Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11464223-20151109020125/@comment-7526254-20151110173356

According to the wikipedia summary, Merlin becomes immortal 1000 years before the age of Arthur, which is apparantly 1500 years ago. He meets Nimue 500 years later, 1000 years ago. If we assume that 200 years was just an error, I think this would take care of the continuity issues (although I don't understand why the age of Arthur started 500 years ago). This would make Merlin 1500, the Apprentice 1000, and the DOs have been around for 1000 years. This also follows the continuity that Arthur was trapped in a tree for 1000 years. The comment he made about not aging was completely irrelevant. He did not age for the 500 years before and therefore would not have aged if he didn't turn into a tree. This is the best explanation I have.