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Of course, having been around for so long, Our Immortality Is Different, and comes in several flavours. These categories are not mutually exclusive; there's plenty of room for overlap.
Contrast [[Immortality Immorality]], [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]], and [[Immortality Begins At Twenty]].
Compare [[Back From the Dead]], [[Death Is Cheap]], and [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]].
See also the [[Sorting Algorithm of Deadness]], [[Immortality Hurts]], [[Immortal Life Is Cheap]], [[Living Forever Is Awesome]], [[Perpetual Motion Monster]] and [[Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration]].
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[[Body Backup Drive]]:
* Giriko, a [[Chainsaw Good|chainsaw demon weapon]] from [[Soul Eater]]. Being an enchanter, he managed to live more than 800 years growing new bodies with his DNA and then transfering his soul to them.
* [[Magnificent Bastard|Emperor Palpatine]] of [[Star Wars]] intended to live forever in this manner, transferring his soul initially to clones of himself grown especially for this purpose. After they were sabotaged, he attempted to take over Anakin Solo, Han and Leia's infant son, but Han shot him before he could perform the transfer, and Jedi Master Empatojayos Brand made a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to hold his soul at bay until it was dragged into dark side hell.
* Anu from [[Empire From the Ashes]] has 6000 {{spoiler|unwilling/unreliable}} accomplices in cryogenic stasis, and whenever his current body (or those of his subordinates) is getting old, has himself brain-transplanted into another. The subordinates have to make do with {{spoiler|abducted humans}}, though. {{spoiler|The displaced brains are incinerated.}}
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* In the [[PPC]], canon characters cannot be genuinely killed by fanfic. They can be made to think they're dead, but only their original author has the power of life and death over them. (Luckily this doesn't apply to fan-created characters, or the PPC's job would be much harder.) This has led to such unpleasantnesses as [[The Simpsons|Snowball II]] surviving being crushed by a car, [[Lord of the Rings|Thranduil]] surviving being boiled alive, disembowelled and beheaded, and [[Redwall|Redtooth]] surviving having a spear forced an impressive distance into his lower intestinal tract.
* Nagato from [[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]] is a "data entity" and she can directly manipulate the physical matter of her body. She is able, for instance, to perfect her eyesight when Kyon suggests she's prettier without her glasses.
* The heroic spirits from [[Fate/Stay Night|Stay Night]] can be killed, but their spirits will remain in existence and can be brought back in a subsequent Grail War.
* Xellos from the anime/manga/novel "[[Slayers]]" only exists truly on the astral plain. His body can be repaired with a thought. Subverted somewhat by the fact that a sufficiently powerful magic spell or weapon can hurt his astral form which tends to transfer to his physical form. There is, in fact, an entire class of spells made specifically to hurt and kill astral beings.
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* The Maiar ([[Big Bad|Sauron]], [[The Mentor|Gandalf]], Saruman) residing in Middle-Earth in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' can create material bodies for themselves, but when these are destroyed they can normally just make a new one, given enough time. That Saruman and Sauron can't is partly a result of the psychological degeneration that comes with a fall from grace.
* The [[Avatar: The Last Airbender|Avatar]] is like this, as each life is a reincarnation of the Avatar Spirit.
* Junior Warrant Oficcer Schrödinger from ''[[Hellsing]]''. His powers and name deriving from the [[wikipedia:
* Raziel from the [[Legacy of Kain]] series. The exact handwave used to sustain his spiritual existence varies from game to game, but in all cases, his primary existence is as a wraith. In the Soul Reaver games, to act in the material realm, he gathers matter around the focal point of a special "portal"; in Defiance, denied that route, he instead learns to occupy corpses and shape them into an image of himself. {{spoiler|The Hylden already know how to do it, and use this route to pursue him in the physical realm.}}
* Cyborg, Hank Henshaw, from Superman. His real form is indestructible energy (he has survived being thrown into a black hole and the explosive death of the Anti Monitor, much to his chagrin). His can rebuild his trademark cybernetic kryptonian form ad infinitum.
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* The [[Bob and George]] webcomic has the two characters mention several times that they can't die because they're [[No Fourth Wall|title characters]].
* Any villain of a [[Villain Based Franchise]] (especially a [[Slasher Film]] franchise) will not stay dead no matter how many times he's killed at the end of the previous movie.
* All the [[8-Bit Theater
* Rincewind in ''[[Discworld]]'', maybe.
** No, as in "The Colour of Magic" it is openly written that the gods of Discworld, who played their strategic board game (where the board was Discworld itself and their figures were the well known Heroes of Discworld) were controlling these heroes, and basically everything, to such an extent that even Rincewind himself realised by the end of the book that someone or something 'must be keeping them alive'; well played, since the happenings were just the descriptions of the gods Lady and Fate battling the longest in the game. When Rincewind and company literally flies out of the disc of the Discworld it is an established fact that Lady, who was a notorious cheater, succeeded in not letting Fate win over her in the game.
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** Who's commonly compared with similarly-aged [[Motorhead|Lemmy]], who scarcely even aged despite an almost equally prodigious drug intake history.
*** Granted, Lemmy's always looked like an old fart, and sounded like one too.
* In Terry Pratchett's ''[[Discworld]]'', History Monks "Sweeper" Lu Tze and the Abbot are both mentioned as being effectively immortal by two different means. The Abbot is continually reincarnated, transferring his memories to a younger body. But Lu Tze just seems to stay as a wiry old man forever.
