Little List of Immortalities

[Ban]

I made a list of different forms of immortality which can be present in a setting and figured it could be useful for the folks on this forum. The many lurkers that come by for our threads but don't join are equally welcome (I know you're there ). If you have any additions, place them below.

Cultural immortality: Being remembered past one's death in the tales and legends of a culture.

Spiritual immortality: Immortality of the soul, but not of the body. May or may not interact with the world of the living depending on the setting.

Undead immortality: Revival of the body past its death. Likely to be vulnerable to decay, but averted through preservation or regeneration. There's likely to be a separation of body, mind and spirit.

Biological immortality: Immortal against the processes of physical entropy, either through accelerated rejuvenation or an invulnerability to decay.

Material immortality: Immortal against both internal and external forces of entropy (i.e. material harm), but not against more esoteric means of dying, such as erasing the space they reside in, changing the laws of the universe or changing the substance they are composed of.

Planar immortality: Immortal as a fixed aspect of a plane of existence. Bound in life and death by the existence of the plane.

Formatic immortality: Immortal as a fixed form in existence, bound to reality itself and thus as undying as existence is.

Absolute immortality: Immortality transcending the fixtures of reality, unbound by any structures or powers.

 

[Pegzy]

That's intriguing. A couple I haven't thought of or read about. Thanks.

 

[Gospodin]

My current piece contains several people who are biological immortals. I know already how this will be achieved through the narrative. I ruminate on the question of how long a mind - as a separate paradigm - can last in such a body.

 

[Ban]

My current piece contains several people who are biological immortals. I know already how this will be achieved through the narrative. I ruminate on the question of how long a mind - as a separate paradigm - can last in such a body.

That's an interesting thing to play around with. How are you envisaging this possible mental mortality? My mind jumped to the idea of a ship of Theseus situation, where the individual hits a limit of how many memories they can retain and slowly but surely forgets memories from centuries ago to become a "new" person. It would be fun for a story to have biological immortals around who possess all of the skills they have built over the aeons, but not most memories associated with those skills. So perhaps one of them hops on a horse and takes to horse-riding immediately, without knowing they ever rode horses.

 

[Gospodin]

That's an interesting thing to play around with. How are you envisaging this possible mental mortality? My mind jumped to the idea of a ship of Theseus situation, where the individual hits a limit of how many memories they can retain and slowly but surely forgets memories from centuries ago to become a "new" person. It would be fun for a story to have biological immortals around who possess all of the skills they have built over the aeons, but not most memories associated with those skills. So perhaps one of them hops on a horse and takes to horse-riding immediately, without knowing they ever rode horses.

I’m not really sure, tbh. How they could live so long and remain of sound mind is one of the larger puzzle pieces I have yet to figure out. One of the ensemble has been in the setting about 300,000 years (a Neanderthal). Another is a little younger (a Denisovan), and yet another is roughly 40,000 years old, an anatomically modern sapiens. The character who serves as the vehicle to enter the narrative is a modern woman from our current time. Later, we learn there are even biologically immortal Heidelbergensis kicking around in one little corner of the setting. I had thought of giving them periods of hibernation as a kind of reset every few thousand years. Simple enough, doesn’t really interfere with the current narrative rollout, but I wonder if it feels a little convenient, a little weak. I haven’t really figured out how that hibernation would look, what it would do to them. Does it simply erase the memory cache, or does it create a kind of cerebral zip file? Not sure yet. Hence, the rumination.

For clarity’s sake, though they find themselves in what appears to be a pristine landscape untouched by modernity in any way, nothing is as it seems. The whole of it is a kind of massive biological research lab. What’s going on, why they were chosen, how they live so long, why they live so long, and why there doesn’t seem to be anyone at the helm are the mysteries to be solved.

 

[Finchbearer]

Perhaps my Gods have this type of immortality:

Formatic immortality: Immortal as a fixed form in existence, bound to reality itself and thus as undying as existence is.

 

[Ban]

One more immortality that I think is worth adding is what I'd call:

Cyclical Immortality: Subject to biological decay, but revives to a younger state upon reaching the last stage of their life cycle. Seen in certain forms of reincarnation or the life cycle of a phoenix. External processes may or may not accelerate or even end the progression of the life cycle.

There are also a couple of joke "immortalities" I came up with, such as Theoretical Immortality (immortal until proven otherwise) and Temporary Immortality (Immortal but not invulnerable. Only applicable for a little while).

 

[Finchbearer]

What about ‘reincarnate immortality’ or is that what you’ve just described above?

 

[Ban]

What about ‘reincarnate immortality’ or is that what you’ve just described above?

That would fall under that same form of immortality in my opinion, but you could separate them if you wish. Ultimately this little list is just here to help folks kickstart their creativity. Another form of "immortality" I thought of recently is what I'd call:

Memetic Immortality: Recurrence of an individual throughout time in separate, non-concurrent instances.

The idea there would be that the same person with their exact personality, physical prowess and mental faculties would emerge in different time periods, and thus be "immortal", but each instance of the person is a separate being that is not biologically a continuation of the previous instances. Essentially, clones of the same being. That one might not be classified as true "immortality" by most, but it could be a fun theme to explore in a story.

