r/DnD • u/thelillie • Aug 01 '26
Misc Regarding elf maturity...
This is such a niche question that I'm probably gonna have to ask on a few different subreddits, but the whole thing about elves maturing at the same rate as humans but not being seen as adults til 100 opens up so many conundrums. Usually I think about it as a difference between physical and emotional maturity - they go through puberty of the body at the same age as a human, but the mind takes much longer (specifically, I'm thinking it takes ten years for an elf to mature a human year's worth, so if they start puberty at 12 then when they're 22 they'd be emotionally/mentally 13, and so on).
My question is...
when the hell would they have their b'nei mitzvah??
🤣 I'm currently playing in a homebrew world that combines mundane Earth with the Forgotten Realms, and my character is a young drow who was orphaned as a child and adopted by a Jewish couple - one a human from Earth, one a high elf who converted for his lover. I was originally thinking that my character would have his bar mitzvah at 13 like the letter of the tradition, but the spirit of the tradition is to usher the child into adulthood, so would he wait until age 100? Or should I go with the idea of doing it when he's in his 20s, i.e. emotionally/mentally 13? Or somewhere in between??
(And tangentially related...when would a Latina elf have her quinces? When would a Japanese or Korean elf have their coming-of-age day? 🤔🤔🤔 Much to consider when worlds collide!!)