18th of the Third Umbral Wind, Year 1157 of the Twenty-Sixth Age
(June 18, 2657 Galactic Standard)

Urdnot Wrex drained yet another can of sovak, crushed it, and tossed it towards the wastebin across the living room, sinking the shot with a satisfying ping; reaching over for another can, he sighed as he realized the two-four of Tuchankan Fist he'd gotten as a thank-you-gift after parting from his last employer was now empty. Instead, he reached under his couch for the small cooler he kept tucked there, popped it open, and grabbed a budget no-name brand bottle of elasa, tearing the cap open with his teeth; one lengthy swig later, he returned to watching whatever was on the holo at the moment.

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"-We're interrupting your previous programming with incredible breaking news. I'm Nuria Edaze, reporting live from Relay Beacon News' Situation Room. An explosive announcement from the Citadel was made available approximately two hours ago to the Lower Council Press Corps - at some point in the past few days, peaceful First Contact was made with an alien society calling itself the Exalted Exitium. The media blackout has officially been lifted, and select portions of the Contact Package from the Exalted Exitium are now available from official CitadelNet terminals; our analysts and correspondents have been hard at work sifting through the incredible information contained within. Luciter Agamus, Lead Council Correspondent, has more information; Luciter, can you explain the nature of this Exalted Exitium briefly? And how is the Council - and the Lower Council - reacting?"

"Well, Nuria, ah, from our initial analysis and reports the Exalted Exitium is primarily composed of the 'human' race - as my holoboard shows they're strikingly similar in appearance to asari - alongside several other smaller minority groups, as displayed on the panel to my right. The news that has many Council members, Lower or otherwise, rather worried is - well - ah - the Exalted Exitium is - well they claim to have been at war with...demons. From the underworld. For nearly fifty thousand years."

"Ah…ahem. Right. Uh...that is...certainly different."

"It most certainly is, Nuria, and, uh, while of course everyone involved in the diplomatic oversight of Contact procedures are approaching this situation with an open mind, it's obvious that tensions are high; an anonymous source from within the Citadel Diplomatic Group has told RBN that generally speaking the reaction from everyone has been, ah...rather concerned. Of course our RBN Analysis Room is hard at work diving deep into the parts of the Contact Package that have been released so far, but as far as initial impressions go, I can't help but echo that sentiment."

"Are there any things in particular which stand out to you, Luciter? Besides the...demon...war?"

"Ah - oh, spirits. Um. Well, the, uh, Exitium claims to have magic, which is why their Contact Package documents didn't require time for translation? The Exalted Exitium claims that not only is magic real, but also commonplace - they mention everything from battle-mages to sorcerer-engineers with complete seriousness."

"What."

"Well, uh...well that's what the package says, Nuria - I'm sure you can see why the Citadel Diplomatic Group's members are currently worried about the prospect of proper negotiations between the Exalted Exitium and the Council."

"I...I can imagine. Before we move on over to the RBN Analysis Room to hear from our own experts, is there anything else you want to say?"

"I - certainly I don't want to be insensitive Nuria - supposedly everyone in the Exalted Exitium worships a war god called the - here we go - the 'Doom Slayer,' who wages a one-man eternal war against Hell itself? And has done so since the beginning of time, never falling because he is, and I quote, 'so filled with rage and hatred that death itself cannot contain Him?' Also nearly all of their soldiers carry chainsaw swords? I - ah - that is all."

"Oooookay. Wow. Well. Uh. Luciter Agamus, everyone…"

-X-

"...And we're live! Hello, hello, hello - good evening to all you viewers out there on the Citadel and beyond. Tonight on the Tantalizing Turian Talk Time - hosted by me, Voster Syrcis, the greatest worst talk-show host in history along with my co-hosts Latmul Kaat and Parnira - a round of applause for them! Hoo, boy, folks, have you guys seen the news coming out of the Council tonight? Okay, so - First Contact, right, and you know me, I like to keep an open mind about things, I like to keep things respectable here. I might joke around a little, but, hey, all my long-time viewers know - it's all in good fun, right? So, uh, I'm gonna do my best here. Exalted Exitium, that's the name of these new folks on the block - mostly composed of humans - kinda look like asari, right? - and a bunch of other smaller groups. That's the easy bit. Okay - so check this - these Exitium people, they're, uh...they're kinda crazy-"

"-whoa, Vos, you can't just say that, and I know you're not joking."

"With concern: I agree. Neutrally: you must admit that from what we have learned, Latmul, that the Exitium is rather strange."

"Rather strange? Understatement of the year, Parnira - I mean, look, these guys, they say they've been around for fifty thousand years. Sure. I can buy that, at least kinda - but this whole time they've been fighting - and folks, I'm not joking, this is literally out of their own media packet - fighting demons, literal demons from the literal Hells. Like, doom and lakes of fire and shit - come on, you can't really listen to that and think, 'yup, nothing wrong here?' Really?"

