An
orphan, Richie Ryan grows up in
Seacouver, Washington. Initially, he believes he is the son of Emily Ryan, who died when he was four. After her death, he grows up in the foster care system, eventually becoming a sarcastic thief who believes in only looking out for himself and not others. He later learns that Emily Ryan was a foster mother herself and not his biological mother, leaving his true name and parentage a mystery. When he later meets Duncan MacLeod, he learns that the Highlander is also "a foundling" who never knew his true parents. Weeks before his 18th birthday, Richie Ryan breaks into the shop
Noël and MacLeod Antiques. The store owners
Duncan MacLeod and
Tessa Noël live on the property, and Duncan confronts Richie with a sword. The immortal villain Slan Quince arrives, whom MacLeod sensed, along with Duncan's former mentor
Connor MacLeod. In the confusion, Richie flees but is arrested. The next morning, Duncan refuses to press charges, asking instead that Richie simply not share that he witnessed Duncan and Quince ready to duel with swords. Richie follows Duncan, seeing him train with Connor and listening in on their conversations. He later witnesses Duncan behead Slan Quince in a duel and then absorb the dead man's energy and power. Realizing they've been witnessed, Connor tells Duncan to look after the young man. Duncan finds Richie and explains that he is an immortal, a rare person born with an energy called the Quickening that makes them ageless after experiencing the shock of a premature, violent death (their First Death). Only able to permanently die if beheaded, immortals can absorb the Quickening energy of another whom they kill. Some hunt others of their kind to increase their own power, a Game where the last survivor will have the collected power of all immortals who ever lived. "In the end, there can be only one." Believing Richie simply needs guidance and support so he won't return to his criminal ways, Duncan and Tessa hire him to work in their shop and he joins them on several adventures. For a time, they temporarily move to
Paris together. While in Paris, MacLeod's friends are hunted by a group of people called Hunters, mortals who believe immortals are abominations who must be eliminated. MacLeod learns the Hunters are a rogue sub-group of a larger organization called the
Watchers, mortals who have studied and recorded the lives of immortals for thousands of years. Returning to Seacouver, Richie and Duncan befriend
Joe Dawson, a benevolent Watcher assigned to observe the Highlander. A group of Hunters later kidnap Tessa. MacLeod frees her and sends her home with Richie while he remains to look over their files. Outside, Richie and Tessa are both robbed and shot down by a mugger. Tessa dies as Richie awakes, fully healed, realizing what MacLeod knew the night they first met: he is also immortal. Following Tessa's death, Richie becomes more cynical about life. MacLeod has Richie sell the antique shop while he purchases ''DeSalvo's Martial Arts'', keeping former owner
Charlie DeSalvo on as manager and trainer. Charlie becomes a friend to Richie and MacLeod. He helps train the young man in martial arts and sword fighting, although he is unaware of the existence of immortals. While saving the life of an ambassador, Richie inadvertently causes the death of a terrorist who is the friend of an Irish immortal named Annie Devlin. Devlin demands to duel Richie and Duncan is not allowed to interfere due to the rules of the
Game. Duncan argues with both that they don't need to kill each other, but both refuse to listen. Richie then disarms Devlin in battle but cannot bring himself to kill. She gives up her quest for vengeance and leaves, while MacLeod then presents Richie with his own sword, a Spanish
Rapier. Later on, Richie ends up in conflict with the immortal Mako, a bounty hunter and old acquaintance of MacLeod's. Richie is determined to protect a woman he believes Mako is persecuting unfairly, but she later dies when she runs into the path of his truck. Mako claims this was an accident and that he only sought to bring the woman to the authorities and Duncan pleads for Richie to listen to reason. But the young man is enraged and beheads Mako. Duncan, believing Richie keeps acting rashly and letting anger guide him, tells the young man he must follow his own path now. The two men part ways with Duncan declining to shake Ryan's hand. Months later, the two reunite in France when Richie is wrongly blamed for a murder committed by another immortal. Following this, they renew their friendship, though Richie still leads his own life now as a professional motorcycle racer. When an old girlfriend appears with a son she claims is