History Main / ExpositionOfImmortality

* 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.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', [[EldritchAbomination Vaatu]] boasts the "I was old when the world was young" version to Wan during their fight:
-->''"I lived ten thousand lifetimes before the first of your kind crawled out of the mud!"''
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'':
** In "The Ape", Miss Simian mentions a teaching award that took her 754 years to get.
** In "The Apology", she says that the signature on Gumball's report card is "the most pathetic attempt at forgery I've ever seen in all my 300,000 years of teaching, and I taught during the Stone Age!"
** 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 their child how to make fire]].
* ''WesternAnimation/UncleGrandpa'' once mentioned that he installed a security system on the RV 2000 years ago. (It's literally just [[CarryABigStick a big wooden club.]]) Mr. Gus once talked about a pair of shorts that he last wore in 1993. That is, 1993 million years ago.
* ''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.

** Both immortal characters have interacted with well-known historical figures or have been involved in key events. For example, Henry effectively founded the profession of Medical Examiner 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.

* ''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/{{Flare}}'': The Tigress [[http://www.heroicmultiverse.com/flare/webcomic/index.php?pn=167 recalls being the Egyptian goddess Bast]].

** Henry does a voice-over that first introduces the fact that he's immortal, and a flashback AgeCut reveals the elderly Abraham is his son, adopted in 1945 after being rescued from a concentration camp. There are flashbacks in every episode to his past. He keeps a pocket watch given to him by his father in 1814 and has a leather doctor's bag made for him by a leatherworker he'd treated in the early 1900s. His stalker sends him a picture of him and his wife taken in 1955, as well as a letter on paper from a hotel in Italy they stayed at in 1945; he comes to the shop with a tea tray that belonged to Henry's father and bears the family crest, so that he can meet Abraham; and he shows Henry that the gun that killed him is among the artifacts recovered from a sunken ship, later arranging for it to be sent to him. Henry cleans up the gun well enough for it to be fired again and puts it on display. The whole antique store is started as a way to clear out Henry's accumulated possessions, as Abe feels his father is becoming a hoarder. Henry also frequently refers to New York or world history in much greater detail than most people could share.

* ''Series/{{Forever|2014}}'' 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 fond 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.

* Colin's memories make up the bulk of ''Anime/HighlanderTheSearchForVengeance'' as we get flashbacks as current events remind him of the past.
* ''Anime/NeoAngelique'' has [[spoiler:[[MeaningfulName Nyx]]]], who reveals to an old friend that he is in fact not his grandson, but has been alive since they originally met.
* Done in the beginning of the second season of ''Manga/ToYourEternity''. The first episode, which takes place 40 years after the end of the first season, shows that Hayase had a daughter, Hisame, and that Tonari has grown up and been fighting the Guardians ever since. The second episode contains multiple time skips within a TimePassesMontage wherein Fushi ends up crossing paths with several of Hayase's descendants before the episode ends with him meeting the sixth generation descendant. All the while, Fushi remains mostly unchanged, and passes the time by WalkingTheEarth and trying to learn as much as he can.

* Lilia Vanrouge in ''VideoGame/TwistedWonderland'' is a LongLived fairy who despite a short stature and youthful appearance is an elderly man – speaks in a stereotypical elderly register, appears to have joint problems, has raised multiple foster sons, and is an OldSoldier. [[spoiler:Later on, he explicitly reveals that he's [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld literally 700 years old]], and his age has weakened his magic to the point where he can't finish his magic education.]]

* Lilia Vanrouge in ''VideoGame/TwistedWonderland'' is a LongLived fairy who despite a short stature and youthful appearance is an elderly man – speaks in a stereotypical elderly register, appears to have joint problems, has raised multiple foster sons, and is an OldSoldier. [[spoiler:Later on, he explicitly reveals that he's [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld literally 700 years old]], and his age has weakened his magic to the point where he can't study magic anymore.]]

* 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).

* 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.

** In ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/229065/forever-and-again-and-again Forever and Again and Again]]'', Twilight fiends a private hall full of ancient stained-glass windows recounting many historical events in Equestria that only Celestia is old enough to remember. When Twilight asks why they've been removed from the great hall, Celestia notes that history is always happening, so it makes sense for her to put up windows commemorating more recent events:

* ''Literature/TheBookOfDragons'': In "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.

