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Highlander’s “Immortals” are born regular people. Upon the time of their first death, they come back to life and find they are immune to disease, have stopped aging, and heal from any wound. The only exception to that last claim is beheading, which is the one true way to kill an Immortal. When one beheads another, they absorb the fallen Immortal’s knowledge and power through a process known as “The Quickening,” and become one step closer to existing as the last remaining Immortal.

Those rules are some of the only truly consistent things running through all the Highlander franchise’s various parts. Highlander spans many different media and can be confusing to follow, especially for anyone who has viewed all the films.

In the beginning, there was no origin story for the immortals. Highlander (1986) simply lets us know they exist without focusing on the hows or whys.

When Highlander II: The Quickening came out in 1991, it destroyed almost all of the plot points from the first film, and contained a backstory explaining that the immortals were actually aliens transplanted from the planet Zeist. Because of how massively this contradicted the original film, it was eventually edited out and the film was re-released with no mention of Zeist, instead vaguely stating that the immortals descend from a distant Earth past. Neither of these theories are ever mentioned again in any film or television installment of the series, mainly due to the absolutely terrible reception received by the film.

In the original film, protagonist Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) asks his mentor Ramirez (Sean Connery), also an immortal, where they come from. Ramirez replies, “Why does the sun come up? Or are the stars just pinholes in the curtain of night? Who knows?”

Similarly, in Highlander: Endgame (2000), Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul) delivers the line “We are the seeds of legend, but our true origins are unknown. We simply are.”

The canonical answer to where immortals come from is a mystery. It’s simply known that they have been on Earth for a long time, before the beginning of civilization. During the events of Highlander: The Series (1992) and movies in the timeline following it, the oldest living immortal is Methos (Peter Wingfield), whose timeline dates back thousands of years, as he was at one point one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. While Highlander lore implies Methos is predated by millennia of other immortals, he exists as the oldest (and most powerful) alive within the timeline of the franchise.

What binds Immortals through time and location are The Rules, a governing list of combat ethics by which they hunt and kill each other, an act known as The Game. These Rules are passed from teacher to student, as each immortal needs trained by a fellow immortal to ensure they play The Game properly.

The rules are:

• No Immortal can fight on Holy Ground, no matter who regards it as Holy
• Immortal combat is one on one — no outside interference, no two on one
• Mortals must not learn about Immortals — if you are killed, you move on
• No Immortal can have children
• At the last, 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 who ever lived

These rules not only govern the behavior of the immortals throughout the films and television series, but also serve as dramatic guideposts upon which plots and action can be based. The concept of holy ground is utilized constantly throughout Highlander: The Series, and the series also contains episodes involving the consequences for immortals who break the rules. There are also mortals who are entrusted with knowledge about various immortals, through which the series frequently examines the concepts of trust and friendship.

Further, interpretation of The Rules determines how various immortals play the game. When one immortal beheads another, the act of The Quickening is temporarily paralyzing, leaving the immortal vulnerable to an easy kill by another. As such, some Immortals travel in pairs to prevent this from happening - even though they know, eventually, they would have to fight each other should they end up the only two left.

“In the end, there can be only one” is the motto of the Highlander franchise, a reference to The Game. Immortals are set in constant battle until only one is left, upon which The Prize of infinite wisdom and power is bestowed. The Game is effectively a massive battle of good vs. evil, for if the final immortal is an evil person, the world would plunge into darkness. If they are a good person, the winner would produce a golden age and be able to rule infinitely.