Richie's, the young man decides this is an opportunity for a family at last. But after accepting that immortals cannot biologically have children and believing his immortal life is too dangerous to involve others, he turns the two away. Later, Richie encounters Mikey Bellows, a mentally challenged immortal with the mind of a child. Richie wishes to provide Mikey with a home and family, but multiple incidents prove this is too dangerous. Mikey, not understanding his abilities, causes the death of a police officer. To protect others, Richie reluctantly takes Mikey away to behead him. Realizing the situation, Mikey frees Richie from having to do so by laying his head on train tracks. Richie moves to a safe position as Mikey is killed by a train, forced to absorb the man's Quickening energy because of their proximity. Soon after this, Richie chances on a young man named Roscza, the same mugger who shot him and Tessa. Roscza does not recall this, having done so when he was in the throws of addiction. Originally intending to kill the man in revenge, Richie decides to be satisfied that the former criminal and recovering addict now at least knows he took Tessa's life. Richie's career is cut short when he is seen seemingly dying, forcing him to leave behind that life and operate clandestinely for a while with Duncan's help. Eventually, Richie meets the immortal James Coltec who has regularly used his unique abilities to take the "darkness" out of others. Absorbing the energy of yet another evil immortal causes Coltec to suffer a
Dark Quickening, a rare phenomenon where an immortal's personality is corrupted and overwhelmed by the evil of the person whose Quickening they just absorbed. Forced to fight his old friend, MacLeod kills Coltec but is then himself corrupted by the Dark Quickening, attacking Richie afterward as a result. Saved by Joe Dawson, Richie is told to leave town. Though MacLeod later recovers his true personality, Richie is traumatized by their encounter and concludes that friendships between immortals are meaningless since in the end there can be only one. Determined to protect himself by increasing his power, Richie spends months challenging other immortals and taking their heads, using the skills Duncan and Charlie taught him. After Richie kills the 900-year-old Carter Wellan, the man's immortal mentor Haresh Clay swears revenge. Richie breaks his sword during his first battle with Clay. Duncan later brings him a new sword, a rapier belonging to Graham Ashe, an old teacher of the Highlander's (and of
Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez) who died at Clay's hands centuries before. Duncan defeats Clay and begins rebuilding a friendship with Richie. Soon afterward, Richie and Duncan meet Jennifer Hill, a woman seeking to avenge her husband Alec Hill. Richie later realizes he himself killed Alec Hill when he and the man had angrily challenged each other months before, he simply never knew the man's name. Jennifer approaches Richie romantically and he spends the night with her, later confused why he would do so and believing part of Alec's Quickening drove him. He then confesses to both her and Duncan. Jennifer attempts to kill Richie but then the young man briefly assumes Alec's voice and persona, pleading for mercy. Jennifer leaves, letting Richie live. Feeling guilt over his months of challenging and killing, Richie follows an immortal who preaches peace. When an immortal kills his new teacher, Richie renounces his new pacifist lifestyle and takes the killer's head in revenge. Richie leaves Seacouver and returns to Europe under the name Richard Redstone. After being kidnapped by a woman named Marina LeMartin, the two begin a romantic relationship. Soon afterward, Duncan is tormented by visions he believes are caused by a legendary demonic being called
Ahriman. Later, Ahriman casts illusions that lead Richie to an abandoned building. Duncan goes after his former student but is assaulted by new visions that convince him he is being attacked. Fighting to defend himself, Duncan unknowingly beheads Richie, who doesn't react in time to the attack from his friend. As Duncan sees flashes of Richie's memories and realizes he is absorbing the young man's Quickening, the illusion ends and he is horrified to see what he's done. Joe Dawson sees to Richie's burial, the epitaph simply reading "A friend." A year later, the truth about Ahriman is confirmed and Duncan defeats the demon. Though his friends understand that the Highlander was influenced by another and could not distinguish illusion from reality, Duncan never fully recovers from the death of Richie and continues to blame himself for the young man's death. ==Character development==