I bring you all a project I've been bouncing around in my head for... I think it's been a year and a half to two years now. Essentially, I want to explore the different pathways to immortality that you'd find across the multiverse. I originally concepted this as a long poem in iambic pentameter or some other number of iambs, wherein mages of the five colors would repeatedly meet on their individual quests for immortality and explore the highs and lows of each color's paths, but I eventually realized that was too restricting.

I've opened it up a little broader and ended up concepting 9 paths to immortality, and broken it into two sections -- the actual path to immortality and then the consequences of becoming immortal that way -- for a total space of 18 chapters of storybook goodness.

I wish I could bring more than just the outline at this stage, but all I really have to offer is that: an outline with a bunch of chapter names which may be subject to change. I'd actually love it if someone provides another route to immortality that I haven't thought of. To that end, I'd like to briefly outline what my nine conceptual methods are (these numbers will correspond to the chapter numbers):

1. Becoming a greater being (like being blessed and becoming an angel)
2. Bonding directly to a single land (and becoming its god/guardian)
3. External tonics/magics (like a fountain of youth)
4. Lichdom (an eternal body, forgoing sanity and the safety of the spirit)
5. Transferring yourself into a new body (a la the original FMA antagonists)
6. Hibernating for long periods or forever (like a dragon would)
7. Preserving only your mind (like the sci-fi stories of brains which still live)
8. Becoming a spirit but still staying on Earth (or whatever plane)
9. Make a lifelike recording of yourself (leaving an imprint that will live forever and act like you)

This had potential to be very interesting, but I do wonder if perhaps it might not be suited to explore using some of our established characters for this project. I know several of mine alone fit these outlines, and with a familiar anchor, you might have an easier time of it to explore the ramifications.

I wouldn't be averse to it, though to be honest I'd prefer to make natives instead of using our 'walker roster. Feel free to make suggestions, as I haven't even begun writing for this project.

Yeah, really any of the Old 'Walkers who are still alive are an interesting inlet to look at this sort of thing. We have many different types present in our current roster, from the overtly stated (like Syl and Chardis) to the more mysterious (like Raiker Venn) to the thus-far unexplained (like Nasperge).

It would be interesting to compile a list of known oldwalkers in the M:EM at some point.

Thinking just of my M:EM characters, it seems possible to hybridize the methods you describe. Kala and Ellia both have features of 7, Ellia of 3 and 5, Kala of 1 and 4. Or how would you classify those two? (Or Eydis, from my story up for voting this week, for that matter. I'd probably guess 1, but she has some 2-ish bent)

From a writer's standpoint, which may help this, I think of a few things about immortality.

Immortality, IMO, at the bare minimum, enables an entity's consciousness to exist for an arbitrary length of time if not interfered with. I'd kind of argue that type 6 (suspended animation) doesn't exactly count, since the days of the user are still numbered, the number just only counts down during "active" periods. The variables in my mind are

1) Defenses, Recourse, and Outs. All immortals are proof against time. Very few are proof against violence. It's worth considering what vectors of mortality are closed off. Close too few and your existence will likely end. Close too many, and there are downsides that must be mitigated. For instance, if an industrial grinder turns you into hamburger, but this isn't lethal... well, you had better have some regeneration/reformation setup, or your eternal reality is going to suck, and suck until long after the sun engulfs the earth and collapses into a cinder that chills to near absolute zero and evaporates on the half-lives of protons. Of course, if your physical form is not just immortal, but indestructible, or if you regenerate, or if you will reform from the aether when apparently "killed", you're good. Lastly, there is the question of whether an immortal can later opt to die, or if that road is forever barred.

2) Degradation. Time is relentless, and it can take its toll even against those who escape the sureness of its grasp. Does the immortal still age? Does the lich rot?

3) Hunger. Does the immortality require power, renewal, or resources? If so, what is it, and when is it needed? Ellia's immortality is hungry, and she has to feed it with humanoid body parts on a regular basis. It's periodic and mostly predictable. The Nameless One from Planescape: Torment has a hungry immortality, someone else dying whenever he would die. It's random and automatic.. Kala's immortality isn't hungry, she changed herself once and appears to be done with it. The Holy Grail from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade appears to apply an immortality that is Hungry (for more grail-water), with degradation, or both -- Considering that one of the returning Knights died from "extreme old age", the one guarding the grail appears to be infirm, and Henry Jones Sr. passed between Last Crusade and Crystal Skull (and Indy aged)

From a story-telling standpoint, I absolutely agree that there needs to be downsides to immortality, even if that downside is the pretty understandable insanity that comes along with living for so long and seeing so much. I think both Ellia and Raiker have a component of this. I am sort of interested in knowing more about Zhiran and how he's staving off old age since the Mending. I suspect the answer is a pretty simple "Magic," but knowing Barinellos, there's probably more to it than that.

And Tevish, you hit on something I was thinking about, and that's the interesting parallel between Ellia and Kala. I very much wonder what would happen if those two met up (again).

