: Well, remember that the Fallen are not Undead. I think
: that the difference is between the magics of light and
: dark. Light magics can give longevity and dark magics
: give true immortality, exempting a knife in the back
: and that sort of thing.
Certain Fallen are Undead, or at least Un-something. Shades are, of course, and Soulblighter's sufficiently Un to be vulnerable to healing. Myth II Shiver's described in GURPS as possibly falling in the Undead class, and to judge from her TFL appearance she may have been Undead then as well. As for the Watcher, I could definitely see a necromancer of his stature preferring to exist as one of the walking dead he finds so interesting. But, again, we can't check for rotting eyeballs under his helmet, so who knows?
Heron Guard magic is as Light as can be, and they're truly immortal (or so it seems.) Myrdred, conversely, looks to possess longevity rather than solid immortality, even after several centuries of Dark alignment. So I don't think Light vs. Dark is a big issue here.
Way I see it, a few beings like the Trow simply don't have any aging mechanism built in. Certain humans have such powerful innate recuperative abilities that, when sent into overdrive by root rituals, they can neutralize the aging mechanisms. More ordinary humans can't do this, but they can use archmage-level magics to slow the functional aspects of aging to a crawl. Finally, if you want to be truly immortal and you don't have the endurance of a Heron, you have to bite the bullet and take on an Unliving form.
--SiliconDream