* '''Trinkets I've Picked Up Over the Years:''' Bob maintains a collection of historical artifacts, not because he's an antiques dealer but because he personally collected them. At the time when they weren't antiques.

* '''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]].

* Rin from ''Anime/{{Mnemosyne}}'' pretends to be her own descendant during a visit to an old acquaintance from WWII when the latter recognizes her.

* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'': After the Sankt Kaiser was introduced in ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'', it has become common for newly introduced immortals to show that they lived through the time of Ancient Belka by personally recognizing her and acting shocked that she's [[CloneJesus still alive]]. See Ixpellia from ''AudioPlay/StrikersSoundStageX'' and the Unbreakable Darkness of ''VideoGame/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAsPortable: The Gears of Destiny'' if Vivio faces her. The latter also mistakes Einhart for her more famous ancestor, Hegemon Klaus Ingvalt, if you pick Einhart against her.
* Pops up in ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'', given how the Nations refer to events and people they've gotten involved with over the generations. In one particular instance, a French soldier notices how France hasn't aged at all from his grandfather's time in the military.

* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': Hilda and Zelda mention that they had all the money because they kept a lot of common items over time and sold them when they found that the items had become valuable antiques.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' are simply stiff with [[WizardsLiveLonger Wizards Who Live Longer]] and [[AllMythsAreTrue immortals of all types]]. Among the former, Joseph Listens-To-Wind is an Illinois medicine man who lived through all of the persecution of Native Americans by the United States. In his only scene thus far, the dragon Ferrovax attended a costume ball wearing authentic Roman centurion armor. The Denarians are bound to {{Fallen Angel}}s who live within Judas's ThirtyPiecesOfSilver, and their leader knows how to drive chariots and wears the noose used for suicide by that same Judas around his neck.

--> ''"Every ten or eleven thousand years or so, I make a terrible mistake."''
--->-- '''Walter''' ''Cocoon''

--> “I don’t need a window in the hall to remember them by. If someone comes for an audience with me, I would like for them to see a pony with whom they might someday share tea.”

-->"Is it so odd that we're civilized?" Trixie asked.\\

-->'''Maggie Calloway''': My last confrontation with him was back when UsefulNotes/WorldWarI wasn't yet numbered.
-->'''Lieutenant Springer''': Then you're...
-->'''Maggie Calloway''': Very complicated ... it's difficult to add up my days without the use of [[EleventyZillion imaginary numbers]].

--->'''"Big Ugly"''': When I kill [Buffy], it'll be the greatest event since the Crucifixion. And I should know. I was there.\\

-->"Walked, ran, pissed and killed. I did it all. I met the allfather (Emperor), you know. Fought at his side more than once. I do believe he liked me."

** Galadriel was born in Valinor before the First Age, witnessed the creation of the Silmarils and all the trouble they caused, travelled to Middle Earth before the awakening of Man, and by the time she sets sail for the West at the end of ''The Return of the King'' she is over 7,000 years old.

Exposition of Immortality is a {{Narrative Device|s}} common in SpeculativeFiction, FantasyLiterature and media derived from those sources. If a work has a character who falls into one of the immortality tropes you can be 99% certain that, at some point, their age is going to come up in conversation or otherwise be brought to the attention of the audience. The methods that a work uses to show that a character is really, really old generally occurs in the following ways:

Closely related to Really700YearsOld, TimeAbyss and OlderThanTheyLook. Often involves DreamingOfTimesGoneBy, TheTimeOfMyths and settings with a FantasyKitchenSink. When PlayedForLaughs, this becomes a HistoricalInJoke.

* Evidence of Immortality: Exposition that shows a character to be immortal or otherwise older than he appears to be can happen in any of the forms listed in Exposition of Immortality. However; memories, conversations, and flashback sequences don't tend to hold up too well as evidence. Photos, paintings, ''objets d'art'' and a series of documents showing that you and the last 10 generations of your 'ancestors' have the same handwriting are much more damning proof of your unnatural longevity.

* 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/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/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' features Orlando, an immortal GenderBender who frequently makes passing mention of the historical figures s/he has met at various points their life.

* ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}:'' During opening arc ''The Morningstar Option'', Lucifer returns to Hell for a conversation with Remiel in which he reminisces about the time before The Fall and before the creation of Man.

