| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Feanor_Karnil |
Posted - 31 Mar 2006 : 05:02:59
Question: Would it be too young for a moon elf raised in the Silver Marches to start adventuring at the age of 32? |
| 30 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Salius Kai |
Posted - 23 Aug 2006 : 21:06:37
This seems to have pretty much been figured out, but I thought I'd throw my two cents in anyways.
I agree with those saying that Elves physacaly mature at a slower rate than Humans. Even if the Elf had grown up in human lands, it might have been mentaly mature, he woudl still have the body of a ten year old (which sounds like a bad idea for adventuring). In fact, if the same Elf had grown up in Elven lands, he would probably even have the mentality of a ten year old.
So mentality wise your Elf might work, Feanor. But he would still be simply too physicaly young to do the required tasks of adventuring (like killing trolls), unless he was blessed with God powers, or something. |
| Chosen of Moradin |
Posted - 23 Aug 2006 : 13:12:51
quote:
Originally posted by GothicDan
Note that the Complete Book of Elves says that Elves do not mature at the same rate as humans, physically, so that 50 year old Elven lass could very well look like, well, a 12 year old girl. I think this is a little more in line with Ed's concept of demihuman aging as previously stated.
I think that a lot of people tend to "pretend" like Elves mature a lot quicker because they can't understand a childhood 100+ years long (as previously pointed out, despite the fact that an Elven childhood is more like a Human adulthood in many ways), and because then they have to actually think about 100 years of backstory.
I love doing this, myself. I once wrote 300 years of backstory for an Elven character; and 1,500 years for a Vampire character in VtM, with a lot of historical research included.
Ah, backstory and research. :)
Yup! I fully agree with you! 
And it´s very funny when you take a book like A Grand History of the Realms, or the regional sourcebooks, and start to tie the past of the character with the past of her home region.  |
| GothicDan |
Posted - 23 Aug 2006 : 08:53:43
Note that the Complete Book of Elves says that Elves do not mature at the same rate as humans, physically, so that 50 year old Elven lass could very well look like, well, a 12 year old girl. I think this is a little more in line with Ed's concept of demihuman aging as previously stated.
I think that a lot of people tend to "pretend" like Elves mature a lot quicker because they can't understand a childhood 100+ years long (as previously pointed out, despite the fact that an Elven childhood is more like a Human adulthood in many ways), and because then they have to actually think about 100 years of backstory.
I love doing this, myself. I once wrote 300 years of backstory for an Elven character; and 1,500 years for a Vampire character in VtM, with a lot of historical research included.
Ah, backstory and research. :) |
| Hunter In Darkness |
Posted - 23 Aug 2006 : 08:39:44
ok guys my frist post at the keep so overlook me if this has been posted in this scroll it is late and all but p.37 in CBOE 2e does have ages for childhood adolescence and adulthood now i know FR elves r diffent but that being said they decended from the prime elven races so ages should be close and the do seem better suited to the lifespane also elven pregnacys last for roughly 2 years which also seems correct.
ch adl adult
Aquatic 1-59 60-99 100-159
drow 1-49 50-79 80-100
grey{gold] 1-79 80-109 110-174
HIGH{moon} 1-74 75-109 110-174
sylvan 1-69 70-104 105-169
now in the PHB all elves start at 110 so high and grey seem to be the norm this being said a elf of 32 would be a child so the would look as a child round 9 or 10 mayhap 12 some skills they would lack however u could still play it would make fun rp after all a young confused elf trying to understand what that means humm sounds fun really now while there have been some young elves brought up in this scroll that for one dritz {sp} was a tenager when he left and his age would suport that the elf captain in myth dronnor also would be a teen ager but in a time of war so yeah i can also see that
thats my take on this ... oh and sorry for the necromancy i just pulled on this scroll |
| Aquanova |
Posted - 19 Apr 2006 : 21:22:05
quote:
Originally posted by Kentinal
Yes it is confusing on Drow ages, Ed posted recently that any elf 33 years old could adventure, having the reached near full growth, but had not reached maturity (in game terms I suspect there would be youth penality adjustments, to at least Dex and Wisdom, perhaps other stats as well).
