Question about Star Elves

[jtjr26]

I am writing some elaborate backstories for some NPC's for a campaign in the Three Galaxies and was wondering how long it takes the Star Elves to mature. According to Dimension Book 4 they have an average natural life span of about 1000 years. At what age are they the equivalent of a teenager and at what age are they considered an adult. Looking for some input. Thanks.

[taalismn]

I figure they probably sexually mature around 20, hit their full adult growth around 25 or so, but aren't considered responsible adults until 30 or 40(they'd be 'junior' at work) with them not getting any real respect among their people until they hit their first century(prior to that, they're regarded as young turks/punks without the experiences to make really long term plans).

[Zamion138]

Physically probably as above, but I bet around 30 or 40 is when they stop screwing around partying all day with their elf buddies. Probably 100 before the actually have a lv1 status.

[taalismn]

Physically probably as above, but I bet around 30 or 40 is when they stop screwing around partying all day with their elf buddies. Probably 100 before the actually have a lv1 status.

Yeah, if you wait too long to reach sexual maturity, that's a long gap that your species/bloodline is terribly vulnerable to being cut short. Elves likely peak nearly as early as humans, then their biologies settle in for a long drag.
Culturally, as magic and technology further extend lifespans, deferring when one is considered really 'mature' likely comes latter and latter, but then there's also the danger of setting up a gerontocracies(rule by the elderly), or a Struddlebrug culture to keep the wealth and power from being sponged up and locked away by the millennialist geezers.

[Zamion138]

1k years to live we should see more examples of 15+level star elves.
So either they basicly take parenthood very seriously and leave adventuring till all there kids are 85 and out of the house, or maybe deep apathy or melancholy strikes them periodically for a couple 100 years through out life.
Or yeah something, that stunts thier growth . Humans manage to hit level 15 in sub 100 year life spans.

[drewkitty ~..~]

PB rarely writes out how long it takes for the different races to develop from conception to birth of the baby to adolescence and to adulthood. The only one I think I remember that actually makes reference to development of a child up to adulthood is the T'Ze out of the PW SourceBook.

In the games I run All Elves' developmental times are double that of humans.

[eliakon]

I, personally, think that its left up to the individual GM since it will have ripple on effects each group will want to consider differently.
If race X takes Ytimes longer than humans to mature...
...then they are minors ytimes as long as well.
Which can lead to some questions and awkward issues.
How long are they in each phase? For example, do they learn slower than humans? (after all, part of our 'growing up' is the speed at which we are able to learn...)
Why are they in these phases longer?
What does this mean for issues like dating... or player characters (age of consent can be a rather thorny issue, and if you don't believe me, I have seen more than one gaming group break up over it.)
What does the longer development phase mean for their culture. Longer childhoods mean more vulnerable race since they take longer to replace losses for example.

Each individual group will want to approach these issues differently, which is why I find that they tend to get different "right" answers in different groups.

[taalismn]

1k years to live we should see more examples of 15+level star elves.
So either they basicly take parenthood very seriously and leave adventuring till all there kids are 85 and out of the house, or maybe deep apathy or melancholy strikes them periodically for a couple 100 years through out life.
Or yeah something, that stunts thier growth . Humans manage to hit level 15 in sub 100 year life spans.

They perceive the world in real time, so, yeah, they should reach lvl 15 and stick around, but maybe their arrogance and rep gets them knocked off sooner. Star Elves have a big reputation to live up to.
Or maybe they just take their damned time if they're living in good places....
Case in point, I should be a department head by now, if I wasn't literally sitting around as a lazy bum, and I -don't- have an elven lifespan(would be nice to figure my best days are still ahead of me and that I'm a late bloomer), so apathy can be a career-stunter.

[eliakon]

1k years to live we should see more examples of 15+level star elves.
So either they basicly take parenthood very seriously and leave adventuring till all there kids are 85 and out of the house, or maybe deep apathy or melancholy strikes them periodically for a couple 100 years through out life.
Or yeah something, that stunts thier growth . Humans manage to hit level 15 in sub 100 year life spans.

