# Elven childhood and teenage years



## jonesy (Jun 17, 2013)

Elves leave childhood behind roundabout their thirties, become juvenile at the sixty year region, and become adults a bit after a hundred years.

What do the elven kids actually do those thirty years? Study and procrastinate? What about their 'teenage' years? And when do they set out for adventure for the first time (speaking specifically of those who get into that), and how do the adults feel about that?

I'd like to hear where to find the best fluff on all this, and any ideas or experiences from your campaigns. What do those first hundred years really look like?


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## Warbringer (Jun 17, 2013)

Same as all teenagers, nothing that's actually important, but to them feels like its the only thing that matters...oh that and annoy their parents for fun


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## Altamont Ravenard (Jun 17, 2013)

If I may add to the OP's questions, as it is something that has always bothered me, how is it that 100-year old elves don't know so much more than 16-year old humans? Are their brain's development so slow that they can acquire knowledge only at 1/6th the capacity of a normal human? Are they held in stasis for most of their young lives?

I'd be very interested in reading what people have come up with.

AR


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## Starfox (Jun 17, 2013)

This is one part of DnD that I never used - yes elves mature slower than humans, but in 30 years rather than 100.

Another fun note with original DnD age is that elves get old rather early. They live long, but not in their physical prime. They spend most of their lives either as children or as middle age or older. Dwarves actually have a longer mature period if I recall.


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## tuxgeo (Jun 18, 2013)

It depends hugely upon Edition. The 4E PHB says, "Elves mature at about the same rate as Humans, but show few effects of age past adulthood." 

So (in 4E), if Humans mature in the age range of 15-25, Elves do too. 

That means that, to know the childhood and adolescence of Elves, just look at Humans. (Makes it really *easy*!)


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## Savage Wombat (Jun 18, 2013)

How do teenage elves rebel against their parents when their parents are Chaotic Good?  Join individuality-submersing cults?


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## Starfox (Jun 18, 2013)

tuxgeo said:


> It depends hugely upon Edition. The 4E PHB says, "Elves mature at about the same rate as Humans, but show few effects of age past adulthood."




4E did some things right. This is one of them.



Savage Wombat said:


> How do teenage elves rebel against their parents when their parents are Chaotic Good?  Join individuality-submersing cults?




One of the reasons elves can have chaotic as a racial alignment, in my mind, is that they never really grow up. They remain young at heart. But like children of teen parents, I suppose elven children could get to be at odds with their parents over lots of things - like who gets to be the "rebel" of the household.

Elven chaoticness contrasts with dwarf lawfulness in that dwarves are basically born old and stuffy.

And yes, I know this is a rather shallow view of law/chaos, or just *one* aspect of that dichotomy. This is not intended as an alignment discussion.


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## ImperatorK (Jun 18, 2013)

Savage Wombat said:


> How do teenage elves rebel against their parents when their parents are Chaotic Good?  Join individuality-submersing cults?



 They become Paladins or Monks.


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## steeldragons (Jun 18, 2013)

I have always worked (since 1e despite the "racial age table") under the assumption that elves mature, essentially, the same as humans. Interesting to hear 4e actually put this on paper..finally. Perhaps a little slower...but basically en par maybe 20-25...but once they his that level of "adulthood" and physical appearance/development, that's when the elvin "genes" kick in and they stay looking like that, at least until 200 or so.

"Aging" (if at all, I've fluctuated on that through the years) maybe 1 year (in appearance only, mind!) per fifty[ish]. My elves last a looooot longer than the books say. To see an elf that actually _appears_ old (wrinkles, grey/wiry hairs, stooped posture/decreased mobility), would need to be thousands of years old...a great rarity, nearly unheard of, even among elves (I have a single npc like this in the entire world).

In that respect, the childhood and teenaged development could be seen as the same as humans. I always see them more as...I dunno how to explain, "hyper-developed"? Their minds' mature and contain information, recall memories, hand-eye coordination (of course),.._.all _mental faculties are just better, clearer, faster, than humans.

So your 15 y.o. elf is learning history (thousands of years worth in perfect detail), multiple languages, the identification of every leaf, grass, tree and flower, every animal in their wood, every branch, bough, stream and ditch in their home wood, the sounds of the winds and trees, the names of all the stars and moons and their movements, archery and swordplay (if they're a pc, likely) and/or magic use (if its a MU pc)...Then of course there are the "fun"/cultural elf things, like songs/singing, instruments/musical composition, how to hunt, how to dance, feasting, riding deer or wolves and chatting with owls and squirrels...

There's plenty for elves to learn about in their first 20 or so years...or, if you prefer, to have them learn over the course of 100 or 200.


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## ImperatorK (Jun 18, 2013)

steeldragons said:


> Interesting to hear 4e actually put this on paper..finally.



Actually it was so in 3.X also (at least the generic settings, like Greyhawk). Races of The Wild had a sidebar explaining it.


