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    • CommentAuthorSamuel
    • CommentTimeFeb 24th 2010
     
    G'day once more.

    (This is my first attempt to create a thread. Apologies in advance if I've done anything wrong, put it in the wrong section or something idiotic like that...)

    Now, I've been thinking about a certain theme for a new story. Immortaliy. Essentially, it's about a being (Alien or human) who has been granted immortality (Either by divine intervention or biological reasons. I haven't decided yet.) and spends its life moving from planet to planet. Inspiration came from a discussion with a few of my mates on immortality. One said that he'd just live his life The thing is, a few of my ideas seem great in my head, but I can see how it can lead to complications later in the story. I'm looking for some feedback on them, and even if the entire concept is feasible.

    The first element is the being having complete immortality. It can't die. Not through harm nor age. It feels, and can get wounded, but they will heal given the time. That was my initial concept. But then I saw that it'd lead to very boring stories, since I'm not all that at creating non-action oriented stories. I can make them, but can't keep them from getting boring after a while. So, my first question is, could complete immortality work in this, or should the character have the conventional ways of dying?

    The thing is, that I've had complete immortality in my head, so that whenever a star goes Nova, he could drift off to his next destination.

    Secondly, should this being be human in looks or something completely alien? Or something still-human-but-enough-different-characteristics-to-know-it's-not-human? I've been aiming for the third direction, but a character who can't die and looks exotic starts to edge into GS territory, methinks.

    Thirldy, which restrictions in mental and physical field should I use? I know that a human mind can hold only so much memories before it starts to forget about earlier ones, and a million-or-so old being wouldn't remember much of it. But it being alien, I can work around that.

    And lastly, do you think this concept can work in a story? I've been making notes like crazy, but haven't put them together into a first chapter even.

    Thank you for reading this.
    -Samuel
    •  
      CommentAuthorTakuGifian
    • CommentTimeFeb 24th 2010 edited
     

    I’ve explored that kind of immortality before. You know how the older you get, the faster years seem to slip by? It’s a curious side-effect of age and experience. Imagine living forever. Centuries would just fly by, wouldn’t they? You wouldn’t be able to have a proper conversation with anybody before they’ve keeled over. I really want to see someone practically address this aspect of the story. Just as Treebeard was super-slow, an immortal human would experience things at an increased rate of perception. (“damn, is it that millenium already? I’ve gotta run!”).

    Secondly, unless he/she is doing an awesome job of hiding themselves Highander-style amongst the normies, somebody’s going to notice the immortality factor. He/she might even be raised to the status of a god. How would that affect them?

    Something a bit more practical: in order for immortality to work as a concept outside of Magic or Heavenly Favours, with no aging or any sort of change to the body, you must have almost perfect homostasis. Which means no aging, no eating, drinking, heating, cooling or moving of any sort. Or breathing, come to that, as oxygen causes degradation to most parts of the body. In fact, from a physical perspective, there has to be no nervous or digestive activity whatsoever. No bloodflow, no nerve signals, no lymphic activity. Because all of that slowly contributes to the breakdown of operations known as old age.

    That is, if you discount magic from the equation. But then, with magic, you have to set a limit: how much can they be injured? At all? Can they be poisoned, infected, or sick? What happens when a spider bites them? Or a lion? Are they immune to all forms of toxin, even the non-fatal ones? What about blood-borne diseases? What about allergies/sensitivities?

    And then there’s something common to all really old myths that most people these days seem to overlook: reciprocity. What kind of payment or sacrifice was required in order to achieve this total immortality? Was it something physical, like sexual potency/ Was it something mental, like the ability to feel emotions? Was it something external to them? It should be something that presents a real problem to the immortal person, or at least a real loss. It needs to be something big in order to equallise total immortality.

    Lastly, what happens with aging? If you use ‘magic’ and not the ‘absolute stasis’ model above, then how do they age? Do they age at all, or it is only once they reach, say, 25? Do they just keep cycling from infant to old person over and over, like a phoenix?

    •  
      CommentAuthorMoldorm
    • CommentTimeFeb 24th 2010
     

    I’m working on a thing that involves immortal characters at the moment, so I’d be interested to see everyone’s thoughts on it.

