Elves, why so long to mature?

[Kemrain]

My wife and I were discussing this yesterday since there are a handful of elven NPC and eventually a PC that are pregnant in game. I decided to have elven children mature as quickly as humans until around age 5 then they slow dramatically.

Now, I can't agree with that. If you're gonna reap the benefits of a lifespan many times a human's, you need a gestation perious, infancy, and childhood many times longer as well. If you're gonna look like a 20 year old when I'm a grandparent, the least you can do is get hassled for a decade with a toddler.

- Kemrain the Racial Equalist.

 

[mmadsen]

I'm sure it's been posted a thousand times in a thousand different places but why do elves take so long to mature? Are they slow learners? Are their kids born really stupid?

A chimpanzee might ask the same thing about humans...

 

[Dogbrain]

I'm sure it's been posted a thousand times in a thousand different places but why do elves take so long to mature?

Because Tolkien said so, and the vast majority of fantasy gaming is nothing but a low-budget ripoff of Tolkien.

Really, that's the real reason.

Tolkien said so because in Middle Earth, Elves were supposed to be the most mature, even-handed, and "angelic" of all the speaking peoples. There was no "natural" explanation for their situation, it was a mystical situation.

 

[Dogbrain]

I'm sure it's been posted a thousand times in a thousand different places but why do elves take so long to mature?

Because Tolkien said so, and the vast majority of fantasy gaming is nothing but a low-budget ripoff of Tolkien.

Really, that's the real reason.

Tolkien said so because in Middle Earth, Elves were supposed to be the most mature, even-handed, and "angelic" of all the speaking peoples. There was no "natural" explanation for their situation, it was a mystical situation.

 

[mmadsen]

A chimpanzee might ask the same thing about humans...

To expand on my earlier comment, in many ways, elves are to humans as humans are to apes (or orcs); they take neoteny one step further. Elves are depicted as playful, bright-eyed, slender, hairless, etc. They're children -- only old and wise.

 

[hong]

Because Tolkien said so, and the vast majority of fantasy gaming is nothing but a low-budget ripoff of Tolkien.

Really, that's the real reason.

Tolkien said so because in Middle Earth, Elves were supposed to be the most mature, even-handed, and "angelic" of all the speaking peoples. There was no "natural" explanation for their situation, it was a mystical situation.

Actually, I don't think Tolkien ever said anything about the rate at which elves mature. They're long-lived (immortal), but how fast they go from infancy to adulthood isn't something addressed in the books IIRC.

 

[MarauderX]

I use the excuse of elves needing to learn the 183 words for the color green, as well as a lazy lifestyle. Humans pick things up because they are usually exploring, learning as they go. Elves IMC, though they have photographic memories, are content to pass the days away singing and walking through their lovely forests.

For physical maturity, every race matures at different rates in the game. Per the PHB orcs are faster than humans, which are faster than elves, so why does it matter how long or short it takes a race to reach maturity versus another?

 

[ARandomGod]

I'm sure it's been posted a thousand times in a thousand different places but why do elves take so long to mature? Are they slow learners? Are their kids born really stupid? I jest but really why do they take so long? Is there any definitive reason for this? I know what the PHB says but there has to be better explanations of this out there? Anyone?

They don't.
It's a typo. The books full of 'em, so don't sweat it too much.
They also live much, much longer than that.

Also, they do have a much longer period of neotency, but that doesn't mean that they aren't "mature"; they just have a different definition of mature.

Humans think sometimes that they take a lot longer to "mature", but they really never do according to the human definition of the word. They're a different species.

 

[FCWesel]

Okay, someone has to say it! "Who cares, play a HALFLING...we never mature!"

 

[billd91]

I don't think they take any longer to physically mature, rather, they just have a somewhat longer time before they are officially "come of age" and considered an independant adult. I figure they have extended, in-depth apprenticeships that have no real game-mechanistic impact.