Immortals, What is Eternal?

[Meg the Healer]

What role does immortality play in your works or does it? Are they gods that live forever? Or are they blessed/cursed with long life that they seem immortal? Or are the characters extremely hard to kill because specific things are required to kill them? How do you feel about the idea of characters being immortal or should the old adage "everybody dies" always be true? Are the immortals born that way or can anyone become one?

That's a lot of questions. Just curious really. I have a character who is immortal by circumstance - not because she was born that way - and she's really bitter about it and it just got me thinking about the role immortals play in other "realms".

 

[Mdnight Falling]

Blessed/cursed with "near" mortality.. They can be killed but they will never die of things like old age or illness... But death does find them since they war alot

 

[Chilari]

My immortals are the personifications of concepts and places. They are similar to gods on earth. They come about as a result of three things: the first is human imagination. A significant amount of people imagine that there is a dark and shadowy figure who walks the land claiming the souls of the dead, or that there is a person who lives in the river and/or is the river who can traverse it instantly and knows what's going on in other parts of it. The second is an individual who fits this brief as much as possible, in the way that they live and the way that they die. Someone whose mother died in childbirth, who became the priest of the dead for his tribe, who caused deaths and eventually was killed for them; or someone who lived on the river fishing, swam in it in summer, spent his whole life living next to it, and then died by drowning in it. Finally, there's magic. This is a background force which brings the other two elements together and effectively brings the person back to life as an immortal.

Thus my immortals include Death, Fire, Fate, various River Men and Nymphs, Patience, Shadow, several Mountain Walkers, Justice, Famine, War, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, and many more.

They can't die, because they have already died, but they are not invulnerable. Though generally stronger, faster and more agile than they were as mortals, and able to heal almost instantly, they have significant weaknesses. They can be wounded, and if limbs are severed they won't grow back, they need to be reattached (Famine's story includes him sleeping with the wrong king's wife and being beheaded as punishment; he spends a fair few years in a lot of pain before his head and body are reunited again). They are influenced by human imagination when large numbers of people in the vicinity are thinking about whatever it is they're linked to. So if there's a big old fire in a city Fire (or Blaze, as he prefers to be known) is in, he knows about it, but it takes him over. The first half of this should illustrate what I mean effectively. Similarly, Death spent so much time overwhelmed in this way that he doesn't even remember who he used to be or what he did to become Death. Fire/Blaze is also weakened by water; if he is submerged, his wounds will not heal; if his skin is wet, but not submerged, his wounds heal considerably slower than normal for him. Other immortals have similar weaknesses: a hot dry summer weakens a River Man, as does polluted water in his river. Death is weakest in spring, when everyone is thinking of new life, and in particular near a birth without complications. Justice is weakened by being near unrepentant criminals or irredemably corrupt individuals (though this often works in his favour because he knows about it and can set about fixing it, though he still struggles near and in prisons).

Technically anyone can become one, but it's not a choice, it's circumstances. They can't be killed, but they can be neutralised. In theory, if people stop thinking about what they represent, they can fade away, but you'd need to achieve world peace or end world hunger, etc, to do that; alternatively, I suppose, if a river dries up the River Man would fade away.

 

[Ophiucha]

Immortality is a major theme in my novel, and there are... five, I guess, types of immortals.

The Amarant are the first type. While the question of "what is a god?" plays an important part in my novel as well, I'll simplify it and just call these guys gods. They are very Lovecraftian in nature. They live in the sea (by the way, sea in this world is space - it's a concave hollow earth) and have massive amounts of power (indeed, they are the source of all magic). Some are all but unaware of the elves and other lifeforms, others are more actively malicious. Their presence is what created life, but they only had an active hand in creation with the elves, which they created to combat the Faeries.

Malbecco stands in a special class of his own. Malbecco was once an elf, however he was physically and magically very exceptional. He could rip the head off a dragon, though he was not the sort to do so unwarranted. The Amarant acknowledged his power and gave him theirs, in turn giving him immortality. He has that power until his last male heir (that is, a son of a son) comes to be. In case that didn't imply it, the main character of my current project is his last male heir.

Then there are the Immortals. There are two, briefly three. The two most often called Immortals are Calidore and Paridell. Paridell sought immortality for years, an act which devastated half of Molusk (the planet in question), and created the next group of immortals I'll talk about. Paridell was the first to become a true immortal, in this case, it means that he cannot age (though he was already in his fifties, so...) and cannot reproduce (and that is how the protagonist ensures that he is the last male heir of Malbecco). He isn't invincible, though. Cambell (the protagonst) and Calidore are sort of subsets of this. They are also dragon bonded (which means three dragons see them as their child - and dragons mate in three), so they are functionally invincible, as well. Paridell eventually turns into Malbecco's replacement, in case you care to know why it turns back to two.

