Immortal Characters in Fiction

[Sampiro]

Who are some of the best fleshed out immortal (or at least supernaturally longlived) characters in fiction? I'm not that well read in fantasy and sci fi, but my favorites that I have read include:

Utnapishtim (the flood survivor in Gilgamesh)

Hob Gadling (from "The Sandman" comics- b. in the 14th century and still going strong)

Lazarus Long (if a judge wanted to position a statue of his notebooks in a courthouse or Supreme Court Building or embroidered on his robe I'd have relatively little problem with it)

Duncan MacLeod (of the Highlander TV series- the movies, not so much)

Your picks? (And surely there are some immortal women out there)

[silenus]

Conrad in Roger Zelazny's This Immortal.

[Exapno Mapcase]

You have to mention Roger Zelazny here, since he specialized in immortal characters, right from his first book, This Immortal. And Zelazny could do better characterization in one short story than Heinlein managed in his whole career combined.

Yeah, yeah, I know. You're all Heinlein worshipers. I don't care.

[Improv Geek]

Q, the meddlesome demigod from Star Trek The Next Generation

That's all I've got off the top of my head.

[Exapno Mapcase]

Cool simulpost.

[Improv Geek]

Originally Posted by Exapno Mapcase

You have to mention Roger Zelazny here, since he specialized in immortal characters, right from his first book, This Immortal. And Zelazny could do better characterization in one short story than Heinlein managed in his whole career combined.

Yeah, yeah, I know. You're all Heinlein worshipers. I don't care.

May the fate of 1000 pains cross your path 1000 times over! How dare you speak against my og!

[Ephemera]

Hercules from The Legendary Journeys is a possible pick. He was immortalized in Greek myth but I'm not sure if he was in the series.. to say they played fast and loose with the mythology there is a bit of an understatement.

Dax from Deep Space Nine is another. Immortality by symbiosis is something you don't often see and noting the differences in the hosts is interesting.

Ender in Card's Ender saga? An exceptional but otherwise normal human that's still alive three thousand years after his birth via time dilation. His being a living monster of historical revisionism was one of my favorite aspects of those books.

[Khampelf]

I'm proud to be the first to mention Enoch Root, from Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and Baroque Cycle.

Not one of those serene bastards who cruise through the centuries, but a busy guy who's resigned to his fate and lives day to day trying to do what's right for his current set of companions.

I think he's the prophet Elijah. And Ali from Cryptonomicon never gets a chance to invite him over for dinner. ;j

[Saltire]

There are loads of them in Tolkien, though Gandalf is probably the best characterized and even he's left awfully mysterious. Most of the others are either supporting cast, like Elrond, or end up getting killed just like everyday mortals, such as most of the Noldor aristocracy in the Silmarilion.

To add to the Zelazny list, I can hardly believe I'm the first to mention the Amberites.

[silenus]

Originally Posted by Saltire

To add to the Zelazny list, I can hardly believe I'm the first to mention the Amberites.

Can they really be classed as immortal, though? Eric, Brand, Bleys, Dierdre, Oberon all end up dead, IIRC.

[runner pat]

Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged

[cher3]

Terry Pratchett's Death has a lot of personality, although "fleshed-out" is probably not the best way to describe him.

[AskNott]

James Thurber's Walter Mitty, an ordinary guy who continually daydreamed that he was in exciting situations. Danny Kaye played him on screen. It was a long time ago, but reviewers still occasionally talk about a "Mittyesque" character.

[AskNott]

I seem to have misunderstood the OP. I thought you meant characters who were remembered long after the tale was told.

In the Lord of the Rings books, the elves were immortal, and Gandalf had been around for hundreds of years.

[Tracy Lord]

In Shakespeare, you've got Puck (my favorite ), Oberon, and Titania, and later Ariel.

For my money, though, immortal characters don't get much better than the Messrs. Crowley and Aziraphale.

[Snickers]

So I have to be the first to bring up the dreck that is Anne Rice? So be it, then.

In her book The Mummy (which is entertaining, but not great) Ramses, Cleopatra, and a second woman who is Ramses's lover all become immortal. Ramses and his lover are mentioned somewhere in the Interview with a Vampire series.

But, knowing Rice, their immortality might not be a forever type of thing. Other "immortal" characters of hers (vampires, namely) die, tire of life, or go insane, if not otherwise destroyed.

