 From the dawn of time they came moving silently down through the centuries living many secret lives Struggling to reach the time of the gathering when the few who remain will battle to the last No one has ever known they were among us until now in the films and television series There have been roughly 400 known immortals shown on screen No one quite knows exactly how many have actually lived through the ages not even the watchers Immortals were first introduced in Highlander 1986 by creator and scriptwriter Gregory Whiting while in film school Gregory wrote Highlander as his writing class project traveling through Scotland on his summer vacation He found himself standing in front of a suit of armor and wondered to himself What it would be like if that guy was alive today In the franchise universe the origins of immortals is unknown However, the second film in the series tried to make sense of them and give them an origin as aliens from the planet Zeist However, this was edited out in the director's cut of the film and has subsequently been erased from continuity The truth is Immortals themselves don't know where they come from or what purpose they serve However, one thing is for certain no matter where they come from or how long they've existed in the end There can be only one Immortals are scattered around the world and all throughout history. The oldest known among them is Mithos We'll talk more about him in a future video The only bond between them are oral traditions called the rules Transmitted from teacher to student, but the creator of the rules is unknown These rules consists of five main rules, which nearly all immortals follow No immortal may fight on holy ground no matter who regards it as holy Immortal combat is one-on-one only no outside interference Mortals must not learn about immortals if you are killed you move on When only a few are left all immortals will feel drawn to a distant land to fight for the prize This is the time of the gathering In the end there can be only one the last one will receive all the power of all the immortals whoever lived The rules dictate that all immortals are to fight and behead each other until only one of them remains Often this leads to friends dueling friends and even more teacher dueling student Immortals who live long enough develop strong fighting skills Usually transmitted from teacher to student and through the quickening after severing the head of another immortal However, the head does not need to be removed from one immortal by another in order for an immortal to receive the quickening Occasionally if an immortal is decapitated by immortal or by machine Then if there is another immortal nearby within a reasonable distance then he or she will receive the decapitated Immortals quickening this occurred in the third episode of the series for Season when Richie befriended a mentally child like fully grown immortal who also suffered from autism through a series of unfortunate events Richie and Duncan thought they would have to remove their new friend from the game entirely However, the immortal voluntarily laid on the ground next to a set of railroad tracks and placed his head on one of the rails For an oncoming train the train decapitated the man and Richie received his quickening Most Immortals are relatively good in nature similar to mortals of these light Immortals some only fight when challenged some fight to avenge others fight to protect and some Still either retire from the game by residing on holy ground or go into hiding like mythos the dark Immortals However hunt other Immortals full-time or causes much carnage and destruction as possible whether it be to Immortals or mortals The rules forbid the Immortals to fight on holy ground Holy ground is defined as any land or building held sacred by any people in the world even the most evil Immortals Wouldn't desecrate holy ground Watcher Joe Dawson mentions that according to legend this rule was broken in AD 79 in Pompeii Implying that it resulted in the eruption of Mount Fizzuvious and the destruction of the city The very last Immortals still alive at the end of the gathering wins the prize for the most part The prize is said to be ultimate power and knowledge According to Conor McLeod in the first film which was meant to be a standalone movie. He states after winning the prize I know everything. I am everything. I can love and have children live and grow old as Explained by Conor Duncan in the first episode of the series The last one will have the power of all the Immortals who ever lived enough power to rule this planet forever If someone like slain quince an evil immortal is the last one mankind will suffer an eternity of darkness from which it will never recover Other than immortality one of the main differences between mortals and Immortals is that Immortals are unable to have children Even before they suffer their first death which transforms them into Immortals They are unable to have children as Duncan explained to Richie in season two. You see before Immortals become immortal by suffering their first death Which must be a non-natural death such as being murdered. They are completely mortal They grow and age and if they don't suffer a violent death known as their first death Then they can grow old and die or even die from diseases Once they experience their first death and become immortal every immortal can feel a buzz Sensing the presence of other Immortals from a reasonable distance the buzz often gets stronger The closer Immortals are to each other which allows them to sense an attack even when they cannot see the other The buzz is something felt not hurt pre immortals Do not feel the buzz the full grown Immortals can sense and identify pre immortals in this way though The buzz is faint and easy to miss pre immortals start triggering the buzz in full grown Immortals When they are dying for the first time those who are not yet aware of the meaning of the buzz often experience it as a headache Immortals have normal susceptibility To the things that are fatal to mortals and they will die only to resurrect shortly thereafter However Immortals often shrug off injuries that would likely kill normal human beings every wound and immortal obtains quickly heals and disappears Except in the neck area as seen in Immortals the kergen and callous the healing is performed by a small quickening flash Across the wound an immortal cannot regenerate or replace a limb or major portion of the body when it is separated from the body However the separated portions can be reconnected to the body Provided that the immortal has the pieces together and is in the condition to perform the reconnection Some Immortals have different abilities such as the Guardian and the Source who has superhuman speed There you have it geeks in this installment of Highlander Explained Which is a new multi-part series on the channel. We explain to you exactly what an immortal is in the Highlander universe I hope you enjoyed this video and if so make sure you smash the thumbs up icon Make sure you subscribe and tune in next time for Highlander Explained the quickening Hey guys if you enjoyed this video make sure you hit that subscribe button right there so you can stay up to date on all Thanks geek culture. Also you can check out one of these two playlists right here on the side for more videos Just like the one you just watched