[DF] How long do the different races live?

[Polkageist]

Originally Posted by Opellulo

Not DF specific but I was always fascinated by the age cycles of fantasy races. Let's go with a "vanilla high elf": if you put his old age at 650 years and then scale back all his age cycle by ten, then you have a lot of very funny scenarios:

- Baby Elf needs someone to change his/her diapers for more than 30 years... That's a nightmare scenario worst of any great horror out there.
- Child Elf will swing from seesaws for about 70 years, are there enough trees for that?
- Teenager elf is expected at sit for at least 70 years in high school (or its setting relative) and I let you sink in that nightmare.

Yeah I know that there was something like "early maturation" that was a band-aid to justify this concept, but that opens another can of worms on the feasibility of that kind of societies: your body is adult at 18 but nobody takes you seriously for another 200 years... That's a ready recipe for social disaster.

TL/DR version: fantasy species makes no sense, always blame Tolkien for that and the some more.

It is a very funny scenario, and I will laugh as much as anyone at some poor beleaguered elf mother changing diapers for the 27th year in a row, and looking forward to dealing with a sulky adolescent for the better part of a century.

To put the notion of 'early maturation' in the category of a band-aid is a disservice to both the comedy of the silly numbers, and the creativity of creating a fantasy race and society that is distinctly NOT human.

To the point, physical, mental, and social maturation all take place at different rates. An elf may be physically mature within a couple of decades, perhaps growing out of the little kid phase to the lanky teen-ish physicality and stall there for a while, perfectly physically capable of self-care but slight compared to a fully mature adult. That final growth spurt doesn't come at 18, but maybe 28 or 38. Mentally they may mature slower as well, staying flexible and learning far longer, or simply have an ingrained deference to their elders. They're not human, their mental faculties during maturation do not need to be human-like, they can by their nature be adapted to their pace of growth. A teenage elf doesn't have the hormone rages that a teenage human has because they don't have those hormones! They have elf hormones, maturing them at an elf pace, and that's different.

Finally, the social thing bothers me because it assumes that elf society is just like human society and hasn't adapted to having more and different social strata that deal with their nature of having long maturity levels. Think that elves haven't figured out how to deal with disaffected youth? For every freshman that has looked up to a senior classman, there's no reason that elves at the high end of their age cohort aren't looked up to, and aren't taken seriously by their near-youths. Elf society may very well be divided up into several different social and political strata where the eldest among them are the respected leaders before they age out and move to the next social strata (note, not a move up or down, simply a move) that may have a disconnected set of responsibilities and honors they enjoy. What do younger elves do? Go out and see the world! Adventure, interact, learn, and participate in other societies. Middle-aged elves, they often come home and may be the engines of the elven societies, making up the cohort that builds and protects the homes using the skills and experiences they acquired in their youth. The eldest of those then move on to other things, perhaps the politicians, perhaps they go back out into the world where their wisdom and experiences make them incredibly capable of dealing with non-elves in a diplomatic or otherwise fashion. And perhaps this is all turned upside down and as an elf ages the younger cohort explicitly pushes them aside while they relax into a contemplative retirement. What? Don't they have ambition and a desire to hold on to power? Of course not, what a human concept. Leadership and action is a job for the young, our old bones are not meant for such things.

Sorry, it's a pet peeve of mine.