Strange Aeons: A 40k Xeno Governor Quest

The Exatari are a complex species in outlook upon life, due to their inherent immortality to age, death is both a time of mourning and celebration for them. For unlike most other races, death is more akin to a coma that never ends for one of the Exatari, the one that has tired of life simply lets go of the drive that keeps them active and falls into an endless slumber in which their metabolism is reduced to near zero.

Even now hundreds of thousands of years later, living Exatari are found in long since forgotten crypts and tunnels hold overs from long past epochs in the species growth and development. It is from this state of living death that their religions have grown from, in the distant past the dead were given burial among the other dead, alive but slumbering endlessly. This was a honored as much as any death in battle was for it was no different to the species, and it marked the lost of a person that had lived for countless centuries or millennium at points.

Eventually as the first true tribes came together, the burials changed from individuals carving out holes in which to entomb themselves for eternity, they were buried together. Mated groupings were given burials together when possible, large crypts and then mausoleums of metal were erected over the sleepers and the true dead, and from this arose a new discovery. It had been known how to connect to others to share thoughts and emotions, but in these new crypts this ability activated without direction and slowly over the course of centuries the sleepers and the true dead were slowly merged into one being.

Thus arose the first Living Mausoleums, massive thinking Exatari once more alive and active but changed, slow to act and slower to rouse to anger. Living repositories of memories and thoughts of those that had died, they slumbered most of the time, waking only for times of great need of the tribe. Over time they were brought to the conflicts between tribes in the early days and fought among their number, consuming the defeated into their mass and growing stronger.

As time passed, the Living Mausoleums changed from the shamans of the tribes and into the first focus of faith and from this arose the foundations of the Faith that lasts until this day. Every Exatari wishes to live forever within the gestalt soul of a Living Mausoleums, they are seen as the living embodiment of the past and the hope for the future. When one tires of life they go to the conclave of the Living Mausoleums and ask to be judged and are then permitted to join with one of the Living Mausoleums as decided among themselves.

For the Exatari this ritual drives them forward to make the most of their lives and to never let despair claim them until they have written a legacy for themselves that the Gestalt souls would be proud to include within their radiant whole. Among the Living Mausoleums there is one that stands above all others, The Witness, they who have seen the beginning of civilization itself an unbroken strand of history two hundred thousand years in the making. Only the greatest of the Exatari are given the honor of joining with the Witness in this day and age, but all honor its knowledge and wisdom.

It was by the Witness' will that the First Nation arose on the homeworld and that technology began to progress, it was by its will that the Exatari became what they are today, and for that it is honored. Yet, for all the reverence that the Exatari hold for the Living Mausoleums and the Witness they do not directly worship them, seeing it as a waste of time better spent ensuring their legacy is firm and their actions desirable to joining when the time comes.

It has come to my attention that I was not clear enough regarding the downsides that the Exatari face in this galaxy and the choice of the most stable and even keeled option has further compound this situation. In this informational post I will reveal a fair bit more about their culture, their methods and general external information that explains why they have done certain things and have not done other things.

The most pressing matter is that of the perception of the Exatari as being "perfect", this is flawed as I explained in prior posts aimed at correcting this illusion brought about due to the only such character being of a particularly stable bent.

In Exatari Society there are Five main types of Scholars with 2 secondary types: War Scholars, Scholars of the Trinity, Scholars of Shadows, Scholars of Creation and Forge Scholars are the main types. The two secondary are The Scholars of Ending and Eternity.

War Scholars are the Generals and commanders of the military, they are universally what we today would consider evil in morals and general actions. Their entire purposes it to inflict the most damage upon the foe as possible in the most efficient means possible in the shortest timeframe. However, due to the Exatari's Immortality their concept of damage is inherently Lasting, it is not enough to remove limbs because they can be replaced, it is not enough to break the body for it can heal. No, a War Scholar is an expert in using weapons designed to inflict non recoverable wounds that will bring pain and despair to their foes. The weapon that they use is not a laser or energy weapon, but instead a weapon that holds more in common with Dark Eldar weaponry than not. It is a weapon that fires spikes of nanomachines that have the singular purpose of binding to and activing the pain receptors of the body they hit and never letting the nerves die. That is their sidearm and it is tame compared to the weapons they use in mass, of all the species in the galaxy the War Scholars would enjoy discussing battle tactics with the Dark Eldar the most. In the end their philosophy can be boiled down to essentially "To repel the enemy is not enough. Absolute victory is to ensure they will never be your enemy again, and our history shows this as the best method of achieving such a goal."

The Scholars of the Trinity and Shadows are both not a true branch of the Exatari society due to various reasons but they serve as passable titles for now.

