Names To Explain: In case you didn't figure it out by reading the story
(Auhtor's note: I wrote these a long time ago...anything I screwed up is an oops on my part. All HIGHLANDER fans will know. Everyone else, oh well, take my word for it.)
Richie: Richard Ryan, a street kid who broke into MacLeod and Noel Antiques
in the first episode, The Gathering. He would become Duncan and Tessa's charge, living
with them (although they never officially adopted the screwed up orphan) until Tessa
died in The Darkness; in that episode, it was revealed that Richie too, was Immortal
(Duncan's teacher and good friend Connor MacLeod alluded to this in the first episode.)
Richie then became Duncan's student, friend, and sidekick, until he was accidentally
killed by the Highlander in Archangel.
Tessa: Tessa Noel, an art student at the Sorbonne, and a Parisian native, met Duncan
MacLeod when he leapt aboard her tour boat (she apparently paid her way through school
giving tours of the Seine). Their relationship lasted fourteen years and spanned two
continents. In 1983, her lover revealed to her his Immortality. They were already living
together in an apartment in Paris. At some point after this, they moved to the Pacific
North West and started an antique store. Although she was put in danger innumerably in
the name of The Immortal Game (see "Words to Know"), Tessa succumbed to a rather
pedestrian, be it ever so violent, death: [In The Darkness, as written on the first pages of
this novel] she was shot at point blank range by a junkie who had attempted to rob her. It
took her lover many moons to get over her death; to this day, he still carries some degree
of guilt.
MacLeod: Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod, born in 1592 in the Highlands of
Scotland in the village of Glennfinnan on the shores of Lock Shiel. Raised a chieftain's
son, young Duncan was once saved from a wolf by the legendary Witch of Donan Woods
(this "witch" ended up being an Immortal named Cassandra, who foretold of the events
that would occur in the episodes Archangel, Avatar, and Armageddon). He was in love
with a woman from another clan, Debra Campbell and intended to marry her. There was
only one problem: she was betrothed to his cousin, Robert. The two MacLeods dueled,
with the latter on the wrong end of the claymore. Duncan could not bear the blood on his
hands, and denounced Debra. They made up, but she ended up falling over a cliff (as
revealed in Homeland). He eventually died in battle, only to rise up again. His father
called him the devil and revealed to him that the real son of Chief and Lady MacLeod
had been still born, and Duncan had been brought to them by a mid-wife claiming he was
the devil's bairn. (Pronounced in the same way as a big thing you hold farm animals in,
this word is Scottish slang for child) Duncan wandered for two years until being told of
Connor MacLeod by an Immortal hermit, who took his own head and supplied Duncan
with his first Quickening (see "Words to Know"). Duncan was taught by his kinsman,
and later wandered the earth loving, fighting, and changing people's lives until the time
of the Gathering (see "Words to Know"). His life from there was chronicled in
Highlander: The Series and in my own works Highlander: The Rochelle Chronicles.
Amanda: Amanda (whose last name used to be Deveraux, but has since been changed
to Montrose, as it has most assuredly been changed before) was born over one thousand
years ago in Normandy. She was beggar who was beaten to death for stealing a loaf of
bread during the Bubonic Plague. She revived and was taught by a woman named
Rebecca, who gave young Amanda a piece of the Methuselah stone-a mystical talisman
said to bring eternal life and vulnerability to the wearer. (Methuselah, in Jewish and
Greek mythology, was said to have possessed the stone and lived for over 900 years,
although he was a mortal. He then gave to stone to his grandson Noah, who, with his
family, survived the Great Flood) She too roamed around the known world until she and
Rebecca met up with Duncan MacLeod in Italy in 1635. (It was insinuated that Amanda
had a less than amicable past with Connor, but was never elaborated upon.) After that,
she and MacLeod were on-again, off-again (and on and off and on and off and on and off
and on...) until he met Tessa (duh!!!) She tried to break them up in The Lady and the
Tiger, but was unsuccessful. She returned periodically through out history of the show,
until finally getting her own spin-off when HTS was axed. However, it tanked after one
season, due to lack of a certain Scottish Immortal.
