gestation time

[merlin34baseball]

Hello silly question...

Can anyone tell me how long a half elven female would be pregant for?  The outcome would be a quarter elf...  In game time and real world.

Thanks,

[orth]

We've stuck upon 9 months (or 280 days) in Layo time typically.  That is 19 days in real time.

We've never policed this really though, so fitting it to your schedule is fine, we frown a bit upon 2 day pregnancies though, so use your best judgement.

[merlin34baseball]

Thats fine..  I play alot and wanted it to be realistic... time wise

Thanks

[orth]

Oh and sort of an aside but somewhat related, a helpful page on LORE is the [lore=Time Conversion] page.

[Weeblie]

If I remember correctly, it depends on the child.

Human child - 9 month
Half elven child - 12 month
Elven child - 24 month

And "quarter elves" doesn't "exist" really...

Human + Half elf = Human child
Human + Elf = Half elf child
Half elf + Half elf = Half elf child
Half elf + Elf = Elf child

Etc, etc...

Don't trust me too much on this, though... I've been known to be wrong before!

[merlin34baseball]

But would not a child of a half elf and a human retain 1/4 of the elven blood?

example:

My wife is half Native American and I'm white (a mutt) so he is concidered a quarter Native American. (At least by the government anyway)

Not that it really matters...

I know there are no 1/4 elves as a race in DnD

*smiles*

[Gulnyr]

Weeblie - 8/24/2006  2:39 AM

Human child - 9 month
Half elven child - 12 month
Elven child - 24 month

This is all house rule, hypothetical stuff coming up.  I'm more than happy with using a standard 9 months for everybody in Layonara.

Anyway, 24 months for Elven gestation seems inconsistently short.  Consider the extended childhood of Elves.  Elves aren't adults until they are about 110 years old.  Surely that's not entirely due to cultural concepts, but also includes physiological causes, which also accounts for their long life span.  In other words, they age slowly.

Let's do some math.  According to the Player's Handbook, middle age for a Human starts at age 35, and for an Elf at 175.  That gives a 1:5 age ratio (35/175 = 1/5 = 0.2).  Old age for a Human begins at age 53 and for an Elf at age 263.  The ratio remains pretty close (53/263 = 0.202).  Venerable Humans are at least 70, and venerable Elves are at least 350.  1:5 ratio again (70/350 = 0.2).  So it appears Elves age at 20%, or 1/5, the rate of Humans throughout their entire lives.  There's no reason to believe prenatal development would be any different.

So, 9 months for a Human becomes 45 months for an Elf (3 years and 9 months), almost double 24 months.

[Creighton]

Good heavens!

Creighton is excited about being a father...but throw MATH in the mix....

*seeks out some warm milk and a place to lie down*

[minerva]

Hey Gulnyr thanks for that... it gives me an RP reason for Kat's very extended pregancy with Lisse in game as something other than the GM's forgetting about it.   *goes off to amend sections of her journal*

[Blackguy]

Gulnyr - 8/25/2006  3:50 AM So, 9 months for a Human becomes 45 months for an Elf (3 years and 9 months), almost double 24 months.

 Does it say how many Elven males that kills themself after having a pregnant wife for almost 4 years?

[minerva]

bah... elven wives that have to put up with elven husbands for centuries...

[merlin34baseball]

*laughs*

so anyway it means I can get a quarter elf in about 10 or 11 months... Game time....

[Redhawk]

The other thing about Elven pregnancy mythology (tolkien?) is that elven babies are born walking and talking. The mothers can and do teach there children all about life and how to talk while still in utero. That explains some of the long time frame as well.

[Vyris]

You also have to somewhat suspend biology to get past some of the gestation time concepts, unless elven women all have some sort of magical cesearian, because the physical limitations the mothers pelvis.
This, scientifically, has everything to do with why we are like we are. Bipedal species are restricted greatly in the size of the offspring that it is possible to give birth to primaraly because of this limitation.

Unless elves are secretly marsupials.... then none of this applies.

Vyris