I do not deny your thought process, but as one of the first set of elves growing up in a world
essentially as a human -- not unlike the Wyrm, in fact -- Madrecita is not going to have the example of older elves to 'compare' herself against. In 500 years of Shadowrun time, a 60-year-old elf is still going to be in their late adolescence, I agree, because the first elven generation is, or could have been,
only their great-grandparent. The impact of growing up in a human-dominated world without older elves means your starting psychological framework is that
of a human. You think in human-timeline-scale, you act and react in human-timeline terms. Right now, I bet you the IEs are looking at the first generations and going 'holy crap, is it like this every time?!?'
Wisdom and experience express themselves in, well, maturity. Maturity expresses itself in refined passions, in focus, in drive, and usually in risk-taking only as needed -- 'look before you leap' as well as 'think before you speak'. As one grows older one can experience psychological 'regression' of sorts -- the mid-life crisis is the classic example -- and go out and do the same sorts of crazy stuff you used to be able to do, usually winding up with saying the morning after, 'I'm getting too old for this shit.' Madrecita, the Wyrm, and all the other early-century elves are really only now going to be starting to come to terms with what it means to be an elf. The people they grew up with, the people with whom they have a
shared history, are the ones getting old, who are 'getting too old for this shit', while they themselves are bouncing back in the morning like a randy 23-year-old.
Think of these two situations:
- Madrecita attends her High School reunion, talking to people with whom she shares background and history -- can crack a joke in some 2030's slang, refers to a 2030's movie -- and they GET IT. But when she says 'let's go out drinking all night', they simply can't. They've got wrinkles on their faces and arthritis is starting to kick in.
- Madrecita goes out drinking all night with people who look like she looks -- 23, 27, whatever. They roust the bar, drinking until dawn and do baseball-bat drive-bys on mailboxes in the dead of night. But when she cracks a 2030's joke, they have no idea what she's talking about, and look at her if she's a little crazy.
Both M and W grew up in a human culture. Their
referents are human. If they were U
2Cs, they'd expect to be well-placed in their business, at least at the lower edge of upper management, expecting grand-children any day now, etc. etc. This is how their parents lived, and their friends, and almost everyone they knew. This, in fact, is part of the issue with elven groups like the Ancients -- socially and psychologically, they are still
human. Low-echelon people and lieutenants expect to move up, but there is no room at the top -- because even though Green Lucifer (or whomever) has been the leader for 20 years, he's still '23 years old' and going strong, and GOING to be going strong for another seven or eight decades.
Elven society, and elven psychology, is not yet set in the minds of the elves of the 6th World. Long-term thinking and planning, where 20 years is like 5 for a human, is yet not part of the SR elven mindset. SR elves still think and act essentially like humans. And only the oldest -- Madrecita and the Wyrm -- are getting the chance to come to terms with what a 300-year lifespan is going to be all about.
We're going to be partying hard with the great-grandchildren of our human high-school sweethearts. But the social structure for that has yet to be developed.
Having thought about it at work today, I did realize that there IS one character who Madrecita would fit -- Yellow Rose of Texas.
