I need advice on a potential issue I might have with my story set in a setting populated by a species of reincarnating humanoids called the Kethai. To simplify to what's important, the Kethai do not sexually reproduce (though as you can probably imagine given where I'm writing this they do have sex). Instead, they have a two-stage life cycle, starting in the first, then transitioning to the second at variable times, and then eventually dying roughly 50 years after entering the second one. After that, they are reincarnated in a new, adult body (with an adult brain) that grows out of a pod on one of twelve massive trees throughout the setting, with a new, randomized appearance, roughly the same personality as they had before, and a limited memory of their past lives.
The point is, this setting has no children, only freshly-reincarnated adults. However, I've run into a problem here: nobody remembers enough of their past lives to have a real sense of their true, total age, and this setting's culture has absolutely no conceivable reason to start counting the age of everyone's newest adult body at, say, 18... but if I have them start the count at 0 like they logically would, then I'm worried the people checking submissions for approval might get very confused and alarmed at what some of the characters in my story are going to say their ages are, unless the characters describe their ages in a way that's clearly alien and inapplicable.
Is this a legitimate concern I should be worrying about? If so, any advice on how I can get around this?
The point is, this setting has no children, only freshly-reincarnated adults. However, I've run into a problem here: nobody remembers enough of their past lives to have a real sense of their true, total age, and this setting's culture has absolutely no conceivable reason to start counting the age of everyone's newest adult body at, say, 18... but if I have them start the count at 0 like they logically would, then I'm worried the people checking submissions for approval might get very confused and alarmed at what some of the characters in my story are going to say their ages are, unless the characters describe their ages in a way that's clearly alien and inapplicable.
Is this a legitimate concern I should be worrying about? If so, any advice on how I can get around this?