History Main / ExpositionOfImmortality

* Sovereign, Harbinger and the other Reapers of the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series make a lot of noise about how they were here ''long'' before humans and that they'll be here ''long'' after they've devoured them all. Since Harbinger is the first reaper based on the Leviathans and created by the Catalyst, he is at least 1 billion years old and has participated in at least 20,000 galactic exterminations.

* In ''Literature/Twilight'', three of the vampires mention how they were turned during major events in American history: Edward during the Spanish Influenza epidemic, Rosalie during the Great Depression, and Jasper during the Civil War.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In ''Manga/YonaOfTheDawn'', Zeno calmly boasts that he can "fight for centuries" and can't die as an intimidation tactic, and heals and regenerates a bunch of fatal injuries as proof. The other characters finally ask him how old he is, and when he admits that he hasn't bothered to keep track, Kija tentatively asks him if he's the original Yellow Dragon from the time of myth. Zeno [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness drops his usual playful cheer]] to confirm that yes, he is the one and only Yellow Dragon Warrior who served the Crimson Dragon King 2,000 years before. It's also PlayedWith some. Zeno only participated in the very early history of that 2,000 years, and spent most of that time just ''waiting'' for a purpose in life again, enough so that he isn't even sure whether it's been one thousand years or two. While he does have proof in the form of a relic gifted to him by King Hiryuu and is able to tell Kija and Yona a bit about their historical counterparts, the first White Dragon Warrior and the Crimson Dragon King, ''so much time has passed'' that these things are basically meaningless as ''proof.'' His relic isn't a famous historical artifact, as far as we know, although its motif ''is'' replicated on the Crimson Dragon King's mausoleum-- it's just a personal memento of Zeno's. He later tells Yona that while she reminds him of the Crimson Dragon King that she's a reincarnation of, he's forgotten and remembered so many things that he isn't sure anymore if his memories are accurate, because he's had so much time to come up with {{Alternative Character Interpretation}}s based on things he didn't always notice at first. While the audience gets solid proof in the dreams Zeno has of his past after his immortality is revealed to the other characters, the other characters basically take him at his word based on the fact that he really can't die, and that they trust him, since they can't verify the other proof they have. The only irrefutable proof that the characters have besides his much-demonstrated inability to die is that he visited Kija, Shin-ah, and Jaeha when they were young children, and Kija and Shin-ah were four and two years old respectively, meaning they don't remember. Jaeha was nine, but he was asleep when Zeno came to see him.

* ''Comicbook/{{Fables}}'': Tommy Sharp plans to do this to the Fables living in Fabletown. He's been gathering evidence of their inhuman nature; following Bigby and photographing him shapeshifting, but also checking back on the title deeds of the land and buildings in Fabletown - all owned by members of the Fable community since old New York was New Amsterdam and early photos of them dating back into the 19th century which show that none of them have aged.

* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'': [[spoiler: Proinsias]] Cassidy. He's a vampire and was made one during the Easter Rising in Dublin 1916, which makes him 80+ during the series' run. He tells Jesse all about how he was turned and how he came to America and all the friends he's left behind and lost to old age through the years during a long conversation on top of the Empire State Building. [[UnreliableNarrator Turns out he missed a few details, though.]]

* A variant occurs in ''FanFic/AngelOfTheBat''. [[spoiler: The BigBad, the Seraphim, is immortal, but has still only been alive for some 30 or 40 odd years. So instead of listing ancient things he's seen and experienced, he briefly lists off the ways people have tried to kill him.]]
* In ''Fanfic/GuardiansWizardsAndKungFuFighters'', [[spoiler: Harold Hale]]'s status as an immortal is revealed via a photograph of him taken during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

* [[TheCaptain Captain John Armstrong Brannigan]] in the ''Literature/RevelationSpace'' trilogy was implied to be ''very'' old courtesy of his [[CyBorg cybernetic implants]], but it's not till the second novel, when a character finds an old helmet with the NASA logo - now long forgotten six hundred years later - that points out his true age. Later, the Captain acknowledges that he was on Mars. The ''original'' Mars landing.