Well, I guess since Ed hath spoken it is settled.
quote:
The standard Drow community does not have the time to grow up and mature, they start fighting to survive at age 0. They need to mature quicker in order to live at all. Even using 3.X sources it still appears Drow start fighting, adventuring at young ages even if they mature at the same rate as the fair elves.
Yet, this is odd too. If they've been fighting and struggling for survival since conception for all of these eons, wouldn't you think they'd evolve in their maturity rate would hasten, at least until "adulthood?" Hence my duergar/dwarf age proposal... but 'tis irrelevant. If Ed says it is so, then it is so.  |
| Feanor |
Posted - 14 Apr 2006 : 13:05:50
quote:
Originally posted by Vainelus
Well a 12 year old can kind of drive a truck....I mean it takes a lot to stop one so he would at least inflict a lot of damage before coming to a stop .
Well, KIND OF... |
| Vainelus |
Posted - 14 Apr 2006 : 04:48:33
Well a 12 year old can kind of drive a truck....I mean it takes a lot to stop one so he would at least inflict a lot of damage before coming to a stop.
Ed's responses are the way to go. I generally like to stick with the novels and what Ed says as well.
|
| Feanor |
Posted - 13 Apr 2006 : 21:27:52
quote:
Originally posted by Vainelus
Feanor it depends on what manual you read. Some scribes are operating under 2ed rules, others are operating under 3ed, or the novels and everyone is using different sources. According to the Player's Guide to Faerun pg 31,In 3.5 all elves(in Forgotten Realms) reach adulthood at 110. In 2ed edition drow had a shorter life spanned, I do not have the Drow of the Underdark with me at the moment to give an exact page number but 50 or 60 being adulthood sounds correct.
For instance, RotW is not necessarily the best source to look for information about the lives of elves in Faerun since the Greyhawk/Eberron elves are very different than the Elves in Realms. And Realms has several sources that are specific made for Realms that cover and contradict some information presented in RotW. It is entirely up to your group to decide which set of rules works best for your game.
When elves reach maturity in your game is really dependant on what source you choose to use novels, old realms products, new realms products, or DnD core books.
When I said drow reach complete adulthood at 50-60, I was relying on Cormanthyr age tables (which are in accord with the novels, BTW).
About Races of the Wild, you don't have to tell me to avoid that one, since I already dislike that book profoundly.
And I generally prefer to use the information which is more logical and more accurate, not the one which I like the best (that's why I pestered Ed to specify the age of adulthood for elves )
quote:
Yes it is confusing on Drow ages, Ed posted recently that any elf 33 years old could adventure, having the reached near full growth, but had not reached maturity (in game terms I suspect there would be youth penality adjustments, to at least Dex and Wisdom, perhaps other stats as well).
Ed said a 33 years old elf could adventure in quite the same manner a 12 years old kid could drive a truck. |
| Kentinal |
Posted - 13 Apr 2006 : 21:08:37
Yes it is confusing on Drow ages, Ed posted recently that any elf 33 years old could adventure, having the reached near full growth, but had not reached maturity (in game terms I suspect there would be youth penality adjustments, to at least Dex and Wisdom, perhaps other stats as well). The standard Drow community does not have the time to grow up and mature, they start fighting to survive at age 0. They need to mature quicker in order to live at all. Even using 3.X sources it still appears Drow start fighting, adventuring at young ages even if they mature at the same rate as the fair elves. |
| Vainelus |
Posted - 13 Apr 2006 : 20:51:17
Feanor it depends on what manual you read. Some scribes are operating under 2ed rules, others are operating under 3ed, or the novels and everyone is using different sources. According to the Player's Guide to Faerun pg 31,In 3.5 all elves(in Forgotten Realms) reach adulthood at 110. In 2ed edition drow had a shorter life spanned, I do not have the Drow of the Underdark with me at the moment to give an exact page number but 50 or 60 being adulthood sounds correct.
