Age of Races

[Sylveria]

Hi there together. When writing the Lore for one of my characters and when reading the TurtleRP flags of others, there's one huge inconsitency: the AGE of the characters considering their race.

As an example: When i read about a female High Elf who is just 22yrs old, I'd consider her to be a little child in the eyes of her people and propably by her cultures standard.

When looking up the different races, i found to tables: One "canon" (which has propably been retconned several times) and the "non-canon" one from the WarCraft RPG.
Brings me to the Question: Which one would we or you consider to be the "right" one?

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Life_spans

The "canon" one has most races entering adulthood similar to humans.


The one from the RPG has very different ones though, which feels more "authentic" to me.


As an example the Night Elves. I read that Night Elfs wouldn't get their Tattoos until their rite of passage, entering adulthood. Without marks they're seen as children (or they deem themselves not worthy of their facial marks yet).

What are your thoughts on this?

[Fat7ui]

Same knowledge no matter the lifespan imo
living 10k years wont make your 20 years worth less

[Sylveria]

Same knowledge no matter the lifespan imo
living 10k years wont make your 20 years worth less

it makes a cultural difference though how you're seen among your own kin.
Ingame we're not in the modern world with a modern society, that says that the word of a child weighs the same amount like that of an elder.

[Fat7ui]

True but few will go with it

[Sylveria]

Same knowledge no matter the lifespan imo
living 10k years wont make your 20 years worth less

And No Matter the age Same knowledge IS Just nonsense. A 20yrs old doesnt know sh*t about the world compared to someone who walks the world for 10k years. They Lack experience. Another reason why i See the age-list from the RPG as "more realistic". The Nightelves facial marks aren't Just a sign of maturity or adulthood, but that they know themselves, their personality, their strenghts and weaknesses well. They have a Solid personality, Something that Most wouldnt propably even achieve in 30-40 years. Their facial marks aren't Chosen randomly but have meaning behind them. Therefore i See an age of 110 for Nightelves reaching adulthood as more believable
Note: Dont Mix Up physical maturity with adulthood btw.

[Zulnam]

Technically the night elves were immortal until Warcraft 3, right?

So not sure how that's supposed to work. When they lost their immortality did everyone like start from 0 in terms of ageing and got 1k years, 2 tops to go?

Or did everyone who was over 2,000 years old just turn to ash like they were in a scene from Avengers Endgame?

Anyway, my hot take on age in RP is: don't do it. Stick to young, middle-aged, old. RPing in a lore-friendly manner can be complicated (and at times tedious), so simplify your life by removing unnecessary complexities.

Someone asks for your age? Tell them old enough to remember their mum's first time.

Follow me for more horrible advice.

[Sylveria]

Technically the night elves were immortal until Warcraft 3, right?

So not sure how that's supposed to work. When they lost their immortality did everyone like start from 0 in terms of ageing and got 1k years, 2 tops to go?

Or did everyone who was over 2,000 years old just turn to ash like they were in a scene from Avengers Endgame?

I guess Entering Adulthood won't have anything to do if you're immortal or not.. at least not necessarily.
Even before their immortality, Night Elves were a long living race anyway. So I guess on side it's their longlivety AND their culture determining when one enters adulthood. (That's why i wrote in my previous post, that one shouldn't mix up physical maturity and adulthood.) And since Elves are a long liveing race, i guess it would make sense, also in their cultural context and their personality as a race, that they would enter adulthood in a (for human standards) high age..?

Regarding the loss of immortality, i guess that when they were immortal, they just stopped ageing at a certain point. So when they lost their immortality, time continued ticking for them as when they stopped ageing. At least that's my big guess.

Anyway, my hot take on age in RP is: don't do it. Stick to young, middle-aged, old. RPing in a lore-friendly manner can be complicated (and at times tedious), so simplify your life by removing unnecessary complexities.

I kinda guess you're right. Nonetheless i see many people out their putting a specific age into their RPflag. That's why i came up with that topic in the first place. ^^ And then i always have to wonder: "Are they now "young" by their races standards, or do i have to measure it by human standards?"