* Cyclonus as depicted in the ''ComicBook/HasbroComicUniverse'' is one of the oldest Cybertronians around, having been on board the first Ark alongside Nova Prime. By the late 2000s many millenia later, he has become a zombie after being exposed to the Dead Universe. The ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' gives more opportunities for him to showcase his longevity. The first issue has him lament the loss of his home city after Cybertron is reformatted, while a later issue has him converse with Tailgate (a FishOutOfTemporalWater from his time period) in [[AntiquatedLinguistics Old Cybertronian]].

* ''Film/{{Cocoon}}'': The aliens in ''Cocoon'' make casual mention that they built a base on Earth before. It was Atlantis. Their leader also makes passing comment about his own extreme age:

* ''Film/{{Dogma}}'': Loki and Bartleby explicitly discuss Loki's past career, including the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah whilst buying guns and have long argument about the creation of Man and the actions of Lucifer that precipitated his Fall from Heaven. The guy they're buying the guns from is suitably weirded out.

* ''Film/{{Highlander}}:'' Connor [=MacLeod=] has a collection of things he's picked up over his life, masquerades as an antique dealer and gets found out thanks to his handwriting on old title deeds and some inconvenient photos. [=MacLeod=]'s also got many memories of times gone by; saving Rachel from Nazis, dueling drunk in 18th Century New England, and of course, his original life in 16th-century Scotland.
* ''Film/TheHunger'': Miriam has a collection of ancient items; ancient Egyptian pendant, a 500-year-old bust that Sarah notes looks a lot like her.

* The Howards in Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Future History'' series, particularly Lazarus Long, are usually too careful to accidentally reveal their true ages. Though approximately a third of ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove'' is Lazarus recollecting things that happened over his 2300 year life. Also a bit of a variation on the "antiquated linguistics" one in that he can speak "modern" languages but insists on speaking English (long-dead by then) with a 20th century Bible Belt accent when dealing with other Howards.

* Creator/HPLovecraft's ''Literature/TheCaseOfCharlesDexterWard'' has characters who speak with a distinctly 17th century cant and write their Latin in the mode of the 9th century A.D.

* In ''St. Austin Friars'' a short story in Creator/RobertWestall's anthology ''Literature/BreakOfDark'', William Henry Drogo invites the Reverend to dinner and tells him several detailed stories about the past of Muncaster, as if he witness them directly. When challenged he simply states: ''"I am one hundred and ninety-two years old."''

* ''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]].

* Creator/MikhailAkhmanov's ''Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark'' series takes place over a number of centuries and largely focused on members of a single family. However, there is one character, who keeps appearing in nearly all novels either as an important character or a cameo. He is a member of a race of [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifters]], whose lifespans are measured in millennia, and has been among humans since the 13th century, either observing or subtly influencing. He mentions helping to finance one of the first printing presses in Europe, providing a crude drawing of the world to Columbus (glimpsed from his one view from orbit centuries before) and then going with him as a simple sailor. He plays a key role in humanity's rise as a galactic power, although he usually works from the shadows. His latest chronological appearance so far is in the spin-off ''Trevelyan's Mission'' series, which takes place many centuries after the main one. He even uses one of his past identities, probably assuming that no one would know. Another character named Heeyar appears in two novels set centuries apart. He is a [[SpaceElves Lo'ona Aeo]], who live for centuries, if not millennia. While most of his kind never leave their space habitats, Heeyar is unique in that his father was human (the Lo'ona Aeo reproduce sort of like the [[VideoGame/MassEffect Asari]]), so he inherited a number of human personality traits like restlessness and wanderlust. In his second appearance, he meets his father's human great-great-great-grandson and casually mentions encountering another member of the family centuries prior.

* ''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. {{Parodied}} in "School Hard," where [[BreakoutVillain Spike]] gets his EstablishingCharacterMoment by mocking another vampire for this.

** He the proceedes to play the trope straight:
--->'''Spike''': I was actually at Woodstock. That was a wieard gig. I fed off a flower person and spent the next six hours watching my hand move.
** In Season 3, the Scoobies discover a picture of the current Mayor of Sunnydale, only it was taken a hundred years ago. It turns out he founded Sunnydale, specifically as a feeding ground for demons, posing as his son, grandson and great grandson after gaining immortality in exchange for his soul.