For instance, RotW is not necessarily the best source to look for information about the lives of elves in Faerun since the Greyhawk/Eberron elves are very different than the Elves in Realms. And Realms has several sources that are specific made for Realms that cover and contradict some information presented in RotW. It is entirely up to your group to decide which set of rules works best for your game.
When elves reach maturity in your game is really dependant on what source you choose to use novels, old realms products, new realms products, or DnD core books.
|
| Feanor |
Posted - 13 Apr 2006 : 12:41:50
quote:
Originally posted by Aquanova
quote:
Originally posted by warlockco
Matron Baenre was about 1,000 years old or so before she was killed.
Ah, but was that because she traversed the normal drow lifespan, or was it because she had divine/eldritch intervention that increased her mortality? Much as Gromph, no?
Anyway, I think that (barring a large fallacy in my argument) the duergar/dwarf lifespan is more on-par with the novels' depiction of the drow.
The drow's age chart needs to changed in the age of adulthood in any way, seeing the novels have incontrovertibly shown that drow reach maturity as early as fourty years old-- mature in both mind and body. This directly contridicts the rules' text, which states they reach adulthood (in the rules, bearing the definition of the age one would more than likely begin adventuring) in a hundred years.
So perhaps use the duergar/dwarf age chart for drow, or, use the duergar/dwarf's AoA and retain the rest of the centuries-long lifespan (if drow can even live to such ages without magic).
I'm a little bit confused. Why are you saying that drow reach adulthood in 100 years, when the manuals they reach it around 50-60 ?  |
| Aquanova |
Posted - 06 Apr 2006 : 21:00:42
quote:
Originally posted by warlockco
Matron Baenre was about 1,000 years old or so before she was killed.
Ah, but was that because she traversed the normal drow lifespan, or was it because she had divine/eldritch intervention that increased her mortality? Much as Gromph, no?
Anyway, I think that (barring a large fallacy in my argument) the duergar/dwarf lifespan is more on-par with the novels' depiction of the drow.
The drow's age chart needs to changed in the age of adulthood in any way, seeing the novels have incontrovertibly shown that drow reach maturity as early as fourty years old-- mature in both mind and body. This directly contridicts the rules' text, which states they reach adulthood (in the rules, bearing the definition of the age one would more than likely begin adventuring) in a hundred years.
So perhaps use the duergar/dwarf age chart for drow, or, use the duergar/dwarf's AoA and retain the rest of the centuries-long lifespan (if drow can even live to such ages without magic).
|
| scererar |
Posted - 06 Apr 2006 : 04:52:01
quote:
Originally posted by Jindael
quote:
Originally posted by Feanor
quote:
Originally posted by Jindael
This is almost exactly how I run it. It’s mostly legend and rumor, and people think that, since elves live for so long, then they must have a really long childhood.
You missed my point. I was not refering to the characters from AD&D, but to the players themselves. To be more specific : I was very intrigued why so many players say that elves mature as fast as humans, yet it is their mentality which keeps them away from adventuring until they are around 100, that despite the fact there was absolutely no canon material which even hints towards such an idea until races of the wild. I tried to find out how did this theory start, from what WotC source, who set the wood for this fire to say so, and I failed. It seems there is no official source which states this explicitly and that is why I labeled this theory as simple rumor carried from player to player.
Yup. I missed your point. Sorry about that; the dangers of posting at work, before coffee has kicked in.
As far as I know, having tried to read everything to do with Elves in both core D&D and FR (as far as is relevant to this conversation) there is no precedence before RotW for elves being physically mature at a young age, aside from the previously mentioned drow examples.