"Well they're religious, right? Super religious? Doesn't mean they're legitimately fighting Hellspawn or something. Could be metaphorical, you know."

"I mean sure, Lat, let's say they are, but even so - their religion, it's bonkers! Wait, wait, lemme finish - they've only got one god they worship, and they call him the Doom Slayer. War god. Big, beefy human in big green armour, and apparently - literally all this guy does it roam around hell and kill demons. Supposedly he returns to the Exitium once in a while, gets some more guns or something, and goes off to kill some more. That's it! That's their whole religion - killing things is literally how they worship, man. Word for word outta their books: 'the battlefield is the simplest church.' Nuts!"

"With restrained distaste: not even the most violent of galactic society worships a mass-murdering war god. Jokingly: have you ever seen hanar preachers discuss fighting demons?"

"If by demons you mean C-Sec, sure. Voster knows what I mean - more than once we've met a few preachers who get a little too friendly with their tentacles, eh?"

"Yup, that's no joke, folks - don't go pissing off those nutcases floating around the Presidium Commons - but I mean seriously, look, people, I've seen some weird, nasty shit in my life - spent a lot of time with these two kicking around the shittiest parts of the galaxy - but nobody sane has ever come up with anything like this."

"Seriously - this whole thing, reminds me of back when we were on Omega for a spell - all those wackjob doomsday cults? Remember that?"

"Warily: of course I remember. With poorly hidden disgust: a salrian preacher once threw up on me, claiming that his vomit contained life-prolonging magic."

"Yeah, but you kicked him, like, thirty feet across a room."

"With exasperated frustration: I did not mean to kick him that hard, Voster, and the salarian survived with only a broken ribcage. Eagerly segueing: the Exitium also claims to have magic. With minor interest: that sounds vaguely interesting, but also absolutely, ridiculously stupid."

"I mean I gotta agree - folks, they've got like twenty pages on everything from sorcerers and - get this - magic engineers? Who build houses and highways using magic? Can you believe that shit?"

"Hey, come on, Voster, you gotta admit, that'd be real handy. Just, you know - toilet's fucked? Call your local magic man, waves a wand - bam, magic plumbing service."

"Suspiciously: I would wager several credits that most magic plumbers are still late to show up for work and also charge too much."

"Universal standard, aha, right? Hey - not that all you plumbers out there are junk - yo, big shout out out to the folks over at Smooth Runnings, all you guys are the best, man. You need your shitter fixed pronto, they got it - they even got this Vorcha on staff, Gyakk - dude's a real charmer. Anyways - commercial break but when we get back - more Exitium talk, we do a review on ETechnica's new chemjuice releases from last week and make sure you stick around for an interview with someone real special - you know her from Undercurrent News - the one and only Kerri T'vessa…"

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Topic: I'm rehosting that crazy alien media packet on my own server!
In: Boards ► Citadel ► General
VarrenSteak (Original Poster)
Posted On Jun 18th 2657:
So I was actually doing some on-call work when that crazy news about the Exitium or whatever it's called dropped - so I managed to download the entire alien media package from the Avina terminal across the street right when it came out - and way before the servers went to shit. Anyways, last month I shelled out a fuckton of credits for some new servers thinking I'd need them for work, but they've been collecting dust ever since then - so I'm rehosting the contact package. And remember - please try to upload at least one copy's worth of data! Otherwise my server's gonna get bogged down super quick, and then we're all shit out of luck.

EDIT: Man, for real, guys, please stop sending me credits - all I did was host some files. You really wanna help, you can spread my biz around - Kor & Kal, we do onsite repairs for anything omnitool related!

EDIT 2: Okay I lied. Send me those credits. My power bills are gonna be through the damn roof this month.

EDIT 3: Spirits, I just got a call from my landlord and the local C-Sec station. Apparently the power spike from my apartment gave everyone a real scare. I told 'em both I'm popular on the net, but neither of them thought I was serious, I think.

EDIT 4: Okay, here we go, folks - link is here! Me and a few other people, we strung together a nice big database of every non-Citadel hosting service that has a copy of the contact package.

(Showing page 1 of 43231)

►NoFishInTheLake
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
Holy shit, thank you so much. I tried downloading this thing from the CitadelCentral server and it said it'd take four days- they must be getting wrecked. Guess the people in IT didn't get any chance to prep for this? Which makes sense if you read the package - apparently contact was like, less than a week ago. Which makes me wonder how everything is translated into Thesserit, Palav, etc...

EDIT: Apparently it's magic.

I'm not joking, that's literally the explanation. That's some bullshit right there.

