# Immortal Characters



## Kaellpae (Jul 5, 2011)

I was wondering if anyone here has written an immortal character.
How did you go about doing it?


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## Chinaren (Jul 5, 2011)

Yah, I did.  

The trick I used is that a: The character was evil and self serving and b: Immortality means you can be tortured forever, which is kind of worse than dying really.  

Of course you have to have powerful enemies, but also give them tricky situations that brawn won't really help with.  Also I provided several weak and humorous sidekicks for distraction (Zombies in this case) and a mystery for him to resolve. 

I was surprised how well I managed to make it work in the end, considering I'm usually very much against uber characters, and this one was pretty powerful.


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## Chilari (Jul 6, 2011)

Yes. I made my immortals personifications of concepts and features, like fire, individual rivers, death, famine, fate, justice, etc. And while they can live forever and can't be killed, because in part they are ideas, they do have severe weaknesses. The river nymphs cannot leave the water of their rivers. They are physically weak when there is little flow due to drought, or further up near the source of the river. Also contaminants in the water sickens them. The immortal of fire is weakened by water; if underwater, his wounds don't heal (normally they heal very quickly). Also, if a large number of mortals close by are thinking of fire, say if there's a house burning down, he finds it very difficult to concentrate because this concentration of people thinking about fire brings out the immortal in him and makes fire all he can think of; if it's really bad, like a whole city on fire, he can lose his grip on who he is and forget everything about himself beyond the immortal bit, thus wandering the land as a shell, seeking out fire and feeding from it and the fear it creates. This is his biggest fear. The same goes for Death and Famine and several other immortals, only relating to what it is they personify instead of fire. Fate cannot change events; if she interferes, she suffers debilitating migranes. I haven't really thought up a weakness for Justice, but then I've not really written much with him in it.

Weaknesses are important. Without them, nobody can defeat them. There's no danger, no suspense. But beside physical weaknesses, things which relate to their immortality, they also of course have more human weaknesses, such as self-doubt, indecision, envy, greed, and certain stances on things like whether the end justifies the means and whatnot.


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## TWErvin2 (Jul 6, 2011)

I've written immortal characters that were not main characters. The POV character encounters/interacts briefly with them.

Being immortal, they do not age and have a few have become powerful over the centuries. But they can die/be killed. Not really something that has been explored/considered by the POV characters, but within the world's scope it is possible.


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## Dante Sawyer (Jul 6, 2011)

I have two immortal characters in my first novel.  Although neither are part of the main cast of characters, they are pivotal for the story.  They act as the quest giving/giver archetype.

My immortals are completely invincible and have lived for millenniums.  This, as one might think, would be a living hell as they see countless loved ones die, but they can never join them.  Morality wise, they are completely neutral.  They do view some actions as less favorable than others, but they never intervene in the doings of mortals.  They are merely there to offer advice and give direction.

They have no weaknesses, but that is a moot point as they are a part of no conflicts.  I see them more are guardian angels or demi-gods as they have limitless power, but they don’t really use it in the conventional way.

Also, to add to the mystery of being immortal, I never say their real names.  They are just "The Wizard of the Mountains" and "The Youth".  Even when asked by other characters what their names are, they shrug and give an excuse and do not tell them.


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## Donny Bruso (Jul 6, 2011)

@Chilari Wouldn't major battles cause a serious problem for Death then? I mean, say twenty thousand combatants all worried about dying... Not trying to nitpick, I'm just curious.


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## Chilari (Jul 6, 2011)

@Donny: Yes it would. Death avoids people in general, though. My immortals, while being affected by people's thoughts, also affect the world around them. Serious fires happen more around the immortal of fire. When Death is nearby, those who are ill or wounded are more likely to die and less likely to survive. If there's a war brewing, and diplomatic talks are all that stand in the way, they are more likely to go wrong when War is close. Being aware of this, these immortals avoid large centres of population, don't stay in one place for very long, and avoid contact with mortals.

It is possible, albeit difficult, for an immortal who has been consumed by their immortality to regain their consciousness. This has happened to Death, who soon after becoming the third immortal ever* stumbled upon a major ritual sacrifice of humans, which was taking place because climate change was affecting harvests and the landscape and the people thought the gods or whatever were angry, so they sacrificed some people, and then Death forgot who he was. About three centuries later, after coming across another immortal (probably Fate, but I haven't decided), he gradually regains his consciousness, his self-awareness, but he never regains his memories of what he did and saw before this point.

