History Main / MethuselahSyndrome

* Franchise/{{Godzilla}} is stated to be a dinosaur that was somehow still living underwater, who was then mutated and provoked by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Either there is an entire colony of Godzillasaurs living in secret, or he's been alive for at least 65 million years. The former possibility has some logic to it, since [[Film/{{Gojira}} the original film]] killed him at the end, and all later films star a different individual.
* The protagonist of Film/{{Earth 2100}}, Lucy, has lived to be 91 years old and still in pretty good shape, while most of the world's population has died off from diseases and starvation.

Interestingly, this is a inversion on the myth of people in the past rarely living to old age, which is mostly the error of averaging the historically high ''child'' mortality rate.

* Hindu texts have old kings reigning for five hundred years and then merely giving up the throne and moving away, so we do not even know if they ever died!

Not to be confused with ImprobableAge. If there's only one or a few characters like this, especially cute little girls in a BishoujoSeries, it's ReallySevenHundredYearsOld.

The tendency for ancient and fantasy settings to show humans having very [[LongLived long lifespans]] despite the lack of any established medical science. People will routinely live to a century or better while remaining lucid and active. Might or might not be explained as WizardsLiveLonger, BizarreAlienBiology or simply AWizardDidIt in the case of magical characters, or EnlightenmentSuperpowers for spiritual ones. Because in fiction age automatically equals wisdom rather than, say, the gradual death of brain cells, this character is frequently is an OldMaster or a [[{{Mentors}} mentor]]. (Of course, research on senility-due-to-age has been skewed by mental illnesses like Alzheimer's; people without those diseases can do very well, but those diseases are all too common.)

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', WordOfGod has stated any human can live to be 140 and apparently some (or at least Kureha) are so badass they can easily live much longer.
** The humans do seem to get old at the same time as real humans, though. Whitebeard was 72 and had many problems with his health due to old age. Rayleigh seems to be about the same age as Whitebeard, and Garp, being 19-year-old Luffy's grandfather, is probably in his 60's or 70's - both of them have complained of not being able to perform their usual feats and tire easily because they have gotten old.

* In Myth/KoreanMythology, Dangun (legendary king and forefather of the Korean People) lived for staggering ''one thousand and thirty-eight years(the time varies for each record, but still over one thousand years)'', before becoming Sanshinryeong (god of the mountain). He is still being worshipped by Korean shamans, even to this day.

The tendency for ancient and fantasy settings to show humans having very [[LongLived long lifespans]] despite the lack of any established medical science. People will routinely live to a century or better while remaining lucid and active. Might or might not be explained as WizardsLiveLonger, BizzareAlienBiology or simply AWizardDidIt in the case of magical characters, or EnlightenmentSuperpowers for spiritual ones. Because in fiction age automatically equals wisdom rather than, say, the gradual death of brain cells, this character is frequently is an OldMaster or a [[{{Mentors}} mentor]]. (Of course, research on senility-due-to-age has been skewed by mental illnesses like Alzheimer's; people without those diseases can do very well, but those diseases are all too common.)

The tendency for ancient and fantasy settings to show humans having very [[LongLived long lifespans]] despite the lack of any established medical science. People will routinely live to a century or better while remaining lucid and active. Might or might not be explained as AWizardDidIt in the case of magical characters, or EnlightenmentSuperpowers for spiritual ones. Because in fiction age automatically equals wisdom rather than, say, the gradual death of brain cells, he frequently is an OldMaster or a [[{{Mentors}} mentor]]. (Of course, research on senility-due-to-age has been skewed by mental illnesses like Alzheimer's; people without those diseases can do very well, but those diseases are all too common.)

Interestingly, this seems almost a complete inversion on the myth of people in the past rarely living to old age, which is mostly the error of averaging the historically high ''child'' mortality rate.

Not to be confused with ImprobableAge. If there's only one or a few characters like this, especially cute little girls in a BishoujoSeries, it's ReallySevenHundredYearsOld. Compare BadassGrandpa, which describes characters who don't (usually) have extended lifespans but remain remarkably tough and capable into old age.

