Immortal Genius

Dracula: You would give your mortal life to preserve my immortal one?
Isaac: To save your genius? Your knowledge, and your will? Without question. I am just a forgemaster. Yours is the wisdom of ages.

— Castlevania (2017)

In fiction, there is a tendency for immortal characters to be authorities on almost any subject relevant to the task at hand, being renowned as improbably learned scholars, Omnidisciplinary Scientists, the most powerful mages in the setting, or even enlightened sages and gurus.

Sometimes this is due to a simple matter of time: after all, these characters have been alive for centuries or even millennia, so why not use that time to learn and gain mastery of multiple subjects? In other cases, it's due to personal experience, with the immortal characters having witnessed so much in history that they know more than any mortal historian ever could. In more overtly magical instances, it's due to some quirk of their nature, some power that allows them to comprehend the world on a deeper level than most, perhaps extending all the way into literal omniscience. And in some cases, it's simply because the character had to be brilliant in order to achieve immortality in the first place.

In any case, if the mortals of the story need an expert, they go looking for this character. Most of the Gods of Knowledge and Wisdom can be found here.

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Examples

Comic Books

• DC Comics: Vandal Savage: Vandal is a Cro-Magnon warrior who became immortal after encountering a strange meteorite. For centuries, he undergoes a lot of aliases as attempts to dominate the world while accumulating a lot of knowledge in different fields in arts, combat, history, and science. This makes him one of the most dangerous villains in the DC Universe. He's also associated with the Secret Society of Super-Villains and the Injustice Society and is the founder of The Light in Young Justice
• Infinitum: An Afrofuturist Tale: Aja Oba has been alive since before the birth of the Roman Empire and goes on to live for billions of years, apparently possessing Complete Immortality. He's also fiercely intelligent, aided by the fact that he has more time to study than any other human being in the world: after settling down in the 21st century, he begins studying physics and technology to pass the time, eventually mastering enough to start his own company, bankroll space colonization, and lead his own team of scientists in terraforming a new world. After transcending humanity in the wake of an alien invasion, he even rules over Earth as a combination of God-Emperor and Philosopher King.
• Planetary: Elijah Snow is a Century Baby, a superhuman with extraordinary skills and powers including immortality... and he also happens to be a natural-born genius, particularly in business and archaeology.
• Watchmen: Dr Manhattan is blessed with Complete Immortality, being not only effectively unaging but invincible. He's also a brilliant scientist and, thanks to his ability to perceive and interact with sub-atomic particles, is directly responsible for the technological uplift that the world has undergone. Indeed, it's implied that the only reason why he was able to reassemble his disintegrated body and become Dr Manhattan in the first place was because of his unique knowledge of both particle physics and watchmaking.
• X-Men:
  • Nathaniel Essex, a.k.a. Mr. Sinister, has been alive since the Victorian Era, having been made immortal thanks to the intervention of Apocalypse, and even now is still widely known as a Mad Scientist par excellence specializing in biology and genetics.
  • Sinister's boss, Apocalypse, is no slouch in this department either: not only is he an immortal mutant that's been around for over five thousand years, but his experience with alien technology has also made him a brilliant Omnidisciplinary Scientist and inventor capable of outstripping modern technology — hence why his Horsemen of the Apocalypse usually go into battle with new weapons and a significant power boost.
  • X-Men (2019) reveals that Moira MacTaggert is actually a mutant blessed with Born-Again Immortality by way of "Groundhog Day" Loop. Not only is she a brilliant geneticist that even created a working cure for mutation in her third lifetime, but after opting to side with mutants instead, has been using the knowledge acquired over multiple lifetimes to benefit various influential figures — including Professor X, Magneto, and even Apocalypse. Having run short of lifetimes, she's decided to once again throw in her lot with Professor X, revealing all her secrets to him.