Not addressing the issues in order, but:
1. The idea of having downsides, foreseen or not, to immortality is what Part 2 is all about. I want to devote the second half of this thing to exploring the character's difficulties either in maintaining or dealing with their own immortality.

2. While straight regeneration is something I had considered when outlining this, I figured to roll in the not-natural kind (i.e. not something like a Troll) into the External Methods, thereby implying a "hungry" immortality that must be constantly upkept in order to continue existing.

3. In order to simplify the whole thing, I wanted to ignore uncountable threats like violence and simply focus on what would happen to a person who managed to obtain immortality without major hurdles. I wanted, in a sense, to compare and contrast the different methods of gaining immortality.

4. As for degradation over time, that is why I separated the chapters into the sections as I did.

• The Self is where the entire being would be upkept in an "ideal immortal" situation, where the downsides are generally dealing with being an immortal among mortals, rather than needing to worry about losing part of yourself.
• The Corporeal deals with making an immortal body at the expense of the mind, spirit, or both. It was low-hanging fruit, but I outlined the consequence of Lichdom to be the rotting of the body and possible descent into insanity.
• The Immaterial deals with ways of achieving immortality that doesn't involve the body. There's probably more there than I tapped into, but the issue of degradation probably isn't as pressing as the other issues these methods present.

5. The following thoughts I had in a half-hour break between when I wrote the above and now. I'm wondering if I should make each chapter an anthology of sorts, or perhaps do away with the chapter numbers for now in order to fit in more stories per concept. For instance, a story for chapter 1 about Raef would be very different than a story for chapter 1 about Denna (hypothetically speaking). The consequences Raef has to face are completely different as an angel than those Denna has to face as a treefolk.

A gentleman doesn't ask and a lady never tells.
Good thing wots we ain't them fancy folk round these parts, eh guv'nah?


Good thing I know a way to skip all that cumulative upkeep.
Or the far far more amusing solution of finding some other way to pay the upkeep.

Ironically, Raef has been getting a lot of behind the scenes buzz lately. He's been on a lot of people's minds it seems.

I miss mana burn...

In thinking over a few things, I realized what angle I was approaching this from. If I could add another point to Tevish's aspects of immortality, I would say "0 - active or passive"; where passive is when immortality has been gifted upon the individual whether they wanted it or not, and active being when the individual was truly seeking a way to live forever.

I was looking at having all the players in this be active immortals.

This isn't to say that I would reject any of all your suggestions, but that's why I have been reluctant to accept using characters like Raef (yes I know I've made references to him already, but there's a difference between intending to use him an reaching for an easy reference point). I'm even reluctant to use oldwalkers in general because almost all their stories are dealing with lost power rather than their immortality itself. I can only think of one of our oldwalkers offhand who may have been looking for immortality before becoming mortal.

And, to be completely honest? I really think we need more notable natives running around, and what better way to be notable than to have achieved immortality? Since dropping the original concept of several mages meeting over and over throughout eternity, I've envisioned this as -- hell, I've even wrote the outline as -- a book stashed away somewhere, and that somewhere could easily be "Raleris's Library" and encompass multiple planes with its stories. I've even been considering having Part II cover different people entirely than Part I, unless something begs to be explored.

It is at this point that I'd like to issue a bit of an apology. I know it seems kind of facetious to have posted this saying "go ahead and suggest things" and then basically turning down every suggestion, and I'd like to say I'm sorry for being two-faced like that. At the same time, I want to stick to my guns and not just conform to what everyone wants this to be. I feel this is the first thing I might be able to contribute to the M:EM that is entirely my own, and I feel a certain protective ownership over it. If I may be completely open and honest again, part of my defensiveness also stems from what I see as everyone jumping on to say "use my stuff!" -- a behaviour that displeases me. Tevish had the most things to say that I honestly felt I should think about, rather than just reacting and justifying myself with one excuse or another.

I thank you all for putting up with me, and I'm sorry for being anything other than up-front.

3 things:
Most importantly, is anyone else having issues where the spoiler block for Part I Section III won't open up? It's not working for me even when I go to edit and preview, but I don't know what the issue might be.

Secondly, I added 6 more chapters because I've come across 3 new versions of immortality:
10. Stealing life-force from others (which I should have included in the first place)
11. Spreading out your consciousness, essentially becoming the Worldsong
12. Returning yourself to an embryonic state to re-grow (like a phoenix)

Lastly, I want to share a MinuteEarth video that is both relevant to this and made me think about that last form:

Now that you mention it, yes. It won't open for me, either.

Sorry, I forgot to close a bold. It should work now.

Changed the name of the first chapter to "Apotheosis", because I remembered that word existed.

Also, due to having been shown some of Bravest Warriors, I thought about adding in something like "stop time affecting the person", with the downside being "wounds don't heal" and such, but I'm iffy on adding in a time-based power in a Magic thingy.