The thing with the Immortality issue.

Karbo wrote:

well there is also the fact that I don't think humans are meant to live forever. I'm just not sure we have the right mindset for that.

I would actually concur with this. The current mindset of people as we know it with regards to life would require a significant shift in thought in order to allow appropriately for actual life longevity programs. Currently, the human methodology for 'immortality' is through the children, and is a doctrine set forth by many societies. It explains why the family model is such an important object to the human psyche.

That said, we are seeing a shift in perspective with regards to this, especially as estimates for human life expectancy increase in developed nations. Bullshit! actually covered an episode on 'old people' in their latest season which showed some of the improper stigmas associated with the elder generations. I think that as expectancy goes up we'll see a further shift in this direction as well.

However, it will take something of a paradigm shift to make it happen - there is currently a huge stop gap between people of this generation and the generations of those before us. While we hear stories about the past - for example segregation in the US - we don't associate with it. We hear, but we don't really accept it. Some of our parents actually lived in those times however, and for them it was a way of life. The extreme shift in perspective that has occurred makes it difficult for the present to look upon the past with any form of association, which further helps to disrupt things.

rcs619 wrote:

Krisexy26 wrote:

what about crime and violence? okay..theres crime and violence in new york as well...

crime and violence in new york = balanced population? come on :/ not EVERYONE is dying of violence.

Now is New York a good comparison?

New York is a city of millions, Negav is only home to roughly 900,000...where a decent chunk of that population is transitory.

New York has a stable population, Negav has people constantly coming and going. Negav is more akin to an old port town, instead of a modern, stable city.

The only real stable populations within Negav are the middle tier, upper tier, and the shop/inn/saloon-keepers of the lower tier. The rest of Negav's population is constantly shifting, with people entering Felarya, leaving for other worlds, and such. When you couple this with the people that die from crime, accidents, and people who go off into the jungle and never return...and the population is going to reach an equilibrium.

Just wondering, where is it stated that Negav's population is roughly 900,000? I couldn't find anything on the wik, so I'm curiousi. As for immortality being an issue in Negav, I don't think it is. It's as much of an issue if people had normal lifespans anyway, the city can't expand either way.

Hmm.... Strangely, I was not talking about Negav specifically when I raised the issue, nor was it just referencing Humans for that matter...

My point is that while I can understand extended lifespans, I can't quite seem to understand the point behind the undying lifespan theory. Not when there are examples present that say that people in fact DO age beyond their prime, it just take a hell of a long time.

The only ones I see that should be immortal, are actual immortals such as the Angels, Demons, the ghosts, and certain species like the Chimera, those beings at least have a reason for being true immortals.

Well, here's a question to look at part of this.

Did Trejal reach his current "physical age" while on Felarya?

At this point I would have to assume yes, because there is no mention or record of him ever leaving Felarya, and he is a native.

Actually I have ZERO problem with people not having a max age while in Felarya, hell I support that over time even older people who go to Felarya UNAGE, albeit slowly, at best at the same rate they aged in the first place or slower. Agelessness was a part of historical mythology, the hope for such but it being a false hope is fairly modern, honestly giving things 1000 year lifespans is silly, you just may as well make it a non issue. Its not like you will truly live forever, it much like most everything else here, is a trap, an ephemeral dream that temps people to the world if they can be cleaver enough to not be its victims.

Asaen pretty much summed up my feelings on it.

Do you guys REALLY think Felarya is friendly enough for people to just live thousands of years without trouble?

Not even remotely the point I was making...

The reason I raised it was not to simply take it away, or even to suggest such a step, but merely to explain it, and the reasons such a thing is needed.

Why is it needed? Thats the question.

Well, reading the Corrector's entry in the wiki, I made a rumor that such things as the ambient magic, the healing soil, and implicitely, the immortality, are basically sequels of the war, since you know, Eldritch level beings warring against each other oughta have long term abnormal side-effects on the environment alongside stuff going kablooie.

Hmm, I thought that it was present before the Corrector war.

Even so, that only explains part of it, from an In-Story perspective.

Darkstorm Zero wrote:

Not even remotely the point I was making...

The reason I raised it was not to simply take it away, or even to suggest such a step, but merely to explain it, and the reasons such a thing is needed.

Why is it needed? Thats the question.

This statement ->

asaenvolk wrote:

Its not like you will truly live forever, it much like most everything else here, is a trap, an ephemeral dream that temps people to the world if they can be cleaver enough to not be its victims.

Sums it up for my viewpoint. As another mentioned, it might even be possible for the soil to reverse some effects of aging to someone who was not born in Felarya (but not to the extent of making a 70 yr old look like they're 20 unless the 'verse they're from supports genetic restructuring and then substitute said ages as applicable).

As for Trejal, we don't actually know where his body is, and that is something that could effect the reason for why he 'ages'. As I stated earlier, not all places in Felarya actually benefit from the same extent of soil/water/environment healing properties. Since most people work with the current Felaryan map and not the other regions this just sort of gets overlooked.

Since you're not getting the same effect across all areas, defining it as immortality is a bit of a stretch to begin with but this just makes it easier to describe than 'you live for a really long time' and has the bonus of creating certain associations in a person's mind. If I told you sipping from the Holy Grail made you live a long time, you'd automatically ask 'how long?' If I told you it made you immortal, this extraneous bit need not be provided, even if 'immortal' is technically inaccurate (see perpetual motion theory and improper association for more detail).

Hence, if you absolutely felt the need as an author to explain such that is left to each individual person to describe as they see fit, and leaving it as 'immortal' is the best option that provides the most usability across the board. If you don't like the idea of 'immortality', just pick a different region of Felarya to engage in - they're horribly underutilized and could do with some love.

Immortality is fairly a loose term, it can be applied in a lot of ways. For example, there is a type of jellyfish that regresses and restarts its lifecycle. Besides, in Felarya's ecosystem, the immortality effect doesn't play into to much. Barring when the individuals are in a "safe" zone, anyone in Felarya wouldn't generally live a life exceeding that of a standard human one.