Aging of a shifter

0 - 2 years
You're born by an animal surrogate mother. The shifter can use their elemental abilities from the moment they're born but most shifters don't discover their abilities until they start developing shifter traits.

Animal form
For the first two years you look and age just like your animal species would biologically. Mentally you will act like a human child of the age of 6-8. When your animal species normally reach puberty you'll usually start developing shifter traits. This varies for different species as different animal species age differently and reaches puberty at different ages. In some cases shifter traits may develop sooner or later depending on the shifter's self image.

Human form
Until the shifter starts developing their shifter traits they are often incapable of shifting to their human form. When they do their human form will look like they're about 4-6 years old humans.

3 -12 years
At this age some shifters are discovered in the wild as they start experimenting with their elemental powers. The shifters are usually found by Scouts who are scattered all over the world. the scouts bring the shifter child into New Devantos in order to place them into the basic training.

Animal form
As the shifter reaches adult size of their animal form their animal form will stop aging.

Human form
When the shifter child passes the age of 6 their human form will start aging much like a human's.

13 - 18
At this age most shifters are discovered by the society. They also reach a mental puberty and will act like normal human teenagers. They study at the basic training at the thermal/mechanical faction.

19 - 30
Somewhere at this age the shifter will be assigned a faction and a mentor. Their mentor is now fully responsible for their training.

The shifter is however still considered a child or a youngling by the society.

31 - 100
Some shifters keep their mentorship all the way until they are 100 years old but most are considered trained by the age of 30-50. It's the mentor who decides when the shifter is fully trained. After the mentorship, or in the end of it, the shifter may start working in their faction and/or continue their studies at a human university if their human form is good enough. In the chemical faction a university education is a requirement for advancing in the ranks. This is why almost all chemical shifters attend to the university in Yhoctin when they've finished their mentorship.

By the age of 50 the shifter is considered a young adult.

100 - 1000
The shifter is considered an adult with all the responsibilities of an adult. If they chose to stay in the society they are expected to work in their faction. If they choose a feral life as animals they have no responsibilities but are expected to keep following the rules of the society. They are also expected to keep their loyalty to their faction and answer any call from their faction leader.

1000 and onward
Passing the age of 1000 grants you a lot of respect inside the society. At this age you have proved you're fully capable of staying alive and being able to take care of yourself. Either you're good at getting along with people, or you've gotten rid of your rivals, rather than them getting rid of you.

Either way you've lived long enough to see several different ages, you've seen the world change and you've seen the world for what it really is.