* The title character of the Literature/MediochreQSethSeries admits to being OlderThanTheyLook straight off the bat (it's hard ''not'' to when he looks like a [[CantGrowUp fifteen-year-old]]). Charlotte doesn't find out ''how much'' older he is until she visits the house of the almost-equally-old Melinda and sees pictures of him, among other things, [[spoiler: seemingly mourning during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, watching the departure of the HMS Titanic and running across a rooftop in VictorianLondon]].

* ''Literature/{{Inamorata}}'' by Megan Chance features Odile, a [[spoiler: succubus]] who has inspired many great works of art, music, and poetry as a side effect of [[spoiler: draining men's talent by having sex with them.]] One of her former lovers learns the truth about her by observing the pattern of suicides she leaves in her wake, and finally confirming his suspicions by seeing a 150-year-old Canaletto painting of Odile hanging in a Florence gallery.
* At the end of ''Literature/TheWorldAtTheEndOfTime'', Wan-To being at [[TimeAbyss those faraway times]] so old as the Universe itself evokes this trope having nothing to do but living of the memories of its 1.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.0 years of existence [[spoiler: as it's living in the middle of the most absolute nowhere inside the corpse of a star]].

* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': Garion knows that his "grandfather" Belgarath and "Aunt" Polgara are really 7000- and 3000-year-old sorcerers, but some of their comments make him uncomfortably aware of that fact. When they camp in the ancient ruins of Vo Wacune, Polgara reminisces sadly about how beautiful the city once was, and he realizes that she still mourns a nation that fell centuries before his birth country was even founded.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': Mr. House, once you finally get to meet him, reveals himself to be quite a bit older than you might have been expecting. He's got quite the collection of pre-War artifacts, and he's more than happy to pay you to expand it. [[spoiler: He's also reduced to living in a life support system and communicating entirely through electronic screens and his robot minions, but given that he was born 260 years ago and isn't a ghoul or a disembodied brain, that's not bad going.]]

** Conversations during ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' with Liara reveal that she herself is 106 and that the asari live for a great deal longer than that (one thousand years is considered average) - she's considered to be little more than a child by many of her species' elders. Similarly, Urdnot Wrex will, if asked about his people, talk about the Krogan Rebellions and their immediate aftermath from what sounds suspiciously like a first hand account. Krogans also live for about one thousand years (though their violent lifestyles mean that they rarely die of old age) but the Rebellions happened more than 1400 years ago- Wrex is one of the few remaining krogan Battlemasters (krogans with [[MindOverMatter biotic powers]]) and according to in game lore they have a longer lifespan than normal krogan.

* In ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', it's not clear just how old [[spoiler: Professor Ozpin]] is, but he makes the statement that "I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, or child on this planet," and his name explicitly breaks the setting's rule about names having some connection to color. The most significant exposition about his age comes from subtle hints and clues, but in Volume Four he explains to Oscar that [[spoiler: his personality transfers from body to body, and he knows what Oscar is going through now (playing host to Ozpin and his memories) because it happened to Ozpin when he was a boy as well.]] We finally find out his origin story in Volume Six : [[spoiler: he is in fact older than humanity itself. His original name was actually Ozma and he was part of the original magic-using humanity, which were wiped out when they attempted to overthrow the gods, which was instigated by his wife, [[BigBad Salem]], when the gods refused to resurrect him.]]
* A minor meme involving OlderThanTheyLook celebrities is to find and juxtapose 19th century photos that vaguely look like the celebrity (Creator/NicolasCage and Creator/KeanuReeves are popular) to claim they're immortal or vampires.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Steven found out that Gems are TheAgeless when he found a painting of them in 18th century garb. Turns out that was a very recent addition to their collection - the youngest member (not counting Steven) is older than recorded history.

* Sebastian Baczkiewicz' drama serial ''Pilgrim'' for [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Radio 4]] features the 900-year old William Palmer, cursed to live forever by a Lord of Faery. Most of the exposition of Palmer's age comes from his memories and conversations with other supernaturals.

