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How can immortality affect a character psychologically?

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SkullySnot from the Moon Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
#1: Feb 20th 2017 at 11:12:59 PM

I'm working on stories for webcomics and in general I like to explore deconstructed tropes and themes in the realm of speculative fiction—I think adding realistic consequences to fantastical elements spurs some really cool creative concepts, thought experiments and all that jazz.

In one of those stories, a major focus is how being immortal can change a character mentally and emotionally (especially for a human where it occurs unnaturally and isn't normalized in their society). Most characters will likely develop their own unique mindset because of many factors—inherent nature, experiences, moral values, etc.—so I don't expect the ability to live forever to just mold everyone into one set personality. Still though, it's a big catalyst for changes in the way of thinking, at least how I look at it.

In my personal example the character in the story, let's call him Bob, has been around since the 12th century into 2020 where the plot begins. One of the biggest advantages he has gained through immortality is the years, literally centuries, of experience with people and how they tick. For a person naturally charismatic like Bob he's learned how to put on facades and talk to people from all paths of life, knowing what it takes to manipulate them. Having felt sadness, anger, and other emotions many times over to all sorts of events in his life has numbed him considerably, and though he doesn't feel them as strongly now he still knows how they felt at one point, different from not ever knowing how they felt at all. Thus he is able to retain that level of empathy needed to understand a person through their emotions. Essentially, he's an extreme example of The Social Expert.

This is just a single way in how he's developed, but there are many other facets such as his cynicism, heightened self-awareness, and so on. Of course there's way more possibilities in how immortality influences mindsets, even moreso by all the different forms it manifests in. I'd like to read how you guys think immortality could change personalities, whether in a general or character-specific sense.

edited 22nd Mar '17 6:26:57 PM by SkullySnot

... <--- a line of ants
BruceKent Lord Blackheart Since: Dec, 2015
Lord Blackheart
#2: Feb 21st 2017 at 12:22:23 AM

immortals: family friends dying before them, as he doesn't age and as they all question him if he's even human? imo, an immortal would be emotionally numb. A sort of defense mechanism from feeling so many different emotions over and over again. Would most likely be an isolationist, because if people get close they ask why he doesn't age

Indie game designer/programmer and screenwriter. I like taking pictures and making pictures
Starbug Dwar of Helium from Variable (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Love blinded me (with science!)
Dwar of Helium
#3: Feb 21st 2017 at 8:58:20 AM

Another thing to consider: Did Bob gain immortality voluntarily (Deal with the Devil, magic formula, whatever), or involuntarily (like a lot of the immortals from the Highlander franchise)?

With the first type, he may have thought "Ha ha, I've escaped the Reaper" for a while, but eventually realize the consequences of his actions.

Now, I'm going to ask you that question once more. And if you say no, I'm going to shoot you through the head. - John Cleese
Kazeto Elementalist from somewhere in Europe. Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
Elementalist
#4: Feb 22nd 2017 at 11:57:17 AM

I will say that the way the character will get changed by their immortality depends on a few factors that most people using it as a plot element generally don't think about, at least in relation to the mental changes rather than only physical ones, and neither seem to have you.

Immortality as it is is a concept that we know does not and will not apply to humans because there simply are biological limitations that we neither can nor will be able to bypass. Having a character who actually is immortal means that those limitations had to have gotten either bent something fierce or broken through, and there isn't just a single way of doing this. Yet there are also limits that need not be bent or broken for characters to be functionally immortal, and though one could decide to do that to them anyway it is not actually required. What this means is that just as there are limits that make immortality possible to us, so are there going to be limits of some kind for characters who are immortal, but what those limits will be varied depending on what you set them to be and that will influence how the character could possibly change.

For example, we do know that one of the reasons why immortality is not possible for us is the imperfect reproduction of DNA strands as the cells split; this, over time, can cause weird things to happen and also sets a fairly hard limit on how far can you go. This means that any immortal characters would have to either have the process slowed down something fierce or have their DNA not degrade at all, the latter of which can possibly mean immunity to long-term effects of radiation. Additionally, it's up to the author to decide whether or not that would result in a healing factor of some sort, which can also influence the character in some way.

Immortality via not aging and nothing more, not aging with an addition of a regeneration factor, or maybe simply not being able to get damaged period? Each of those is a possibility and those all can change the character in different ways. If the whole thing has a price then that also factors in.

