"Despite what the math says, elves do not gestate for an entire decade." Sometimes being immortal or a member of a really long lived race means that you also have an eternal or really extended childhood or puberty. And that would really suck. On the other hand, sometimes fate can actually be merciful and aging occurs naturally or rapidly until a character physically reaches his or her mid-twenties, at which point their aging stops and they get to be young and beautiful forever, or at least a very long time. Sometimes this is explained as the character being immune specifically to the degenerative effects of aging (sometimes as a side-effect of a Healing Factor) whereas growing isn't affected; other times they acquired their powers at a late stage of puberty. This seems to be a common feature for elves, even if they aren't technically immortal but are just long-lived. A character that's Younger Than They Look may fall under this if they weren't artificially created; sometimes a character looks like a teen or young adult but is only chronologically in the single-digits of age. Averted with certain types of Undead Child. See also Who Wants to Live Forever? and Immortality. Contrast Elderly Immortal, Really 700 Years Old. When this fails, you can have either Age Without Youth or Not Growing Up Sucks.

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Garovel: Thats actually a pretty common sentiment, though. Youd think more servants would want to be eternally young, but as it turns out, most sixty-year-olds dont want strangers treating them like theyre twenty-year-olds.

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Immortality Begins at 20 - TV Tropes