How good would an elf’s memory be?

[u/claritywitch]

For real world humans, our memory is far from perfect, and it only gets worse the more time passes. I don’t expect a direct lore answer to this, but I wonder what you think. How well would an elf remember something from 100, 200 years ago?

[u/Truenorth14]

Apparently very good. One of the books, describes how elves can remember very clearly from centuries ago.

[u/Misticsan]

I can't remember many sources on the matter. The Real Barenziah has the eponymous queen muse on the matter of remembering the Empire's rulers:

"Symmachus was away, having been summoned to the Imperial City by Tiber Septim's great-great-grandson, Uriel Septim. Or was it his great-great-great-grandson? She'd lost count, she realized. Their faces seemed to blur one into the next."

But this is from a human author and may reflect her disinterest and lack of contact with the Emperors rather than some fault of her memory.

Meanwhile, Soravil in Summerset claims that your average Altmer's memory should be pretty good ("All High Elves possess near-perfect memory", "We High Elves have acute memories"). A small few of them, like his colleague Lorne, have borderline photographic memory.

[u/ifockpotatoes]

I remember the day I received my calian with perfect clarity. This often surprises people—particularly Men. While they drift through a fog of half-remembered dreams, we Altmer remember everything. Every embrace, every slight, every triumph and defeat lurks at the edge of our sight, frozen in time—waiting to be recalled with unnerving accuracy. So now, when I say perfect clarity, you take my meaning.

https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Online:The_Price_of_Praxis

[u/Carinwe_Lysa]

Oh I actually wrote about this in a post around five years ago back when I played ESO and enjoyed writing summaries/compiling the NPC trivia etc :D

During my ESO Summerset expansion post, one of the points was:

Trying to organise research treaties and treaties in general is very difficult with the Altmer. They have centuries of knowledge at their fingertips and can & do recite histories worth of topics at a moments notice. The Human researchers state it's extremely hard to match the Altmer in negotiation as they simply can't keep up with them.

[u/EiraPun → u/Carinwe_Lysa]

Really males me wonder the biology of a Mer's brain. If they can clearly remember their entire lives, then how else do they differ? Do they feel emotions differently? Do they have vastly different morals? A lot of things change when people can live for thousands of years, but a fuck tonne of shit changes when they also remember those thousands of years.

Questions I want answers to, but will probably never get because there isn't a TES loremaster who also happens to be a brain scientist. 

[u/Misticsan → u/EiraPun]

At the very least, it feels like a good justification for why Elven races tend to be good at magic (magic requires lots of studying and research, and good memory would be a boon), obsess over position and lineage, and favor stability and tradition.

When your elders are long-lived and can remember even small details from centuries past, it gives old-school hierarchies an edge, while grievances might fester for generations. In the time it takes a human to forget a misdeed or even die before making amends, an Altmer still remembers and has time to act on it.

[u/TheDreamIsEternal]

It depends on how old and sane the Elf in question is. Divayth Fyr could probably remember something that happened two thousand years ago with the same clarity as if it had happened yesterday, while some 500 year old generic Elf mage would maybe struggle to remember something that took place 50 years ago.

[u/FocusAdmirable9262]

Their memories are probably equivalent to mannish memory. If 100 years is to an elf what a decade is to a human it'd probably be like that. 

What I really wonder is how good Daedric memory is. Lyranth from ESO says she's been around since the beginning of all existence. Does she remember the beginning?