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## Jester David (Jun 18, 2013)

I flavour it as a period idleness and personal growth. Adolescence is marked by changing brains and wild emotions as new hormonal changes are adapted to. 

When you live for centuries and are functionally ageless, there's much less motivation to grow up. Who wouldn't want to spend a few extra years playing with action figures and an extra decade enjoying the college lifestyle?


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## jonesy (Jun 18, 2013)

ImperatorK said:


> Actually it was so in 3.X also (at least the generic settings, like Greyhawk). Races of The Wild had a sidebar explaining it.



Just a sidebar? Is there anything on the pre-adulthood years?


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## ImperatorK (Jun 18, 2013)

jonesy said:


> Just a sidebar? Is there anything on the pre-adulthood years?



 It says that elves mature as humans up to age 15. After that they slow down aging slightly, it takes them 10 years to physically become adults, when a human becomes one at age of 20 (or even 18). And after that they totally slow down. So basically elves are children the same time as humans, are teenagers slightly longer and are adults veeeery long.


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## tuxgeo (Jun 19, 2013)

ImperatorK said:


> It says that elves mature as humans up to age 15. After that they slow down aging slightly, it takes them 10 years to physically become adults, when a human becomes one at age of 20 (or even 18). And after that they totally slow down. So basically elves are children the same time as humans, are teenagers slightly longer and are adults veeeery long.




And . . . "Races of the Wild" is a 3.xE publication which I do not own. (One of many.) 

(I _m-i-g-h-t_ need to rectify that situation. "*eBay*," Where Art Thou?)


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## howandwhy99 (Jun 19, 2013)

jonesy said:


> What do the elven kids actually do those thirty years? Study and procrastinate? What about their 'teenage' years? And when do they set out for adventure for the first time (speaking spe9cifically of those who get into that), and how do the adults feel about that?



Elves aren't human, so it can be anything the players want really. The baseline starting adventuring ages varies slightly by class and studying for those classes takes A LOT longer for elves than for humans. They simply aren't living as quickly as we are. They take their time. They tend to be unfocused, flighty as the dwarves would say, and spend a lot of time simply enjoying being alive. This probably means singing, dancing, playing games, telling stories, and so on. They aren't interested in performing a class. Classes are more of a human thing. Elves who take up classes are generally emulating humans anyways, whether it be a PC class or not. Rather, if something needs to be done, someone will eventually do it. There is no rush.

I suppose in the very early years elves really are a bit like humans. Toddlers are like toddlers, kids spend time being kids, teenagers are teenagers, but it all lasts much longer from the human perspective. An elven friend from your childhood never stopped being a kid. It may be your whole life before they become a young adult, mature enough in their behavior to understand you - at least in how you changed after they first came to know you.



> I'd like to hear where to find the best fluff on all this, and any ideas or experiences from your campaigns. What do those first hundred years really look like?



Those first hundred years are probably more eventful, but also far more often forgotten. Just like we humans and our shorter lived pets. House pets generally mature in a different arc than we do, but after the first few years they settle into a steady aging rate. They have fewer experiences than we do, but if they were more self aware they would still forget the experiences of their lives quite like we do. 

We live a long, long time even as humans. Yet even seemingly endless, highly eventful story entertainments end and we can go on. We don't remember everything. That's what elven lives are like, but with far less focus on classes than humans.


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## Weather Report (Jun 19, 2013)

I think they explained this in _Dragonlance_; Tanis and what-not.


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## Electric Wizard (Jun 20, 2013)

Maybe elves don't believe parenting and they let their kids run around the forest all day, doing whatever they want when they want. So they mature much slower than kids who have to go to school and plow the fields.


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## ferratus (Jun 20, 2013)

My elves don't have a childhood.  They simply are, until they are slain with iron or fade away.


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## Jeff Carlsen (Jun 20, 2013)

I really liked how elves were portrayed in _Races of the Wild_. It wasn't so much that they matured at a slower rate than humans (though there is some of that. Emotional maturing, in particular, takes longer). Instead, elven society expected individuals to be incredibly self sufficient, being able to competently do everything from building a house to composing a song. Each elf had to be a warrior, poet, craftsman, artisan, cobbler, smith, historian, doctor, and more before they were considered to be an adult.


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## ImperatorK (Jun 20, 2013)

Although I don't really like explanations for elves staying 1st level over 100 years, I can accept them. But that's elves. What about other long living races? Dwarfs reach adulthood faster than elves, sure, but it's still 40 years, almost a lifetime for a human.


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## Viking Bastard (Jun 20, 2013)

IMC, elves mature into adulthood when they decide to do so. Some are children for centuries, others for only a couple of decades, depending on how much they want to grow up.



Jeff Carlsen said:


> Instead, elven society expected individuals to be incredibly self sufficient, being able to competently do everything from building a house to composing a song. Each elf had to be a warrior, poet, craftsman, artisan, cobbler, smith, historian, doctor, and more before they were considered to be an adult.




I like this, though.


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