And then there are the memories too. It is true that human brains have a lot of capacity, but even with that people do forget things over time and people will forget things over time, unless you make the decision that somehow getting immortal changes that and gives the affected person perfect recall and infinite brain capacity both.

So, if you ask me, nothing is truly set in stone as far as mental changes go if it's just "immortality". It's the details that matter.

SkullySnot from the Moon Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
#5: Feb 22nd 2017 at 8:02:26 PM

re:2 [up]True, I think of him as a drifter of sorts, a person you only ever know for the short-term. I think it's more plausible that he, like you said, wouldn't let anyone get too close—never settling down with a family and never making friends, only acquaintances. So I do see him as an isolationist to that degree.

re:3 [up]Bob did do it voluntarily, and I agree with your thoughts on that. I think it's important too that it's by his decision because it would be more cause for inner conflict instead of enabling him to just blame it on someone else.

re:4 [up]I see where you're coming from, that it really who the character is that will determine how they change over time, and there's many directions that could go. What you said about memory is really interesting and something I didn't think too much on. In the story, Bob is an author so it fits pretty well that he would write down important memories he wouldn't want to forget, or use them as foundations for novels. —- I decide that it's important to discuss more about his core character—at first I was a little hesitant to post a whole wall of backstory and overtake the discussion. Without a little of that though I see how it would just reach a stalemate on this abstract concept.

Bob is planned to be the antagonist within the group of major characters (that and his immortality aren't given away until The Reveal). "Antagonist" here focuses more on the literal definition of conflicting interests since it's more fitting that his morality is kept gray, if a little dark. Though big bads can be pulled off really good, the story itself isn't intended to be a stark black and white. Many of his actions are self-serving but it leads to the question of "Whose interests are more important?" From his perspective, he'll outlive the rest of the group, so by the point they're dead what they want won't matter. This comes into play as him and the deuteragonist are both very determined, stubborn people.

Of course it still sounds abstract, and several important questions are left unanswered like, "What are their motives, Why is he with them, Why is it important he keeps so many secrets, Why doesn't he just kill them all?". An all around difficulty I've had with the story is that I've thought heavily on the concepts and themes I want to explore but now I need to apply them to a concrete plot (if I were to get around to discussing this, it may just be better to make another thread on that altogether). I have bits and pieces and a general flow of where the storyline goes, but it's the motivations that trip me up.

edited 22nd Feb '17 8:03:21 PM by SkullySnot

... <--- a line of ants
Kkutwar The Prince of Foolish Relevations from A Place Beneath both Good & Evil Since: Feb, 2013 Relationship Status: What is this thing you call love?
The Prince of Foolish Relevations
#6: Feb 23rd 2017 at 2:05:07 PM

Well, I always found it weird Immortals inevitably end up as flawless super-genius social gods, never once having trouble fitting into mortal society & always stupidly well off. Being an ageless being means you can only go so far claiming "graceful aging" and invoking My Grandson, Myself stops being believable if you never disguise yourself.

Honestly, if one has Complete Immortality, going full-on A God Am I is the most reasonable option: Why pretend to be normal and fear being discovered, when you could just be an Implacable Man trying to become a god-king? The sheer fact you cannot die will result in people worshipping you anyways, though admittedly such a stunt is better done in a less advanced time period.

"The Omniverse is the collection of all possibilities, and all possibilities must eventually come to pass."
Robbery Since: Jul, 2012
#7: Feb 24th 2017 at 7:25:28 AM

There's also the possibility that an immortal might find some quiet corner to live in and not especially notice the time slipping away. Most people tend to not think about their mortality unless it's staring them in the face, so there's no reason why someone couldn't take a similar attitude towards their immortality. Said immortal might wax and wane on their social interaction, which would limit the "all my friends die around me" angst, and their presence in a small (or even a large) community might be chalked up to "X has lived at the edge of town as long as anyone can remember.

Another option is one I remember Brian Michael Bendis using, which is to have it that the immortal can only remember as far back as an average lifespan. They get to the point where they just can't remember having been a child, or as being anything other than what they are.

Millership from Kazakhstan Since: Jan, 2014
#8: Feb 24th 2017 at 9:56:12 AM

When a person reaches a certain age, the life experience accumulated by them up to that point, filtered through the personal traits they possess finishes shaping their beliefs and values, and their overall impression on how the world seems to work. This is an entirely subjective view of the world, unique to that person. And after that certain point in life people tend to gravitate towards situations and other people which, if not empower those beliefs, then at least don't challenge them, since the change of worldview is painful, and can be damaging to human psyche (not to mention that few like to be contradicted). A person becomes more rigid and conservative with the passage of time, in accordance with their initial beliefs. And the more rigid they become, the more damaging the change will be.

