Why not just tell everyone you’re an immortal with some phony proof and a lot made up stories about seeing the crucifiction? No-one’ll believe you, and bob’s your uncle!
And end up in the funny farm, forever? ::shiver::
Poul Anderson’s The Boat of a Million Years tackles this question, if you’re interested Leaper.
Try the “Orlando” method be British. Live for 500 years, change sex … no worries, everyone else is British and will be far too polite to say anything.
I would imagine avoiding marriage would be a good first step, unless you manage to find a fellow immortal. Then again, if you divorced, you would have to pay alimony literly forever.
Having kids would be a bad thing as well, unless you don’t mind abandoning them after 15-20 years, or trusting them enough to tell them why Daddy/Mommy never seems to get any older.
Seeing all your friends die as time goes by would be a big downer, I would think.
Wouldn’t you be better off flaunting your wealth, power and immortality to start your own cult with you as godhead?
Nah, that’s a good way to wind up chained to a rock with your liver being periodically eaten.
Funny how everyone assumes the immortal is male. How about a female immortal? She could spend eternity claiming to be her own daughter, then the daughter’s daughter etc. Just have to set up a few phony birth certificates.
Does NO ONE read the VampChron? I command thee all to go read Interview With the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned, all by Anne Rice. All questions will be answered.
~Ferry
Who cares about Anne Rice?
You missed one:
- Become a bear (occasionally).
Anne Rice vampires are of course completely believable. Nobody ever did a background check on the famous Rock Star vampire. Nobody ever wonders where these cool people with weird accents and unending wealth seem to come from.
The only one in there that’s even a little believable is the one who set herself up as the geneologist for her family. And the multitudes that are hinted at as living in 3rd world countries as gods and such.
Traditionally vampires can move about in the sunshine, they simply lose their powers of persuasion. Read Dracula. The sunlight problem only cropped up in the last hundred years or so.
Probably because of the ozone hole.
If I were a vampire, I’d look around for someone who looked like me, and kill him, and arrive on the scene as his “brother” to pack things up, then take his identity and leave, across a national border to confuse the records as much as possible.
People do fake their own deaths and take on new identities in this day and age. Find someone whose doing that, and learn how. You’re an immortal, you have time to do that. Oh, and then kill them and take their identity.
Another classic is to take the name and birthdate of a child who died in infancy.
I’m not sure what you mean by “just a mental thing.” It’s clear from the story that London society was aware that he was unchanged from his appearance as a youth over the course of the novel’s timeframe (at least a couple of decades). There is IIRC some speculation as to his secret but this being London society no one delves too deeply.
Ok I am kidding but who did I think of immediately after reading this thread? WHy I just finished reading the tribute and cash raising benefit for polycarp and then I read about what it takes for an immortal to remain undetectted… can I help if it if just then an image of poly in his new firebird cruising off into the sunset unsettlled me a bit… ?
Interesting question…
I think constant motion is the key, as it was for supposed immortal Saint Germaine. By living in a sort of semi-homeless state, one can constantly reinvent one’s self as much as necessary.
keep in mind that it is only in the last 20 years or so that “building” an identity has become somewhat more than marginally difficult. Prior to that, it was a simple matter to acquire a birth certificate of a dead person and use that acquire new identity papers in North America (e.g. SSN, Driver’s Licence, etc.). The advent of computers has changed that. However, databases outside North America are not always up to the current standard, and if you know where to look, new ID’s can be bought. So, recreation of the legal person becomes more difficult, but not impossible.
This leaves the issue of friends, family, etc. Faking your age is possible up to a point, say up to 55 or a flexible 60, at which point you don’t show the tells of old age and have to look at other means. Fortunately, faking a death is also relatively easy, but it means being willing to let go of all social ties at one fell swoop. The smart immortal can prepare for this sort of thing by planning a “cutoff” date and gradually loosening or cutting ties leading up to it. Family ties are emotionally draining in this experience, but on a practical level, business ties are more difficult, as you need these people to ensure a capital flow, and inheritances cannot be left to “nobodies” (i.e. the new legal person you have created). Breaking legal and financial ties takes at least a year’s preparation, and even then requires careful handling. The best bet is to operate through easily liquidated dummy corporations and have distributed cash sources in hidden accounts, or even in good old mason jars.
