On Alagossia, people’s ages are FAR TOO DIFFERENT from their biological ages, since everyone has a different type of immortality.
For example, Aeris is physically in her late-thirties, but her biological age is over a thousand maybe more than that. Jorildyn is in her late-twenties, but is way over ten thousand maybe a hundred thousand years old. Isilynor is in her late teens, early twenties, but is younger than her mother, biologically.
So, their physical ages differ from their biological age. Aeris, physically, is the oldest character I’ve written to date.
Bonus Questions:
Do you have an idea on what your character looks like? I would accept drawings, faceclaims, and anything else to give me an idea of such a thing.
Which age groups do you normally write, in terms of characters? Which age groups did you use to write in the past and/or ones you don’t ever want to write?
Mine are different because they don’t age physically or mentally after death.
The main heroes are:
Crow is physically around 35 years old, but his real age is ~4,000.
Vale is 18, but is 54.
Webb is 19, but 30.
Skye is 18. She’s the “youngest” ghost (as of the first book), so she’s still 18.
And so on, and so on.
As for bonus questions, I’ve made way too much art of them all, so here’s a Crow (who’s face-claim is Riz Ahmed) and Skye. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
There’s no age I wouldn’t write, although I find it hard to picture writing from the pov of a baby or unborn fetus. (>‿◠)
Most of my characters are the same age they look, except in my steampunk novel awhile back where some of the characters looked young but were actually hundreds of years old.
In every other book they’re in their twenties or thirties since that’s old enough to have money and agency, but not so old as to have work or family obligations that would prevent them from doing things on a moment’s notice. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
Freyja (a prototype hybrid clone) has only existed for four years, and has been a self-sustaining life form for two weeks. Unknown to everyone except Dr Lander and his project team, about 10% of Freyja’s DNA also came from Dov (24 at the time). Lander believed his clone would need Dov’s high pain tolerance, rapid healing, and immense strength to survive the trauma of accelerated growth. End result, Freyja looks like an over-developed teenager with the physical capabilities of a professional soldier (Aussie Commando).
Okay, so, I’m going to give the ones for books 1-2 since that’s my baseline. Everything else I add as necessary. Please note majority of my main cast is Immortal and that a Lyriumian/Terpolite lifespan is 20,000 years. Also important to mention I have a MAJOR main character cast so this is just books 1-2
Yes. I make artbreeders for all my characters because I can’t draw And before anyone goes “AHHHH AI IS EVIL” I also can’t afford to hire someone to draw even 1 of my characters so shush
^When I first created Karen, I envisioned her to look like a young Gemma Atkison (except with olive skin). Karen didn’t visibly age much over the stories / years either, apart from silvering hair. Yet another genetic freak.
More SDXL experiments…
Aleksei: 8, physically looks to be in his mid-20’s
Octavio: 30
I’m fine writing with just about any age range, though I’ve never written a main character over 45 yet (unless we count non-human characters with longer lifespans).
It’s always variable. Like with Until This World Ends, the character is 40ish-60ish years of age in the front half, and he’s going to be something like 19 on the end.
At the start of my book the ages of the main characters range from 18 to 89 years old. The entire book spans 50 years so… yeah do the math. They age just the way we do. No immortals around.
Here’s what they roughly look like. It’s like a weird medieval Avengers. I used GenAI (Adobe Firefly) and photoshop. They’re all placeholders obviously
I don’t have a specific age group I focus on but I do prefer writing adults.
I lean towards realistic(ish) characters so I’d never write povs of people who’ve lived for hundreds or thousands of years. Only because I wouldn’t know how to write them… like imagine all the knowledge they must have acquired! And I assume they’d be quite apathetic after having witnessed so much.
The characters in my Project Succession, physical ages don’t match their biological ages if that makes sense. Certain races/species are immortal or just a somewhat longer lifespan than humans. Time is really bizarre on Alagossia thanks to the air that everyone breathes and how it makes all the races/species immortal or have an extended lifespan rather than a mortal one. Some characters live through it all while others have not, it does depend on the race and all that jazz.
Yet they aren’t vulnerable and still can die. So, I am doing something, just don’t know what.
I have characters whose ages are all over the place.
TOHS:
Cabal (a dhampir) is about 675
Miranda (his vampire wife) is about 140
Garrett Kelly (another Dhampir) is 260
Then I have my regular age ranges:
Brothers Martin: (Cyborgs)
Steve is currently 50
Tom is currently 48
These two will probably not have long lives due to the incorporation of mechanical parts into their bodies. Though I haven’t decided how short it will cut their lives.
Plague/Michael: (Mutants)
David “Tigershark” Scott 52
Michael is 16
David is a mutant and I know he reaches at least 175 because he cameo’d in TOHS after the bombs fall.
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