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Fantasy Immortals
May. 13th, 2006 08:14 amI've been thinking about the different types of immortals in fantasy and SF. There's a few different kinds:
Absolute Immortals
Can't be killed in any way, can't die of old age.
Examples:I can't actually think of any. Most immortals seem to fall into the next category.
- Wowbagger The Infinitely Preserved
-members of the Q continuum?
- the main characters in "Tuck Everlasting"
Killable Immortals
Don't age, but can be killed. It's often quite difficult to kill them, and some immortals can only be killed one way, which usually seems to be beheading.
Examples:
- Elves
- Highlander immortals (who seem to be tougher to kill than Elves)
- "Mermaid Forest" immortals (I did get the impression that they can be beheaded)
- members of the Q continuum (takes special Q-invented weapons to kill them)
Near-Immortals
Age very very slowly. Difficult to kill.
Examples:
- Dragons (didn't the dragon in Voyage of the Dawntreader die of old age?)
- Ents
- Time Lords(*)
(*)Yes, there is evidence that Time Lords do age, even if it's very very slowly. First, the 1st Doctor regenerated for no apparent reason other than old age. Secondly, in "The Leisure Hive", the 4th Doctor was artificially aged during the course of the story. One could argue that this doesn't count, since it was artificial aging, but it was done through messing about with time, so I think it does count as aging, rather than damage-by-other-means. Combine that with the finite number of regenerations that a Time Lord gets (albeit I wouldn't be surprised if that gets retconned away) then Time Lords come up as near-immortal rather than actually imortal.
Absolute Immortals
Can't be killed in any way, can't die of old age.
Examples:
- Wowbagger The Infinitely Preserved
-
- the main characters in "Tuck Everlasting"
Killable Immortals
Don't age, but can be killed. It's often quite difficult to kill them, and some immortals can only be killed one way, which usually seems to be beheading.
Examples:
- Elves
- Highlander immortals (who seem to be tougher to kill than Elves)
- "Mermaid Forest" immortals (I did get the impression that they can be beheaded)
- members of the Q continuum (takes special Q-invented weapons to kill them)
Near-Immortals
Age very very slowly. Difficult to kill.
Examples:
- Dragons (didn't the dragon in Voyage of the Dawntreader die of old age?)
- Ents
- Time Lords(*)
(*)Yes, there is evidence that Time Lords do age, even if it's very very slowly. First, the 1st Doctor regenerated for no apparent reason other than old age. Secondly, in "The Leisure Hive", the 4th Doctor was artificially aged during the course of the story. One could argue that this doesn't count, since it was artificial aging, but it was done through messing about with time, so I think it does count as aging, rather than damage-by-other-means. Combine that with the finite number of regenerations that a Time Lord gets (albeit I wouldn't be surprised if that gets retconned away) then Time Lords come up as near-immortal rather than actually imortal.