So avoiding mortals is a decision based upon both self-preservation and a moral code. It is not a route all of the immortals who might be considered dangerous to humans follow though. It's a pretty boring existance and there are other ways to mitigate disaster. Blaze, the immortal of fire, managed to become emperor of a large area; in his capital city, he had a LOT of fountains built, and had the city designed to prevent the spread of fires. He also had any major industry involving fire, such as smithing and ceramic production, situated outside the city walls in very carefully planned arrangements.

Why yes, I have put a lot of thought into this. Could you tell?


*He was preceded by Shadow, who is crazy and barely intelligible even when she isn't consumed by the fact of her immortality, and the first River Man, who Death himself killed in a fight in a river, leading to him becoming the river man of that river; this also contributed to Death becoming Death. Immortals become immortal as a result of fulfilling a particular set of criteria in life and in the way they die, and this being coupled with the level of human imagination surrounding the idea to which they become connected; hence Shadow being first. We've always being afraid of the dark.


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## myrddin173 (Jul 6, 2011)

There was a very similar (identical practically) brought up a couple months ago in the World Building Sub-forum.

http://mythicscribes.com/forums/world-building/249-immortals-what-eternal.html

Anyways, in my world there are two "sets" of immortals, regarding Space and Time respectively.  A set of four, similar to the four winds, guard the four cardinal directions.  The set of three, similar to the fates, guard the three temporal states.  Each is also associated with a concept, i.e. the "north wind" is associated with death.


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## CicadaGrrl (Jul 7, 2011)

Plenty, actually.  Ones that CAN die if killed, that is.  Most of them are young--they age at a normal rate till their twenties and then basically slow to a stop.  I have two vamps and a spirit jaguar.  The vamps the key is to move through their histories and make sure to hit emotional and important periods to them throughout all their years.  The other is to have them both have vested interests in the world still, and a wish to keep learning.  The other, longest lived immortal I made an eccentric that has let time slip away from him until he is again reminded of the world.  The bad guys are empty souled--metaphorically--but they have been for hundreds of years.


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## BeigePalladin (Jul 7, 2011)

my world has quite a few immortals, due to the angels and demons - thus 'death' means banishment to them, which is temporary, though it is possible to kill them...

taking it a step further is my main illain, who refuses to be banished and hardly lifts a finger in stopping the protagonists from doing that that should leae him gone. showing up - by 'sheer coincidence' - in random places they visit the next day to make sure they understand


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## Telcontar (Jul 9, 2011)

I don't think I've written an immortal character yet, but I often use very long-lived ones for various reasons. I like it when a character can expound on some distant history from a first-person view, and it gives a sense of continuity to stories that span long amounts of time.


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## sashamerideth (Jul 9, 2011)

I have in mind and immortal race, but immortal only within the confines of a particular environment.


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## Kaellpae (Jul 9, 2011)

Would that immortal race be able to reproduce?


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## sashamerideth (Jul 9, 2011)

Kaellpae said:
			
		

> Would that immortal race be able to reproduce?



No, not in mine, the price of immortality


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## Kaellpae (Jul 9, 2011)

Overpopulation would reign supreme in that world if they could.


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## sashamerideth (Jul 10, 2011)

Only until overcrowding forces some out, then those forced out would die like normal people.


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## Joe the Gnarled (Jul 10, 2011)

Elves = immortal race that reproduces


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## sashamerideth (Jul 10, 2011)

I thought elves were long living, not immortal?


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## Joe the Gnarled (Jul 10, 2011)

It varies from author to author, but Tolkien's elves are immortal.


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## Joe the Gnarled (Jul 10, 2011)

Well... they do not die from old age, only a mortal wound or broken heart.


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## Telcontar (Jul 11, 2011)

Yeah, there are varying types of immortality. Maybe we should define them... Tolkien's elves can die, but only through violence (and in some rare cases, sadness, as mentioned above). They are free from sickness and disease, as well.

I'd suggest calling the inability to die from old age Agelessness, though that's not quite right. They do age to some small degree.


