History Main / MethuselahSyndrome

* The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse book ''The Courtship of Princess Leia'' had a 100% human character who was over 300 years old. While it's not explicitly stated what planet's years that referred to, later sources indicate that her homeworld has 491-day years, meaning that in Earth years (or the very similar in-universe Coruscant standard years) she's closer to ''400 years old''. Either way, she's implied to have used the Force to extend her lifespan.

** UsefulNotes/ElizabethII is also a prime example; on 10 September 2015, she took both the British longest-reign title and the longest-reign title for women from her great-great-grandmother [[UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria Queen Victoria]].

** There's also [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Rakkyousai]], Happosai's cohort in the manga, and Chingensai and a whole bevy of MiniatureSeniorCitizens in a late {{Filler}} episode of the anime.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' gives us both Happosai and Cologne, two ridiculously skilled martial artists nowhere near slowing down (despite both being very old and crinkly) at the age of at least 120 (manga) or 300 (anime).
** There's also [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Rakkyousai]], Happosai's cohort in the manga, and Chingensai and a whole bevy of MiniatureSeniorCitizens in a late {{Filler}} episode of the anime.
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', WordOfGod has stated [[OurHumansAreDifferent 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 ''Literature/KyoKaraMaoh'', the residents of Shin Makokou live for a ''very'' long time. Wolfram, for example, is supposed to be 83, but looks (and frankly, acts) like he's no older than 16.

[[folder:Film]]
* A lot of movies and shows with Buddhist monks tend to do this. ''Film/KillBill'', for example, establishes Pai Mei as being either well over 120 or more than a thousand years old, depending on whether you want to go by the original script (which states that Pai Mei was already a martial arts master in 1883), RealLife (where he was in 1647 if not earlier), or the actual film (where David Carradine [[ThrowItIn ad-libbed]] the line into "one double-aught three", or 1003). No explanation is given; it's implied that Pai Mei is just that badass.
* ''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.

* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', the Númenóreans, or Men of the West, had extremely long life-spans granted to them when they were given Númenor. Aragorn lived to 210, and the fact that most men of Númenórean descent had much shorter lives (partly resulting from Gondor interbreeding with non-Dunedain humans) was mentioned as a sign of the sorry state the world was in.
** Part of the explanation for the men of Númenór... well, no, just the royal line (including Aragorn) being so long-lived is because their first leader, Elros Tar-Minyatur, was a half-elf who chose to follow his human side. Despite choosing mortality (unlike his brother, Elrond), he still had a greatly extended lifespan: he reigned for 410 years until his death at 500 years.

* A side-effect of practicing sorcery in ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' 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. Belgarath, the very first sorcerer, is almost as old as humanity itself, being 7000 years old. Judging from his encounter with the Godless Ones while still a teenager, it's extremely likely that his long-dead grandfather was one of the original humans created by the Gods. Beldin notes that if Belgarath were to speak in the language of his long-ago destroyed village, nobody would be able to understand him-''not even Beldin''.)
* Roland, in ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'', although that's mostly because the collapse of his world has made the nature of time's passage murky at best.
* In the world of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', it's established that wizards just plain live longer than normals, with 200-300 years being average. A doctor, having seen a series of Harry Dresden's X-rays ([[WalkingTechbane when he can get the machine to work, anyway]]) theorizes that his cells are much better at repairing themselves than those of a normal person.
* In ''Literature/SewerGasAndElectric'', Kite is a one-armed SweetPollyOliver Civil War veteran, and is over 170 years old. No special reason; she's just a tough ol' broad who never got around to dying.
* The original ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' book actually ''had'' a very old character named Methuselah, who was killed about midway into the book. Also, it's noted that badgers, especially Badger Lords, can live four times longer than the other species - most of Mossflower's creatures measure time in "seasons", so evidently Mossflower's badgers age at the same rate as real-life humans.
* Humans in the BibleTimes era of ''Literature/ManyWaters'' age incredibly slowly, reaching adulthood around 100.
* Wizards in Literature/{{Discworld}} who are competent enough to live to 60 without being assassinated will most likely make it well past 100. The oldest wizard mentioned in the books, Windle Poons, makes it to 130.
* The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse book ''The Courtship of Princess Leia'' had a 100% human character who was over 300 years old. While it's not explicitly stated what planet's years that referred to, later sources indicate that her homeworld has 491-day years, meaning that in Earth years (or the very similar in-universe Coruscant standard years) she's closer to ''400 years old''. Either way, she's implied to have used the Force to extend her lifespan.
* In ''Literature/MosesManOfTheMountain'', in agreement with the biblical account, Moses is somewhere upwards of ninety by the time of his death, and he even says that if he wanted to he could have easily gone another ten or twenty years. Similarly, his supposed brother Aaron makes it over a hundred.
* Eumnestes from ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'' is a librarian so old he remembers the infancy of Methuselah and has first-hand accounts of all the wars of ancient Greece, which he spends all day reading through with the help of his young assistant, Anamnestes.
* In ''Literature/OneHundredYearsOfSolitude'' Úrsula lives at least 120 years or so, and Pilar Ternera lives to 145.

