Elven Longevity

[masterdaorin]

Hey all,

I've been thinking of making a slight tweek to the BR rules regarding the agelessness of elves.

I was thinking that elves do not age while they are in fey areas that remain unspoiled by the hand of other non-fey races. If they are outside of these fey areas, elves do age, at the same rates as table 6.4 in Chapter 6 of the PHB.

What do you all think of this change? Too radical?

I am aiming here to explain (or provide a more tangible benefit) to elven provinces...

[Sorontar]

How do you define unspoilt? What if elven military occupy Anuirean or Brecht lands? How do you keep count - per day or per week or per month?

[masterdaorin]

Well, there are some provinces where the Source Potential remains at its terrain value despite the population level being more than 0, and other provinces in elven realms where that is not the case.

I'm trying to explain that.

I'm going with the premise that the latter have lost their fey-ness - they are no longer truly sylvan provinces, for whatever reason.

Hoping that the idea that this affects more than just the mebhaighl in the province adds a certain... sense of doom to the elves.

Most elves probably don't even realize the full scope of this devastating effect... this is probably a recent development, perhaps in the last generation, where the elven realms' borders have been breached by this destructive influence across Cerilia.

I'm not sure tracking this in game would be the goal here. Just, that this is the explanation. Those elves living on the fringes of their realms seem to be suffering from a mysterious malady... perhaps they don't understand that they have become mortal... etc.

Can provinces developed by other races be reverted back to sylvan provinces say, if an elven group recaptured the land from the colonizers? This game hasn't addressed that idea...

My feeling is that, in keeping with the lost civilization theme re: elves, that this is an irreversible tragedy... once a non-elven race moves in and disturbs the delicate balance of the environment, it would take a long time for it to recover.

Thoughts?

[AndrewTall]

sounds interesting, and for a twist you could say that humans who live "as an elf" don't age either or age at a slower pace.

For unspoilt I would use source level - 8 or 9 means no aging, 7 slow aging, etc. That way an elf can go and live with a human in a human province but would have to give up immortality, while a human like Torele, mage of Talinie who went to live as an elf would have slowed aging.

That does however give issues for the high mage and likely a few others, but that could be addressed with the long life blood power.

For tracking I would make it background and not sweat the small stuff, there's enough book-keeping already...

[masterdaorin]

sounds interesting, and for a twist you could say that humans who live "as an elf" don't age either or age at a slower pace.

That's what I was thinking.

However, since the affect is so unnoticeable (that is, unless you stepped outside the forest after several centuries), it wouldn't come into gameplay, realistically speaking.

For unspoilt I would use source level - 8 or 9 means no aging, 7 slow aging, etc. That way an elf can go and live with a human in a human province but would have to give up immortality, while a human like Torele, mage of Talinie who went to live as an elf would have slowed aging.

It's already built in to the game data. Most elven provinces have suffered this "degradation", and only a handful retain their sylvan natures.

If a province doesn't have it's full Source Potential, then its not sylvan anymore...

That does however give issues for the high mage and likely a few others, but that could be addressed with the long life blood power.

Exactly, though as above, half-elves also live long as well, so I'm not too worried about that.

For tracking I would make it background and not sweat the small stuff, there's enough book-keeping already...

I was going to make this a racial ability reference in the elf character race description, as a reference line in their "ageless" race ability.

Honestly, unless your gaming group goes out of their way to make this an issue, it won't come up. I believe it's more a tool to help DM's tailor story-related plots and hooks.

[masterdaorin]

My concern, really, is, does this change the "feel" of elf characters too much (as they are portrayed in BR)?