The Temple of the Exploding Head

One of the more confusing aspects of the League of Elder concerns age and the process of aging. How do people age in the League? Why don’t the characters get old? How long do they live? Are they Immortal??

Let’s take a look.

CONCERNING AGE:
A little history. Way back in the CX Time Epoch is when the people who would one day become the League were given the Gift of Youth and Health. The 25 god-like Elders, whom they faithfully served, decided to reward their loyal servants and engineered the ravages of old age and infirmity out of them. The effects of this engineering essentially granted them the energy of youth throughout their lives and disease became a thing of the past, such that knowledge of the medical arts was no longer considered necessary and was therefore lost to the ages, not to be rediscovered until the EX Time Epoch by the Hospitalers.

Here are a few facts:

The average Elder (or Leaguer) lives to be 220 years old. For example, Captain Davage is about 120 years old, while his wife, Countess Sygillis, is well over 200, though her exact age is unknown.

THE PUFFIES and TWEENERS:
One of the side-effects of their condition is a very malformed and somewhat grotesque youth. Children 15 and under are often rather malformed and puffy in appearance. Those with the Gifts of the Mind suffer from it the most, while the Browns hardly have it at all. Lady Kilos of Blanchefort is a well-known sufferer of The Puffies, having it well into her twenties, while her elder brother, Lord Kabyl, never had it at all. The Puffies normally clear up by their mid-20’s.

From the time an Elder child reaches their 20’s until their early 30’s, they’re known as Tweeners and develop into full maturity. After that, they remain unchanged in appearance until their death. For example, Lord A-Ram is in his 40’s, while his fiancée, Lady Alesta of Dare , is 152 years old, however, looking at them side-by-side, one couldn’t determine their difference in age.

THE LENTICONS:
There are some in the League who, through a malady of the flesh, grow old and only live to be about 100. They are known as Lenticons and are generally considered products of bad breeding. The Esther House of Milke is known to be thusly afflicted.

Various indigenous Leaguers, such as the Monama peoples of Kana and the Females of Carina 7 do not have the Gift of Youth and Health and age normally.

THE TIME OF GOODBYES
One severe drawback of their perpetually young bodies is that the Leaguers are never quite certain when they will die. Death strikes without warning once a certain age has been passed. A usual tradition is for people turning 220 to perform the Time of Goodbyes ritual to get their affairs in order and bid their loved ones farewell, just in case they die in the night. Lady Poe of Blanchefort is well past her Time of Goodbyes, her long life possibly due to her status as a Shadow tech Female (see below).

IMMORTALITY:
It has been long suspected that the Elders not only made the Leaguers young and healthy, they made them immortal as well. The Hertogs, a group of disaffected scholars and detractors of the Sisterhood of Light, often make that claim. They maintain that the Sisters are actually doing something behind the scenes to suppress their immortality. That argument has yet to be fully proved. The Hertogs make it their business to track down those they believe are Immortals and collect them, so to speak. Their code-name for a suspected Immortal is: Rundlepharge. The Xaphan tyrant Queen Ghome of Trimble is a suspected Immortal.

Immortality aside, there are certain variables which appear to grant certain Leaguers exceptional long life. Shadow tech females, such as Sygillis of Blanchefort, are known to live to incredible old age, unchanged with time. Additionally, proximity to Elder-tech and with alien power sources are said to expand one’s life. The Xaphan House of Burgon, the Court of George in particular, often engage in the practice of cannibalism, which they claim also expands life.

copyright 2013, Ren Garcia, Eve Ventrue