* A few characters in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' are in their 100s, and this isn't viewed as anything especially unusual by the cast. The co-creators {{Hand Wave}}d it by loosely comparing it to the concept of Xians, Taoist immortals who could live up to half a millennium. However, they admit that they did it primarily for plot-time purposes and didn't learn of the mythology until long afterward.
** Fire Lord Sozin died in his sleep at the age of 102. Then again, he is the ruler of the Fire Nation and could afford a long lifespan, plus it's mentioned that he may have used the power of the comet named after him to extend his lifespan. Bumi is 112 and still physically active. Supposedly, Guru Pathik is 150, though [[AllThereInTheManual this is never actually mentioned in the show.]]
*** Although Pathik's age is never ''directly'' mentioned, he says he was friends with Gyatso, which at least puts him over 100.

** Master Roshi is over 300 years old when first introduced. It is revealed that he had a pet phoenix that could bestow immortality on to others, making it so they couldn't die of old age, before it died from eating tainted bird seed. Roshi later claims to have drank an elixir that made him completely immortal, which his turtle brings up when Roshi lies that he is dying of old age (despite the fact that Roshi told this lie to Goku, who should have already known that Roshi was already incapable of dying from old age due to the phoenix, elixir or not). It is revealed during the King Piccolo Saga that Roshi lied about the elixir, and that it doesn't even actually exist, so he is only immortal in that he cannot die of old age. ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' creates a PlotHole by stating that Roshi is semi-immortal not due to the phoenix (as previously established), but due to eating paradise grass, which extends a persons life by centuries.

Interestingly, this seems almost a complete inversion on the myth of people in the past rarely living till old age, which is mostly the error of averaging the historically high ''child'' mortality rate.

** Think Dumbledore's old? According to the wiki, Armando Dippet lived to be about ''319''.

** However, a handful of modern scholars think that was a mistranlation and that years meant months. So while 969 months (Just under 81 years) is rather long for the time it's still within the human lifespan, but the problem with this is we have characters fathering children at 5 or 6 years of age. (The biggest problem here is, the Book of Genesis doesn't mention anything about these people except their names and ages; no details about how years were measured or what sort of calendar was used. Some Biblical scholars believe that the names and ages mean nothing at all, and were included to give the impression of a long period of time between Adam and Noah. Another theory holds that the ages actually ''do'' have significance, but only so that there are exactly 4000 years separating creation from the Babylonian exile.)
** Another important thing to note is that some versions of the Bible claim that God one day decided that humans lived WAY too long, and decreed that they would live no more than 120 years from that day forward (note the current confirmed world record for longest life is 122; depending on how you view this it's either disproven or spot-on) long before the Great Flood.

The tendency for ancient and fantasy settings to show humans having very [[LongLived long lifespans]] despite the lack of any established medical science. People will routinely live to a century or better while remaining lucid and active. Might or might not be explained as AWizardDidIt in the case of magical characters, or EnlightenmentSuperpowers for spiritual ones. Because in fiction age automatically equals wisdom rather than, say, the gradual death of brain cells. He frequently is an OldMaster or a [[{{Mentors}} mentor]]. (Of course, research on senility-due-to-age has been skewed by mental illnesses like Alzheimer's; people without those diseases can do very well, but those diseases are all too common.)

* Mr. Jingles in ''Film/TheGreenMile'' is a mouse that lived some 70 years. His long-life is a sign of the special gift imparted by him to John Coffey. [[spoiler:Like Christ, Coffey healed Jingles and imparted the same gift to his prison guard, who went on to live for more than a hundred years and nine years.]]

** Master Roshi is over 300 years old when first introduced. It is revealed that he had a pet phoenix that could bestow immortality on to others, making it so they couldn't die of old age, before it died from eating tainted bird seed. Roshi later claims to have drank an elixir that made him completely immortal, which his turtle brings up when Roshi lies that he is dying of old age (despite the fact that Roshi told this lie to Goku, who should have already known that Roshi was already incapable of dying from old age due to the phoenix, elixir or not). It is revealed during the King Piccolo Saga that Roshi lied about the elixir, and that it doesn't even actually exist, so he is only immortal in that he cannot die of old age. DragonBallSuper creates a PlotHole by stating that Roshi is semi-immortal not due to the phoenix (as previously established), but due to eating paradise grass, which extends a persons life by centuries.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10092339/1/Ranma-Saotome-Chi-Master Ranma Saotome, Chi Master]]'', Qiáng Wang is over three hundred years old.

