History Main / CastFromLifespan

* One of WesternAnimation/{{Birdman}}'s enemies (Speed Demon) unwittingly sped up his aging process by overusing his superspeed. The medics who examined him afterwards managed to reduce his aging to a normal pace but were unable to undo the extra aging.

* The [[WitchSpecies Qirsi]] from the ''Winds of the Forelands'' are shorter-lived than the non-magical Eandi because their magic burns up their life force.

* In ''LightNovel/TheHiddenDungeonOnlyICouldEnter'', Luna possesses an ability that allows her to dispel curses, but it brings her closer to death with every use in direct proportion to the strength of the curse being lifted.

* This trope is foundational to the ''Literature/MagisterTrilogy''. Whenever anyone casts a spell, it costs them part of their allotted lifespan, and human society is built upon the sacrifices of witches. Magisters seem to be able to circumvent this law and do any magic without ever paying for it, but even they are afraid of what would happen if the secret behind their power ever got out.

* In Brandon Sanderson's ''Infinity Blade'' series, the healing rings speed up the body's natural healing processes, aging you about six months with each use. Also provides the RequiredSecondaryPower of [[BadassBeard instant beard growth]].

-> '''Walt Stone:''' ''"Sadie, I’ve thought of that. I’ve thought of everything. The curse can’t be cured. It can only be slowed down if…if I avoid magic. That’s why I got into talismans and amulets. They store magic in advance, so they don’t require as much from the user. But it’s only helped a little bit. I was born to do magic, so the curse progresses in me no matter what I do. Some days it’s not so bad. Some days my whole body is in pain. When I do magic, it gets worse."''
-> '''Sadie Kane:''' ''"And the more you do...?"''
-> '''Walt Stone:''' ''"...The faster I die."''
--> -''[[Literature/TheKaneChronicles The Kane Chronicles]]'', about Walt Stone's Curse of [[{{UsefulNotes/Tutankhamun}} King Tut]] and how him using magic would hasten his expiration date

* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'': Darkspawn's blood is poisonous. [[spoiler:And Grey Wardens drink it. So, if you managed to survive the Joining, you've got no more than 30 years to live.]] ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' ''Legacy'' reveals that it's actually much worse than mere poison. [[spoiler:Ingesting Darkspawn blood always leads to either death or becoming a ghoul. The Wardens' version, if it doesn't kill the recipient immediately, merely delays the transformation by a few decades. Surviving the Joining means you will one day become a willing slave to the Darkspawn.]]
** Also, [[TheMedic Wynne]] [[spoiler:is dead. She was brought to life by a spirit of the Fade, and using her Spirit Vessel ability shortens her lifespan each time. She doesn't seem to care, though, because she is already very old and her bonus lifespan is going to be short]].
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' applies this to a ''stat-boost''. The Elixir of Heroism ages the drinker, "but with age comes wisdom" - you apparently get the experience of fights you ''would'' have had in that time, without the trouble of actually doing it.

* In the ''Comicbook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}}'', Kid Psycho could project a forcefield at the cost of one year of his life.

* ''[[http://goldmage.elcenia.com/ Goldmage]]'' is based on the existence of various coloured mages with potent abilities but debilitating costs. The eponymous goldmages can MoveInTheFrozenTime or even jump back in time, but rapidly expend their own lifespan to do it, an hour for every frozen second, and vastly more as long as multiple copies of them exist. They still look normal afterward, but will eventually drop dead when their time is up.

* Goldmages in ''Literature/{{Goldmage}}''. Other types of mages have different prices, linked to what their abilities are; whitemages, who cure people, become sickly, redmages lose their memories and ability to form memories as their brains become full of the people they Know, etc.