But I really prefer it over the core rules. It just makes more sense to me. I think that the 100+ years thing is just inflation so that people can see that elves live a long time.
of course they would, because they do. it is a fantasy setting and they are elves. No use in growing up at age 18( or at least considered an adult) and then having 800 + years of adulthood to go off of. |
| Jindael |
Posted - 05 Apr 2006 : 13:17:52
quote:
Originally posted by Feanor
quote:
Originally posted by Jindael
This is almost exactly how I run it. It’s mostly legend and rumor, and people think that, since elves live for so long, then they must have a really long childhood.
You missed my point. I was not refering to the characters from AD&D, but to the players themselves. To be more specific : I was very intrigued why so many players say that elves mature as fast as humans, yet it is their mentality which keeps them away from adventuring until they are around 100, that despite the fact there was absolutely no canon material which even hints towards such an idea until races of the wild. I tried to find out how did this theory start, from what WotC source, who set the wood for this fire to say so, and I failed. It seems there is no official source which states this explicitly and that is why I labeled this theory as simple rumor carried from player to player.
Yup. I missed your point. Sorry about that; the dangers of posting at work, before coffee has kicked in.
As far as I know, having tried to read everything to do with Elves in both core D&D and FR (as far as is relevant to this conversation) there is no precedence before RotW for elves being physically mature at a young age, aside from the previously mentioned drow examples.
But I really prefer it over the core rules. It just makes more sense to me. I think that the 100+ years thing is just inflation so that people can see that elves live a long time.
|
| Kentinal |
Posted - 05 Apr 2006 : 02:54:39
Drow culture is based on learn quick or die. Physical size growth might be a little faster then surface elves it might not be. The bigist difference between the two cultures is that a Drow learns the dagger and many die or have to kill by age 10 just to live. The fair elves even if embattled do not teach their children to kill just to stay alive. At age 10 they might be given a toy dagger if it interests them. They are allowed to explore many posibilities as they grow toward maturity. They are not expected to fight and kill until at least age 50 (and that would be extreme case of community in danger of being wiped out). |
| warlockco |
Posted - 05 Apr 2006 : 02:18:05
quote:
Originally posted by Aquanova
quote:
Originally posted by Jindael
quote:
Originally posted by Feanor
As I suspected, all this stuff about "elves allowed to be children much longer" seems to be simple hearsay, amplified 100 times and turned into fact by the human discomfort to imagine a race with a childhood that long. Go figure. Bah !
This is almost exactly how I run it. It’s mostly legend and rumor, and people think that, since elves live for so long, then they must have a really long childhood.
To answer Feanor, you are right; the elves I was thinking of were drow, so my #2 idea kinda falls apart.
*Shakes head* So confoundedly young... and yet, they were still just as knowledgable and skilled in drow culture as an adult. That kind of goes against the whole "age of adventuring being mature in knowledge and abilities of your culture", eh? It's been said that drow reach maturity much faster than other elves, and their lifespan is shorter (though that's more due to hazard, I still haven't heard of a long-lived drow other than Gromph) as well. Why not just retcon the drow's aging chart?
Matron Baenre was about 1,000 years old or so before she was killed. |
| Feanor |
Posted - 04 Apr 2006 : 16:47:09
True, drow don't live as much as the surface elves without magical help. |
| Aquanova |
Posted - 04 Apr 2006 : 16:41:22
quote:
Originally posted by Jindael
quote:
Originally posted by Feanor
As I suspected, all this stuff about "elves allowed to be children much longer" seems to be simple hearsay, amplified 100 times and turned into fact by the human discomfort to imagine a race with a childhood that long. Go figure. Bah !
This is almost exactly how I run it. It’s mostly legend and rumor, and people think that, since elves live for so long, then they must have a really long childhood.
To answer Feanor, you are right; the elves I was thinking of were drow, so my #2 idea kinda falls apart.