* In the VideoGame/{{Zork}} chronology, both Dalboz of Gurth and Mir Yannick lived for a very long time. That's justified because Dalboz [[AWizardDidIt cast a spell]] on both of them. Played straight, however, are the examples of one of the King Zylon (the Aged) and Antharia Jack, who both lived for a very long time for no apparent reason.
* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'', Archsage Athos, Dark Sage Brammimond and the BigBad Nergal are all well over a thousand years old, justified by being among the most powerful magic users ever seen in that 'verse.

* Humans in the ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'' universe have ''very'' long natural lifespans, which is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by centuries of species-wide genetic enhancements during the Golden Age. This is a version of our world where humanity began hitting TheSingularity after making contact with a benevolent MechanicalAbomination powerful and advanced enough to terraform planets, so it makes sense that people live longer. It is, in fact, off-handedly specified at one point that human lifespans ''tripled'' during the Golden Age; the average life expectancy today is in the mid-to-late 70s, so that indicates that post-Traveler humans on average live for about ''240 years'', if not more.

* ''Film/CSATheConfederateStatesOfAmerica'': In the film's AlternateHistory, UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln lives to the year 1905, giving an interview about [[MyGreatestFailure his failure to stop the Confederacy]]. This would make him ''96'' years old when he died.

** Though this may also be a [[IncrediblyLamePun clerical error]]. At the time years weren't being kept track of quite as meticulously as later centuries. This is also why we don't actually know the real date of Jesus's birth, as it was counted backwards at this time period by people with incomplete archives.

** Griselda Marchbanks proctor for the O.W.L. exams seen briefly in the fifth book, mentioned that she personally tested Dumbledore when he was a student.

** Hagrid is only in his sixties at the time of the books, but does not have a single gray hair on him. Hagrid is also half-giant.

* 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 [[WritersCannotDoMath 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. Guru Pathik knew Monk Gyatso, who died 100 years ago, with [[AllThereInTheManual the website]] specifying Pathik as being 150.

* Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. Seriously, these guys never died (much to UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson's dismay). Clay and Calhoun were elected to Congress as ''Jeffersonian'' Republicans (AKA Democrats) in '''1810.''' Henry Clay then went onto a long political career, ran for president of the United States three times (1824, as a Democratic-Republican, 1832, as a ''National'' Republican, and 1844, as a Whig) before dying as the '''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar Civil War]]''' approached. Basically, he lived through four party changes, and when he died the Whig party pretty much fell apart. Calhoun didn't live as long, but was ''John Quincy Adams' '' Vice-President, and then went onto a very long political career that ''involved practically getting the South to secede from the United States in 1850.'' They may not have lived to be 600 years old (in fact, they died in their seventies), but Clay and Calhoun are mentioned more often in the AP US History book than George Washington, Lincoln, FDR, or pretty much any president. Clay, in fact, is mentioned in one book starting about page 200 and then dies on page '''five-hundred six'''. Even though several modern-day politicians spend just as long or even longer in Congress as they did, most of them don't really have much impact on the country.
** 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 [[UsefulNotes/GeraldFord Ford]], [[UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter Carter]], [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reagan]] and [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush Bush]] surpassed him.

** [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethII]] is also a prime example; on 10 September 2015, she took both the British longest-reign title and the longest-reign title for women from her great-great-grandmother [[UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria Queen Victoria]].

* The Greenland Shark is the longest-living vertebrate known. They don't reach sexual maturity until they're around 150 years old and are estimated to have a lifespan of 400-500 years.