History Main / DeathsHourglass

** This is likely a reference to one of the lesser known fairy tale collected by the BrothersGrimm: In it, a poor man with a lot of children tries to find a godfather for his newest son by asking everyone he meets. After God and the Devil he meets Death which he decides on. The godfather grants the son knowledge which allows him to become a famous doctor, but after cheating Death one time too many over a princess' life, Death brings him into a cave full of candles. When each burns down the person connected to the flame dies. The son begs Death after being shown his own short candle to light another with the flame. Death agrees - but drops the candle before lighting the new one.

* The website [http://www.tombclock.com/ TombClock.com]. You enter some basic information about yourself (age, height, weight, living environment, etc.) and, using some unknown algorithm, the site will calculate the exact date of your death.

* In ''{{Alice 19th}}'', Frey's mentor Eric dies after literal bells ring for a certain amount of times. I think it was twelve times, but feel free to correct it.

* In ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]'', Akane's body is reduced to a living, but motionless doll by the power of the Kinjakan. If they can't restore her with pure Jusenkyo water before her eyes close completely, [[FinalDeath she dies]]. [[spoiler: They do, but Ranma was ''just barely'' able to get the water up to her through equal amounts of skill and miracles]].

* In ''SaintSeiya'', there is a clock tower in Athena's Sanctuary that measures time with bright blue flames blazing over the symbols of the Twelve Zodiac Houses. It is ignited twice: first, when the [[FiveManBand Bronze Saints]] invade the Sanctuary and must save Athena's life before all the flames wink out. See below for the second instance.

* As mentioned above, ''SaintSeiya'': The second time the Clock of Flames is lit is when the Gold and Bronze Saints must ''[[YouShallNotPass prevent]]'' Hades' Specters [[HoldTheLine from invading]] Athena's Sanctuary for twelve hours, which is the maximum time on Earth allotted to the [[BackFromTheDead newly-risen dead]].

* In ''SaintSeiya'', there is a clock tower in Athena's Sanctuary that measures time with bright blue flames blazing over the symbols of the Twelve Zodiac Houses. It is ignited twice: first, when the [[FiveManBand BronzeSaints]] invade the Sanctuary and must save Athena's life before all the flames wink out. See below for the second instance.

** In an interesting subversion, [[GrimReaper Grim Reapers]] are encouraged to kill people BEFORE their time expires because that's how they extend their own lives.

* The Death of the ''{{Discworld}}'' has shelves and shelves of most different hourglasses.

*** Death doesn't know when a lot of Discworld characters are going to die. It has to do with 'quantum' or something. In ''Discworld/{{Thud}}!'', Vimes is having a near-Death experience, which forces Death to have a near-Vimes experience. Fortunately, Death brought a book.
*** As the Discworld/{{Hogfather}}, Death was able to reverse the flow of sand in the Match Girl's hourglass.

**** He does the same thing for the title character in ''Discworld/{{Mort}}'', and is able to ''add'' to the sand in a young girl's hourglass in ''Discworld/ReaperMan'', by sacrificing the sand in his own glass (not the one above; he's been given a new one as a "retirement present").
**** It is explicitly stated that this is a ''mortal'' ability - many do it all the time, without even realizing. Death, under normal circumstances, cannot truly extend someone's life.
** Elsewhere in {{Discworld}}, the witch Miss Treason from the Tiffany Aching subseries cultivates a rumor that she only stays alive because she keeps a clunky iron clock wound up and ticking.

* The short story ''[[http://www.online-literature.com/wilde/1303/ The Last Leaf]]'' by O. Henry: a seriously-ill girl believes that her life will end as the ivy outside her window sheds its last leaf. [[IGotBetter She gets better]], of course.

* Londo Mollari, in ''{{Babylon 5}}''. From the first season we know that Centauri have prophetic dreams about their own deaths, that they know where and when they are going to die.In Londo's case his dream has him as an old man, twenty years from now (2258) with his hands at G'Kar's throat and vice-versa. He is very fatalistic about it. Said dream is a recurring sequence through the years. [[spoiler: He indeed dies in 2278, although the subtext is slightly different than he'd originally expected, as he wanted G'Kar to kill him to end his life under the control of the Drakh and to give Sheridan time to escape.]]

* In ''{{Death Note}}'', everyone has a time at which they are destined to die. It's only visible to those with a Shinigami's eyes. However, using a death note allows you to kill people before their time and indirectly extend lives.

* When characters (well, the ones called "Players") in ''TheWorldEndsWithYou'' receive a mission, they get numerical timers superimposed on their hands. If one pair doesn't complete the mission in time, they all get erased. (You, on the other [[AWorldWidePunomenon hand]], can TakeYourTime.) At the end of the game, you find out that [[spoiler:the Conductor ''also'' has a timer on his hand, albeit a longer one, and it runs out before he can finish.]]

* Thomas Mann's version of ''DoctorFaustus'' has the Devil ([[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation probably]]) taunt the damned character with this concept. In their conversation an earlier book ''Melancholia'' is credited as the [[TropeCodifier trope codifier]].

** Even the Grim Reaper himself has one, albeit much larger and filled with black sand, but we get to see him as a kid in some episodes so makes more sense than one would think.

* The flower in the glass with it's dropping petals of from Disney's ''Disney/{{Beauty and the Beast}}'' showed how long the Beast had before the curse was unbreakable, ending at his 21st birthday.

* From Greek myth, there are the Moirae, the Fate sisters, who measure out people's lifespans on their threads, making this one OlderThanDirt.
* There's a Greek myth about a man who was prophesied to live only until a log in the fire had burned down. His mother promptly snatched it out and extinguished it, and he kept on living until years later someone burned the log.
** The man in question was Meleager, and it wasn't just someone who torched the log but his ''own mother,'' who burned it in revenge after Meleager killed his two uncles. (Nobody does dysfunctional families like Greek mythology.)

[[folder: Real Life]]
* Execution, if you don't escape a prison by the time it's scheduled, then you're dead.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life]]
* Execution, if you don't escape a prison by the time it's scheduled then you're dead.


[[/folder]]

* ''{{Labyrinth}}'' had one in the form of the clock with 13 numbers. Sarah had 13 hours in order to get through the labyrinth, get to the castle, and get her baby brother or else he'd be turned into a goblin. Understandably if she failed she'd probably be sent home to try to explain what happened to her brother...

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