Immortal (Highlander) - Early Life

Early Life

Immortals can be "found" in any time era and in any place around the world. They can be of any race, ethnicity, or gender (and as an unfortunate few find out, any age). For example, Amanda is a Norman female, Xavier St. Cloud is black, Carl Robinson is black, Heresh Clay and Luther are black, Annie Devlin and Sean Burns are Irish, May-Ling Shen, Jin Ke and Kiem Sun are Chinese. There are comparatively few female Immortals. Abramovitz explains, "You have to be realistic. Women survive in a warrior's game by being different kinds of warriors. (...) You can't expect a woman who is 5'4" and 130 pounds to survive in the same way. (...) So it's hard for me to understand, no matter how good she is with a blade, that a woman could take on a great athlete and survive." In the first three films, all Immortals depicted were male. Female Immortals were introduced in 1992 in the fifth episode of Highlander: The Series, "Free Fall."

Many of them are foundlings, like Duncan MacLeod and Richie Ryan, but it is not known if all of them are. Connor MacLeod, for example, is never said to be one; in Highlander: Endgame, he is seen protecting his aged mother from being burned as a witch, though whether or not he might have been adopted is never addressed. The matter is not settled in the movies or series, but in the Highlander novels it is assumed that all Immortals are foundlings. For example, in White Silence Duncan MacLeod tells Danny O'Donal, "We're all foundlings." Baby Immortals are never shown on screen but there are accounts of them in Highlander: The Series. In "Family Tree", Ian MacLeod, Duncan's foster father, tells him, "When the midwife looked into your eyes, for it was you the peasant brought in, she cringed back in fear... and said you were a changeling... left by the forest demons... and we should cast you out for the dogs!" In "Avenging Angel", Alfred Cahill says of his stepfather, "he knew I was different the first time he set eyes on me."

Immortals are raised in the societies to which they were born or adopted into and often retain their personality, customs and habits most of their life. Abramovitz explains, "Even if you are an Immortal, who you are as a child in many ways is who you become." Immortals grow up and age exactly like mortals, except that they do not have children. The wounds they get heal normally; Colin MacLeod, for example, carries a permanent diagonal scar on his face as a result of his head having been cleaved in two, causing his First Death. They do not feel the Buzz but they trigger a very faint Buzz in full-grown Immortals. Full-grown Immortals know what pre-Immortals really are when they encounter them.

There are a few Immortals that sometimes die during violent periods, such as wars, before they have the chance to grow up. These child Immortals are particularly vulnerable, as all the physical training in the world cannot put them on even terms with an adult Immortal, especially one-on-one. Expressing surprise that Immortals could be very young after meeting one, Richie Ryan is told by Duncan MacLeod that there is a reason so few exist: "he'll never be big enough or strong enough", or in other words, they will never be able to adequately protect themselves. Trapped in a small body for eternity, child Immortals tend to either become easy pickings, beheaded at an early time by evil Immortals, or if they live for more than a few decades become cold and calculating, using the only physical asset they have: the ability to feign childlike innocence. Years of surviving the Game replaces the innocent child with a scheming and often ruthless adult in a child's body, willing to prey upon the goodwill of good Immortals just as evil Immortals would have no qualms of preying upon the child. Duncan in particular has met child Immortals, and experience has taught him to not turn his back on the ones that have survived more than one lifetime. Duncan once warned Amanda about the child Immortal Kenny that she met again after 800 years, but she disregarded his advice, still considering Kenny to be as innocent as the newborn Immortal he was back then. She was deeply shocked and heart-broken when the experienced Kenny showed that he was now an adult, even as far as to express his sexual attraction for her.