I think that an immortal, long-lived human, personality-wise, would be very opinionated and unsociable, if their beliefs were not challenged (whatever they are), or have some serious mental illness if they were. Although I also think that it depends on the type of immortality. If it's a Complete Immortality, then there is no danger to the psyche, and a person might be more open towards challenging and changing their worldview. But, depending on their traits, they could hit other extremes in personality: be an immoral thrill-seeker if they are more proactive, or be an Extreme Doormat that just goes with the flow otherwise.

edited 24th Feb '17 7:54:57 PM by Millership

Spiral out, keep going.
ladytanuki Friendly Neighborhood Lich from SF, CA, US Since: Apr, 2012 Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
#9: Mar 5th 2017 at 2:12:20 AM

[up]Yes, definitely this. Which is why I flat-out don't write immortal characters that way unless they are gods, as gods defy all that becoming-more-conservative-over-time stuff anyway. Unless perhaps they're villains, because immortality + narrow mindset + unsociableness + possible charismatic manipulativeness due to knowing what makes people tick (as was the case with Bob) = a perfect recipe for a classic villain. I think that may also be why Immortality Seekers are most often villains, given what kind of an outlook that would tend to brew - and by that definition, anyone who resists such a change must have some impressive amount of Heroic Willpower.

Although, who said immortals have to age? Some immortals have eternal youth as a practically Required Secondary Power - I would even say most of them, if mental aging goes hand in hand with physical aging (as otherwise, their body would likely become all wrinkled and such, though they would never die as a result of that). So if that were the case, the above just won't happen. What might happen, though, is a sort of boredom, because when you witness so many time periods go by, you kind of become detached from the flow of life, slowly losing your sense of time and of meaningful attachment to people. Eventually they may even be Driven to Suicide because of it. After all, suicide is the only way an immortal can die if they don't have some sort of Achilles' Heel that would destroy them - unless I Cannot Self-Terminate is in effect, which would really suck, and lend itself to And I Must Scream ("I have no mortality and I must die") eventually. But again, it really does depend on the character - someone who is less attached to their loved ones or has a positive attitude toward death will not be so devastated at the loss of everyone they love, for instance.

So far, all the immortal characters I have are actually undead (three vampires, two liches, and a succubus with a Soul Jar). This would technically make their brand of immortality "incomplete", but all of them are on the high end of the Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration, so that's less of an issue - and also the fact that barring one of the vampires, all of them still have souls and thus act pretty much human. In fact, I'm surprised nobody mentioned vampires here yet, as one would think they're the classic example of immortality in literature - and they have the added factor in how long they are willing to deal with their Horror Hunger, lamenting about being a parasite to mankind or something. But of course, going into a discussion about vampires here would just open a whole new cave of bats, so here I'll just focus on how such a fate impacts one's views on immortality.

That having been said, I've really had fun figuring out how each of those six characters deals with their immortality. Most of them weren't immortal for very long at the time of writing of their stories, so they don't have the typical world-weariness or personality change over time (the only personality change being due to Character Development) - but even then the reactions differ because of their character differences, and even plot differences. Specifically:

Libertine (Vampire #1) loses her soul when she "dies", so she's contractually immune to the personality change as she doesn't have much of a personality at that point. Though she's shown to be quite affectionate and content with immortality, being a "pet" for The Dragon and not really caring about the implications of his evil plans.

Nim (Vampire #2) stays a child forever, and therefore is Constantly Curious about the world. She takes a carefree approach to her immortality, being naive to the moral worries most adults would have. And she is in close relationship to two others who are immortal (specifically Sinistrina and Rosaria, below), so at least she's not alone - though if and when she does lose them, she would probably become very depressed and spend all of eternity trying to find a new mommy.

Bianca (Vampire #3) has a strong case of I Just Want to Be Normal, and that basically trumps any other concerns she would have about the world. So like Libertine, she acts in a manner very close to an Empty Shell.

