Ok, so hear me out. A human generation is typically 20-30 years because that is the average time frame in which parents will have children, A family of humans, living for 75-100 years tends to have on average 1-3 children.
But what about elves. Elves reach physical maturity at the same rate as humans but don't reach "adulthood" until they are 100 years of age, and they live for 750 years on average. They don't have as many kids as humans or at the very least don't reproduce as often or as fast, but what exactly would an elven generation look like. If you were charting an elven family tree how would you separate them by generation, how far apart are children born and how long do elves live before finding a husband/wife and having kids.
Obviously I'm not referring to the hideaway partially xenophobic unsocial elves, but those who live in populated settlements, like families of elves who have lived in the same city or other cities for generations, decades, or centuries.
Elves are a lot different than humans in many ways. One of them is their soul. Humans are born with them and do whatever and end up going to whatever afterlife they are heading toward. Elves have a finite number of souls that get reincarnated. There is not a new soul created when an elf is born, ever. They are not allowed into their heaven with Corellon as they were cast out so they just get recycled again and again. Their first 100 years of their meditative state are them remembering their other lives and eventually when those disappear they are adults and head out on their own. An elf that does not worship Corellon does not get reincarnated and goes the same way as a human or other race.
You'd probably see a kid under 100, an adult in the mid 300-400, and the elder over 750 before they die and get reincarnated.
I recommend MToF if you really want to delve into it.
When it come to "generations" they are really just term made up to look at a group of people born closely around the same age. However elves reproduce so infrequently that siblings can be decades if not centuries apart. So an elven child may never meet their siblings if they don't return home or make an effort to see them when the reach adulthood. They vmay also be the only elf born to a village for several years. It means that there is an interesting dynamic at play when it comes to childhood years. AS the next youngest elf in the village may be 60 compared to the 6 year old running around.
Elven families are very different parental care really lasts in our eyes a long time, but very short when looked at by an Elf. However, due to most elves leaving home to explore and learn about the word in their adult centuries, I would assume many families aren't started till an elf is maybe 300-400 years old.
I think this could go a lot of different ways depending on however you want to approach it in your campaign setting.
You could have them reproduce at the same rate as humans, resulting in large multi-generational families where you may have a grandfather the same age as you. I would think their idea of parentage in that case may be somewhat divorced from their idea of maturity or the shared, worldview-sculpting events that define what we refer to as generations. This would also result in a rapidly increasing population, so maybe they're reckless and war-prone or have some other unusual way of limiting their numbers.
Or you could do something more similar to the posts above. If you like following rules of our world, being longer-lived, capable of caring for young, and rarely dying would result in a species that reproduces very slowly. Keep in mind though that if your average elf doesn't produce at least one child (so two children per pair if that's what it takes for your elves to reproduce), their numbers will slowly dwindle over the ages.
Personally, in light of the newer shift towards rethinking about shared culture and what that means in terms of a "race" of people, I think it would be interesting to have wildly different familial structures among elves. Some individuals may love having and caring for children, raising multiple "generations" of kids of their own during their lives (these families could be akin to factions in and of themselves - you could have a huge, continent-spanning merchant franchise that is literally a family business). Some may wish to achieve personal goals and adventure for 500 years before settling down to have a family, and some may choose not to reproduce at all. Basically, the same variation we see in humans, but somewhat exaggerated and with more options. I think this also better echoes the supposed chaotic nature of the fey as opposed to having rigid reproductive rules and traditions.
MToF does delve into the culture of elves and aspects of their afterlife including how they age. Their outlook on things is different because they are so long lived and they don't reside in Arvandor permanently but keep getting reincarnated into new bodies. It even discusses their Trance ability and how this changes over the course of their lives and affects how they live.
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"A rightful place awaits you in the Realms Above, in the Land of the Great Light. Come in peace, and live beneath the sun again, where trees and flowers grow."
— The message of Eilistraee to all decent drow.
"Run thy sword across my chains, Silver Lady, that I may join your dance.”
— A basic prayer.
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Ok, so hear me out. A human generation is typically 20-30 years because that is the average time frame in which parents will have children, A family of humans, living for 75-100 years tends to have on average 1-3 children.
But what about elves. Elves reach physical maturity at the same rate as humans but don't reach "adulthood" until they are 100 years of age, and they live for 750 years on average. They don't have as many kids as humans or at the very least don't reproduce as often or as fast, but what exactly would an elven generation look like. If you were charting an elven family tree how would you separate them by generation, how far apart are children born and how long do elves live before finding a husband/wife and having kids.
Obviously I'm not referring to the hideaway partially xenophobic unsocial elves, but those who live in populated settlements, like families of elves who have lived in the same city or other cities for generations, decades, or centuries.
Elves are a lot different than humans in many ways. One of them is their soul. Humans are born with them and do whatever and end up going to whatever afterlife they are heading toward. Elves have a finite number of souls that get reincarnated. There is not a new soul created when an elf is born, ever. They are not allowed into their heaven with Corellon as they were cast out so they just get recycled again and again. Their first 100 years of their meditative state are them remembering their other lives and eventually when those disappear they are adults and head out on their own. An elf that does not worship Corellon does not get reincarnated and goes the same way as a human or other race.
You'd probably see a kid under 100, an adult in the mid 300-400, and the elder over 750 before they die and get reincarnated.
I recommend MToF if you really want to delve into it.
When it come to "generations" they are really just term made up to look at a group of people born closely around the same age. However elves reproduce so infrequently that siblings can be decades if not centuries apart. So an elven child may never meet their siblings if they don't return home or make an effort to see them when the reach adulthood. They vmay also be the only elf born to a village for several years. It means that there is an interesting dynamic at play when it comes to childhood years. AS the next youngest elf in the village may be 60 compared to the 6 year old running around.
Elven families are very different parental care really lasts in our eyes a long time, but very short when looked at by an Elf. However, due to most elves leaving home to explore and learn about the word in their adult centuries, I would assume many families aren't started till an elf is maybe 300-400 years old.
I think this could go a lot of different ways depending on however you want to approach it in your campaign setting.
You could have them reproduce at the same rate as humans, resulting in large multi-generational families where you may have a grandfather the same age as you. I would think their idea of parentage in that case may be somewhat divorced from their idea of maturity or the shared, worldview-sculpting events that define what we refer to as generations. This would also result in a rapidly increasing population, so maybe they're reckless and war-prone or have some other unusual way of limiting their numbers.
Or you could do something more similar to the posts above. If you like following rules of our world, being longer-lived, capable of caring for young, and rarely dying would result in a species that reproduces very slowly. Keep in mind though that if your average elf doesn't produce at least one child (so two children per pair if that's what it takes for your elves to reproduce), their numbers will slowly dwindle over the ages.
Personally, in light of the newer shift towards rethinking about shared culture and what that means in terms of a "race" of people, I think it would be interesting to have wildly different familial structures among elves. Some individuals may love having and caring for children, raising multiple "generations" of kids of their own during their lives (these families could be akin to factions in and of themselves - you could have a huge, continent-spanning merchant franchise that is literally a family business). Some may wish to achieve personal goals and adventure for 500 years before settling down to have a family, and some may choose not to reproduce at all. Basically, the same variation we see in humans, but somewhat exaggerated and with more options. I think this also better echoes the supposed chaotic nature of the fey as opposed to having rigid reproductive rules and traditions.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
MToF does delve into the culture of elves and aspects of their afterlife including how they age. Their outlook on things is different because they are so long lived and they don't reside in Arvandor permanently but keep getting reincarnated into new bodies. It even discusses their Trance ability and how this changes over the course of their lives and affects how they live.