Elf/Kelari maturity

[BlueEyedRhapsody]

How do the life cycles of Elves in Telara work? This is the ubiquitous question for any fantasy setting with long lived races, and pretty much every race in Telara other than Mathosians/Eth live longer than the average real life human.

Do elves mature like humans, but stretched for the 300 years an average elf lives? (And thus a 150 year old elf is "like" being human aged 50 in our world?)

Or do they reach basic maturity/adulthood at a certain age and just..keep living without aging. (I think Lord of the Rings elves are this way. The are recognized as adults at like 100? but can live for many thousands of years)

Happy for any opinions or lore someone may have come across!

[Morvick]

I haven't found anything definitive, but if I had to guess? Whole lifespan elongated over 300 years (adulthood would be 50 or 60).

I want to say the Dwarves live quite a while, too. 150 or so? Mathosians/Eth are only expected to live 70 or 80 years, being your basic "human". Not sure about Bahmi.

[NearioNL]

aint it commonly about 10 hunan years = 1 elf year. So an Elf aged 10, would be equal to a human aged 100

Have not seen anything in the lore about it though, but personally I go with this rule

[Talila]

I'd avoid converting anything into "Elven years", to avoid confusion. We don't have anything definitive on how elves mature (as far as I have seen), as I see it there are an option that they could develop physically very fast (so for example, they would be looking like a fully grown Elf at age 20) but mentally they'd be maturing at a slower rate (also because of the extra knowledge I presume Elves have) - so they wouldn't be considered adults until they're perhaps 50-60 years old. The other option would be that their mind and body follow eachother equally, landing them physically and mentally developed at either a slower rate than humans, or at the same rate.

It'd be a good question to ask the Lore devs if we get a shot at a Q/A session with them.

[wayne62682]

The way this used to work in old D&D where it was similar was that Elves aged much slower; a 100-year old Elf was the same, bodily speaking, as a 20-year old human.

[Akamhara]

I think there's a few schools on this one, but when you talk to an Elf and they say they are "20 human years" it sounds dodgy - just roll with whatever age you want your character to be. You have 300 years to play with, let's say the first third of their life is maturing - that'd be a long stretch anyway, so as said above, 50 - 60 is a good age to go along with as well. If you think your character is young, or could be considered young or immature for their behaviour by their people, go with it, wheee.

[NearioNL]

I did read some info about this lately. There has been a post on the forums somewhere by the lore-devs, and I thought it said something like 1:7 ratio, humans-elf/kelari.

will try to look it up, and post the link here

[Baolun]

The collectible book "Nalthema", found on Ember Isle, sheds a little light on this. It's some sort of journal or essay Sylver Valis wrote at the age of 12, with the description "The child's rough scrawl suggests this was written by someone just learning to write, a reminder of how slowly elves age."

When everyone else is in the temple, I read books. Scribe Hesio gives them to me. He says I read and write better than any other Kelari my age.

If he were human, I'd expect that to be somewhere between 4 and 6 years old - maybe even 3 if we think Sylver was a super-precocious learner. So if the standard elf lifespan is human lifespan multiplied by X, X is likely between 2 and 4.

[NearioNL]

If he were human, I'd expect that to be somewhere between 4 and 6 years old - maybe even 3 if we think Sylver was a super-precocious learner. So if the standard elf lifespan is human lifespan multiplied by X, X is likely between 2 and 4.

its 7. 100% sure, I just cant find the f**king thread/site where I did read it :S
and f**k me, since I did think: mmm should I link this URL in that thread about elf/kelari age stuff.
and thought: meh can do later
arggggggggggggghhhhh
and this all just makes me doubt myself, which is crazy since I am 100% sure :P

[IonCannon]

According to the RIFT lore team.

Lifespans:
Human: average lifespan of 60 years
Elf: average lifespan of 300 years
Dwarf: average lifespan of 150 years
Bahmi: average age of 100 years

Edit: lol you silly RP'ers

[xanduin246]

and keep in mind that average isnt the same as max

my life expectancy, for my gender and where i live, is 75, i fully plan on living longer than that

[Talila]

According to the RIFT lore team.

Lifespans:
Human: average lifespan of 60 years
Elf: average lifespan of 300 years
Dwarf: average lifespan of 150 years
Bahmi: average age of 100 years

Edit: lol you silly RP'ers

We know their lifespans already, we're talking about how fast they reach adulthood

[Morvick]

We know their lifespans already, we're talking about how fast they reach adulthood

Take for example a dog.

Even though they live 1/7th the lifetime of a human, they reach reproductive viability around what, 1 year old? That's 7 in human years -- a point being that Humans mature stupidly slow (or dogs mature fast, it's all relative).

So we're noodling out if Elves are like dogs or like humans -- do they reach maturity fast and then "stall", or do they take a while for the whole process?

[NearioNL]

aahh you mean mentaly? hehe I get it, yeah I am a bit slow

Would be inclined to say they are more like dogs, the dogs they are xD no just wanted to say that :P
I do think they mature slower then humans, if humans are mature around 25 then elves would be 50/60 seeing their lifespan. Altough I will always think that immature Elves are more mature then immature humans

[Talila]

aahh you mean mentaly? hehe I get it, yeah I am a bit slow

Would be inclined to say they are more like dogs, the dogs they are xD no just wanted to say that :P
I do think they mature slower then humans, if humans are mature around 25 then elves would be 50/60 seeing their lifespan. Altough I will always think that immature Elves are more mature then immature humans

Not just mentally, also in the body. Mentality is a big part of it too yes, in that note I'm more inclined to think an elf would be around 100 before being assumed mentally on par with the racial standard for said due to the fact that they have a long lifetime and thus must have more knowledge they need to attain in order to not be called stupid as a child. Kind of like how some people considers everyone under the age of 25 as immature, and for some the process of forming your own identity doesn't start until you're around 23-25.
On the same front for a mathosian, I'd be more inclined to think that they reach an accepted adulthood sooner than how it happens IRL, due to their shoter expected lifelength. I've been toying with the idea of if they even have the teenage-process in the form that we know it, or if they mentally get pushed to adulthood sooner than what their body might be indicating.

But also as Morvick states, how fast they get to look like an adult. Does it take them 18 years, and then they will look like any other elf (though whilst possibly being mentally immature) or does their baby, toddler, child and adolescence stages last for decades rather than just a few years as it is with humans?