Gilgamesh
I’ve talked about immortals on my blog a lot due to Dariana and the challenges that came from her immortality. The same problems came about in War of Nytefall, but the solutions were a little easier to find. Then again, it also brought about some new wrinkles too. While Dariana was a sole immortal, aside from the Baron and Stephen, the entire cast of the new series are vampires. That means I’m dealing with heroes and villains that are really hard to kill and injure.
That isn’t to say have an immortal cast is a bad thing if you do it correctly. If they can still be killed then you can maintain the sense of danger. People tend to mistake immortality for invulnerable, but these characters typically have some kind of weakness. It could be a specific weapon, the destruction of their sole, or needing to be killed by one of their own kind. At the very least, you need to have a way to incapacitate them, especially if they’re villains. This fits into immortality not always coming with superhuman strength, so you can trap them like a normal person. All of these things were considered while designing the Dawn Fangs.
One of the benefits of the entire cast being immortal is that this puts them on even ground and it nearly negates each other. There’s no underdog in this arena because everyone has the same lifespan and regenerative abilities. It was halfway through the book that I stopped paying any attention to this too. This didn’t matter and the fight scenes took on a more violent and bloody tone. Why would an immortal care about defense when they could heal quickly? Not to mention losing an arm means less if they can still win and reattach it. Regeneration takes longer, but it’s doable. That means the vampires fight taking great risks and making really big splashes.
The character of Gregorio Roman brings up another aspect of immortals, which is anachronism. You have to consider how the passage of time effects these characters as far as their mentality and humanity. Some may become more monstrous because life is seen as fleeting and killing is the only thrill they can get. Others may become hermits because the new world doesn’t make any sense or bores them. With vampires, you have different generations among the immortals too. Younger vampires will have one opinion on the world while older ones see things from a more ancient and jaded view. It’s not much different than grandchildren to grandparents, but with the time periods being in centuries instead of decades. So, you have a generational issue among this society of immortals that can cause friction. It’s a fairly common one too, which is why I went more for a few characters being out of touch.
So, what do you think about books where all of the characters are immortals? Do you have a favorite immortal?
Legends of Windemere 
I like the idea that you’ve incorporated all of this. Gives you the chance to play with some unique personalities.
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Thanks. It is rather interesting that everyone being immortal ended up negating how special the whole thing was. Their personalities are fairly mortal, but with opinions differing when it comes to personal safety and how the world is changing.
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It’s a neat area to dabble in. Egos are likely still fragile.
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True. Many of the characters have a fragile arrogance at times. I do think that they get hurt enough to understand that they can still be killed with enough violence. Maybe they get hurt on purpose to retain some sense of mortality.
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That’s an interesting spin.
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It’s subconscious too, which makes it weird.
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I think a story of immortals would be exciting since winning would have to take on a higher strategy than just killing opponents.
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Maybe. There would be a bigger focus on trapping and setting up really destructive moves. Can’t really whittle away at an immortal.
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I think so. 🙂
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Interesting thoughts! I was thinking of Eternals, the Neil Gaiman updated version of Jack Kirby’s work (illustrated by John Romita). This graphic novel mentioned an interesting dilemma that I don’t want to spoil. But it goes with what you mentioned in this post.
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Trying to remember the Eternals. Those the immortal mutants from Marvel where they kept hinting there was a secret one, but the writers kept forgetting the storyline? Think it was Cannonball at one point.
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I know what you mean (the new mutants). But I mean this: https://www.amazon.com/Eternals-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0785121773
This is the one I have. It’s one of my favorites.
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Interesting. Sounds like he did it justice. The Externals were always strange to me.
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L. Marie’s mention of the Eternals is a great one. I’m also reminded of Q from Star Trek, and the war for the right to die.
On a completely different note, I spotted a rather appropriate typo in the post, which I hope you don’t fix: “the destruction of their sole.” Achilles heel, much? 😀
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War for the right to die? Either I’m not familiar or I never knew the name of something I’ve seen.
This is why I don’t edit my posts that often. I like the accidental comedy. That and I spend so much time editing my books that more editing on the plate seems ridiculous.
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It was on Star Trek Voyager. A civil war among immortals for the right to die.
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I didn’t keep up with that series as much as previous ones. Though I do think I remember commercials about that one.
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One heartbreaking aspect of immortality that’s been touched on in various forms is that the immortal remains the same age, while others around them grow old and die. If they remain close to mortals, they have to face that loss over and over again. In the case of your vampires, it seems they could have watched entire civilizations rise and fall. Which side would you invest in, during a civil war? What technology would they embrace or try to squash?
Having your entire cast be immortal means that they still have some friends who have shared the same experiences going through time. Relationships may become claustrophobic, and there would surely be a temptation to focus on their own in-fighting at the expense of mortals. But they would still have some hold on sanity as long as their immortal friends are out there somewhere.
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The vampires in Windemere take whatever ‘technology’ they find useful. Since it’s a magical world, it’s more about spells. As far as the civil war goes, I’m not sure there’s too much of a difference with both sides being immortal. It’s more world view and one side simply wanting to exist.
There aren’t going to be many mortals getting involved in this series. Those are coming off more as fodder so far.
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