Well, that comment was quite a long time ago, wasn't it? On a side note, "his" writer's discussion works fine too :)
It has been a while since I properly thought about it but that doesn't mean I haven't included it in my writing. I generally go by the rule that power always comes at a cost. It can be as simple as investing all your time in learning how to fight but have no idea how a plow is involved in the process of farming to powers at the cost of your own insanity.
The last comes in a lot in my writing actually. It plays a large part in my own fantasy world where mages will start to develop a split personality after they reach a certain power level. In this case, their power has essentially become sentient and periodically gains control of the body if the mage doesn't watch out. It may seem like I'm digressing, mostly because I am, sort of, but there's a point to all this: Immortality should also come at a price.
I think the original comment Sotek meant referred to one of the more important characters of my fantasy world, he's not the protagonist of the story but instead a powerful player in the regional version of the game of thrones. Here's the thing though; he's immortal. He can't die from age, disease, trauma or even killing himself. He is also a mage and that means that at some point he's going to have to share this immortal body with another sentient being and this is where it gets interesting. The only way for him to die is to release the entity in question, but by doing that he would essentially doom the world as he knows it, which I believe creates an interesting internal dynamic and very strange relationship between the two personas. Especially since as his powers will grow he'll have to start isolating himself from other people if he doesn't want them to get hurt.
An example that might sound more familiar to you all is Simon Lafoy from my Streets of Boston series here on the Vault. In short, he used a serum that essentially made him immortal (with the exception of bullet holes and the like) and managed to imprison himself inside his own radiation shelter for over 200 years. He's not really immortal but as long as he keeps using the serum he will be. This means that despite his arrogance and pre-war class, he has an expiration date just like anyone else. An expiration date that is closely linked to the use of a drug. You guessed it; Simon is an addict. He just doesn't know it.
Another thing about Simon's whole deal, which is most apparent in the earlier chapters is that the long period of isolation he underwent in his vault pushed him over the edge. I've written it in journal entries that are spaced out by several years more often than not. Nearly every entry documents the loss of yet another thing that tethered him to reality. He runs out of wine, out of smokes, out of new books to read and eventually loses his music. He has to face the silence. This is the last drop and he goes mad. After completely desecrating what was a shelter to him for years he stops fulfilling even the most basic of his desires and needs just so he can continually listen to the only other sound in the vault that isn't his own breathing: his Geiger counter. Later in the story, after he was given a shimmer of hope, this seems to disappear but the careful reader might pick up on a few things that could feel odd.
Simon is what I feel would be the result of an extended lifespan; A person who has gone through enough hardship to last more than a single lifetime. Happiness and sadness are both integral parts of our lives but we usually only get a limited amount of them; immortals never stop experiencing either of them. Eventually, you'll either become insensitive to both loss and joy or you'll go mad. Simon went for the latter.
So, as I hope is clear, to me the pros of a long living character is that you get to really dive into the psychological effects that might have on someone. The cons are that you need to keep that long life into account, especially wen people have had an important influence on the world around them.
A good example of this done pretty marvelously would be Lisette's Albee from Straag Rod. While so far I haven't worked with her on any project yet (not fully at least) I have had plenty of occasions to listen to her rant about how difficult it can be to plan out a character like Albee who is at the prime age of about 250 if I'm not mistaken. He has learnt a lot, he has experienced a lot and he has impacted a lot of things. The amount of effort involved in getting this kind of thing just right is gargantuan and I will always congratulate Liss on that.
So there goes a rant and a half; I hope you enjoyed!
Well, that comment was quite a long time ago, wasn't it? On a side note, "his" writer's discussion works fine too :)
It has been a while since I properly thought about it but that doesn't mean I haven't included it in my writing. I generally go by the rule that power always comes at a cost. It can be as simple as investing all your time in learning how to fight but have no idea how a plow is involved in the process of farming to powers at the cost of your own insanity.
The last comes in a lot in my writing actually. It plays a large part in my own fantasy world where mages will start to develop a split personality after they reach a certain power level. In this case, their power has essentially become sentient and periodically gains control of the body if the mage doesn't watch out. It may seem like I'm digressing, mostly because I am, sort of, but there's a point to all this: Immortality should also come at a price.
I think the original comment Sotek meant referred to one of the more important characters of my fantasy world, he's not the protagonist of the story but instead a powerful player in the regional version of the game of thrones. Here's the thing though; he's immortal. He can't die from age, disease, trauma or even killing himself. He is also a mage and that means that at some point he's going to have to share this immortal body with another sentient being and this is where it gets interesting. The only way for him to die is to release the entity in question, but by doing that he would essentially doom the world as he knows it, which I believe creates an interesting internal dynamic and very strange relationship between the two personas. Especially since as his powers will grow he'll have to start isolating himself from other people if he doesn't want them to get hurt.
An example that might sound more familiar to you all is Simon Lafoy from my Streets of Boston series here on the Vault. In short, he used a serum that essentially made him immortal (with the exception of bullet holes and the like) and managed to imprison himself inside his own radiation shelter for over 200 years. He's not really immortal but as long as he keeps using the serum he will be. This means that despite his arrogance and pre-war class, he has an expiration date just like anyone else. An expiration date that is closely linked to the use of a drug. You guessed it; Simon is an addict. He just doesn't know it.
Another thing about Simon's whole deal, which is most apparent in the earlier chapters is that the long period of isolation he underwent in his vault pushed him over the edge. I've written it in journal entries that are spaced out by several years more often than not. Nearly every entry documents the loss of yet another thing that tethered him to reality. He runs out of wine, out of smokes, out of new books to read and eventually loses his music. He has to face the silence. This is the last drop and he goes mad. After completely desecrating what was a shelter to him for years he stops fulfilling even the most basic of his desires and needs just so he can continually listen to the only other sound in the vault that isn't his own breathing: his Geiger counter. Later in the story, after he was given a shimmer of hope, this seems to disappear but the careful reader might pick up on a few things that could feel odd.
Simon is what I feel would be the result of an extended lifespan; A person who has gone through enough hardship to last more than a single lifetime. Happiness and sadness are both integral parts of our lives but we usually only get a limited amount of them; immortals never stop experiencing either of them. Eventually, you'll either become insensitive to both loss and joy or you'll go mad. Simon went for the latter.
So, as I hope is clear, to me the pros of a long living character is that you get to really dive into the psychological effects that might have on someone. The cons are that you need to keep that long life into account, especially wen people have had an important influence on the world around them.
A good example of this done pretty marvelously would be Lisette's Albee from Straag Rod. While so far I haven't worked with her on any project yet (not fully at least) I have had plenty of occasions to listen to her rant about how difficult it can be to plan out a character like Albee who is at the prime age of about 250 if I'm not mistaken. He has learnt a lot, he has experienced a lot and he has impacted a lot of things. The amount of effort involved in getting this kind of thing just right is gargantuan and I will always congratulate Liss on that.
So there goes a rant and a half; I hope you enjoyed!
