Big Loud Link, Click Here to Read
I’ve been promising since the founding of this blog that there would be Patreon-exclusive pieces, and I’m aware some of you then went and backed me on Patreon in anticipation of this content.
Well I’m pleased to announce that the first of these pieces is now available! The whole way through the ‘Memory and Longevity’ series I promised it was being capped off by a piece on ‘Anomalies’, which would be a Patreon-exclusive. I’ll put an excerpt here, but believe me you’re really getting value for money.
The piece itself comes in at 3,300 words, by far the longest in the series (the next closes is Gnomes at 2,700). In fact it’s the longest piece I’ve written about D&D so far. I’m really pleased with it, and I hope you are too! Here’s that excerpt:
Intro
If you’re reading this then you’ve most likely already read the rest of the series, in which we’ve discussed reconciling the long lifespans of certain DnD races when worldbuilding and creating characters. We’ve kept the focus on the concept of memory, its limitations, and how the different long-lived races must mitigate or live with respect to these limitations.
If you haven’t read those then go and read them first as this piece will draw a lot on concepts that have already been discussed in the rest of the series. We’ve covered each of the PHB races with lifespans that extend beyond a Human’s.
In the last of these (covering Half-Elves) we began discussing anomalously long lifespans. Today we’re expanding on that concept in a big way.
The Magic Factor
Throughout most of this series we’ve looked at things in a way that has focused heavily on Biology. We’ve discussed brain structure, degradation of neurons, genetics, and so on. We’ve discussed how biological factors create challenges, and then we’ve discussed the mitigation of those challenges.
What we have not discussed so far is magical influence. We’ve not truly touched on how magical interference in Biology can both create new challenges and also help mitigate them. This will be a big part of what this piece will focus on.
Living Long By Accident
Sometimes, almost inexplicably, an individual outlives the normal lifespan of their species. This can be mild, like a human living to just past 110, or extreme, like a Gnome living to 1,000. In any case it is often because other factors are at play beyond pure biology.
So that’s roughly the first 300 words.
Once again, thank you so much for your patience waiting for this piece, and also thank you for your support so far. This blog has now been ticking along comfortably for about a year and a half and it’s grown immensely in that time. I was just looking at it a few nights ago. So far this year I’ve had four times as many unique views than across the entirety of last year, and the blog was only started in March of that year. My highest month for unique views was also March last year, and for the entirety of this year my lowest months have received more unique views than that peak.
And there’s so much more still to come…
Apothecary Press 