Joe: Joseph Dawson, a Vietnam vet who lost his legs to a land mine and spent the next
twenty years using prosthetic legs and Watching Duncan MacLeod. He is a Watcher (see
"Words to Know" ) He was supposed to observe in secret, but was forced to make his
presence known in The Watchers. Over time, he and his assignment forged a lethal, and
at times, unstable friendship. They've taken bullets for each other, and Dawson provides
Mac with vital information few Immortals are privy to. Dawson was once sentenced to
death by the Watcher Tribunal for committing treason (one of their rules is "Observe and
record, but never interfere." Oopps. Guess who saved him). They ended up loving each
other like brothers; in Not To Be, Joe tells his Immortal friend: "I can't imagine my life
without you Mac. Fact is, I don't want to."
Methos: Imagine being so old, you cannot remember where, or when you were born.
Methos is over five thousand years old, and is considered a legend, because it is
impossible for any Immortal to survive that long. Guess what: nothing is impossible.
Check out this guy's resume: aside from being married, like, sixty-eight times, Methos
was once Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (as revealed in Comes a
Horseman and Revelation 6:8). He was a doctor in the south during slavery; a member of
fabled poet Lord Byron's decadent circle of debauchery; lived in Ancient Greece and
Rome; and knew Helen of Troy. He was even a Watcher (unbelievable irony, an
Immortal masquerading as a Watcher), involved in Research (he was researching the
Methos Chronicles, trying to find himself. It was rather introspective and poetic) under
the guise of mild-mannered Adam Pierson. He fell in love with Alexa, a waitress at Joe
Dawson's bar, but she was terminally ill. He tried to get the Methuselah stone back from
Amanda as his beloved lay dying (except it didn't work and the poor girl croaked.) He
eventually left the Watchers when Joe was nearly executed. His relationship with
MacLeod has also had its shares of ups and downs: when he was a Horseman, he held
Cassandra in captivity and killed her people (Cassandra and Mac were sleeping together
when this piece of news came to light.)
Darius: Legend has it that the great warrior king Darius was an Immortal, consumed by
evil and greed. Then he took the head of another Immortal at the ancient gates to Paris,
and with his Quickening (see "Words to Know") became of man of peace. Darius found
God and became a priest at Sainte Julien le Paurve. (Saint Julian the Poor church, a rather
famous church in Paris) He was a missionary who anointed the dying in the fields of
battle. He met Duncan MacLeod at one of these fields and changed the Highlander's life.
He became a mentor and example of peace for a man tired of war and death. The
character of Darius was killed by the Hunters (see "Words to Know) when the actor who
portrayed him, Werner Stocker, died suddenly of a terminal illness.
Nick: As the second main character on Amanda's spin off, The Raven, Nick Wolfe, a
cop whose partner was shot by a fellow (albeit dirty) officer. At the same time, he
discovered Amanda was Immortal and the two became unlikely bedfellows (both literally
and figuratively). When Nick became a PI, Amanda was often his sidekick and partner.
The two had chemistry and an intense physical attraction, which is probably why
Amanda never told Mac about him (voluntarily). Nick was eventually shot dead, at which
point it was revealed that he too, was Immortal. (So much for less old Immortals, fewer
new Immortals!) But then the show was axed; so we will never know what became of
poor Mr. Wolfe (not that anyone truly cares).
