History Main / WeAreAsMayFlies

* In Literature/TheBible (Genesis 6:3) it is said that after the time of the Patriarchs (who were said to live [[SelfDemonstratingArticle centuries]]), the lifespan of humans had been set by God to 120 years. This is uncannily similar to the lifespans of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercentenarian longest-lived recorded humans of the modern age]].

* Namekians in ''Franchise/DragonBall'' live for at least 500 years. The Kaioshin live for about 75 million. Saiyans live about as long as humans, but they stay young longer.

* {{Youkai}} in ''Manga/InuYasha'' (ex. Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha, Naraku, etc.) live far longer than any human, and while they may look spry and youthful, in reality they are many hundreds of years old. How quickly they mature relative to humans seems to vary.
* Inverted in ''Anime/MacrossDelta'' with the Windermerians, who only live about thirty years on average. The difference is illustrated when, speaking of his mother, Hayate mentions he hasn't seen her in quite a while. When Freyja says how sad that is, he absent-mindedly replies, "Eh, it's only a few years.",[[note]]Freyja is already fourteen and thus have just twenty years [[spoiler:with Hayate]] ''at most'', so a "few years" for Hayate is a huge chunk of life for her.[[/note]] which makes Freyja wince and look even more sad. Hayate looks like he's mentally kicking himself for that comment.
** This specific realisation drives the whole plot arc of two different characters: the aforementioned Freyja, who flees Windermere to join Walkure and live her dreams while she can, and [[spoiler: [[BigBad Roid]]]], whose villany is driven in large part because the entire Windermerean people will be outlived by the other Protoculture-descended species (such as humans and Zentraedi).
* Inverted in ''Manga/{{Moriking}}''. Moriking explicitly points out that an insect's life is short, and rhinoceros beetles are not expected to live longer than the fall after emerging from their pupae in the summer. Shota promises to take care of Moriking until the end of his natural lifespan, while Shoko displays shock at the notion that these human-like bugs would die so quickly.
* Non-human/animal folk in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'''s [[MagicalLand magic world]] live several times longer than the human species, and it shows up in their aging as evidenced by Princess Theodora. [[spoiler: Asuna has been hinted to not be human, instead having been alive for [[strike: twenty or thirty years]] at least a hundred years and probably more while looking ''four''. She only started actually ''growing up'' physically until she went to Mahora.]]
* Fairies and Giants in ''Manga/TheSevenDeadlySins'' have extremely long lifespans and tend to see time accordingly. When Diane and King lived together, they shared a meal with a peasant. By the time they got around to seeing him again, he was an old man. Neither of them noticed that so much time had passed.
* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'' actually builds on this trope, with longer-lived races stating that they're impressed at how fully humans ''live'' their short lives compared to themselves.

* Inverted in ''Manga/TokyoGhoul[=:Re=]'', with one of the variants of [[HalfHumanHybrid Half-Human Hybrids]]. The most common result of a human and a ghoul mating is a Half-Human, a being that possesses enhanced physical abilities but no other ghoul traits. Unfortunately, they are BlessedWithSuck and have a significantly shortened lifespan compared to either parent species. While their external appearance remains youthful, they start suffering age-related conditions in their 20s and are considered elderly if lucky enough to live into their 30s. The oldest known example was going blind from Glaucoma at the ripe old age of 32. Since they're a SlaveRace used as living weapons, their already-shortened lives are further reduced by the likelihood of dying in battle.

* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', the Spirit Royalty live exceptionally long times. Prince Koenma is only recently potty-trained, and claims to be at least 500-years-old.

* The elves in ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' are descended from spacegoing aliens who had overcome aging and disease. However, [[spoiler:the Wolfrider elves have wolf DNA, courtesy of their shapeshifting ancestor Timmain, which gives them a finite lifespan -- a mere few thousand years or so. The creation of the Wolfriders was necessary in order to make their adopted planet accept the elves as part of its ecology.]] Furthermore all elves have immortal spirits. Trolls and Preservers are also extremely long-lived, but humans and wolves have normal lifespans.

* Inverted with Gates the insectoid teleporter in ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' who at one point says "If I live to be twenty, I will never understand humanoids."
* It varies depending on the canon, but (at least ComicBook/PostCrisis) it's generally accepted that Characters/{{Superman|TheCharacter}} is essentially immortal, having stopped aging in his late 20's. He can still be killed in battle (and has been) but as long as he can avoid that, he can live forever. This leads to the unfortunate fact that all his friends and loved ones -- including his wife [[Characters/SupermanLoisLane Lois]] -- will turn old and gray while the Man of Steel remains young. Not really an issue thanks to ComicBookTime. In ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion'' we learn that Superman is still alive in the ''853rd century.'' He's spent the last hundred millennia in the heart of the sun, becoming super-charged by its rays to the point that he is essentially a god. All this, just so he can use his new powers to bring Lois back from the dead so they can live together eternally.
* It's implied that ComicBook/{{Sleepwalker}} and his race are extremely long-lived, as [[ArchEnemy Cobweb]] has been ravaging the Mindscape since before recorded time and Sleepwalker has fought him on many occasions.
* ComicBook/TheSmurfs are definite long-livers compared to humans -- they can live up to 600 years (Grandpa Smurf is a few centuries beyond that) and still remain active and sprightly. In the {{animated|Adaptation}} [[WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs1981 adaptation]], it's mostly due to the Long Life Stone which gives the Smurfs their longevity, though its power must be replenished every 1000 years or the Smurfs will suffer RapidAging that leads to their death.

** Similarly the ''My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'' fandom has noted the fact that alicorns (and Spike) are extremely long-lived compared to other characters, and similar "X outlives all their friends" fanfics and art tend to crop up on a regular basis.
** {{Fanon}} usually portrays "normal" Earth Ponies as the shortest lived race. Unicorns are usually the longest-lived of the main three races while pegasus are the middle ground (though they have a high mortality rate so many don't make it to old age).
** In ''Fanfic/ManehattansLoneGuardian'', Celestia notes this about ponykind in general. While thinking about a former agent of hers that disappeared off the radar, she thinks that while she'd long since gotten used to her subjects' mortality compared to her, that didn't mean that she enjoyed it. As such, she was pleased when the agent in question eventually turned up alive.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' crossover ''Fanfic/{{Kage}}'', it's established that most of the species on Meridian -- sapient and non-sapient -- are more long-lived than ordinary humans, though [[WizardsLiveLonger magical humans can extend their lifespan]], like the members of the Escanor lineage.
** Galhots (sometimes known as [[FantasticSlurs Drakes]]) usually live about 200 years. For instance, Raythor is nearly 100-years-old, AKA middle-aged for a Galhot.

* In ''Fanfic/ChrysalisVisitsTheHague'', Equestrian ponies can get hundreds of years old –- Princesses and Queens even thousands. This revelation catches the protagonist Estermann entirely off-guard.
--> “What are you horses ''eating''?!”
* In ''Fanfic/EternalMLP'', the normal ponies (known as "earthlings") typically have the shortest lifespan at one-hundred. In contrast, pegasi live to two-hundred while flutter ponies and sea ponies both live until three-hundred. Unicorn live [[spoiler:{{i|mmortality}}ndefinitely]].
* Inverted in ''Fanfic/AFrozenFlower'' with awoken ''lamberos'', who only live to be 10-12 years old before they explode and die. With "exceptional control", as Till notes, they can stretch their lifespan by only a couple years, but nothing past that.

* ''Franchise/StarWars''. Yoda: "When 900-years-old ''you'' reach, look as good you will not."
* The Antareans in ''Film/{{Cocoon}}'' appear to be TheAgeless and have been on Earth for millennia, although in a stasis, after the destruction of their {{Atlantis}} colony.