[SlyFrog]

Originally Posted by silenus

Can they really be classed as immortal, though? Eric, Brand, Bleys, Dierdre, Oberon all end up dead, IIRC.

Bleys died? Man, it's been to long since I read the books, I don't remember Bleys dying (although with Amber, it's always an open question whether anyone really died).

To get to my real point though, I think there is a separate class of immortal, which is one who would not die but for death by violent or otherwise unnatural means. I don't recall any Amberites dying of disease or old age. If they were not immortal, they were so near immortal (but for the ability to be killed unnaturally) as to be immortal.

If Amberites are not immortal because they can end up dead, than many of the others listed are also not immortal (e.g. Duncan MacLeod).

[Chronos]

Also from LotR, we have various other ainur and fey (all of the wizards, Sauron, the Balrog, Shelob and her momma Ungoliant, etc.). And then there's Tom Bombadil, about whom nobody knows very much, but even Galadriel (who's over twenty thousand years old) refers to as "Eldest".

In Asimov's later novels, we learn that R. Daneel Olivaw has persisted as a sort of guardian of humanity for many millenia But he has the advantage of being a robot.

Speaking of guardians of humanity, we could include any of the Protectors from Niven's Known Space, or the Arisians from Doc Smith's Lensman books.

Also from Known Space we have Lucas Launcelot Garner, who isn't actually immortal and doesn't have anything in particular going for him, but who just happens to be born at the right time to catch the wave of advances in gerontology, and keeps on living just long enough to take advantage of the next life-extending breakthrough. Later characters in Known Space, of course, are born with those breakthroughs already in place, but Garner's case seems more noteworthy.

If we're including folklore, there's the Wandering Jew, who scorned Jesus on the way to the Crucifiction, and is now cursed to walk the world until Judgement Day.

In Feist's Riftwar books, there's the great wizard Macros the Black, who's been a major mover and shaker on many worlds, and turns out to be (it's implied) the son of the afore-mentioned Wandering Jew, who shares his curse.

The Incarnations in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality have a very limited sort of immortality: Each of them can "die", but each only in his or her own manner.

[Hup the Fool]

Kane (as in Cain and Abel) from the books by Karl Edward Wagner. One of the first humans, a couple of his stories take place during World War II and in the 1980s, where,IIRC, he's a dealer of crack cocaine.




Casca Rufio Longinus from the books by Barry Sadler. Casca is the Roman soldier who speared Jesus on the cross and is cursed to wander the earth until Jesus returns.

It's been a long time since I read the books, but I believe Tarzan became immortal somewhere in the series of books.

[carnivorousplant]

Originally Posted by silenus

Eric, Brand, Bleys, Dierdre, Oberon all end up dead, IIRC.

Say what? I quit reading the ones about the son. Did he kill them off?

[kidchameleon]

There was an alien in the Hitchhiker Tril...err...series, that was immortal and just went around insulting everyone.

[Exapno Mapcase]

Was anybody else surprised by how few posts it took to go from the OP's "best fleshed out immortal" to mentioning any immortal characters even if they're drek?

[CandidGamera]

Originally Posted by Exapno Mapcase

Was anybody else surprised by how few posts it took to go from the OP's "best fleshed out immortal" to mentioning any immortal characters even if they're drek?

Considering that opinions can vary on what constitutes "Well fleshed out" one can say the divergence began with the OP.

[silenus]

Originally Posted by carnivorousplant

Say what? I quit reading the ones about the son. Did he kill them off?

They all died in the original set of books. Eric was killed fighting the forces of Chaos, Dierdre was killed during Corwin's fight with Brand, Bleys died at Corwin's side during that battle, Brand was killed, and Oberon bites it while trying to rewrite the Pattern.

[Little Nemo]

Count Saint Germain, from a series of novels by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (based on a historical character).

And Exapno, don't feel you need to keep posting in this thread on our account.

[Syntropy]

Originally Posted by carnivorousplant

Say what? I quit reading the ones about the son. Did he kill them off?

I don't think Oberon died. In fact, I specifically recall at the end of the second series

SPOILER:

Merlin rescues Oberon from beneath his mother's house after he realizes his mother and cousin are trying to control him, and figures out where his father is being kept.

[carnivorousplant]

Originally Posted by Maureen

I don't think Oberon died.

SPOILER:

Yeah, he bought the farm trying recreate the pattern.
But I don't recall the others being killed save for the guy who blinded Eric. Was that Brand?

