08-15-2019, 07:57 AM | #1 |
Join Date: May 2010
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Elven maturation and population growth
In Tolkien and every edition of D&D I know of, elves don't reach adulthood until age 100 or so. This has always struck me as extremely weird. It suggests elven education for "children" could be the equivalent of dozens of PhDs, and there's a general question of how you even roleplay someone who is 100 years old but just starting their career. On the other hand, maybe this helps explain why the elven population doesn't grow any faster, and perhaps slower, than the human population. It seems like reaching maturity as fast as humans plus no aging after that is potentially a recipe for fairly fast population growth (especially factoring magical healing and such). Thoughts? There's also the general question of what keeps the elven population under control regardless, since centuries of childbearing years for women presents its own problems regardless of whether they start having children at 20 or 120.
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08-15-2019, 08:29 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Oct 2007
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Re: Elven maturation and population growth
I remember reading one D&D novel where one elf was joyous that their mate was fertile for the first time in about a hundred years. If elven females are only fertile 5-6 times during their lifespan, that would dramatically slow down elven population growth. It would also explain a large portion of the common trope of elves not being fond of half-elves, simply because a half-elf represents about 100-years worth of fertility lost (compared to having a full-blooded elf child).
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08-15-2019, 08:30 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)
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Re: Elven maturation and population growth
For one, it might simply be the difference between physical maturity and socially accepted adulthood. Maybe the initiation-into-adulthood rites require a century or so of preparation... (For example, a wood elf might have to plant and tend a tree into it's own maturity, thing sing a bow or staff out of its heartwood.)
For two, I've always had the impression that elven pregnancies are rare. Whether that's a natural difficulty of conception or the result of extremely long-lived and pretty durable people recognizing the possibility of overpopulation and having an effective contraceptive is up to the creator. (One idea: there are only so many elven should to go around, so a new will can't be born until about one dies. The elven God can create new souls but doesn't do so often.) |
08-15-2019, 09:09 AM | #4 | ||
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Elven maturation and population growth
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-- MA Lloyd |
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08-15-2019, 10:16 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Sep 2018
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Re: Elven maturation and population growth
Another aspect would be the lack of urgency for very long lived peoples. If you have 100 years to get your act together you're going to probably spend a lot of time goofing off and watching elves be awesome rather than actually learning or practicing. And your teachers are going to have a hard time cracking down on you because... there's really plenty of time for that later.
Picture a school where any given student might not show up for months at a time, where teachers randomly decide they want to journey to a distant land for greater clarification on the subject they learned from their teacher decades ago. With dozens of years until graduation would there even be a substitute? |
08-15-2019, 11:45 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: Elven maturation and population growth
In Tolkien, elves are primarily motivated by their desire to further glorify the creation of Iluvatar. That's Art. One way they create Art is by their offspring. Elves don't have children because their instincts tell them to procreate; they have children because they've found the ideal time in their immortal lives to create a work of Art. This is why elves don't overpopulate everyone else out of existence.
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08-15-2019, 12:19 PM | #7 | ||
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Elven maturation and population growth
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
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08-15-2019, 01:31 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Elven maturation and population growth
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Varric: But you do frolic? Merrill: Of course we do! We wouldn't be elves, otherwise. https://www.deviantart.com/shaydh/ar...lves-202869399 |
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08-15-2019, 02:04 PM | #9 |
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2006
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Re: Elven maturation and population growth
For an effectively immortal species, growth rates could be very slow, such that every 5 years of elf-growth is equivalent to 1 year of human-growth. So, at 100, they're basically a 20 year old human. Many animals have accelerated human-growth rates essentially, so in this case, the humans are the 'animals.'
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08-15-2019, 02:06 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Elven maturation and population growth
In general, you have to assume that elves aren't just "humans, but longer lived"; there's going to be fundamental differences in how they learn and mature.
For elves to work as a PC race, I'm inclined to assume either that elvish learning is very bursty (so an elf can spend a few years getting xp like a human, then spend a century with negligible change) or that elves are better than humans at forgetting (for example, you could figure they have age control -- when they're getting older, they learn, when they're getting younger they forget, when they're unaging they remain static). |
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