#morri rambles

I'm going to use elves from Dungeons & Dragons as my example here, but it applies to all kind of species across many many works and worlds. According to the Player's Handbook, D&D elves can easily live to be 750 years old. As in, that's their average life expectancy. Obviously that means that even longer lifespans are possible.

The PHB also says that elves "claim adulthood and an adult name at the age of 100". People have interpreted this many ways. I've seen takes that elves physically mature at the same rate as humans (what the PHB technically says), and "adulthood" is based on experience. (i.e., a certain level of life experience or worldliness needed to be taken seriously by other elves.) This works pretty well for D&D, because it provides a good excuse for your elven adventurers to be out exploring the world.

I've also seen a couple of takes in people's fantasy worlds or hypothetical situations where elves really do just age that slowly, including physically. (I once saw a post where someone talked about how weird it would be for a human to be babysat by a "teenage" elf, and have them be barely reaching adulthood by the time they die.)

Both of these takes have interesting implication, and most of what I'm going to talk about is applicable to both, although I personally favor the first option, so I might lean there sometimes.

But anyways. What's the "problem" with long-lived species? The most common take I see advocating against extended lifespans is either that it's boring (stagnant, what the hell do you do for 600+ years) or somehow unfair. Or perhaps most commonly, that they just don't know what to do with their long-lived species.

I would like to put forwards the argument that: If your long-lived species are boring, you need to play around with your worldbuilding.

There's just so many ways you can go!! Consider human progress: 750 years ago, it was the year 1275. The late 13th century. In the 13th century the Mongol empire was founded, Thomas Aquinas was alive, the Magna Carta was signed, and Cahokia's population potentially rivaled that of London. Oh, and the Ottoman Empire was founded.

Some inventions of the century: Wooden movable type printing was invented, as were earliest rockets and landmines for warfare, both in China.

And look at where we are today. Imagine watching that much progress happen within your lifespan. If you can remember the days before cellphones (or even just before smartphones), imagine that feeling multiplied by a thousand.

Now, I know that technological progress in fantasy settings is usually slowed, so that exact feeling might not apply. But think about it! How do your long-lived species feel about the progress made by others? Are they pioneers, innovating new techniques? Is there a single inventor (or a whole team) who's been working tirelessly to improve a single kind of technology (or spell/school of magic) for centuries? Are they slow to adapt, preferring to avoid using "newfangled, untested" technology? Are they jealous of what shorter-lived species can accomplish in their lives, or are they in awe of their ingenuity?

Obviously, cultures and species aren't a monolith, so there is almost certainly a range of these opinions across their society. Play around with it! Maybe there's a band of staunch traditionalists (or even extreme nationalists) who oppose the use of any tech or magic not created by elves (or whatever long-lived species you're talking about). Maybe there's an elven philanthropist who has spent centuries expanding their network of charities and safety nets, knowing that they can help so many more people in a lifetime.

Consider how your elven/long-lived species integrates with other societies. Are they mostly isolated, living in elven-majority nations? Or are they spread out across the world, living side-by-side with shorter-lived species. How do they feel about their shorter-lived neighbors? (both on a larger, international scale and a small, building scale) How do their neighbors feel about them? Does the long-lived species find short lifespans beautiful? Tragic? Disdainful?

Again, you're going to run into a range here. Maybe there's an oddball elf who moved into a majority human village and has been like, their weird community uncle for the past 300 years. He knows everyone in the village by name, and mourns every death, even though he's seen so many. Or maybe there's an elf who was scarred early on by the loss of their shorter-lived friends, and now they stay isolated, refusing to interact with anyone who doesn't share their long lifespan.

Maybe there's a mad elven scientist who desperately wants to find a way to share their long lifespan with their loved ones. Do their loved ones actually want it?

And that's just a societal level. We haven't even gotten into the political or personal level. Imagine the power of a grudge or a wound that has been festering for centuries. Hating another nation even though the regime that wronged you was overthrown centuries ago. Or demanding someone honor a treaty that was signed before their great-grandparents were born.

In order to get a package delivered to your dorm at my uni, you have to put the address of the building and also the room number. The package gets delivered and dropped off at the building's "service center". Then they have to log it, so that they know who can pick it up. Okay, cool, that makes sense. Don't want people snatching packages.

The problem is that even once it's logged, they won't let you pick it up. You have to wait for them to move it from the service center to the package room, at which point you'll get an email. And when you come to pick it up, they have to walk from the service center to the package room, grab your package and come back. And even when you do get an email, the service center is probably closed, because they don't let anyone get packages until every single package has been logged. So, your package might be "here" for hours or even days before you get a hold of it.

Last week I had an item get delivered on Wednesday. However, the service center was closed from (at least, could be longer) Wednesday through Sunday. So, I wasn't able to get my package (which I needed for a Monday morning class) until Sunday night.

Yesterday (Monday), I checked my order history and found that I was supposed to have received 8* items between Sunday and Monday. So, I go down to the service center. It's closed, and a sign says "come back at 7". I come back at 7. Still closed and it now says "come back at 8". I come back at 8, wait in line for over 10 minutes, only to receive exactly one (1) of the eight items that had supposedly been delivered. It was a pair of socks. (socks that are to be a Christmas present to my mother, which somehow only makes it worse.)

So, today, I have now gotten emails for at least 3 or 4 of the remaining 7 items, but the service center is still closed. They keep saying they're very behind, and every time I have to fight the urge to say "Well, if you hadn't been closed for almost a week, and had one person logging packages and one person handing them out, and also had a more efficient and organized way of storing the packages once they're logged, then you wouldn't have this problem."

Anyways, that is my very, very long rant about packages.