[silenus]

I never finished the second series, but didn't Corwin see Oberon's funeral procession into the Courts of Chaos at the end of the first series? Or was that Dworkin's funeral?

[Syntropy]

Oh. As for my favorites:
Maureen Johnson Long (obviously)
Azrafael in the Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett novel Good Omens

[carnivorousplant]

Originally Posted by Maureen

I don't think Oberon died.

I think you're confusing Oberon, Eric's father with Eric, Merlin's father.

[Syntropy]

Sil, you're right, that was Oberon's. Dworkin was driving the lead of the funeral procession.

[ArrMatey!]

Randal Flagg, the Walkin' Dude, from many of Steven King's works. What happened to him in the final Dark Tower book didn't really happen. I keep repeating that to myself. I know it didn't happen, because it was just too friggin' lame.

[Sampiro]

Originally Posted by Maureen

Oh. As for my favorites:
Maureen Johnson Long (obviously)
Azrafael in the Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett novel Good Omens

Again, it's odd how few female immortals there are (particularly if you exclude vampires). Maureen's one of the few who comes to mind at all. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact of how long their gestation period would be or the oddity of a woman giving birth to 90 children over the millennia or whatever.

My favorite comment about Azirophale and Crowley is that "being enemies for 6000 years is essentially the same as being close friends". (My favorite about Azirophale has to do with an analogy about monkeys and nitrous oxide.)

[FlightlessBird]

Tracy Lord and Maureen said it best with Crowley and Aziraphale. Funny, fleshed out immortal characters.

[ouryL]

Originally Posted by Sampiro

Who are some of the best fleshed out immortal (or at least supernaturally longlived) characters in fiction? I'm not that well read in fantasy and sci fi, but my favorites that I have read include:

Utnapishtim (the flood survivor in Gilgamesh)

Hob Gadling (from "The Sandman" comics- b. in the 14th century and still going strong)

Lazarus Long (if a judge wanted to position a statue of his notebooks in a courthouse or Supreme Court Building or embroidered on his robe I'd have relatively little problem with it)

Duncan MacLeod (of the Highlander TV series- the movies, not so much)

Your picks? (And surely there are some immortal women out there)

Perry Rhodan

[EastCoastPearl]

The one that always stuck in my mind was Alobar from Tom Robbins' "Jitterbug Perfume"

[Saltire]

Eric died at the end of The Guns of Avalon, I believe. Oberon died repairing the rent pattern in The Courts of Chaos. And Corwin, who was a son of Oberon and brother of Eric, was Merlin's father. If I remember correctly, Merlin never did find Corwin in his pentology. I sure wish Zelazny had written the rest of Corwin's story for us.

Back to the OP, how about Flagg from several of Stephen King's books? The only one I ever read with him in it was The Eyes of the Dragon, but I know he shows up a lot. Was he immortal, or just interdimensional?

[Anaamika]

Originally Posted by Exapno Mapcase

You have to mention Roger Zelazny here, since he specialized in immortal characters, right from his first book, This Immortal. And Zelazny could do better characterization in one short story than Heinlein managed in his whole career combined.

Yeah, yeah, I know. You're all Heinlein worshipers. I don't care.

I'm not. (insert pukey smiley here). I'd also like to push over Heinlein from this pedestal he seems to be on.

And I think Flagg was both, Saltire.

[CalMeacham]

Surely Indiana Jones and his Dad are, judging from the last film. And I disregard those scrofulous nitpickers who say it doesn't count because they left the Cave.

I think the guy who said Tarzan is right. It's been years since I read the books, but I think he had multiple opportunities, and that Philip Jose Farmer talks about these in Tarzan Alive!

In any case, John Carter (Warlod of Mars) evidently is. Read the first chapter of A Princess of Mars.

And the princess from Benoit's L'Atlantide. And H. Rider Haggard's Ayesha("She").

[Saltire]

It must have taken me over 10 minutes to write that last post, because I swear ArrMatey!'s post wasn't there when I started it.

[Sean Factotum]

I'd vote for Nathan Brazil in Chalker's Well World series(es). He wasn't just someone who showed up now and then - he had a lot of angst and tribulations to overcome, and in the end became happy again, if only for a little while. I won't put Mavra Chang in that, because she was fairly new at the immortality thing.

[zev_steinhardt]

In David Eddings' Belgariad series, you have Belgarath, Polgara, Beldin, etc.

From Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz there is Lazar, who is still around after thousands of years.