Fan Works

• Child of the Storm
  • Doctor Strange, who is indeterminately ancient, having been Sorcerer Supreme since 1645 and to have done a lot of time travelling. Thanks to the latter, no one's entirely sure how old he is even if they make a shrewd guess of when he was actually born (until he finally reveals that even he doesn't know, as he stopped counting once he passed 100 thousand years old, and his best guess is that he's around 500,000 now). He is also by far the smartest character in the entire cast, with only Thanos being noted as his equal. Between them, they're behind more or less everything. He's also an Omnidisciplinary Scientist and Renaissance Man - he's mastered magic to the point where he can casually do things that pretty much everyone else believes to be impossible, he's the greatest doctor who ever lived because as he likes to remind people, he is that kind of doctor (and it's all he ever wanted to be), and he's the greatest bard ever to live as a hobby. As Word of God has pointed out, given how much practice he's had, it would be kind of sad if he wasn't this.
  • The Lady Knight is also revealed to have been this when she finally pops up in The Phoenix and the Serpent. As it turns out, not only is she the Master Swordsman and The Ageless, she's also terrifyingly intelligent, masquerading as The Chanteuse as a cover for being the Knowledge Broker as a cover for her 'real' identity of the Lady Knight, which also turns out to cover for the fact that her nightclub is a) not just a nightclub, b) is under her total control down to the last molecule, c) a home-made TARDIS, powered by a star on the verge of collapse that she somehow managed to steal without anybody noticing, most of which she can condense into her clutch purse. Oh, and she can casually reprogram portals that the geniuses of the Future Foundation have been working on for relative decades without success into working in the background.
• Codex Equus: Many gods become this by default between their age and instinctive understanding over their respective Domains, although some stand out even by divine standards.
  • The Changeling Emperor Blackthorn is widely considered to be one of the greatest schemers and manipulators in the current generation of gods, having together with his Summer Court move entire nations like pieces on a board and made pawns out of other pantheons. His talent in manipulation is such that even the Grand Primevals themselves are impressed by him, and even seek out his aid in various crises, such as 'Final Ragnarok'.
  • Emperor Golden Scepter is already a psychic prodigy and peerless genius even by Alicorn standards, and this has only increased with his ever-expanding knowledge and experience throughout his millions of years of existence. His empires are noted to be extremely advanced in terms of technology and magic/psionics compared to other civilizations ruled by his fellow Alicorns, with the Fourth Age's Terran Empire being the birthplace of many psionic and technological wonders. Even his golden Powered Armor, implied to be another one of his creations, is such an advanced piece of work that Crazy Ant went absolutely gaga upon seeing it in person.
  • Princess Twilight Sparkle is a mix of both this and Emperor Scientist. A magical and scientific prodigy even as a mortal, she Ascended to demi-godhood by finishing a spell created by the Pillar of Equestrias' Starswirl the Bearded, who notably had trouble with completing it himself. Following her first Ascension, she would create and pioneer various spells and Magitek well into the Fourth Age. After Ascending to true godhood and becoming Mana Equus' reincarnation, she would continue her work, all while being humble royalty. Indeed, she would earn her reputation as being one of the most powerful and accomplished divine mages alive.
  • Vicearch Iniquitous is widely considered one of the greatest Dark Magic practitioners to ever arose in the Ages of Known History. Her power and skill can be traced back to spending countless millennia devouring various supernatural beings — including whole pantheons, legions, and nations worth of gods — and assimilating their power into Herself, while devoting considerable time and effort in learning, studying, and experimenting with hundreds, if not thousands of divine domains she inherited as a consequence. Her magical magnum opus is a series of infernal spellbooks titled the Seven Keys of Iniquitous, each book containing both powerful spells and philosphical essays written by Her and others. Due to Her being extremely security-conscious, only those Iniquitous has deemed worthy can access the original books, like Karaldina de Hex and Blue Suede Heartstrings/King Caerulus Melodia Equestria-Corporatum.
• The Infinite Loops: Just about every looper becomes this, due to constant learning and traveling to other worlds, although some of them fit the bill more than others, with Twilight Sparkle being the prime example.
• Story Shuffle: In "In the Details", a group of demonologists consult the entity known as Laplace for information, believing him to be capable of providing them with the answers they need. Presumably he's immortal, or at least very long-lived, as he's outlived "generations of demonologists". The information he provides is due to being effectively omniscient and capable of seeing the future... but by seeing the future, he reduces it from infinite possibility to utter certainty, hence why he's known as "The Puppet of Predestination".

