"I have to say im not sure about richard aging or not althought that would be a good twist....however i do agree that richard comes from the black rock ship that you see in the first scene, i also think that jacob knew at some point (dont ask me how tho!) that his 'rival' would kill him, so when the black rock landed jacob and richard became friends and jacob took him under his wing lets say and jacob told richard of the plan his rival had to kill him and everything about the island thus making richard not age, also jacob gave richard a backup plan an gave him instructions to follow incase the day ever came that jacob was killed. It would also explain why richard hasnt said anything about knowing the others 30years before, and why he took john to see jacob without many questions."