Longevity

Omni-Man and Invincible can live for thousands of years

Background

Longevity is the ability to age at a vastly slower rate than normal beings, granting the user a lifespan that can span centuries, millennia, or even longer. While not the same as true Biological Immortality, longevity ensures that the effects of aging are drastically delayed, often allowing individuals to retain their prime condition for hundreds or thousands of years before showing signs of decline.

This ability is common among mythical creatures, gods, extraterrestrials, and other superhuman beings, and may exist either as a natural trait of their physiology or as the result of magical, scientific, or supernatural augmentation. Characters with longevity may become living witnesses of history, surviving across generations and epochs where ordinary humans would long be gone.

Also Called

• Extended Lifespan
• Slowed Aging
• Long Life
• Timeless Body

Possible Applications

• Extended Existence: Continue living for centuries or millennia, far beyond normal human limits.
• Historical Knowledge: Possess first-hand experience of long-past eras, civilizations, and events.
• Sustained Vitality: Retain peak physical and mental condition for prolonged periods.
• Combat Advantage: Vastly more experience and training due to prolonged life.
• Cultural Influence: Ability to shape generations of society by living across multiple lifetimes.

Practical Uses

• Allows a character to survive into the far future or endure prolonged conflicts.
• Useful for rulers, guardians, or guides who require centuries to oversee their responsibilities.
• Provides an edge in skill mastery, as centuries of practice can refine techniques to perfection.
• Can serve as a narrative device for characters who act as "living relics" of forgotten times.

Potential Types

• Natural Longevity: Innate biological trait of a species (e.g., elves, dragons).
• Mystical Longevity: Granted through magic, curses, blessings, or divine intervention.
• Artificial Longevity: Achieved through science, genetic engineering, or alchemical formulas.
• Conditional Longevity: Dependent on fulfilling certain requirements, such as feeding, rituals, or maintaining artifacts.

Possible Limitations

• Unlike Biological Immortality, the user is still subject to aging, eventual death, and potential decline.
• Longevity does not inherently protect against injury, disease, or fatal damage.
• May lead to psychological issues such as isolation, ennui, or survivor’s guilt after outliving countless others.
• Characters with extreme lifespans may become detached from short-lived beings, reducing empathy.

Users

• Hit (Dragon Ball): The legendary assassin has lived for over 1,000 years.
• Characters from Kirby: Several characters, including deities and cosmic beings, are implied to have lived for millennia.

Note

While longevity grants an extended lifespan, it is not equivalent to Biological Immortality. Users of longevity are still aging, albeit at an extremely reduced pace, and can eventually weaken and die of old age given enough time.