Leonization (or Age Rejuv as it is called now from SOTA63) involves gene therapy. Is it possible to mimic it's effects using magic, such as ritual sorcery? If so, what would the downside be, and costs, and target numbers to find/cast/etc.?

I'm a bit dubious myself because reading the descript in SOTA63 it describes how you aura is completely altered due to gene therapy, plus the bio index and cost is prohibitive. (bio index 1, cost 2 mil x 2.5 SI) Any arguments for and against a magical form of this?

It's not expressly forbidden, but it's also not in anything canon...

In short, house rule your ass off! go to town!

There is a spell in MITS that cleans up your appearance. I can't remember if that's permanent or not but I would use it as the base for your spell.
Something like Force = 2xyears reversed Drain = Deadly physical.

I would make it a metamagic technique. Probably only learned from a NPC and only after, like, grade 25 or so. Only someone with the immortal gene could learn to use it, so a GD or IE would have to teach it.

In other words, near impossible magically. But that's because I'm a lawful-evil GM.

Actually, in my game I have something like that. There's a human NPC who's supposed to be around 50-60 but doesn't look a day over 35. (No Leonization for this guy either, he's a body-conscious magician), when a PC remarked on his aging extremely well he replied with "It's something I picked up from a few Elf friends of mine" The friends he was referring to were (supposedly) Ehran and Harlequin (though neither of these IE's have shown up in game themselves). It's not an immortality thing, it's a 'live longer and look younger' thing, but it fits the bill.

I'd like to go with a metamagic that requires heafty blood sacrifices... say ten dead men for each year of extended life, killed in some brutal ritual way, with a small chance each time of terrible consiquences.

JaronK

Is there a source somewhere that details what blood magic can get you? I know it's among the most powerful magicks around, and rumors have always abounded that you can increase your life span by draining life force through it, but is it codified anywhere?

It mentions your aura changes, and it doesn't change the DNA it replaces it, I believe.

To me, that is changing who you are...but then again, that is my opinion.

[edit] Eh, the wording in SOTA63 is a bit vague when describing the process, so it can go either way.

The ends of chromosomes usually are "capped" by repeating segments of DNA, which supposedly get shorter as one ages through hundreds of cell divisions. Some of the current theories of antiaging seek to replenish this length, or alter the enzymes that are responsible for it. There are other sites, such as microRNAs receptors and cell apoptotic genes, that we haven't even begun to explore. Most of it, I'd imagine, is simply nanorepair of cell structures and non-cell structural components (like collagen, cartilage, bone degeneration, etc.).

Back in the 4th age, there were magics that could extend your life. But the target number to do it increased by one every year. And it had to be recast every year. Fail once, and all those years catch up with you.

The Healthy Glow spell in SR cleans up you body pretty well. I don't see any reason you can't have something to reduce the physical damage done to your body by aging to some extent. But it can only do so much. Even in the 4th age, it was prettty damn hard to do, and risky. And that was with a few thousand years of research under the belt.

Well there is always the risky way.

Quicken a transform spell, of cause if the spell is ever dispelled for any reason you revert to the age you should be, witch could easily mean dead. Procedure is very fast and painless for the recipient and may be repeated an unlimited number of times on the down side it can be dispelled.

Edward

Isn't there a free spirit power that stores their lifeforce in something else?

Object or animal is listed, animals start regenerating and don't age... they mention that it might be possible to do it with a metahuman, but that there was no understanding of the consequences..

I don't have MITS on hand, can anyone confirm my memory?

Hidden Life. It gives immunity to age and pathogens, but also makes the metahuman go whacko. It adds Mental Flaws to the metahuman, with possible degeneration as years go by.

Hmm That ED spell sounds interesting - what were the stats for it, and it is translatable into SR3 terms?

Blood Magic and Hidden Life both have horrific drawbacks that most people wouldn't want to do, but they are always options. The thing about blood magic is that it's not described very well what kind of things you can DO with it. Is there any other sources that I can peruse? (It's in MitS, I think...but I'm curious if there were anything else)

I had a Transfer Youth spell for a free spirit NPC. It transferred youth from the target to the caster. The caster could then cast it again and give the youth to a target. Never did worry about drain because of the free spirit advantage. Successes determined maximum number of years that could be transferred up to max of force.

Health
Type: Physical
Target: 10-Essence
Range: Touch
Duration: Permanent

In ED, the Horror power Unnatural Life makes you immortal. And darn-near unkillable. Easy credit terms now available...

I think Chantrel's Horror was the main abuser... er, user of Unnatural Life. It keeps the victim around even if they try to kill themselves.

Several high-Circle (think level) Nethermancer spells mimicked Horror Powers in ED. Some suggested that Horrors taught these to Nethermancers.

So theoretically...

Why is this such a big shocker? Why would slowing down aging be such a hard thing to do with magic? Why does it really matter in this game? Would the ability to live 300 years change the world as it is? Really would anything change if your character had a theoretical life span long enough to live 500 years, instead of 20? Will any one you be playing the same character threw out 20 years of game time?

Um... no? Chantrel's Horror has UL at step 15. Looks like Verjigorm does, too.

Perhaps our differing opinion is a difference in the edition we're looking at?

That would be a really interesting idea for a cool NPC - a theoratical magical researcher who's found a way to make himself immortal somehow. Then he starts thinking about the deal he has and how it makes no difference if someone kills him... Then he starts to get really, really paranoid about all the different things that could kill him. So he hires a bodyguard or two. Then he starts wondering how loayl they are, so he hires someone to make sure of their loaylty somehow. Then he starts wondering if the people who made sure of their loyalty are really loyal... and on and on. Except that somewhere down the line other people/corps hear rumors of what kind of crazy mojo he managed to cook up and a lot of them start looking for him, which means hiring good runners to nab him. Which involves the players... Which gets them involved with said evil magic/Horrors/whatever metaplanar mojo this guy messed with in the first place. Could be fun.

I think at this point it's become a theoretical discussion rather than practical. But still, I wouldn't mind someone showing the various ED life extension spells since I do not have access to the books.

And frankly, Lina - if you're not interested any more let me know...but I'm still curious and may make it into a run arc sometime in the future. Also - I can see the usefulness of this type of spell if you run into the nastier critters/spirits/horrors out there that can drain life.

The idea of a rogue IE experimenting with eternal life and having to track him/her down to stop/steal/join his/her research strikes me as fun. So whether it is a game breaker or not really doesn't matter at this point - it's more a game device than anything now and I'm curious how to make it work in all it's various incarnations.