Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="WaterRabbit" data-source="post: 1486792" data-attributes="member: 2445">The simple answer is they are allowed to.  Look at the evolution of childhood.  Prior to the industrial revolution, children started working at age 5 (give or take) and were considered to be adults by 12-14.  After the industrial revolution, these same children started working in factories for long hours and low pay.  (Of course, children of the wealthy have always had the opportunity for an extended childhood.)    At the turn of the twentieth century, child labor laws started to have their effect.  This led to idle unsupervised urban children.  They started running around as street gangs and causing all sorts of problems – thus mandatory schooling.  Mandatory schooling (necessary for a modern society) has extended childhood until today (at least in the US) where age 25 (more or less) marks the final entry into adulthood.    It is along these lines that most elven societies are portrayed.  Elven children don’t have to assume the responsibilities of adulthood until they are in their early 100’s because they have that luxury.I have a slightly different take on elven society:Premise 1:  You have humanoids that live to 552 years on average and can live up to 750 years.Premise 2:  As a person gets older, he resents more and more restrictions placed upon him by other people.Premise 3:  Wizards get more powerful with age and thus can get away with ignoring such restrictions.Premise 4:  Elves are natural wizards.  (IMHO, elves should get a -2 STR, +2 INT, +2 CHA)Given these premises, it is much more likely that elven societies have few, if any laws.  Societal alignment will tend towards chaotic neutral.  Since there are no laws to speak of, interactions between elves resemble negotiations.  There is no absolute right or wrong since everything is negotiable.  Because of this and the fact that you don’t want to insult a powerful wizard, the language would have many subtleties and nuance.  It would also have many forms of address and be very circumspect.There would be no single leader of any elven community.  Instead, the de facto ruler would be either the most powerful elf or the leader of the most powerful alliance.  An elven community would not necessarily unite behind any given cause unless all members are equally threatened.  An outsider trying to get aid from a particular community would probably have to negotiate with each and everyone one of them for aid.  That outsider would also have to be careful not to inadvertently insult anyone of them.It would likely take a long period of time to learn all of the nuance of elven language and culture before one could operate within it with any degree of proficiency.  Customs, histories, manners, and alliances (both current and past) would all have to be learned perfectly.  Mispronunciation of a person’s name or associating them with the wrong family or alliance could prove disastrous.  While young elves are physically mature by about age 15, they still have much to learn before they are taken seriously by their elders – the same problem 19-24 year-olds face in our society.  This is why younger elves are more likely to leave home to seek adventure.  Outside of the stifling culture of their elders they have more freedom to make mistakes without permanently staining their reputation.Because of their long lifespans, elves tend to avoid personal risk.  They employ other races to do their fighting for them.  Summoned creatures and constructs, both mechanical and biological, form the bulk of their personal defenses.  They would not be adverse to slavery to solve certain problems.  They would also have not qualms about using geas and domination type spells to compel others to act on their behalf.Finally, I tend to view elves as a 1st world society with everyone else as a 2nd or 3rd world society (at least from the elven point of view).  They use magic instead of technology.  One of the big advantages of technology is labor saving devices.  These devices provide individuals more time to pursue activities unrelated to survival.  The same would be true of an elven society but to a much higher degree.  More free time and less worries about survival also leads to longer childhood.</blockquote>

Verification