#and the dragon (maybe 300 is like equal to 15 instead? idk. probably should be younger) is dragged into therapy

[lemonduckisnowawake]

You know. One of the coolest (to me personally, that is) ideas I've ever had about long lived races like elves or dragons with human intelligence was how to reconcile the rate of maturity with, well, the construct of time. And I thought it'd be so cool that rather than have the 200 year old elf act like a 12 year old in all areas of life, you'd have a 200 year old elf who has 200 years of knowledge and experience and memories all stored up in that brain of theirs, except that their emotional and social development are still equivalent to that of a 12 year old human. Not because there's something wrong with them but because even though they know all that stuff, they still can't grasp the fundamentals despite being told what to do for 2 centuries and also their own bodies are not cooperating. But this is normal, of course, and none of the long-lived races look down on someone being 200 and acting a little immature even if they're super smart. Though the poor dragon who might get abandoned and raised amongst humans might also get so frustrated with themselves for being unable to be as "mature" or "friendly" as their peers, even if they're smarter or more powerful. I mean, imagine races of people whose intellectual maturity and/or wisdom didn't match their social and/or emotional maturity, right?

[floorbacon]

I love this concept

It really rounds out the idea of how these races would actually cope with the passing of time, because to them, 200 IS the same as 12 for a human. Sure they would probably be far smarter than an actual 12 year old, but emotionally they would still be at that age.

I really love this idea—I want more fantasy stories to include it

You know. One of the coolest (to me personally, that is) ideas I've ever had about long lived races like elves or dragons with human intelligence was how to reconcile the rate of maturity with, well, the construct of time. And I thought it'd be so cool that rather than have the 200 year old elf act like a 12 year old in all areas of life, you'd have a 200 year old elf who has 200 years of knowledge and experience and memories all stored up in that brain of theirs, except that their emotional and social development are still equivalent to that of a 12 year old human. Not because there's something wrong with them but because even though they know all that stuff, they still can't grasp the fundamentals despite being told what to do for 2 centuries and also their own bodies are not cooperating. But this is normal, of course, and none of the long-lived races look down on someone being 200 and acting a little immature even if they're super smart. Though the poor dragon who might get abandoned and raised amongst humans might also get so frustrated with themselves for being unable to be as "mature" or "friendly" as their peers, even if they're smarter or more powerful. I mean, imagine races of people whose intellectual maturity and/or wisdom didn't match their social and/or emotional maturity, right?