weird, I bumped into him twice. Once right at the top of the mountains to the north of Solitude and he was kinda mingling with a wedding party. I slaughtered the party of folk but couldnt kill him, he wouldnt die. Then ages after, right at the east of the map, near a cave but he wasnt scared of me or anything. Is he a vital NPC?
So far I have met once in each of my games. Fairly near the beginning of the game. Why does he survive? Mayhap he is a high powered wizard and has a long life, a secret necromancer living on the essence of his victims, perhaps he is a god or demi-god with eternal life. He could be a ghost who looks substantial. What ever he is he belongs in TES games. We all look for him and would really miss him if he wasn't there.
I have seen him once on my trip up to high hrothgar and once on the road outside of Dragonbridge. As for how he made the 200 year jump, he had this to say. "M'aiq's father was also called M'aiq. As was M'aiq's father's father. At least that's what his father said." So there you have it, this is M'aiq the IV.
I think I remember reading that Khajiit are rather longlived creatures.
Unless it's a completely different M'aiq, which is quite possible, his colouring when i've seen him is a lot different from the screenshots posted on UESP wiki. So perhaps it's just another skooma addict Khajiit called M'aiq or the skooma causes them to rename themselves M'aiq as their greatest lie.
I found him twice! I think he's following me.
I ran into him standing on the edge of a waterfall just staring off into the distance. We spoke briefly and then he grew tired of talk.
I ran into him again later. I slaughtered this thief that accosted me during a Misc quest and went over to grab my horse and when I came riding back there was someone crouched over the corpse I'd just killed. I dismounted and walked over and it was Ma-iq!
My jaw dropped.
I encountered him once, in the mountains west of Solitude, i dont remember much of what he said, something about dragons and that people in Skyrim are more beautifull then in Cyrodill ;)
I dont know how he survived, he was in morrowind too, but maybe this ma'iq is a son of a son of a son of a son of the ma'iq in oblivion.
btw in oblivion ma'iq said he saw a dragon and we might see one too one day :D