Do elves grow up quicker in Dragonlance?

[QuentinGeorge]

Silvanoshei is 38 during the War of Souls.

He's specifically described by other elves as being a "child".

Gilthas is around twenty years older, but he's a half-elf (in game terms, that is, realistically he's 1/4 human 3/4 elf)

 

[dead]

Gads! At 38 the poor thing should still be in his dipers!

 

[diaglo]

Gads! At 38 the poor thing should still be in his dipers!

elves don't believe in nappies. they do their business in the woods.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I never liked the long-infancy thing for elves. Ones gestation period and childhood growth should be based more on your body mass, not your longevity - so elven children should grow to adolescence slightly faster than humans.

Of course, then they can spend 100 years as a "teenager" if they want. That's just cultural.

 

[hexgrid]

I never liked the long-infancy thing for elves. Ones gestation period and childhood growth should be based more on your body mass, not your longevity

Does this hold true for real life biology? For example- does it take longer for a horse to reach physical maturity than a human?

 

[Sejs]

Does this hold true for real life biology? For example- does it take longer for a horse to reach physical maturity than a human?

Nope, it does not.

Blue Whales, for example, huge bloody things, mature in around 5 years and get to be around 80-90 years old at the upper end of the spectrum. If maturity cycle was based on body mass, they'd never hit maturity before dying of old age.

 

[Aaron L]

The length of maturation didn't change, the quality of writing has gotten shorter