--> -''[[Literature/TheKaneChronicles The Kane Chronicles]]'', about Walt Stone's Curse of [[UsefulNotes/Tutankhamun King Tut]] and how him using magic would hasten his expiration date

--> -''[[Literature/TheKaneChronicles The Kane Chronicles]]'', about Walt Stone's Curse of King Tut and how him using magic would hasten his expiration date

-> 'Walt Stone:' ''"Sadie, I’ve thought of that. I’ve thought of everything. The curse can’t be cured. It can only be slowed down if…if I avoid magic. That’s why I got into talismans and amulets. They store magic in advance, so they don’t require as much from the user. But it’s only helped a little bit. I was born to do magic, so the curse progresses in me no matter what I do. Some days it’s not so bad. Some days my whole body is in pain. When I do magic, it gets worse."''
-> 'Sadie Kane:' ''"And the more you do...?"''
-> 'Walt Stone:' ''"...The faster I die."''

* ''Manga/DGrayMan'': The parasitic-type exorcist suffer this because their weapon is fused with their organism. So every time they fight, this uses their life energy and reduce their lifespan.

* ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'': Chrono is powered by Rosette's LifeEnergy, shortening her lifespan. Early on, she comments that she probably won't make it to age 30. [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding It leads to her dying at the end of the anime. In the manga, it leads to her becoming an]] IllGirl [[DownerEnding by the end, and she dies at age 24.]]]]

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Ed once used his own soul as a Philosopher's Stone, [[spoiler: a huge energy source, itself made of souls,]] to heal himself from mortal wounds, shortening his lifespan in process. Bleeding out from a massive abdominal wound would of course have shortened his lifespan a lot faster, so it seems like a good trade-off... except that one of Ed's new allies finds an ''actual'' Philosopher's Stone 30 feet away not 5 minutes later. Given Ed's opinion of the Philosopher's Stone creation process, it's unlikely he would've used it even if they'd found it sooner.

* Parodied in ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'' with Keima's [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique "God of Conquest Mode,"]] which allows him to play several {{Dating Sim}}s simultaneously, but supposedly uses up 3 years of his life for every hour he uses it, or at least that's how you'll feel. In the end the only real consequence is passing out and hallucinating.

** Angel's [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Angel Magic]] works by creating golden coins, each one representing a portion of her lifespan and a cost of "10". By creating and using a certain number of coins and cost, she can [[SummonMagic summon angels]] to fight on her behalf, but not only does this drain her lifespan with each use, if they're destroyed she suffers [[AgonyBeam extreme pain]]. She doesn't care at first, [[DeathSeeker and even relishes the idea of someday "dying and becoming an angel in Heaven"]], but overuse of her Magic and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech Gray calling her out on her death wish and desire to throw her life]] eventually turns her "angels" into {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that try to consume her and Gray, and she's only saved by Gray destroying them and another ally "refunding" her lifespan. She starts being more careful after that, and even seemingly figures out how to summon angels without using the coins.

* In the manga ''Manga/MagicalGirlSite,'' whenever a magical girl uses her stick, her lifespan is shortened. As such, whenever a character goes overboard with their stick, expect a rather messy PsychicNosebleed to occur. One of teh magical girls has used her powers so much, she has the internal organs of a ''70-year-old!''

* In the ComicBook/{{Shadowpact}} books, Enchantress is mentioned using a spell that takes a year off her life to keep her team's leader Nightmaster alive for either another hour or another day. However, its also mentioned that she's supposed to live for centuries like a lot of other magic users in the Franchise/DCUniverse so she probably doesn't mind nearly as much as a normal person would

* Used in a particularly barmy (probably Italian[[note]]This is based on the Finnish translation, but since those particular translations are pretty decent, it can't have made any more sense to begin with. Less is possible.[[/note]]) [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]] story. Let's see... Scrooge finds out that if you travel to the centre of the Earth (beware the giant snails!), you'll find a smaller Earth whence all time originates, and there the keepers of time can give you the key to time, which enables you to operate on all time zones at once. (No-one knows what that's supposed to mean, not even after he starts doing it, but it's the key to making boatloads of money.) But they also give him twenty-four negative briefcases. Those vanish, but they're still with him, much like the key is never shown to be an item but just is in his pocket. Anywho, it turns out that in doing whatever he's doing with the "key", he's also consuming his own time twenty-four times faster. Not that it's very relevant since very shortly he would have been crushed by the weight of the briefcases anyway, whatever that means. Um. Got it?