*Rochelle: Born in Paris in 1975 to a single unwed mother, Rochelle Picaut (originally
Rochelle Daniels-Smith) had a bit of a tough life. As Immortals have no real biological
parents, Rochelle was probably an abandoned baby switched accidentally with the
biological child of the woman she calls Mom. Her mother was the daughter of a United
States ambassador, and Tessa Noel's best friend, also a student at the Sorbonne. The two
women raised Rochelle in Paris until she was five, at which time Tessa moved in with
MacLeod, and Rochelle and her mother moved back to Boston, where her mother had a
good job set up. Rochelle and her mother were all each other had in the world until
tragically, her mother was killed in a car crash. Tessa tried to adopt her, but the adoption
was denied, and Rochelle was bounced around from foster home to foster home until she
committed suicide. Her DYS worker, a man named Frank Fidalos, as an Immortal, and
trained the girl, who had become a street junkie and an alcoholic. IN five years, he
reformed her, sent her to college, and taught her how to be an Immortal. But then he was
decapitated by an enemy. Rochelle moved from their Alaskan home to St. Louis to join a
theater company. They toured Europe on a mission of diplomacy, and she came across
MacLeod. But there is a catch: she is expecting to find her "Aunt Tessa" as well.
*Nicole: Nicole Daniels-Smith, one of the daughters of the American Ambassador to
France, had a bit of a wild side. She was terribly promiscuous, until one day, she got
knocked up. Fearing a political scandal, her parents were forced to kick her out after she
refused to get an abortion. She moved in with her best friend, Tessa Noel, and the two
women raised her daughter, a precocious child named Rochelle. When Tessa eventually
moved in with her boyfriend, Duncan MacLeod, Nicole and her daughter moved back to
Boston, where Nicole had a good PR job lined up. Tragically, she was killed in a car
crash, orphaning her only child. She never saw her best friend again after leaving Paris.
*Noreen: Noreen Daniels-Smith, twin sister to Nicole, aunt to Rochelle, daughter of
Ambassador Smith and Mrs. Daniels-Smith, was killed in a car crash along Paris' right
bank six months before her sister became pregnant. She was the Smith's only other child.
*Frank: Frank Mamakos, 1500 years old at the time of his death, was Rochelle's social
worker, teacher, and the first real father figure she ever had. He affords Rochelle a special
connection to the Highlander, although Duncan MacLeod does not initially know they are
related. (Think "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon")
*Denotes characters of my own creation that were not originally a part of Highlander lore.
Words To Know
Game: The Game, refers to the battle through the centuries between Immortals.
Rules: As with any other game, this one has its own set of unbreakable rules.
1) You may only use a sword. This is an Immortal's only weapon of choice and
may be used to obtain a Quickening by decapitation. (Decapitation is the
only way an Immortal dies and doesn't come back. Everything else, they pop
back up.)
2) Do NOT, under any circumstances, fight on holy ground. The consequences
can be deadly. (In Little Tin God, Joe gives an example of two Immortals
disobeying this law: "Once these two Immortals were going at it in a shrine...in
Pompeii 49 BC")
3) Immortals have no real biological parents. They have been around since the
beginning of time and will be around until the last head falls. How they get
here is anyone's guess. (They are mortal until their first death. But after they
get over that, it's just one big, never-ending, swords flying, heads falling
party.)
4) Immortals can have no children (It's kind of easier that way. They see
enough death without having to bury children along the way. Imagine, if this
rule were not in place, Methos' track record with kids) Sterility, though, does
in no way hamper an Immortal's sex drive (In MacLeod's case, apparently, it
only augments it. The boy was always jumping into bed with somebody.
Sometimes, they never made it to a bed...If you can, catch the first scene in
To Be; let me just tell you this: it ain't an earth quake that's rocking the
barge)
5) No outside interference. This includes other Immortals, mortals, or weapons
that are not of the sharp and pointy orientation.
6) Do not fight in front of mortals if at al possible. AVOID doing this at any
cost.
7) Do not tell mortals of the existence of Immortals. (This rule is periodically
broken form time to time as necessity dictates. Of all the rules, this is the
most lenient and the one with the biggest loophole)
8) In the end, there can be only one...(see next "Word to Know")
Gathering: As Immortals go at it through the centuries, there are less and less old
Immortals and fewer and fewer new Immortals. At some point, when the ratio of new to
old is correct, all Immortals will feel an irresistible pull to a far away land to fight any
Immortal who crosses their path. Then these remaining Immortals will duke it out until
there are only two left. The winner of that competition will then have all the power of
ever Immortal that ever lived: all their thoughts, dreams, fears. Everything that made up
those Immortals will be inside the Last.
