How could Deoran be son of Haldiel?

[DrHades]

I have just 1 question about campaigns HttT and tSG. It is said, that Deoran is son of Haldiel. How could this be possible? According to this site: http://wiki.wesnoth.org/History_of_Wesnoth
1. Haldiel first appears in 517 YW. Let's say he's 15 years old, so he was born in 502.
2. Deoran first appears in 607 and it's said, that he is young. Even if he were 30, his father would be 75 years old when Deoran would be born.

Is there a mistake in History of Wesnoth or just in my calculations?

[Caphriel]

Yes. Wesnoth years are numbered in octal. There were only 56base10 years between Haldiel's first appearance and Deoran's first appearance, which puts him as old, but not ancient

[Thrawn]

I'd say that it's cool you noticed that, I know I'm not that versed in wesnoth lore >_> I'm sure it would be easy to make Deoran the grandson of Haldiel to make it fit better.

I'd wait for someone more invested in the wesnoth history to come around to this topic though.

[DrHades]

Yes. Wesnoth years are numbered in octal. There were only 56base10 years between Haldiel's first appearance and Deoran's first appearance, which puts him as old, but not ancient

I really don't understand. If the years were numbered in octal, there wouldn't be years with digits 8 and 9...

[Caphriel]

It was a joke, based on the fact that the two years you provided had no digits above 7.

[esr]

I have just 1 question about campaigns HttT and tSG. It is said, that Deoran is son of Haldiel. How could this be possible? According to this site: http://wiki.wesnoth.org/History_of_Wesnoth
1. Haldiel first appears in 517 YW. Let's say he's 15 years old, so he was born in 502.
2. Deoran first appears in 607 and it's said, that he is young. Even if he were 30, his father would be 75 years old when Deoran would be born.

Is there a mistake in History of Wesnoth or just in my calculations?

I think this is a side effect of a readjustment of the timeline. I'll look into it.

[Zachron]

Eh 75, not as far-fetched as it would seem? Plenty of guys can shoot live rounds when they are in their 70's(I'd wager at least half of the men in their 70's right now could sire offspring)... In the real world, before modern medicine, most men who lived that long could because most people, who got out of shape enough to not be able to, did not live past their 40's, if they even made it that far. This is part of where we get the misconception that age brings wisdom from. It's not age that brings wisdom, it's wisdom that allows you to age. Besides, the lifespan of a healthy person in Wesnoth, based on that same history, seems to go into the 100's. In the real world, it is said that one of the oldest men in (non-biblical)history lived in England some time around the cusp of the late middle ages, and the colonial era...

Zachron tells a story about a long-lived man...

He lived roughly 132 years(or was it 126?), outlived 7 wives(or was it 6?), lived to see his Great-great-great grandchildren by his first wife, outlived all his children by most of the wives he had outlived and half of his grandchildren. Some of his great grandchildren by his first wife died of old age and he was still kicking, and this caught the attention of the King. The king visited the man and found he lived a rather modest lifestyle in a rather small house. The king invited the man to court at the local lord's hall, where he ate at the banquet and conversed with the lords and ladies of the land. They all wanted to know what was his secret for living so long... and he said "Why there is no secret," and proceeded to explain his daily routine: A beer in the morning, with sausage and eggs and a morning of hard labor to earn it, a beer at noon, with bread and cheese, some time with the little ones, and an afternoon of hard work to keep things going, a beer and a prayer in the evening, with beef and potatoes and time with the family, and a scotch at night, with a nice, happy woman to keep the bed warm--this is where he winks to the lords and they have a chuckle. (I compiled this from different versions of the story.) The irony of all of this was this man had strayed further from his routine than ever before that day, as he had eaten veal and other delicacies, and drank wine and tonics, and as his wife had not come to court, he stayed in one of the chambers of the lord's manor and he did not wake up the next morning.

...Well this guy left his behind his 8th wife(or was it 7th) with 6 or so kids of her own, and she was pregnant with twins, by a 132(or was it 126?) year old man. Some people lose their vigor as they age, but some people keep their vigor even as they languish. Now good ol' Haldiel might just have been that sort of man of action.

Now the reason we do not picture men in their later years siring offspring is not because old men cannot sire children, but because old women cannot bear them. A woman, once in her later years, is almost always in menopause, and while a few women enter menopause with a few ova left in reserve, it is incredibly rare for a old woman to conceive... This biological double-standard combines with the social norm of age-symmetry. It seems a man, in the modern times, who marries a woman who's less than half his age plus seven years is a cradle robber, and a woman who courts a man who's more than a decade younger than her as a cougar... Beyond that We expect people to stick to their age range... So we don't expect a 70 year old man to not sire any offspring because his age makes him impotent; instead, we expect a 70 year old man to not sire any offspring because we expect him to be married to a 65-75 year old woman who is past child-bearing years. Yet in a lot of societies if a man outlived his wife who was close to him in age, he would not take another wife who was close to him in age, he would instead take another wife who was close to the age he was when he first married. The idea was there was little point in starting a marriage without starting a family... With that in mind the old man taking a young bride would have children by her, and should he die soon, she would have many reproductive years ahead of her once she remarried; otherwise, she would have had as full and fulfilling a marriage as any other woman. So whereas, age symmetry was the norm in our society, age asymmetry was not uncommon in the olden days.

All this being said... Haldiel may have been a bit of a cradle-robber in his later years. lol.

[Herduk]

I have just 1 question about campaigns HttT and tSG. It is said, that Deoran is son of Haldiel. How could this be possible? According to this site: http://wiki.wesnoth.org/History_of_Wesnoth
1. Haldiel first appears in 517 YW. Let's say he's 15 years old, so he was born in 502.
2. Deoran first appears in 607 and it's said, that he is young. Even if he were 30, his father would be 75 years old when Deoran would be born.

Is there a mistake in History of Wesnoth or just in my calculations?

Charlie Chaplin's last child was born on 1962 while Chaplins was born on 1889

[TheGreatRings]

Well, Zachron, Haldiel after the war would probably be a famous knight. If he survived the entire campaign there's a good chance he'd level to Paladin or Grand Knight, so he'd be one of the most skilled and accomplished warriors of Wesnoth. He'd also be one of the first humans to swear loyalty to Konrad, so he'd likely be a trusted and respected servant.

In other words, he'd be rich, famous, and respected enough to attract young women no matter what his age was.

[artisticdude]

In other words, he'd be rich, famous, and respected enough to attract young women no matter what his age was.

That's quite feasible, actually, although somewhat... unsettling? No, that isn't the word...

Anyways, there have been multiple examples of this throughout history and in modern times, so it's quite believable.

[Hulavuta]

Like Billy Joel? Although that wasn't as drastic.

[artisticdude]

An example: Donald Trump was born in 1946, and his current (and fourth) wife was born in 1970... 26 year difference. Why did she do that? Because he's rich and famous, like Haldiel probably would have been.

But I think this has been determined as a very minor issue, if it's even an issue at all. Let's let this thread die a peaceful death now, shall we?

[Hulavuta]

Yes, but it's 24 not 26. kthxbai