Then, we have the Imperfect. One doesn't just come across immortality, and Paridell created a few failed experiments before he found the best option. I'd hate to call them vampires. They only kill people out of madness, not out of necessity. But they are definitely based off of vampires. And zombies. Definitely also zombies. These are people who were killed in an attempt to find immortality and went mad from the experience, driven only by need and insanity. Some of them, later 'prototypes' for immortality, have some sentience, which the earliest lack, but are still entirely mad. The most important of those is Paridell's ex-wife, Duessa. She maims all three of the Immortals (Calidore gets a bad slash across the face, Paridell loses an eye, and Cambell loses an arm), which is part of the 'imperfection and immortality' theme playing out here.

The last ones are the rather simple, dragons and faeries. They don't die of old age. Dragons are inherently tied to the earth, and can only be killed by the land they were born of (dragon eggs are made of stone; dragons eat stones and dirt, as well). This usually means destroying that land, or crafting a sword or bullet out of it to kill them with. You can theoretically kill them, in so far as that you can decapitate them (good luck with that, though, you can only pierce their skin with silver and they'll fight back before you get a chance), but you'd have to throw them into the sea or suspend them above the ground if you wanted to keep them from coming back. If you don't know where the dragon was born, though, I would have to say that they are invincible. Dragons don't have children often, to counterbalance this. Faeries, on the other hand, are just physical apparitions of magic. They can be 'killed' if they touch their shedded (that is definitely not a word...) dust, which turns to stone when it touches flesh, but otherwise, they won't die until magic itself does (which, again, is a theme of the novel).

 

[Digital_Fey]

Personally I think being immortal would suck, so I tend to spend a lot of time in my writing waffling on about the pros and cons of having to face eternity. The 'immortal' characters in the story I'm currently writing have unlimited lifespans, and in their native realm would live for centuries, unless killed by poison or some kind of weapon. However, now that they live in the modern, human world they have become physically vulnerable to things like pollution, chemicals, weapons and iron (since they come from the faerie realm, and faeries can't tolerate iron). They have magical healing powers but these are weakened if their bodies are weak; the magic corrodes as their physical strength fails, leaving them more vulnerable to killing methods. Once they are killed, they can't return in any form.

 

[Dr.Dorkness]

It is an interesting question you ask. I personaly do not believe in immortality (as in creatures of flesh and blood). Even my gods are not immortal at least in a way. My gods are created by (what I call) the magic of belief. if a large group of people believes that Endar (my god of the dwarves) is the creator of earth and mountains and the people that inhabit them than it is so. Since the dwarves believe Endar is their protector, he is. All gods created this way and they live in the astral realm, until no one believes in them any more, then they wil fade from existence.

There is a kind of immortal in my world. They are created. like I said in a post about magic, my novel revolves around a tree and what happens to the seeds. The Selani (sea elves) have a pact with this tree, they sacrifice thier own blood to the tree and from that one is chosen. This chosen one gets a number of seeds. One of which is used to grow a ship of which the chosen one becomes the captain. the ship dies with the chosen one. The Gnomes on the other hand are a technollogical race and use the magic abillities of the seeds of this tree. In the time setting where my story takes place, the gnomes have claimed the tree for themselves. They use the seeds for two things. [1] To create staves that can be used as powerfull weapons (the one who gives the first blood becomes the master via imprinting) [2] This is the reason why I wrote a whole discription. from the seeds they create cores for a "race" called the forged. They are litteraly robots. But when schocked by a high voltage, like thunder, the cores will awaken an then develop their own personality. the forged are then immortal so to speak. They do not need to eat, sleep, or even breath. the cores are indestructable, so when they are awakend they will always live on even when the cores do not have a body anymore.

 

[Telcontar]

I do have immortal people in one story who, I must admit, are very similar to Tolkien's elves. They do however have the ability to surrender their life nonviolently, which they do for a variety of very somber reasons.

The reason they are immortal is bound up in the reason they were created, which is in short to be 'perfect' - eventually.

Many other beings exist in my stories that are immortal, but they are always otherworldly. In one of the major ones, the world of humans is another plane of reality on par with elemental dimensions and heaven and hell, etc. It's defining feature is transience and mortality - thus of course everything originating within it is mortal.

 

[myrddin173]

In my world there are only four true immortals, The Winds (Boreas, Notus, Eurus, and Zephyrus), who govern various aspects of the natural/spiritual world. They cannot die/be killed.

There are also the two dragon tribes that in theory could live forever, as in they will not die of old age, but they can be killed.

My elves, unlike Tolkien's (and most other writers'), are actually quite short lived. Its not to distinguish them but rather it makes since with the role they play in my world.

 

[Amanita]

I'm not a great friend of really "human-like" immortal beings. Most of the time, the fact that they can't die affects them much less than it should. (And they can be killed in battle like everyone else so it doesn't make a visible difference because fantasy stories usually don't have too many people dying of old age and disease anyway.)

