History ReallySevenHundredYearsOld / Literature

** TheDragons. They will live ''forever'' unless you manage to kill them.

** In a weirdly meta sense Bombadil is older than the world, he and Goldberry were originally from a poem Tolkien wrote in school and the setting grew around him.

** It is explained that after a certain point in their life all [[WitchSpecies warlocks]] stop getting older, and so go through the centuries. The more powerful the demonic parent, the younger a warlock gets his agelessness. In the late 1990s or early 2000s, there are said to be eight other sorcerers who were born before the pact with Raziel and are therefore over a thousand years old.

** The half-elf Meliorn lived in London in the 1870s, where he had trouble with Will Herondale and a few others, and he had to travel to New York. There he met Clary Fray in the 2000s. In one hundred and thirty years it has grown little older, and at one point it is even claimed to be about a thousand years old.

* The ''Literature/NightWatch'' series is rife with this, since all Others except certain witches stop aging when they are initiated, and nearly all Others can change their appearance through magic.

** Dumbledore is in his 110s throughout the series and still badass enough to take on [[BigBad Lord Voldemort]] at the end of the fifth book when he's 116. His eventual death comes from a {{Curse}} and not any sort of natural cause. The only other characters who are for sure in his age range, his brother Abeforth and Grindelwald, are also healthy. The former survives the series but the latter only dies because he lets Voldemort kill him.
** There are a few characters who are a good bit older than the three of them but their health isn't as good. During Harry's fifth-year examinations there's a witch named Griselda Marchbanks who lived long enough to give ''Dumbledore'' his exams. It's never stated how old she is but it's probably in the 150 range. Bathilda Bagshot, a historian, is alive throughout most of the series but she lived near the Dumbledores when the three children were kids. She's also Grindelwald's great aunt. She's dead by the time Harry "meets" her but it's never stated if she'd died of natural causes or if the Death Eaters killed her. She's also probably somewhere in the 150 ballpark.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** While not immortal, witches and wizards can live quite a while past their first century: Dumbledore is 116 years old and still badass enough to take on [[BigBad Lord Voldemort]], and during Harry's fifth-year examinations there's a witch who lived long enough to give ''Dumbledore'' his exams (exact age isn't stated, but she would presumably be about 150). And of course there's Nicholas Flamel. Though never seen, he is stated to be over 600 years old. (Although this is specifically because he can make the Philosopher's Stone, unlike most people.)

** These exact words are used of High Priest Dios in ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'' when he claims to be seven thousand years old. He's really [[spoiler:''infinite'' years old, having lived the same seven thousand years in a perpetual loop]].

* In Creator/MikhailAkhmanov's ''Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark'', the higher caste [[HumanAlien Bino Faata]] can potentially live for several thousand years (on the flip-side, the lower Faata castes are specifically engineered to live for several years at most). This partly transfers to their HalfHumanHybrid descendants, some of whom are known to have lived for over 100 years (although many die unnatural deaths, so it's hard to say). The [[SpaceElves Lo'ona Aeo]] can also live for centuries, which also affects how they perceive time. One Lo'ona Aeo mentions to be deeply grieving the loss of his father, only for a human to point out that it happened decades ago. The [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Metamorphs/Proteids]] live for several millennia, although ImmortalProcreationClause seems to be in effect, and there are very few Metamorphs. A Metamorph named the Exile has been on Earth since the 13th century. Of course, being able to alter his external appearance (most Metamorphs can shapeshift into anything, but he has a rare birth defect limiting his abilities) means he can look like a young man or an old man, or anything in-between.

** Elrond's daughter Arwen, born 241 years after the War of the Last Alliance, eventually marries the Númenórean Aragorn -- who is 2,690 years her junior. She still looks as young as ever at the wedding.
** Galadriel is even older than Elrond. She was more than 8,300 when she and Frodo departed from the Gray Havens, having been born in Valinor before it was darkened. She is therefore actually older than ''the entire race of humanity''. And the sun and moon.

* ''Literature/VillainsByNecessity'': Kaylana, who was a child during the last war between Good and Evil... over a hundred and fifty years ago. [[spoiler: Blackmail tops her by being one of the heroes who FOUGHT in the war 150 years ago. In the present all he has is a bit of grey hair. He says his armor is enchanted, implying its magic kept him alive.]]

* Almost all the vampires in ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' fall under this category. For example, Carlisle Cullen, who appears to be ~30, is actually over 300 years old.
** The most extreme example in the series would be the Volturi twins Jane and Alec who appear to be in their mid-teens (are played by 17-18 year old actors in the film version). Though their actual age is never stated in the books, the date when they were turned to vampires has been ballparked to have been around the year 800, which would make them roughly 1200 years old.
** The Quilete "werewolves" are not this as most of them are actually stated to be slightly younger than the physically appear (Jacob is only 15 in the books, but appears to be in his early 20s). However, it is stated at one point that they will remain at that same physical age as long as they continue to regularly phase into their wolf forms, meaning that they would legitimately qualify for this trope after a few years.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', witches and wizards can live quite a while past their first century: Dumbledore is 116 years old and still badass enough to take on [[BigBad Lord Voldemort]], and during Harry's fifth-year examinations there's a witch who lived long enough to give ''Dumbledore'' his exams (exact age isn't stated, but she would presumably be about 150).
** And of course there's Nicholas Flamel. Though never seen, he is stated to be over 600 years old. (Although this is specifically because he can make the Philosopher's Stone, unlike most people.)

** [[FunnyMoment Amusingly]] [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] [[FunnyMoment by one dying kalachakra Harry visits as a child]].

* In Kevin Hearne's ''IronDruidChronicles'' the druid Atticus O'Sullivan tells people that he is twenty one. People naturally assume that he means years rather than centuries. He uses a magical potion to maintain a youthful appearance but he predates Christianity. The vampire Leif is around a thousand years old and the local warevolves have members a few centuries old. The various gods and demi-gods can be virtually immortal.

** Take, for example, satyrs, who age twice as slow as humans. In ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'', Coach Hedge is the 106-year-old chaperone of the kids as they travel on their quest, despite only appearing 53. [[BloodKnight This is perhaps his least notable characteristic.]]

* Zoe Nightshade from ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians''. In fact, any of the Hunters who have been members for a long time. Artemis herself prefers to appear as a 12-year-old girl when she's traveling with them. And then there are the rest of the gods and mythological characters...

** Jerome Corbell, the hero of ''A World Out Of Time'' ''starts'' the story waking up after spending 220 years in suspended animation. By the end of the novel, because of time-dilation caused by a close encounter with a black hole, he's at least five billion years old.

** The [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Ainur (Valar and Maiar)]] are ''older'' than the world, and most of them [[VoluntaryShapeshifting can look however they please]].

* Roman Soldier Casca Rufio Longinus pierced the side of Jesus with his lance as He hung on the Cross. This atrocity put Casca under a curse... he would live never-dying as a wandering soldier until Christ's Second Coming. The late Barry Sadler's acclaimed book series (22 volumes; 18 by other authors) explains the anti-hero to be over 2000 years old, having fought alongside such historical names as Attila, Cortez, Marco Polo, Adoph Hitler and George Washington.