 

[Gospodin]

That would fall under that same form of immortality in my opinion, but you could separate them if you wish. Ultimately this little list is just here to help folks kickstart their creativity. Another form of "immortality" I thought of recently is what I'd call:

Memetic Immortality: Recurrence of an individual throughout time in separate, non-concurrent instances.

The idea there would be that the same person with their exact personality, physical prowess and mental faculties would emerge in different time periods, and thus be "immortal", but each instance of the person is a separate being that is not biologically a continuation of the previous instances. Essentially, clones of the same being. That one might not be classified as true "immortality" by most, but it could be a fun theme to explore in a story.

Would this be akin to, say, Alvin from Clarke’s The City and the Stars? They return to a kind data bank whence they are reborn after X number of millennia to live again for a thousand years. This cycle repeats indefinitely. The first 20-odd years of each reboot is spent as an innocent in the care of “parents” that are just guides. Memory slowly returning at the end of youth.

 

[Ban]

I suppose so. I haven't read that work, but if the individual instances of Alvin are separate I think it would fit the description.

 

[pmmg]

How about Distributed Immortality, such as a robotic mind that has distributed itself over so many Databases, that it would be impossible to destroy the last, and it just keeps rebuilding.

 

[Ban]

I like It. It could be a good step in between biological and material immortality. Technically corporeal, but functionally above biological immortality.

How about Distributed Immortality, such as a robotic mind that has distributed itself over so many Databases, that it would be impossible to destroy the last, and it just keeps rebuilding.

 

[pmmg]

Yeah, I borrowed that from the Block Chain, and its kind of how Brainiac and Ultron function.

Along with that, I think maybe an encoded immortailiy....such that, some secret or aspect is encoded into our DNA and just keeps passing along in every human, even if we/they are unaware of it. Like, if I could grab enough humans, I could gain enough DNA code to bring back Adam and Eve

 

[JBCrowson]

That would fall under that same form of immortality in my opinion, but you could separate them if you wish. Ultimately this little list is just here to help folks kickstart their creativity. Another form of "immortality" I thought of recently is what I'd call:

Memetic Immortality: Recurrence of an individual throughout time in separate, non-concurrent instances.

The idea there would be that the same person with their exact personality, physical prowess and mental faculties would emerge in different time periods, and thus be "immortal", but each instance of the person is a separate being that is not biologically a continuation of the previous instances. Essentially, clones of the same being. That one might not be classified as true "immortality" by most, but it could be a fun theme to explore in a story.

My MC is somewhat like that - he was befriended by the god of plants centuries ago. The god was doing an experiment on trees to extend their life, his sister, the goddess of animals, switched out the leaf fragment he was working on with a fragment of his mortal friend's skin. This resulted in the friend having a vastly extended lifespan - several thousand times normal, but moving through it several thousand times slower, so he appeared frozen. The god attempts to reverse the experiment but only partially succeeds resulting in the mortal having a spirit / soul / animus that lives the vastly extended life, but a body that dies after normal lifespan, resulting in recurrent rebirths in which some recollection of past 'lives' and abilities are retained. Leaves the god guilty as hell for screwing with his friend, and leaves himself having to watch his friend die repeatedly, spending years after each death trying to find the next iteration to continue working on a permanent 'fix'.

 

[skip.knox]

Thanks for the list. There are no immortals in my stories, though. In Altearth as in real Earth, entropy cannot be reversed. <g>

 

[Ban]

One possible addition could be physical immortality, in terms of a being that does not physically decay, but does mentally and spiritually. This could be played for horror, in the sense that it would constitute a type of zombie-ism, though it could also refer to an object that does not deteriorate, such as a magical sword that can't rust and can't be chipped. The question of whether something inanimate can be classified "immortal" might be an interesting discussion.

 

[Foxkeyes]

One possible addition could be physical immortality, in terms of a being that does not physically decay, but does mentally and spiritually. This could be played for horror, in the sense that it would constitute a type of zombie-ism, though it could also refer to an object that does not deteriorate, such as a magical sword that can't rust and can't be chipped. The question of whether something inanimate can be classified "immortal" might be an interesting discussion.

That sounds like true horror. Perhaps it could be used as a punishment.

 

[Finchbearer]

One possible addition could be physical immortality, in terms of a being that does not physically decay, but does mentally and spiritually. This could be played for horror, in the sense that it would constitute a type of zombie-ism, though it could also refer to an object that does not deteriorate, such as a magical sword that can't rust and can't be chipped. The question of whether something inanimate can be classified "immortal" might be an interesting discussion.

The undead as immortal is an interesting contruct. Immortal until they are truly killed. Stake to the heart or the brain is destroyed.

 

[Ban]

The undead as immortal is an interesting contruct. Immortal until they are truly killed. Stake to the heart or the brain is destroyed.

But what if the body will not die regardless of which tactic is used? The only way to survive it is to outlive the mind that operates it. Haven't seen a monster like that yet, though I reckon it would make a terrifying slasher.