And Mr Forkle Scolding Himself For Not Knowing - Tumblr Posts

Unreal

You know what would've been fun? If the elves had indefinite lifespans but not indefinite bodies. and them just like. not talking about it it being sort of an open secret that your parents take you aside to quietly explain, then make sure to say 'never mention this again'

Because just think about it. Elves taking a special elixir that maintains their body in its prime state. Skip a day and the decay is obvious, especially if you're already centuries old.

Some of the older elves obsessing because the elixir isn't perfect, it staves it off but they're not eternally twenty anymore, they look human forty now and forty is too much by elvin standards so they get plastic surgery.

Except elves' surgery consists of more elixirs. And the elixirs are almost perfect, too. They don't have the plastic botox effect that humans' plastic surgery does, that makes their face harder to move. The elves just...have this weird feeling about them. Like there's no obvious plastic surgery effect. It's just that uncanny valley feeling of 'face too perfect, too unreal.'

Elves obsessing over taking their elixirs, because there's a single Wanderling of an elf who was an Ancient. She lived in isolation. One day someone visited her and screamed because all that was left was a pile of ashes on the floor within a dress. She didn't want to live anymore and skipped a single day of her elixirs.

Elves can live forever, but unless they use elixirs to maintain their body then they will die. Except this contradicts itself, doesn't it? The very definition of quasi-immortality is living unless an outside force kills you. Your own body shouldn't qualify. And of course it's Sophie who brings this into question when she first hears it.

So what's happening is that elves aren't actually immortal. They just take elixirs to stop their bodies from aging and decaying to nothing. Otherwise, they have a lifespan just longer than a human.

And the very first elixir one takes to slow their aging, preparing your body for the rest, is Youth.