The Nature of Ogres: Age and Lifespan.

Hi guys,

I was thinking about starting this discussion for a while now.
After reading through old posts in these forums I stumbled on an old topic which discussed the weight of Ogres. Around the same time I also read a topic on ulthuan.net about what age elves can get.

These posts really intrigued me because there are so few basic things we know about the races we love so much in this fantasy universe.

I'd like to start this discussion with the question; how old can an Ogre get when considering he dies of old age? And also, what does the lifecycle of an Ogre looks like? When is he mature, how long do they stay young, when is he ready to fight, when is he considered old, etc.

If you have some speculations, knowledge or science behind these questions please leave them.

It is an interesting topic and one I've thought on a little bit.

I would assume that a life of battle, hard living, and migration keep the average ogre life expectancy fairly short. You don't see any "elder" ogres in the army book fiction and in general the older ogres tend to be larger and in charge. Perhaps like Orcs the ogres grow is size and stature until they are eventually killed off by their own kind of in the various wars and battles they take part in?

There was a GW supplement about young ogres in a fighting ring if I recall? Can't remember the exact details on that at the moment. I always though an ogre child's life was one that was short, brutal, and hard. Those who survive grow into warriors and join the ranks of the tribe. It also seems that ogres grow rapidly so I would say a "young" ogre bull would be something like 16 years old with a life expectancy of maybe double that if they are clever and lucky.

Most certainly a society that eats the young and old equally as neither represent strength which is above all in ogre culture.

I had always imagined that Ogres are one of those races who would be very long lived if they didn't keep killing each other.  If, somehow, the Ogres personality changed into that of peaceful farmers and hunters, then they could live to be anywhere from 70 to 100 years (70 years is the average lifespan of an Asian elephant in the wild).  I figure that Ogres are smart enough to take care of themselves, so they would have a greater lifespan.

However, I don't think there is an Ogre alive that is older than 30, since they just can't stop killing each other. 

I would imagine that a standard Ogre life looks like this:

0-5: Avoid getting eaten, eat as much as you can, don't get bullied.
5-10: Avoid getting eaten, eat as much as you can, bully the weak.
11-15: Avoid getting eaten, eat as much as you can, fight everyone you can.
16-18: Officially an Ogre Bull.  Take a mate, eat as much as you can, try not to die. The best and brightest here become ironguts.
19-23: "Find your way" stage of life.  The Ogre now has children, and so must find some way to avoid parenting responsibilities.  This is where Ogres go off and train mournfang, become mercenaries, or decide that tinnitus is better than hearing your kids scream, thus becoming leadbelchers.
23-death: If they lived this long, they are now the biggest and the meanest ogres around.  These are your bruisers, hunters, and tyrants.  They invariably die a horrible death at the hand of the next, slightly younger tyrant-to-be.

Obviously, life looks different if you are a caster, but this is just the standard ogre lifespan.  Chances are that if they didn't die by the time they were 30, they would either become the greatest civilization on the planet, or would kill themselves out of boredom.

Well - this becomes somewhat confused when you factor in the Origins of Ogres. Where they around before Chaos entered the world? No (As that was only dragon Ogres and the old ones etc). So we are speaking specifically about a fantasy race here - although the logic of looking at elephants lifespans makes sense.

We don't have the depth of history and timelines like other races do to see if one ogre has lived for thousands of years etc.

There is a snippet from the new Arcahon novel however that describes an Ogre in the Southlands called Jharkill (who becomes a lieutenant of Archaon). He is a Hunter and he has lived 'many lifespans' doing his duty around the Wastes (which was collecting beasts). However - it is without doubt that the corrupting influence of Chaos has touched him and also the argument that time passes strangely in them there parts so that may just be artistic licence.

It would seem that like in savage tribes of both humans and animals. When their entire life is based on killing and gathering to eat, when an individual gets older they become more brittle and prone to injuries, and when that happens nobody cares for them they just let them die. Which would explain the lack of 'older' ogres.

BB

Consider also that Ogres only place any real value in personal strength. Age would, probably, not be a particularly important component of an Ogres identity. I doubt they would necessarily even keep track of their own age, the passage of time only being important with regards to the coming seasons etc.
If an Ogre is strong, and able to take what they wish, then they would have a place in Ogre society regardless of age.

I think it's true that ogres grow big very fast. Baby ogres should be able to crawl away from things right after birth, just like most animals have to learn to walk just after they get born.
This makes sense when they get born without a paunch and are left in a cave. They crawl their way through the darkness in search for food.
Also when 16 year old humans are able to fight in war's, which I think would be possible in grim-dark medieval times, it could be possible for an ogre to fight in war's at the age of 10 if not sooner...

Having read the book, our most obese overlord Greasus came to power 39 years ago as the story holds, and we've had another 5 or so years of end times where he is presumably alive still. Provisionally I'd say he was around 20 when he ate his father to become tyrant of the gold tooth tribe, so at least 60-65 by now. As he's still in command, I doubt he's lost much strength, so could possibly have a good few years left.

I'd say they would be similar to humans in their age range?