Quote Originally Posted by Max_Killjoy View Post
The one that gets me is the idea that the whole elven lifespan is somehow a directly proportional stretched human lifespan, with several years of pregnancy, 80+ years to reach physical adulthood, etc. Whether you go in for created or evolved elves, it just makes no damn sense what so ever, it would be entirely non-functional and impractical.
It kind of works in settings where elves are genuinely more powerful than humans are, D&D makes it not work by having elves be barely different from humans.

I could buy an elf baby in LotR taking years longer to advance because the elves are individually powerful enough and bend reality enough compared to humans that keeping a child safe for an extended developmental stage is perfectly plausible for them. If the child is also possessed of the enhanced physical and spiritual prowess of the elves then it's not even likely to be killed by accidents or disease so infant mortality basically drops to zero. If your toddler can spin-kick a wolf to death, run over the top of snow and has inherent magical properties then it's a pretty tough toddler.

In D&D though? An elven baby could be eaten by wolves, die of disease, have a congenital defect, freeze to death in a bad winter, die as the result of neglectful parents or any of a number of things. D&D elves aren't possessed of the kind of power or mentality to protect their kids over decades of development.