A few question from a new player about Lifespans and magic

[Aalock]

Hello, I've been a fan of Rifts for a little while now and really excited about Savage Rifts too. But i have a few odd questoins about some things i haven't been able to figure out. They are mainly fluff questions but affect some of my ideas for NPCs. My main question is How long would a human possibly live? Does being a Cyber knights gifts and ability make them live longer. For that matter does the same apply to Mind Melters, bursters or the magically inclined like Ley Line walkers or Mystics?

I know Cyborgs can live for 200+ years (was able to find that) so i figure there must be something familiar for the other more mystical or psy inclined souls.

Next main question was how many people are Psy or magically empowered roughly in the world by percentage? I wasnt able to figure that part out but i figure it must be a fairly large as the are full nations that are built around them. Is there any number someone can toss at me.

thanks for reading my post, i know they are frivolous questions but they would help me figure some stuff out. Thanks from a new player!

[kaid]

I think in places like lazlo life expectancy is probably high either at modern levels or a bit higher than that. I don't know that is has ever been said if the cyber knight abilities have any impact on health. That said given their occupation I am not sure how many live long enough to find out one way or the other. They are not the guys running away from the fight typically.

I have not seen it mentioned anywhere that magic or psionic use has any impact one way or the other on life span although having those abilities gives you enhanced ability to defend yourself from being prematurly eaten so I assume statistically it would increase your likely hood to reach your maximum age.

PSY powers are pretty common. Just looking at the default character creation chance for humans to have a psyhic power we are looking at something like 20-30% have useable levels of psy powers and probably much more have some lesser latent ability.

Magic is harder to put a finger on but even some magic heavy cities the percent of actual practitioners rarely seems to go above 20% for any but the most major magical cities.

[guardiandashi]

As far as I know there isn't anything official.
With That said there are some abilities that would realistically likely indirectly increase lifespans.
If you have access to cure disease (or equivalent) various heal abilities etc. They should cause someone to be sick less often, which by increasing overall health, would increase general fitness and health thus increasing lifespans.

[kaid]

One thing I forgot to mention about lifespans and magic is if you have access to a pyramid such as made by the atlanteans/lemurians/splugorth spending time in those drastically slows your rate of aging. If you were able to spend every night sleeping in one your max life expectancy would be very very long hundreds of years and possibly much longer.

[Aalock]

Thanks so much for the response. I wasn't sure if there was anything official but I figured aging would be positively affected by good health care and powers that heal. Glad to have others give me something to go on.

So one other quick question I haven't been able to nail down. Are both magic and psy power or talents things you can learn or is it your born with the talents? Or is it a mix up of both? I figured it might be both but was wondering if it says it somewhere and I'm just missing it. Thanks again

[Freemage]

Theoretically, natural regeneration (particularly the sort that lets you grow back organs and limbs) should be sufficient to have a nigh-endless lifespan, though of course other issues can dramatically shorten that time. The only limit would be if the aging process itself erodes one's regenerative capacity.

I'll note that Lord Coake is freakin' ancient, suggesting that yeah, being a Cyber-Knight and thus infused with mystical nanites is probably a good way to fend off Old Man Time.

[Zamion138]

On pg 68 of lone star......
Cs 100 to 130
Lazlo 100 to 140
Ngr 125 to 150
Republic of japan 140 to 200

[glitterboy2098]

outside the major nations, in the frontier areas, life expectancy would be back to where they were in early modern times, roughly. 50-80 years. this would go up the closer you are to some sort of civilization.

for groups like the barbarians of the dinosaur swamps, life expectancy would likely be in pre-modern ranges, 30-50 years.

[taalismn]

I imagine that if you're a mage who stumbles on life extension magic, not just health improvement magic, you're onto something potentially profitable...as long as nobody else figures it out and undercuts your business....or, if out of pure selfishness, you keep it to yourself in order to outlive your rivals/enemies.

[Library Ogre]

The Guardians of the Flame books by Joel Rosenberg, the main characters frequently take healing potions, being in a fairly high-danger occupation (militant abolitionists). Later in the series, one of the characters muses that his continued vigor into middle age might partially be due to this... the healing potions not only fix the cuts and bruises and breaks that he notices, but might also be regenerating heart muscles that are getting weak and the like.

IMO, most games tend to overvalue acquirable immunity to aging. Like, if my character won't age for the next 3000 years, that's cool, but it doesn't do me a whole lot of good RIGHT NOW, unless it's accompanied by some other effect.