Hmmm...but it could be a very aggressive serving maid? I do think that he'd guilt trip over Rowan. But at the same time, he was betraying her by going after Katriel as well. It seems possible. I can see an upset Maric, a frisky servant girl (who totally was after the king, as I'm sure a lot of women were), and an "oops" pregnancy.

[prisoner_24601]

I think that the king, any king, would have women constantly trying to have women getting into his pants. Especially hot, miserable, broody, young kings. So that's my theory anyway.

[scarylady]

the serving wench would have to take off his pants and sit on him, because Maric doesn't take initiative

I have my hand clamped over my mouth so I don't wake my husband with laughing. These Theirin boys are a total riot.

[amhran_comhrac]

And confirmed by Alistair!

* Leliana: You are Maric's son; you are the rightful king of Ferelden.
* Alistair: I am the son of a star-struck maid and an indiscreet man who just happened to be king. Look, I can't be king. Some days I have trouble figuring out which boot goes on which foot.
* Leliana: Complete fools are made leaders of kingdoms all the time, and you're not a complete fool.
* Alistair: What an utter relief.
* Leliana: And don't worry about the boots. Kings don't need to dress themselves. that's what advisors are for, isn't it?
* Alistair: And star-struck maids, apparently.

[zute]

Teagan and Eamon don't look any 3 years apart in age! More like 15-20 years apart. Either that or Eamon didn't age well at all.

[niniane]

I'm still blaming it all on the beard. Shave that poor man and he'd be hot. Or at least younger looking.

But, yeah, I find it odd too that Loghain's supposed to be like a decade older than Eamon...as you'd think it was the other way around.

[scarylady]

The words 'hot' and 'Eamon' may not exist in the same post, due to an obscure, but utterly valid, law of physics.

In fact, more stringent observers of the law suggest that the two words may not even exist in the same universe.

[niniane]

I like to give him some credit. Like...I mean, you figure you see the poor guy after he's been poisoned and in a coma for a while. Possibly when he was a bit younger...and without the beard...he might have been reasonably attractive? I sort of like to think so. Poor Isolde has little enough going for her. I like to think that at least she got a few years of crazy romantic bliss with Eamon when he was young and semi-hot...

[scarylady]

The words 'poor' and 'Isolde' may not exist in the same universe, due to...

:D

[elysium_fic]

This.

[ashstoner_021]

This made me giggle, I love you XD

[scarylady]

Friday night is silly night :D Down with serious discussions I say!

[darkrose]

This needs to be added to the comm rules.