History Main / TimeAbyss

While a Time Abyss is normally a person - perhaps not technically human, but a person nonetheless - objects can also qualify, everything from cities to coins. Imagine an alien monolith that has been sitting on the moon for three billion years. Think about all it has seen; the slow dance of the continents, the long march of evolution, the sudden flowering of civilisation. Think, and wonder.

** With some guesstimation of the time for the proto-Ulgos to find their way to UL, and based on his interactions with them, it is possible to see him as in the fourth or fifth generation of humans since they were created. He is so close to having been around at the dawn of humanity that he can write a book called 'The History of the World', which it is, based on his own personal experiences, a tribute not just to his age but to how active a life he has had. It is also implied in this book that between him and his brothers, they have made most of the scientific discoveries we have now on their own, because thousands of years of magically enhanced learning leads to some VERY intelligent old men, Beldin first among them - for at least half the history of civilisation, his library was the greatest one on earth.

* Several ''{{Touhou}}'' characters are described like this, in particular Eirin and the Lunarians. Emphasised by the somewhat odd line: "Your history of scarlet... Divided by my history, the result is zero." when confronting a "merely" 500 year old vampire. Eirin is also described as "much older" than the exiled Lunarian princess Kaguya...who is at least 1400 years old herself.

**** Gandalf states that there exist [[EldritchAbomination creatures even older than Sauron]], which can be reconciled with the above in at least two ways, but [[FromAcertainPointOfView only with careful interpretation]].

* Several ''{{Touhou}}'' characters are described like this, in particular Eirin and the Lunarians. Emphasised by the somewhat odd line: "Your history of scarlet... Divided by my history, the result is zero." when confronting a "merely" 500 year old vampire.
** The Moriya shrine goddesses were largely forgotten before the dawn of recorded civilization, and their backstory involves a time when Gods walked among men. One of them, Suwako, is the "Native Goddess" from before recorded time, and as a spirit of a mountain, is likely as old as human habitation of Japan.

** [[Film/{{Transformers}} Jetfire]] is yet another variant of "not that much older than several others, but still visibly aged" in that he looks older because he hasn't eaten in decades, although he still is very old regardless.
*** However, he might not actually be old enough to qualify, as it seems Transformers in the film series "only" lived for a couple hundred years each, as evident by the ancestors of the Transformers living around some thousands of years ago in the sequel as opposed to many million.

** For that matter, most ''Touhou'' characters only have defined ''minimum'' ages, such as Cirno being at least 60 years old, and Ran being at least 900 years old. Several characters may easily be a thousand years old, or older.
** The Moriya shrine goddesses were largely forgotten before the dawn of recorded civilization, and their backstory involves a time when Gods walked among men. Their priestess is even a direct descendant of one of the goddesses.
*** Technically, Kanako was an "invading goddess" who came with migrants that ultimately became the population that makes up modern Japan. Suwako is the "Native Goddess" from before recorded time, and as a spirit of a mountain, is likely as old as human habitation of Japan.
** While almost all of the final boss characters are at least a thousand years old, leading to a belief that age means power in Touhou, perhaps the oldest of all creatures are the humble nameless fairies that make up the RedshirtArmy in the game - as {{AnthropomorphicPersonification}}s of nature, they exist as long as the aspect of nature they represent exists - be it a season, a forest, rain, or even hot or cold. Cirno, the virtual mascot of the series, is an ice fairy, whose existence is tied to the existence of ice, and who can regenerate FromASingleCell as long as ice exists in the world. As ice is fairly common, and her existence begins and ends with the force of nature that creates her, her lifespan is functionally that of the entire planet's, and while nothing canonically says she is, there is also nothing that indicates she ''isn't'' as old as the Precambrian Period of the Earth. Too bad they're too simple-minded to really even pay attention to anything outside their childish games, much less [[TheFogOfAges remember how the world has changed around them]], and they are perpetually locked in their reckless games.
** Potentially topping all of these, there are multiple dimensions in play in ''Touhou''.
*** Shinki is the Goddess of Makai, the world of demons, and created it herself, and destroyed it herself. Her age may be uknowable.
*** Shiki Eiki is a Yama, Judge of the Dead, in a setting with multiple worlds, where life (and hence, dead to judge) may potentially far outdate the existence of our universe. Her subordinate is a [[DontFearTheReaper shinigami]] (Japanese equivalent of a Grim Reaper, or Ferryman on the River Styx), and is similarly potentially as old as life itself.

* The world of ''TheSandman'' is implied to have a handful of inhabitants that inspire the quote given above. For the most part, we are [[WhatsASecretFour just assured that they're out there]], somewhere. We do meet one or two of them, though. The Endless, Lucifer, and any other angel are said to be 10 billion years old, the figure Neil Gaiman used as the age of the universe (Though information revealed later in the comic seems to contradict this somewhat. Only Destiny is anywhere near the age of the universe, whereas the rest of them only came into existence when lifeforms complex enough to experience the concept they embody first evolved. The Angels & other mythical beings exist in a strange Schroedinger-esque state of being as old as time itself & [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve having only existed for as long as humans believed in them]]). Thessaly, a human being (as opposed to cosmic spiritual entity) and powerful witch, sounds Neolithic when she describes her age in ''A Game of You''.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* TruthInTelevision: Many species of plants and microorganisms have extremely long or unlimited lifespans; possibly the most famous example is the bristlecone pine tree, individual specimens of which are presently alive in spite of having sprouted nearly five millennia ago. One of them was found to be 4844 years old when cut down in 1964. And the common amoeba is effectively immortal, since it splits itself to reproduce, with no individual actually ever dying of old age. They've changed over time, and obviously are composed of different individual molecules, but in a very real sense that first ameoba is still alive and wriggling two billion-odd years later.
* Somewhat similar to this, there are various cell cultures in use in laboratories and universities around the world that are defined as ''biologically immortal'' - that is, the cells can divide an unlimited amount of times if they are kept in a suitable environment and well-nourished. As long as resources are available they will maintain themselves forever, never dying of old age. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeLa HeLa]] is probably the most famous of these.
** The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula immortal jellyfish]] is another example, using a kind of reverse aging.
** The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIbIHxKh9bk music video of Barber's Adagio for Strings]] uses this trope by focusing on a tree while human buildings fade in and out around it.
** On that note, Richard Dawkins argues in his book ''The Selfish Gene'' that genetic material is effectively immortal, because as long as it replicates there will always be identical copies of it. It makes sense if you think about it, the genes responsible for photosynthesis have been around for an immense amount of time, and it's likely that the genes around today are identical to ones billions of years old.
* "Living fossils", such as the coelocanth, are ''species'' that fit this trope.