Sinistrina (Lich #1) is an interesting case, having Purpose-Driven Immortality after being trapped in a Death World by the Big Bad. Since she has a very melancholic demeanor, she still manages to lament what immortality entails. This is compounded by additional inner torment due to being afraid of the implications of her Black Magic and thus becoming a Knight in Sour Armor. Given how level-headed and accepting she is, this doesn't affect her that much, though after a while of being around mortal muggles after she finally returns to the world of the living, she would probably have a resurgence of the worry about her magic, and that on top of her Soul Jar functioning as a second character who she's grown attached to (and thus can't bring herself to destroy, as a form of I Cannot Self-Terminate) would lead to quite a bit of angst. Except not, since she's an Emotionless Girl who hides her angst.

Nyceme (Lich #2) is a Defector from Decadence filled with spite for the Big Bad (whom she was supposed to be wedded to), who estranges herself from her Always Chaotic Evil race by attempting a transformation ritual (which has Gone Horribly Right) and then joining The Hero's Ragtag Bunch of Misfits (which she only joins for revenge against the villain). During that time, she really enjoys being immortal, as it helps immensely in battle (the story is a High Fantasy, and the same one Libertine is in). But despite the estrangement from her race, she kind of misses the life she had before she got engaged. If she didn't have her fellow heroes as friends after the villain is defeated, she would likely be Driven to Suicide, knowing that she couldn't possibly return to the life she previously had. There's also some elements of an innate ruthlessness due to the nature of her race, which conflicts with some of the above and drives her a bit towards enjoying her immortality, if not full-on tempting her to make a Face–Heel Turn.

Rosaria (the succubus) actually thoroughly enjoys being immortal, seeing her identity as being Cursed with Awesome. Being really attached to dark secrets, she enjoys seeing how men's insecurities (and sexual behaviors) change over time (especially with her being a classic Femme Fatale, because of course), as well as discovering new paranormal secrets that pop up throughout. As it befitting her name, she sees the world through rose-colored glasses, overlooking the drawbacks of immortality because of it. It also really helps that her daughter became a vampire (that's Nim, above), so she doesn't have to worry as much about losing her (though she can't watch her grow up).

edited 5th Mar '17 3:19:28 AM by ladytanuki

Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.
SkullySnot from the Moon Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
#10: Mar 7th 2017 at 6:32:05 PM

[up][up][up]These are all awesome insights.

A separate idea I've thought of on it's own is how immortals could have a fear of death different from mortals in how it's not when they die but what could kill them. Of course this is all assuming in-story that the particular character can only observe the experimental limits and extents of their immortality and not given the divine knowledge of knowing "absolutely nothing can kill me". After all, how can you be sure that absolutely nothing can kill you if you haven't been put in those situations yet? Blood loss? Drowning? Electrocution? Explosions? Out of all the things they could survive through, there's still the possibility that there's an Achilles' Heel out there that they don't know about. So in that regard, this unique fear of death is drawn from the general fear of the unknown (if they aren't so willing to believe that they've seen it all despite how long they've lived.)

While there are those that would actively seek out a way to die because as described above, Immortality Sucks, there may be those stubborn types that could be excessively paranoid over this idea.

... <--- a line of ants
Wolf1066 Crazy Kiwi from New Zealand Since: Mar, 2011 Relationship Status: Dancing with myself
Crazy Kiwi
#11: Mar 7th 2017 at 8:32:04 PM

[up] In my ideas for immortal characters - primarily werewolves and their kin and vampires - the immortality has taken the form of not aging, being immune to most illnesses (or at least able to fully recover from them rather than succumbing and dying) and being able to heal serious - usually fatal for normal humans - wounds.

This does not mean that they can't be killed by various means. Certain physical laws still govern life - they need energy, which means they must eat or risk starving to death; they need water in order for their bodies to function normally or they will die of thirst; they need oxygen to metabolise food, so they can drown or be suffocated; the body must be controlled by the brain, so beheading will kill them (kills the body nearly outright and then the head dies from lack of oxygen...) and so forth.

So they're "immortal" provided they look after themselves. They could still live in fear of how they could accidentally die or be murdered, especially since a lot of the means could be potentially horrifying.

nekomoon14 from Oakland, CA Since: Oct, 2010
#12: Mar 21st 2017 at 8:25:45 PM

My immortals are The Ageless with a Healing Factor and seven things happen over the course of their long lives ( because Rule of Seven is in full affect ):

First, they slowly become sterile ; those with working ovaries exhaust their eggs and those with testes simply stop producing sperm with souls in them - this happens ( 1d6 + 1 ) x 700 years after they ascend ( and I literally roll dice as part of my storytelling process [lol] ).

