Hello Everyone I Have A Question For You. Just kidding, I don't write like that ;D So my question is, how would one comprehend immortality? Basically how would it work? What are the complex guidelines? Such as: feeling pain, eating, getting rid of waste, basically any natural necessities humans have to face today. This is short but I had no idea how to write it. Can anyone answer this? Thanks!
Immortality merely means you do not die of old age (and arguably disease) everything else would be the same.
Or, since this would be a writer's invention, you can make it work the way you want it. If your story needs an immortal character who doesn't feel pain and doesn't need to eat, evacuate etc, then write them like that and presto, it works! Oh, well, that might make them a zombie, though
If you struggle with the question, how do you hope to comprehend the answer...? I misread the subject as immorality. Little bit disappointed tbqh...
In line with what others have said, there are options here, it depends on what you want to do. For your consideration, I will describe how I'm handling different immortal races in my WIP. Vampires They remain the same age as when turned, but can change somewhat in fitness They do feel pain, but slightly less for the same injury. They survive of blood (obviously), though they can consume normal food and drink, it can't sustain them. If they don't feed they start to become weaker, and have more difficulty controlling themselves, until they basically fall into a coma. For waste I know that I want normal food to basically just go in one way and out the other, but I'm not sure otherwise whether they should excrete or egest regularly. One the one hand, they are supernatural creatures that don't feed normally. On the other hand, they are still at least partly biological and perform human body functions. They are infertile and females don't have periods, but they can still have sex and experience arousal. Fae Folk Unlike vampires, they do age, though at a much slower rate, until they eventually reach their limit of physical aging which does leave them slightly weakened. They feel pain as usual. They eat food normally, but different fae races have varying diets, such as elves being largely herbivorous or fairies eating a lot of fruits, nectar and honey. Starvation can kill them. Most also need sunlight to survive. They deal with waste normally. They are fertile, and are born naturally, but as part of their slow aging they take some time to become fertile and their pregnancies are slightly longer as well.
Lobsters are immortal. They just do whatever any other sea creature does, just for longer. Apart from the longevity, they are no different, biologically.
I wrote something about "immortal once, had to do with the head thoughts, "my father will be immortal because of my thoughts I have of him, I will be as long as my kids think of me, and tell those little stories they know of me..[just my thought]
I wanted to know because of one of my characters. Could immortal beings take injuries, just heal really quickly? Like losing a limb and regaining it? Can my character act to be mortal, or control how they heal? I know that the possibilities are endless, but I really want to know what draws the line for what makes sense and what doesn't. Also I mean physically immortal, not mentally. Thanks for your replies!
Yeah, if you like it, why not? Starfish has regeneration "powers". In fact, It can regrowth itself out of an arm. Are you trying to write Hard Sci-Fi Inmortal Characters? If not, there's no limit in what make or doesn't make sense. You can always come up with some explanation that suits your story settings.
I'm just afraid that too much original content can confuse readers so much that they don't like the story.
Original content doesn't confuse readers. Doing things in a way that defies their expectations confuses them. And confusing your readers a little can be very good. You don't want to meet ALL of their expectations at least, you have to find the right balance of familiarity and novelty.
Of course. About the subject, I want to change it so readers do not realize a secondary character is actually the villain. Still trying to figure this out without making it far fetched.
For a twist like that, try and drop little hints that a reader probably won't pick up on, but which will make sense in hindsight. They know things they shouldn't, their reactions to events are a little off, stuff like that. It's a bugbear of mine in mysteries when there's a killer among the cast, it could be anyone, then the KILLER IS REVEALED and....it's that guy who was in one scene and had two lines.
So I see different kinds of immortality here. Let me list them. I am sure there are others, I am just listing a few here 1.you have the healing factor. This particular type of immortality could function based on an incredibly advanced healing factor that even heals your DNA degradation and thus prevention aging (as an example). This immortality means that you could heal much faster and survive damage or sickness much greater then others. But maybe it comes at a cost like you need to eat exponentially more in relation to the damage or healing needed. 2. The “frozen” immortality wherein at its simplest you simply do not age. You live, crap and eat just the same except now you just don’t age. You are not any more or less able to survive sickness or wounds. 3. Mechanic immortality. You are a normal person who thought magic, technology, or otherwise have managed too slow or stop your aging, but your body still ages. You are just Marley keeping yourself alive beyond your expiry date. However, you still suffer from certain side effects and you need to constantly keep up with your degrading body in order to keep yours self alive.
