Photo by
                  David Gray
Photo © David Gray

Highlander The Series


Movies

Highlander - 1986
Highlander 2: The Quickening/Highlander 2: Renegade Version - 1991
Highlander 3: The Sorcerer/Highlander 3: The Final Dimension -1994
Highlander: Endgame - 2000
Highlander: The Source - 2007

 TV Series

Highlander The Series - 1992-1998
Highlander The Raven - 1998
 

Animated Cartoons

Highlander: The Animated Series - 1994-1996
The Methos Chronicles (Internet) - 2001

 


HIGHLANDER WORLD
 
Immortals

Immortals live a normal life until their first death, which is always a violent one — they don't get sick. Their origins are unknown; they are  always foundling children and they cannot have children.

They don't know they were born Immortals until their first death; veteran Immortals are able to recognize a pre-Immortal.

After the first death, they stop aging — if an Immortal is 15 years old at the time of his/her first death, he/she will be a teen forever.

Obs.: The immortality just can happen after a person hits puberty; therefore, there are no Immortal children. (OK, 10-year-old Immortal

Kenny — episode The Lamb — was a precocious kid...)


The Buzz

Immortals sense another person of their kind approaching.


How an Immortal Dies

Immortals die when they are beheaded — by Immortals, mortals or accidentally (in a plane crash, for instance). When  Immortals are wounded, the wound heals immediately, unless it be a severe one, which takes a little more time to heal; and they feel pain. However, if the wound is in the neck or head, it heals like in mortals and the Immortal gets a scar. After they "die", it takes several minutes to them to return back to life.

The Quickening

When an Immortal beheads another, he/she gets his/her energy in a process called Quickening. The older they are,  the more energy they release when they are beheaded (it is implied that the more an Immortal lives, the wiser and more powerful he/she gets). When good Immortals kill the evil ones, they get their energy, but not their wickedness. However, there is the Dark Quickening, when all wickedness is transferred, causing a lot of trouble for those who receive it (it happened once to Duncan MacLeod).




The Game/There Can Be Only One

Immortals live according to their own rules: in the end, there can be only one. There are good and evil Immortals. They always carry a sword to be ready to fight and they cannot fight in Holy Ground (churches, cemeteries, monasteries etc). Nobody can interfere with a fight after it begins. It is considered cheating to shoot or stab to death the opponent before beheading him/her.

The Gathering/The Prize

There will be a time when all Immortals left will feel drawn to an unknown land, for The Gathering. Then, the final combat will take place; the Immortal who survives will get The Prize: the power of all Immortals who ever lived.

Obs.: In the first movie, Highlander, Connor MacLeod defeated the Kurgan and won the Prize; so that the series made sense, it was  disregarded.


The Watchers

A secret society of men and women who observe and record Immortals' lives, but never interfere. It was created by Ammaletu the Akkadian after he saw Gilgamesh coming back to life, 4,000 years ago. Immortals know nothing about the Watchers — except for just a few of them. They can be identified by a tattoo in the wrist.

 

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