Next, they begin to forget things ; 1d6 + 1 significant memories every 1d6 + 1 decades.

Next, they gradually lose the ability to connect with other people, even in a superficial way, while their strangeness increases to the point that mortals KNOW they're dealing with immortals.

After that, they start to become bored, losing interest in things that once thrilled them ; eventually, this boredom "drives them crazy", making them painfully restless.

Then, they become lethargic ; they sleep 1d6 + 1 times every 1d6 + 1 years.

Their sense of time becomes compressed so that they experience great lengths of time as smaller ones ; a millennium feels like a century, a minute like a second - until they even lose the ability to connected with younger immortals because they've lived too long.

Finally, the immortal feels the need to rid themself of all memories ( except extremely basic ones like how to operate their bodies, how to speak one of the languages they know, and how to use magic if they have the ability ), which causes them to act like a child armed with a fully developed body and possibly even magical powers but no common sense or empathy.

These immortals can't heal open wounds and will desiccate if they bleed out or are sufficiently dehydrated. Diseases, drugs, and poisons can't kill them but may incapacitate them ; antidotes and vaccines revive them effectively. A memory-wiped immortal will still have the same a/sexual and/or romantic orientation but will remain sterile. A memory-wiped immortal begins to lose memories again after ( 1d6 + 1 ) x 700 years. A memory-wiped immortal will probably never learn to connect socially with mortals again but may forge strong bonds of attachment with other immortals ; however, they remain as strange as they were in their "former lives" and their strangeness continues to grow until they make younger immortals uncomfortable.

A memory-wiped immortal will start feeling bored ( 6d6 + 6 ) x 700 years after their "rebirth". A memory-wiped immortal still experiences lethargy as they did before their "new life" began. A memory-wiped immortal's sense of time begins to compress 6d6 + 6 centuries after they begin to experience boredom again.

edited 21st Mar '17 8:27:15 PM by nekomoon14

Level 3 Social Justice Necromancer. Chaotic Good.
Everdream Since: Feb, 2013
#13: Mar 26th 2017 at 9:07:15 PM

I've wondered about this in my own work. I would think a immortal would meet and get to know so many people over time, that they would eventually only notice extraordinary people. Average and unremarkable people would fade out of notice and be forgotten quickly because of the immortal having seen so many like them before. They would tend to avoid forming relationships with the average Joe, and instead gravitate towards those they would notice for being different.

They would eventually forget even their closest loved ones after enough time passes after their death. This would cause pain and guilt for any immortal, and they result in things like them writing about people they know in a book or journal so they can avoid forgetting them entirely.

K2Misfit Since: Oct, 2011
#14: Jul 1st 2017 at 9:28:58 PM

Kkutwar and Robbery both make good points that basically cover the same thing: what/how the hell you spend all that time, which I covered the differences with my own immortals, so here's some perspectives off the top of my head:

The M-Breed: because they're basically Tulpa born/shaped from raw ambient life energy by primarily electrical impulses of the brain (though can breed sexually on their own) and thus born socially closer to mortal humans, they're more adaptable to present-day society compared to the Titans born/created to police them and only get out of touch if they were wilderness-oriented and/or have lived in the same portals (pocket dimensions with a static environment, unlimited space and resources that's energy-efficient for them) for too long to be out of touch. Tamamo-no-mae was such an infamous escape artist because she blended in better than her pursuers and didn't rely on her powers, which is usually a crutch/giveaway that makes them easy to find as she also learned/wasn't too full of herself to use weapons like guns and explosives.