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## Kaellpae (Jul 12, 2011)

Is there an immortality that keeps you alive until you're ready to die?


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## Joe the Gnarled (Jul 14, 2011)

Kaellpae said:


> Is there an immortality that keeps you alive until you're ready to die?



There is anything you want... You have only to put it on paper.  As far as works that are already written I cannot think of any specific examples of this, however it sounds familiar.  I am sure I have seen/read it somewhere.


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## Ravana (Jul 16, 2011)

A better question might be "Why do I _want_ to use immortal characters?" Those who have been around here long enough will recognize that as a variant of the question I usually ask whenever someone asks a "How do you do X?" question.…  The point being: if there's no _reason_ for you to include immortal characters, then you probably shouldn't include them, whereas if there _is_ a reason, the reason itself will probably go a long way toward answering the other question.

Telcontar suggested trying to catalog the various types of immortality… those who have been around here etc. will probably be shocked that I'm going to take a partial pass on the invitation to do so. (  Again.) But only partial. I'll throw out a few examples in order to point up some of the issues that can arise when using immortals.

- Does not/cannot die of old age (and possibly disease); can die violently. The standard view of elves and vampires.
- Serial lives: can die, possibly by any means "mortals" can, but always comes back–resurrected or reincarnated; most likely retains some or all memory from previous lives, or at least has some way whereby these can eventually be accessed.
- Transfer immortality: the mind/soul/etc. needs to be periodically switched to another body; can die if this is prevented. 
- Parasitic immortality: as above, but the new host doesn't lose its own mind/etc. in the process. 
- Volitional immortality: can die by choice, either in addition to any of the above, or as the only possibility.
- Cannot be killed by any means–at which point you need to decide the extent to which the character is also invulnerable, and what happens when the character does take "lethal" damage. 
- Immortal soul: bet you all forgot about this one… even though it's the default assumption of most of the world's religions, which will tell you that _you_ are immortal, you just won't be sticking around _here_ forever.

This last one is the one that makes most immortals ring false for me–because unless you assume it's true, it seems to me that most immortals, apart from maybe those of the second-to-last type, would develop debilitating paranoia over time, as they sought to avoid anything that _could_ kill them, that had even the remotest _chance_ of doing so… or even causing them serious harm or long-term inconvenience, like, say, being buried under a rockslide for the rest of eternity. No matter how attached we may be to life, we all know we're going to die eventually anyway; and most or all of us were raised to believe that our souls will live on afterward (whether we still believe that or not). But consider–just how "heroic" do you think you could be if you knew the only way you could die was _if you screwed up_? Worse, if you also believed that death was final? Would you be out and about in a dangerous world? Or even answer the door? Tolkien's elves had it easy: they not only believed in an "afterlife"–a land of the gods, actually, but same difference for present purposes–they had firsthand accounts from people who'd _been_ there.


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## Telcontar (Jul 20, 2011)

Yes, Ravana. We're shocked that you only took a partial pass. 

Looks fairly complete to me, though. Most of the ones I can think of would be subsets of the ones on your list. 

Also, it's not a new realization that the immortality thing was a poorly though-out 'reward,' or that for humankind it would be a downright curse. I think there was a Greek myth character whom the Gods cursed with immortality. Eventually most humans would get bored, or go crazy as he watched everyone he got close to die around him.

And in the long, long term, he would have to deal with the sun going supernova, and he gets to just hang around and float in the resulting molecular cloud. True immortality would be a fearful thing. It would take a very, very particular sort of mind to enjoy even a few thousand years of it.


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## Kaellpae (Jul 21, 2011)

And after a while. If you married someone from their 20s to their death(80s-ish) it'd eventually be a blink of an eye to you. Or eventually you'd forget about them. Eventually you'd probably just pull back and ignore humanity and all of its petty squabbles.


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## Joe the Gnarled (Jul 22, 2011)

Telcontar said:


> Yes, Ravana. We're shocked that you only took a partial pass.
> 
> Looks fairly complete to me, though. Most of the ones I can think of would be subsets of the ones on your list.



Ravana’s partial pass is better than my full fledged attempt any day of the week.


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## Donny Bruso (Jul 23, 2011)

Joe the Gnarled said:


> Ravana’s partial pass is better than my full fledged attempt any day of the week.



I know the feeling.


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