    I think you could have an action-based story with either semi- or complete immortality. An immortal character might be more likely to involve hiimself in direct conflict, knowing that he’s invulnerable, or, if immortality has driven him to boredom or insanity, he could deliberately put himself in dangerous situations to try to find a way to end his life.
    You could also have him not know the extent of his immortality, whether his body can be damaged or if there’s any way for him to die. If he gained his extended life as part of a deal with a higher power, you could have it not be completely reliable about its information, if any, and there’s also the question of whether it was meant as a blessing or a curse, and if your immortal still views it as such thousands of years later. If he had to pay a price for it, he could be trying to find a way around it, leading to further conflict.
    To create more action-centric plots, you could consider the opinions of the inhabitants of these planets Someone’s going to notice the fact that he doesn’t age, and with a longer life, he has that much longer to promote his own ideals and endeavours. How does he live, and, if his greater lifespan is not biological, how does it differ from his life before he became immortal? Is there any specific ideology or morality he wants to spread, no matter how many times he sees it crumble, or is he still looking for something? He might be disillusioned with his prior beliefs, or looking for a way to make them work.
    He’ll also likely make plenty of enemies, giving you more opportunities for conflict. If these enemies know of his invulnerability, they must find other ways to attack him, like killing his friends or keeping him confined.
    In terms of looks and average memory-span, I don’t think it matters that much. There’s no real-life precedent for having so many memories, and, if they mean a lot to him, he may have or be looking for a way of storing them.

    The idea really has so much potential, you can do practically any kind of story, depending on your preferences. If you’re interested in an emotional side, I’d recommend looking into the Xbox 360 RPG Lost Odyssey, in which the main characters are immortal. At various times in the game, an ordinary event triggers one of protagonist Kaim’s memories, leading to a powerpoint presentation-style short story cutscene like this one. They’re rarely action-oriented, but do concern some of the issues relevant to an immortal character.

  1.  

    Well, I’d say it’s not impossible to write interesting stories with an immortal character, since s/he’s only immortal, not omnipotent, which means you can still put other things the character treasures at risk, just not its life.

    Also, I loved the shit out of Lost Odyssey.

  2.  

    I’ve explored that kind of immortality before. You know how the older you get, the faster years seem to slip by? It’s a curious side-effect of age and experience. Imagine living forever. Centuries would just fly by, wouldn’t they? You wouldn’t be able to have a proper conversation with anybody before they’ve keeled over. I really want to see someone practically address this aspect of the story. Just as Treebeard was super-slow, an immortal human would experience things at an increased rate of perception. (“damn, is it that millenium already? I’ve gotta run!”).

    See, I always thought I’d just be really, really bored living forever. Because in hindsight things fly past quickly, but days tend to go by with the same type of speed in the now. Then again, maybe your perspective just becomes different.

    Once you know you’ve got forever to do everything in, life kind of just loses it’s purpose, because you think, ‘whatever, I’ll live through this.’ or ‘I’ll just do it later’. It all loses urgency. You might lose a bit of compassion, whatever because you know that whatever’s happening will eventually be over. You eventually might not want to get up because you can’t stand being so bored.

  3.  

    I’m going to do a thing with an immortal character too. I think that it would be really depressing to be immortal unless everyone was immortal, or at least people close to you. It would be awful to have to watch everyone around you die while you have to keep on going. That’s what my character doesn’t like. Everyone she loves always dies, so she wants it to be over.

    If everyone was immortal, it might be okay, or it might be like this.

  4.  

    @Steph (what is left)

    Once you know you’ve got forever to do everything in, life kind of just loses it’s purpose, because you think, ‘whatever, I’ll live through this.’ or ‘I’ll just do it later’. It all loses urgency.

    Quoted for truth.

    • CommentAuthorNo One
    • CommentTimeMar 9th 2010
     

    All of the sudden, immortality sounds so depressing.

    •  
      CommentAuthorAdamPottle
    • CommentTimeMar 9th 2010
     

    If anyone watches Lost, then Richard Alpert provides an interesting angle on this. He was made immortal for a purpose, and when he found out that purpose didn’t exist then he had no reason to live but no way to die.

    •  
      CommentAuthorArtimaeus
    • CommentTimeMar 9th 2010
     

    Imortal characters are tough. You have to get the character to care about something immediate, and you have to make them relateable. Otherwise, you don’t have a plot arc or a character arc. Doesn’t mean that you can’t pull it off, of course. But it’s hard. Imagine if Watchmen was a novel told from the perspective of Dr. Manhattan.

  5.  

    @ Dan:

    Thanks. You can call me Steph :). I think I’ve been around for long enough for us to take this new step.

    I think that it would be really depressing to be immortal unless everyone was immortal, or at least people close to you. It would be awful to have to watch everyone around you die while you have to keep on going. That’s what my character doesn’t like. Everyone she loves always dies, so she wants it to be over.

    I agree. That would be so sad.