Consider this before having a Human and Elf get together
I just wanted to bring to light some issues with Human and Elves getting into a relationship on the IC logic of the situation. Please keep in mind this is an OOC breakdown of IC logic of why I think this should be very rare, and certainly far rarer than it is on HW. Also this is not a knock at any one player or one group. This is just something I’ve observed over my two years being here now and was just prompted to finally write on it due to recent discussions. You are free to disagree but before you tear it apart please read what I have to say.
Elves are a long lived race. Their average lifespan is between 250 to 300 years of age across the board under lore. Seeing as HW players tends to max out life spans that would realistically go to 300 years. Humans with modern medicine can expect to live around their 80s. Give or take a couple decades based on a myriad of factors. Medieval life expectancy was much lower with an average of 30 due to the high infant mortality rate, if you survived to 18 you could reasonable expect to extend that number to your mid sixties.
The reason I bring up lifespans is the obvious disparity between them. A human at modern 80 years life span lives a little over ¼ of the lifespan of an Elf. When adapted for normal human lifespan in the medieval period of 64 it goes to Elves living 4.6 times longer than humans. This is roughly the same number of a dog's average life span of 14 years compared to humans. Meaning Elves would likely come to see humans as something akin to our beloved canine companions at least in lifespan comparisons.
It would be a taboo likely to become too close to humans because quite simply you are going to watch them grow old and die. In the same time it takes an elf to go from kindergarten to graduating High School (Not actual years but the equivalent to a human lifespan to elvish) the Human has been born, grown old and died.
This would be a huge mental burden as anyone who has raised a puppy or kitten all their life and watched them grow old and finally pass away can attest to. Step this up a notch to that kitten or puppy was capable of talking and forming social bonds on the level of a human, the pain of becoming too close to a human would simply prove too strenuous for many Elves to risk forming any meaningful bonds.
Now stepping away from the pet analogy and onto the main point. Marrying and having children. Imagine for a moment that you are an elf and approached by a human who wants a relationship. Before you reached middle age, the human will grow old and die and you will have to bury him or her. Not to mention be their primary caretaker in their older years.
Then imagine you have children with this partner and you have a fifty fifty chance of them being human. This would be terrifying to the Elven partner. Not because of some perceived racism but because the Elvish parent would raise their human child, watch them grow up, have kids of their own and then die of old age having to bury their own child. Then do the same thing with their grandkids having to bury them all again. Depending on when they do this it's highly possible that an Elvish parent could see five to six generations of their descendants live and die before they finally die.
You say, but Imm they can have Elvish children too and we can choose! You choose OOC, IC your characters have no way of knowing if the child is human or Elven. Instead they would spend the entire time of the pregnancy waiting to see if it was human or Elven. At least until 9 months where if it's born then boom human baby, later it's elven.
All this to say Elves who get in relationships with humans are going into a suicidal relationship. As they know barring war, disease or some terrible accident they are going to watch this loved one die of old age and risk having to see their own children die. This kind of emotional trauma could easily drive someone to insanity. There is no lets grow old together in a human and elven relationship. Just heartache that they see coming from the very beginning.
I just wanted to bring to light some issues with Human and Elves getting into a relationship on the IC logic of the situation. Please keep in mind this is an OOC breakdown of IC logic of why I think this should be very rare, and certainly far rarer than it is on HW. Also this is not a knock at any one player or one group. This is just something I’ve observed over my two years being here now and was just prompted to finally write on it due to recent discussions. You are free to disagree but before you tear it apart please read what I have to say.
Elves are a long lived race. Their average lifespan is between 250 to 300 years of age across the board under lore. Seeing as HW players tends to max out life spans that would realistically go to 300 years. Humans with modern medicine can expect to live around their 80s. Give or take a couple decades based on a myriad of factors. Medieval life expectancy was much lower with an average of 30 due to the high infant mortality rate, if you survived to 18 you could reasonable expect to extend that number to your mid sixties.
The reason I bring up lifespans is the obvious disparity between them. A human at modern 80 years life span lives a little over ¼ of the lifespan of an Elf. When adapted for normal human lifespan in the medieval period of 64 it goes to Elves living 4.6 times longer than humans. This is roughly the same number of a dog's average life span of 14 years compared to humans. Meaning Elves would likely come to see humans as something akin to our beloved canine companions at least in lifespan comparisons.
It would be a taboo likely to become too close to humans because quite simply you are going to watch them grow old and die. In the same time it takes an elf to go from kindergarten to graduating High School (Not actual years but the equivalent to a human lifespan to elvish) the Human has been born, grown old and died.
This would be a huge mental burden as anyone who has raised a puppy or kitten all their life and watched them grow old and finally pass away can attest to. Step this up a notch to that kitten or puppy was capable of talking and forming social bonds on the level of a human, the pain of becoming too close to a human would simply prove too strenuous for many Elves to risk forming any meaningful bonds.
Now stepping away from the pet analogy and onto the main point. Marrying and having children. Imagine for a moment that you are an elf and approached by a human who wants a relationship. Before you reached middle age, the human will grow old and die and you will have to bury him or her. Not to mention be their primary caretaker in their older years.
Then imagine you have children with this partner and you have a fifty fifty chance of them being human. This would be terrifying to the Elven partner. Not because of some perceived racism but because the Elvish parent would raise their human child, watch them grow up, have kids of their own and then die of old age having to bury their own child. Then do the same thing with their grandkids having to bury them all again. Depending on when they do this it's highly possible that an Elvish parent could see five to six generations of their descendants live and die before they finally die.
You say, but Imm they can have Elvish children too and we can choose! You choose OOC, IC your characters have no way of knowing if the child is human or Elven. Instead they would spend the entire time of the pregnancy waiting to see if it was human or Elven. At least until 9 months where if it's born then boom human baby, later it's elven.
All this to say Elves who get in relationships with humans are going into a suicidal relationship. As they know barring war, disease or some terrible accident they are going to watch this loved one die of old age and risk having to see their own children die. This kind of emotional trauma could easily drive someone to insanity. There is no lets grow old together in a human and elven relationship. Just heartache that they see coming from the very beginning.