With all those pieces in place, you fake your death in a destructive manner that leaves no expectation of finding a body (or you could just disappear, but don’t go to that well too often…), pick up your cash reserves, and walk into your new life, being sure to relocate significantly enough to avoid random meetings with old acquaintances.
Two of the benefits of the modern world in this regard are plastic surgery and population.
For the first, as Michael Jackson and Cher can attest, you can redesign your look to be whatever you want it to be. However, as Jackson can also attest, too much of this has a destructive, unnatural effect on the facial structure.
Secondly, the current population of the earth means that there is a strong likelihood that there is someone out there who looks very much like you. So, if you are recognized in a new alias, it is easy to say that the person must be mistaken.
In most situations, this process has to be repeated every 30 years or so, but if you’re willing to forego strong social ties for a generation, you can put it off for 60 years or more. The key is to be able to keep yourself mentally dissociated, but that’s not hard to do when you know that your lifespan is going to exceed most other people’s by centuries.
Of course, that’s just some general thoughts…
Thanks.
My question is, why bother to hide yourself? Who’s gonna notice? As long as you keep paying your taxes, so what if someone says “He’s not getting older.” No one will believe them, and even if they do, it’s not illegal. The goverment couldn’t do anything, especially if you have been busy setting up safeguards.
“Hey, we’re with the NSA and we’d like you to take a few biological tests in New Mexico at a facility we have there. It’s for national security. Will you come this way please?”
“I have 500 years of wealth, helped elect 4 presidents of both parties and FOUNDED the NSA. Go away little man, you bother me.”
I’m with Sam. If this weren’t the case, Dick Clark would be in Area 51 
(dont say you didnt see this coming heheheh)
Nawww, seriously, i dont think government agents, of the “secret agent man” variety would be a huge problem. The biggest problems would be bureaucrats who are convinced some fraud was going on, and loonies out to do harm to this “unnatural” being.
I have the Perfect Plan for “inventing” a new identity. It presupposes the Immortal in question looks about 18 - 25, but those are the breaks. You’ll also have to study the complete works of Shakespeare, the Bible and a near-complete set of encyclopedias from the 1950’s and watch the Brendan Fraser classic “Blast From the Past”. But you’re immortal, what else do you have to do on those long Sunday afternoons?
First you have to get yourself to an isolated location, like the Appalachian mountains, Alaska or Utah. Something like that. Then you walk to the nearest town and look for a job. Of course you don’t have any documentation because your folks were Survivalist nuts or backwoods trappers or Religious nuts. Whatever your story, Pa didn’t hold no truck with the Gubmint (Damned Revinoors, always bustin’ up mah still!), so you were born at home with no mid-wife or doctor or nothing, you didn’t go to school (that’s the Bible, Shakespeare, encyclopedia dodge- that’s where you got your book-learnin’).
Ma and Pa could have gotten eaten by bears or you were of age and the dumped you off to fend for yourself or were killed in a terrible still/amunition explosion. Or they wanted you to marry your sister to keep the blood pure and you wanted to check out your options first.
You could even show up with a suitcase full of hundred dollar bills and gold coins. It would fit your back story. Really. (And if you DO show up with a suitcase full of hundred dollar bills, the holes in your back story will seem much smaller.)
So:
- Nut-ball parents. (Now deceased.)
- No contact with bureaucracy.
- Show up out of nowhere, dazed and confused.
- And stinking rich.
- Let the system work for you getting new ID papers that are legit.
It might help to show up earlier made up as your “father” and buy supplies from town for five or ten years prior to “coming out”. Something like that. But I don’t want to give all of my secrets… I mean somethings should be left up to the idividual so not to leave a pattern.
-Rue.
-Rue.
Both of me worked hard on that. So I signed it twice.