Coping with immortality

[Svrtnsse]

How do immortals deal with their long lifespans in your world?

I'm thinking that if you live long enough you may eventually become bored, or even worse, bitter and cynical. At least, I think, that's what would happen to a human if they suddenly turned out to be imortal.
Chances are that for races that are immortal by default (elves) the mindset will be a bit different, but it's still an interesting question. How does immortality affect the way you view the world around you and the way you live your life?

[Caged Maiden]

I want to be immortal. I'd live dangerously, though, tempting fate.

[Lunaairis]

In a comic of mine the only immortal races are Angels, Demons and the infected (which is like a combination of Vampirism and Lycanthropy) Out of the main cast only one character is an immortal (Was once an Angel and then got infected; Damgel) Her name is Astrid and she takes immortality very seriously. She knows how fleeting time is, and if she keeps putting things off she knows she will miss exciting moments in time. So she tries very hard to be able to see as much as she can. Even if that means stealing a spaceship from the local Celestial Refugee Organization of Secret Services (A.K.A. CROSS) and possibly putting her own life in danger in the process.

She is rather unique, as Angel's are servants to their gods (all powerful), while she discovered how to best her's; leading to her freedom. She's lived for a relatively long time and hasn't really gotten bored yet, for she tends to surround her self with a few mortals and listens to them all through out their life, before finding some new ones.

Other Angels are usually rather busy following their god's orders till they get killed. ( God's literally have a a legion of angels and fight each other till they killed.) These angel's then not to notice how much time has actually gone by.

(Hopes this is relatively interesting)

[Queshire]

Well, very few of my immortals fall into that whole "who wants to live forever" trap, because those that do tend to find ways to remove their immortality and commit suicide. For those remaining, they think immortality is freakin' sweet! Yeah, sure they out live a bunch of stuff, and that's kinda sad, but there's always new stuff just waiting to be discovered!

[Wynnara]

One of my favourite interpretations of immortality that I've seen was in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager entitled "Death Wish" in which a member of the Q Continuum requests asylum on Voyager so that he can commit suicide. As the immortality of the Q is a big part of being a Q, the Continuum was doing everything in its power to stop this from happening. But the Q with the suicidal intent made the argument that once you've seen everything, done everything and know the possibility of every outcome... what is there really left to live for?

Not that I'm condoning suicide in the slightest, but the episode left an impression and made me think that immortality wouldn't be such a great blessing after all.

[Ireth]

Both of my immortal peoples (Fae and vampires) are largely pleasure-seekers; what sort of pleasure they typically seek tends to vary. Some are after sex, some want constant amusement (often at the expense of us humans), others just want companionship.

[Penpilot]

Well, it depends on the person. If you think about it even within a normal human lifespan, there are those who think it's too long and for what ever reason want to end it. Then there are those who can't get enough of life. I'd think it'd be like that. Some could do the marathon, see the continual wonder in it all while others couldn't handle it. They'll fall into despair and want it to end.

[Zero Angel]

I don't have any "immortal" characters that are unkillable. They do have the ability to live forever, but they still have to be careful!

I think it affects different people differently. I mean, the old Tolkien staple (and previously faery tales and legends) where they end up withdrawing from the world is crap in my opinion, but a lot of people go that route. I have some god-like characters that become disillusioned and go through decades of meditation or wasting away, only to become inspired and fall in love with life again. Then I have others that are imprisoned and unable to escape but when they do it is explosive. And yet there are still more that are always active and involved.

Everyone is different!

[Svrtnsse]

I think it's as you all say that it's a matter of having the right state of mind.

In my current WIP the elves are immortal. They're not invincible and they can be killed, but they don't die of old age like the other races. I've toyed with a few different ideas for things they do to maintain an interest in life throughout the millenia. One is a tendency to engage in very long-term hobby projects and another is a kind of active hibernation.

The first one is fairly simple; start a project that it'll take you thousands of years to complete but which doesn't require your constant care and attention. Things like breeding the perfect race horses or hunting dogs from scratch come to mind.

The other is less obvious and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. The idea is that in order to get away from the world for a while the elf will be able to shut away all of their memories and higher mental abilities while still remaining functional. This transforms them from civilized, intelligent beings into something little more than an animal; they go feral, litteraly. While in this state the elf spends their time in the wild, hunting or foraging for food, alone or with other elves also gone feral.
The elf would be able to remain in this state for years, decades or even centuries before reverting back to their original civilized self. This return to the self can probably be triggered by some subconscious need of the elf or through some external mean. When the feral elf goes back to its own self it'll be a bit like waking up from a long sleep.

[Zero Angel]

The other is less obvious and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. The idea is that in order to get away from the world for a while the elf will be able to shut away all of their memories and higher mental abilities while still remaining functional. This transforms them from civilized, intelligent beings into something little more than an animal; they go feral, litteraly. While in this state the elf spends their time in the wild, hunting or foraging for food, alone or with other elves also gone feral.
The elf would be able to remain in this state for years, decades or even centuries before reverting back to their original civilized self. This return to the self can probably be triggered by some subconscious need of the elf or through some external mean. When the feral elf goes back to its own self it'll be a bit like waking up from a long sleep.

I like it. I have races that go feral, but never thought of elves doing this as a way to cope with immortality. Of course, my elves live between 600 - 1000 years on average depending on the race of elf. I would think a lot more would die while being feral though! Maybe you could have an order of rangers dedicated to looking out for their feral cousins. This seems sort of like the night elf druids in Warcraft. Partly because of their shape-changing abilities, some of them ended up going feral. Might be worth looking into.