If you want to simplify immortality then just define your immortal character as somebody that cannot die and does not require any necessities that mortals would such as food, water, oxygen or an atmosphere. Any damage done to the character does nothing so for example, you toss him into the sun and he can just wait until it dies before leaving. I'm writing this with the assumption that the plot of your story will be about an immortal struggling to deal with his immortality and staying sane throughout. If you want your character to be immortal like vampires or elves then you need to consider that a huge portion of their life will be forgotten by the character save for selective events such as traumas or significant events. I'd recommend watching The Man from Earth to get an insight on what an immortal may deal with. It's about a caveman that lives up to the present time and he reveals this secret to his friends, a very interesting discussion ensues. It's one of my favorite movies of all time.
In the TV series Forever, with Ioan Gruffud, the main character did die, but "Henry disappears almost immediately each time he dies and returns to life naked in a nearby body of water." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever_(2014_TV_series)
The Boat of a Million Years, by Poul Anderson, had immortals who reached adulthood (maybe 30s?) and then ceased aging. Don't think they got sick either, but they could definitely be killed by conventional means, and I don't recall that they had any special regenerative abilities. Their children didn't share their immortality, and it was theorized that they were some sort of hedge against harmful genetic drift. Death Becomes Her had, of course, the people who wouldn't cease to function, but once dead, their bodies went all to hell. The Mars Trilogy had an extended lifespan treatment that kept people spry into their early triple digits, but this was offset by "the quick decline", where someone who otherwise appeared healthy and able would suddenly just die. An additional problem addressed was the lack of upward social and professional mobiility suffered by the younger generations, who in their seventies and eighties were still restricted to subordinate positions because their parents and grandparents had never retired and died, but were still holding onto all of the leadership and management positions in society.
My story is about this villain that was cursed with eternal life and copes with it by having eternal revenge on the man who gave it to him by killing his subjects and destroying his work. One of the secondary characters is the villain, but obviously doesn't let the main characters know that... just not sure how to approach it
Why does he feel like he's cursed with eternal life? Why does he hate the man that bestowed this curse upon him? Some people would consider eternal life a boon, a blessing even.
He knew it wasn't a blessing at first. For years he protected royalty, but failed to put her majesty's life before his. The man who killed her is the man who caused this curse; because he wanted his momentary King position to be permanent. The part that considers it as a curse is the fact that anyone who meets him has instant distrust of him. His left eye was different in coloration. Things like this meant that the bearer did something so horrible and couldn't be trusted. Spending eternity all alone and slowly watching his friends, family and the people he knew slowly die basically drove him insane. He told himself, "Why should I pay for his selfishness?" and decided that the man who caused his misery needed to be punished. Basically the plot of the saltiness they have lol
As far as I know (I could be wrong) there are 4 ways to conceptualize immortality in a narrative and I will now proceed to list them and give them completely arbitrary names: 1.- Everlasting longevity/youth: This kind of immortal doesn't die from old age but everything else is fair game; a good example would be the elves from Middle-Earth. 2.- Spirit and vessel: In this type, the body is a container for the being that occupies it, the vessel will age and can be destroyed by regular means but the spirit will persist through the ages (unless you write a way to kill this one); when the current body is dying the spirit can just steal another vessel (usually young, good looking and from the same sex) or steal "life essence" to keep the current one from aging (no good example comes to mind right now). 3.- The fatal weakness: With this one, the body will not age and can't be destroyed by conventional means but it is possible to kill the being if you know "the" weakness; in this case Koschei the Deathless comes to mind. 4.- True immortal: This immortal can't die, period; the only way to "contain" them requires lateral thinking, like chopping it and encasing all the limbs so that it can't properly regenerate but then they just need to wait for a fool to open one of the containers (I was going to mention the immortals from Baccano! but then I remembered that they can be assimilated by other immortals thus dying... why do I mention them then? Because I never pass an opportunity to shill Baccano!... seriously, it's really good, more people need to watch it).
I have often wondered if a truly immortal person could ever actually BELIEVE he or she was immortal. I mean, the most ANY of us can say is, we haven't died yet. How do you go about making sure you aren't just VERY long-lived? I suspect logic will never really work for something like this, we would still have to live like we will die someday.