* ''Series/TheEvent'': The extraterrestrials look just like humans, but live much longer and age slowly. Photos of these characters taken decades ago, but still looking just the way they do now, are often the only clue the human characters get that reveal the true nature of friends and family members they thought they knew very well.

* ''Series/{{Forever|2014}}'' 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.

* ''Series/NewAmsterdam2008'': John has taken a picture of Times Square almost since cameras were invented, and painted pictures before that, keeping the different pictures 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]].

** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Requiem for Methuselah", Mr. Spock finds an unknown waltz by Johannes Brahms written in original manuscript in Brahms' own hand inside Flint's home. Likewise Flint has a collection of Leonardo da Vinci masterpieces that have been recently painted on contemporary canvas with contemporary materials. Flint later admits that he ''was'' Brahms and da Vinci.

* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "Something Wicked", Sam discovers the identity of the witch they are looking for, because he finds a news article with a picture of the witch as a doctor back in the 1890s.

* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'''s Captain Jack Harkness shows his age every way possible. There's his Army greatcoat, his Webley revolver, a PhotoMontage of him through the ages in one episode, him remembering meeting fairies in 1909 and being the British contact for the 456. He speaks normally, though, being a native of the 51st century rather than the 19th.
* ''Series/TrueBlood'' has done this a few times. Bill gets given a Civil War era photo of himself while giving a talk to a group of descendants of veterans of that war, Russell and Talbot have centuries old paintings and tapestries decorating their home, Russell has his collection of trinkets and trophies from down the ages and Maryann not only has her ancient statue but speaks Ancient Greek.
* Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E24LongLiveWalterJameson Long Live Walter Jameson]]", the titular character is a history professor who knows his stuff. He has a retiring colleague named Samuel Kittridge who comments on his appearance, and found Walter in a Civil War picture. Walter reveals that he is more than 2,000 years old.

* A small example in ''Series/BloodTies2007'' 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.

* Sebastian Baczkiewicz' drama serial ''Radio/{{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.

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' setting, Dr. Van Richten realized that the fiend Drigor had been manipulating a particular family for generations when he looked at the family journals, and realized their writing styles hadn't changed for the past two hundred years.

** As Space Marines (and by extension the Custodes and Primarchs) are nearly (if not outright) immortal, they understandably have a few moments where their age is showing. This is usually more common among [[ManInTheMachine Dreadnoughts]], who are mortally wounded Space Marines interred in MiniMecha who are preserved for their combat skill and wisdom. The most notable among these is Bjorn the Fell-Handed of the Space Wolves, who is perhaps the oldest Space Marine in the Imperium who can remember seeing the Emperor and the Space Wolf Primarch Leman Russ in person (over ten millenia ago). As he himself can attest:

* ''VideoGame/Fallout1'': 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/Fallout4'' has the Vault salesman who gets you a reservation in a Vault just minutes before the bombs fall. When you [[HumanPopsicle thaw out]] a few centuries later, you might encounter him again, now ghoul-ified, and can even invite him to come live in one of your settlements. There's also the Cabot family, who live in a suspiciously nice house; through their questline you find out that they've discovered an anti-aging serum and are much older than even the Sole Survivor and the ghouls from the Great War period.
* 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[[note]]The Leviathan of Dis is confirmed to be a dead Reaper and was dated at 1 billion years old[[/note]] and has participated in at least 20,000 galactic exterminations.
** 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 1,400 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.]]

* Lucius Heinous VII from ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'' looks like he's in his mid-30s at the oldest. However, according to one episode it took him 400 years to grow his horns. Since he's essentially {{Satan}}, it's likely he's immortal.

-->''"I lived ten thousand livetimes before the first of your kind crawled out of the mud!"''

* ''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.

* Creator/JohnMasefield's ''Literature/TheBoxOfDelights'' had Ramon Lully, aka Cole Hawlings, 14th century philosopher posing as a 1930s children's entertainer. His reveal comes courtesy of the BigBad, Abner Brown, who's been in pursuit of him for some time and shows his henchmen a book with pictures of Lully when he was alive which look remarkably like Hawlings.

** Fourth Doctor serial ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E3TheStonesOfBlood The Stones of Blood]]'' is a case of Incriminating Evidence in the form of a set of portraits showing the villain over several centuries.

** 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 "[[FlyingDutchman The Last Centurion]]".