Quickening (also known as The Prize): When one Immortal decapitates another,
all the power of that now metabolically challenged Immortal goes to the winner in the
form of lightning and electrical energy. Receiving a Quickening is extremely painful, as
one is receiving the power of that Immortal, and the power of any Immortals that said
dead Immortal has killed.
The Prize: Other than a Quickening, this refers to what the Last One receives. Besides
all that power, that Immortal is said to have evolved to a higher plane of existence. Not to
mention that they will be able to rule the world for eternity if they so desire.
Dark Quickening: If a good Immortal kills one too many evil Immortals, and takes in
their evil Quickenings, the myth said that the evil would overwhelm the good, as opposed
the balancing it out. No one believed this myth to be true until Mac's friend Jim Coltec, a
Native American hyoka, had one too many. A Dark Quickening can be likened to a
sonuvabitch of a hang over that never goes away. It drives the Immortal mad. Mac saved
his friend this anguish by chopping off Coltec's head. But then he had the dark
Quickening and was a bit loony himself until Methos kicked his ass and made his good
half fight his bad half. (Guess which half won)
Watchers: A secret society of men and women who observe and record, but never
interfere. They know the truth about Immortals, as they have been observing and
recording Immortals' lives since the beginning of Immortal kind. Immortals aren't
supposed to know about them, and it seems that the only ones who do are aquainted with
Duncan MacLeod. (Guess after four hundred years he forgot how to keep a secret.)
Hunters: Watchers who have taken too many knocks to the head. These Watchers do
not believe Immortals a valuable part of history, but instead, abominations in the eyes of
God. These men and women were determined to wipe out Immortals until MacLeod
stopped them and their leader, James Horton (FYI: James Horton was Joe's brother-in-
law, so it took a few times to stop the guy)
(Auhtor's note: I wrote these a long time ago...anything I screwed up is an oops on my part. All HIGHLANDER fans will know. Everyone else, oh well, take my word for it.)
Richie: Richard Ryan, a street kid who broke into MacLeod and Noel Antiques
in the first episode, The Gathering. He would become Duncan and Tessa's charge, living
with them (although they never officially adopted the screwed up orphan) until Tessa
died in The Darkness; in that episode, it was revealed that Richie too, was Immortal
(Duncan's teacher and good friend Connor MacLeod alluded to this in the first episode.)
Richie then became Duncan's student, friend, and sidekick, until he was accidentally
killed by the Highlander in Archangel.
Tessa: Tessa Noel, an art student at the Sorbonne, and a Parisian native, met Duncan
MacLeod when he leapt aboard her tour boat (she apparently paid her way through school
giving tours of the Seine). Their relationship lasted fourteen years and spanned two
continents. In 1983, her lover revealed to her his Immortality. They were already living
together in an apartment in Paris. At some point after this, they moved to the Pacific
North West and started an antique store. Although she was put in danger innumerably in
the name of The Immortal Game (see "Words to Know"), Tessa succumbed to a rather
pedestrian, be it ever so violent, death: [In The Darkness, as written on the first pages of
this novel] she was shot at point blank range by a junkie who had attempted to rob her. It
took her lover many moons to get over her death; to this day, he still carries some degree
of guilt.
