Ageless Slumber
A person, or a family related by blood, maybe even an entire culture, where aging, or anything else, be it positive or negative, does not occur during sleep. While sleeping, there are no bodily needs. Illness, injury, healing, and poisons all are halted.
Could be a genetic trait, a blessing/curse, or a desired/afflicted spell effect.
If we go with a single character story idea, let's say he or she is a plain, normal Human, but older than he appears by roughly a 3rd, depending on sleep patterns. Not a huge game changer, but makes the character a bit unique. May or may not be the last of their kind.
For a bit more epic story idea, we could say that in the distant past, a family line learned to use their Ageless Slumber to obtain prominence, and once attained, to keep it. Perhaps the king/queen and their court of family members are purposely placed in to unnaturally long periods of sleep. The crown and their court are only awoken for 3 hours a day, to be made aware of current events and issue resulting edicts, before being returned to their ageless slumber. In this manner, the crown and their court's lives could be extended by more than 500 years. Perhaps to support the crown and court, an entire cadre of elite librarians, scholars and spies gather and maintain sensitive information, and organize that information for quick consumption by the crown and court. Using the crown and court's long memories and experience affords them riches and power, along with some bitter enemies.
It could be that our heroes (story or roleplay) encounter the crown lands just as some of the court finally begin to die, creating a struggle for lines of succession, and talks of open war, unheard of for hundreds of years. Maybe enemies see this as an opportunity for upset, and surviving family members also begin feuding over whether or not to alter the sleep governance to 1 hour a day, which could extend the lives of future Kings and courts up to perhaps 1500 years.

No comments:
Post a Comment