*Shakes head* So confoundedly young... and yet, they were still just as knowledgable and skilled in drow culture as an adult. That kind of goes against the whole "age of adventuring being mature in knowledge and abilities of your culture", eh? It's been said that drow reach maturity much faster than other elves, and their lifespan is shorter (though that's more due to hazard, I still haven't heard of a long-lived drow other than Gromph) as well. Why not just retcon the drow's aging chart? |
| Feanor |
Posted - 04 Apr 2006 : 16:38:36
quote:
Originally posted by Jindael
This is almost exactly how I run it. It’s mostly legend and rumor, and people think that, since elves live for so long, then they must have a really long childhood.
You missed my point. I was not refering to the characters from AD&D, but to the players themselves. To be more specific : I was very intrigued why so many players say that elves mature as fast as humans, yet it is their mentality which keeps them away from adventuring until they are around 100, that despite the fact there was absolutely no canon material which even hints towards such an idea until races of the wild. I tried to find out how did this theory start, from what WotC source, who set the wood for this fire to say so, and I failed. It seems there is no official source which states this explicitly and that is why I labeled this theory as simple rumor carried from player to player. |
| Jindael |
Posted - 04 Apr 2006 : 12:59:09
quote:
Originally posted by Feanor
As I suspected, all this stuff about "elves allowed to be children much longer" seems to be simple hearsay, amplified 100 times and turned into fact by the human discomfort to imagine a race with a childhood that long. Go figure. Bah !
This is almost exactly how I run it. It’s mostly legend and rumor, and people think that, since elves live for so long, then they must have a really long childhood.
To answer Feanor, you are right; the elves I was thinking of were drow, so my #2 idea kinda falls apart.
|
| Feanor |
Posted - 04 Apr 2006 : 07:40:14
Well, Drizzt and Liriel are both DROW. And Drizzt is around 30 when he starts adventuring, which is the end of drow childhood. Liriel is somewhere between 30 and 40 as I recall.
The other one, well, is not a FR novel. This way, Tolkien's elves are also immortal and they mature as fast as humans.
As I suspected, all this stuff about "elves allowed to be children much longer" seems to be simple hearsay, amplified 100 times and turned into fact by the human discomfort to imagine a race with a childhood that long. Go figure. Bah ! |
| warlockco |
Posted - 04 Apr 2006 : 02:57:58
quote:
Originally posted by Feanor
quote:
There are more than a few examples of “young” elves adventuring and having much success. So it’s not too bad, just not common. (The RAW being what is considered common.)
Who ?
I'm kinda intrigued about this issue : all the canon material specify that elves reach adulthood around 100. The first manual who disagrees is Races of the Wild, and this one is quite recent, when it appeared the idea that "elves reach physycal maturity at the same rate, but they are allowed to be children much longer blah, blah" was already circulating. So, in fact, I would like to ask : what is the original source of this theory ?
2 Prime Examples of Elves "Adventuring" at a young age are Drizzt and Liriel.
If we dig around I imagine we can find some surface elves too.
Elizabeth Moon in her Deeds of Paksenarrion trilogy, touches on elven lifespan. In her world, elves are basically immortal.
Half-elves can reproduce at the same time as human (call it 18) but not safely, especially for a female. They don't truly come to their prime til about 50 years of age or so, but live to be roughly 200-300 some years just like D&D elves.
Yes, this isn't a D&D Novel, but does show that Elves and Half-Elves can be "adult" enough to go out into the world at a young age that is close to a human's. |
| Feanor |
Posted - 03 Apr 2006 : 18:50:57
quote:
There are more than a few examples of “young” elves adventuring and having much success. So it’s not too bad, just not common. (The RAW being what is considered common.)
Who ?
I'm kinda intrigued about this issue : all the canon material specify that elves reach adulthood around 100. The first manual who disagrees is Races of the Wild, and this one is quite recent, when it appeared the idea that "elves reach physycal maturity at the same rate, but they are allowed to be children much longer blah, blah" was already circulating. So, in fact, I would like to ask : what is the original source of this theory ? |
| Jindael |
Posted - 03 Apr 2006 : 16:04:29
quote:
Originally posted by Feanor_Karnil
Question: Would it be too young for a moon elf raised in the Silver Marches to start adventuring at the age of 32?
