Talk:Stormguard/@comment-2038153-20170106044126

Here's another means by which the Stormguard could have survived after all these years. In Rise of the Tomb Raider Lara encounters the Deathless Ones who, much like the Stormguard, are ancient warrior group who protect a person or item that is at the center of their religion.

And in the most resent arc from the comics, Choice and Sacrifice, Trinity seemed to believe that Himiko had some sort of connection to the Divine Source. Though that has yet to be explained and will likely go unexplained for the rest of the series it does open up a interesting idea for what we see in Rise.

We know that Himiko had magical powers that allowed her to control the weather and also had the ability to transfer her soul to new bodies. But what if she also had the ability to grant ever lasting life to her those like her Stormguard or something that was very close to it. Not quite the same thing like what we see with the Deathless Ones in Rise but something similar in that it does grant those the ability to live forever but not they continue to age.

We know that Himiko herself was trapped in a decaying body and from what little we see of the Stormguards they themselves seem to have aged and decayed over the centuries. As for how they replenish their numbers, remember they didn't kill everyone they captured, it's possible that the ones they take alive are brought before Himiko and does to them whatever she does to the other who are made into Stormguards. The side effect is that it drives them made and makes them completely obedient with no will of their own.

As for why they spared Lara while we don't see any female Stormguards that doesn't mean they didn't have any and just didn't see any.