** This is also aided by that Transformers seem to be [[NighInvulnerability very hard to kill]], even by the standards of giant transforming [[MechanicalLifeforms living robots]]. [[WeCanRebuildHim They can be rebuilt]] from sometimes ridiculous levels of damage.

** The 3E ''Draconomicon'' went a bit overboard on this trope, going so far as to claim dragons' long-term perspective is the thing that '''most''' distinguished their mindset from that of humanoids. Never mind that races such as elves can live an awfully long time also ... or the trivial little detail that dragons are, y'know, ''gargantuan flying carnivorous reptiles with breath weapons and innate spellcasting powers''.
*** An elf can live 700 years, maximum. Dragons can live 2000 years without breaking a sweat, and 5000 isn't out of reach. Their age is a somewhat important part of their mindset. Besides, the book does make it clear that their physiology (such as their diet) aslo influence their psychology greatly, it was just trying to emphasize the TimeAbyss.

** Let's not forget the Doctor ''himself''. Despite claiming to be barely over nine hundred years old, he's spent enough time traveling through time that he can make a good claim to having experienced most of history, and can easily come across as a TimeAbyss when he chooses to.
---> '''The Doctor:''' Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty. It's not the time that matters, it's the person.
** The DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse implies that the being who would become known as the Doctor was around and partially responsible for the creation of the Time Lord civilisation, which would make him over ''ten million years old''. Well, if you don't consider the fact that he spent most of that time as a questionably sentient collection of DNA strands to violate the "must not spend the time in suspended animation" qualification for this trope. Actually the Doctor's quote above is relevant here too.

*** The way this troper like to imagine it it that there is a great equation that shows the entire universe, constantly changing and being rewritten as time counts down. And in the centre of it is the one thing that is constant, above physics and maybe even above thermodynamics. Jack.

* ''{{Halo}}'' has a few; most of them are AI. The monitors, 343 Guilty Spark, and 2401 Penitent Tangent, were both built around the same time as the Halo rings themselves, which was over 100,000 years ago. Penitent Tangent was captured, and we don't see much of him, but we clearly see that the years have turned Guilty Spark into a narcissistic nutcase. Mendicant Bias was another AI made by the Forerunner, betrayed them, and sided with the Flood, much to his remorse. By the game takes place he is broken and fragmented, only appearing in certain terminals the player can activate and read.

** The Xeelee themselves are themselves older than the Universe itself. They created the Anti-Xeelee made of Tacyons to take their seeds back in time to when Baryonic matter becomes stable enough for them to exist. They then spend the next 15 billion years building a great attractor to leave this existence. Some Xeelee have seen the entire universe from the beginning.

** Marvel is full of this. The Proemials were born as the Universe was created, the Elder Gods emerged before live first appeared on Earth, the Eternals are 1 million years old (created by the even more ancient Celestials), the various Gods are thousands to tens of thousands of years old, the Neanderthal Cole witnessed the sinking of Lemuria 20,000 years ago, the mutant Selene is 17,000 years old and Black Axe is almost 15,000. There is also the Forever Man, although he is usually unable to remember his past lives, and Mr Immortal (while not one yet) will become one as he cannot die and so will be around until the end of the universe.

** Some Transformers, are considered old even by Transformer standards. Including,

*** Kup from TransformersGeneration1.

** All [[CosmicHorror Aboleths]] have perfect photographic memory going back to before the dawn of the gods. However, even ''they'' [[MultipleChoicePast don't know where the Illithids come from.]]
*** [[spoiler: That's because the Illithids come from the future, not the past...]]
**** They are also the only species which creeps out even them, since Aboleths have no idea where they came from. They are unnerved by this exception to their usually all encompassing knowlege of the origin of species. As a result, they are considered to be abominations by the Aboleths themselves.

*** Azrael is also given the line "[[TimeTravelTenseTrouble I REMEMBER WHEN THIS WILL BE AGAIN]]". SoYeah.

**** They are also the only species which creeps out even them, since Aboleths have no idea where they came from. They are unnerved by this exception to their usually all encompassing knowlege of the origin of species. As a result, they are considered to be abominations by the Aboleths themselves, SoYeah...

* It's from Japan, and she's [[{{Lolicon}} loli]] with a BackwardsName, so a GenreSavvy player would expect [[ElegantGothicLolita Rachel Alucard]] (of ''BlazBlue'') to be ReallySevenHundredYearsOld. Put together the JigsawPlot, though, and it's revealed that [[spoiler: she's lived through every [[GroundhogDayLoop possible iteration]] of both Arcade Mode and Story Mode, with a full century passing between each.]] [[OrSoIHeard According to someone who did the math]], that puts her age at over 72 500 years. No wonder she seems [[DeadpanSnarker bored]].