I've been thinking about how life magic can extend life and how alchemy was described. I wonder if anyone in modern mage society is still interested in immortality, or if they treat it the same way they treat alchemy. Is achieving it even possible through the Gift, or is that a spoiler?
Yes, absolutely - immortality and the fear of death occupies a place in mages' psyches, just as it does for the rest of us. It's one of the reasons why Life is relatively consistently the most popular Mastery pursued by the 'average' mage (to the extent that they have a choice).
The general feeling, though, is that the current most advanced Life magic techniques might represent the limit of what the modern Gift is capable of when it comes to longevity extension (e.g. Fausett is believed to be about as old as any great Life mage has ever been).
It's very hard for mages to really push the envelope on this at pace given the small population + need for secrecy + fact that only so many mages have specifically awakened to Life. That doesn't stop people from trying for more, or believing that more is possible though.
As to whether true immortality will one day be possible through the Gift, or has been possible in the past, or who knows what - I'll call RAFO on that....