* ConversationalTroping in ''Literature/AnnoDracula: One Thousand Monsters'', when Genevieve notes that, even in the days before people knew vampires were real, a portrait gallary that revealed someone's ancestors all looked exactly like him, and never had any daughters, and all chose to have their portrait painted at the exact age the current descendent is now, was the sort of thing that attracted attention.

* Subverted in ''Film/TheManFromEarth'': John [[MeaningfulName Oldman]] ("Old Man"), an immortal human being born in the stone age and surviving, barely aged, into the 21st century, has a particular paleolithic tool in his home, which he claims he bought in a flea market. Even after [[TheReveal he reveals]] [[TimeAbyss that he is really approximately 14,000 years old]], he still claims that the tool came from a flea market. When asked by his friends why he doesn't keep some mementos of his old life, John tells them that the idea of a [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome person hanging onto the same object for thousands of years is actually pretty absurd.]]

* In an ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' episode, the X-Men have trapped [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Apocalypse]] inside a giant forcefield generated by the spaceship. Apocalypse scoffs at the attempt:

--->'''The Doctor''': I've been to every star, I know how they started, I know how they end, and I was probably there both times.

* ''Series/NewAmsterdam2008'': John keeps painting the Times Square every so often, keeping the different paintings in his apartment to see how New York has changed since he was mortal (back when it was called New Amsterdam). He keeps having flashbacks to his past encounters, and occasionally surprises his colleagues with his intimate knowledge of old things, such as knowing about a club that used to be a speakeasy in TheRoaringTwenties. He gives his dogs numbers as names; his current one is Thirty-Six. He goes to AA meetings and honestly tells them how long he's been sober (''over 50 years''); when somebody does the math and tries to catch him on that, he simply claims that he looks young for his age. Oh, and then there's the reveal that his friend Omar York (who is 65 years old) is really [[spoiler:his son]].

* ''Series/{{Forever}}'' has a few examples. Henry Morgan's pocket watch is eventually revealed to have been a gift from his father just before his (the father's) death and not long before Henry's first death. In fact, the watch is much older, having been passed on from father to son for several generations before that. He also keeps his old medicine bag from the 19th century as a fondly reminder and is upset when his adopted son Abe (who's now in his 60s) sells it; Abe ends up re-purchasing the bag for triple the amount. The 2000-year-old Adam (although that's probably not his real name) likes to find objects from Henry's past and send it to him, including an expensive tray with the Morgan family crest. Adam himself appears to be looking for an object from his own mortal past, a certain Roman dagger from several decades BC (it's eventually revealed that it was one of the daggers that were used to kill UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar). Both immortal characters have interacted with well-known historical figures or have been involved in key events. For example, Henry effectively founded forensic science during his attempts to catch UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper. Adam was being experimented on by [[MadDoctor Josef Mengele]] in Auschwitz and, as such, would never harm anyone who survived the camps.

* ''SweetSweetLonelyGirl'': The photo of Beth and Dora, Adele's aunt (who'd just died an old woman) with both looking young years ago shows how she's [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld actually much older than she looks]].

** In "The Pest", Miss Simian shows Gumball and Anais [[EveryScarHasAStory a number of injuries she's sustained from various historical events]]. The oldest is a 2 ''million''-year-old scar she has from a time when two ''homo erectus'' parents beat her [[ScienceIsBad for teaching her their child how to make fire]].

* ''Series/ForeverKnight'' has several types. Nick has Incriminating Evidence photos, mementos like Joan of Arc's cross and plenty of memories he likes to share, usually OnceAnEpisode.

** After the events of "The Big Bang" and the reset of the universe, Rory Williams has the memories of his Auton duplicate that spent nearly 2000 years guarding the Pandorica in the alternate. As such, he's taken [[TookALevelInBadass multiple levels of Badass]] and been written into the histories and legends of the world as "[[TheDreaded The Last Centurion]]".