The average Titan: Essentially human-sized Complete Immortals only weaker than gods of the planet and universe with the kind of desired immortality of eternal youth, (ex. what looks like five sisters partying would actually be a great-grandmother on down) voluntary fertility and immunity to disease, (a conscious "switch" in the mind defaults to "shooting blanks" so casual, unprotected sex is NBD with unwanted pregnancies being unwanted if the couple had second-thoughts,) a body of any shape with no "level cap" that'll never atrophy/get out of shape even after centuries of inactivity with a default superhuman level of physicality, namely durability that could only get K.O'ed by extremes such as a nuke or going into suspended animation in inhospitable environments such as outer space or the bottom of the ocean without an aquatic affinity and running out of energy, so kids playing with live ammo is no different than using squirt guns. HOWEVER, living in equally static environments make them lose track of time and culture/language drift such as a Celtic Titan created by druids that doesn't understand a modern Londoner and thought the Roman Empire is new, Values Dissonance, general complacency/inflexibility/taking abilities for granted whether that means getting so strong that training feels tedious (think levelling up in Gen 1 Pokémon where you could reach 100 though usually only reach about 70 due to beating the Elite 4 feeling tedious) or being oblivious to intellectual events that means getting blindsided by a more-efficiently trained Titan/M-Breed or outsmarted by them and even a mortal human, living through centuries/millennia of horrific supernatural wars taking a mental toll especially against madness-inducing spirits leading to more than a few Face-Heel Turns, not dying from drowning or exposure while being trapped simply means passing out and only drawing in enough energy to functional not necessarily strong enough to escape means death would be merciful, the few things that can kill them being agonizing whether being eaten alive by Magic-eating creatures and spatial distortions basically like being shoved into a blender though despite having a Healing Factor that could regenerate anything short of the brain or heart to truly die will hurt like a motherfucker, being more traumatized by dead loved ones than mortals precisely because death is so rare and violent as my main character among others was broken by the death of her grandmother even a half-decade later, because combat powers are both genetic and everyone's born with a consistent set some get paranoid about opponents getting a tactical advantage by knowing how those powers work and identity crises/bonding/trust issues about being either genetically-engineered/bred for a specific purpose they might be anxious/reluctant about doing and either being disposed of as a failure, breeding/donating DNA without love for the child to have the same issues and existential paranoia of how much free will they actually have against their instincts.

Jing, a Titan woman: Because she inherited total recall and a family library, has/makes connections in various fields of knowledge and resources and has the determination to make the most of it all, it makes her an extremely dangerous Renaissance Woman against even the gods in everything from combat techniques to resources to Loophole Abuse despite relatively common powers she doesn't use like an immortal Batman as she's even lead multiple lives, but her main connection/boss is basically The Antichrist that'll drop her as soon as she's outlived her usefulness and despite being able to casually shrug off the effects of evil/mind-controlling artifacts due to Heroic Willpower alone, it's been anyone's guess how long she can maintain her sanity from the pressure as she eventually emerges also like Bruce Wayne/Tony Stark in running a MegaCorp while the general public (including her family) doesn't know just how complicit she is, but her enemies do and haven't been able to prove it due to dirt, trickery and/or lacking public's trust she has against them.

General Grimes: an American war hero Titan that both went complacent out of ego and has lost too many good men to madness especially in fighting the living memes/M-Breed that he'd rather have all American mortals either out of the country or chipped to have no imagination while also enslaving a a Titan-M-Breed hybrid that's exponentially stronger than the general to maintain this control yet still being abused out of insecurity.

The Auroch King: A former Mook/clone that rose to king/emperor that's also a Control Freak (larger-scale predecessor, really) about the empire he's forged through deal-making yet with a love-hate relationship with naturally elite Titans to the extent he had his powers surgically altered to be more impressive and has spied on his descendants, killed them if they don't live up to his standards and was so desperate to remain in power while straining under international/divine laws that he was ready to both feed off of and Grand Theft Me on his own descendants only to die a heartbroken madman and leaving behind a legacy of suffering and genocide whether people were related to him or not!

The MC's maternal grandfather: A deconstruction of Lonely at the Top as he and his family's Cretaceous-old and spent those eons fighting his father then gods and other Titans came along to hunt him/them without being strong enough to defeat him/them yet continuing to try to the extent it was an industry/way of life to do so (see above two examples,) felt the closest thing to friendship in the 31st Century with a suicide squad of outlaws in a deal for peace with the gods with their handler only loving him for his power while in a bitter rivalry with another woman before all except he and those two women died then had to watch his children with said women grow up without him millennia later while the loneliness imagines another child he never got to have with the woman he did love until it was time for him to die where he only finds peace in death as said children now understand the weight of such power in starting their own families and protecting their own homes while also being hated/feared by the gods.

WHEW! ...Think that covers my perspective on the subject.

MovieReference Jester of the Birbal Court from The Backyard Since: Jun, 2017 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Jester of the Birbal Court
#15: Jul 2nd 2017 at 1:17:53 AM

I've always thought after the initial loss of whoever they'd realize they're just going thru what their grandparent or something went thru and get over it after a sufficient amount of grieving.Then after doing this for a while they realize they have all the time in the world to make it a better place and start like trying to accumulate Bill Gates levels of wealth to distribute to the homeless and people of the like because they realize they can just do this over and over where it needs to happen.

