So, obviously, most Fantasy novels are written around or before the medieval area-ish. And, likewise, they have very medieval feels; bows and arrows, swords, creepy castles, etc. This would also affect the customs of your fantasy world, right?

Well, what I have been wondering about is the custom of becoming an adult...or rather, the age at which someone in your world would be considered an adult. In our culture today (Err, American culture today.) there really isn't a specific age. Most people consider you to be an adult once you reach age of 21 others say it's 18; yeah, there really isn't a specific age that you're considered an adult (unless we're talking legally an adult...then I think the age is 18).

Anyways, in your fantasy world when is one considered an adult?

Usually, I make my main characters teenagers and so I'll make the age they are considered adults to be around 16. While, this is how I write, I was curious how other's decide.

So, how do decide on this change in your character's life? Are there any customs that are done in your world to prove one's maturity?

All right, thanks for reading!

Bethany Faith

Good question, Bethy!

I consider 21 to be the age for "becoming an adult". (And my my, that age is coming up fast... I better work on growing up...I could also be using 21 to mask the fact that I should be a lot more "grown up" at my current age...) I think in the Old Testament an adult was considered as 21 as well.

However I think medieval ages were way younger. I started reading a book a while ago where the heroine is allowed to be married at the age of 13. I'm guessing that means they were considered an adult... maybe...

No idea when it comes to customs though! If I was to write about it, it would probably consist of a big celebration; or a ring, or some item of commemoration.

In one of my worlds, Eeria, they have a ceremony called "pledging," which is like an apprenticeship. It usually happens at twelve years old, when the child leaves home to live with the person they're pledged to. However, they aren't yet adults until 16, when they undertake to earn a living and marry.

A note on maturity: while maturity may vary from culture to culture and age to age, I believe that increased maturity often comes together with increased responsibility {*higher expectations*}. In modern culture, less is expected of children and teens, so they achieve maturity more slowly. So the "pledging" system in Eeria is designed to combat this trend in a plausible manner.

In my novel all the MCs are already considered adults, and the youngest of the gang I believe is... either late teens or early twenties...I need to check... I probably need to come up with something though if I write any sequels... it wouldn't do to have a whole series with nobody at that age, you know what I mean?

Kinda.
Ummmm... I think so.

I don't really have a specific age. I mean, I have legal age at about 18, but my characters mature into adulthood at different ages. Alonah became an adult when she was very young. It was a sink or swim situation. Airianna loses a lot of her childishness by the time she's 15. Tierin is complicated. In some ways he's had to become an adult at a young age, but in others he doesn't reach adulthood until somewhere between 18-21.

I think circumstances and life lessons is what ages a person, not years. So I function off of that premise.

*likes Airi's post*

Good point, there...

*agrees with Elanhil*

Well, according to the Bible, a boy becomes a man at 13. (That is becoming accountable and treated like an adult. Not becoming a man but starting his journey to manhood.) Different cultures will have their own "coming of age" age, and ceremonies and such. Pretty much everyone has a coming of age sort of thing, but becoming an adult is a thing in the mind, ceremonies are just an affirming.

Bethany, I use the same age. 16 is my cutoff. My MCs are 17, and other characters are 18 and 16. At age 16 in the Enclave you receive an apprenticeship and after four years you become a full worker in that trade, whatever it may be. Your apprenticeship is chosen by the Council and your parents; you get no say in it

@The Bard: Becoming an adult is a thing in the mind? Could you elaborate on that a little bit?

eru

In Arvindia, boys are considered to be basically men at twelve or thirteen. The same in Rinadrion. I consider this to be because they are given more responsibility and are therefore mature at a younger age. In Rinadrion, many of the boys are taken into the army at about fourteen and have to serve a certain number of years. I've heard people say that Justin Bieber is 'just a child' still, implying that he can act as stupid as he wants. I don't like using the word 'teenager' in my stories, because it conjures up in my own mind (and probably in others) the idea of immature young people. Instead, I will call my characters 'boys' or 'girls' or 'young men' or 'young women'. I mean, how many sixteen year old boys nowadays would be able to swordfight, or plow, or do any number of other things that boys of the same age do in fantasy? So it kind of gets on my nerves when in books like Binding of the Blade series, the adult age is 18 or 21 (can't remember which), and the young people in it act like modern immature teens. There, rant over
Oh, and sorry I've been gone so long. Hopefully I've come back for good. I can see I've missed a lot of good stuff!