Zev Steinhardt

[Sampiro]

Originally Posted by CalMeacham

Surely Indiana Jones and his Dad are, judging from the last film. And I disregard those scrofulous nitpickers who say it doesn't count because they left the Cave.[/b].

I'd have thought so to, but when Lucas (cough WHORE cough SELLOUT cough) did the Indiana Jones TV series he pictured him as still alive at the time (early 1990s) and very very old (and one-eyed). It made me wonder "did you forget something?".

Jorge Luis Borges (or, as a somewhat misinformed student once referred to him when asking me a reference question, "the lesbian Georgia Borgia guy from Oprah" [long story]) wrote a short story about an immortal. The main thing I remember liking about it was that the character (who was about 1900 years old in the 1930s) could remember fighting at the Battle of Stamford Bridge but couldn't remember which side he was on or why as his memory was basically full up to capacity.

[SlyFrog]

Originally Posted by Saltire

Eric died at the end of The Guns of Avalon, I believe. Oberon died repairing the rent pattern in The Courts of Chaos. And Corwin, who was a son of Oberon and brother of Eric, was Merlin's father. If I remember correctly, Merlin never did find Corwin in his pentology. I sure wish Zelazny had written the rest of Corwin's story for us.

My vague memory (I've only read the second series once, and a long time ago) was that he did find Corwin in the end, but it was very anti-climatic and pointless (although you could say it was written that way intentionally, as it was Merlin's coming of age series and not Corwin's story anymore).

Everything else is as I remember it as well.

From an earlier post, however, I am damn near certain that Bleys did not die. He did go over the edge, but Corwin threw him Corwin's trumps to save him. As said, Bleys (I believe) survived, and my fuzzy memory is that he may not have even need Corwin's trumps to do it (I think he was part of the Brand group who had gained some ability to "teleport" without trump in limited ways).

[zev_steinhardt]

Originally Posted by zev_steinhardt

In David Eddings' Belgariad series, you have Belgarath, Polgara, Beldin, etc.

From Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz there is Lazar, who is still around after thousands of years.

Zev Steinhardt

Ignore my previous post, please. Somehow I missed the "best fleshed out" portion of the OP.



Zev Steinhardt

[Debaser]

Comic books have a ton of immortal characters.

Marvel has Apocalypse, Captain America, and Rogue. Also Wolverine, Sabretooth and anyone else with a healing power is basically immortal.

In the DC universe Superman probably is immortal, too.

Also "Q" from Star Trek is immortal, as well as all the others in the continuom.

[Exapno Mapcase]

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has used immortal women as lead characters. She has three books in the Atta Olivia Clemens series, which is an offshoot of the St. Germain series. And there is also the lesser known In the Face of Death, featuring a different immortal vampire lead, Madeleine de Montalia. This book couldn't get published, for some reason, until it came out as an e-book last year.

My wife is a huge St. Germain fan, so for her birthday a few years back I gave her a signed manuscript copy of the still unpublished book. When you've been married as long as we have, you have to get creative every once in a while.

[robertliguori]

There's the healer, from the LaNague Chronicles, by F. Paul Wilson. He certainly has personality. In fact, he has two.

[Yllaria]

If you're looking for females, four out of the seven Endless are female. My personal favorite is Death, but they are all definite individuals.

How can anyone not like Death? She's so perky, yet so sensible.

[Mr. Miskatonic]

Originally Posted by SlyFrog

My vague memory (I've only read the second series once, and a long time ago) was that he did find Corwin in the end, but it was very anti-climatic and pointless (although you could say it was written that way intentionally, as it was Merlin's coming of age series and not Corwin's story anymore).

Everything else is as I remember it as well.

From an earlier post, however, I am damn near certain that Bleys did not die. He did go over the edge, but Corwin threw him Corwin's trumps to save him. As said, Bleys (I believe) survived, and my fuzzy memory is that he may not have even need Corwin's trumps to do it (I think he was part of the Brand group who had gained some ability to "teleport" without trump in limited ways).

Bleys did not die. He showed up at the final battle and has a role in the second series. Brand and Diedre are assumed, dead having fallen into a pit. But it is not certain what exaclty happens.

Caine is alleged to be killed in both series. THe first he was faking it, the second it is unclrea. But we're talking about Caine here.

Eric dies, but even that's uncertain. Fiona mentions that none of his wounds should have been fatal, and there was no autopsy.

Oberon is assumed dead only because he left a death message. C'mon! Who ya kidding?