Avlis timeline and elves

GreyLynx · Post by **GreyLynx** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 12:19 am

The time during which the races have been on Avlis is extremely short for elves (no duh, you say). So I have a double-question. The old AD&D had elves living up to 1700 yrs, then in 2nd ed. they would leave the world after 700 even though they haven't died, then finally 3E has elves living ~700 yrs, if I remember correctly. So the first part of the question is what life-span do elves have in Avlis? 2500 years leaves room for anywhere from 5 to 12 generations since the beginning of the world. On the short end, this might make for some very alien perceptions of the world. For example, the elves might be expected to be *very* familiar with their creation. Living elves today might even have spoken with elves that witnessed it! What is the perspective of the elves and the creation of their race and their world?

Post by **Orleron** » Wed Jul 23, 2003 1:23 am

This is correct. If you figure the average elf has kids between age 200 and 300, then there are not that many generations as some of the other races.

The end of the Great War was no more than 8 generations ago for the elves. Thus you can bet that their knowledge of events is a little more first hand than some of the other races. The elven view of the world is that it's not very old indeed. Though you gotta remember the dynamics on Avlis: none of the nine major races is much older than the others. So elves and humans are equally ancient. Elves will acknowledge that, but whereas the humans think that they are the be-all end-all of the universe, the elves understand that they may be playing a small part in the larger plan of things, of which they have very little information. For one thing, they realize that even though Avlis is a relatively young world, there must be something else out there which they do not know about. This is acknowledged in their philosiphies, especially that of Dru'El.