* In ''''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', people of the plane of ''Ravnica'' have significantly longer life spans; Argus Kos of the Boros is well over a century old, and still an active law enforcement agent.

* A side-effect of practicing sorcery in the ''{{Belgariad}}'' is indefinitely-increased lifespan. Except for the characters who become sorcerers during course of the main story, every magic-user in the books is at least one thousand years old.

The tendency for ancient and fantasy settings to show humans having very [[LongLived long lifespans]] despite the lack of any established medical science. People will routinely live to a century or better while remaining lucid and active. Might or might not be explained as AWizardDidIt in the case of magical characters, or EnlightenmentSuperpowers for spiritual ones. Because in fiction age automatically equals wisdom rather than, say, the gradual death of brain cells. He frequently is an OldMaster or a [[{{Mentors}} mentor]]. (Of course, research on senility-due-to-age has been skewed by mental illnesses like Alzheimers; people without those diseases can do very well, but those diseases are all too common.)

** The actual longest-lived member of Congress was probably Strom Thurmond, who was retired from the Senate at age 100. He had unsuccessfully run for President in the "Dixiecrat" faction of the Democratic Party in 1948, and the people of South Carolina continually re-elected him to office well into the new millennium.

* Mr. Jingles in ''TheGreenMile'', a mouse that lived some 70 years.

** The actual longest-lived member of Congress was probably Strom Thurmond, who was re-elected to the Senate at age 100. He had unsuccessfully run for President in the "Dixiecrat" faction of the Democratic Party in 1948, and the people of South Carolina continually re-elected him to office well into the new millennium.

* Several characters in the ''{{Ultima}}'' series have very long lifespans for little explained reason. Lord British has been around since the very first game, and while he's white-haired in the ninth game, it's explained to be due to despair over his failing kingdom rather than age. Likewise, the Warriors of Virtue (the Avatar's companions) are still fit for a fight, as are a whole lot of other recurring characters. Taking the prize for inexplicable youth is Sherry the Mouse, a talking but otherwise fairly ordinary mouse who has weathered the two hundred years between the sixth and seventh game without any trouble at all.

** The humans do seem to get old at the same time as real humans, though. Whitebeard was 72 and had many problems with his health due to old age. Rayleigh seems to be about same age as Whitebeard, and Garp, being 19-year-old Luffy's grandfather, is probably in his 60's or 70's - both of them have complained of not being able to perform their usual feats and tire easily because they have gotten old.

The tendency for ancient and fantasy settings to show humans having very [[LongLived long lifespans]] despite the lack of any established medical science. People will routinely live to a century or better while remaining lucid and active. Might or might not be explained as AWizardDidIt in the case of magical characters, or EnlightenmentSuperpowers for spiritual ones. Because in fiction age automatically equals wisdom rather than, say, the gradual death of brain cells, he frequently is an OldMaster or a [[{{Mentors}} mentor]]. (Of course, research on senility-due-to-age has been skewed by mental illnesses like Alzheimers; people without those diseases can do very well, but those diseases are all too common.)

* The Telvanni grandmasters in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' are extraordinarily old even for a species with an average lifespan around the neighborhood of 500 years. Ultimately Downplayed, as it's implied that they use various forms of magic (particularly necromancy) to reach those ages, and very few of the oldest ones are mentally stable anymore as a result.

** Divayth Fyr is said to be nearly 4,000 years old by one of the female clones he made of himself (all of whom are at least in their hundreds themselves). Whether he's older than his Dwemer guest (who was a master craftsman when the Tribunal ascended some 3,000+ years ago) is up for debate.

* The Telvanni grandmasters in ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' are extraordinarily old even for a species with an average lifespan around the neighborhood of 500 years.

** Divayth Fyr is said to be nearly 4,000 years old by one of the female clones he made of himself (all of whom are at least in their hundreds themselves). Whether he's older than his Dwemer guest (who was a master craftsman when the Tribunal ascended nearly 3,000 years ago) is up for debate.

** John Adams, the Founding Father and 2nd President of the U.S.A. lived to be 91. In the early 19th century, 91! He held the record of longest-lived president until the twentieth century, when Hoover tied him, and then Ford and Reagan surpassed him.