#miasmics

[derelictfanart]

Miasmic Mercenaries by Kiabugboy.

[bfleuter]

A reader on the Derelict forums asked how old Grendel was and that got me going about Miasmic aging. I thought I'd share it here on Tumblr, too.

Q: How old is Grendel supposed to be, in, like Human years? (I guess myasmics don't have the same lifespan as humans) At first, seeing how he dealt with his daughter and the whole situation with the extraviated Una, I thought he was in his early fifties, tops. This last page makes him look more like he is in his late sixties.  Maybe it's just that it's been a rough day.

A:

Grendel's about 20 years old, which actually makes him pretty old for a Miasmic.

The way Miasmics age is kinda interesting and I regret not putting it into the bonus material of Book 1. Maybe some place else.

They age differently than humans. Within one year, they are fully grown and fully mentally and sexually developed. For the next 15 to 20 years they pretty much remain in the same physical condition (assuming they don't get injured or the like) and then over another 10 or so years they start to age, usually dying around 25-30. The majority of them live in ghettos or out in ruins, so it's possible with better conditions and with medical science that bothered looking into their aliments, they might get another decade or more of life.

Miasmics are born with a lot of basic instincts to look after themselves, much like reptile new-borns, as well as with a limited grasp on their language. They still have to learn a lot through experience, which often gives them an undeserved reputation as being stupider than humans. The reality is that they are very fast to pick up on new information, but many adult Miasmics are just 1 to 10 years old and have had no time to learn some of life's lessons, not to mention cultural restrictions on higher learning in most cases.

Anyway yeah, that'd make Grendel in about his 60s or 70s by our standards. It has also been a rough day.