The Prodigal Son returns.
K2Misfit Since: Oct, 2011
#16: Sep 28th 2017 at 3:53:48 AM

[up] But what about freak accidents that clearly "killed" said immortal (or at least should've maimed them when they're Made of Diamond) before they had time to prepare themselves? There was an episode of DCAU Superman where that happened and he was getting nervous about having to make sure "Clark Kent" still lived as he outright stated to the Kents that he needed being Clark to stay sane and it took days of being AWOL and lying to basically come up with "Superman saved me and I've been low-key in Smallville all this time."

Kazeto Elementalist from somewhere in Europe. Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
Elementalist
#17: Sep 28th 2017 at 7:31:20 AM

Superman is still fairly young for an immortal, though, and his life is a balance of high-quantity excitement that happens when he is Superman and ... well, I can't say it's low-excitement but whatever he's got as Clark Kent. I would presume that someone whose life went for an incomprehensibly long time, rather than just ... what, thirty-something years maybe, would not by default be limited to that kind of response; they may react that way, but they also may not.

K2Misfit Since: Oct, 2011
#18: Sep 28th 2017 at 10:31:01 PM

By sane, I mean "grounded" as in why he hasn't gone full-blown dictator A God Am I given it's just about always reiterated that Ma and Pa Kent's values kept him decent with plenty of A Us (ex. "Red Son") make him into some kind of super soldier or war god because his ship landed in Russia or Apocalips, etc. He enjoys/needs the downtime being "Clark," but if an immortal didn't have the deftness or Phlebotinum or something when they really wanted/needed to keep a low profile, they'd be S.O.L.

J.G.Crowne I am the Dreamer. You're the Dream. from Room 237 Since: Nov, 2014 Relationship Status: Hiding
I am the Dreamer. You're the Dream.
#19: Sep 29th 2017 at 12:52:38 AM

I once wrote a short story for my university's magazine about this subject. Due to the human brain's ability to store only so much information at a time, the central character - a man billions of years old - lives in a museum filled with momentos so he can remember parts of his past, essentially developing an exaggerated form of Alzheimer's.

Not the most original idea, but it was well received.

edited 29th Sep '17 12:55:50 AM by J.G.Crowne

Do you read Sutter Cane?
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#20: Sep 29th 2017 at 8:35:28 AM

What kind of immortality are we talking about? The Ageless or Complete Immortality?

Also, I don't know that accumulation of memories would be a neurobiological problem; one, memories decay over time, two, the brain does form new nerve cells in the areas where memory storage occurs so the storage space grows over time. Granted, after a while increased intracranial pressure could happen then.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
J.G.Crowne I am the Dreamer. You're the Dream. from Room 237 Since: Nov, 2014 Relationship Status: Hiding
I am the Dreamer. You're the Dream.
#21: Sep 29th 2017 at 9:00:12 AM

It was essentially both. He was constantly middle aged and I remember a scene where he walks past a mock atomic bomb and remembers his first suicide attempt with such a device.

Do you read Sutter Cane?
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#22: Sep 29th 2017 at 9:08:05 AM

Recommended reading for the psychology of an immortal, but aging human: Methuselah's Children and Time Enough for Love. Worth noting that these are not contradictory concepts: the protagonist in these stories comes from a human eugenics program that breeds long-lived people with other long-lived people to extend their natural lifespans, and later takes advantage of medical rejuvenation technology which replaces worn-out body parts with cloned parts. The combination of these factors has him live for over 2,000 years (and he doesn't die in the published timeline).

As for how he is? In senescence, he's cantankerous, opinionated, has trouble remembering things, and tends to take a very cynical view of human affairs. He's spun his life into a kind of quasi-historical, self-aggrandizing narrative that may or may not have anything directly to do with the truth. In one passage, he describes the unrelenting horror of a two-thousand-year old memory, observing that he'll occasionally look for a book that he was reading, only to remember that he did that a century ago.

Post-rejuvenation, he's full of energy and ambition but remains very solidly fixed in his mindset about humanity and the universe, but there the story diverges from a narrative on immortality and starts getting a lot more sci-fi.

edited 2nd Oct '17 6:12:58 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
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