* Creator/IainBanks' ''The Algebraist'' has (most) of the species of the galaxy divided up into two groups: the slow and the quick. The quick have human-like life spans, the slow live [[TimeAbyss much, much longer]] (up to a billion years or so). Also invoked when a [[Literature/TheCulture Culture]] ship investigates Earth, and the ship tells our narrator:
-->"Their children's children will die before you even look old, Diziet. Their grandparents are younger than you are now..."
* In ''Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark'', with medical advances, humans can expect to live for several more decades past 100. However, the [[HumanAliens Faata]], the very first alien race encountered by humanity, has its ruling caste live for many centuries (some have been alive for over 1000 years). On the other hand, all the other castes are genetically engineered to live for a few years at most. This is topped by the next race officially encountered by humans, the [[SpaceElves Lo'ona Aeo]], who routinely live for many millennia (if not tens of millennia), partly because they have willingly became a SpacePeople, since living aboard specially-constructed orbital habitats tends to be safer than on a planetary surface, and environments can be adjusted to promote longevity. This also affects how they perceive youth. For example, a Lo'ona Aeo, who is in his [=90s=], is seen as a brash teenager by his elders. When one book's protagonist meets his Lo'ona Aeo brother (long story), the brother expresses his sorrow over the death of their father. The protagonist is surprised, pointing out that their father died in battle decades ago, and that he has already made peace with it. The alien explains that, for his long-lived species, it seems as if it happened yesterday. Additionally, [[HalfHumanHybrid human-Faata hybrids]] and their descendants can potentially live for 150-200 years, although no one has actually live that long due to many of them dying in battle or for other reasons. It's called the "Corcoran curse", since it also means that the male hybrids mature very late in their lives and are unable to have children until they're in their fifties. There is also a race of [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifters]], who can live for millennia (it helps when you can alter your cellular makeup at will), which is compensated by their extremely low birthrate. It's mentioned that most other HumanAliens have lifespans comparable to humans. Inverted for the [[LizardFolk Dromi]], whose incredibly high population growth compensates for their short lifespans. A typical Dromi, who doesn't die a violent death (unlikely), can expect to life to about 40-50 human years. The higher Dromi castes are older than that but only thanks to Lo'ona Aeo-supplied longevity treatments that must be administered regularly. Even then, the fact that their bodies continue to grow with age means that, eventually, the SquareCubeLaw kills them.
* Mentioned by name in one ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' novel. The Clans, a faction of humans descended from an army that left the bulk of human-controlled space (the Inner Sphere) behind centuries ago, use a program of genetic engineering to breed new, supposedly vastly improved generations of warriors every five years. Because the superiority of their breeding program is indisputable (to them, at least) a warrior facing warriors two or three generations younger than he or she is will be hopelessly outmatched. Most Clan warrior careers are over by the age of about thirty. In negotiating a truce between the Clans and the Inner Sphere, the Inner Sphere representative, Anastasius Focht, wants a long truce, initially proposing "forever." The Clan representative, ilKhan Ulric Kerensky, is pushing for a short truce ([[ItMakesSenseInContext even though he's opposed to the invasion in the first place,)]] because of the rapid nature of Clan warrior careers. As Focht asks for thirty years, to give the Inner Sphere a full generation to advance their technology (which is hopelessly far behind that of the Clans) and training, Ulric replies that the Clans "are as mayflies to you." The eventually agree on a fifteen-year truce.
* Creator/VladimirVasilyev's ''The Big Kiev Technician'' series is an UrbanFantasy taking place in the distant future, where all major cities have become [[MegaCity Mega Cities]] (Big Kiev is roughly the size of modern-day Ukraine) but ModernStasis is in full effect. The biggest changes from modern times include various fantasy races living side-by-side with humans and various pieces of technology being alive and having to be tamed instead of built. All fantasy races live for centuries, if not millennia. Humans have a normal lifespan and resent it. Even worse, a community of a HumanSubspecies called Longers was found in Big New-York that have a lifespan roughly double that of normal humans. They were slaughtered by normal humans who couldn't bear to have other humans live for so long. However, several characters (members of other races) admit that this means that humans are more likely to make advances and change the status quo due to their short lives.
* In the ''Literature/BlackJewels'' series, [[{{Muggles}} Ladens]] and other short-lived races are view as "flash in the pan" beings living only a handful of years compared to the hundreds of the Blooded races. Undead guardian of Hell, Saetan, is over 50,000-years-old and even he is considered young when compared to the ancient dragons like Lorn.
* James Blish's excellent ''Literature/CitiesInFlight'' series does the same thing, with two drugs -- one that holds off aging, and one that prevents almost all disease. Unfortunately, the supply is limited, so only those who can prove their worth to society are ever started on the drugs -- and some people are considered just too old to start now. Later in the series' continuity, the longevity drugs are used as currency, because they're basically impossible to counterfeit and they can be diluted to make change. This is okay for the planetbound cultures, who just age and die normally. For the Okies, who need them ''as drugs'' if they want to survive the journey from system to system, it doesn't work so well.
* Non-alien example: Because the life expectancy is so bad for their time period, Vlad Tepes and Elizabeth Bathory of ''Literature/CountAndCountess'' consider their lives to be halfway over by the time they've hit twenty.
* Mohandas, the protagonist of ''Literature/DancingWithEternity'', is a human from the distant future where humans can live for essentially forever by "re-booting". He himself is at least 1,600-years-old. During the course of the story, he and other characters encounter a planet where people on it live an Amish-like style of life, where re-booting technology is not used, so people die in fewer than 100 years. Mohandas is surprised that these people can enjoy their lives in--from his perspective -- such a short span of time.

* Played straight in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', though, where dwarfs live for centuries, trolls even longer, elves are immortal, and so forth. Again, the only races which appear to have shorter lives than humans are gnomes and pixies.
** Then there are the vampires, who are incredibly strong and almost unkillable by conventional methods, and can be reduced to dust through their weaknesses. One drop of blood on the ashes and they return to life. The only way to knock a vampire out for really long periods of time is to get rid of the ashes somehow, like burying it, sinking it in the ocean, or throwing it off the Disc.
*** Or get the bat-turned vampire eaten by a cat.
** In ''Literature/ReaperMan'' one segment is from the point of view of a group of actual mayflies. Their elders reminisce about "the good old hours". Another is from the perspective of a group of trees, who don't notice anything that takes less than a day to happen (like one of their number being cut down -- he just vanishes).
* The Literature/{{Dragaera}}ns of Steven Brust's novels live for about 2000 years. Brust does address a side effect of this, however: they take over a hundred years to reach maturity.

* Inverted and turned [[ExaggeratedTrope Up to Eleven]] in ''Literature/DragonsEgg''. The [[StarfishAliens neutron-star dwelling cheela]] live one millionth as long as humans do, but also think a million times faster (so that a thousand years to them is a bit less than nine hours to us). When humans make contact with the cheela, they inadvertently start an industrial revolution. They start transmitting their encyclopedia. It takes the cheela many generations to decrypt and interpret the message, but after ''six hours'' they know as much science as the humans do. After ''twelve hours'', they have developed faster-than-light travel, flown throughout much of the galaxy, and transmitted a message back to the humans with everything that they learned, encrypted so that the humanity [[YouAreNotReady will only gain knowledge at a rate that we can handle]]. What happens to the cheela later is not specified. This premise was loosely adapted in an episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''.
* In the ''Literature/{{Eldraeverse}}'' [[SpaceElves eldrae]] and [[SiliconBasedLife galari]] are both naturally TheAgeless. And the first time the eldrae made FirstContact with a mortal sophont species they were so horrified that they started developing [[ImmortalityInducer immortagens]] for them. Of course, they're well over ten thousand light-years from humanity, even if the eldrae are descended from genetically modified TransplantedHumans.
* Turned upside-down in the Creator/RayBradbury short story "Frost and Fire", taking place on an [[ScienceMarchesOn otherwise habitable Mercury]] with a very rapid rotation and temperature extremes, and, due to solar radiation, rapid aging effects for the human underground colony that the survivors of a crashed ship formed. Its people live, grow old and die within ten days, at a rate of about a decade a day. When the heroes discover and take shelter in the forgotten ship's sealed interior, they're astonished to find they're no longer growing old, and speculate that without the solar radiation's effects, humans might live to an unthinkable one hundred days old.
** To compensate for the short lifespan, humans were telepathic and learned their language and knowledge while they were in the womb.
*** Which wasn't necessarily a good thing. One particularly awful meme that persisted was that you could steal someone's remaining days of life by killing him.

