Was watching this video from Brandon Sanderson, and it got me thinking about the appeal of long-lived humanoids. Elves, dwarves, and hobbits folklorically and canonically have lifespans exceeding that of the average human. DnD and its -alikes continue that tradition.
Table from Pathfinder 1e. As you can see, humans are the second youngest to reach adulthood, only behind half-orcs. This seems conspicuous; orcs, being evil, are younger than humans, while all the good-aligned ancestries are not just the same age, but actually older than humans. It even suggests that there's a positive correlation between age and moral faculty. This is anecdotal- I invite someone more systematically familiar with the canon to prove me wrong- but classic modules seem to corroborate this correlation. Orcs (and their goblinoid kin) are frequently antagonists, as well as humans, albeit specified as brigands/cultists/other malfeasants, but I can't think of an example of a flagship adventure where dwarves or elves are the primary foes. DnD's implicit metaphysics, as deduced from this evidence, suggests that one is inclined towards virtue by virtue of living longer. Humanity's lifespan seems to be the exact point of inflection between good and evil.
This is an appealing fantasy, and stands in line with common moral logic. Children do badly because they know no better. Skills of empathy, self-reflection, impulse control, and decision-making take time and effort to master and enact. With more years, one can and on the whole will keep growing wiser, kinder, and better. Evil is a function of egocentrism is a function of youth.
What about a fantasy world where most humanoids don't break 60? Reaching maturity within their first decade, they look up to humans as sources of wisdom and measured insight. (I would have this be true of my interesting fucking guys.) How strange and terrifying to be a 25-year-old human being looked up to by a 12-year-old adult hobbit as a respected elder. How much responsibility to watch 3 generations pass in the span of your one, watching your bad choices change the worlds friends' children are born into. How rewarding it is to get to practice your craft for three times as long as your goblin peers, and how humbling it is to still see flaws in your work you know you could fix with time. In this world, unfantastical humans would be taken as 'maximally good'- is that horrifying, or inspiring?
Conversely, all of this might inform a different look at elf and dwarf psychology.
Thanks for reading, and happy gaming.
I wrote like a miserable academic because I was writing, for the most part, off-the-cuff; if I had slowed down and edited more, I would have used simpler language. Let this mistake be a lesson for the future!
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