From: tcbruno@athena.mit.edu (Tom Bruno)
Subject: Re: A question on aging.
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 02:46:12 GMT

In article <1992Dec15.141831.6422@goya.uu.es> ernar@dit.upm.es (Jorge F. Delgado Mendoza) writes:
>Well, to add my bit to this long chat, i usually don't play level limits
>(well i use limits around 18, but then a mage could wish himself or
>could wish another of the party not to have level limits, and they are gone
>but of course i dont tell this to my playes :) and let human multiclasses
>so as u see i make my own game out of T$R's. The fact is that i dont set
>such limits on whishes. Any reasonable wish will be cast, although with
>the exhaustion penalty, and any greedy or umbalancing one will be
>
>thwarted :). Also, each race has its advantages (If you try to zap
>a mental attack to a dwarf i will start laughing just now...+4 msave if
>he is cleric and a +5 if he has con18 ) and its disadvantages. I usually
>play ADD with Tolkien elves  (1.90 cms ) and they are inmortal. They can
>be killed, but they do not age. I dont see this particuklarly umbalancing
>There are spells with which you can make game much more umbalancing
>(At least in 1st ed ADD) wasnt the Geas spell for mages with range
>and not saving throw?? --> if so there goes you worst enemy with his +5
>holy sword in a questto avoid you killed till you reach your tower :)
>(where you have enough items and henchmen to blast him :)
>
>Just my bit
>

A word on immortality and the elves...
I treat elves a little differently in my current campaign world than the
TSR or Tolkien-esque models.  Elves are still spirit-folk, but their capacity
for immortality depends not upon their physiology or magic, but a kind of
spiritual discipline.  A "normal" elf has a natural lifespan of a thousand
years, give or take a few centuries.  The majority of these elves live in a
vareity of clans, tribes, and nations, separate from all other races (except
for the Faerie folk) and incredibly xenophobic.  (Kind of like Tolkien)

However, certain elven cultures have become increasingly aware of their own
spirituality-- in particular, the fact that the elven spirit is immortal.  
(This stands in opposition to humanity, whose cultures have thousands of
conflicting theories on the nature of the human "soul," but no conclusive,
universal truth to affirm or deny them)  Furthermore, realizing this spiritual
immortality is a difficult thing-- more often than not, a spirit released from
its body returns to the spirit-world as an unconscious entity, lost forever.
The elf must be prepared to hold on to his spirit and achieve a conscious,
timeless immortality.  Only two cultures in my world have been able to master
this preparation, and both have shrouded it in a bizarre entanglement of
their own religion, history, and mysticism.  

One is the Eliamentriani.  Sometime long ago, at the horizon of human history,
these elves abandoned their natural homes for the world of mankind.  The 
reasons for this are unclear-- some suggest that these elves had been enslaved
by forgotten human empires, others believe that this culture received some sort
of prophetic vision.  Whatever the reason, the Eliamentiani are not talking.
Almost every human city in the Known World has an enclave of these creatures,
though even so, they live as isolated and xenophobic as they did in their
prehistory.  These elves have a mystic vision of history-- that is, as they
record the acts and deeds of the world, they might receive some illumination as
the record grows longer and longer.  Patterns become visible-- historical
patterns that repeat over tens of thousands of years.  The Eliamentriani have
historical records that chronicle the rise of fall of civilizations over the
past one hundred thousand years-- these are passed through the generations and
added to carefully.  

The Eliamentriani are materialists.  They worship no gods (though they 
venerate the first of their culture to "free" his spirit, the Lone One or the
Traveler), and interpret all forms of magic and otherworldliness in scientific
terms-- phenomenona without a Primal Justification.  At the age of a thousand,
one of these elves begins his spiritual journey to immortality.  He or she 
must lose all cares or passions of the material world, and try to achieve a
Oneness with the Eternity of Immateriality.  (It's very Zen)  Though it is a
very difficult method of discipline (that actually begins at birth), virtually
all Eliamentriani make this transition.  Those who do not have either died
while young or have been lead astray by the corrupting ways of the humans, who
view life as a breakneck race of acquisitions.  

When the transition is made, the elves have achieved a "higher plane" of
consciousness, and can make infrequent if any contact with the world they had
left behind.  The multiverse as they understand it (and as they didn't even
dream of before) is open wide before them, and they have an eternity to 
explore it with comrades and ancestors from millennia before.  End of story.

The other elven race that understands its own metaphysical nature at the
same level as the Eliamentriani are the Tribes of the Shattered Forest.  Lead
by the decrees and prophecies of their "king," the Green Oracle (who is himself
thousands upon thousands of years old), these tribes have a spiritual elite
who are prepared for timelessness.  This elite is the priesthood of the Tribes,
who pay homage to a large pantheon of Elven deities and the Green Oracle as
the godhead on earth.  As most elves of the Tribes die in battle long before
they reach their physical age limits, the acquisition of immortality is rare to
begin with.  (A note... the warfare of the Tribes, though often bloody on an
incomprehesible scale, takes place over the course of centuries.  Skirmishes 
last years, as the warlords and their lieutenants craft elaborate battleplans
of longer timespans than most human empires.  It is a bizarre elven act for a
human being to witness, for it just seems so DULL to a creature that lives for
less than a century!)

As for other elven cultures scattered across my world, there exist different
levels of understanding of their own immortality.  Many of the tribes realize
their potentials through contact with the Faerie folk and living in harmony
with nature.  These are the more "historical (?)" elves.  Very Green.  Very PC.
They would all have appreciated "Dances With Wolves."  

Anyway.  Those are my thoughts on it all.  Hope they've been helpful.
I apologize for the length of the posting-- I get carried away when I start
talking about campaigns.  If anyone wants to chat in greater detail about all
of this, please send me some email.  I'd love to talk.

- tom bruno
  history/archaeology
  mit




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>| ernar@sanson.dit.upm.es |   And they placed in his hands a sword made from  |
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>| Madrid Telecom, Spain.  |  with the woeful tears of the other damned......  |
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