Of course, there are new, different pressures that young people experience today that they didn't back then, but I certainly see your point. Maintaining modern age divisions in stories of the elder days makes about as much sense as saying they can't ride a horse until they are sixteen
This one doesn't effect me much at all because my MC's are at minimum 27, ranging all the way to 87, so I haven't really looked into it. The opinions here are enlightening.

My youngest MC is 16 (I checked) and she ran away from home because she considered herself to be an adult, and her parents still treated her like a farmgirl who was helpless. She's also a wizard and they didn't know it, so the mature age was bound to come sooner rather than later.

Perhaps this is just my rebelutionary leanings. But I'm sick of having people call teenagers kids. We shouldn't be acting like it. (At least not most of the time. )

So in most of my worlds the cutoff for adulthood is 13 for girls. Sixteen for guys. After that, you're expected to get married, start a family, and get established, either working for your family, or doing something else on your own.

There is ONE society where it's very wealthy, but there isn't much land left, so as a result people live with their families a lot longer and get married a lot longer. (30 sometimes.) It leads to a lot of problems.

I remember mentioning somewhere, it may have been this thread, actually, that when people's life span is shorter, maturity and other stages come sooner. So if a race lives to be on average about 50, the age for considering people to be an adult comes sooner, probably around 14 or 15. Maturity, however, is not a definite thing and can't be pin-pointed at all...

My elves have a slightly longer lifespan than humans, around 150 yrs I think...so their adulthood comes later...sort of like hobbits.

For me it really depends on the race, because the races have different cultures. So one might have till 17 when another would classify "of age" as 12.

This is a fascinating topic. Admittedly, I hadn't thought about it in great detail... Like others, I automatically assumed that "of age" was somewhere between 18-21, just like it is here! Clearly I need to give this some more thought.

In Erde, adulthood is based entirely off of physical appearance (and a little on maturity), because in Erde things are aged by appearance. They do not count years. So I would suppose that humans would become adults somewhere between 16-18 on average, but earlier or later if they had their growth spurt early. I shall have to give that more thought...

Being tall would mean becoming of age? Then I would never become of age if I was in your book! Lol; just kidding.

What I'm saying is there is no time when you just suddenly become an adult. Not everyone becomes mature at the same time and some people grow up quicker and some slower. Your body attains its full growth at age 18-20 That is why 18 is used for american "of age" but not all peoples bodies grow the same. My sister for example kept growing till age 23.

In my main fantasy world it varies through different societies and races.
For example: one of my societies declares a man to be of age when he kills someone for the first time. Another is when a couple gets married. Another is when someone performs a series of elaborate tasks. Another is graduating apprenticeship. Another still is simply leaving the home. There are a few that use the age adulthood indicated by a certain age. Because in most of my societies (most prominently the elves) believe that some people do not deserve adulthood. This whole matter of course has to do with your culture's definition of adulthood in general. For most societies in my fantasy world it is a sort of citizenship with certain unalienable rights bestowed to someone when they achieve it.

- Aeleknight

It depends on the culture and what is expected of people. There's a group in my world who are considered adults at about 18. However, the halfeleven mature very quickly, and are adults at about 15. For some it's a bit younger, some a bit older, but technically, one is permitted to court when one is thirteen. (Not, however, to marry.)
You could have small ceremonies to celebrate the coming-of-age, or just this year, the person gets a job and starts to take care of himself. Up to you.