So. I, for some reason, like to play characters that no longer age. Perhaps its because I like Highlander. Perhaps because I don't like the idea of my characters aging and dying after all they accomplish.

It occurs to me that there are a few ways to go about having a character 'forever' barring violence.

We have the undead, but arguably its cons outweigh the pros. I'm thinkign about Lichdom and Vampirism here. I don't know enough about Briarhearts to include them. You get to live theoretically forever, get enhanced abilities, and it will generally take much more than a fall down some stairs to kill you off. Yet, you are also dead, will never be able to truly fit back into human or mortal society (if you wish to). Its more suited to the power hungry sort, either way, and with Vamprisim is often seen as either gift or curse.

Binding to a Daedric Prince has some chance of this, but really, there are so many ways this can go wrong or turn out cruelly ironic that it probobly shouldn't be included.

Then there is Corpus, which doesn't bear mentioning, unless you happen to be the Nerevarine in which case you get the one-time-only version that gives you agelessness and immunity to disease. But some day you will still perhaps be foiled by some stairs. Or nick something vital in a fight.

Ulfgaar the Unending is also an interesting one. A spell that turned his pals into stones, but seemed to turn him into a 'human' stone, weathering time since the days of Ysgramor and never aging another day. His is one of the most interesting methods, in that its something that would be priceless if a mage could harness what went wrong as a positive effect.

Thoughts? Any more methods anyone can recall?

A fool's errand. The Hero's Journey necessitates the embrace of death.

Can't happen. If you want to be ageless, lichdom, vampirism, divinity, and corpus infection are the only known methods. Even Dyviath Fyr, the man who has lived on Nirn a little after recorded history, ages and will eventually die.

Also, Arkay kind of makes it so people have to die eventually. Lichdom and Vampirism is a gross mockery to the cycle of death and rebirth, Divinity breaks away from the limitations and is to be used to attain even greater heights, and Corpus is divine by nature.

Who said my characters wish to be heroes?

More seriously though, not always. The Nerevarine is an example of a main character that became ageless. Also, as noted its unlikely that in any of these forms the being would live forever, as violence and accident can still claim them. It just extends the period before death to being (potentially) indefinate.


What of Ulfgaar as I noted? If I recall correctly, it was just a spell gone wrong from a paticularly powerful mage.

Lichdom and Vampirism are the most common, of course. Them being a mockery is somewhat beside the point. Many beings on Nirn couldn't care less about that. I am not talking about true immortality; but simply a stop to the aging process. I am also talking in theory, of course, as not all would want this. Not all my characters end up wanting this, many end up normal. I have my Nervearine character who was never given a choice. And I also have a sole Vampire character that I ran through the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion and notihng else, to carry into Skyrim.

I think a Vampire or Nerevarine come Dovahkiin could be a facinating concept, as the voice comes so easy to them that centuries or even millenia to hone themselves could create a being to challenge the likes of Vivec and Almalexia on their own merits. It would be a facinating thing for anyone ageless watch the Era's of Tamriel come and go. But i'm getting off topic. The original idea was thoughts upon the differing method sof stopping the aging process, their pros and cons, and what was thought of them.

Ulfgaar the Unending is 500 years old. Too young to have been around during Ysgrammor.

Probobly a retcon, or lacking a 0, as he is supposed to be one of the original companions. If i'm remembering right, anyway, which I may not be. Its been some months since I palyed Bloodmoon.

Even if i'm mistaken about that, he is a 500 year old none-mage Nord, who makes out he can't age or die naturally.

We do have people who seem to be immortal in the unaging sense naturally (possibly). Divayth Fyr and Ulfgaar (as previously mentioned). Also, the really hardcoe Altmer who dracochrysalize aren't immortal, but live so long that there really isn't a difference (I don't know if this is canon, I just vaguely remember reading it somewhere).

Once you master restoration and necromancy to a certain level, age becomes meaningless. There is a point where you can just continuously regenerate cells from cell death and extend your lifespan inevitably forever. However to do this requires that you probably need to have the level of skill of one like Divayth Fyr or Shalidor, but you know, in different pursuits of study.

Food for thought.

Supposedly such things are actually theoretically possible in real life, too, through eventual research and engineering. I was watching some videos about SENS earlier today. It's more than just a fringe theory. The seven basic things that cause bodily aging are known, and we understand a lot about why they happen. Of course, people often misconstrue their goals as "biological immortality". There's no such thing. That's sci fi. What that type of research would do is simply prevent the body from dying of age - in essence, treating age like another disease to be overcome. The body is still susceptible to external disease and injury, of course. I remember reading somewhere that even if a person reached full immunity to age and the side effects of cellular age such as cancer, the probability of dying from some fatal injury approaches 100% after a few thousand years simply due to probability.

That's what the really long lived sorcerers on Nirn accomplish to a degree. They can still die due to a sword being thrust through them or something like that, or they could catch a really horrible disease. But they've managed to completely stop or reverse aging itself. Divayth Fyr is a good example. He's very old but in his physical and mental prime. He has the martial and magical abilities of a person in his or her twenties. It's implied many other Telvanni members extended their lifespans similarly, and then there's the Psijics. It's implied the people of Cyrodill believe Janus Hassildor extended his life through sorcery. While we later learn he's actually vampiric, you have to consider that the people in Skingrad seemed to accept that a human mage could live hundreds of years. Then there's a comment by the Arch Mage in Skyrim. "The lessons you learn here will last a lifetime. Several, if you're talented." It's pretty obvious that sorcery extending one's life is common knowledge in Tamriel. Since sorcery takes the place of bio medical research in a fantasy setting it's only logical.

To further agree with the Legate, Fyr mastered the Nirnian equivalent of genetic manipulation and cloning. So him lengthening his lifespan isn't out of the question.

My character uses a combination of several things.

1.) Vampirism

2.) He is a master at restoration magic

3.) Master at conjuration (In lore conjuration masters/necromancy could become liches)

4.) I have served every daedric prince via quests.


P.S. You can hibernate in a oblivion realm, or other plane where time moves slower, like Jagar tharn did to the emperor. You won't live forever but you'll age slower. It would be cool if you could load previous character designs from other TES games and see them in the current one your playing.