Thinking about retiring my level 15 Bosmer / Hunter. I just don't know what else to do with him. I'm getting kind of bored hanging out in the woods hunting wildlife...and whatever Bandit or evil Mage that happens to wander into my hunting grounds. I've done a few retrieval quests, but I only go into towns, no major cities.

I'm a real hardcoe Roleplayer and have retired my last char after 80 hrs of playtime. She has completed all her goals.

I've ended it with a fat bossfight.

I've retired 1 char, and deleted two which I wasn't satisfied with. Now I'm waiting for certain mods to be released before beginning the 3rd and definitive one, which will also be the one who'll go though at least the 1st DLC.

Depends on whether or not I've a specific goal in mind for a character. My original character (lvl 62 spellsword) is still going after finishing the main quest and leading 2 guilds. He tracked down all the Dragon Priest masks and has them hidden away for safe keeping. I created my Orc warrior mainly to play one side of the Civil War quest, and haven't done much with him since finishing it. I scrapped my assassin character after taking over the TG and DB (about 115 hrs) because I thought I could do better, and have finally gotten around to building her. I've a mage currently at lvl 39 that I plan on eventually finishing the game with after he finishes his turn into an absolutely evil S.O.B. Still want to play the other side of the Civil War as a Nord who joins the Stormcloaks. And maybe a character that never starts the main quest at all, so dragons won't be a factor at all. Maybe, but I really like to have FUS RO DAH and it'll be hard to play a character that doesn't have it.

I retired Vriddi when I'd finished the Companions. I'd been planning to do the MQ and Civil War from the Imperial side with her too but it took me until 40th level to finish 1 questline.
Griselda is just doing the TG and DB but shes already 53rd level and hasn't finished either so when they are finished I'll retire her.

This depends. Most of my characters are dead is dead, so obviously if they die fairly (not caused by a game glitch of some sort) then they're just gone and I have to move on to someone else. So far, I haven't truely "retired" a Skyrim character yet, but I do have a cleric who may just do so.

Her name is Claire Voyance, and her partner Brelyna (mage's guild) died in the middle of a bandit raid. After Brelyna died, I could literally feel Claire's game, her entire life-force and will to keep adventuring, start to fade. Although I haven't touched Claire's game for awhile, I'm thinking she might just do a thing where she goes all the way back to Pale Pass, enters back into Cyrodiil, and that'll be the 'end' of her game.
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I am now thinking of retiring my level 47 Dunmer (my original character). He's completed the MQ,DB and TG. Something happened at about level 46 and dragon attacks became much more frequent. He's my favorite character, but he is attacked so frequently by Ancient Dragons (virtually everytime he ventures beyond the city walls) that the game is almost broken for me as constantly fighting Ancient Dragons has taken the fun out of it.

When I no longer enjoy the character, but only if it fits in with what's happening. My character wouldn't retire half way through the civil war, for example, or just stop dead in the wilderness and stay there for eternity. They tend to go home and sit down, or toss everything but a set of clothes and a weapon into the sea and ride towards the border to another province.

When i no longer find them fun. I just retired my thief character shortly after finishing the thieves guild, which was the only reason i created her.

Usually when I get up to about level 25-30, as most combat encounters start to become a bit too easy right around that point.

However, I've just installed a few mods that increase the challenge for higher level characters, so I'll have to see how this turns out.

When I feel like the character I'm RP'ing has done everything he or she wants, and there's nothing left but minor questing and quests I've done so many times I don't care anymore (like the main quest). Usually somewhere around Level 50.

When the character has reached the goals set for them or when I feel they have maxed their potential.

I never retire my characters. As someone said somewhere else in this thread, my characters do not retire. There is always something for that character to continue and each character is different. They have their own personality and they may finish the faction guilds, but they do not retire. My main character my necromage he is an adventuring type. Curious and enjoys exploring places; he also sleeps in the Alchemy shack and hangs out with the Meeko. And from that he is not ready to retire. I just recently made an assassin character for myself. And my secondary character is a bowman werewolf whom is only halfway with his adventure.

I retired "Kellendir the Hunter" (level 16 Bosmer) today. I just grew bored with him running around the forest and didn't know what else to do with him.

