This is something I've often wondered (morbid curiosity I guess) and we were discussing this at work the other day. I think many of us have probably come to these forums because of fantasy based games that take place in the middle ages (basically games that could take place between the 5th through the 15th century). And while they make for great games, books, and a few movies I think most of us realize that it would have been a hard life during those times with, disease, famine, war, lack of hygiene, etc...

So, I've read in a lot of places that 1/3 of all children died before the age of 5 and during that time period 35 was old ... that'd make me ancient at 45. Although I think I stood a good chance of dying at the age of 10 if I'd been born in that time period and somehow the events in that period ran parallel to the events that took place in my life.

Age 10: My tonsils needed to be taken out. I may have survived if I was in a more advanced area of the world, it was the late middle ages, and infections didn't kill me.

Age 15: My appendix ruptured. If I survived past age 10 this would have been it

After having this discussion at work we realized most of us in that conversation would have not lived as long as we have. I wasn't the only one who had a ruptured appendix, one lady survived briast cancer, others had injuries that required modern day medicine to fix, a few childhood ailments, etc. In thinking about it I realized probably 2/3 of everyone I know wouldn't have made it to their current age.

Hopefully this didn't come off as morbid, just one of those odd things I think about sometimes

Considering I would be living in Texas during the Middle Ages...

Probably would have died at age 5 since no one wants a weakling piece of garbage for a son, at least back then anyways.

6'4 285+Lbs and still growing. I think I would have fit in just fine.
No medical conditions worth noting and Im handsome so... I would have been married to a wonderful peasant.

Probably around the average age for back then, I'm fairly able-bodied, don't have any medical conditions requiring modern technology. I do suffer from migraines and sleep-time paralysis though, so hopefully I wouldn't be in Europe.

Oh, I most assuredly would have died within hours, if not days after my birth. Assuming I somehow survived into advlthood, I'd still have hearing and vision problems to deal with. At best, I'd probably be blessed to find myself working on a farm somewhere...that it assuming anyone in Europe would accept a mostly deaf and half-blind man working for them. They'd probably call me a blind, dumb fool and consign me to begging in the streets.

cracked my head when i was 6. I wouldnt have lasted long

I'd probably be on some rudimentary crutches as I was born with slightly crooked legs that seemed to get more painful as I entered puberty, and the operation to prompt them to grow more straight wouldn't have been available back then, so I probably would've been bled or exorcised until they magically fixed themselves.

And on that point... I also have a blood clotting condition, which hardly affects my day-to-day living, but being bled wouldn't have been fun.

All in all, with my blood condition being a cousin of hemophilia, I'm almost certain I would've been nobility of some sort.

Hemophilia is the disease of kings.

I forgot to add that I have this thing where I can't... make... bathroom deposits into anything but a toilet with plumbing, so I probably would've died of that thing where your piss poisons you or something.

My family can actually trace itself back to my great whatever who was a man at arms for a Scottish noble. So we weren't too bad off I guess, better than the filthy peasants at least. I probably would have been a highlander rebel. FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!

Fell on my face when I was five, causing my teeth to bust out of my gums. Would have died of infection probably.

My grandma traced her families lineage back to Fred (or Thomas) Savage (I think) who was married to Robert de Bruce's granddaughter.

Lol, you guys know that only some parts of Europe were that bad right? The Scandinavians were pretty knowledgeable about most medicine, and they had a good grasp on astronomy and government and stuff. I would think being a Viking would be the way to go.

Very cool.

HEATHEN! Off with his head!

Had a rock thrown at my face when I was about 8 years old that shattered a good half of my teeth. Would not have survived that back in the middle ages.

Dentists. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 Love them.

Yeah, it was the heavily "civilized" areas that fell hard with Rome. The "barbarian" places did pretty well on their own.

I would have died when I was 13. My appendix ruptured and I went into septic shock.

Given I've had no real natural health issues barring a broken leg at 3 due to my stupidity, messed up my knee on a bike. So I suppose i'd be fairly well off. If I knew what I know now, I'd be able to exploit my knowledge of feudal culture for my own gains.

Probably be dead at 18 months. I somehow got a peanut stuck in my lung. It was stuck there for a week.

I was a month premature and wasn't breathing when I came out. I also had a really high something or other (Jaundis?) and I almost needed a blood transfusion and thankfully my mother begged for one more day to see if it would have come down (and it did so the doctors called off the transfusion), because that was 1982.

So I died at birth in the middle ages. Hell, I probably would have died in the 19th century and early 20th century.

Well I'm part of the best race of people on the planet, the Irish....

So I'm still dead and if I'm not, I become an alcoholic at a very young age.

Ok, maybe I should have said Europe, or at least an area with a large population lol

Yup, and the Romans performed successful brain surgery. Knowledge was out there at one point, some of it had been lost and a lot of it was just beyond the means of the "average" person to have access to.

Not to mention all the inventions you'd be famous for .... and rich

I wouldn't want to do that, just manipulate political events in my favour. Then I could become the King of England. I'd be the IRL Stannis Baratheon.

My life would begin with a six-foot drop as I fell from my mother's hanging corpse. Against all reason, I would survive that and grow to advlthood, but things would only get progressively worse for me from there.

Also, had we all been born in the Middle Ages, you know what would make all of us?



As of right now, still dead; and for a long time too.

Or do we just perpetually repeat our lives in a continuous loop while time itself goes on, leaving us trapped in a vortex of our personal timeline?