Subsequent generations becoming incompetent is actually a result of easy times. Hard times make hard men, hard men make easy times, easy times make weak men, weak men make hard times, wash rinse repeat. It's not the cycle of life, it's the cycle of decadent civilizations. This is why every dynasty and non-dynastic government that has ever existed has generally been overthrown within 500 years.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on October 13, 2023, 02:00:45 PM
Subsequent generations becoming incompetent is actually a result of easy times. Hard times make hard men, hard men make easy times, easy times make weak men, weak men make hard times, wash rinse repeat. It's not the cycle of life, it's the cycle of decadent civilizations. This is why every dynasty and non-dynastic government that has ever existed has generally been overthrown within 500 years.

I forget where I read it, but someone actually figured out the average dynasty lasts about 150 years (basically 3-5 generations of leadership) and anything past 200 years was a genuine anomaly.*

Definitely something worth considering in setting up your own fantasy settings (adjusted for lifespan of rulers obviously).

* This isn't to say the system of government changed. Usually it just meant the monarch was overthrown and the conqueror or usurper was installed as the new one.

Basically, forget the unbroken dynasties spanning millennia.

I'd actually find it fun to play with that... a kingdom is screwed because the demons escaped their 1000 year imprisonment that everyone thought was just some wild fairy tale... and the line of the king whose blood is needed to reseal them lost power a hundred years after that and has been replaced six times over by now (leading to a search for whoever would have been that king's legit heir... if not for the waves of usurpers and conquerors... and ultimately a true resurrection spell because it turns out one of the usurpers thought it'd be a good idea to hunt down and execute every last member of the previous dynasty to secure their rule.

Quote from: Chris24601 on October 13, 2023, 03:46:19 PM
I forget where I read it, but someone actually figured out the average dynasty lasts about 150 years (basically 3-5 generations of leadership) and anything past 200 years was a genuine anomaly.*

Definitely something worth considering in setting up your own fantasy settings (adjusted for lifespan of rulers obviously).

* This isn't to say the system of government changed. Usually it just meant the monarch was overthrown and the conqueror or usurper was installed as the new one.

Basically, forget the unbroken dynasties spanning millennia.

I'd actually find it fun to play with that... a kingdom is screwed because the demons escaped their 1000 year imprisonment that everyone thought was just some wild fairy tale... and the line of the king whose blood is needed to reseal them lost power a hundred years after that and has been replaced six times over by now (leading to a search for whoever would have been that king's legit heir... if not for the waves of usurpers and conquerors... and ultimately a true resurrection spell because it turns out one of the usurpers thought it'd be a good idea to hunt down and execute every last member of the previous dynasty to secure their rule.

As a modern variation on that --

A friend suggested a scenario where an ancient evil awoke in Britain and the prophecy was that only the "most reknown knghts of the kingdom" could defeat her -- so the team of defeat her are famous knights like Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, Dame Judie Andrews, Dame Judi Dench, and Sir Idris Elba.

I thought it was a great and hilarious concept, and I might run a scenario like that some day.

Quote from: Exploderwizard on October 13, 2023, 01:44:49 PM
Every generation bemoans the idiocy of the next. It is a curse called the circle of life.

I just want to mention that I don't think that this has anything to do with politics.  Radical activists had shitty politics, very similar to today's politics, at several times in the last hundred and twenty years.  If you want to bitch about how the young commies of today are ruining shit, you'd have been correct in the 1920s or the 2020s.

There may be a few things that are simply generational- where the new generation is doing a new thing, and the old generation doesn't get it.  But that's definitely not left/right politics, or the rehashed 1970s terminology that people call social justice, or the anti-white politics from that era either.  All that stuff was old and tired when I was born, and it sucked then, and it sucks now, even if a brave confused 20 year old screams about it at college.  Nothing to do with age, or generations, or anything like that.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on October 13, 2023, 02:00:45 PM
Subsequent generations becoming incompetent is actually a result of easy times. Hard times make hard men, hard men make easy times, easy times make weak men, weak men make hard times, wash rinse repeat. It's not the cycle of life, it's the cycle of decadent civilizations. This is why every dynasty and non-dynastic government that has ever existed has generally been overthrown within 500 years.

Quite correct and corroborated by known history of civilizations.