MacLeod: Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod, born in 1592 in the Highlands of
Scotland in the village of Glennfinnan on the shores of Lock Shiel. Raised a chieftain's
son, young Duncan was once saved from a wolf by the legendary Witch of Donan Woods
(this "witch" ended up being an Immortal named Cassandra, who foretold of the events
that would occur in the episodes Archangel, Avatar, and Armageddon). He was in love
with a woman from another clan, Debra Campbell and intended to marry her. There was
only one problem: she was betrothed to his cousin, Robert. The two MacLeods dueled,
with the latter on the wrong end of the claymore. Duncan could not bear the blood on his
hands, and denounced Debra. They made up, but she ended up falling over a cliff (as
revealed in Homeland). He eventually died in battle, only to rise up again. His father
called him the devil and revealed to him that the real son of Chief and Lady MacLeod
had been still born, and Duncan had been brought to them by a mid-wife claiming he was
the devil's bairn. (Pronounced in the same way as a big thing you hold farm animals in,
this word is Scottish slang for child) Duncan wandered for two years until being told of
Connor MacLeod by an Immortal hermit, who took his own head and supplied Duncan
with his first Quickening (see "Words to Know"). Duncan was taught by his kinsman,
and later wandered the earth loving, fighting, and changing people's lives until the time
of the Gathering (see "Words to Know"). His life from there was chronicled in
Highlander: The Series and in my own works Highlander: The Rochelle Chronicles.
Amanda: Amanda (whose last name used to be Deveraux, but has since been changed
to Montrose, as it has most assuredly been changed before) was born over one thousand
years ago in Normandy. She was beggar who was beaten to death for stealing a loaf of
bread during the Bubonic Plague. She revived and was taught by a woman named
Rebecca, who gave young Amanda a piece of the Methuselah stone-a mystical talisman
said to bring eternal life and vulnerability to the wearer. (Methuselah, in Jewish and
Greek mythology, was said to have possessed the stone and lived for over 900 years,
although he was a mortal. He then gave to stone to his grandson Noah, who, with his
family, survived the Great Flood) She too roamed around the known world until she and
Rebecca met up with Duncan MacLeod in Italy in 1635. (It was insinuated that Amanda
had a less than amicable past with Connor, but was never elaborated upon.) After that,
she and MacLeod were on-again, off-again (and on and off and on and off and on and off
and on...) until he met Tessa (duh!!!) She tried to break them up in The Lady and the
Tiger, but was unsuccessful. She returned periodically through out history of the show,
until finally getting her own spin-off when HTS was axed. However, it tanked after one
season, due to lack of a certain Scottish Immortal.
Joe: Joseph Dawson, a Vietnam vet who lost his legs to a land mine and spent the next
twenty years using prosthetic legs and Watching Duncan MacLeod. He is a Watcher (see
"Words to Know" ) He was supposed to observe in secret, but was forced to make his
presence known in The Watchers. Over time, he and his assignment forged a lethal, and
at times, unstable friendship. They've taken bullets for each other, and Dawson provides
Mac with vital information few Immortals are privy to. Dawson was once sentenced to
death by the Watcher Tribunal for committing treason (one of their rules is "Observe and
record, but never interfere." Oopps. Guess who saved him). They ended up loving each
other like brothers; in Not To Be, Joe tells his Immortal friend: "I can't imagine my life
without you Mac. Fact is, I don't want to."
Methos: Imagine being so old, you cannot remember where, or when you were born.
Methos is over five thousand years old, and is considered a legend, because it is
impossible for any Immortal to survive that long. Guess what: nothing is impossible.
Check out this guy's resume: aside from being married, like, sixty-eight times, Methos
was once Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (as revealed in Comes a
Horseman and Revelation 6:8). He was a doctor in the south during slavery; a member of
fabled poet Lord Byron's decadent circle of debauchery; lived in Ancient Greece and
Rome; and knew Helen of Troy. He was even a Watcher (unbelievable irony, an
Immortal masquerading as a Watcher), involved in Research (he was researching the
Methos Chronicles, trying to find himself. It was rather introspective and poetic) under
the guise of mild-mannered Adam Pierson. He fell in love with Alexa, a waitress at Joe
Dawson's bar, but she was terminally ill. He tried to get the Methuselah stone back from
Amanda as his beloved lay dying (except it didn't work and the poor girl croaked.) He
eventually left the Watchers when Joe was nearly executed. His relationship with
MacLeod has also had its shares of ups and downs: when he was a Horseman, he held
Cassandra in captivity and killed her people (Cassandra and Mac were sleeping together
when this piece of news came to light.)