** In Heinlein's standalone novel ''Literature/TheStarBeast'' Lummox had been the Stuart family pet for four generations or 120 years, [[spoiler: and was still a child by her species' standards]]. It is also stated that humanity is the shortest lived sapient species in the known universe.
* In ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'', Serafina Pekkala, the witch Queen, discusses the impossibility of equal relationships between men and witches due to the lifespan issue; witches live for many hundreds of years. Angels in His Dark Materials live even longer; at one point an explicit comparison is made that as human life is to witches', so are witch lifespans to angels'. Pullman also inverts the trope with the Gallivespians, tiny human-shaped people who reach maturity rapidly and die after living roughly ten years.
* Also appears in the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series, by Creator/DavidWeber. Humanity has a anti-aging drug regimen that must be started as early as possible to be most effective. This also leads to a interesting variation: Being that the regimen (called "prolong") has different versions that were developed at different times, this trope can happen ''three ways'' normals -> first-gen -> second-gen -> third-gen, where people that are in their seventies and have a full space-navy career can appear to be in their early teens to those who have not experienced the effects.

* All of the Barsoomian races in the ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' series can live for centuries, potentially millennia if nothing kills them (though with Barsoom being a ScavengerWorld and most of its societies are of the {{Proud Warrior Race|Guy}} persuasion, this is fairly unusual). Most Barsoomians voluntarily undergo a pilgrimage upon reaching the age of 1000 (at which time they're still physically in their prime) down the River Iss to what their legend tells them is paradise (they're actually eaten, either by beasts or by the Therns, at the end of the journey). Ras Thavas, who doesn't believe in any such mystical claptrap and avoids physical confrontation, is pretty close to dying of old age when first encountered ... he's probably about 2500 (Barsoomian years, so around 5000 Earth years).
* Most of the subsequent species of man in Olaf Stapledon's ''Literature/LastAndFirstMen'' live much longer than the "First Men", in fact after one of several societal collapses the average lifespan drops below 40 (until a long-lived mutant starts a religion and spreads his genes). The Second Men live for over 190 years. The Eighteenth Men live an average lifespan of 250,000 years and do not die of old age. That reads like a logical contradiction, but it's not: [[spoiler:they die when the sun turns into a red giant ahead of schedule]].
* "Naturals" (humans who haven't been CaughtUpInTheRapture and given glorified bodies) in the Millennial Kingdom in the ''Literature/LeftBehind'' series book ''Kingdom Come'' can live up to a thousand years -- provided, of course, that they have put their faith in Christ, thus averting the DeathsHourglass age limit of 100 set up for nonbelievers. During that time period, the "naturals" age very slowly, so that those who are around 100-years-old are like teenagers and young adults.
* The alien creatures in Creator/HPLovecraft's work tend to be nearly immortal, with lifespans of several millennia. And then there are the [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]] and other godlike beings, which are truly immortal. In fact, some of them are actually older than the entire universe!
-->That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die.
* In Steven Erikson's ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' most of the non-human races are effectively immortal. This includes the pure-blooded Tiste Andii, Tiste Liosan and Tiste Edur (being invaders from either a different world that is at the same time the origin of Order and magic this shouldn't surprise anyone), the Jaghut, T'lan Imass (who turned their whole people into undead in order to extinguish the Jaghut) and most likely the Thelomen Toblakai and K'Chain Che'Malle matrons as well. Also immortal (unless killed, which happens a lot) is every [[PhysicalGod Ascendant]], god, dragon, greater demon or [[AnthropomorphicPersonification personification of a principle]]. Add to that age-defying alchemy and sorcery and a lot the characters appearing in the books are significantly older than the current civilizations with a few going up to 500.000 years, or even as old as existence.

* Inverted in ''Literature/TheMoteInGodsEye''. The humans live about a century and a half, thanks to some advanced biotech. Then they meet the Motie Mediators, who live for no more than fifteen years.
* Skeeve from ''Literature/MythAdventures'' is mentioned to have a much shorter life expectancy than his various non-human friends. His Pervect mentor, Aahz, has even justified how hard he pushes Skeeve to succeed, on the grounds that his student won't have very long to build his skills or career.
* Inverted in Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/NomesTrilogy''. The tiny nomes have lifespans of just ten years, but live and move ten times as fast as humans. This and their size difference make it difficult for the two species to interact.
* In ''Literature/{{Noob}}'', an event drained the FictionalVideoGame's god's powers. They can apparently go back to their former level of power if they rest for long enough. Several millennia of recovery later, they are still basically at the same point they were at right after the power-draining event. This could be partly explained by the fact that they had to use the power they managed to recover to take care of a couple of other emergencies, but these emergencies are several millennia old as well.

* In Creator/MCAHogarth's ''Literature/{{Paradox}}'' universe all of the Pelted races with life spans listed on [[http://mcah.wikia.com/wiki/Pelted the author's wiki]] commonly live over a century. With the Naysha (150), Glaseah (150 or 260, depending on source), and Phoenixes (620?) being the longest lived. Eldritch of course can live over a thousand years barring the violence or diseases that are all too common on their world. And the completely alien Faulfenza live about seven hundred.[[note]]possible UnitConfusion in the example[[/note]]

* The [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Kantri]] of ''Literature/TalesOfKolmar'' can live around two thousand years, and it's mentioned that it's not unheard of for individuals to spend fifty years at a time meditating in solitude. These Kantri have lived away from humans on an island for five thousand years; it soon becomes evident that when around humans they regain some ability to think and experience life short-term, seeing and enjoying more.
* Played with in the old short story "They Live Forever" where a man is found who has clearly lived for centuries without aging. The immortal brushes off questions saying that he is exactly like everyone else where he comes from. The narrator's grandfather decides to find the planet of eternal youth but their ship crashes on a different planet, killing the entire crew except the boy. Eventually the narrator befriends the natives who live for at most fifteen years. As the story ends he is seventy-four and when a child asks how old he is the narrator realizes the natives don't have a concept of that length of time so he says he doesn't remember. He leaves, depressed, and the child's mother assures the little girl that the narrator is simply immortal.
** Another story with a forgotten title involved an immensely long-lived alien recruiting a team of humans to travel to another planet and help advance the civilization of a sentient species who exist in a blur of speed and whose lifespan is measured in ''hours''. The team quickly learns that being "immortal" is no picnic...

** One of Tolkien's letters stated that it was impossible for the Valar to make any Man truly immortal. If one ever entered the Undying Lands, they would exist and seemingly not age long past when they should have died, but their life would gradually become unbearable, since it would just be their natural lifespan spread out continuously (similar to what happened to Gollum and Bilbo with the One Ring).

* In ''Literature/{{Watersong}}'', Thea, having lived for thousands of years as a siren, has this opinion of humans.

* In Dutch author Paul Harland's novel ''Water to Ice'', one of the protagonists is a many-thousands-of-years old man who was made immortal by aliens. His particular variation is interesting: Like Dorian Gray, his "aging" is transferred to a transcendental "painting" of him. After so many centuries, he wants the thrill of being able to die back, so he placed the picture in a vault, which is then sunk into the corona of a star. It could go at any moment, but it's impossible to predict ''when''. However, he also describes an encounter he once had with a species of electromagnetic beings, which exist for only fifteen ''minutes'' at a time before dying forever, and how their joy and wisdom is a constant soothing memory to him. Unfortunately, when he meets his original benefactors -- aliens who see it as their holy mission to banish mortality from the universe -- they inform him casually that they have since bestowed immortality on aforementioned ephemeral beings. He then triggers his vault to open.
* For the same reason, Carmilla in the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'' looks upon her fellow students differently. After all, she really is a [[EldritchAbomination Great Old One]] even if she ''looks'' like a teenager.
* Robert Jordan's ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' has the Ogier -- for them, ninety years or so amounts to young adulthood, while the channelers (magic users) can live as long as six centuries, under the right circumstances.
* Played straight and subverted in the ''Literature/TheWordAndTheVoid'' and ''[[Literature/{{Shannara}} Genesis of Shannara]]'' trilogies by Creator/TerryBrooks. Demons ([[spoiler: humans that sold their souls to the evil Void]]) are very long-lived and possibly ageless (as well as being very hard to kill), while tatterdemalions, frail Faerie creatures made from the memories of dead children, live for only several weeks before dissipating.