* Series/{{Angel}} mentions crashing [[Music/ElvisPresley The King's]] Vegas party and several famous Las Vegas mobsters in "The House Always Wins".

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', being a TV show about vampires, demons and other supernaturals, has several instances of characters getting to show off their long history. Angel, Spike and Dru (among others) all get to reminisce about the past and it gets shown to the audience in several {{Flashback}} sequences.
** {{Lampshaded}}/{{Parodied}} in "School Hard," where [[BreakoutVillain Spike]] gets his EstablishingCharacterMoment by mocking another vampire for this (and also killing said vampire).

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' uses this on several occasions.

--->'''The Doctor''': I've been to every star, I know how they started, I know how they end, and I was probably there both times.[[note]]Most likely an exaggeration, but it does give a good indication of how old the Doctor is when the viewer hears this and doesn't question that it could be true.[[/note]]

* Franchise/{{Batman}}: Ra's al Ghul's early appearances threw in the occasional reference to his history before introducing the Lazarus Pit:
-->'''Ra's''': As Napoleon once remarked to me in private conversation, a strong will can fuel a fragile body.
* ''Comicbook/TheBoys'': Many of the supes whose powers come from Compound V are also blessed with slower aging processes through it -- The Homelander, Stormfront, Vogelbaum himself and Colonel Mallory are all cited as being older than they appear to be. Mallory looks much the same in the 1980s as he did during World War II.

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman'':

* ''Series/NewAmsterdam'': John keeps painting the Times Square every so often, keeping the different paintings in his apartment to see how New York has changed since he was mortal (back when it was called New Amsterdam). He keeps having flashbacks to his past encounters, and occasionally surprises his colleagues with his intimate knowledge of old things, such as knowing about a club that used to be a speakeasy in TheRoaringTwenties. He gives his dogs numbers as names; his current one is Thirty-Six. He goes to AA meetings and honestly tells them how long he's been sober (''over 50 years''); when somebody does the math and tries to catch him on that, he simply claims that he looks young for his age. Oh, and then there's the reveal that his friend Omar York (who is 65 years old) is really [[spoiler:his son]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'': Harold, a ghoul-esque mutant you can meet in The Hub, was 5 years old when the Great War began, and emerged from Vault 29 in 2090. The Vault Dweller encounters him in Oldtown in 2162. He'll tell you a little about his life in Vault 29 and what he remembers of the beginning of the war if you ask.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'': Harold can be encountered once again by the Chosen One. Along with much of the ghoul population of Necropolis, he's settled in an abandoned nuclear power plant and formed a small town named Gecko. ''Fallout 2'' is set a further 80 years after the first game, making Harold 189 when the Chosen One meets him.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'': Many of the ghouls you can encounter in Underworld lived through the war and can tell what they can remember (frequently little) of the time before. Carol, the ghoul who runs the bar and eatery there, was born in 2051, twenty-six years prior to the Great War.

* A small example in ''Series/BloodTies'' pilot. After discovering the truth about Henry, Vicki walks through his apartment and sees a picture of UsefulNotes/{{Henry VIII}}. She asks why he would keep it there? He answers that, like everybody else, he's allowed to keep pictures of family members in his home. Being a bit of a history buff, she immediately realizes that he's Henry [=FitzRoy=], 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, Henry VIII's bastard son. Henry is impressed with her knowledge. Later, Vicki's ex-partner (an ex-lover) Mike figures Henry's identity on his own (the Internet helps), since Henry hasn't bothered to change his last name. Henry also occasionally references historical events at which he has been present and famous people he personally knew, such as UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria.

* ''Literature/TheBookOfDragons'': In "Literature/Literature/CutMeAnotherQuillMisterFitz", when Mister Fitz, an immortal, magically animated puppet, is arguing with the human Sir Hereward about a historical figure from the distant past, he accidentally refers to the figure in question not listening to his advice before catching himself and switching to vaguer phrasing.

