Senescence

Senescence is a term that describes a living thing's ability to age and die. The sentient, self-aware races on Palboria are classified using three different categories of senescence.

1. Can the being age? The ability to live indefinitely without showing signs of aging is called agelessness. Some ageless races are created into their final form, while others are born and go through a maturing process from child form to adult form. Maturation is not considered when measuring senescence, only the ability to diminish by aging into an elder form.

2. Can the being die naturally? The ability to live without ever reaching a terminal state is called immortality. In some cases, an immortal's life span is tied to various forms of power. Such power can wane over time, resulting in a reduced state of being, but a true immortal will never reduce to the point of physical death.

3. Can the being's life be interrupted by outside forces? Beings that cannot be killed are said to be invulnerable. This state applies only to physical form. Discussing vulnerability as far as Gods and other spiritual beings can be tricky, as such beings often reside in far away realms or other planes of existence, tethering only a portion of themselves to other worlds such as Palboria. In this state, these beings are, technically, invulnerable, as no resident of Palboria can reach them. However, for purposes of classification, if the tether of a multi-planar beings can be destroyed, that is considered vulnerability.

Classifications of Senescence on Palboria

Gods

The gods are ageless and immortal. No physical weapon can harm them or their avatars, regardless of how little power they have on Palboria. Although the gods are ageless, a god who loses power may appear to age; this effect is purely an affectation and will almost always reverse the instant that god regains even a small portion of power. While all gods and their avatars are invulnerable, a particularly powerful attack by another god or from a source of great magic can destroy a god's tether, cutting that god from Palboria completely. The gods of Palboria have struck a pact that none will directly injure another in such a fashion (It is worth noting that Seolous was not present when this agreement was struck).

Eternals

An eternal is a being who is at once ageless, immortal, and invulnerable. The gods can be said to be Eternals, however the term is usually meant to identify non-deities, beings who have the eternal life of gods but do not have their powers. The Titans are a race of Eternals.

While it still takes great magical effort to destroy an Eternal, the difference between Eternals and gods is that Eternals do not have a form in another realm to return to.

Elder

The term The Elder races applies only to those ancient races, brought to Palboria from other realms, who are immortal. These races are powerful and, in the case of the Sylvan Elves , ageless. They are not, however, invulnerable. The Druvoy/Dwarves are also not ageless.

Mortals

A mortal race is one that will age and die naturally, if not killed beforehand. All of the demi-titan races are mortal.

Others

There are, as one would expect in a world with such powerful magics, beings who have achieved unnaturally long life. The levels of agelessness and invulnerability would be expected to change depending on origin, however there are few such beings who have been studied enough to exist in texts, so no comparison has been done between them. For example, the dragon Mashkasha is mentioned in texts from several human ages.

Destruction

Regardless of senescence, anything that exists can still be destroyed by magical means. Even gods can be unmade by a powerful enough magic, although it is beyond the limits of understanding to know if this unmaking applies only to the god's avatar or if the gods themselves are able to be unmade.