* In ''Series/{{ALF}}'', the incredibly long lifespan of Melmacians is often used as a running gag, like when ALF shows off pictures of a relative's 250th birthday party, which resembles a 5-year-old human's. It's sometimes played for drama, though, as ALF gradually comes to realize that he's going to outlive the Tanner family by a huge margin.
* ''Series/AlteredCarbon''. [[spoiler:Reileen Kawahara]] refers to Grounders as 'fireflies' who burn brightly but are then quickly extinguished. And she is quite willing to help with the latter, given that she thinks Meths like herself are AboveGoodAndEvil having lived so long.
* An episode of ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' called "Dance Of The Mayflies", about a race of parasites which has been changing hosts for 50,000 years. They are giving a nice speech on the subject. The heroes are not convinced.
* In ''Series/BabylonFive'' Minbari live 120 years, Centauri up to 150, pak'ma'ra 255 years, and Vorlons might be immortal. [[spoiler:Lorien claims to be the first being to attain sentience in the galaxy, back when everyone used to be TheAgeless. He's also the LastOfHisKind, all others having died out due to disease, accidents, and violence]].

* On ''Series/FraggleRock'', Junior Gorg is 473-years-old, and Ma and Pa have been married for over 500 years.
* In ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'', when [[TheHero Kouta]] is captured by the Yggdrasill Corporation, [[PropagandaMachine DJ Sagara]] visits his cell and gives a little speech about how human lives are short, fragile, and insignificant...but says that's a ''good'' thing, since it inspires them to make the most of their lives. Sagara asks why Kouta wants power, and Kouta responds that he wants to protect the innocent because Yggdrasill won't; the answer pleases Sagara enough that he gives Kouta the key to his cell and a MidSeasonUpgrade, saying "As long as you keep impressing me, [[MysteriousBacker I'll keep helping you out]]."

* Franchise/StargateVerse:

* Rather weirdly, in Literature/TheBible (Genesis 6:3) it is said that after the time of the Patriarchs (who were said to live [[SelfDemonstratingArticle centuries]]), the lifespan of humans had been set by God to 120 years. This is uncannily similar to the lifespans of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercentenarian longest-lived recorded humans of the modern age]].
* This concept is the main feature in the OlderThanDirt legend, ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh''.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', it's known that humans are longer-lived than trolls and orks (both can live to about fifty-sixty). Metabolic testing has shown that elves are mortal, but in the 70 years since they appeared none have shown visible signs of aging. Dwarves seem to be similarly long-lived. Since numerous dragons are confirmed to have survived since the [[TabletopGame/{{Earthdawn}} Fourth Age]], they're all assumed to be TheAgeless. [[spoiler:A small number of elves are also fourth world survivors.]]
* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'' plays this trope pretty straight. Humans have the standard 50-100 year lifespan we are used to (albeit with medieval or early modern levels of health and medicine, and the concurrent reduced average life expectancy), while Dwarfs can live for many hundreds of years and Elves for a couple thousand. The Slann and their Lizardmen servants are older still. Ogres and Halflings tend to have lifespans similar to those of humans. Indeed, the comparative briefness of human life is why only man has pursued and developed Necromancy -- magic to extend life and cheat death is of little use to already virtually immortal Elves. The humans of ancient Nehekhara tended to live about five times as long as modern ones due to a pact they made with their gods, though all of this long-lived breed have been wiped out and rendered undead. At the other end of the scale are the Skaven -- chaotic rat-men who generally only live for twenty years (though their leaders can extend that to a couple of centuries using dark magics). The lifespan of Orcs and Goblins has not really been touched upon, though given the race's penchant for perpetual violent warfare it is unlikely that many of them ever get to find out either.
** Much like its counterpart above, ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' also plays this trope pretty straight. While regular Humans can have extended lifespans due to advanced future medicine, their lives tend to be cut short due to the constant intergalactic conflict around them, which usually sees most people being conscripted as cannon fodder to serve in the Imperium's armies. Space Marines, being genetically modified humans, tend to live for much longer, especially if they have been [[ManInTheMachine implanted into a Dreadnought]] which makes them practically immortal. Indeed, some of the oldest Space Marines have been around since the days of the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy almost 10,000 years ago. The Orks and Gretchin have similar lifespans to their fantasy counterparts, often being cut down due to their penchant for violence. The Necrontyr prior to their species wide UnwillingRoboticisation used to have extremely short lifespans due to the radiation of the homeworld, an issue that plagued them even as they tried to colonize distant stars. After their transformation into the Necrons, this was no longer the case. Perhpas the biggest example of this are the Tau, who have very short lifespans as they often only live up to their forties (barring the Ethereal Caste, who live for much longer). However, this is seen as emblematic of their philosophy of the Greater Good, as they are driven to do much as possible as their short lives permit. This in fact led to a brief pause in their expansion as their empire became so big that a single Tau could not traverse it in their lifetime. As a result, the Tau will often put some of their best and brightest into cryogenic stasis or copy their minds down into A.Is just to keep them around for much longer.

* In ''Theatre/TheFrogs'', Dionysus's wife, Ariadne, died because she was mortal. He, as an immortal god, laments that "She was young, so was I, surely she was much too young to die."

* In the ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' storyline, although there are no humans with which one can compare lifespan, almost everything lives for undetermined amounts of time. Every Matoran on Mata Nui has been there for one thousand years and lived on Metru Nui for who-knows how long before that (less than 100,000, at least), Toa Lesovikk has been wandering for at least several millenia, and Karzahni is almost as old as the universe itself. Toa do not seem to visibly age, but instead turn into somewhat more decrepit Turaga after sacrificing their Toa energy (sort of an example of EvolutionaryLevels). Understandable, since they were only partly organic MechanicalLifeforms. When mostly organic characters have been introduced with a similar lifespan, things got weirder. Some, like Gresh, were still seen as youngsters by others, despite being at least ''tens of thousands of years old''!

