Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Dwarfs can live for hundreds of years, but how? (Dermatologists hate them!)

+0
−0

From the dawn of fantasy fiction, dwarfs have most often been described roughly in the same way: short and stocky, long beards, can smith stuff, good fighters, can live for hundreds of years aging very slowly after "puberty", heavy drinkers.

But now, dermatologists want to know their secret.

How can they live so long and start growing wrinkles only after 100-200 years? And they even keep their strength and endurance! If only we could understand more... "scientifically" how their body works.

(No dwarfs were harmed in the making of this question.)

Jokes aside, what would need to change in human biology - aside from build and height, of course - to create dwarfs and have them live for at least 200 years without suffering from age-related issues, only starting to actually "enter old age" after that period?

All I can think of is something along the lines of "stem cells, but more numerous and on steroids".

Would this even be possible in our world? If not, what could be changed to allow it?

Warhammer dwarf Dwarf from after puberty (25 years?) to 200 or more years of age (image source)

Old dwarf Dwarf in old age, with regular wrinkles, aches and whatever (image source)

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/104247. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

0 comment threads

0 answers

Sign up to answer this question »