Elves, why so long to mature?

[Tarlonniel]

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.

There is an essay (by Tolkien) about Elven reproduction and development in one of the History of MIddle Earth volumes - Peoples of Middle Earth, I believe. They reach physical maturity at around 50 and full maturity at something like 100. Just useless trivia from a Tolkien freak

 

[Ferret]

Its more like a continuity gap. The designers wanted them to live long, and using human minds expected them to take reletivley the same time to mature. What I would have done is have them be 'Adventure ready' same as humans and unable to adventure at the same age. just they live longer on the end.

 

[WayneLigon]

Just a holdover from the previous editions, as far as I'm concerned. I never understood the reasoning behind it at all. IMC, elves, dwarves - all the long-lived races - reach physical maturity at the same rate, but then drastically slow until they reach Venerable; then they rapidly age until death.

 

[Sejs]

Makes you feel sorry for an elven parent, though.

"Oh, don't mind little Thaelan, he's just going through his terrible twenties."

 

[Mercule]

I never understood it, either. IMC, elves reach full physical maturity (and mentally as much as a human) at about 25 years of age. Then, they practically stop aging for 1500-1800 years, at which time they slowly begin showing some signs of aging. If you meet a wrinkly old elf, be afraid. He's probably quite capable of toasting your little hiney.

Edit: As a side note on population control, both male and female elves IMC have a "fertility cycle". It lasts only a couple of months out of every 6-7 years. Also, unlike women in real life, these cycles are not prone to synchronizing over long exposure.

The net result is that an exclusive elven couple may only be "in sync" for a couple of weeks every 40 or so years. That means that even when the couple is "trying", it could take a century or two to conceive. Needless to say, there is some pretty heavy social factors in place to encourage childbearing.

It also explains why elves are sometimes libertines. The major inhibition for most people (unwanted children) is effectively removed from members of either sex.

 

[Stalker0]

Because time is relative No seriously, one thing I've always had this problem with characterization of immortals is that they still act a lot like mortal people. Bogus.. when time doesn't matter, it really doesn't matter.

For instance, humans have a natural feel for the flow of time, and we have this natural tendency to get bored... basically the get your butt moving mechanism.

But someone who lives forever and never experiences time wouldn't act like that in my opinion. I always see immortals as a people who could just sit down on a stone for a "few minutes" and look up to notice a year has passed.. they just don't have the need to get moving like we do.

Elves are kind of the same way, when you live for millenia, why hurry? Sure I could learn everything a human does in the same amount of time, but why spend all the effort?

 

[The_Universe]

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.

I have to disagree with the last statement here. Humans and elves cannot be seperate species, because (in D&D, at least) they can produce fertile offspring.

In the real world, we know that horses and donkeys are seperate species because although they can produce offspring together (mules), that offspring is in fact always sterile. In a world without genetic evaluation, that's really the only way to tell.

In contrast, we know that dogs are in fact all one species, even though there are hundreds of racial differences (even variance in longevity). Since any two dogs could produce fertile offspring, they are all one species. Humans and elves can produce fertile offspring (Half-elves), so despite racial differences, they are one species, as well.

In fact, IMC Orcs, Humans, and Elves ARE all one species. Orc/Elf children are rare, just as dachsund/Saint Bernard puppies are, but not impossible. The introduction of the idea in the world led to some backlash similar to the introduction of the idea of evolution throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. "My cousin is an Orc! No way!" That type of thing.

I keep the longevity differences in, ascribing elves longevity to clean livin'.

 

[Umbran]

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?

Okay, there are a number of "no-prize" explanations out there...

For one thing, a species that breeds like humans, comes to maturity withing a decade or two, but then lives as a mature adult for many centuries will generally vastly overpopulate very quickly. Long maturation times and low fertility are ways to control that.

There is an implied misconception in your questions - that a baby is born with it's learning capacity fully formed, such that one can compare them and call one "stupid" and another "smart", and that maturation is merely a matter of being around long enough to take in the requisite amount of data. This is not the case, and in the real world development of young mammals is far more complicated. A human baby's brain is not fully formed at birth. There are some things a baby simply cannot learn until certain developments in the brain have occurred. It isn't so much "dumb" as "not yet ready".

Elves are supposed to be fairly "timeless", changing very little as time passes. If that applies to the brain of young elves, then we have our answer - it is not that they are "dumb", so much as it takes their brains longer to reach certain stages of physical development, just as it takes longer for their bones and muscles.

 

[WayneLigon]

I have to disagree with the last statement here. Humans and elves cannot be seperate species, because (in D&D, at least) they can produce fertile offspring.

Sure they can; D&D doesn't care what species you are, really. Physics and genetics and all the rest just apparently don't work like we think they do. Elves and Orcs obviously breed with humans. So do Dragons; in fact, Dragons appear to breed well with pretty much everything, since you can apply a half-dragon template to any living and corporeal thing. Humans, elves, geese, trees, soft-shell crabs... whatever. Same with demons, devils and angels; patently non-human, yet they can breed with humans and others just fine.

Biology and such is OK when trying for some false verisimiltude but usually it's just a pain to even bother with it.

 

[Angcuru]

Why so long to mature? No good reason that I've seen printed in any game books. Just like them having the sudden urge to abandon their families and go to some mysterious happy place as soon as they hit 700 or so. The whole concept is there just to add a semblance of balance to elves, to put them somewhat on par with humans. This is just a really dumb idea. They're immortal creatures, so just leave it at that.

IMO, I also can't see any real reason for an elf to adventure. Wanderlust my toenail clippings, if you're immortal and surrounded by beautiful people and provided with everything you'll ever need, you aren't going to go adventuring.

I say either you keep elves immortal and an NPC race, or slap them with mortality and rule that it makes no sense for a creature to mature physically in 25 years and take four times as long to mature mentally. If the average elf lives to 400, they are fully physically and mentally matured by age 100 or so. etc. etc. D&D elves are a mish-mash of different ideas and opinions that look good individually, but are really quite inconsistent. I'd either take them out of the settings/system or give the whole race a total overhaul.

But that's just me.