* In ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'', Loghaire Thunderstone, king of the dwarves, posits the idea that this is the reason why humans develop technology so quickly, to the point of destroying the environment. He believes that humans are always dogged by the fear of death due to their relatively short lifespans and are driven to achieve as much as possible while simultaneously rarely living long enough to see the consequences of their own actions.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'', the alien species that became the Hive originally lived just ten years, assuming the [[DeathWorld planet they lived on]] didn't kill them first. As a culture, they rationalized their situation with the Timid Truth: being at the bottom of the food chain, their short lives and [[ExplosiveBreeder rapid breeding]] were beneficial traits that let the whole species quickly adapt to threats no matter how many individuals get killed. Understandably, some of those individuals disagreed that living short, unpleasant lives was a good thing, and set out to look for a better way. One DealWithTheDevil later, the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Hive]] were born, and almost immediately resolved to use their newfound power to kill all other intelligent life in the universe and [[TheSocialDarwinist prove "survival of the fittest"]] on their own terms.
* Demons in ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}''. Most of them are ''much'' older than they look (such as the protagonist, Laharl, who looks to be about 13 despite being over 13 ''hundred''-years-old).
* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'', this is the case for the races of Men (who have lifespans on par with real-life humans) compared to the LongLived [[OurElvesAreDifferent races of Mer (Elves)]]. This is the reason that [[OurGodsAreDifferent Arkay ("Orkey" or "Old Knocker" in the old Nordic pantheon)]] is despised by the [[HornyVikings Nords]]. The Nords despise that he gave them shorter lives compared to [[FantasticRacism the hated elves]]. (Nevermind that the elves have an ImmortalProcreationClause limiting their fertility and putting a cap on the amount of children an elven woman can typically have, which the Nords took great advantage of when nearly exterminating the Falmer (Snow Elves).)
* Subverted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', where Black Mages seem to have much shorter lifespans than regular humans.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''. Humans have relatively normal lifespans that are mocked as "too short" by the immortal Occuria. Humes do, however, have lifespans significantly shorter than [[OurElvesAreDifferent Viera]] and Nu Mou, who have lifespans about three times that of a human, or [[LizardFolk bangaa]], who have twice our lifespan.
* Also finally subverted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIIRevenantWings'', in which a WingedHumanoid race is introduced that has half the lifespan of humans. The standard races with 2-4 times the lifespan of humans exist, too.
* A plot point that was lampshaded several times by the long lived laguz of ''Franchise/FireEmblem''. All laguz and those with laguz ancestry have extended life spans, triply so with the Dragon Tribe. When several dragon allies from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]'' encounter Ike and friends in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]'' they are somewhat awed that the Greil Mercs look different and are surprised that Ike and Co. miss them. In their eyes, barely anytime has passed at all. [[HalfHumanHybrid Beorc-laguz hybrids]] inherent the longevity of their laguz ancestors, which creates problems when they need to blend in among beorc for a long period of time.
** This is also brought up in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' with Tiki and Nowi, both dragons. Nowi is 1,000 years old but still looks like a preteen girl, and while Tiki's aged physically since ''Shadow Dragon'', she looks nowhere near as old as she really is.
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'', this is also an issue for the divine dragon Fae. She is centuries old yet looks like a human child of about six. She doesn't understand why Igrene's daughter "went away" and breaks down when the half-dragon Sophia tries to explain that Fae will outlive all of her human friends, and Sophia herself, by [[TimeAbyss an incomprehensible amount of time]]. Sophia herself is about 100 years old, and neither she or Fae look any different than they did when they made cameos in the prequel.
* In ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', humans are definitely shorter-lived than the [[SleazyPolitician Prophets]], who tend to live for hundreds of years thanks to advanced medical technology, and possibly shorter-lived than the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Elites]], who seem to be able to stay combat-fit well into at least their 80s. Even ''Halo''[='s=] AdvancedAncientHumans, despite being able to live for well over 1000 years, were still short-lived compared to their [[{{Precursors}} Forerunner]] contemporaries. Though how long exactly the Forerunners live naturally is unclear: their ability to live for over 10,000 years easily is mostly attributed to the TwentyFourHourArmor they all wear.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': The Zora are stated to live for hundreds of years. One NPC in Zora's Domain recalls playing with Link when they were kids, but although Link has been in stasis for the past century and has an excuse to still have a youthful appearance, the Zora also looks like a young adult. In a sidequest, you can additionally hook up a human man and a Zora girl who are around the same age temporally -- but the human is an adult while the Zora is still a child (physically anyway: according to the Zora, they mature emotionally and mentally before they do physically, so there's a relatively brief window where they have the mind of an adult and the body of a child).
* If ''VideoGame/LostOdyssey'' isn't a prime example of this trope, then nothing is. The main character is an immortal who is doomed to outlive everyone he cares about: Wives, children, friends, everyone. The game milks it for all it's worth -- almost all of the "Thousand Years of Dreams" content touches on some variation on the theme, mostly for drama, sometimes for laughs: [[http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Q0iMl0jeY MAMAAAAAAAAAAAAA]]

* The Magypsies in ''VideoGame/Mother3'' can live as long as the [[spoiler:[[CosmicKeystone Needle]]]] they protect remains. Meanwhile, humans "don't even live to 100".
* In ''VideoGame/{{Paladins}}'', this is inverted for fairies. In the Realm, fairies have very short lifespans. For example, Willo is an adult fairy, but her age is around 2 or 3 in human years.
* In ''VideoGame/SoulBlazer'', the player meets up with a race of people in the Mountain of Souls who live for only one year. They make the most of their lives and are incredibly happy.
* A complicated example in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'': The trope is averted by default, with all species sharing a standard human-like lifespan of 70-90 years[[note]]Prior to researching any life-extending technology, anyway[[/note]]. However, this can be tweaked by racial traits; "Enduring" and "Venerable" species get moderately or significantly extended lifespans compared to the baseline, while "Fleeting" species are much shorter-lived.
* In ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'' Liir are practically immortal but the SquareCubeLaw kills most of them after several centuries, Morrigi live about 400 years, Hiver Princes live in excess of 300 years while Princesses often live 400 and a Queen may be around for a millennium. However, Tarka live about 100 years and Changed males are lucky to live an additional 40 years after they Change, Hiver workers live just 60-70 years and warriors less than that, and Zuul usually get [[KlingonPromotion killed by an underling]] before they make it to 40.

* Eventually averted in the ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' universe. The night elves ''were'' immortal... but they gave up their immortality in order to drive back the Burning Legion. ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' opens with the night elves coping with the fact that they're going to start dying natural deaths for the first time in... well, forever.

* Subverted in the ''VideoGame/WorldOfMana'' series, in which the elf-like race the Jumi, can live for as long as their hearts aren't damaged. Unfortunately, their hearts are gigantic jewels sticking out of their chests, which can be easily plucked off to kill them. Over the years they were hunted to extinction. But not entirely subverted; a group of faeries talk about humans at one point, estimating that they "only" live to about 500 years (and is then corrected by another faerie, who correctly believes that the lifespan of humans is even shorter.)
* Inverted with the [[TheGoodKingdom Boron]] in the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series. The encyclopedia packaged with the [[LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition X-Superbox]] says the average Boron's life expectancy is about 35 years, whereas the average human lives to be about 110. The [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Split]] invert or avert depending on sex: males generally don't live more than 50 years, whereas their womenfolk usually top 80. Played straight with the [[ProudMerchantRace Teladi]], who average 250 years with the world record being 400 (they're technically TheAgeless, but tend to get tired of life around age 250).

* In ''Webcomic/CircumstancesOfTheRevenantBraves'', ethereal beings like ancient spirits and vices can live forever, where their human counterparts come and go.
* This is the in-universe reason [[SorcerousOverlord Wallas]] gives for not caring about his GlamourFailure on the mere human heroine in ''Webcomic/TheColorOfTheCrystal''. He is not only a ReallySevenHundredYearsOld [[OurWitchesAreDifferent witch]] but also kind of {{Genre Blind|ness}}.
* Most Cyantians, of ''Webcomic/TheCyantianChronicles'', have lifespans of 120 years, whether that's earth years or slightly longer Cyantian "rots" isn't really specified. In addition genetic Elites of some species can live for centuries, as of ''Akaelae'' Alpha is over 750 and has had a number of different wives and cubs.
* In ''Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures'' [[BeastMan Beings]] are the local human equivalent in terms of lifespan. Creatures tend to live for several centuries, 1500 years for Angels and Demons, 3000 for [[SuccubiAndIncubi Cubi]] (longer if they eat souls), Dragons outlive civilizations and Fae are essentially immortal until they choose to die (and their [[NonLinearCharacter view of time]] is a bit different.
* The longevity of manticores in ''Webcomic/DarwinCarmichaelIsGoingToHell'' is initially used as [[ImmortalImmaturity part of a punchline]]. But then there's [[http://dcisgoingtohell.com/052-rock-god-part-iv/ what happens]] when the characters are forced to confront their worst fears . . .
* In ''Webcomic/DriveDaveKellett'' Makers of the Continuum can live for millennia but most other species have lifespans comparative to humans. While Veetans are an inversion who only live 25 years. [[spoiler: [[http://www.drivecomic.com/archive/200109.html Skitter's species]] turns out to live at least 600 years.]]
* The Elves of ''Webcomic/ErrantStory'' can live for untold millennia. Unfortunately for them, by the time of the story, no pureblood elf was born in over a thousand years, and they are now confined to a single city after a great war with humanity. They don't help their case by many being [[CantArgueWithElves insufferable jerks]], so much so that even the order of human [[MagicKnight magic-wielding warrior-monks]] they'd created as protectors decided to [[ScrewYouElves tell them where they can stuff it]].
* Played with by the [[AllTrollsAreDifferent trolls]] in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''. Their lifespan is determined by their position on the [[AlienBlood hemo]][[FantasticCasteSystem spectrum]]: the lowest-blooded trolls are lucky to make it to 24 [[AlternativeCalendar sweeps]] (about 52 Earth years), while the empress has lived for millennia.
* The Nemesites in ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' have been established to live at least for centuries--which is a very useful trait for members of an interstellar civilization in a universe ''without'' faster-than-light travel.
* In ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'', this is sometimes a joke, as most small insects--and sometimes insects who are anthro-sized--have miniscule lifespans. But it became a plot point in 2022 when Spork Johnson's dung beetle co-workers reminded him that they don't have long lifespans, and would not survive that winter.
* Zig-zagged in ''Webcomic/OutOfPlacers'': Humans have normal lifespans, and while Baxxids are implied to have longer lifespans (and the ability to go dormant for upwards of a hundred years), Yinglets are already elderly by the time they reach 25.
* Corporal Vog of ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' is about 12 million years old. He says 'about' because there is a margin of error converting to human timescales. The margin of error in his math covers more time than the existence of the human race. Later [[GeneralRipper Xinchub]] admitted that humanity wasn't very well suited to pursuing immortality like the "Project Lazarus" he'd been in charge of because we're one of the shorter-lived species in the galaxy. Putting a species ''that'' unfamiliar with long life in charge of immortality would be, in his words, like "putting vegetarians in charge of a barbeque".
* In ''Webcomic/TalesOfTheQuestor'', elves ''used'' to live longer than humans, but a long time ago an elf king had a [[LiteralGenie powerful salamander]] grant his wish that his people never grow old, [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor accidentally turning the elves into a race of mayflies.]]