[Nienor]

Night Elves being considered adults at 20 is laughably bad for such a long lived race. Adolescence is strongly related to life span. For an extremely long lived race they have the luxury of taking that time to gain maturity. Humans don't so we work with the years we have. Most humans are not mature by 20. Some might be but why lower the bar when you don't have to?

[Sylveria]

Night Elves being considered adults at 20 is laughably bad for such a long lived race. Adolescence is strongly related to life span. For an extremely long lived race they have the luxury of taking that time to gain maturity. Humans don't so we work with the years we have. Most humans are not mature by 20. Some might be but why lower the bar when you don't have to?

Agreed on Most Parts, that's why i, personally, would consider the "non-canon" table from the Warcraft RPG to be the true one regarding the ages.

And as i Said: people shouldn't confuse physical maturity with considered being an adult in your culture/society.

Nightelves considered adults at the age of ~110 seems believable.

[Rei]

I do believe that different ages for adulthood and such adds more to the world than it detracts from it. Though it does make it more difficult to play something so foreign to our own irl experience. However challenging ourselves to fit the shoes of very long lived or short lived characters is a good challenge for those that wish to take it.

[Rei]

Also thank you for the link with the info

[Cyborgjiro]

tbf even for us humans people who are in there 40s see people in their 20s as essentially kids I often see people in their 50s see people in their 30s as kids essentially. There are mature people in their mid 20s, immature people in there 40s. adulthood is generally seen as when your body stops growing. So assuming they are adult sized, they can be considered "adults" no matter how old their race can live. But sure culturally yes, people that young will still be seen as kids to most.

But think.. how much time does it really take to learn the bare minimum as an adult. What are you doing till 110+? Thats an entire lifetime, unless you spend it lounging around, how are you not learning and maturing? You dont need 100 years for that if we are being realistic.

Its so weird to make any fantasy race that long lived. Id personally limit it to dragons or something akin to that.

[Sylveria]

tbf even for us humans people who are in there 40s see people in their 20s as essentially kids I often see people in their 50s see people in their 30s as kids essentially. There are mature people in their mid 20s, immature people in there 40s. adulthood is generally seen as when your body stops growing. So assuming they are adult sized, they can be considered "adults" no matter how old their race can live. But sure culturally yes, people that young will still be seen as kids to most.

But think.. how much time does it really take to learn the bare minimum as an adult. What are you doing till 110+? Thats an entire lifetime, unless you spend it lounging around, how are you not learning and maturing? You dont need 100 years for that if we are being realistic.

Its so weird to make any fantasy race that long lived. Id personally limit it to dragons or something akin to that.

The longer a Race lives, the more knowledge can be obtained and the more time you can spend on perfecting certain skills. We have little knowledge about the deeper culture of certain races, we dont know what it means To be a nightelf child for example or what it means for them To reach "adulthood/maturity". I'd Like To learn more about their culture in those regards. Maybe they really have To perfect certain skills, need To "train Off" certain traits that May be considered immature/childish in their culture, etc.
We tend to See the Other races To be the Same as Humans, but they are Not. Maybe they also "grow Up" (personality wise) at a different pace than Humans, that they Take (in many or Most cases) longer To be "mature".

But as said: in those regards we know little about the Other races.

[Bellybutton]

I've always used the RPG life spans for well over 15 years. They feel more in-line with the Vanilla fantasy and the supposed "canon" always felt off. I get that the RPG was made more and more non-canon as WoW's expansions went on and on, but I feel for the context of Vanilla WoW and WC3, the RPG is a solid source of information for writing and roleplaying.

[Valari]

Night Elves being considered adults at 20 is laughably bad for such a long lived race. Adolescence is strongly related to life span. For an extremely long lived race they have the luxury of taking that time to gain maturity. Humans don't so we work with the years we have. Most humans are not mature by 20. Some might be but why lower the bar when you don't have to?

Indeed. Socially, a 20 year old would be a minuscule spec in the endless lifespan of someone 15,000 plus years old. To ensure all characters are adults in the Nightsong Sentinels regardless of which reference is used, we ask for the adult elf to be 300. It feels so much more authentic.