►Props Zero
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
BTW don't even bother with local terminals... tried the one down the street from me and the lineup had at least like a hundred people there AND the Avina was all messed up, ahahaha. It kept repeating words and restarting sentences, guess the entire network's busted.

►Wingspan
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
Okay, so, heads up, folks, just got ahold of the package thanks to Varrensteak and big warning, this thing is totally not safe for work. Straight up the Exitium's war god is described ripping people apart - humans and "demons" or whatever - and there's some, like, stained glass monuments that are displayed in ultra-fine detail, including one where the war god is tearing the limbs and, uh, genitalia off some humans.

I mean I'll be honest it's kind of cool in a really badass sort of way, but I work at a school. Last thing I need is any of my coworkers wondering why I'm watching some sorta gore-vid when I'm supposed to be marking papers...

►Fistyfight
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
Heya Varren - I've already got a copy of the package and I 'm hosting it too, though I doubt my setup is as beefy as yours - maybe pin me up top? There's gotta be a bunch of other people doing that too.

►AgileVolcano
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
Thanks for the heads up, Wingpsan...was about to sit around the table and watch this with my daughters. Guess I'll be skimming this thing for a bit before we make a fun family event out of it.

Kinda worries me, though. What sort of culture worships an avatar of violence? Even the worst Krogan is still part of a culture that has shamans, not some insane...quad-tearing madman.

►TwoChanka
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
Hi there Varrensteak - thank you so much for rehosting this. Even with my extranet connection - which I pay out the cloaca for - the Citadel Services estimated download time was over a week long!

►Jumpjumpjump
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
So I get that I've only read the first thirty or so pages of the contact package and I gotta say this is scaring the piss out of me. Nobody's freaking out about this yet? We're talking about a massive population of people here, all of whom are violent as shit and worship their god by killing their enemies? Nobody's getting a movie-villain evil religious empire vibe from them? Because I sure as shit am.

Glad I got a carry permit - I'm telling you shit's gonna go down when these ambassadors show up and it's not gonna be pretty.

►VolusMostus
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
Anyone else notice how much stuff seems to be missing here? Coucil's statement said they withheld a ton of info, both for security reasons and because the Exitium requested it...something is off about this for sure. Now that I think about it everything, just about everything in this package doesn't really add up.

►HornySalarian
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
Keeping in mind that I've only skimmed through the package:

This shit is awesome.

No, seriously. Chainsaw swords. Magic bombs. Some sort of combat stim (think it's called a "Berserker Soul?" How fucking cool is that?) that lets you punch holes in tanks?

And shotguns. Shotguns as far as the eye can see. Triple-barreled autoshotgun? That's their service shotgun. (THEY HAVE A SERVICE SHOTGUN.) Their equivalent to the SUAF's breaching shotty? SIX BARRELED SAWN-OFF.

Ohhhhhh yeahhhhh. I don't care what anyone else says: this is gonna be great.

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 43229, 43230, 43231

Topic: [PINNED] New Exitium Sub-Forum
In: Boards ► Citadel ► General ► Exitium
Blue Soup (Original Poster) (Moderator)
Posted On Jun 18th 2657:
To help deal with the flood of new Exitium-related posts, this sub-forum has been created. Please keep all reactions, comments and other posts which are strictly Exitium-related here. You should have been redirected here upon login - so unless that's not working (and the mods will know if it's not working - nice try, folks,) consider this your one and only warning. Thanks.

Topic: A Quick Look At The Exitium's Religion (THREAD I)
In: Boards ► Citadel ► General ► Exitium
Monoglass (Original Poster)
Posted On Jun 18th 2657:
Hello everyone, Monoglass here again. For those of you who haven't heard of me, I'm a Religious History PHD student at Thessia UThessia's Citadel Campus; I like to pride myself on work that's evidence-based and as unbiased as possible. I mention all of that up-front, because I'm already seeing a lot of fearmongering and xenophobia aimed at the Exitium - and while I'm certainly a little concerned about how militant their entire culture appears to be, I think their religion isn't getting a fair shake.

Keeping in mind that:

- We're not getting the full picture, not by a long shot; portions of the Contact Package - what the Exalted Exitium calls the "Volumes of Unity" is actually at least several times larger than the Contact Package we have access to right now, and other sections have clearly been omitted for some reason or another,

- I can only base my conclusions - right now - off the information shown,

- That ultimately I'd need to venture to the Exitium, compare sources and investigate the veracity of any claims made, religious or otherwise,

here's my initial summary and thoughts on the Exalted Exitium's religion.

What stuck out to me most upfront was that, as far as I can tell, the Exalted Exitium's primary religion doesn't seem to have a name. It seems like it's just assumed that every citizen in the EE takes part in the religion - and this is even baked into the rites and practices of the religion itself. Before we get into that, though, the basics.