They perceive the world in real time, so, yeah, they should reach lvl 15 and stick around, but maybe their arrogance and rep gets them knocked off sooner. Star Elves have a big reputation to live up to.
Or maybe they just take their damned time if they're living in good places....
Case in point, I should be a department head by now, if I wasn't literally sitting around as a lazy bum, and I -don't- have an elven lifespan(would be nice to figure my best days are still ahead of me and that I'm a late bloomer), so apathy can be a career-stunter.

Why would people get to level 15?
No seriously why?
What, exactly, would they be doing that is going to be getting them to that level?

Some, rare few humans hit level 15.
They are the rare exception.
Very few humans hit level 15.
The highly competent, highly driven individuals who are out there actively working in fields where they are likely to be earning XP...
tend to be much lower level.

[taalismn]

[
Why would people get to level 15?
No seriously why?
What, exactly, would they be doing that is going to be getting them to that level?

Some, rare few humans hit level 15.
They are the rare exception.
Very few humans hit level 15.
The highly competent, highly driven individuals who are out there actively working in fields where they are likely to be earning XP...
tend to be much lower level.

Fighting gods, saving the galaxy, mastering esoteric metaphilosophical arts, bribing the GM...
Dying in the process, most of 'em(but not before the GM's swept up the bribe; "Oh, your unexpected but inevitable betrayal!")

[Zamion138]

1k years to live we should see more examples of 15+level star elves.
So either they basicly take parenthood very seriously and leave adventuring till all there kids are 85 and out of the house, or maybe deep apathy or melancholy strikes them periodically for a couple 100 years through out life.
Or yeah something, that stunts thier growth . Humans manage to hit level 15 in sub 100 year life spans.

They perceive the world in real time, so, yeah, they should reach lvl 15 and stick around, but maybe their arrogance and rep gets them knocked off sooner. Star Elves have a big reputation to live up to.
Or maybe they just take their damned time if they're living in good places....
Case in point, I should be a department head by now, if I wasn't literally sitting around as a lazy bum, and I -don't- have an elven lifespan(would be nice to figure my best days are still ahead of me and that I'm a late bloomer), so apathy can be a career-stunter.

Why would people get to level 15?
No seriously why?
What, exactly, would they be doing that is going to be getting them to that level?

Some, rare few humans hit level 15.
They are the rare exception.
Very few humans hit level 15.
The highly competent, highly driven individuals who are out there actively working in fields where they are likely to be earning XP...
tend to be much lower level.

If you hit level 8ish by death from being just a guy working hard in their field thats normal, you probably did your occ from 20 to 60 so 40 years or so? Sounds reasonable to me.
Now if you dont retire for 20x that legnth of time ? That could easy justify my point. A mage that starts being a level 1 at say 19 who is a star elf is probably not gonna give up on magic . Its described as a life long dedication and practice. Maybe not kick doors and battling for 800 years ill defiantly grant you the odds give out rather rapidly. But if you adventure/murder hobo it up for 100 years its unlikely you'll just put away the proverbial wand.
A freighter captain that works up to owning his own company would likely keep growing from experience even after he gives up actually piloting and does that back end stuff. You might switch professions from star captain to merchant but your not stopping your personal growth.
I find it hard to belive elven retirment age is 700 and they basicly slack off for 300 years eating dandelions and traveling from pleasure planet to pleasure planet.

A 809 year old fighter is rare just due to the occupational hazards but not all occ's are quite so lethal.

[jtjr26]

Hey guys thanks for replying. I have been able to pin down some more firm info on my characters time line. Cheers.

[eliakon]

1k years to live we should see more examples of 15+level star elves.
So either they basicly take parenthood very seriously and leave adventuring till all there kids are 85 and out of the house, or maybe deep apathy or melancholy strikes them periodically for a couple 100 years through out life.
Or yeah something, that stunts thier growth . Humans manage to hit level 15 in sub 100 year life spans.