The former is the diplomat, they are the ones that deal with the grudges between Exatari and the Living Mausoleums, these Grudges can span centuries or even millennia at a time. They are also very much used to complex and nigh impossible chains of logic in these grudges due to the intelligence of the Exatari in general. Outside of the Homeworld they would find the majority of other races to be unbearably stupid and cumbersome in regards to simple negotiations and would start to manufacture events to strain their minds and to keep their skills sharp.

The Shadows are similar, but of a different bent, they would never reveal themselves and would only ever work through a chain of proxies that would make a Tzeentchian cultist consider it overly complex. In the case of them being discovered they would lose control of themselves and retreat further into obscurity and form a vicious cycle, this is managed on the Homeworld due to the Diplomats and the other Scholars giving them places of security to let go of their fear of interacting in person.

Scholars of Creation are those in charge of managing the infrastructure of the Exatari. They do not care one iota about the lives of people involved in the construction of buildings, they will pave over the still moving bodies of a thousand people if it means meeting their time tables. They live and breath deadlines, if someone is not meeting a deadline they will be retrained as completely as possible. There is no mercy in the Creators, they will and have built entire forge nexi over the still laboring Exatari working under them. Of all the Exatari they are the coldest, unbending masters of logic and careless of the cost in life that their mission takes to complete.

Forge Scholars are the inverse of the above. They care heavily about people and the cost in lives of their research. They universally see the best in people of any species and regardless of personal feelings they pride themselves on professional conduct on their part. They are never the first to lift a weapon in battle, they would never condemn people to death unless it was the final option possible. They are both the researchers and also the ones closest to a priest of the Exatari. They are the ones that know every principle of science the Exatari have ever discovered, they know how to build items that seem to be magic to the other Exatari. Of all the Scholar titles it is hardest to become a Forge Scholar for the great power invested into them is without question.

The Exatari that chose to become a Blank or Psyker are given the title of Scholar but they are not inherently a true Scholar, however within their numbers are true Scholars of their orders. The Scholars of Ending and Eternity are thus formed from the Blanks and Psykers respectivly. They tend to the Living Mausoleums directly unlike the other Exataris and also pacify the War Scholars in times of peace, but stand ready to provide their abilities when it comes to fight and creation. Unlike the other Scholars they do not control a meaningful branch of Exatari scoiety and instead serve as a source of complex reagents for the Forge Scholars. The Blanks provide Abyssal Ingots, while the Psykers provide Unbound Potential both of these materials are shaped into secondary forms and added to the Alloys used in Exatari technology.

The true Scholars of these orders are rarely seen even by other Scholars, but are known to be Nihilistic or Optimistic depending on if they are of Ending or Eternity.
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The Scholars are not representative of the average Exatari. To become a Scholar an Exatari must ascend through the ranks of their chosen field for on average several centuries to millennia and then complete the Trials. The Trial of Body is a simple challenge to achieve something new in their chosen field, it can be anything and everything, but it has to be something that strains them to their limit. Then the Trial of the Mind, they must hold their own against a current Scholar of their chosen order in a contest of skill with said Scholar to prove that their abilities are correct for the chance of becoming a Scholar.

The final trial, the Trial of Soul is the hardest by far and is what stonewalls ninety nine point nine percent or more of all that try to become Scholars from becoming Scholars. In this trial the Exatari connects to a Living Mausoleum, the older the more impressive and is forced to live through millennia of memories from the very early days and events of the species.

Every horror that was ever committed on an Exatari they are forced to feel as if it was their own flesh being mutilated or scarred, they are forced to feel the emotions of both sides. However, the Living Mausoleum shifts the tone of the memories to force the prospective Scholar to take away differing views on the same situations. In effect this forces the Scholar to be, to break along understood lines and become a Scholar in truth.

To be a Scholar is to leave behind yourself in favor of a mantle of responsibility and access to secrets otherwise locked away. A Forge Adept would never be allowed to reach the level of skill a Forge Scholar is, because they are too Free. Forge Scholars in particular lose much of their identity in their Trial of Soul due to the importance of their duty and what is to be entrusted to them.

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Finally, is the Devouring Curse, The Destroyer's Call, The Plague of Blood, it bears a thousand names across the Homeworld and all Exatari dread it. Its origin is unknown, but its effects are felt throughout their history. In the beginning Exatari fought against each other for resources, but soon it became an endless battle becuase to them battle itself is euphoric. Only in battle does an Exatari truly live, across time this has been proven for them, of all the drugs and ways to alter their mental state the truest and most successful is fighting.

Fighting for an Exatari is addictive beyond understanding, once they begin to fight it is nigh impossible for them to stop. As they fight, echoes of battle drift through their minds further driving them into the fury of battle. It is for this that Scholars are subjected to the Trial of the Soul, they know the sensation of Battle more than any other and yet do not succumb to it due to the slight separation that remains in the memories. However, this is of little comfort for all of them know how easy it is for one of them to plunge into the cauldron of violence to never surface again.