* ''Literature/TheBookOfDragons'': In "Literature/Literature/CutMeAnotherQuillMisterFitz", when Mister Fizz, an immortal, magically animated puppet, is arguing with the human Sir Hereward about a historical figure from the distant past, he accidentally refers to the figure in question not listening to his advice before catching himself and switching to vaguer phrasing.

* '''I Was Old When The World Was Young:''' Emperor Evulz knows he is superior to TheHero, because he's [[TimeAbyss been around since the dawn of time]]. And he's going to [[BadAssBoast tell them all about the things he's seen since then and how much longer he's been around.]]

* Creator/IainBanks' ''Literature/TheCulture'' novels have a number of entities that need some exposition of their long, long lives. Most of the Minds are effectively immortal and many of them have been around for hundreds and occasionally thousands of years.

* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'': [[spoiler: Proinsias]] Cassidy. He's a vampire and was made one during the Easter Rising in Dublin 1916, which makes him 80+ during the series' run. He tells Jesse all about how he was turned and how he came to America and all the friends he's left behind and lost to old age through the years during a long conversation on top of the Empire State Building. [[UnreliableNarrator Turns out he missed a few details, though.]]
** The Saint of Killers got a four-issue mini-series all of his own to tell us about his mortal life in the American Civil War and the terrible winter of 1878. He dumps a silver dollar with just that date on the counter of a bar in ''Gone to Texas,'' too.

* ''ComicBook/{{Flare}}'': The Tigress [[http://www.heroicmultiverse.com/flare/webcomic/index.php?pn=167 recalls being the Egyptian goddess Bast]].
* Franchise/{{Batman}}: Ra's al Ghul's early appearances threw in the occasional reference to his history before introducing the Lazarus Pit:
-->'''Ra's''': As Napoleon once remarked to me in private conversation, a strong will can fuel a fragile body.

* ComicBook/MartianManhunter: The Manhunter has reminisced about his time on Mars prior to the accident that led to him being teleported to Earth in the 50s, which has shown that he was alive on Mars during the 18th century. His unchanging appearance is credited to Martians being very slow-aging.

* In ''TabletopGame/DarkMatter'', Count Claude-Louis de Saint-Germain is a vampire-like creature who has been alive since the 1700s. He occasionally "accidentally" lets slip historical details from even earlier (but he's lying).
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': [[BadassNormal Ollanius Pius]], is (as of the latest retcon) a perpetual (immortal human) born sometime around 15,000 BC. He still carries a cross necklace as he's a Catholic. He is also stated to have been one of the [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Argonauts]] and to have fought for the French in Verdun during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

* In ''Film/DarkShadows'', when we see Angelique's office, there are a dozen very large portraits of her from different points in history, all the way up to present day.
* ''Film/Wishmaster4TheProphecyFulfilled'': The Djinn reminisces about the Roman Emperor Caligula, and speaks fondly of him.
* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing'' repeats the example from the original work (as seen in the Literature section): Elrond has a flashback of how Isildur failed to destroy the ring, and looks exactly the same as his current self while witnessing the scene of Isildur's defeat of Sauron, previously seen in the prologue.
-->'''Elrond:''' I was ''there'', Gandalf. I was there three thousand years ago, when Isildur took the ring. I was there the day the strength of Men ''failed''.
* In ''Film/TheLastWitchHunter'', Kaulder has several such moments:
** He has multiple flashbacks back to the time before he became immortal.
** He tells 37th Dolan about being there back when the church they are sitting by was being built.
** In a subtler example, Axe and Cross' collection of journals chronicling Kaulder's history consists of several ''dozen'' Bible-sized books.
* In ''Film/TheSorcerersApprentice'', Balthazar is shown in a montage visiting various countries throughout the centuries in search of the [[ChosenOne Prime Merlinian]], while not aging a day. In present time, he keeps an antique store in New York, having accumulated many items at the time when they weren't antiques.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Ollanius Pius, is (as of the latest retcon) a human born sometime around 15,000 BC. He still carries a cross necklace as he's a Catholic.