* Inverted by Number Five from ''ComicBook/TheUmbrellaAcademy'' when travelling back in time for the first time turned him from an old man into a 10 year old boy. He later refuses to use his power again for fear of de-aging to infancy.

* In ''Film/{{Clockstoppers}}'', a Hypertime watch works by rendering someone's molecules into a hyper-accelerated state, allowing them perceive the world as if time is standing still. Unfortunately, this eventually causes users to suffer from rapid aging as a side-effect. The villains plan to counteract this is to kidnap scientists and force them to work on a de-aging device. As extra incentive to succeed, they're forced to work on this device whilst ''in'' Hypertime.

** In ''The Ring of Solomon'', the titular Ring of Solomon is essentially this. Touching the ring brings forth a multitude of spirits, while twisting it upon the finger calls a spirit of unparalleled power. However, even just ''wearing'' the ring causes the owner immense pain and every use ages the wearer a little, sapping their life energies.

* In Leah Cutter's ''Paper Mage'', the heroine is horrified that a fellow mage won't help his home city without a huge payment. He explains to her that unlike her magic, his comes off his lifespan, and the spell that would be required in this case is powerful enough to cost him dearly.

* The ''Literature/RiversOfLondon'' series has an instance of WizardsLiveLonger[=/=]MerlinSickness, but for most magic users it's shown if you try to do a spell that is excessively powerful, or get so addicted to magic that you are constantly doing spells, it can kill you. Magic burns the connections in your brain cells out over time and can, in some cases, lead to brain haemorrhages, so it's best to avoid too much build up. People who have spells done to them can also succumb to the same effect of magic as well, so it's not only the casters at risk.

* In Dutch author Creator/TaisTeng's book ''Voorbij de Zerken'' (Beyond the Grave), the Eye of Tiamat functions as a CrystalBall, giving its user the ability to look anywhere in the universe, but at the cost of their lifespan. The villain forces one of the main character's teachers to use it until she drops dead, and later has her use it as well, causing her to [[OvernightAgeUp age overnight from a teenager into a young adult]].

* The [[WitchSpecies Qirsi]] from the ''Winds of the Forelands'' are shorter lived than the non-magical Eandi because their magic burns up their life-force.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': This happens to Cordelia Chase, after she took on Doyle's visions. Humans aren't strong enough to handle the visions, and they began to cause her extensive brain damage to the extent that she chose to become a half-demon to survive and keep them.

* Iron-Bound Elves in ''TabletopGame/WickedFantasy'' have the ability to sacrifice some of their lifespans to enhance various abilities, making them, at the least, more likely to succeed at attack rolls, skill checks or ability checks. As the process of becoming Iron-Bound cuts an elf's normal lifespan from "tens of thousands of years" to about "one to twelve years" in and of itself, and is typically the result of the elf being forcibly enslaved by a (usually human) master, most don't consider the sacrifice to be all that big a deal.

* In ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'', use of the unsealed [[AncestralWeapon Vampire]] [[WhipItGood Killer]] by someone who is not a direct descendant of the [[BadassFamily Belmont clan]] will shorten their life. In the case of [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines John Morris]], this resulted [[spoiler:in his wounds from his battle with {{Dracula}} not healing, culminating with his premature death. This trope is the entire reason his teaches his son Jonathan how to fight ''without'' the use of the Vampire Killer and refuses to tell him the means of how to unlock the whip's true power--[[MagicKnight the Lecarde family]]. ([[WellDoneSonGuy Jonathan is resentful of this at first]], [[CharacterDevelopment but comes to respect his old man's choice by the time of]] TheReveal).]] This is GameplayAndStorySegregation in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin Portrait of Ruin]]'', since the effects of such are well beyond the game's timespan.

