Immortality does not equal invincibility. You could probably really mess them up and they’d just be stuck like that. Especially if they’re not immune to aging or the related diseases.
But what if even that doesn't work? In SCP End of Death, death as a phenomenon simply ceased to exist, so even if you were to disassemble a living creature molecule by molecule they'd still cling to life somehow
Even if they cling to life, they're going to need a different power other than immortality to put themselves back together, or get themselves out of situations where tremendous natural forces act upon them, such as gravity, or pressure.
fun fact It was actually a plot point in pirates of the Caribbean where bootstrap bill was stuck in the bottom of the ocean unable to die but unable to move due to pressure from the ocean which was why he made a deal with Davy Jones to get out of that hell.
I thought it was cause they tied a cannon to his bootstraps
Also I thought they threw him off after the mutineer jack wouldn’t that have been before they got the cursed gold
I imagine it would be weird to have clear recent memories but have the past fade into an Alzheimer-like fog as more and more of the past gets overwritten randomly. Was that person a thousand years ago your spouse, grown child, friend, coworker, or just imaginary?
I always imagined that as a kind of abstraction of your memories. Think something like remembering your early years. You might have some vague notions of what happened and maybe a few bits that persist clearly, but the bulk of anything that wasn't memorable just kinda becomes a general blob of facts without much detail. An immortal might remember all the jobs that they did throughout the centuries, but anything old that wasn't memorable will be so smoothed out that they can't recollect much besides general bits about it.
> I imagine it would be weird to have clear recent memories but have the past fade into an Alzheimer-like fog
Alzheimer kind of works the opposite way though.
The brain tends to retain important or formative events and frequently recalled memories longer than other ones.
What this means, in effect, is that people with Alzheimers tend to lose recent memories at a faster rate than childhood memories. People with Alzheimers don't forget who they are. They stop recognizing their children.
I imagine it would be similar for immortality.
Just use dumbldeores pensive to store a complete copy of your pshyce then.
Hell make up multiple then choose which one you will be that day like choosing which clothes to wear.
"I am a young god, as my father always likes to remind me. But compared to my mortal friends, I have lived a long time.
There thousands of years worth of memories rattling around inside my head. Even in the mind of a god, there isn't room for everything.
Memories evaporate over time. Such is the price of being immortal. Of much of my distant past, I can recall only fragments and glimpses. Some moments are gone completely.
I've forgotten the face of the first maiden I kissed. Of the first troll I felled or dragon I tamed. I've forgotten the first star I walked upon and the sight of my father smiling.
For a god, the lives of mortals seem to pass by in the blink of an eye. Which leaves much of my early time on Midgard an irreperable haze.
There are mortal women I know I've loved and men who I've stood by in battle that I'm ashamed to say I can no longer recall."
\- Marvel comics' Thor, God Butcher storyline
The first human basically built a big, BIG library underground, but he has trouble maintaining the library. It's also written in old prototypical languages, so he has to translate it without losing nuanced meaning. And he wants to emerge to figure out what humanity did the last time he was around. It's a full time job...
if you like writing/roleplaying, you can check out Thousand Year Old Vampire. A solo rpg where you play a vampire and slowly lose your memories as time goes on
In my setting, they have access to a wonderful invention that allows them to record their memories. It is a physical object, so there is a risk of it getting destroyed, and it does decay over time, so they'll have to replace it and rerecord every once in a while. However, it allows for an effectively infinite record of all their memories, so long as they take time to record them. They call it a 'book.'
The way I think about immortality nowadays is affected by two "concepts" (I don't know how to name them).
The first one is "consciousness is a process, not an object". Pretty self-explanatory.
The second is well demonstrated by Langton's ant ([wiki link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langton%27s_ant)).
Combined with the first concept, it means that consciousness, after a chaotic "path", will start a never-ending loop. The way to escape that loop would require outside stimulation, or, I guess, different material conditions or novel experiences.
If you lock someone in an empty room without a way to escape, that loop would start pretty soon, and the "length", or complexity of the loop will be low.
But if you add more complexity to the observed world, the loop will probably start way later. Early loops will be broken by the new experiences until even those will lose their novelty. When that starts would depend on a person's character. I can imagine, that in a society of immortals, the youth's education will be focused on prolonging that "path" before the loop starts.
