Half-elf age

[Kenneth Gauck]

- -----Original Message-----
From: GeeMan
Date: Monday, May 17, 1999 7:51 PM
>
>I wasn't fooled. It seemed pretty obviously to be a tongue-in-cheek
argument to
>me....
>
>Gary

Then I am a victim of haveing been unable to have identified the humor, no
doubt owing to my earnest reading of the original message.

Kenneth Gauck
c558382@earthlink.net

[JNeighb934@aol.co]

I think it would make sense that the lifespan of a half-elf would depend
mostly on whether the half-elf chooses to live as an elf or as a man. This
is based on the Tolkien idea of the half-elf being given a choice, but it is
his choice of lifestyle that is the determining factor on lifespan. A
half-elf who lives among elves deep in an elven land may practically live
forever (I don't think they should be completely immortal, however), but one
who lives in a human city with a human mindset and is mainly concerned with
human issues could have a lifespan approximately equal to that given for
half-elves in the PHB, which would be the low end of the scale for Birthright
half-elves. I would find it pretty disturbing if a character like Guilder
Kalien could live forever, not to mention the negative effect on game
balance. Elven immortality is balanced out by their respect for life and
individual freedom of choice. An immortal evil half-elf who thinks like a
human would certainly make a ruthless try for the Iron Throne, and would
probably eventually succeed. Time would be on his side. Too unbalancing, I
say.

[DKEvermore@aol.co]

In a message dated 5/17/99 7:15:23 PM Central Daylight Time,
c558382@earthlink.net writes:

> Declaring their lifespan infinite because the "elven componant is superior"
> is not what you said. I am arguing with the poor math that claimed it was
> an average of both parents. That argument is essentially the same as
> arguing any number of instantaneous actions are allowable in one round.
>
> The argument you originally claimed and the one under which you now cloak
> yourself are two distinct arguments. I trust the list is not fooled.
>
> Kenneth Gauck
> c558382@earthlink.net
>

Thankfully you are not the list's spokesman.

Hey, Ken, knock knock!! Anybody home? Re-read my message again and you'll
see it was meant tongue-in-cheeck with little laughing smileys.

Here, I'll post it again and explain it to you since you're a little too
obtuse to understand it on your own:

> You could try it mathematically.
This is funny because we're talking genetics, not math. ha-ha.

> Lessee... Elves life forever, [unmolested, that is :)]. We'll give them
infinity for a > potential life span.

I inserted small joke there.

> Now you mate this elf with a human... giving the human a maximum potential
life
> span of say... 120 years.

> Now you have i=infinity.

> (i + 120) / 2 = max potential life span of offspring.

> Half of infinity plus something is still infinity. So, you might rule half
elves
> potentially live forever. But this is waaaaay too logical for fantasy. ;-D

And there is me way at the end laughing because I thought I made a joke.

I apologize to this list for not being funny.

However, it was at this point you decided to take a lightly-meant, easy
explanation very seriously. The point you miss is that this is FANTASY.
You've got rennaisance cultures and no gunpowder. You've got all kinds of
bad logic. It does not make it less fun or less believable. Is the AD&D
explanation of magic "intelluctually lazy"? Of course it is. Are the
explanations of magically-created mystical creatures "intellectually lazy",
sure as heck it is.

Although I meant it in fun, using bad math is no less valid than saying the
stars of Cerilia took their place in the sky when the new gods arose after
Deismaar.

Ken, I think you were in a poor mood and just decided to pick an argument.
I've seen you do this many times before since you began subscribing to this
list, what --a year and half ago?

- -DKE

[DKEvermore@aol.co]

In a message dated 5/18/99 5:16:30 AM Central Daylight Time,
JNeighb934@aol.com writes:

> Elven immortality is balanced out by their respect for life and
> individual freedom of choice. An immortal evil half-elf who thinks like a
> human would certainly make a ruthless try for the Iron Throne, and would
> probably eventually succeed. Time would be on his side. Too unbalancing,
I
>
> say.

You could be right. But on the otherhand, elves are generally feared by
humans. You could choose to extend that to half-elves, too. Might not be
enough to stop them from tyrannical ruling and a ruthless move on the Iron
Throne. In the end, though he'd still have to have the right bloodline.
- -Dustin Evermore

[Trizt]

DKEvermore@aol.com wrote:

> > Elven immortality is balanced out by their respect for life and
> > individual freedom of choice. An immortal evil half-elf who thinks like a
> > human would certainly make a ruthless try for the Iron Throne, and would
> > probably eventually succeed. Time would be on his side. Too unbalancing,

> You could be right. But on the otherhand, elves are generally feared by
> humans. You could choose to extend that to half-elves, too. Might not be
> enough to stop them from tyrannical ruling and a ruthless move on the Iron
> Throne. In the end, though he'd still have to have the right bloodline.

Didn't it say in the setting box that half-elves wheren't well accepted amongst
humans?

But anyhow, immortality don't say that there will not happen a bad acident for
an evil holder of the Iron Throne.


//Trizt

[RocksHope@aol.co]

In a message dated 5/18/99, 9:56:28 AM, birthright@mpgn.com writes:

[DKEvermore@aol.co]

In a message dated 5/18/99 11:55:06 AM Central Daylight Time,
RocksHope@aol.com writes:

> As an aside, if elves are immortal, do they age? Or do they just not die?
> What would a 100,000 year old elf be like? Old?
>
In my campaign, I have elves slow and eventually stop aging. Their very
eldest (such as the Alvenking of Cwmb Bheinn who has be alive since before
Deismaar) manage to gain only the look of middle-age (30-50), depending on
the sorrow in their life. I do allow for an elf to look "temporarily" old
when displaying grief for very great periods of time (decades).

One player wanted to look incredibly "wizened" and old and still be an elf.
We put together a story describing how he was terribly burned in a fire and
it healed naturally (elves don't have priests in my Cerilia). The "wizened"
look, therefore was gained because of scar tissue.

- -Dustin Evermore

[geeman]

DKEvermore@aol.com wrote:

> > As an aside, if elves are immortal, do they age? Or do they just not die?
> > What would a 100,000 year old elf be like? Old?
> >
> In my campaign, I have elves slow and eventually stop aging. Their very
> eldest (such as the Alvenking of Cwmb Bheinn who has be alive since before
> Deismaar) manage to gain only the look of middle-age (30-50), depending on
> the sorrow in their life. I do allow for an elf to look "temporarily" old
> when displaying grief for very great periods of time (decades).

This actually makes gobs of sense to me. I'm going to do the same in my
campaign regaring the age of elves. Elven "immortality" will be physically
manifested by the range of 30-50 in human years. Perfect.

Gary