Julia SantaMaria
Julia's story in graphical novel by Romano:
Volume 2: in production
“Who wants to live forever?”
Paris, 2026.
The Gathering is near. Only around forty Immortals remain.
Julia SantaMaria is one of them.
Born in thirteenth-century Andalusia, Julia died for the first time in 1247, condemned as a witch. When she clawed her way out of her own grave, she had no name for what she had become.
For decades, she believed herself a demon. She did not age. Death would not keep her. She could sense others like herself — men and women whose mere presence made her head ache.
When one tried to kill her and she took his head instead, lightning tore through her body.
Julia believed she had devoured his soul.
Then she met Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez.
Ramírez taught her the truth. She was not a demon, but an Immortal. He taught her about the Gathering, the Prize and the Game. More importantly, he taught a frightened young woman how to survive — and gave her the sword she would carry for centuries.
When their paths eventually parted, Julia made her own decision about the Game:
it.
If she was condemned to live forever, she would at least make that life useful.
Through eight centuries, Julia fought corruption and oppression wherever she believed she found them. Her path carried her across oceans, revolutions and wars. She has been a peasant and a pirate, a revolutionary and a resistance fighter — sometimes following history, sometimes helping push it along.
(Nassau 1718)
(Paris, 1793)
(Mexico, 1820)
(1912)
(French Périgord, 1944)
But refusing the Game never meant escaping it.
Julia rarely hunted other Immortals. Other Immortals hunted her.
She defended herself. She survived. She took their heads — and with them, their Quickenings.
That created a vicious cycle.
Every Quickening Julia absorbed made her own more valuable. Stronger players began hunting her, hoping to claim everything she had accumulated. When Julia defeated them, their power became hers as well — making her an even greater prize for the next hunter.
The more she fought to stay out of the Game, the deeper the Game dragged her in.
Eight centuries later, generations of dead Immortals live on in Julia's Quickening. She never wanted their power. Unfortunately, plenty of others do.
Immortality itself has never felt like a gift.
Julia has watched everyone around her grow old while she remained frozen in her mid-twenties. She has loved mortals despite knowing exactly how those stories end. Three husbands and four women she loved are buried behind her.
Ramírez warned her never to fall in love with mortals.
She never listened.
Today, Julia lives in Paris, where she teaches Olympic fencing. To her students, she is simply an exceptionally gifted young instructor. Few would imagine that the woman correcting their footwork first learned the sword centuries before any of them were born.
She still hates the Game.
She wants no throne. No ultimate power. No dominion over mankind. She is convinced that the legendary Prize awaiting the last Immortal is probably nothing more than a lie that has kept them murdering one another for millennia.
What Julia wants is far more ordinary — and, for an Immortal, impossible.
To grow old. To have children. To live a finite life.
But the Gathering has begun, drawing the remaining Immortals toward one another.
And somewhere in Paris, Mathuselah is waiting.
An Immortal so ancient that even Julia seems young beside him, Mathuselah believes the Prize will make him a god. To him, Julia is not merely another opponent. Eight centuries of accumulated Quickenings have made her one of the richest prizes left in the Game.
Julia has no intention of winning.
But after eight hundred years of people trying to take her head, she has become extremely good at keeping it.
In the end, there can be only one.
People Julia shall may mention or meet during the story:
Ramirez
An ancient Immortal and Julia’s mentor. Ramírez found her after decades spent believing she was a demon and taught her the truth about Immortals, the Game and the Quickening. A flamboyant swordsman, philosopher and incorrigible old dandy, he gave Julia the sword she would carry for centuries. Long dead, his lessons — and especially the advice she stubbornly ignored — still follow her eight hundred years later.
He was offed in the Highlands by the Kurgan in 1542.
Connor MacLeod
A Scottish Immortal born in 1518 in Glenfinnan. Cast out by his clan after surviving his first death, Connor was later trained by Ramírez and became one of the most formidable Immortals of his time. He and Julia shared the unusual bond of having been taught by the same mentor centuries apart, and became close friends. Connor survived the Kurgan and countless other Immortals before finally dying in 2000 during the Jacob Kell incident. Julia still deeply mourns him.
Duncan Macleod
A Scottish Immortal born in 1592 and Connor MacLeod’s clansman and protégé. Over four centuries, Duncan became an exceptionally skilled swordsman while retaining a strong reluctance to take lives unnecessarily. He and Julia have known each other for centuries and share a close, entirely platonic friendship built on mutual trust, countless shared memories and the peculiar burden of immortality. In modern Paris, Duncan remains one of the few Immortals Julia genuinely trusts.
Amanda Montrose/ Amanda Darrieux/ Whoever
A centuries-old Immortal, professional thief and occasional adventurer with an unapologetic taste for beautiful and expensive things. Charming, clever and remarkably resourceful, Amanda has survived as much through deception and improvisation as through her sword. She and Julia are longtime friends and allies, although Julia considers her only “moderately reliable” and knows better than to leave valuables unattended around her. Beneath Amanda’s selfish and mischievous exterior, however, Julia knows there is someone capable of genuine loyalty when it truly matters.
Nick Wolfe
A former police detective who spent years pursuing the Immortal thief Amanda Montrose before becoming her reluctant partner and friend. Nick became an Immortal himself in 1999, making him remarkably young by Julia’s standards. Principled, stubborn and considerably more grounded than most of the Immortals around him, he still tends to approach problems with a cop’s instincts. Julia likes and trusts Nick — and remains quietly amused that a man who once dedicated himself to catching Amanda now spends so much of his immortal life getting dragged into trouble by her.
Methos / Adam Pierson
Believed to be around 5,000 years old, Methos is the oldest known living Immortal. For years, he hid in plain sight under the identity of Adam Pierson, a Watcher assigned to research the mysterious “Methos” — effectively documenting himself. Intelligent, cynical and extraordinarily pragmatic, he has survived millennia largely by knowing when not to fight. His past is far darker than his quiet modern existence suggests, including his time as one of the Four Horsemen. Julia respects his experience and considers him a friend, but never completely trusts him. With Methos, she assumes there is always something he has neglected to mention.
Mathuselah
An ancient Immortal whose true origins have been lost to history. He is believed to have been born somewhere in Central Europe during the first century BC, though even the Watchers cannot confirm it. Already relatively old by the standards of his time when he experienced his First Death, Mathuselah has carried the appearance of an elderly man for more than two millennia.
Unlike many ancient Immortals who learned to survive through caution, Mathuselah remained an active player in the Game. His immense physical strength is matched by patience, intelligence and meticulous long-term planning, making him far more dangerous than a simple brute.
Mathuselah believes absolutely in the Prize. More than survival, he seeks transcendence: he is convinced that the last surviving Immortal will become a god. With the Gathering approaching, Julia’s centuries of accumulated Quickenings have made her one of his most valuable targets — and Mathuselah has no intention of letting her escape the Game.
Created Dec 29, 2025
Updated Oct 23
Published Dec 29, 2025