One Hundred Fantasy Clichés That Really Need To Rest In Peace

#72: All Supernatural Creatures Are Immortal

  In the realms of fantasy literature, the supernatural have almost always been connected together with one common trait; immortality.  Suddenly becoming a shape shifting humanoid wolf or a blood thirsty creature of the night in most literature means immortality towards the subject.  This means either being frozen at the age of transformation or stopping the aging process completely at adulthood.  Immortality for these supernatural creatures by many authors has been seen as more of a curse than a blessing.  They use this fact to create internal conflict inside the character in process of turning into such a creature.  Therefore, the reader can stay engaged with the character in question.  From classics such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire, and even the highly controversial Twilight series books by Stephanie Meyer, the idea has remained the same for some of the most iconic horror creatures.  Old age is impossible with these new forms.

  At least, that is the case with most supernatural creatures in fantasy literature.  In truth, mythology weaves a different tale for creatures such as the mighty werewolf or the undead vampire.  From word of mouth in Europe, there exists vampires and werewolves that have all the classic traits we connect them with, excluding immortality.  A European werewolf lives up to three hundred years old in this incarnations, with old age starting to appear at the age of two hundred fifty years of age.  Vampires on the other hand live an extra two hundred years to the ripe old age of five hundred years old.  After that, both creatures end up naturally passing away.  This strange truth is one that debunks what people commonly know about supernatural creatures.  Immortality is not the main trait in these dark creatures.  Instead, they age just like any normal person.

The true highlight of these scary fantasy creatures has been always to create incarnations of our own fears. Vampires were created out of our fear for unexplained killings. Werewolves can into the light from diseases such as rabies that made the human host unstable. Wicked witches were born from the fear of what lies beyond our safe boundaries at home. Even dragons can be explained from early fossil findings which seemed to depict scary reptilian monsters. One simple trait such as immortality does not sum up the lure we have to these dark creatures fully.

  Remember when your childhoods were possibly ruined when I talked about trows, evil fairies that commonly existed in mythology, back two parts ago? Remember how I said back there that having this very unused variant of fairies exist alongside modern kindly fairies in fantasy stories was the right call to debunk the classic cherub version we see a lot in the media today? The same thing can be applied to immortal and aging supernatural creatures. Just because one type exists dominantly does not mean the other should be overshadowed. Originality stems from questioning certain tropes in fiction, such as the always immortal supernatural creature. It also prevents fellow writers from falling into cliché alley by copying such accepted tropes.

A little extra trivia about fantasy creatures has never hurt anybody. These extra facts help to create the diverse, imaginative settings that are the main goal of all fantasy writers. A bit of research about mythology or the well known Grim Fairytales can expand your creativity to impressive results.