Philip Hart wrote: >>Paresh says that he was sixty when he was granted some land, which is >>incredibly young by either formulation. But perhaps Vlad >>misremembered what he heard, or, possibly, Paresh is misremembering >>his own age; not entirely unfeasible. > > > >Or Paresh is lying like shag wall-to-wall. > > We pretty much know Paresh is lying (or mis-remembering, anyway) at least some portions of his story, since his version is different from Paarfi's--and in ways that unless Paarfi is completely wrong about Aerich's abilities and attitudes simply cannot be reconciled with the way Aerich would behave in that situation. (Deflecting a sorcerous attack? Going out of his way to chastise a vagrant Teckla when his friend Tazendra was in mortal danger? Doesn't seem as likely as Paarfi's version.) However, I would posit that Dragaeran aging is not simply a mathematicial formula away from human aging--they just mature at different rates and times than we do. Humans have growth spurts at different points in their youth, the onset of puberty being the most obvious example of this; but there are actually several other spurts, both before and after adolescence. Dragaerans simply have these growth spurts at different times and in different amounts than we do. This might allow for Paresh to have been mature enough to take his land at 60 (like he said) and still have Savn (only 20 years older, which isn't really all that much) be "about the same age"... 60-80 is just one of those periods between spurts where not much apparent aging happens. Majikjon