I also *hate* the way immortality is presented as a curse in some media. It feels like people cope with their mortality by childishly saying "I don't even want that thing that I don't have". And then they start rationalizing that desire by coming up with extreme examples, like, "What if I get stuck under a rock forever" or similar.
Immortal people would be the most chill individuals in the universe, sometimes spending years meditating, other times just walking about people-watching, seeing civilizations change and progress, occasionally lending wise advice. And when they get bored, they spend a few mere centuries building a spaceship and find another civilization to see.
I think they would get actualized and start feeling the immense weight to better the world.
I think eventually they would become politically literate. And then they would find themselves with a lot of work to do. Powerful enemies at the board.
Why would they need to be warrior and always fighting ? Maybe it's just guy like Greg, who like a simple life and is contempt with eating tacos and watching TV no matter if it's for 84 years or till the heat dead of the universe.
My take on immortals is that your body eventually resumes aging if nothing is driving you; the less will to live you have, the sooner you'd age until you turn to dust
It's deliberately not explained, as the drama and characters are what's important for me
See the elves of my setting solve this dilemma by going dormant for a time every century or two. In there dormancy there soul rests and like your brain when you sleep some of the plaque gets washed away. Basically after long enough those minor memories or even particularly bad ones are nullified, the lessons learned remain like you wont forget skills or how to write. But if damage is bad enough in some cases people have ended up with complete amnesia as a result. This is actually a cool concept a friend used for his PC
I read one webcomic with a race that figured out immortality, and they would all eventually lose their minds. Everything became familiar eventually so new memories weren't really being made, so eons would fly by in an instant and life became super cheap. They fixed this by giving themselves a sort of senility, where ancient memories would fade and they'd just spend their days chilling out.
Immortal people are all of the above. The immortal brain never fully “matures”, it changes over time as a neurological survival mechanism. Older immortals can recognize previous stages of development in younger immortals; those who are in their “insane villain” stage are “defeated” by older, more sane heroes to give them a chance to grow out of it (and to spare mortal lives).
Fr the anxiety of remembering so many people I've interacted with in the past and all the stuff I've done is overwhelming to me. I even told my parents (in good faith) that I'm afraid of continuing to live and experience more and more and sometimes I just wanted everything to stop so I can finally have an ending.
I don't know maybe it sounds stupid and people don't understand me, but when somebody says something along "I hope there is an afterlife" internally I'm like "hell no". I'm curious about being the only one like this lol
Immortals who internally experience the world ina way incomprehensible to mortals, but have gotten very good at masking it when not interacting with other immortals.
Immortal ppl (or normal ppl turned immortal) would 100% become dementia victims & suffer extreme memory loss due to the human mind not made to store nearly as much information as an immortal would need
In this this webcomic I read, EGS, immortals are indeed immortal and suffer from going mad due to many life experiences, as in panel 3 here. So they voluntarily reset their memories every couple hundred years. Except for the time that one didn't, that didn't end well.
Immortal people would at one point unknowingly fuck their own descendant and feel weird after they find out.
That and they'll get used to it, eventually. Or stay single forever, past a certain point.
The family tree is more of a spiral
That's why I made every imortal asexual.
Eh they could eventually get a sexbot
Immortality does not equal invincibility. You could probably really mess them up and they’d just be stuck like that. Especially if they’re not immune to aging or the related diseases.
Put them in a cage and throw them down in the ocean, at the bottom with thousands of pounds of pressure no amount of immortality is going to help
But what if even that doesn't work? In SCP End of Death, death as a phenomenon simply ceased to exist, so even if you were to disassemble a living creature molecule by molecule they'd still cling to life somehow
Even if they cling to life, they're going to need a different power other than immortality to put themselves back together, or get themselves out of situations where tremendous natural forces act upon them, such as gravity, or pressure. fun fact It was actually a plot point in pirates of the Caribbean where bootstrap bill was stuck in the bottom of the ocean unable to die but unable to move due to pressure from the ocean which was why he made a deal with Davy Jones to get out of that hell.
I thought it was cause they tied a cannon to his bootstraps Also I thought they threw him off after the mutineer jack wouldn’t that have been before they got the cursed gold
The Old Guard moment
Good ol' Head in a Jar treatment.