Of course, no sooner did "Kellendir" go away than "Dantrag Baenre" a heavy armor, archer/dual wield (Dagger/War axe, until I can pick up a couple of scimitars) Dunmer, currently at level 2. "Dantrag" has anger management issues where the Empire/Legion/Thalmor are concerned. Of course he's not overly tolerant of Ulfric's "Skyrim for the Nords" types either. Should make for interesting gameplay.

He's my forth active Dunmer character. I also play a Redguard and a Nord.

Same here.

Though I am yet to retire a character due to boredom...

There is no set definition for "everything" in an Elder Scrolls game.

There is always something that you can accomplish. Collect every book in the game, collect every piece of clothing, armor, weapon/item.

Clear every fort, ruin and/or cave...

As for me, I find having multiple characters to be counterproductive.

I put my heart and soul into one character, and make it a goal to conquer everything that can be completed. Every quest, every side quest, clear out every dungeoun, fort/ruin/cave.

Collect every item, or 2 of each, own every house, own every kind of horse.

The only reason that I would have another character is so that I could join the other side in the war, marry people that I couldn't marry before, and otherwise do the things impossible for one character to do in a single playthrough.

This business of having multiple characters is just a sloppy approach in my opinion, like annoying clutter.

When I can find no more quests that that character would do. I role play heavily, I have a Necromancer, Nord warrior (Basically my true dragonborn) , khajiit spellsword who should probably be silver hand (plus he loves fire). And I go around with these guys and basically have completed all quests, but never 100 percent with a single character.

I never retire my characters. There is always something more you can do.

When i start getting bored with them , i set a goal to achieve then retire. Recently with my Dunmer Thief/Archer , i was getting bored & decided to start & complete the MQ for the first time, to conclude that side of the game.

Now i just have to decide on playing either a Mage or Warrior next

When their story is over in the RP sense. My first character, and true Dragonborn, will probably never retire, because she's also a 'wild child' who roams the wilderness to either hunt as a werewolf or go on adventures and discover what's left. I'm also planning on creating a thalmor spy and a Khajiit female with a vengeance against the ones who'll kill her husband, and I think that last one will actually really die after she's done. Revenge never ends well. I'm really looking forward to that one actually, she'll start out very optimistic and romantic as a flower seller and alchemist, only to completely be pulled into the "dark side" as her husband dies. I'm not sure about the Thalmor spy, he's kinda the antithesis of my Dragonborn character, it'll depend on the dlcs too.

When i finish the main quest. I make sure to get everything i want that character accomplish done before that.

Hey, i'm from the eighties. Back then games ended when they ended

i don't retire mine, I do everything on one character. 450+ hours so far.

I haven't the patience to do quests more than one time, knowing what's coming.

It happens to me, sometimes I just don't enjoy a build and loose interest, or one day I look at myself in the vanity cam and just say blah... and start another. Female Khajiits seem to hold my interest longer though, my main character is a savage one.

I don't really retire my characters either. I'll role play them until I feel like role playing something else. I often come back over time and play them again. My first character on Oblivion sat for a couple of years before I came back to him. I had finished everything that fit for him in the vanilla game, and then I created a new character when I started adding mods. By the time I decided to revisit him it wasn't even the same game. It was a nice experience, like waking up in a whole new world.

Now, in a tabletop RPG my characters usually die off or are absorbed into the game as NPCs.

EDIT: I just got Skyrim probably a month ago, and I've logged about 110 hours thus far. I'm still on my first character (lvl 36), I've done maybe half the main quest, and a couple of Companion quests. The rest of the time I've spent just exploring the world or doing side quests (did a couple of Daedric ones too). When I start adding mods I imagine this character will stretch out even further. I've had a lot of fun with him, but eventually I'll tire of this build and create a new one. I'll never delete him entirely though, nor completely discard him. He'll be there waiting for me to meet up with him again, just like a former follower who returns to the tavern where you found them. We'll see each other again... I just know it.

When I accomplish all of the major goals for him/her. If I am still interested in accomplishing the minor ones, I'll keep playing... if not, they'll end up in a "save" library and I'll start a new one and set major goals for him/her.

But like others have said, I will return to the "retired" character when it seems appropriate. So, I guess they never truly are retired.