They perceive the world in real time, so, yeah, they should reach lvl 15 and stick around, but maybe their arrogance and rep gets them knocked off sooner. Star Elves have a big reputation to live up to.
Or maybe they just take their damned time if they're living in good places....
Case in point, I should be a department head by now, if I wasn't literally sitting around as a lazy bum, and I -don't- have an elven lifespan(would be nice to figure my best days are still ahead of me and that I'm a late bloomer), so apathy can be a career-stunter.

Why would people get to level 15?
No seriously why?
What, exactly, would they be doing that is going to be getting them to that level?

Some, rare few humans hit level 15.
They are the rare exception.
Very few humans hit level 15.
The highly competent, highly driven individuals who are out there actively working in fields where they are likely to be earning XP...
tend to be much lower level.

If you hit level 8ish by death from being just a guy working hard in their field thats normal, you probably did your occ from 20 to 60 so 40 years or so? Sounds reasonable to me.
Now if you dont retire for 20x that legnth of time ? That could easy justify my point. A mage that starts being a level 1 at say 19 who is a star elf is probably not gonna give up on magic . Its described as a life long dedication and practice. Maybe not kick doors and battling for 800 years ill defiantly grant you the odds give out rather rapidly. But if you adventure/murder hobo it up for 100 years its unlikely you'll just put away the proverbial wand.
A freighter captain that works up to owning his own company would likely keep growing from experience even after he gives up actually piloting and does that back end stuff. You might switch professions from star captain to merchant but your not stopping your personal growth.
I find it hard to belive elven retirment age is 700 and they basicly slack off for 300 years eating dandelions and traveling from pleasure planet to pleasure planet.

A 809 year old fighter is rare just due to the occupational hazards but not all occ's are quite so lethal.

The problem with this is the curve.
When your level 1, you get XP for any situation that is level 1+
When your level 6 You need situations 6+
By level 10 you need level 10 situations.
Its hard for that level 10 star ship captain to find a situation where they are facing a situation that is worth XP...it is quite possible that they could go centuries with out gaining XP at all!
I mean sure, the few adventurers among the race might.
But that is not exactly the norm.
Put another way...
How many people live in the on Earth?
Now how many of those billions do you think spend their entire lives facing constantly increasing challenges that are significant. Over and over and over again...
Your looking at a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction.

[Zamion138]

The gains would slow sure but, skill use keeps going, plans that fail and succeed move from being critical to just plans, mence go from being grace to minor, doing whats good and nobel (or what ever you alignment calls for) keeps going...that leap from 9th to 10th is going to major and drawn out it might even take a decade . But its still grinding on.

[taalismn]

Hey guys thanks for replying. I have been able to pin down some more firm info on my characters time line. Cheers.

You're welcome. This community lives to serve(and fight, argue, make passionate love, spread monumental lies, and engage in epic self-delusion).

[glitterboy2098]

to be honest, given that the elves in most fantasy works seem based more on Tolkien's elves than the original germanic folklore stuff, i'd say you couldn't go too badly using the life cycle he created for his elves:
http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Elven_Life_cycle

By their first year, Elf children can speak, walk, and dance, and their quicker onset of mental maturity makes young Elves seem older than they actually are. Physical puberty is generally complete by their fiftieth year (by age fifty they reach their adult height), but they are not considered full-grown until a hundred years have passed.

basically they physically matured fairly fast at first (basically going from infant to young adult in body fairly rapidly) but don't qualify as 'adult' socially for a long time. their minds develop rapidly as well, to the point that by the time they have a nearly adult form they have nearly adult minds as well. the long period before being considered 'adult' may well be more of a social convention (much like how Hobbits in the setting don't 'come of age' till they are 33 when they apparently develop at a rate equivalent to humans) to give them a long time to learn all the things they require.
since palladium elves have a finite ~1000 year lifespan rather than an infinite one as in tolkien's works, you may want to reduce it from tolkien's "100 years to become an full adult" but the idea that they develop physically and mentally faster, but don't get counted as an adult for decades after that point still makes for an interesting dynamic.

(and on an unrelated tack, it would be fun to have PB elves beleive in reincarnation, as an homage to how Tolkien's elves literally did get reborn in new bodies after their death.)