* MMORPG ''A Tale in the Desert'' had (has?) Speed of the Serpent, a potion that let you teleport for a certain amount of distance. Want more teleportation? Drink more! The downside is that it is poisonous. The antidote is not especially difficult or expensive, but you must remember to take it every 30 days after your first drink or else your character dies. Subtract one day from your time limit for every successive Serpent potion. There is no respawning in ''A Tale in the Desert''.
* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'' has more powerful spells and effects aging characters. This can be reversed except for some of the most powerful spells and effects, such as miracle or a ghost's attack, which increase your age permanently.

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' [[spoiler:Lysithea and Edelgard have two Crests due to experiments carried out by those who slither in the dark, which grant them incredible magical power and strength respectively. However, their lifespans are drastically reduced as the body simply can't handle that much power. In several of their endings they manage to find a way to remove the extra Crests and in doing so reclaim their lost time, but in others they do indeed die young.]]

* Attempted in ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater''. Red Mage casts several Haste spells on a bone dragon in the hopes that it's lifespan will be greatly accelerated until it dies... even though he knows it doesn't work that way, he just wanted to see if it could work. You honestly can't blame Black Mage for trying to shank him right after.

* Mozenrath from ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'' sacrificed two things for his magical gauntlet. The immediate price was the flesh from his right hand. In the last episode starring him as the villain it's revealed that it also drained his life force and he doesn't have much longer to live. He tries and nearly succeeds in performing a GrandTheftMe on Aladdin in a bid to cheat death, and is last seen floating away in a balloon conjured by Genie without his gauntlet.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'', it's revealed that former Guardians who use their elemental powers without being connected to the Heart of Candracar ends up draining from their own life force. It probably explains why Yan Lin, Kadma and Halinor still look youthful in their old age where Nerissa was withered and deformed. Cassidy doesn't count as she was dead.

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'': The human villain Nanosec found himself at the same situation of the above mentioned Speed Demon. Fortunately for him, he teamed up with and [[UnholyMatrimony started dating]] the villainess Slo-Mo, who could use her time-manipulation to reverse his aging.

* In the manga ''Manga/MagicalGirlSite,'' whenever a magical girl uses her stick, her lifespan is shortened. As such, whenever a character goes overboard with their stick, expect a rather messy PsychicNosebleed to occur.

* In Marvel's Mystery Men limited series (set in the 1930s, with a distinct period feel to it), the hero Achilles loses a year of his life for every day he uses his powers. On the other hand, he regains a year of life for every person he kills as Achilles. His fights thus tend to be bloodbaths.
* The lead character in ''[[SubHuman SubHuman]]'' doubles up her life energy every second, giving her roughly twice human capacity in strength, speed, etc., at the cost of half a normal human's lifespan. [[spoiler: The villain in the book has the same deal, but is trying to avoid the cost.]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesRingOfFates'' does this. Whenever twins Yuri and Chelinka do their weird... glowy... thingy without the help of the other, Chelinka gradually loses her soul while Yuri's lifespan is shortened drastically, [[spoiler:leading to his near-death at the end of the game and prompting a HeroicSacrifice from Chelinka]]. This gets a CallBack in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasyOperaOmnia''; if Yuri tries to perform "Rela Crystal" without first triggering the "Chelinka's Prayer" ability, he takes a significant HP hit.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' character Sylphie is a [[WhiteMage Conjurer]] who is gifted in healing magic. [[spoiler:However, because she refuses to learn about nature, and thus cannot draw upon the boundless energy of the world itself, her healing magic is instead cast from her ''own'' life force, in effect shortening her lifespan significantly. It's also revealed that this was how her mother died.]]
** Also in ''Final Fantasy XIV'', after the events of ''A Realm Reborn'', it turns out that [[spoiler:Y'shtola was trapped in the Lifestream. While it seems at first that the rescue effort has gone off without any more hitches than usual, it turns out that she's slowly being drained of Aether - and was furthermore blinded, so every time she tries to cast magic or even ''see'', she's bringing herself closer to death.]]
** From the same game, Alisaie TookALevelInBadass by [[spoiler:summoning a sword of light and taking up a Gladiator class style. However, because the weapon is made of aether, it ran the risk of doing this trope towards Alisaie had she tried to cast spells. Because of this, Urianger creates a special rapier and focus for her, shifting her to the Red Mage job, ultimately subverting this trope.]]
** The Black Mage job has the Transpose ability that sacrifices some of the user's HP in exchange for restoring a bit of MP. If the player's HP is too low, the skill can't be used.
* This is basically what [[spoiler:Galuf]] does in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV''. As [[spoiler:he keeps fighting Exdeath]] while already in KO status, he winds up with an actual death that a Phoenix Down can't cure.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' reveals that this is the ultimate effect of [[spoiler:the Eyes of Etro. In exchange for the ability to trace the timeline, the seeress Yeul's many incarnations suffer drastically shortened lifespan. Most Yeuls die at the age of sixteen or less. Serah acquires the Eyes of Etro at age 21 and dies on her third vision.]]

