On 12.09.21, Capuchin <
Capu...@jymes.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 11 Sep 2021 "A. Tina Hall" <
A_Tin...@kruemel.org> wrote:
>> I'd digress into something else though. If immortals have been
>> around all the time, why are they hiding, how could they not be
>> known. And in the end, how could it be the same world with them
>> around? (I have that problem with every story that puts magic or
>> other non-real things into our world.)
> Being immortal comes in many flavors.
> Ever watch the movie "Only Lovers Left Alive" (2013)? It's sort of a
> day-in-the-life (but it's about vampires, so maybe night-in-the-life
> is more appropriate) study of romance/ennui/and the basic
> psychology/psychiatry of immortals.It's implicit how vulnerable they
> are and shows why they must keep themselves hidden. (I highly
> recommend watching it. It's not in the terror/horror genre. One
> reviewer said it's "of mood and metaphor." Quite beautifully shot.)
Hm, doesn't sound like something I'd want to watch, the title alone
sends me in the other direction. Now if it were horror, I might give it
a shot (and then ask google about spoilers on the ending, bored with it,
and go do something fun instead :) ).
What they are like though, depends entirely of the person who makes them
up. I gave my evil overlords a big age (around 5k to 9k years old) and
defined them as irremovable (so kind of 'immortal') because a normal
lifespan for an evil overlord doesn't make any sense to me. (They use
magic to prevent ageing, most of them are natural Healers and can fix
themselves, and by now adjust themselves any which way they like, too.
The amount of magic they can use grows over time, so to normal people
they're way overpowered.)
And they're proper evil overlords and ladies, not vulnerable, and
certainly not hidden. Long ago they got together to scare the normal
people into taking up residence in their cities - each evil over-person
has their own little plot - and they each rule them as they see fit
(varying types of whacko ideas that the people have to live by).
Their numbers went down over the millenia as they off each other now and
then, mainly instigated by the two main evil overlords. But most of them
would just prefer to be left alone in their plot.
Oh, here I'm rambling again! :)
> Another kind of immortality is shown in the tv series "Forever"
> (2014-2015). Whenever he's killed, he's resurrected (naked in the
> middle of a river).
I watched that. Now why/how he ends up naked in a river is what I'd want
to know. :)
(Mind, on TV I'm not as picky as in a book.)
> That series also has a different character (an insane one) with the
> same condition. He went through a period where he was also studied by
> leading scientists, Nazi scientists. I think it's quite
> understandable why he now keeps it secret.
That one just highlights why it needs an explanation on how it can still
be the same world with them around. I'd expect he'd done things that
would alter what we see as history, and his present would not be our
world.
So, in the end, it still depends on who makes them up and how he has
them behave.
> (This series can be streamed for free on the "CWseed" channel.)
In any country? Got a link? That'd be interesting. :)
>> Whatever any additions brought to Earth's inhabitants would have had
>> to have changed history at some point and branched off a different
>> timeline. So I need an explanation on why it looks the same despite
>> that.
> Until you can examine other timelines and make comparisons,
> everything will always look normal. Everyone from biologists to
> geologists to cosmologists always find a rational explanation for why
> things are the way they are. Anyone who says "No, this can't be
> normal, some weird alien/time-meddler/god/magic must have effected
> this" is automatically branded a crackpot and roundly ignored.
I think you misunderstood what I mean.
Normal = what we know here for real.
Additions = what someone made up for a story, stuff which doesn't exist
in our real world, but the story is supposedly set in our world.
Problem -> Why does the made-up world look like our world DESPITE that
addition.
> One of my pet projects (so far only on paper, awaiting winning the
> lottery before I can do anything about it) is a model railroad layout
> based on the idea that Greeks invented a steam locomotive (Heron of
> Alexandria was so very, very close . . .). To maintain some aspect of
> socioeconomic reality, it's a single engine and one small flatcar
> moving blocks of stones from a quarry to the seaside where they're
> used to build a fortress or loaded onto ships for export.
> Another project (of the same stature) is to build a quad-bike using
> only late 19th Century materials and techniques. It has always seemed
> odd to me they weren't invented alongside motorcycles. People did
> propose tricycles, but they were inherently unsafe and impractical as
> personal vehicles. To my way of thinking, quad-bikes should/could
> have been a natural step between horses and automobiles.
> Is there a timeline where railroads have been around since the 1st
> Century? Is there a timeline where quad-bikes became the norm and
> automobiles never really developed?
Their present would have to look different to ours. More the further
back the difference is.
> Why would anyone within those timelines ever question it?
I'd question a story where those worlds look the same as ours anyway. :)
--
"So, which of these old poops are we going to drive mad with questions?" Jodra asked, eyes sparkling with mischief.
Tashen chuckled. "One who won't turn us into pigs for it, I'd think."
"Can they do that?" - "I have no idea. Let's find out." -- Seasons & Elements 1/3