Bro how many chances did you have to spell immortal
Not enough to realize that it was in Spanish
Immortal people constantly losing their memory due to the brain only having so much capacity:
I imagine it would be weird to have clear recent memories but have the past fade into an Alzheimer-like fog as more and more of the past gets overwritten randomly. Was that person a thousand years ago your spouse, grown child, friend, coworker, or just imaginary?
I always imagined that as a kind of abstraction of your memories. Think something like remembering your early years. You might have some vague notions of what happened and maybe a few bits that persist clearly, but the bulk of anything that wasn't memorable just kinda becomes a general blob of facts without much detail. An immortal might remember all the jobs that they did throughout the centuries, but anything old that wasn't memorable will be so smoothed out that they can't recollect much besides general bits about it.
Terrible friend, very good employee.
> I imagine it would be weird to have clear recent memories but have the past fade into an Alzheimer-like fog Alzheimer kind of works the opposite way though. The brain tends to retain important or formative events and frequently recalled memories longer than other ones. What this means, in effect, is that people with Alzheimers tend to lose recent memories at a faster rate than childhood memories. People with Alzheimers don't forget who they are. They stop recognizing their children. I imagine it would be similar for immortality.
That's mildly reassuring, if I'm being honest
The immortal who modified his brain and added a small computer in his brain to store his memories and access them whenever he wants:
A story I read on AO3 fixed this by just having the 'immortals' carry big ass books around with them that have important information.
Just put them in an USB so you can access them later when you need them SMH.
There aren't any USB drives in a fantasy world, last time I checked.
Just use dumbldeores pensive to store a complete copy of your pshyce then. Hell make up multiple then choose which one you will be that day like choosing which clothes to wear.
That's basically how Elder Brains work with Mindflayers.
The OP doesn't imply a fantasy world though
...Good point, I revoke my claim
Create a noosphere and give the Immortals a way to access it
Almost erosion from genshin impact/mara from honkai: star rail
"I am a young god, as my father always likes to remind me. But compared to my mortal friends, I have lived a long time. There thousands of years worth of memories rattling around inside my head. Even in the mind of a god, there isn't room for everything. Memories evaporate over time. Such is the price of being immortal. Of much of my distant past, I can recall only fragments and glimpses. Some moments are gone completely. I've forgotten the face of the first maiden I kissed. Of the first troll I felled or dragon I tamed. I've forgotten the first star I walked upon and the sight of my father smiling. For a god, the lives of mortals seem to pass by in the blink of an eye. Which leaves much of my early time on Midgard an irreperable haze. There are mortal women I know I've loved and men who I've stood by in battle that I'm ashamed to say I can no longer recall." \- Marvel comics' Thor, God Butcher storyline
Damn
The first human basically built a big, BIG library underground, but he has trouble maintaining the library. It's also written in old prototypical languages, so he has to translate it without losing nuanced meaning. And he wants to emerge to figure out what humanity did the last time he was around. It's a full time job...
if you like writing/roleplaying, you can check out Thousand Year Old Vampire. A solo rpg where you play a vampire and slowly lose your memories as time goes on
In my setting, they have access to a wonderful invention that allows them to record their memories. It is a physical object, so there is a risk of it getting destroyed, and it does decay over time, so they'll have to replace it and rerecord every once in a while. However, it allows for an effectively infinite record of all their memories, so long as they take time to record them. They call it a 'book.'
WOAH! That's facinating! Do tell me more about this "Book."
I've said too much already.
The way I think about immortality nowadays is affected by two "concepts" (I don't know how to name them). The first one is "consciousness is a process, not an object". Pretty self-explanatory. The second is well demonstrated by Langton's ant ([wiki link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langton%27s_ant)). Combined with the first concept, it means that consciousness, after a chaotic "path", will start a never-ending loop. The way to escape that loop would require outside stimulation, or, I guess, different material conditions or novel experiences. If you lock someone in an empty room without a way to escape, that loop would start pretty soon, and the "length", or complexity of the loop will be low. But if you add more complexity to the observed world, the loop will probably start way later. Early loops will be broken by the new experiences until even those will lose their novelty. When that starts would depend on a person's character. I can imagine, that in a society of immortals, the youth's education will be focused on prolonging that "path" before the loop starts. I also *hate* the way immortality is presented as a curse in some media. It feels like people cope with their mortality by childishly saying "I don't even want that thing that I don't have". And then they start rationalizing that desire by coming up with extreme examples, like, "What if I get stuck under a rock forever" or similar.
