I personally dislike the classic "Chosen One" story, with prophecies going way back and the protagonist being the key to saving the world. But now that I'm writing this story of mine, I find that there is some element of it in my own. One of my protags is immortal (born in the stone age). When he was born, a Seer read his fate from some animal bones and entrails, like he does with every newborn. In the protags case, the Seer saw a healthy youth, but could not see old age and death itself in the signs. Since at least 2 of those have to show up in the "reading", this Seer is quite disturbed at first, but doesn't proclaim the truth about the outcome for fear of baby-protag being cast out. It is a prophecy of some sort, although more one that only has an impact on protag rather then says that "protag comes and saves the day". What do you think? Would this classify as a "Chosen One"?
Depends, if the fate is tied to a specific outcome or task, then yes, they are chosen. But if they are immortal and just happen to help achieve some goal, rather than anyone else, then no, it's just a character trait.
It does not involve him doing something, no. It only implies that if the reading is right, he won't grow old and die. Only thing that the seer can see is that the reading is either very disturbing as it implies immortality, or that the reading itself is disturbed and not valid (which in itself is odd since that never happens, again implying that protag is somehow "out of reach" of fate.) Seer can only add that protag will be "great among men" although Seer does not know how to interpret this. Its some kind of personal prophecy, only shared with protags father, who only reveals it to protag at his deathbed 30 years later out of fear of the child being killed an abomination.
'Chosen' implies that this character has a purpose tasked to them by the gods or whatnot. What if the character was less of a 'chosen one' and more of 'that one fry you get in your bag when you ordered onion rings instead' Almighty power - "Wait, you're immortal?" MC - "Um, yeah. you made me, shouldn't you know that?" AP - "Well its just... I've been under a lot of pressure lately and, i'm not sure how to say this but, you were sort of an accident." MC - "Excuse me?" AP - "I was tired, fell asleep pressing the 'give life' button. Turns out if I press it too long, it makes you immortal. Who knew? I sure as hell didn't." MC - "So this whole 'savior' thing?" AP - "Yeah, no, that's a real thing... its just not you."
You said it yourself in the last line, what you are describing isn't one of the 7 key plot types, it's a character who has been made into the protagonist and given a powerful origin. So you've made a character very realistic by foreshadowing a divine destiny for him and the reader will expect him to be heroic but it could be a tragedy, rebirth, rags to riches or overcoming a monster etc.
Sorry for the late reply! That makes a lot of sense, yes. I do regard him more as a dollar that accidentily slipped into a bag of nickles. Some weird accident of nature. Thanks a lot! I'll keep writing this Yeah. He actually flees his tribe later on out of fear of them starting to worship him, because he grows too old. His fate is just as mysterious to him than it is to others. Also, he's not truly immortal, strictly speaking. Falls of a cliff; will die. Wound in battle; might die of that, etc. It's just that he does not grow old. For himself, his life is quite tragic, not understanding why he is different.
