Ageing is a game mechanic which lets the player become older.
Fable
In Fable, Fable: The Lost Chapters, and Fable Anniversary, the player begins as a child. During the Oakvale and Guild training sequences, the player will age as the plot progress. The Hero of Oakvale's age can be seen on the Statistics screen.
After the completion of the Guild training, the player's age is mostly in the hands of the player. Each time a skill is increased, the player's age will also increase (0.7 years per skill increased). Ageing stops at 65 years old.
The Hero's skin will start to wrinkle and sag at age 27, his hair becomes grey at age 37, his hair becomes white at age 43, and he has a significant amount of grey hair and wrinkled skin at age 50.
Fable II
In Fable II, ageing is no longer associated with levelling up abilities. The major ageing differences are from childhood to adulthood, and later during the 10 years you spend in the Tattered Spire. The next chance to age is by holding onto the Dark Seal, but you will change back to normal when you're done with the main quest. Ageing is also reversible by donating to the Temple of Light or sleeping at Castle Fairfax. Upon completing the game, Sparrow may age a bit more, with their hair turning a shade of grey. Sleeping in Castle Fairfax does not reverse this, but completing the Brightwood Tower quest once will still reverse the ageing.
Fable III
The events of Fable III take place over about a year, and so the Hero shows no signs of ageing. While ageing in Fable III is non-existent, the player can use the dyes to change hair colour and wear old make-up to give the appearance of ageing. A hero who is evil and corrupt will look slightly aged but it does not affect hair colour.
Notes
- In the original Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters, ageing was a very unpopular aspect of the game as players couldn't be both powerful and young. Additionally, the player frequently ended up appearing much older than his older sister and, bizarrely, just as old as his own mother. It is speculated that this is what lead to the reduction of ageing in the following games, to the point where the Hero suffers no noticeable ageing whatsoever in Fable III.