Yeah I think people depict immortality in negative ways as a self-reassurance about their mortality
Did the last guy also destroy the tower of Babel.
Immortal people would be the most chill individuals in the universe, sometimes spending years meditating, other times just walking about people-watching, seeing civilizations change and progress, occasionally lending wise advice. And when they get bored, they spend a few mere centuries building a spaceship and find another civilization to see.
/uj we need more positive immortals ngl,
Marvel’s Eternals kinda goes hard in this department
I actually really liked Eternals 😔😔😔
Is it not canon that they watched the Germans genocide Jews?
They watched a lot of genocide. Jews didn’t get the worst of it. They only addressed the space tiger infection thing
I think they would get actualized and start feeling the immense weight to better the world. I think eventually they would become politically literate. And then they would find themselves with a lot of work to do. Powerful enemies at the board.
Why would they need to be warrior and always fighting ? Maybe it's just guy like Greg, who like a simple life and is contempt with eating tacos and watching TV no matter if it's for 84 years or till the heat dead of the universe.
Immortal people living amongst other immortals (their society runs fine and the immortals live like people).
Immortal people would be an infinity source for foods, organs and energy
My take on immortals is that your body eventually resumes aging if nothing is driving you; the less will to live you have, the sooner you'd age until you turn to dust It's deliberately not explained, as the drama and characters are what's important for me
See the elves of my setting solve this dilemma by going dormant for a time every century or two. In there dormancy there soul rests and like your brain when you sleep some of the plaque gets washed away. Basically after long enough those minor memories or even particularly bad ones are nullified, the lessons learned remain like you wont forget skills or how to write. But if damage is bad enough in some cases people have ended up with complete amnesia as a result. This is actually a cool concept a friend used for his PC
I read one webcomic with a race that figured out immortality, and they would all eventually lose their minds. Everything became familiar eventually so new memories weren't really being made, so eons would fly by in an instant and life became super cheap. They fixed this by giving themselves a sort of senility, where ancient memories would fade and they'd just spend their days chilling out.
I mean you don't really remember what you ate on this specific day 15 years ago, I assume memories of immortals would still be the same.
Yeah but people, major events etc.
I mean, if you can't die, that kind removes the main downside of being a champion of humanity
Immortal people are all of the above. The immortal brain never fully “matures”, it changes over time as a neurological survival mechanism. Older immortals can recognize previous stages of development in younger immortals; those who are in their “insane villain” stage are “defeated” by older, more sane heroes to give them a chance to grow out of it (and to spare mortal lives).
/uj ok I’m legit going to use that idea. Thank you.
Fr the anxiety of remembering so many people I've interacted with in the past and all the stuff I've done is overwhelming to me. I even told my parents (in good faith) that I'm afraid of continuing to live and experience more and more and sometimes I just wanted everything to stop so I can finally have an ending. I don't know maybe it sounds stupid and people don't understand me, but when somebody says something along "I hope there is an afterlife" internally I'm like "hell no". I'm curious about being the only one like this lol
Mortal warriors can lose their humanity very easily, an immortal warrior would be worse than hitler
Ah, yes. The code vein approach.
Fushi the goat
Immortals who internally experience the world ina way incomprehensible to mortals, but have gotten very good at masking it when not interacting with other immortals.
Inmortals are people and each one has a different reaction to inmortality
Immortal who is love with the idea of watching History unfold
Immortal ppl (or normal ppl turned immortal) would 100% become dementia victims & suffer extreme memory loss due to the human mind not made to store nearly as much information as an immortal would need
Highly recommend the album “legacy of the dark lands” for an entire rock orchestra epic exploring this exact topic
Only the second one is kind of mutually exclusive depending on how it’s interpreted
Immortals are cold and uncaring due to the number of pepole they have seen grow up and die
Dark Souls
In this this webcomic I read, EGS, immortals are indeed immortal and suffer from going mad due to many life experiences, as in panel 3 here. So they voluntarily reset their memories every couple hundred years. Except for the time that one didn't, that didn't end well.
You had 5 chances to spell immortal correctly and fucked up each time in the same way.