** Some of the Monks (including Lu-Tze) have the ability of 'circular aging'.
* Alucard from ''[[Hellsing]]''. Being a vampire, he is type V and X; Is immortality takes form of a healing factor, making him a type III and; After {{spoiler|Absorbing Schrödinger's soul}}, he is no longer a type X (as he no longer depends on the souls of his victims) becoming a Type XI instead, as he is now "Everywhere and nowhere".
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*** According to some materials, [[Starfish Alien|ORT]] does not have a form of death that Shiki can percieve and attack. It can still be destroyed, but it won't quite die as we understand it.
* [[Three By Three Eyes|3x3 Eyes]] has the Wu, who are technicaly undead, but act as Type VII with the Sanjiyan who revived them as a [[Soul Jar]]. The Sanjiyan themself fall under Type III but their magic has the [[Weaksauce Weakness|side effect]] of making them vulnerable for several mintues after using it hence the need for immortal bodyguards with a strong interest in keeping them alive.
* [[Moe Anthropomorphism|China]] from [[Axis Powers Hetalia]] is listed in the [[All There in the Manual|author's blog]] as 4000 years old and immortal. He's the only nation listed as such, and the only character to look the same age throughout, from the discovery of Japan (his earliest appearance) to modern day. He's a natural and non-parasitic immortal, but he lacks the invulnerability of a Type I, the conditional clause of the Type II, and the aging and suckiness factor of Type VI. It's considerably less noticable than immortality tends to be, due to the strips' [[Anachronic Order]] and the rest of the cast being [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]].
** This also extends, to a degree, to the other Nations. In addition to being [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]], it's implied that they're regenerative to a point.
* [[Real Life]] example: ''[[wikipedia:Turritopsis nutricula|Turritopsis nutricula]]'' is a species of jellyfish that can revert back to its polyp stage once it becomes sexually mature - it can continually reverse its life cycle, making it technically immortal. In a way similar to [[Merlin Sickness]]
* Another [[Real Life]] example: some American Aspen (''Populus tremuloides'') tree stands (groves) are type II immortal. Aspen forms stands of genetically identical trunks with interconnected roots; some trunks die of old age but the stand itself is type II immortal.
** Olive is the same.
* Ganon from ''[[The Legend of Zelda (video game)|The Legend of Zelda]]'' is both Type VII External and Type I Perfect (In addition to his obvious Joker Immunity), as he can't be killed as long as he holds the Triforce of Power (though he has shown a few signs of slow aging, before he turned from a human to a [[Pig Man]] form). There are also several incarnations of fellow Triforce bearers Link and Princess Zelda, definite cases of [[Legacy Character]] and [[Generation Xerox]] at least, and a few [[Epileptic Trees]] extend this into Type IV Reincarnation Immortality (which would also be Type VII External), but the series has never gone into the details.
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** The recently-completed [[Comic Book Adaptation]] pretty much explicitly defines Fou-lu (and by extension, Ryu) as a Type III especially during the Sonne arc.
** The same game (and manga adaptation) also have Deis as a Type IV/Type XI immortal. {{spoiler|She too is the victim of a botched summoning--only in her case, only the spirit but not the body came across.}}
** For that matter, ''all'' Endless can in fact be considered Type VII immortals as well. {{spoiler|It is stated in the game that the Endless are pulled from another world--often ''not'' voluntarily--and in essence are granted immortality by the process of becoming a [[Physical God]] via summoning.}}
* Dr. Bright of the [[SCP Foundation]] is bound to an amulet that makes him a cocktail of Types IV, VII, and IX.
** [[SCP Foundation]]-[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-682 682] [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Hard To Kill Lizard]]. They can contain it only by keeping it in a badly damaged state. The Foundation is actively trying to find a way to kill it, including using other SCPs, which actually results in more than one [[Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny]], as anything lethal will sooner or later be sent against it. At this point they've tried:
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* Vampires in ''[[Castlevania]]'', especially Dracula, have a mixture of Type III and Type X. They can drink the blood of mortals to regain strength and youth, but vampires also seems to have the common trait of being able to automatically resurrect. For Dracula himself, it generally takes 100 years or so, but he also is often resurrected by outside forces loyal to him. This is basically why the Belmonts and the other good guys have to kill him over and over again... Well, until 1999, when the good guys finally had the opportunity to kill him off for good, and thanks to Julius Belmont, they succeeded. However, Dracula [[Castlevania Sorrow|still managed to reincarnate, thankfully, as a good guy, this time.]]
* The Nameless One from ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' is a combination of types III and {{spoiler|IV. Whenever he "dies", someone else dies in his place and he comes back a while later.}}
* Immortals from ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' are essentially type I but incorporate type IV in the sense that they choose to die whenever they think they have become too powerful in order to counteract [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]]. When they do this they pretty much start life again from scratch with only their basic nature, base power and their previous life's memories rendered as mere second hand knowledge.
** Aberrations on the other hand are magic users who went the type IX or type X route intentionally through magic in order to achieve immortality.
** Magus is a special case in that he is effectively type XI except he is stuck on the spiritual plane and can interact only with immortals and aberrations in a meaningful way although he can amplify the emotions of mortals.
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