Film — Live Action

• Doctor Strange (2016): The Ancient One is ageless, and while it isn't established how old she is, she's learned more about magic than any other character in the film. Essentially the epitome of the "wise eternal sage" version of this trope, she comes across as practically omniscient thanks to her study of the future — to the point that she's not even surprised when a time-travelling Bruce Banner shows up on her doorstep in Avengers: Endgame.
• Infinite:
  • The Infinites possess Born-Again Immortality, and thanks to their perfect memory of their past lives, have become experts in whatever field of study they put their mind to, hence why the Believers and the Nihilists have such incredible technology at their disposal. Even main character Evan McCauley, despite having lost conscious access to his past memories due to past-life trauma, is a master blacksmith and can rattle off an unbelievable number of facts on any given subject without even thinking about it.
  • Artisan is arguably the most brilliant Infinite in the film, having managed to single-handedly invent machines that neither the Believers nor the Nihilists have access to, hence why Evan comes to him for help in regaining his memories. Unfortunately, Artisan's also an eccentric and a dedicated hedonist, making him incredibly irritating to his fellow Infinites.
• Groundhog Day: Phil Connors uses his time trapped in a "Groundhog Day" Loop to become an expert on whatever subject he needs to impress Rita on their repeated date to help things go well, including piano and the French language. Though due to the nature of the loop, from the perspective of everyone else, he's an Instant Expert.
• The Man from Earth: Subverted. John Oldman has lived for over twelve thousand years and spent a good deal of that time learning as much about the world as he could, even earning ten doctorates. However, he realistically can't keep up with the latest developments on every single possible field, especially since he has to move on every few years so that nobody notices that he doesn't age, so most of his degrees are out of date by now. Plus, his mind isn't any different from that of an ordinary human, so he can't remember literally everything he's experienced, only the highs and lows — to the point that he's had to fill in the blanks with modern archaeological knowledge.

