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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|'''Illyria:''' I've nowhere to go. My kingdom is long dead. Long dead. There's so much I don't understand. I've become overwhelmed. I'm unsure of my place.
'''Wesley:''' Your place is with the rest of your people: Dead and turned to ash.
'''Illyria:''' Perhaps... but I exist here. I must learn to walk in this world.|''[[
Cities, countries, even civilizations rise and fall through the ocean of time, becoming [[The Time of Myths|myths]] in the millennia that follow. All their triumphs and failures becoming little more than gravel and sand beneath our feet. There is one bright spot to this though, in the form of a surviving Living Relic. Somehow, a human, computer AI, robot, or immortal homunculus has managed to survive the destruction of their home and lived to tell the tale.
Though their existence can be due to a fluke of fate, they may represent an attempt to [[Fling a Light Into
Their role in a story is likely that of [[Mr. Exposition|giving exposition]] to heroes who are anywhere between months to thousands of years [[Late to
Rarely, the living relic has managed to join and live among normal human civilization (or [[
[[Sub
{{examples
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* The [[Hologram]] of Queen Serenity in ''[[Sailor Moon]]''.
* {{spoiler|Hohenheim}} in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]''.
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* Viral in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' was supposed to be this and carry a tale of victory forever after being granted immortality by Lordgenome, but victory for the beastmen there was not, presumably he becomes a Living Relic
* Karla, from ''[[Record of Lodoss War]]'' is this. She hails from Kastuul, an ancient kingdom of sorcery which is implied to have once been the capital of Lodoss itself. A powerful sorceress in her own right, she survived the destruction of the magic city by infusing a mystic circlet with her soul, retaining all her memories and powers as the circlet possesses the bodies of numerous hosts over the subsequent 500 years.
* ''[[End of Evangelion]]'' reveals in the penultimate scene that this was Unit 01's true purpose: since humans can't exist anywhere but [[Physical God|Eva]]s can, [[Sealed Good in
== Comic Books ==
* In the noncanonical ''[[
* The Vision in the [[Ultimate Marvel]] line. Created millions of years ago by an alien race that saw [[Planet Eater|Gah Lak Tus]] coming for them, <s>he</s> [[Gender Flip|she]] was sent out at first as just a time capsule to record the stories of Gah Lak Tus' billions of victims. [[Humans Are Special|After stopping on Earth]], though, her mission changed to telling other people how to fight Gah Lak Tus.
* In addition, [[Depending
* [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]]. He was frozen just before the end of World War II and was revived. As the years unfold and [[Comic Book Time]] has to be applied, he seems like more and more of a relic. At first, he was revived in 1962, less than twenty years after the war ended. Since roughly ten years have supposedly past, the unofficial [[Retcon]] is that he was revived in [[The Nineties]], which would mean he was frozen for about sixty years.
** The [[Ultimate Marvel]] version of Cap was revived in the 2000's, which would be even more jarring for someone frozen during the war.
* [[Vandal Savage]], an immortal caveman.
== Film ==
* Aughra in ''[[The Dark Crystal]]'' is the only surviving witness to the breaking of the Crystal and the creation of the Mystics/Uru and Skeksis. This is stated more explicitly in the novelization than the film.
* Leeloo in the ''[[The Fifth Element]]'' is a "living weapon" whose existence is integral to averting [[The End of the World
* This was done in ''[[The Fountain]]'', where a man who obtains some sort of immortality is the last man in existence and floats about in space all alone.
* The elves in ''[[Hellboy (
* "Old Man" in ''[[Logan's Run]]'' is a rare example of a Living Relic who is neither immortal nor was alive in the time before civilization collapsed. He's the son of some of the last humans to live and love naturally.
* The VR librarian in the 2002 ''[[The Time Machine]]''.
* As mentioned above the [[Captain America:
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* Belgarath and most of the other surviving Disciples of Aldur in the ''[[Belgariad]].'' The only ones other than the Gods who were personally present at the Cracking of the World.
* Peot, the Tar-Aiym Guardian from the [[Alan Dean Foster]] novel ''[[Humanx Commonwealth|Bloodhype]]'', was assigned by his race to the lonely task of guarding all civilization against [[Eldritch Abomination|the Vom]], only to witness his people wiping themselves out in a cataclysmic interstellar war. Five hundred thousand years later, he awakens to find himself the [[Last of His Kind]] and facing a twilight struggle against the very same Vom. It's no wonder that, after the battle is finally won, he elects to commit suicide.