Darius: Legend has it that the great warrior king Darius was an Immortal, consumed by
evil and greed. Then he took the head of another Immortal at the ancient gates to Paris,
and with his Quickening (see "Words to Know") became of man of peace. Darius found
God and became a priest at Sainte Julien le Paurve. (Saint Julian the Poor church, a rather
famous church in Paris) He was a missionary who anointed the dying in the fields of
battle. He met Duncan MacLeod at one of these fields and changed the Highlander's life.
He became a mentor and example of peace for a man tired of war and death. The
character of Darius was killed by the Hunters (see "Words to Know) when the actor who
portrayed him, Werner Stocker, died suddenly of a terminal illness.
Nick: As the second main character on Amanda's spin off, The Raven, Nick Wolfe, a
cop whose partner was shot by a fellow (albeit dirty) officer. At the same time, he
discovered Amanda was Immortal and the two became unlikely bedfellows (both literally
and figuratively). When Nick became a PI, Amanda was often his sidekick and partner.
The two had chemistry and an intense physical attraction, which is probably why
Amanda never told Mac about him (voluntarily). Nick was eventually shot dead, at which
point it was revealed that he too, was Immortal. (So much for less old Immortals, fewer
new Immortals!) But then the show was axed; so we will never know what became of
poor Mr. Wolfe (not that anyone truly cares).
*Rochelle: Born in Paris in 1975 to a single unwed mother, Rochelle Picaut (originally
Rochelle Daniels-Smith) had a bit of a tough life. As Immortals have no real biological
parents, Rochelle was probably an abandoned baby switched accidentally with the
biological child of the woman she calls Mom. Her mother was the daughter of a United
States ambassador, and Tessa Noel's best friend, also a student at the Sorbonne. The two
women raised Rochelle in Paris until she was five, at which time Tessa moved in with
MacLeod, and Rochelle and her mother moved back to Boston, where her mother had a
good job set up. Rochelle and her mother were all each other had in the world until
tragically, her mother was killed in a car crash. Tessa tried to adopt her, but the adoption
was denied, and Rochelle was bounced around from foster home to foster home until she
committed suicide. Her DYS worker, a man named Frank Fidalos, as an Immortal, and
trained the girl, who had become a street junkie and an alcoholic. IN five years, he
reformed her, sent her to college, and taught her how to be an Immortal. But then he was
decapitated by an enemy. Rochelle moved from their Alaskan home to St. Louis to join a
theater company. They toured Europe on a mission of diplomacy, and she came across
MacLeod. But there is a catch: she is expecting to find her "Aunt Tessa" as well.
*Nicole: Nicole Daniels-Smith, one of the daughters of the American Ambassador to
France, had a bit of a wild side. She was terribly promiscuous, until one day, she got
knocked up. Fearing a political scandal, her parents were forced to kick her out after she
refused to get an abortion. She moved in with her best friend, Tessa Noel, and the two
women raised her daughter, a precocious child named Rochelle. When Tessa eventually
moved in with her boyfriend, Duncan MacLeod, Nicole and her daughter moved back to
Boston, where Nicole had a good PR job lined up. Tragically, she was killed in a car
crash, orphaning her only child. She never saw her best friend again after leaving Paris.
*Noreen: Noreen Daniels-Smith, twin sister to Nicole, aunt to Rochelle, daughter of
Ambassador Smith and Mrs. Daniels-Smith, was killed in a car crash along Paris' right
bank six months before her sister became pregnant. She was the Smith's only other child.
*Frank: Frank Mamakos, 1500 years old at the time of his death, was Rochelle's social
worker, teacher, and the first real father figure she ever had. He affords Rochelle a special
connection to the Highlander, although Duncan MacLeod does not initially know they are
related. (Think "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon")
*Denotes characters of my own creation that were not originally a part of Highlander lore.
