And that would definitely make a difference in many ways, not just who is still around and at what age one would gain the crown. This is a common problem in just about every rpg ever: they want these massive fantasy elements, but try to shoehorn them into the same old Earth-human of the Middle-Ages shape. I see this happening to Kulthea as time, and editions, march on.
Earlier editions had a more high-fantasy feel, which is what drew me to the setting. I mean, just look at the cover of the old Jaiman book: the Dragonlord's Citadel is awesome. And inside, you got the Tower of the Third Moon and other structures that do not look like the bog-standard Middle-Ages/fantasy type structures, but cool high-fantasy types like you would see in Conan or The Beastmaster. But, as the editions progressed, it seems as though the setting has been being "mainstreamed" to fit more the generic fantasy style settings, which is too bad imo.
You are right about the high-fantasy elements, though I think they are still prevalent when the books describe a place far from centers of civilisation. The problem is more prevalent when describing cultures - because, consciously or not, we tend to model fantasy cultures along historical ones, which leaves little room for high fantasy. And thus, you still have run-of-the-mill standard medieval feudal or post-feudal cultures mirroring western european ones, and the only concession made to fantasy is that magic such as wound healing, warding and divination are more or less considered because they have very little impact on the way people live (and because standard medieval folklore did include them). But including such things as the importance of magical support in a kingdom's military, for instance ? That would wreck the standard medieval model, so we tend to conveniently ignore it.
As for the age related differences, this is one of the main reasons I think that settings like this can have longer lasting eras. Fewer generations generally mean slower advancement (both socially and technologically), resulting in a more static society. So, it would not be strange for that setting to have 5,000 to 6,000 years of history be the equivalent of the 2,000 to 3,000 years of our, Earth, history. In this respect, I think Shadow World works. What you mention about their not being an appropriate age-range for the various npcs is a very valid criticism, too. I understand why, we have a hard time understanding that a 90 year old can be more like a 30-40 year old, it doesn't seem "right," so we mentally (subconsciously) rebel against it. Players in game with races that can live to be 300, 400, 500, or even 600 years old have a hard time coming to terms with the idea that their level 1 character could actually be 100 years old already. This is why I constantly get gnomes, elves, dwarves, etc... of 1st level that are still in their teens or barely 20. The players just cannot conceive of the very different way age would/could be handled for such beings. (Lets not even get started on immortals....)
In my last campaign, there were four PCs :
- a Laan (in her fifties, meaning an adult but not old by any means)
- a half-elf (turning 100, which meant that he began to understand the difference between "long-lived humans" and "ever-youthful potential immortals" as his wife was on her last days)
- a 900-year-old Loar from Namar-Tol who had an aunt younger than he was, children older than his sister, and who had associated with human families in a way that made him mistake his skyship pilot friend with his great-grandfather (who was also a skyship pilot and with whom he had worked on occasion)
- a 1650-year-old Linaer from Lys who had seen the rise of Eidolon over Sel-Kai and had been a part of the first permanent Lysian embassy there, whose grandmother had been a decisive influence over the split between Linaeri and Loari that led to the creation of the kingdom of Lys (and was still sexy as ever, according to the other characters :p), and who, after having lived a couple of centuries in Kaitaine, still could not really think he was part of the city.
I have people who like to RP those aspects, and seeing the psychological differences between the four of them was great fun.
Technically, however, they were all L20. I have dissociated the purely technical abilities from the level - the level is not an indication of technical expertise, but it is a ranking of how much a person has seen of the secrets of the world and how involved they are in the "real deals". In the lower levels, there is often a strong correlation between the two for short-lived races (though it can be a very different story for long-lived and immortal races), but this is not the case anymore at higher levels. In my next iteration, I will probably also dissociate opposed technical skills (which require some kind of direct conflict to progress) and knowledge/passive skills (which require learning, practice, stury, experimentation... but not necessarily conflict).
But going back to the length of Shadow World post-interregnum chronology, I would fully agree with you if all races were long-lived. However, the more numerous races (Shay, Jameri, Haid, Lydians...) are short-lived ones - their lifespan are similar to real-life humans. If they had the same evolution drive as real-life humans, long-lived races would be left sniffing dust.
I can understand why the statu quo could be preserved in Jaiman, especially in Rhakhaan where the Zori have a tight grip on the upper social ranks, but large cities such as Sel-Kai and Kaitaine, where "common men" are prevalent in all social strata including the highest ones, should evolve much faster.
I think that part of the explanation lies elsewhere, both in the presence of magic and in the fact that Shadow World races are, in most cases, created races.
I would assume that the Althan did not gene-engineered their servant races for their capability for innovation - that would have been an incredible risk. They engineered them for expertise in mundane fields and capability to work with the tools they had, but not for the ability to question the statu quo. This, alone, would provide a sufficient dampener to explain why cultural and technological innovation is so slow on Kulthea - slow enough that having cataclysmic events once every few millenia is sufficient to keep the lid on any significant advancement. Only in places where peace can be enforced for millenia would have sufficient time to advance significantly (Namar-Tol, or the Interregnum Jinteni). On the other hand, any "finding" would be quickly adopted and integrated, because innovation is not required (a perfect example is Clycallah in Gaalt).
The second aspect, the presence of magic, is not so much a root cause as a constant dampener on scientific thinking and technological innovation: magic is chaotic by nature, and it routinely breaks the physical laws. Since magic cannot be denied, it means that rational thought is not THE way to go, and is often neglected. After all, any scientific paper which ends up with "we can conclude with confidence that, in the absence of any magical field,..." is basically worthless in a world where magic is prevalent (regardless of whether its *use* is prevalent or not). So, the presence of a magical field that violates the laws of physics and does not follow laws of its own tends to stifle any attempt to rationalise the world and promote scientific and technological innovation.
When you mix both, and add in races that tend to gaze at their navel rather than actually do something, you can keep a world in stasis for a very long time