I like the idea in fantasy that humans are better at maintaining things long term because they set up societies or professions to do it whereas dwarves and elves and stuff are like βjust get bob to do it heβs got a good few hundred years leftβ and then bob doesnβt teach anyone else how to do it
Elf: How have you kept this castle maintained for a thousand years if your lives are so short?
Human: We just train new people how to do it?
Elf: *gears visibly turning in their head*
Human: Are you alright?
Elf: I just realized that we didnβt have to let that whole city fall to ruin just because my grandfather died.
Human: What?
Human: Wait thatβs why thereβs ruins of elven cities even though you live for so long? You just keep not asking people how to do things? How do you learn anything?
Elf: Thereβs a lot of βyouβve got time to figure it out on your ownβ attitudes floating around in our society that Iβm starting to question somewhat.
Elf: That sword, where did you get it?
Human: My cousin made it.
Elf: Impossible! Those metalworking techniques were lost a hundred years ago!
Human: What do you mean lost? My great-grandmother learned to make these swords from an elven smith, then taught it to her kids.
Elf: That's ridiculous. No elf would give such secrets to a human.
Human: They didn't. Meemaw delivered the metal to the forge, and no one kicked her out when she stayed and watched. She always said they barely acknowledged her even when doing business with her, like she wasn't worth noticing.
Elf: Come to think of it, my great-uncle always was rather single-minded when he started working.
Human: So he wasn't ignoring her, he just forgot she was there?
Elf: Oh, he was definitely ignoring her, too. He was super racist.
#immortals/long lived species would probably have much less of a concept of legacy
#you don't need figurative immortality if you have literal immortality
(from @charlesoberonn)