* Never actually stated in ''Webcomic/{{Terra}}'', but indicated by the birth dates of alien characters in the codex. [[EvilOverlord Sovereign Northazul Kalar]], the oldest Azatoth character we have data on, is 160 in the present day and looks to be in the equivalent of late forties/early fifties judging by his graying hair, and most of the other Azatoth characters are somewhere in the range of 40- to 60-years-old and look to be in their thirties at most. Eve Arlia, a Varelien, is 72 and looks twenty-something. Meanwhile the oldest human character, General Winters, is 58 and looks his age.
* An exception: In ''Webcomic/TwoKinds'', the Keidran only live about twenty years. ''Humans'' are the elf-like ones.

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': it's heavily implied that Finn the Human and Jake the Dog were infants at the same time, Finn's [[RaisedByWolves canine adoptive parents]] died of old age leaving his older brother (now approaching middle age while Finn's barely an adolescent) to raise him. On the other hand, it's unclear just how rapidly Jake actually ages. Jake isn't exactly an ordinary dog either, [[spoiler:since he's the result of a shapeshifting alien creature implanting an egg in Joshua's head]].
* A short stop motion film called ''WesternAnimation/DasRad'' involved two perspective of time between two sentient piles of rocks named Hew and Kew, and the humans who, over thousands of years, progress from cavemen to building a future metropolis which rot and fade away at the end of the film. Being rocks, Hew and Kew act and talk so slowly that centuries pass during their conversations and the humans who pass by (which are barely visible to the rocks due to the TimeDissonance) see them as ordinary piles of unmoving rocks. At one point, Kew picks up a broken wooden wheel discarded next to him by a human pulling a rickshaw passing by and inspects it in curiosity before it rots and biodegrades into nothingness.

* The Nibblonians from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' have very long lifespans. Nibbler is at least 1000-years-old and still seems "youthful" for his species.
** Inexplicably, the Nibblonian race itself is seventeen years older than ''the universe''.
** You don't need much of an explanation when you're able to ''swallow yourself out of existence''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Celestia, Luna, Discord, and Tirek are all confirmed to be at ''least'' 1000-years-old. It's not clear whether this is a characteristic of alicorns in general (the only other two to have been seen in the show were originally regular ponies who were turned into alicorns) or whether Celestia and Luna are a special case. Discord and Tirek are both (so far) the only representatives of their species (draconequus and demon-goat-centaur-thing, respectively), so it's unknown if they're naturally long lived or have artificially extended their lives with magic. ''Literature/TheJournalOfTheTwoSisters'' reveals that "natural" alicorns like Celestia and Luna are ''very'' LongLived, though they are not immortal, though this is thrown for a loop in the DistantFinale where Twilight Sparkle is shown to have become like Princess Celestia unlike her now elderly friends and Princess Flurry Heart has aged normally. Similarly, it's implied that Spike, being a dragon, has an extremely long lifespan as even in the distant finale he looks and sounds like a buff teenager whose voice hasn't even cracked yet.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' sketch, "A Bug's Short Life", the characters from ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'' cannot get any sleep because the Mayflies themselves are partying, having sex, giving birth, going through a midlife crisis as husband and wife, and finally dying in the span of three hours. Just when they think they can finally get a moment's rest, [[HereWeGoAgain the eggs hatch and it starts all over again]].
* There is also the bird Filburt had Rocko watch over in ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' at one time where it turns out that Turdy (the bird's name) and its species only live for weeks, though it's subverted in a way for Turdy when it's revealed that Heffer accidentally sat on Turdy, killing him.

* In an extreme example, the titular Franchise/{{Transformers}} may very well be incapable of dying of old age, so long as they remain properly nourished. Indeed, throughout the entire franchise, only Ratchet from ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' dies of old age, sometime in the DistantFinale. The characters from the first series went into [[HumanPopsicle suspended animation]] four million years ago, and when they woke up, all their old acquaintances were still fighting the war. They're rarely shown as being affected by old age (except for one character, Kup), and one character, Vector Prime, may very well be nearly as old as time itself.
** The [[Film/{{Transformers}} movies]] add [[GrumpyOldMan Jetfire]] to the list. Apart from being ''one of the first Transformers to ever live'', his aging is explained as from being starved of energon. He even comments that his father was the ''first wheel,'' ("What did he transform into? Nothing! But he did it with honour!") It is however conceivable that energon starvation and/or [[GoMadFromTheIsolation hiding in a museum with nobody to talk to for several years]] has made Jetfire go a bit peculiar, or that he's just trying to mess with Sam's head when he says this. The Fallen, one of the original Thirteen, is even older and is still spry from better care over the years.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', it's established that Martians have a longer lifespan than Humans due to aging at a slower rate. This may be a result of the fact that Mars takes longer to orbit the Sun than Earth, so a year on Mars is roughly equal to two years on Earth. Hence why in Season 1, Miss Martian is the Martian equivalent of a 16-year-old Human, despite being born 48 Earth years ago.

* In ''Webcomic/DriveDaveKellet'' Makers of the Continuum can live for millennia but most other species have lifespans comparative to humans. While Veetans are an inversion who only live 25 years. [[spoiler: [[http://www.drivecomic.com/archive/200109.html Skitter's species]] turns out to live at least 600 years.]]

* [[Creator/IainBanks Iain M. Banks]]'s ''The Algebraist'' has (most) of the species of the galaxy divided up into two groups: the slow and the quick. The quick have human-like life spans, the slow live [[TimeAbyss much, much longer]] (up to a billion years or so). Also invoked when a [[Literature/TheCulture Culture]] ship investigates Earth, and the ship tells our narrator:

* The Pterosapiens in ''Literature/AllTomorrows'', pterosaur-like descendants of humanity, have bodies that struggle with keeping up both their large brains and their power of flight. As a result, Pterosapiens reach sexual maturity at two and usually live to be only 23 on average. Keenly aware of their mortality, they appreciate every moment of their lives and have whole libraries filled with tomes from their philosophers pondering the meaning of it all.