* ''VideoGame/MagicAndMayhem'': Using magic in the Arcane Realms causes your body to age. This doesn't affect game mechanics, but it does drive the storyline; the [[BigBad Overlord]] is trying to recover various artefacts with which to reverse the process before his body wears out.

* ''VideoGame/DemonGaze'' has this with [[spoiler:demon gazing, which takes a massive amount of your lifespan, even if you don't fully gaze them. This results in one character dying and being unable to be revived by the necromancer, as she can only bring back people who died before their lifespan ended. This applies to the main character as well, but he's so long lived that it hardly matters.]]
* In the GBA version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', you can battle the Eight Dragons again in the Dragon's Den. The Red Dragon rematch sees it channeling its life into power. None of your attacks can so much as scratch it, while it hits you with increasingly powerful attacks each turn. The fight ends with it casting ''Ultima''... but at that point, the last of its life is used up, and it dies on the spot.

* Vash from ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'' has various inhuman powers including the ''hilariously'' powerful [[ArmCannon Angel Arm]] which can put a huge crater ''in the moon'' with only a single shot. Too bad every use of his powers costs him a portion of his lifespan as measured by the color of his hair: [[spoiler:human-form [[StarfishAlien Plants]]]] start out as blonde with their hair darkening as their internal power is spent. If it turns fully black, they die. By the time Knives is defeated in the manga, Vash's hair is [[DeadManWalking almost completely black]]. And this is after we're told that Vash could easily use his powers to regenerate all the [[http://images.wikia.com/sortinghatrp/images/e/e1/ShirtlessVash.jpg scars]] his body bears but chooses not to. He most likely knows this trope is in effect and doesn't use his powers for trivial purposes (as well as invoking BeAllMySinsRemembered by retaining them).

* In the manga ''Manga/MahouShoujoSite,'' whenever a magical girl uses her stick, her lifespan is shortened. As such, whenever a character goes overboard with their stick, expect a rather messy PsychicNosebleed to occur.

* In ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'', Issei compromises his lifespan several times. He's first warned he cost himself some time when [[spoiler:[[YinYangBomb incorporating a fragment of]] Divine Dividing into Boosted Gear]], and later costs himself 99% of his lifespan by activating [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Juggernaut Drive]] the first time. [[spoiler:He eventually uses what life he has left to defend Ophis. He's rewarded for the HeroicSacrifice by being resurrected in a new body that can handle the strain of his abilities without sending him to an early grave which also restores the lifespan he lost from his previous actions.]]

Sometimes, powers are free. Sometimes, they have a [[PowerAtAPrice price]]. There is a kind of price which is not paid immediately on screen (i.e. HeroicRROD or body damage).

* ''Manga/DGrayman'' : The parasitic-type exorcist suffer this because their weapon is fused with their organism. So every time they fight, this uses their life energy and reduce their lifespan.