My immortal being are the Lerca, they can best be described as a cross breed between Greek Gods linked to water, trees and air, beings from German mythology linked to the same and a few ideas from my early childhood. They can't die or be killed as long as their river/lake/species of tree etc. exists. If it is in a bad state they may get sich however.
Lerca are born of their place but can bear/father children with each other or any other kind of living being. They're the closest thing to "Gods" I have but I wouldn't really call them that.

Than there's their off-spring, some of them viewed as "monsters" by the humans, others looking almost like humans. They all get older than humans or normal animals but aren't immortal. They don't suffer from diseases though but are affected by poisons. What is and is not poisonous to them isn't always the same as to humans and animals. Poisonous plants for example do not harm them but everything that is changed by humans such as steel does.
They can also die from hunger or thirst. They're born and can have children with each other and ordinary creatures like them.

The only truly immortal beings in my world are the elementals, intelligent embodiements of the various elements. They exist everywhere where their elements are but also create places that wouldn't exist that way without them meddling witht them. It's said that elementals have a mind but no soul. They can think but their "feelings" are only determined by their element. Elementals are neither born nor able to have any off-spring.
Some of them are prepared to work with humans out of interest though and they're able to communicate with them. Humans are well-advised to remember that concepts like conscience, compassion, love etc. are completely foreign to them, however. Therefore advise from an elemental should always be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[Noma Galway]

I have a short story that I think is going to find a niche in my world (which isn't built...just one city) where my immortals are basically shadow. They are born of fire, clad all in black with black hair and a raven as a companion. The MC's name is Ashara ("shadow" in the Old Tongue). She is the only one with a name because a human found her before the rest of the Immortals did. Every time an Immortal takes a step on the Earth, a mortal near them dies suddenly. But they have wings which grow eventually and they use them extensively, knowing that one step can kill someone. They actually take this seriously because they do not want to shorten lives unnecessarily: they are already short enough. There are a limited number. Pretty much the only way one can die is by diving into the sea and never coming out...they do need to breathe. Sometimes they do that, growing tired of the wars that divide the surface of the world they watch over and protect, but do not meddle in. When this happens, a new Immortal rises from a flame.

 

[skip.knox]

I have gods in my world, but they never enter. They are always off-stage. Bringing them actually into the world would completely disrupt the world.

But, yeah, they're immortal. Not a big deal in my context; it merely means the same gods are around from one (human) generation to the next.

 

[Noma Galway]

But, yeah, they're immortal. Not a big deal in my context; it merely means the same gods are around from one (human) generation to the next.

I have gods too...but I didn't mention them because they just endure and grant magic to those deserving of it.

 

[WooHooMan]

Immortality is a big part of a short story/novella I'm working on. It's about Elves.
The big conflict of the story is Elves coming face-to-face with death for the first time in the form of a "deadly" disease. The disease actually just turns them mortal.

"How do you feel about the idea of characters being immortal or should the old adage "everybody dies" always be true?"
This is a big theme in the story. Most Elves love being immortal since, you know, who would want to die or have someone they care about die? There is a group of Elves who believe that mortality is necessary (they see it as the root of all virtue as well as a motive for society to progress) but they're a minority.

"Are the immortals born that way or can anyone become one?"
In this story, it's strange if a character isn't immortal. If they are mortal, they're probably infected.

 

[Nagash]

In the universe i've been creating these past two years, i first asked myself what would be the great obsessions of the mortals crawling this earth ? Would death be an issue ? Would some be spared this relentless anguish of creeping doom ? Since i didn't want to build a "typical" fantasy world, with elves, dwarves, what have you, i created relatively new species, in addition to rather common humans.

While each specie has a rather different lifespan (~ 400 years being as far as it gets) none are immortal. I wanted Death to be one of these great fears, eating away the heart of the living, and for it to get some sort of allegoric figure in religions and beliefs. However, i also figured that immortality could be a way to get some sort of contrast. Very few mortals would be granted this gift/curse, and on the long term, that would allow me to create this very poignant illustration of the human nature.

I distinguish two kinds of immortality : eternity of the flesh, and eternity of the soul. One of the many religions I designed revolves around the idea of cardinal virtues and martial prowess, and the few great ones (a dozen) who combined both the wisdom taught in this philosophy, and strength to its utmost degree, would be able to pass a rite of immortality. For the sake of mysticism, i really didn't revealed the process in its entirety, but i hinted that pretenders to the rite had to isolate themselves for months in a far away desert without food nor water, and pray the great One. Those who came back would be deeply changed, and their corpses relieved from the curse of mortality. They would endure the centuries and resist the illness of the flesh, but their blood could still be spilled, and Death in battle was still an issue. Since said-race are violence craving battle-mongers, death was still extremely likely.

