Fables have long been used as an effective form of folk literature to highlight social injustice and encourage ethical behavior – but can these tales also address issues related to ageing?
Fable and Fable The Lost Chapters both allow players to experience real aging as part of the Guild training sequence. Every time you level up in one skill, your Hero of Oakvale ages by approximately one-seventh year.
Ageing in Fable
Fable (and its rereleases) features ageing as a gameplay mechanic which causes the Hero of Oakvale to mature throughout their adventures. Beginning as a child and later progressing through Guild Training, their current age can be seen on the statistics screen; she gains additional years with each skill she levels up; however this process can be reversed by making donations to Temple of Light or sleeping at Castle Fairfax.
Fable’s original reverse aging concept involved how hero’s appearance would change depending on his or her morality and purity – the higher their morality was, the less she aged; conversely, as his morality decreased she aged more rapidly. This theme can be found throughout Fable series as the hero’s appearance often mirrors his ethical position.
Early trailers of the original fable showed that as she aged, the hero would also grow tanned; however, this feature was later taken out. Furthermore, their weight can be altered through eating fatty foods or drinking alcohol beverages and by using potions found on Knothole Island to increase or decrease weight – though doing this would be considered immoral.
This fable highlights this point as its central theme, criticizing an outdated view of technology and society which allows us to believe that defeating an ancient dragon will always remain impossible despite centuries of death and suffering it has caused. But thanks to advances in biotechnology it might actually be possible for one hero to slow or reverse their own aging process and overthrow him!