* [[Creator/JRRTolkien Tolkien]] worked human jealousy of the unlimited lifespan of the Elves into a plot point in the story of the fall of Númenor.
** However, ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' reveals that death, far from being a disadvantage of Men, is actually intended by Eru as a [[BlessedWithSuck gift to the race]], allowing them to depart from the world early and go on, presumably returning to existence beyond Middle-Earth, while the Elves are stuck on Middle-earth until its end, thus resulting in their growing wistfulness and melancholy as they see the world around them changing and decaying. Death also allows Men greater defiance of Fate.
** Even the Númenóreans are long-lived compared to other humans (most Númenóreans can live to 200 -- the royal line, which has Elvish blood, can live up to twice that). Dwarves have a similar lifespan -- they live to about 250 on average. For that matter, so are Hobbits: a hobbit comes of age at thirty-three, and it's not uncommon for them to live well over a century.

** This specific realisation drives the whole plot arc of two different characters: the aforementioned Freyja, who flees Windermere to join Walkure and live her dreams while she can, and [[spoiler: [[BigBad Roid]], whose villany is driven in large part because the entire Windermerean people will be outlived by the other Protoculture-descended species (such as humans and Zentraedi).

* In ''Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures'' [[BeastMan Beings]] are the local human equivalent in terms of lifespan. Creatures tend to live for several centuries, 1500 years for Angels and Demons, 3000 for [[HornyDevils Cubi]] (longer if they eat souls), Dragons outlive civilizations and Fae are essentially immortal until they choose to die (and their [[NonLinearCharacter view of time]] is a bit different.

[[folder: Web Original]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Young Justice|2010}}'', it's established that Martians have a longer lifespan than Humans due to aging at a slower rate. This may be a result of the fact that Mars takes longer to orbit the Sun than Earth, so a year on Mars is roughly equal to two years on Earth. Hence why in Season 1, Miss Martian is the Martian equivalent of a 16-year-old Human, despite being born 48 Earth years ago.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheWackyAdventuresOfRonaldMcdonald'': This is hinted to be the case in regards to Org's species in "Visitors from Outer Space", as Hamburglar learns after agreeing to join Org's family on their vacation that the trip wil last 3,000 years.

** The Doctor is a Time Lord and over 2000-years-old by Series 10. Actually, her current incarnation looks younger than most of her past ones. One of the {{Tie In Novel}}s points out the problems this can cause if a Time Lord ends up on one planet for a long period of time.

In any [[SpeculativeFiction science fiction or fantasy]] series, human beings are the most ephemeral of creatures. Every other sentient species lives at least as long as, and usually far longer than, human beings. The only exception are the brutish races: Trolls, Orcs, or Ogres -- they mature faster. Ironically, humans have one of the longest lifespans of all mammals in RealLife.

* In Creator/MCAHogarth's ''Literature/{{Paradox}}'' universe all of the Pelted races with life spans listed on [[http://mcah.wikia.com/wiki/Pelted the author's wiki]] commonly live over a century. With the Naysha (150), Glaseah (150 or 260, depending on source), and Phoenixes (620?) being the longest lived. Eldritch of course can live over a thousand years barring the violence or diseases that are all too common on their world. And the completely alien Faulfenza live about seven hundred [[note]]possible UnitConfusion in the example[[/note]]

See also PunyEarthlings, MayflyDecemberRomance, TimeDissonance, WeAllDieSomeday. Contrast RapidAging. Compare and contrast TimeAbyss. Sometimes used to explain why DeathMeansHumanity in-universe.

* {{Inverted|Trope}} in the ''WesternAnimation/Thundercats 2011'' episode "Song of the Petalars." The Petalars, a race of {{Lilliputian|s}} [[PlantPerson flower like creatures]] have incredibly [[ProportionalAging brief]] lifespans compared to the titular [[{{Catfolk}} Thundercats]], only living for about a day before they wither away. Thanks to perceptual TimeDissonance, to a Petalar, that single day is an incredibly rich, full and meaningful lifetime.

* ''Manga/SousouNoFrieren'': The overarching conflict of the series is Frieren, a LongLived elf girl, outliving all of her loved ones from other races and her realization of how fleeting human life is. The story begins with the two human members of her party dying from old age, causing her to start a journey together with the young mage Fern and thinking over how humans use their short lifespan to live as much as they can.

* {{Inverted|Trope}} in the ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Thundercats 2011}} [=ThunderCats (2011)=]]]'' episode "Song of the Petalars." The Petalars, a race of {{Lilliputian|s}} [[PlantPerson flower like creatures]] have incredibly [[ProportionalAging brief]] lifespans compared to the titular [[{{Catfolk}} Thundercats]], only living for about a day before they wither away. Thanks to perceptual TimeDissonance, to a Petalar, that single day is an incredibly rich, full and meaningful lifetime.

* In an extreme example, the titular Franchise/{{Transformers}} may very well be incapable of dying of old age, so long as they remain properly nourished. Indeed, throughout the entire franchise, no Transformer has ever been observed to die of natural causes, on or offscreen. The characters from the first series went into [[HumanPopsicle suspended animation]] four million years ago, and when they woke up, all their old acquaintances were still fighting the war. They're rarely shown as being affected by old age (except for one character, Kup), and one character, Vector Prime, may very well be nearly as old as time itself.

* Music/JasonIsbell's "If We Were Vampires" somehow turns this realisation into a beautiful love song; since howevermany years he'll get with his wife won't be enough, they have to make them count.

** This is also brought up in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' with Tiki and Nowi, both dragons. Nowi is 1000-years-old but still looks like a preteen girl, and while Tiki's aged physically since ''Shadow Dragon'', she looks nowhere near as old as she really is.
** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade'', this is also an issue for the divine dragon Fa. She is centuries old yet looks like a human child of about six. She doesn't understand why Igrene's daughter "went away" and breaks down when the half-dragon Sophia tries to explain that Fa will outlive all of her human friends, and Sophia herself, by [[TimeAbyss an incomprehensible amount of time]]. Sophia herself is about 100-years-old, and neither she or Fa look any different than they did when they made cameos in the prequel.

* It varies depending on the canon, but (at least ComicBook/PostCrisis) it's generally accepted that Franchise/{{Superman}} is essentially immortal, having stopped aging in his late 20's. He can still be killed in battle (and has been) but as long as he can avoid that, he can live forever. This leads to the unfortunate fact that all his friends and loved ones -- including his wife ComicBook/{{Lois|Lane}} -- will turn old and gray while the Man of Steel remains young. Not really an issue thanks to ComicBookTime. In ''ComicBook/DCOneMillion'' we learn that Superman is still alive in the ''853rd century.'' He's spent the last hundred millennia in the heart of the sun, becoming super-charged by its rays to the point that he is essentially a god. All this, just so he can use his new powers to bring Lois back from the dead so they can live together eternally.

* ComicBook/TheSmurfs are definite long-livers compared to humans -- they can live up to 600 years (Grandpa Smurf is a few centuries beyond that) and still remain active and sprightly. In the {{animated|Adaptation}} [[WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs adaptation]], it's mostly due to the Long Life Stone which gives the Smurfs their longevity, though its power must be replenished every 1000 years or the Smurfs will suffer RapidAging that leads to their death.

* In ''Fanfic/EternalMLP'', the normal ponies (known as "earthlings") typically have the shortest lifespan at one-hundred. In contrast, pegasi live to two-hundred while flutter ponies and sea ponies both live until three-hundred. Unicorn live [[spoiler:[[TheImmortal indefinitely]].]]

* James Blish's excellent ''Literature/CitiesInFlight'' series does the same thing, with two drugs -- one that holds off aging, and one that prevents almost all disease. Unfortunately, the supply is limited, so only those who can prove their worth to society are ever started on the drugs -- and some people are considered just too old to start now.
** Later in the series' continuity, the longevity drugs are used as currency, because they're basically impossible to counterfeit and they can be diluted to make change. This is okay for the planetbound cultures, who just age and die normally. For the Okies, who need them ''as drugs'' if they want to survive the journey from system to system, it doesn't work so well.

* Mohandas, the protagonist of ''Literature/DancingWithEternity'', is a human from the distant future where humans can live for essentially forever by "re-booting". He himself is at least 1,600-years-old. During the course of the story, he and other characters encounter an planet where people on it live an Amish-like style of life, where re-booting technology is not used, so people die in fewer than 100 years. Mohandas is surprised that these people can enjoy their lives in--from his perspective -- such a short span of time.