Literature

• Animorphs:
  • The Ellimist is a Cosmic Entity that never ages and likely can't be killed without destroying the entire universe as well. Virtually omniscient across time and space, his millions of years of experience give him firsthand knowledge of things that most civilizations can only dream of... and he's also effectively a genius: he's been playing an incredibly complicated game with Crayak for the fate of the universe for eons, biologically engineered an entire race to further his goals, and built the legendary Time Matrix at some point in the distant past. Indeed, it's revealed he first achieved immortality by drawing upon the knowledge he acquired from Father to create a unique starship that could preserve his aging body, upgrading himself over the centuries until he transcended physical existence altogether.
  • Crayak, the Ellimist's Evil Counterpart and opponent, is no slouch in this department. He's been around for almost as long as the Ellimist, has more or less the same strengths and limitations, even a fairly similar backstory, complete with his first body being preserved inside a starship. He's used his intellect to create monsters, tempt unsuspecting victims into Faustian bargains, and plot the creation of a universe built on an especially brutal form of social darwinism.
  • Deconstructed in the case of Father. A practically-immortal network of tendrils spanning an ocean, he was supposedly "old before the first sentient lit his first rocket," and has been absorbing the minds of everyone stranded on his moon — giving him an incredible database of knowledge with which to repeatedly defeat Toomin over the course of their decades-long games... but as Toomin discovers, Father can only recall what he's learned from his victims, never improvising or developing any of it; in fact, without victims to sponge knowledge from, he's just an Almighty Idiot. Toomin eventually uses this to win at the game, absorbing all the minds that composed Father and taking his first step on his transformation into the Ellimist.
• Baccano!: Szilard Quates was already a skilled alchemist before becoming immortal, and he's spent the last two hundred years conducting research to expand his knowledge, wanting to someday learn everything. He has enough alchemical knowledge to create his own homunculus servant and recreate the immortality elixir when he had only half the original recipe. Immortals have the ability to absorb other immortals to steal their memories and knowledge, so in addition to his own research, Szilard has been hunting down other immortals to absorb them and add their knowledge to his own. When Firo becomes immortal and absorbs Szilard, he gains all of Szilard's knowledge but refuses to use it out of fear that it might tempt him into becoming as cruel and power-hungry as Szilard.
• The Chronicles of Amber: Most of the immortal siblings who drive the plot just loiter around or vie against each other over Amber. Meanwhile, Benedict chose to devote his immortality to studying the theory and practice of war in all its aspects. The protagonist Corwin, who's otherwise an unscrupulous anti-hero with obvious designs upon the throne, openly says that if Benedict ever deigned to vie for the throne himself, he'd just step aside and submit.
• The Dresden Files: Bob the Skull is an immortal spirit sealed inside an enchanted skull, and Harry relies on him to serve as a Spirit Advisor. He knows much more than Harry about nearly every field of magic since he's had hundreds of years to learn.
• The Expanse: Winston Duarte — already the mastermind of a preemptive attack that placed all human-colonized worlds under his control — attempts to use the protomolecule to make himself into an immortal god-emperor of humanity. It doesn't work, at least for Duarte. Amos, on the other hand, ends the series still alive and well after a thousand years and at least three injuries that would have been fatal for anyone else.
• The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August:
  • The Kalachakra possess Born-Again Immortality via "Groundhog Day" Loop, and on the few occasions they've been documented by historians, they're usually considered improbably wise: not only have they had lifetimes to master their chosen fields of study, but they know the history of their eras almost off by heart.
  • This goes double for the few Kalachakra who can remember literally everything of their past lives: Harry himself is one, having used his unfading memory to become a professor of physics at an incredibly early age, even working on the Manhattan Project in one iteration of history. Vincent is a villainous example of this: he's using his scientific skill to perform a Technology Uplift in one timeline, then uses all the knowledge he accumulated over the course of that life to perform an even bigger uplift in the next one until he has a working quantum mirror.
• Discussed in Good Omens. The narration notes that angels and demons aren't necessarily smarter than humans, but they have the advantage of experience. It takes the angel Aziraphale a few days to understand the entirety of Agnes Nutter's book of prophecies (for context, her descendants have been pouring over her book for centuries and still don't understand all of it).
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Daedalus is the greatest inventor who ever lived, and has escaped death by Body Surfing between robot bodies for thousands of years.
• Repeat: Deconstructed. Brad Cohen finds himself stuck in a "Groundhog Day" Loop that begins in the womb and ends on the night before his fortieth birthday. Naturally, he often uses his knowledge of the future to become rich and famous, while also gaining mastery of various disciplines over the centuries — to the point that even scholars are impressed by his fluency in Hebrew. Unfortunately, being the Immortal Genius is very hard on Brad's sanity: Time Loop Fatigue destroys his ability to distinguish between his past lives, leaving him showing up to jobs he was never hired for, forgetting conversations he had a short time ago, randomly predicting the future to complete strangers, and demonstrating skills that he couldn't logically possess. By the end of this particular life, he's regarded by many as a Mad Oracle.
• The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: Most of the immortal humans are experts in many different fields, including magic. In the case of the Flamels, they have to be the best alchemists in the world, since their alchemy is the only thing keeping them immortal. Scathach is a master of pretty much all forms of martial arts, and it's implied she may have invented some of them in the first place.
• Septimus Heap: Marcellus Pye has had 500 years to learn everything there is to know about alchemy, though he was already the foremost expert on it before he became immortal.
• Warrior Cats: Rock and Midnight are an immortal cat/badger duo that appears to know everything worth knowing when it comes to the Clans, their history, and even their futures. Rock even has a Bald Mystic appearance in cat form, and Midnight is an Omniglot who can speak multiple animal languages when only one other character in the work has been able to speak another animal language^note Millie, who can speak dog.

