Zeistian Priests served as a clerical and judicial body during the rule of General Katana, as seen in various versions of the film Highlander II: The Quickening.
Background[]
Zeistian Priests, during a trial.
On the planet Zeist in centuries past, under the despotic rule of the Immortal General Katana, a council of three priests worked in support of the general to administer the planet, and to act as a covert check upon his increasing power.
In particular, Katana's obsession with the rebellion opposed to his rule gave the priests an opportunity to seed the potential for the general's downfall, by way of the banishment of criminals and revolutionaries to the planet Earth. Once there, these criminals would be immortal, utterly immune to aging and most physical harm, by taking each other's Quickenings, the last one would have enough power and knowledge to return to Zeist.
General Katana was deeply opposed to this policy, but was forced to concede to the judicial verdicts of the priests. Among the convicts sent to Earth after trial were Connor MacLeod and Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez, who later proved to be instrumental in Katana's eventual defeat. Between MacLeod winning the Prize and Katana going after him, the General had possibly killed the priests, for he now had direct control over the device used to send individuals to Earth, and was able to send people without them being stripped of memory and regressed to infants.
Katana, upon arriving on Earth, was utterly amazed to find his body healing itself of the damage from crashing through the subway ceiling. He was also rather surprised when he encountered a little boy on the train. It seems there are no children on Zeist.
Differences Between Film Versions[]
Connor MacLeod and Ramirez facing exile.
During the end credits of the film, the priests are credited as "Zeist [Justices]," even in The Renegade Version, the film's Director's Cut which eliminated the notion of an extraterrestrial planet altogether, and changed the setting of General Katana's world to that of planet Earth's own distant past. Additionally, they are referred to onscreen as "priests" by Michael Ironside's character, which reinforces their clerical nature in the storyline.
Consequently, other changes were made to the film's narrative, including the removal of all Zeistian exiles gaining immortality upon arriving on Earth (in the Renegade Version, all exiles in the future are already Immortals, and looked upon as "unholy"). The priests themselves are established in the revised cut as likewise being Immortals, as well as General Katana.