Death and mortality among stars and elves
Dec. 18th, 2012 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steorran_woruldeI've been thinking some about susceptibility to death in my flat-like-a-penny world. (I really should give it a better name some time...)
There are three kinds of rational beings: humans, elves, and stars. Humans are equivalent to humans from our world when it comes to death and mortality, so there's not much to say there. Stars and elves, however, are different.
As I mentioned a few posts ago, stars are mortal but extremely long-lived, living for thousands of years. Since then, I've figured a few more things out. Stars die exclusively of old age. They do not die of illness or injury. (It may be physically possible for them to be injured to death, but it would be very difficult, and there is nothing in their environment that causes them significant injury. With their roots in the sky, they have access to light and do not starve. So the only way they die is old age. It's pretty predictable how long a star will live, but it is not the same for all stars. Fainter stars live longer than bright ones; it may be almost like a quota of light output, and if you're brighter you shine that same amount of light out faster.
Elves, like stars, do not get sick. However, apart from that their mortality is almost opposite to that of stars. Elves do not die of old age, and in theory could live forever. But they can die by injury, including wounds and burning and freezing, and from bodily need like hunger or thirst. Even then, though, they do not die easily. They can be wounded to death, but since they are not subject to illness, wounds do not get infected, so it's harder for a wound to kill an elf. They don't die easily by hunger or thirst, because they have a sort of suspended-animation/hibernation state that protects them from it. Two such states, actually, of differing depths. Deep hibernation shuts off most bodily processes, so that very little food or water is used, and an elf can live in deep hibernation for a long time; however, since most bodily processes are turned off, it takes some very specific triggers to wake an elf out of deep hibernation. Deep hibernation does not protect against cold; because most bodily processes are turned off, there is no work going into maintaining body temperature. An elf can survive in deep hibernation down to near-freezing temperatures, but if the body actually freezes, the elf will die. Shallow hibernation's primary purpose is to conserve energy as much as possible while maintaining the body at just above freezing temperature. This takes more energy and bodily processes than deep hibernation, so an elf can't live nearly as long in shallow hibernation as in deep hibernation, but shallow hibernation will protect against cold. Switching between deep and shallow hibernation is basically involuntary, depending on bodily resources and temperature.
I tentatively suspect that one thing that will wake elves out of hibernation is having food placed in their mouths, which results in a societal habit of always carrying some food in case you happen upon a hibernating elf that needs to be awakened.
There are three kinds of rational beings: humans, elves, and stars. Humans are equivalent to humans from our world when it comes to death and mortality, so there's not much to say there. Stars and elves, however, are different.
As I mentioned a few posts ago, stars are mortal but extremely long-lived, living for thousands of years. Since then, I've figured a few more things out. Stars die exclusively of old age. They do not die of illness or injury. (It may be physically possible for them to be injured to death, but it would be very difficult, and there is nothing in their environment that causes them significant injury. With their roots in the sky, they have access to light and do not starve. So the only way they die is old age. It's pretty predictable how long a star will live, but it is not the same for all stars. Fainter stars live longer than bright ones; it may be almost like a quota of light output, and if you're brighter you shine that same amount of light out faster.
Elves, like stars, do not get sick. However, apart from that their mortality is almost opposite to that of stars. Elves do not die of old age, and in theory could live forever. But they can die by injury, including wounds and burning and freezing, and from bodily need like hunger or thirst. Even then, though, they do not die easily. They can be wounded to death, but since they are not subject to illness, wounds do not get infected, so it's harder for a wound to kill an elf. They don't die easily by hunger or thirst, because they have a sort of suspended-animation/hibernation state that protects them from it. Two such states, actually, of differing depths. Deep hibernation shuts off most bodily processes, so that very little food or water is used, and an elf can live in deep hibernation for a long time; however, since most bodily processes are turned off, it takes some very specific triggers to wake an elf out of deep hibernation. Deep hibernation does not protect against cold; because most bodily processes are turned off, there is no work going into maintaining body temperature. An elf can survive in deep hibernation down to near-freezing temperatures, but if the body actually freezes, the elf will die. Shallow hibernation's primary purpose is to conserve energy as much as possible while maintaining the body at just above freezing temperature. This takes more energy and bodily processes than deep hibernation, so an elf can't live nearly as long in shallow hibernation as in deep hibernation, but shallow hibernation will protect against cold. Switching between deep and shallow hibernation is basically involuntary, depending on bodily resources and temperature.
I tentatively suspect that one thing that will wake elves out of hibernation is having food placed in their mouths, which results in a societal habit of always carrying some food in case you happen upon a hibernating elf that needs to be awakened.