* Inverted and turned UpToEleven in ''Literature/DragonsEgg''. The [[StarfishAliens neutron-star dwelling cheela]] live one millionth as long as humans do, but also think a million times faster (so that a thousand years to them is a bit less than nine hours to us). When humans make contact with the cheela, they inadvertently start an industrial revolution. They start transmitting their encyclopedia. It takes the cheela many generations to decrypt and interpret the message, but after ''six hours'' they know as much science as the humans do. After ''twelve hours'', they have developed faster-than-light travel, flown throughout much of the galaxy, and transmitted a message back to the humans with everything that they learned, encrypted so that the humanity [[YouAreNotReady will only gain knowledge at a rate that we can handle]]. What happens to the cheela later is not specified. This premise was loosely adapted in an episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''.

* All of the Barsoomian races in the ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' series can live for centuries, potentially millennia if nothing kills them (though with Barsoom being a ScavengerWorld and most of its societies are of the {{Proud Warrior Race|Guy}} persuasion, this is fairly unusual).
** Most Barsoomians voluntarily undergo a pilgrimage upon reaching the age of 1000 (at which time they're still physically in their prime) down the River Iss to what their legend tells them is paradise (they're actually eaten, either by beasts or by the Therns, at the end of the journey). Ras Thavas, who doesn't believe in any such mystical claptrap and avoids physical confrontation, is pretty close to dying of old age when first encountered ... he's probably about 2500 (Barsoomian years, so around 5000 Earth years).

* Music/VNVNation's entire musical output is based on this trope. Several songs take on the view that all of humanity's efforts to deify itself are futile, as our lifespans are brief and no-one will see our great works later on. Especially hammered home in the song "[[http://lyrics.wikia.com/VNV_Nation:Carbon Carbon]]".

** Much like its counterpart above, ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' also plays this trope pretty straight. While regular Humans can have extended lifespans due to advanced future medicine, their lives tend to be cut short due to the constant intergalactic conflict around them, which usually sees most people being conscripted as cannon fodder to serve in the Imperium's armies. Space Marines, being genetically modified humans, tend to live for much longer, especially if they have been [[ManInTheMachine implanted into a Dreadnought]] which makes them practically immortal. Indeed, some of the oldest Space Marines have been around since the days of the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy almost 10,000 years ago. The Orks and Gretchin have similar lifespans to their fantasy counterparts, often being cut down due to their penchant for violence. The Necrontyr prior to their species wide UnwillingRoboticization used to have extremely short lifespans due to the radiation of the homeworld, an issue that plagued them even as they tried to colonize distant stars. After their transformation into the Necrons, this was no longer the case. Perhpas the biggest example of this are the Tau, who have very short lifespans as they often only live up to their forties (barring the Ethereal Caste, who live for much longer). However, this is seen as emblematic of their philosophy of the Greater Good, as they are driven to do much as possible as their short lives permit. This in fact led to a brief pause in their expansion as their empire became so big that a single Tau could not traverse it in their lifetime. As a result, the Tau will often put some of their best and brightest into cryogenic stasis or copy their minds down into A.Is just to keep them around for much longer.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''. Humans have relatively normal lifespans that are mocked as "too short" by the immortal Occuria.
** Humes do, however, have lifespans significantly shorter than [[OurElvesAreDifferent Viera]] and Nu Mou, who have lifespans about three times that of a human, or [[LizardFolk bangaa]], who have twice our lifespan.

* A plot point that was lampshaded several times by the long lived laguz of ''VideoGame/FireEmblem''. All laguz and those with laguz ancestry have extended life spans, triply so with the Dragon Tribe. When several dragon allies from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]'' encounter Ike and friends in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]'' they are somewhat awed that the Greil Mercs look different and are surprised that Ike and Co. miss them. In their eyes, barely anytime has passed at all. [[HalfHumanHybrid Beorc-laguz hybrids]] inherent the longevity of their laguz ancestors, which creates problems when they need to blend in among beorc for a long period of time.

* A short stop motion film called "WesternAnimation/DasRad" involved two perspective of time between two sentient piles of rocks named Hew and Kew, and the humans who, over thousands of years, progress from cavemen to building a future metropolis which rot and fade away at the end of the film. Being rocks, Hew and Kew act and talk so slowly that centuries pass during their conversations and the humans who pass by (which are barely visible to the rocks due to the TimeDissonance) see them as ordinary piles of unmoving rocks. At one point, Kew picks up a broken wooden wheel discarded next to him by a human pulling a rickshaw passing by and inspects it in curiosity before it rots and biodegrades into nothingness.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', it's established that Martians have a longer lifespan than Humans due to aging at a slower rate. This may be a result of the fact that Mars takes longer to orbit the Sun than Earth, so a year on Mars is roughly equal to two years on Earth. Hence why in Season 1, Miss Martian is the Martian equivalent of a 16-year-old Human, despite being born 48 Earth years ago.

* This is the in-universe reason [[SorcerousOverlord Wallas]] gives for not caring about his GlamourFailure on the mere human heroine in ''Webcomic/TheColorOfTheCrystal''. He is not only a ReallySevenHundredYearsOld member of the WitchSpecies but also kind of {{Genre Blind|ness}}.

* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', the guerilla war between the Animorphs and the Yeerk Empire lasted three years and shaped the fates and lives of thousands of sapient creatures. The larger war between the Andalites and Yeerks was on a scale even larger. But in the end, the entire conflict was only a blip so small as to be unnoticeable when it came to the war between Ellimist and Crayak. The kids' war lasted three years, the war between Ellimist and Crayak lasted ''hundreds of millions'' or even ''billions'' of years, one that continues even after the Yeerk Empire is destroyed. If one looks at the series as a battle between good and evil, ''absolutely nothing was accomplished''. What's one Yeerk Empire to Crayak?
** It's implied that the war is more critical than it seems, for reasons that will only be clear to the mortals of the galaxy a century or two down the line.
** True, considering how much the Yeerk war influenced the budding, new conflict between humans, Andalites, Yeerks, ''Kelbrid'' and The One:
--> "I command this ship," Efflit 1318 explained, "but I serve at the pleasure of The One Who Is Many. The One Who Is All. We are not alone, Rakich-Four-Six-Nine-One. We are not this ship alone. We are the seeds of a new Empire that will far outshine the old, an Empire that will flourish under the leadership and wisdom of The One."

* Zig-zagged in ''Webcomic/OutOfPlacers'': Humans have normal lifespans, and while Baxxids are implied to have longer lifespans (and the ability to go dormant for upwards of a hundred years), Yinglets are already elderly by the time they reach 25.

Humans in the 'wild', without advanced medicine or technology, tend to live 30-40 years (well, mathematically speaking, that's the average after you factor in ghastly infant mortality; but the notion that our ancestors routinely keeled over in their 30s and 40s is a myth — just go to a cemetery and look at the dates on the headstones), having very few predators apart from each other. The unusual bit is that even large mammals with almost as few predators as humans die of old age decades before humans, with the exception of some whales and elephants. Intelligent aliens should be similarly long-lived compared with their near relatives. If they've managed to slow down their aging process (through, say, genetic engineering), their natural lifespan could be long indeed, making this a [[JustifiedTrope justifiable trope.]]

Humans in the 'wild', without advanced medicine or technology, tend to live 30-40 years (well, mathematically speaking, that's the average after you factor in ghastly infant mortality; but the notion that our ancestors routinely keeled over in their 30s and 40s is a myth — just go to a cemetery and look at the dates on the headstones.), having very few predators apart from each other. The unusual bit is that even large mammals with almost as few predators as humans die of old age decades before humans, with the exception of some whales and elephants. Intelligent aliens should be similarly long-lived compared with their near relatives. If they've managed to slow down their aging process (through, say, genetic engineering), their natural lifespan could be long indeed, making this a [[JustifiedTrope justifiable trope.]]