MToF - Elven Reverie question.

[Clistenes]

I have been re-reading Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, and I don't think the difference between the past life memories that elven children relive during their trances and the ones elder ones experience is clear...

I think they intended for elven children to experience only the memories of their first original incarnation as newly created elves in Arvandor, while elder elves experience memories from all their past lives save the first one... do you think I am right?

[Millstone85]

Yes, that's how I read it.





"primal" memories
"other-life" memories
"waking-life" memories


childhood
✓
x
x


adolescence
✓
x
✓


adulthood
x
x
✓


old age
x
✓
✓

[Clistenes]

The point I have trouble with is, what are exactly "primal memories"? Only the memories from their very first life? Or the memories from any life spent in Arvandor in between Prime Material reincarnations?

[Millstone85]

I found a paragraph that suggests the former.

When an elf's soul reincarnates, the elf might return to life on any world or on Arvandor. As a result, many elves alive today have latent memories of a previous life spent on Arvandor. Because of the deep feelings associated with those memories, they are often among the first previous-life recollections to resurface at the beginning of an elf's Remembrance. Recalling such an existence can stir up a great longing to visit the place once again.
That is, if previous/other-life memories include rebirths on Arvandor, then primal memories probably don't.