#blodgharm

It has been said over and over again, The Inheritance Cycle has so many outstanding issues, problems, contradictions that I've lost count.

But one that particularly sticks out for me is Galbatorix's knowledge of certain things.

All right, he's the all-powerful, mysterious king, whatever you want, but do you remember the final battle?

Here Galbatorix first spoke of the Eldunarya that Eragon had found in the Vault of Souls. I mean, Gal looked at a point in the void (where the invisible Eldunarya were) and said "Hey Umaroth wassup" as if it were nothing

h o w is that possible

Eragon went to Vroengard with only Saphira and Glaedr; he later spoke about it with Blodgharm, Islanzadi, Orik, Orrin, Jörmundur and Roran. (I assume Nasuada knew it too, but I don't remember exactly the scene)

No one else learned of this, and Eragon revealed the secret on a hill a long way from the camp, and in any case I very much doubt that all those trained people, especially the elves, would not have noticed that someone else was listening them.

Eragon also made everyone swear in the Ancient Language to secrecy.

I repeat, how is it possible that Galbatorix knew this before they even entered the Throne Room?

Me:

It’s canon that elves were shown to the dragon eggs at age 20, and humans were shown to the eggs at age 10.

Going from this, I have 2 ideas on how elves age compared to humans:

1: 1 elf year = 2 human years (of development. Pretty simple, at age 10 an elf is as developed as a 5 years old human, at 30 (around the point where their magical boost starts to fade and they reach “of age”) they match a 15 years old human (which checks out since people used to be considered adults much earlier, also adds a certain horror to the war if 30 year old elves and 15 year old humans are considered a normal sight on an Alagaesian battlefield). This tapers of after a certain point; 100 year old Arya is not considered the elf equivalent of 50 (which I’m assuming is around the 5-800 year mark, accounting for individual competence, wisdom and experience). Maybe you need to divide it by 3-4 from age 60-99, then by 5 afterwards? It gets weird the older they get, since their mental growth probably isn’t also linear.