the Exalted

The Exalted are not a single unified organization but a broad class of Extrasolarians who have undergone extreme machine augmentation. Individual Exalted range from fully independent operators to captains in service of various patrons. They maintain contacts on March Station and other Extrasolarian enclaves. Body-transfer services are among the procedures available from the Exalted. They appear as stock villains in Eudoran masques and operas within the Sollan Empire.

The Exalted operate a class of large vessels called Sojourners. Kharn Sagara's Demiurge and other Sojourners rank among the largest warships in any fleet, at approximately a hundred miles in length. The Free Captains of Vorgossos, a fleet of three hundred seventeen vessels formerly in service to Kharn Sagara, includes six Exalted Sojourners among its ships.

Exalted bodies are constructed with adamant armor -- long-chain carbon molecules identical to starship hull materials -- proof against conventional weapons. Individual Exalted take radically different physical forms, all exhibiting extreme augmentation. Examples from among the Free Captains include: Acastus Kozar, a chimera of almost eight feet in height with proportions stretched beyond normal human range, sheathed in silver foil inlaid with cords and tubing, with chrome mirror eyes and steel teeth, who served the Undying for nearly five thousand years; D-307 Aleph, a captain who is all machine save the brain; and Here Soonchanged, whose body is a bloated infant form floating in a bell jar riding on four pointed limbs. Extreme longevity spanning thousands of years is characteristic of the Exalted.

A characteristic external marker of Exalted augmentation is a milky biological fluid visible when the augmented body is breached.

MINOS is the organization responsible for building the Exalted and perfecting machine augmentation techniques, contracting with the Cielcin to produce chimeric bodies for Dorayaica's generals, the Iedyr Yemani. Some senior MINOS personnel, the Elect-Masters, themselves incorporate Exalted-style machine augmentations: the Elect-Master Gaizka is shot and his shattered face reveals mangled flesh and twisted metal with milky Exalted fluid, and other Elect-Masters are described as having the same metallic gray eyes characteristic of Exalted modification. The Exalted Sojourner vessel Melancholia was allied with MINOS at the Ganelon fortress, though its captain Zelaz answered to a separate patron, Calen Harendotes, rather than to MINOS directly.

The Iedyr Yemani -- the White Hand -- are a Cielcin-aligned faction of chimeric generals in the service of Syriani Dorayaica, created using MINOS techniques. Their members are termed vayadan (Holy Slaves). Dorayaica's generals, concubines, and sworn servants each receive a unique machine body, built by human magi at Arae, no two alike. The badge of the Iedyr Yemani is a six-fingered grasping hand, white on white. The vayadan bodies are composed of adamant, with only the joints made of common metal. Specific armament configurations include four arms with wrist-extruded ceramic blades, shoulder-mounted plasma turrets, chest rockets, disruptor emitters, nahute launchers, and personal energy shields. Some vayadan are distributed entities piloting multiple puppet bodies simultaneously.

The Exalted are theorized to have built the original structure of Vorgossos during the earliest period of the Sollan Empire. In legend, Kharn Sagara fought against the Exalted after they destroyed his home, then cast them out of Vorgossos. By the time of Kharn's rule the Exalted had been re-integrated as subordinates: some captains served as gatekeepers to Vorgossos, others as free vavasors.

MINOS is identified as the creator of the Exalted. MINOS also contracted with the Cielcin to produce chimeric machine bodies for Dorayaica's generals. Imperial forces discover a MINOS research base on Arae where prototype chimeric bodies are examined.

During the Nemavand campaign, the vayadan Iubalu is slain by Hadrian Marlowe. A second vayadan, Bahudde, is slain with the help of the Irchtani at Berenike. Only four of the original Iedyr Yemani remain thereafter.

During the covert assault on the MINOS fortress on Ganelon, the Exalted Sojourner Melancholia engages the Imperial fleet, destroying at least one Imperial vessel before the Jaddian reinforcements arrive and surround it. The Melancholia's icon vanishes from tracking after the Jaddian encirclement; its captain Zelaz is believed to have escaped in a small flight pod. The MINOS fortress on Ganelon is subsequently destroyed by atomic weapons.

Following the Battle of Vorgossos, in which Hadrian Marlowe captures the Demiurge and Kharn Sagara is killed in multiple successive host bodies, the Free Captains of Vorgossos -- including the six Exalted Sojourners among their fleet of three hundred seventeen vessels -- offer their surrender to Hadrian. Fleet Captain Acastus Kozar presents himself as leader of the surviving Free Captains and offers their allegiance to Hadrian personally. Kozar is subsequently killed by Kharn Sagara in a final surviving host body.

Kharn Sagara is identified as Exalted, with identity residing primarily in machine implants enabling serial body transfers over fifteen thousand years. His Sojourner-class vessel, the Demiurge, is more than a hundred miles in length.

Father Calvert is an Exalted guardian at Vorgossos, having served for at least four thousand years. His outer form is an enormous industrial machine chassis; his inner biological core is a near-skeletal human torso on jointed metal limbs. He began his career at the Emperor's High College and later conducted research for the Holy Terran Chantry's Choir.

Acastus Kozar is the former Fleet Captain of the Free Captains of Vorgossos, a chimera of almost eight feet in height with stretched proportions, sheathed in silver foil and silvered jointed armor, with chrome mirror eyes and steel teeth. He served the Undying for nearly five thousand years before being shot by Kharn Sagara during the delegation at Demiurge.

D-307 Aleph is a Free Captain of Vorgossos, all machine save the brain, captain of a vessel designated 4B-65CC7-Eta-9E3-Gimel-4.

Here Soonchanged is a Free Captain of Vorgossos whose body is a bloated infant form floating in a bell jar riding on four pointed limbs, captain of the Azoth.

Iubalu is a vayadan-general of the Iedyr Yemani, slain by Hadrian Marlowe on the road to Nemavand.

Bahudde is a vayadan of the Iedyr Yemani, slain at Berenike.

Hushansa the Many-Handed is a surviving vayadan of the Iedyr Yemani, a distributed entity piloting multiple puppet chimera bodies simultaneously.

Zelaz is the captain of the Exalted Sojourner vessel Melancholia, a being whose flesh is grafted or harnessed into a repulsor pod, with metallic eyes that shine red almost like lasers. Zelaz answers to Calen Harendotes.

Gaizka is a MINOS Elect-Master whose shattered face reveals the mangled flesh, twisted metal, and milky Exalted fluid characteristic of Exalted augmentation.