Words To Know
Game: The Game, refers to the battle through the centuries between Immortals.
Rules: As with any other game, this one has its own set of unbreakable rules.
1) You may only use a sword. This is an Immortal's only weapon of choice and
may be used to obtain a Quickening by decapitation. (Decapitation is the
only way an Immortal dies and doesn't come back. Everything else, they pop
back up.)
2) Do NOT, under any circumstances, fight on holy ground. The consequences
can be deadly. (In Little Tin God, Joe gives an example of two Immortals
disobeying this law: "Once these two Immortals were going at it in a shrine...in
Pompeii 49 BC")
3) Immortals have no real biological parents. They have been around since the
beginning of time and will be around until the last head falls. How they get
here is anyone's guess. (They are mortal until their first death. But after they
get over that, it's just one big, never-ending, swords flying, heads falling
party.)
4) Immortals can have no children (It's kind of easier that way. They see
enough death without having to bury children along the way. Imagine, if this
rule were not in place, Methos' track record with kids) Sterility, though, does
in no way hamper an Immortal's sex drive (In MacLeod's case, apparently, it
only augments it. The boy was always jumping into bed with somebody.
Sometimes, they never made it to a bed...If you can, catch the first scene in
To Be; let me just tell you this: it ain't an earth quake that's rocking the
barge)
5) No outside interference. This includes other Immortals, mortals, or weapons
that are not of the sharp and pointy orientation.
6) Do not fight in front of mortals if at al possible. AVOID doing this at any
cost.
7) Do not tell mortals of the existence of Immortals. (This rule is periodically
broken form time to time as necessity dictates. Of all the rules, this is the
most lenient and the one with the biggest loophole)
8) In the end, there can be only one...(see next "Word to Know")
Gathering: As Immortals go at it through the centuries, there are less and less old
Immortals and fewer and fewer new Immortals. At some point, when the ratio of new to
old is correct, all Immortals will feel an irresistible pull to a far away land to fight any
Immortal who crosses their path. Then these remaining Immortals will duke it out until
there are only two left. The winner of that competition will then have all the power of
ever Immortal that ever lived: all their thoughts, dreams, fears. Everything that made up
those Immortals will be inside the Last.
Quickening (also known as The Prize): When one Immortal decapitates another,
all the power of that now metabolically challenged Immortal goes to the winner in the
form of lightning and electrical energy. Receiving a Quickening is extremely painful, as
one is receiving the power of that Immortal, and the power of any Immortals that said
dead Immortal has killed.
The Prize: Other than a Quickening, this refers to what the Last One receives. Besides
all that power, that Immortal is said to have evolved to a higher plane of existence. Not to
mention that they will be able to rule the world for eternity if they so desire.
Dark Quickening: If a good Immortal kills one too many evil Immortals, and takes in
their evil Quickenings, the myth said that the evil would overwhelm the good, as opposed
the balancing it out. No one believed this myth to be true until Mac's friend Jim Coltec, a
Native American hyoka, had one too many. A Dark Quickening can be likened to a
sonuvabitch of a hang over that never goes away. It drives the Immortal mad. Mac saved
his friend this anguish by chopping off Coltec's head. But then he had the dark
Quickening and was a bit loony himself until Methos kicked his ass and made his good
half fight his bad half. (Guess which half won)
Watchers: A secret society of men and women who observe and record, but never
interfere. They know the truth about Immortals, as they have been observing and
recording Immortals' lives since the beginning of Immortal kind. Immortals aren't
supposed to know about them, and it seems that the only ones who do are aquainted with
Duncan MacLeod. (Guess after four hundred years he forgot how to keep a secret.)
Hunters: Watchers who have taken too many knocks to the head. These Watchers do
not believe Immortals a valuable part of history, but instead, abominations in the eyes of
God. These men and women were determined to wipe out Immortals until MacLeod
stopped them and their leader, James Horton (FYI: James Horton was Joe's brother-in-
law, so it took a few times to stop the guy)