It becomes worse, for reasons that are unknown to the Exatari, those that fall to the call of battle forevermore are lost in a haze of bloodlust that is never sated. To compound upon this, in this state they can forge impossible weapons of war without even the most basic of resources or tools, and great wars were fought in the ancient past against empires of these fallen Exatari. Even to this day the plague remains and the Forge Scholars are tested the most for they pose the greatest risk if they fall to the lure of battle.

The Exatari are a minor xenos race that has currently hidden from Imperial discovery through the usage of their mastery over the energetic forms of the universe, combined with their skill at managing the weaves of atoms into construction. Upon their world, the surface is a sea of molten metal and life lives deep below sheltered from the heat of the radiant blue giant that their homeworld orbits. Within these great caverns, the Exatari thrive, their biology greatly divergent from the norm of the galaxy, able to tolerate extremes beyond most other races. Buildings of solid light form the base of their infrastructure shining in the radiant hues of the electromagnetic spectrum, weapons comprised of energy drawn from annihilation reactors serve as their wargear in the event of their discovery.

Yet, hidden as they are, they are not unaware of the dangers beyond their world and so have sent infiltrators outward to other worlds of other races. Drifting in space for upwards of centuries their infiltrators wait for passing ships or the currents of solar wind to move them to places where they can engage their warp drives to reach their chosen destinations. Tearing through the warp protected by their annihilation of all that comes near, they reemerge upon the worlds they have chosen.

Flesh and bone more akin to alloys of adamantine than that of other life, minds thrumming with the power of the computers that they weave from light, if there is one thing that can be said about the Exatari is that their biology is a wonder to behold. Researchers and scholars are their most prized individuals, for they are the ones that have wrought the life they now live.

However, infiltration is no easy feat, for their biology strong as it is, is vulnerable to resource depletion for their grand size requires immense resources and of those much of their diet is formed of rare alloys that exist only naturally upon their homeworld, necessitating complex foundries for the infiltrators to survive. Thus, many die before they manage to send home a message upon the waves known only to them, but a few manage the impossible and create links back home and information flows forth.

Species Wide Base Stats
Physicality: Bulwark -> Stalwart (Tier 2 -> 3)
Mentality: Erudite -> Genius (Tier 2 -> 3)
Personality: Unbending -> Unbreakable (Tier 2 -> 3)

Trait Synergies
Soul Shifting+Existence Wounding merge into a singular trait -> Controlled Soul (removes psyker detection chance for soul reading, improves chance for True Kill to 85%, immune to all but the most extreme forms of chaos corruption)
Ageless+Genius narrative effect: can train over time to a maximum of 2 tiers above nominal limit over the course of eons (2k years on average)
Ferroid+Cybernetics -> Cybernetics upgraded into species trait (special case Level 3) -> Living Cybernetics (Cybernetics provide a base +1 Tier boost to stats directly in addition to listed bonuses
Ferroid+Biological-Machine Interface -> can link with Titans, Knights and other such units without risk, machine spirits treat you as a machine spirit


Technology
Foci: Mechanical/Particle
Modifiers: Energetic/Impervious
Result: very high material tech, non standard materials, atomic binding control, metaphysical aspects added to technology, Armageddon proof technology.
Special Tech: particle bots that can reconfigure muon transfer between atoms and subatomic particles to maintain impossible alloys, and Soul Taps and Metaphysical Engines

Conditional Bonuses
Diplomacy +2 Tiers when linking with BMI
Learning +1 when using/interacting with alien technology
Shapeshfiting: reduces suspicion gain

Metaphysical Power
Base type: Mixture (majority of species neutral barring innate Metaphysical Traits, Awakening is possible for any member)
Psyker: Average roughly equivalent to Gamma/Low Beta human psykers
Blank: Average roughly equivalent to Omega human blanks

Species Wide Base Skills: Nominal Limit 2 Tiers (This is for the same for any race that doesnt have the Champion trait)
Martial (Physicality/Mentality): (3+3)/2 = 3rd Tier + (cybernetics 2 Tiers) = 5th Tier, Maximum 9th Tier
Diplomacy (Personality): 3rd Tier + (conditional 2) = 3/5(conditional) Tier, Maximum 7/9(conditional) Tier
Intrigue (Mentality): 3rd Tier, Maximum 7th Tier
Stewardship (Mentality): 3rd Tier, Maximum 7th Tier
Learning (Mentality): 3rd Tier + (conditional 1) + (cybernetics 2 tiers) = 5/6(conditional) Tier, Maximum 9/10(conditional) Tier
Faith (Personality): 3rd Tier, Maximum 7th Tier
Willpower (Personality): 3rd Tier, Maximum 7th Tier