There has been some very engaging discussion here (as always; this issue always seems to spark interest), but I would say:
In Rules: Yes. Far too young to really start, barring some exceptional circumstance.
In Realms Cannon: There are more than a few examples of “young” elves adventuring and having much success. So it’s not too bad, just not common. (The RAW being what is considered common.)
In *my* Realms: 32 is a fine age to adventure, considering that you’ve been fully physically mature for about 10-15 years already. Mental maturity, as always, is debatable. :p
|
| Feanor |
Posted - 03 Apr 2006 : 07:33:41
Also drow live less than surface elves, so it's normal to habe a shorter childhood. A drow ends his childhood at the age of 30, while they live around 500-600 years (and seldom 700), while a gold elf for instance can live around 700-800, even come close to 1000, so it's normal to end their childhood at the age of 60. |
| scererar |
Posted - 03 Apr 2006 : 04:44:10
I can see the reasons for a Drow to mature more rapidly than a surface Elf, survival of the fittest, period!. However in the norm of a society of surface elves, 32 would be entirely too young to go out on his/ her own. Special circumstances could alter this though. |
| Aquanova |
Posted - 03 Apr 2006 : 02:17:40
quote:
Originally posted by The Sage
<SNIP>
As always, Ed more than delivers.
Still, Elaine's stance on adolescence somewhat opposes his, as in her work drow enter it within thirty years, as my previous post noted.
However, puberty and adolescence are two different things: the former being the reaching of sexual maturity and the latter being the epoch of mature/individual mindset; puberty is physical and adolescence psychological.
Ergo, theoretically Ed and Elaine's views could coincide, drow reaching adult mindset in addition to being capable of carnal escapades, but still unable to actually reproduce.
It's not exactly the most sensible thing, but it's not improbable.
But brah, 'tis not that significant. Variety equals more fun. |
| The Sage |
Posted - 03 Apr 2006 : 01:57:15
Here's Ed's actual reply... from 30th May 2005 -
"May 30, 2005: Hello, all. ISP problems kept Ed offline for a day (during which I see some good questions have arrived), but he’s “back on” now, and herewith answers the last Phoebus questions: “I think most people have a good idea regarding what a human of reasonable ambition and means can achieve in her first, say, 35 years of life (putting her in her peak, if you will). How does an Elf compare? Does a Mountain Dwarf or a Moon Elf really need to hit 250-300 years before his drive brings him to the same skill level as the aforementioned lady, or is it more a case of plateauing early and just relaxing through the rest of life? I understand the concept of different races = different mentalities/philosophies, but I've always felt that carrying this over to the "game" portion of the Realms (to maintain "game balance", for example) is a bit contrived.”
Ed replies:
Phoebus, I quite agree that this racial differentiation seems contrived, though I don’t disagree with trying to make the races different (and the colour that brings to the game, which can of course be readily ignored by players and DMs not wanting to include it).
However, the ‘big shift’ of the Realms to bring it to the ‘broad tapestry of reality’ that the world first started to see it in published form as having, involved my adapting it to the (1st Edition, unfolding) D&D rules, and this slow maturing of the demi-human races was present in those rules, so it’s there in the Realms.
I think of it like this: given proper amounts of nourishment (as opposed to, say, starved slavery) elves and dwarves physically mature about ten years later than their human counterparts, so that they stop looking like obvious children at about age 20 or 21 rather than 10 or 11. I don’t mean that they stop growing or even looking older - - I mean demihuman individuals stop seeming obviously immature to other races observing them at about that age (members of their own race can judge their approximate age far more accurately, given a ‘good look’ at an individual).
I don’t think demihumans are sexually mature when they stop looking like children; I believe achieving puberty takes at least another 80 years, and possibly as much as 120.
