How old is Secret?
- Thread starter Burpcycle
- Start date
Jukashi
Four Thousand Club
Secret was 16 when the comic began and is 17 now. The current year in the comic is five years after the default setting, or ten years after the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress.
Joe_Mello
Junior Member
Ledaal Kajiri
Two Thousand Club
Time still passes for them. They just don't physically get any older, nor die of old age. I'm sure she still thinks of herself as being the older age, at this point. She hasn't been immortal THAT long.
brilliantlight
New Member
Mentally she is older. She may have stopped physically aging but she still has learned things. That hasn't stopped.
Aasharu
Member
How old does she appear to be?
brilliantlight
New Member
In her teens someplace. Probably 15 or 16 as she seems to have been exalted a very short time.
Kyeudo
One Thousand Club
Remember that human aging in Creation is adjusted to account for this. She's still 17.
Aging is based upon the division of cells in the body and how telomeres fray when this occurs. The increasing of strength has to do with making more muscle cells. Which requires dividing old ones. Which requires aging. Heck, even healing naturally requires the division of cells to repair the body. So how does this work with eternal youth?
Dragonmystic
Junior Member
Magic Sciencewelknair said:
Logically, Abyssal telomeres would not fray, because of the unchangingness of death. A dead person's telomeres don't fray, and thus, neither do an Abyssal's.
Additionally, the telomeres of other kinds of exalted would wear away much more slowly.
Why does all this happen?
Magic science.
Additionally, the telomeres of other kinds of exalted would wear away much more slowly.
Why does all this happen?
Magic science.
Death is unchanging, but you can build muscle, learn new things, and grow in power? I wouldn't say that Secret is unchanging...
A dead person's telomeres don't fray. They decay. They don't fray because the person's body is no longer renewing itself, thus leaving it susceptible to decay and rot.
A dead person's telomeres don't fray. They decay. They don't fray because the person's body is no longer renewing itself, thus leaving it susceptible to decay and rot.
ShadowDragon8685
Elder Member
Magic Science, dammit! >
In a world where three motes can dodge the Apocalypse, you're worried about Secret's apparent age?!
In a world where three motes can dodge the Apocalypse, you're worried about Secret's apparent age?!
Synapse
Junior Member
She's NOT dead. Abyssals are still alive and die when they are killed.
Humans in Creation age in 1 creation year about as much as real life humans age in 1 earth year.
As Jukashi said, she's currently 17. Either she looks that or she looks 15~, which is how old she was when she Exalted.
Humans in Creation age in 1 creation year about as much as real life humans age in 1 earth year.
As Jukashi said, she's currently 17. Either she looks that or she looks 15~, which is how old she was when she Exalted.
Thanqol
Elder Member
Here's how Exalted works:welknair said:
Diseases are actually the displeasure of the gods.
Cells are not the basic building blocks of life. Motes of Essence are.
People are healthy because they have sufficient Wood essence, and grow old as their wood essence congeals into Earth essence. Abyssals have neither and therefore do not age.
Crasical
Member
Is this "I NEED SCIENCE AND HARD DATA" or "Oh god secret so hot, is she legal so I may fantasize"?welknair said:
And if the former, Why?
Joe_Mello
Junior Member
The bit about Essence is in the core book. All life--past, present, and future--has Essence. What type of Essence and how much you can access determines your "race" in Creation. (tl;dr: Magic Science. No, really.)welknair said:
Now, there's nothing wrong with wanting to stick with the script, but RAW can't fill in all the gaps. If you need everything spelled out, you're better off playing something like FATAL, but with less rape.
Moonstone Spider
Junior Member
Well to be sure, there's more to it than just the fraying of telomeres. Some events in aging are specifically triggered, for instance the sudden growth spurts, rapid growth of new facial and pubic hair, and surly attitudes of young teenagers can all be traced to immense quantities of, basically, steroids being dumped into them by the body in preparation for turning them kids into pack members fit to go hunt a mammoth. Sadly the system doesn't work as well in modern life. I would guess Secret's aging hormones are largely shut down, albeit at least the hormones that let her get a crush seem to still be working so it's not a total animated corpse routine.welknair said:
Quchu
One Thousand Club
I think the preferred stance is that Abyssals are neither dead nor alive. They do being-alive things like dying when killed (inb4 Shirou) and wanting to eat. Though, of course, Essence circumvents most of that but besides. On the other hand they also do being-dead things like having the fate of a dead man and not making more life (as far as I know -- they are sterile if you discount Charms and such... I think).Synapse said:
Regardless, the best statement about Abyssal's existence as far as life/death is concerned is either they are Abyssal or they are weirdly Exalted.
Synapse
Junior Member
Well, who isn't weird in Exalted?
My Cecelyne infernal is based on Yuuko and she's the normal one in the group...
The whole thing about abyssals and being dead is that they are attuned to a different type of essence. I don't know if that qualifies them as "sometimes they are not exactly reacting like live people". I do recall the book mentioning that they are very much alive though. Something about all bits of their souls still being in their place and their body never actually dieing.
My Cecelyne infernal is based on Yuuko and she's the normal one in the group...
The whole thing about abyssals and being dead is that they are attuned to a different type of essence. I don't know if that qualifies them as "sometimes they are not exactly reacting like live people". I do recall the book mentioning that they are very much alive though. Something about all bits of their souls still being in their place and their body never actually dieing.