Live-Action TV

• Doctor Who:
  • The Doctor is virtually immortal thanks to their long (albeit unspecified) natural lifespan and their ability to regenerate into a new self after mortal injury (which, while originally limited to twelve iterations, has since been renewed). They also possess knowledge relating to almost every conceivable field of science, culture, and history, proclaiming themselves a doctor "of everything". Part of this is due to being a super-intelligent alien, but also due to personal experience gleaned through time travel, plus the occasional stint in The Slow Path; few Time Lords stray far from Gallifrey, so not many of them are as brilliant or as versatile as the Doctor.
  • The Master is another rogue Time Lord, and on top of the natural lifespan and regenerations, has also made use of the occasional Grand Theft Me to preserve their immortality. They're also just as brilliant as the Doctor: not only are they an expert in almost every field of science known in the universe, but they're also an inventor capable of creating psychic-amplifying satellites and improbably powerful computers with comparatively primitive materials.
• Forever's Henry Morgan has vast stores of knowledge about history, medicine, forensics, and much more.
• The Good Place: Most of the beings in the afterlife are far more intelligent than the humans they oversee, and the closest they come to death is Retirement, which is more akin to eternal torture. They are also nearly omniscient and can perform almost any task perfectly, but unfortunately, this gap in ability means they don't understand humans and can't comprehend the passage of time as humans do. This results in the points system gradually becoming outdated as human life becomes more complicated, leading to every person who has died in the past five hundred years being sent to the Bad Place for punishment.
• New Amsterdam (2008): John has been alive since the early 1600s and has had so many different careers (not to mention personal experience with most studies), he's pretty much an expert in everything.
• Stargate-verse:
  • Stargate SG-1:
    • Zig-zagged by the Goa'uld. They can naturally live for centuries and expand their lifespans into immortality through use of sarcophagi... but they're not as omniscient or as clever they'd like their worshippers to think. Their technology was just reverse engineered Ancient tech, and the Goa'uld designed it to impress rather than function. Worse still, their gigantic egos and brain-addling use of the sarcophagi prevent them from acknowledging this. However, a rare few Goa'uld have escaped this stereotype to become genuinely inventive, brilliant, and extremely dangerous — most notably Anubis, who not only has access to unique technical knowledge, but is also partially Ascended and has no need of a sarcophagus.
    • By the start of the series, the Ancients have ascended to a higher plane of existence and are now immortal energy beings; on top of being near-omniscient sages with godlike powers at their command, they were responsible for creating some of the most advanced technology in the universe before they Ascended. Most are bound by an Alien Non-Interference Clause and are of very little help to anyone, but more pragmatic Ancients like Oma Desala, Orlin, and Merlin will occasionally buck the rules by serving as mentors and allies to the main characters.
    • The Ori are also Ascended immortals... and have used their omniscience and technical knowledge to empower their worshippers into a vast army of crusaders equipped with incredibly advanced warships and led by genetically augmented Superpowered Mooks. In other words, they're what happens when the Ancients go horribly wrong.
  • Stargate Atlantis: The Wraith are practically immortal so long as they continue to feed on other living beings. Of them, "Todd" has been alive for over ten thousand years and survived more tight scrapes than any other Wraith in the show. He's also the most intelligent and scientifically minded of them — to the point that when McKay desperately needs to hack a rogue swarm of nanites, he's ultimately forced to consult Todd for answers.

Myth And Religion

• A common trait in gods and goddesses of wisdom:
  • Classical Mythology: Athena has a vast list of inventions attributed to her, including everything from chariots to musical instruments.
  • Egyptian Mythology: Thoth was credited with the creation of writing and the author of all works of science, religion, and magic.
  • Norse Mythology: Odin, although primarily the Top God, was also the god of knowledge, having sacrificed one of his eyes in exchange for wisdom. Not only do his ravens continuously supply him with information, but he's actually a poet. Unfortunately, he's also a trickster on par with Loki, making him a bit more morally ambiguous than most gods of knowledge.
• Arthurian Legend: Merlin is often portrayed as this, though while some have him be simply immortal, others give him the aptly named Merlin Sickness, so that he ages backwards. In either case, he is generally the oldest and wisest character in any work he is in.