The time ‘in between’ being truly human and being sexually mature is the time in which demihumans start to grow up socially. So an elf or dwarf between, say, 20 and 100 can’t become pregnant or impregnate anyone, and so can sexually ‘play’ free of some social responsibilities. At the same time, they are dominated by surging hormones (and hence, mood swings), and are especially susceptible to all sorts of diseases (which they inevitably catch, and conquer). Also, during this long onset of puberty, their bones are still hardening, and in soft state lack some strength that saves them from breakages in some calamities, but also robs them of some accuracy that they’ll master later.
For elves and halflings, this prolonged adolescence is dominated, for most but not all individuals (so a PC adventurer could well be one of the exceptions, if desired) by judged-by-most-humans-as-wildly-frivolous-or-silly play, leading to an inability to stick with any one task or even pressing need for long (no attention span, a seeming complete inability to take consequences or impending disaster seriously).
For dwarves and gnomes, adolescence is dominated by a fierce, exploring independence that leads the younglings to be stubborn, proud, difficult, bad ‘team-players,’ and prone to racing off on quests or solo explorations.
Perhaps “ungovernable” is a good term to describe both the elves and dwarves. Isolated or in conditions of war or flight, they will, yes, be forced to ‘grow up’ or perish, but in terms of being trainable to specific skills (represented in the game by class abilities, skills, and feats) - - no, that comes later, at different rates for each individual. This is probably best simulated by having a favourite hobby or pastime (such as acrobatics, or archery, or a skill at identifying metals or the rocks that hold metallic ores) being mastered in this adolescence, leading to proper skills later.
This DOESN’T mean that every adolescent demihuman is a hopeless, helpless, dithering [and pouting or flipping out whenever spoken to or guided] crazy - - it just means that they’re unreliable, and can’t muster the drive to master any one thing. Unlike humans, they’re so rapt (lost) in experiencing the world and absorbing their cultures (song, dance, playing musical instruments, the lore of aeons, forge-craft, knowing stone by smell - taste - texture, divining directions underground and where water is, lineages and feuds and tribal tales, etc.) that they master everything a tiny bit at a time, not one skill and then another.
By the time 250 to 300 years of age is reached, demihumans are masters of their own bodies, world-view and awareness, and so can begin to acquire task skills (classes) and at the same time have a natural restlessness stirring that goads them into having the sort of personal drive, patience, and foresight that humans have (and that their own elders just go on developing more and more of, until death). This in turn makes them want to accomplish things, have adventures (as opposed to playing games) and so on.
In short, if an elf lass escapes from slavery at age eight to wander alone - - yes, she has no one to play with, and a need to master feeding herself and keeping herself safe, so she would ‘grow up’ pretty quickly (WITHOUT all the ‘lore of the People’ that an elf growing up far more slowly, with other elves, would possess). If the same escaped elf lass was found very swiftly by elves who took her in and raised her in an elf society, she’d mature more slowly with all of the usual play and blithe merriment.
This is my view, of course, not enshrined in the game. It’s what *I* think of the races as being, in the Realms, but feel free to disagree. I’ll be very interested in your opinion.
So saith Ed.
Nice solid trio of posts, to good questions. Thanks, Phoebus!
love to all,
THO"
|
| Aquanova |
Posted - 03 Apr 2006 : 01:37:27
quote:
Originally posted by Kuje
You can also do a search through Ed's 2005 files for puberty and see that elves do not mature/reach puberty at the same rate as humans, which makes sense since elven gestation is two years, not 9 months.
I'm a little too daunted by sorting through the numerous files of Mr. Greenwood, but I do believe that drow enter puberty at around 30, no? In Rite of Blood Liriel is mentioned entering her "Asherlexten Decade" of adolescence or whatever the hells Bythnara called it, and it took place before the Starlight & Shadows trilogy, so I don' think it's too improbable to think that that's how old Liriel was during that novella. |
| Kuje |
Posted - 02 Apr 2006 : 23:47:28
You can also do a search through Ed's 2005 files for puberty and see that elves do not mature/reach puberty at the same rate as humans, which makes sense since elven gestation is two years, not 9 months. |
|
|
