Gatekeeper's Age

[SpoonR]

So, it looks like we know the Rahshid's age. 706 give or take a couple years. Firstly, I'm assuming he is also a starborn, so he is Harry's age plus some multiple of 666 years. Call Harry's bday around 1975, the previous starborns were round about CE 1330, CE 670, CE 1. Even wizards usually don't live 1000+ years so 1330 is most likely.

But if something hinky went on with time/life, I still think 670 is the earliest possible. Rashid seems to be an Islamic name, and assuming it is his original name that would put him sometime after 630-ish. Plus if you further back you run into problems like being pre-swords of the cross, possibly knowing the Merlin and the original Warden. Just starts feeling wrong.

Also, it's interesting to know more about Listens-to-Winds teacher.

[Snark Knight]

Per WOJ, Rashid is the guy who defeated Alhazred, the author of the Necronomicon. If we take the Lovecraftian fictional history as a reference for the DV, he lived in the 700's.

So barring time travel, the timeframe is about right for him to be the 600's CE starborn and have capped Alhazred as one of his early victories.

[Eleyctra]

I had a mild thought, but Rashid could have had a jaunt in his early days in the Nevernever that went sideways and got stuck for some century or more...It's often stated that this happens to mortals who aren't careful dealing outside the mortal realm.

He's still within mortal wizard age limits we know, without being older than 'Ancient' Mai. Isn't it stated in Summer Knight that Mai is around 900, or was that a WOJ?

So, Rashid is old and skilled enough in the 7th-8th century to kill Alhazred, but then some time after gets stuck several centuries in the Nevernever (maybe a long trip to the very far away Outer Gates?), and when he gets back, oops it's now 500 years later.

[Mira]

I had a mild thought, but Rashid could have had a jaunt in his early days in the Nevernever that went sideways and got stuck for some century or more...It's often stated that this happens to mortals who aren't careful dealing outside the mortal realm.

He's still within mortal wizard age limits we know, without being older than 'Ancient' Mai. Isn't it stated in Summer Knight that Mai is around 900, or was that a WOJ?

So, Rashid is old and skilled enough in the 7th-8th century to kill Alhazred, but then some time after gets stuck several centuries in the Nevernever (maybe a long trip to the very far away Outer Gates?), and when he gets back, oops it's now 500 years later.

I've been rereading the short stories the last couple of days and Harry states that a wizard lives between three and four hundred years.  I think that sounds about right with everything we've heard in the series thus far.  Now we know that Rashid spends 90% of his time in the Nevernever, time is different there, so he could very well be close to a thousand years old.

[Bad Alias]

Ancient Mai is "over 400" years old. I assume that means less than 500.

[Mira]

Ancient Mai is "over 400" years old. I assume that means less than 500.

She might be the exception that proves the rule... As in human longevity, the average life span for a healthy human is between 75 - 90 years of age..  Some die a lot younger and few live to be a lot older even to 114 to 120 years of age.  So I think that can be translated to wizards, as in average healthy wizard life spans are 300 -400 years of age, some die earlier, and a few live to be 500 or more years of age.

[morriswalters]

I have no idea of how old the Gatekeeper is.  But a best guess is that he has lived large portions of his life in an area where time moves at a different rate. Jim has paid some service to Einstein. Think of Rashid riding a relativistic shuttle. When he gets up near the speed of light he's no longer simultaneous with the world. Only when he slows down and reengages with our reality does he age at the rate we do.

[vultur]

Yeah I think Rashid has to be a case of NN time flow differences. He can be younger than Ancient Mai in their personal timeline (has experienced fewer years) though much older in terms of birth dates.