Tabletop Games

• Chronicles of Darkness: Immortals
  • One faction of immortals known as the Seekers of Knowledge specifically devotes themselves to gathering occult secrets over the centuries; as such, their immortality — achieved via Body Surf — is acquired specifically for the purposes of preserving rare information.
  • The Reborn are often examples of this; though their Born-Again Immortality makes them a bit on the squishy side compared to other immortals in the book, their past-life memories allow them to retain vast knowledge and experience. A common trait suggested for them is a mastery of human psychology, on the grounds of having interacted with human beings for so long that the Reborn know how to play them like puppets. They also possess the supernatural ability to access the Akashic Records, allowing them to temporarily buff their knowledge traits in almost every conceivable field.
• Dungeons & Dragons: Justified. In all iterations of the game, liches have extremely high intelligence, since becoming a lich in the first place requires being a powerful wizard, and wizards gain their magic through study and intellect.
• Mage: The Ascension:
  • Several Archmages have achieved immortality and are often centuries old, if not older — to the point that many of them can no longer live on Earth without experiencing constant Paradox, instead secluding themselves in Horizon Realms deep in the Umbra. Thanks to a mixture of experience and the understanding of magic they acquired just to get this far, Archmages such as these are often the greatest known experts in their field of study.
  • The Technocracy has their own equivalent of these, known as Archmasters, kept alive through Enlightened Science for centuries and still capable of incredible feats. In one case, Johannes Kepler is not only still alive and kicking, but he even helped Einstein develop faster-than-light travel in the 20th century!
• Vampire: The Masquerade: Some elders have spent centuries mastering their chosen fields of study and have achieved a level of mastery that mortals can only dream of, especially in the case of clans with a scientific or scholarly bent — such as the Tremere and the Tzimisce. In various Gehenna scenarios, both Lord Tremere and Saulot demonstrate such impressive knowledge of magic and strategy that the only thing that can trump their plans is another Antediluvian most commonly Tzimisce. Meanwhile, in "Fair Is Foul", the ancient Court Mage Mekhet has devoted so many millennia to studying magic that he has mastered all forms of blood magic.
• Warhammer
  • The Necrarch vampire bloodline is composed almost entirely of scholars, mages, and necromancers, and are obsessively dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge — especially that of dark magic. Indeed, they've become so skilled in the dark arts that they rarely need to feed on blood, instead sustaining themselves through the Winds of Magic alone, and regularly surround themselves with new and experimental forms of unlife.
  • The Liche Priests of Nehekhara were charged with devising a means of guaranteeing the immortality of the kings they served, and to that end made themselves effectively immortal — or at least unable to die of old age. As such, their expertise is put to use in preserving the enchantments used to protect the tombs of their masters and resurrecting these ancient kings when the time comes. For good measure, the magic they practice is extremely complicated and can only be used by those old enough to have mastered their intricate arts.
  • Nagash has been undead for thousands of years and come back from the dead at least three times. He's also the greatest necromancer in existence, having created the art of necromancy in the first place and studied for centuries on end to elevate himself to his current nightmarish level of existence, and is easily one of the most powerful and learned sorcerers in the entire setting.
  • Tzeentch and his forces often epitomize this trope. The Chaos God of Change and Magic, he is not only practically omniscient, is possessed of vast swathes of information on almost every conceivable subject, maintaining vast and impossible libraries of forbidden knowledge. His greater daemons, the Lords of Change, are masters of magic and brilliant tacticians. Mortals who serve him well may eventually be awarded both immortality and inhuman wisdom, perhaps even ascending to become the near-omniscient Daemon Princess of Tzeentch... provided they don't go insane first.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • The Emperor of Mankind was — prior to his mortal injury and internment on the Golden Throne — blessed with agelessness, near-invincibility, and near-godlike psychic powers... and before he actually claimed the title of Emperor, he served as an advisor to kings, a Court Mage, and a scientist. Over the course of unifying humanity under his own banner, he continued to demonstrate his impressive scientific credentials by genetically engineering armies of Super Soldiers and creating the near-godlike Primarchs that would lead them. Unfortunately, the Emperor demonstrated a critical gap in his knowledge when it came to things like psychology or compassion, a problem that was to be his undoing...
  • Dark Eldar Haemonculi serve as a horrific combination of scientists, artists, and torturers, using their mastery of technology to create all manner of hideous weapons and monsters that can be sold to Commorragh's elite. They're also every bit as immortal as the other Dark Eldar, being not only unable to die of old age but also able to bring themselves back from the dead. The most infamous of them, Urien Rakarth, is old enough to have personally witnessed the Fall of the Eldar, and has used his arts to mutilate himself almost beyond recognition.
  • Like all Necrons, the Crypteks are effectively immortal thanks to replacing their organic bodies with husks of living metal, and have used their millennia of artificial life to gain a mastery of technology that appears almost magical to lesser species. Even the Necron Lords are impressed by their scientific aptitudes, and will often do anything they can to meet a Cryptek's price in exchange for their services.
  • Fabius Bile has been performing horrible experiments on entire planetary populations for more than ten thousand years, something that has allowed him to acquire an unparalleled knowledge in human, alien and transhuman physiology and, specially, in how to combine science and sorcery to twist and mutate his victims in order to create one day the Ultimate Life Form that will inherit and rule the galaxy forever.