* Human soldiers who survive their tours in ''[[The Forever War]]'' become this. Time dilation resulting from faster-than-light travel means that after just a handful of years fighting the Taurans, they return home to find that in the real-time centuries that have passed the culture that birthed them has collapsed and made way for a new and completely alien one.
* [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|The Forsaken]] from the [[Wheel of Time]] series can qualify as this, as they were [[Sealed Evil in
* [[H. Rider Haggard]]'s ''[[
* Robert E. Howard's [[Conan the Barbarian]] has a knack for often running into this trope.
* Any High Elf still in Middle Earth in the Third Age of [[
* Daetrin Haal of ''[[
* ''[[Dark Reflections Trilogy]]'' has a few characters who [[Really 700 Years Old|remembers the civilization of ancient Egypt]], but most prominent example may be {{spoiler|The Flowing Queen herself}}, who lived in the age when gods walked the Earth. She was stated to be much older than any form of life in the sea, so this borders on a [[Time Abyss]].
* Antrax, the titular [[Big Bad]] of the second book of ''[[The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara]]'', is {{spoiler|a [[
== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Star Trek:
* In ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' a backup copy of The Doctor becomes this to the two species of a planet centuries after Voyager intervened in their history. The crew stopped a "civil war" between both species, and his backup fell onto the planet, where he was reactivated and started contradicting their incomplete and revisionist vision of the incident which painted Voyager and him as [[Complete Monster
* Most everyone in ''[[
* Millennia past, Illyria from ''[[
* Lorien in ''[[
* The Doctor in ''[[
* In ''[[Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger]]'' the Rangers themselves are living relics.
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** The Rachni Queen encountered during the first game also counts. She remembers the fall of her race and was their last hope for survival. Her drones have been severed from her and driven insane; she remains the last hope of the Rachni, and you get to choose.
** Now in the upcoming [[Mass Effect 3]], {{spoiler|You get to thaw out a Prothean warrior who then follows your cause in a day-one DLC.}}
* In ''[[Morrowind]]'' there a single remaining member of the Dwemer race living in the basement of a 4000 year old wizard. Sadly, he can't explain what happened to the other Dwemer when they all vanished thousands of years ago.
* In [[Endless Ocean Blue World]], you can find 3 extinct creatures, including one distinctively called "Living Fossil", but most notably, a plesiosaur.
* The Weapons Master in [[
* {{spoiler|Elh and Béluga}} are the last two Paladins in ''[[Solatorobo]]''. Their home was destroyed 300 years ago, and while they seem to fit in fairly well with present-day people (no mentions of ancient clothes or [[Ye Olde
* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series has several characters that serve as living remnants of pre-nuclear war America. Besides a number of pre-war [[Our Zombies Are Different|Ghouls]], prominent examples include President Eden, Mr. House, ZAX and SKYNET, the Think Tank, and Professor Calvert, all of whom are either sentient computers or [[
* ''[[
* ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* The Xyber 9 from ''[[Xyber 9: New Dawn]].''
* The Scarecrow and the Heart of Tarkon from ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' has two for the price of one: [[Kid Hero|Aang]] is the last Airbender, and his [[Cool Pet|sky bison]] Appa is the last of his species, who were the original Airbenders.
** Aang's even referred to as a "Living relic" by Professor Zei in The Library.
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== Real Life ==
* ''[
* The AOL operating system.
* Most bacteria. Although the typical lifespan of a single bacterium is only a few hours old, their species (every single one of them) are actually all 3 billion years old! (almost as old as the Earth itself) They also happen to be the only living things that never became or can never become extinct (natural extinction events, that is, some harmful microbes were intentionally wiped out by new medical technology recently). In fact, the only thing that can truly wipe out bacteria is a dying Sun, which right now is about halfway through its life. As a result, bacteria may eventually outlive many modern plants and animals, including humanity
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[[Category:Sealed Index in A Can]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:This Index Will Live Forever]]
[[Category:Living Relic]]
[[Category:
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