Immortality of soul is a rather traditional - and clerical - concept, which I used only once so far. The character with such benediction could actually die, but his soul would wander around, haunting the place where its corpse had been buried. He could either reincarnate with time, or be summoned by sorcerers with such ability.

Immortality is an interesting concept, as long as it doesn't become systematic and a synonym to "invincible/indestructible". Only gods, superior beings should possess such power - and even some of them can bleed and die... Besides, Gods usually have a background role, while it the mortals are in the spotlight. Nothing renders a character greater than great weaknesses, eh ?

I thought immortality in face of time, but not in face of war, was an interesting concept for a fantasy novel.

 

[Hainted]

The only true "immortals" in my world are the gods who lost the war that raged across the 6th age. Rather than grant them the mercy of a final death for their crimes they were placed in mortal bodies. They grow old, suffer all the pains of mortal existence, die, and are immediately reborn as an infant with all the memories of their previous lives. So it shall be until the end of the world.

As far as other characters the gods can die under unusual circumstances(i.e.: being cast into the Seeming Nothingness, the void between the worlds, or an event like Ragnarok), but for the most part I tend to agree with Patricia Briggs werewolves. "I'm not immortal, immortals never die. I just quit ageing."

 

[mbartelsm]

Depends on the definition of immortality that you use, if you mean immortal as in 'will outlast the universe', then no being in my setting is immortal.

Titans are the closest thing to immortal that there is, they came into existence by splitting the essence of the Void into two parts (Light and Darkness, Order and Chaos, Time and Space), they are the creators of the universe and everything that is known, and will cease to be once they merge, which is their inescapable fate.

If we are talking about 'in-universe immortality' then the seven gods and their seven servants are immortal. They can only be killed by either the death of the universe or the hands of the titans. However, the seven servants (also known as immortals) were once defeated by mortals and trapped in a timeless, spaceless prison, essentially ceasing to be, though never dying. It's worth noting that time and space are concepts exclusive to titans, and, by extension, it could be said that the prisons are actually the work of the titans.

 

[Nameback]

Immortality in my world is something anyone can attain; it's not complicated, but it's rather difficult. Using magic entails gathering raw material (potential/possibility) from the world, and then investing it in a defined ability, which is then at their command in perpetuity. Honestly, magic-users are a bit like comic-book superheroes. They have a set of defined "powers" which can be used at-will, but can't just cast all sorts of spells on the fly.

The difference from super-heroes of course is that you pick your own powers, and you have to gather potential (and that usually means killing things in order to harness the victim's lost potential) to invest yourself with an ability. Naturally, the more powerful the ability, the more potential required.

The ability to live forever would require such vast potential that it's unattainable in any practical sense. However, there is a work-around. All magical powers basically disrupt normal cause-and-effect. A mage who can fly doesn't have wings; there's no cause for his lift and thrust in accordance with the physical determinism of a material world. The effect of flight is caused by harnessed potential, not by proper physical causes. Thus, one obscure branch of magic focuses on interesting ways to tamper with causality.

The upshot of this is that immortality can be obtained by disrupting the cause-and-effect of life. Immortal mages invest themselves with the ability to live or die stochastically. In other words, they are alive or dead at any given moment based on pure randomness. The benefit of this is that traditional causes of death (disease, injury, age, etc) no longer effect death in the immortal. The downside is that you end up spending some time dead every now and again at unpredictable times. The more potential harnessed towards becoming immortal, the more you can skew the odds of staying alive. "Gods" are really just mortals who gained tremendous power--even they die sometimes, randomly, before coming back to life, but the odds are so skewed that deaths tend to last only milliseconds at most (unless you're REALLY unlucky). For more humble immortals, however, it's usually a good idea to keep a buddy around who can protect your body if you drop dead for a while. Think of it like flipping a coin at regular intervals--heads you're alive, tails you're dead. Even if you're dead, though, the coin keeps flipping, and once it comes up heads again, you're alive once more. You can better your chances by skewing the odds of the coin-toss away from 50/50, and by flipping more frequently. A god is basically flipping a life/death coin that's skewed 99.999(etc)% towards coming down "heads," and is flipped millions of times per second.

Immortality only preserves one's consciousness, not one's body. Thus, it's a good idea to also have healing abilities first unless you want to live forever in a shambles of a body. Immortals can't ever "die," but they can be dealt with by destroying their bodies permanently. This usually takes a good bit of doing, as most immortals are physically quite durable thanks to their many other abilities. However, total physical destruction leaves them a mind without a body, "living" forever as effectively a ghost. It's pretty awful, so most immortals avoid it at all costs.

Edit: I forgot there's also "soft" immortality, which is someone who can heal themselves very effectively. They can reverse the effects of aging, disease, and injury, but things like chopping off their head is still gonna kill 'em.