Video Games

• In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Knifepoint Hollow in the Shivering Isles is home to Dyus, the librarian of Order, who Sheogorath, recognizing his usefulness despite belonging to his Arch-Enemy Jyggalag, ordered to memorize the entire contents of a library whose books predicted every possible outcome of every event to the end of time, and then forbade to die. His otherwise lost knowledge is critical in the the expansion's main quest.
• Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker introduces the people of Ea, a Proud Scholar Race who wanted to learn all the secrets of the universe. To that end, they discovered the means to shed their physical bodies and become living aether, immortal beings to continue to learn forever. This proved to be their undoing as they eventually discovered that the universe would inevitably end in Heat Death. As immortals, they were going to see the universe freeze to death and be powerless to stop it. Their civilization crossed the Despair Event Horizon and was destroyed by the Final Days.
• The Legend of Dragoon:
  • It's eventually revealed that this is the reason why one notable Mr. Exposition seems so well-informed: Rose was made immortal through the power of a magical choker she wears, and not only fought in the near-mythical Dragon Campaign eleven thousand years ago but has spent every century since then postponing the apocalypse as the Black Monster, hence why she knows so much about the ancient world.
  • Charle Frahma is one of the most accomplished Wingly magicians in Endiness and a fountain of information regarding the ancient world, and while it's not made clear if Winglies are truly immortal or just incredibly long-lived, Charle has been alive for more than eleven thousand years. She not only aided humans during the Dragon Campaign, but actually sabotaged her brother Melbu Frahma's efforts to seize ultimate power long before then. She's also Rose's mentor, having given her the magical choker in the first place.
  • Another Wingly example, Savan was also a survivor of the Dragon Campaign, having been trapped in the city of Aglis when it sank beneath the ocean, and he's spent the millennia since then doing little else but experimenting with magic. When you finally meet him, he uses this mastery to provide you with a one-of-a-kind magical weapon and a flying steed that can carry you anywhere on the world map.
• The Secret World:
  • Mosul has lived for eons, having seen previous Ages play out ^note  for context's sake, Ages are previous iterations of the universe . He's used all this time to learn stories from his experiences and from everyone he's encountered, telling those stories for money, eventually gaining a reputation as an all-knowing hermit haunting the forests of Transylvania. In the intro to "Paradise Now," he admits that was once sought by Theodore Wicker for knowledge, and at the time, Wicker was known as one of the most accomplished mages of this Age!
  • Lilith was alive during the First Age and has parlayed her in-depth experience with long-lost technology into a career as a scientist in the eons that followed — on occasions when she wasn't making a name for herself as a monster or a goddess, of course. In fact, it's due to this incredible technological knowledge that she and her equally immortal husband Samael have built a respectable public life as the heads of the Orochi Group, recreating the Lost Technology of the Third Age to give their corporation its technological edge.

Visual Novels

• Dies Irae: Mercurius, a God and ancient even by the standards of the Shinza verse, is considered the wisest and most knowledgeable out of all the Gods as well as the father of magic, mostly thanks to the fact that he has been around for so long and through so many timelines that he just simply knows all there is to know. The series does however makes a distinction between Wisdom and Genius, as the God that came before Mercurius, Nerose Satanel whose also an example of this trope, would fit the latter category as he is able to think up new things thanks to his intellect while Mercurius is more of a walking dictionary built from experience.

Webcomics

• 8-Bit Theater: Sarda the Sage is not only the most powerful and intelligent mage in the setting but also effectively immortal, having lived for billions of years as a result of a failed plan to go back in time and kickstart the beginning of the universe. In the present, he's essentially Seen It All — enough to serve as an extremely manipulative guide to the Light Warriors — and he's learned enough about magic to essentially warp reality as well.

Western Animation

• Castlevania (2017): A point is made of the vast amount of knowledge Dracula has gathered over the years, including technology and science lost to humanity. Isaac cites this as the reason he follows Dracula (aside from his misanthropic tendencies), considering him the most important person in the world, and both Alucard and Sypha mourn the loss of Dracula's knowledge when they set out to kill him.

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