How old is Sylvanas?

Lore Story Forum
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Sorry for such a basic question but I couldn’t find an answer anywhere else.

Obviously Sylvanas is a hot topic on the forums right now. I was thinking that it’s pretty typical to hear people say “She’s always been that way” when referring to her current behavior. I started thinking ‘well she hasn’t has she.’ She’s only been the Banshee Queen for around thirty years (ish). So how long wasn’t she the BQ? It completely blew my mind when I went looking for a definitive answer and came up empty. I read one post that said maybe less than 50, and another that said up to seven thousand (that one I was able to discount.) Not only could I not find her age, I couldn’t even find discussions about why we didn’t know her age.

So long story short, can anyone tell me how old she is with supporting material? Thanks
edit spelling

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At least 17 by now.

Kidding! (I think?)

Serious-note, Cornelicus kind of answered this similar topic back in 2015, so add a year or so:

(Cliff-notes):
We do know she was young when she became Ranger-General not even 20 I think it was and that she is the middle sister of Alleria and Vereesa.
Vereesa was inducted into the entry ranks of the Farstriders at a young age some time before the Second War while we know Alleria fought in the troll wars which makes her atleast 2800 years old.

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Thanks.

Given the reaction that many male players have to Sylvanas I’m sure there will be some disappointment if she isn’t at least 18

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Morally grey or something? :joy:

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A little over a thousand maybe? Since Alleria fought in the troll wars and Sylvanas is slightly younger, that would make some sense.
We really don’t know how long or how often elves can have children, so there could well be centuries between all the Windrunner children being born.

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17 or 18 in human year i think. She is slightly younger than Alleria so it makes sense

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Considering we don’t even definitively know the Quel’dorei lifespan the answer is a nebulously long range that at best we know she was born after the founding of Silvermoon, but was at least an adult by the Second War.

Though Slyv was likely older than just barely an adult since having a younger sister it would be weird if Alleria had left her young son with the equivalent of a teenage elf Veressa.

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I think that the younger estimates may come from some things that were written in Edge of Night. Sylvanas is reminded of three events from her earlier life. In the first one it says that “She had not yet seen her twentieth autumn, yet already young Sylvanas was the most promising hunter in her family.” So there is a reference to a young age but it also says she was the “most promising hunter.” That implies that there was potential but that it had not yet been realized. Also, and this is just my guess, but I don’t think the most vain person in the world would be “teasing her hair until it dashed around her long, slender ears in just the perfect way” as she went out to fight the scourge. to me this sounds like a memory from her youth. In the next memory she seems much more mature and less frivolous. And there is certainly a time gap between that memory and the one where she is leading the Forsaken. Also even is she was very talented, came from the ‘right kind of family’, and was destined for the job eventually, turning over the most elite portion of your army to a 17 year old seems unlikely. This is especially likely if the age of ‘adulthood’ starts at 60 (if that is accurate.) I’m not answering my own question here. I’m just trying to zone in on what might be most likely.

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In her mid-late 20’s maybe even early 30’s. Didn’t her short story say that she was under 20 when she was still alive?

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If I read the story correctly the answer to that may be in my latest post. There is still no definite answer. There is one memory when she is under 20. But we have no idea how much time separates the first memory from the second. It could be one year or three hundred and fifty. So unless Alex Afrasabi’s next big reveal is her age we’ll just have to make a best guess. It’s frustarting though.

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She is beyond her expiration date.

Literally.

Someone forgot to throw out the expired goods.

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12

How can I track down that Cornelicus answer you wrote about? I’d like to read the full text. Thanks.

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How could someone so young fight Malfurion, 10,000 druid, to an equal match?

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Somebody wasted his life napping is how.

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It would be creepy if they actually turned over the position of Ranger General to the Elf equivalent of a toddler. Not saying that she would have been a toddler at the age of 17, but that in Elf years, that is just way too young for such a high profile and critical position. Retcons in general are terrible for a narrative, but sometimes they are just necessary.

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As stated above I think people have gotten the idea that she was that young based on a misinterpretation of something said in the short story Edge of Night. So I think you are correct, it just wouldn’t require a retcon. We just don’t know.

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I don’t see the Windrunner parents spacing out their kids by thousands of years. I agree with the interpretation that an undisclosed number of years passed between the memories — likely hundreds if not thousands.

It’s just impossible to rationalize a scenario where a 20-year-old Sylvanas could have ascended to the rank of Ranger-General at all, let alone ahead of her sister — herself talented and renowned — who fought in the Troll Wars. Even if Sylvanas was the best marksman in Quel’thalas, she would have had precious little military experience or acumen, which we know is the opposite of the case.

I would speculate therefore that she’s old enough to have substantial military experience, old enough to have risen to the highest rank in the Farstriders (over other long-lived veterans) by merit, rather than raw talent. At least hundreds of years old.

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Just a reminder that all races in WoW, no matter how long they can live, reach adulthood in the early 20s. Since she’s slight younger than Alleria, and Alleria fought the Troll Wars, my bet is that she has probably around 2700 years old.

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So a 30-something year old undead elf ranger was able to match a 10,000 master kaldorei druid? Whoa, she must have gotten some major power boost somehow. o_O

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Malfurion most certainly did waste his time napping! Of course someone who barely fought his whole life due to spending his time in the Emerald Dream would be equal to someone who fought for over 1000 Years!

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