The Doom Slayer Religion (which I'll just be shortening to the DSR for brevity) centres itself around the eponymous Doom Slayer - a human, or something that looks like a human, in green combat armour. According to religious texts, and the Exitium's own historical record - which, it must be noted, itself seems to function as a religious text in and of itself, especially regarding the somewhat scattered and vague early history of the Exitium - the Doom Slayer has existed for over fifty thousand years, and predates the formation of the Exitium itself. He is a war god, first and foremost, concerned chiefly with waging an eternal war on the forces of Hell (more on this later!). His greatest command exhorts the Exitium's citizens to "Rip and tear, until it is done," and apparently spends most of his time in Hell itself fighting demons and the like.

Now - again, keeping in mind that we have no way to verify this - the Exitium believes, truly, that the Doom Slayer is real. Not to denigrate the practioners of any other religion, but, say, I imagine most Athame-worshippers don't think that Athame might just one day pop down to Thessia for a stroll without any real reason; most modern mainstream religions in Citadel space are concerned chiefly with faith - the physical, observable, obvious presence of a god or gods isn't expected.

Not the Exitium. Assuming that their included videos are real - the Doom Slayer exists, and he returns to the Exitium itself on rare ocassions, primarily to rearm himself with the latest weapons the Exitium has to offer, to restock on supplies and to enjoy - as tradition dicatates - a meal of some sort. He also is said to check in on the Exitium's governance; multiple chapters in the Volumes of Unity note that the Doom Slayer, uh...frowns upon religious persecution and despotic rule in general, and if records are to be believed has actually killed prominent leaders of the Exitium on multiple occasions for failing to meet his standards.

This means that the DSR is, on a fundamental level, far different from most faith-based religions we see in the Citadel - in fact, I'd wager it's almost closer to a cult of worship - the kind you see street preachers and criminal cults ranting about - except, well, it works, and everyone believes in it on a societal level. The Doom Slayer, assuming he's not an actor played by someone to fulfil a religious rite, is real. He exists. There's no need for faith - there are recordings of him descending out of the sky to grab a bite to eat, reload his guns and check in on things before he heads back on his endless one-man-war. In practical terms, the Exitium doesn't even demand that the populace worship the Doom Slayer - one of the quotes in the Contact Package notes that the Doom Slayer himself (supposedly) says "...do not worship me with temples and prayer. Appease me with action; shield the helpless, strengthen the weak, respect the outsider and above all else, slaughter only the heretic and the demon." For reference - the 'heretic' here refers not to nonbelievers in the DSR, but rather to those who would consort with "Hell." The Volumes of Unity note that, according to the last year's census, while just about everyone in the Exitium follows the DSR, there is a sizeable population - somewhere between 10%-15% total - that either does not believe that the Doom Slayer is in any way divine, or practices another faith alongside or instead of the DSR.

Speaking unprofesionally for a moment: that's weird. That's weird as shit. Nothing like that exists in all of Citadel Space, as far as I know. Here we've got a super-violent religion whose violence is targeted at a single enemy, a nearly universally-practiced religion that allows for other faiths to exist and flourish alongside it, and most crazy of all - a faith with a physical god that makes regular check-ins just to see how folks are doing. That's bonkers - not in a bad way, mind you, but like I said - nothing in Citadel Space even remotely comes close to how bizarre the DSR is.

Anyways - that's all I've got for now. Next time, I'll dig deeper into the so-called "infinite enemy" of the Exitium - "Hell," which as I've alluded to before, isn't some tenuous concept of the afterlife, but supposedly is an actual underworld which the Exitium's been fighting for over fifty thousand years.

(This is so, so, weird. I think I've found a new thesis topic, folks...)

(Showing page 1 of 32346)

►Memetic_Barrier
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
Wow, Monoglass - thanks for the writeup. As usual your work's appreciated.

I'm still not entirely sold on how peaceful this religion is, though. All of the statements you make about the DSR's inclusivity and the like is predicated on the assumption that this "Hell" they're fighting a) exists, b) is actually a justified enemy and c) isn't just a tool to direct the populace to war. As much as the idea of a violent, martial religion that actually is pretty chill about things grabs my interest, it just doesn't make any sense, really. Doesn't add up - so there's an existential threat to the Exitium that's been locked in a stalemate for fifty thousand years? Assuming that's true - and you have to admit that sounds completely insane - the DSR makes a lot more sense to me as a societal tool of control, rather than an organically-grown form or worship.

►The Hunter
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
I must agree with Memetic_Barrier. As much as I wish to find in the Exitium a religious society that venerates a guided martial worship, at this point - without further evidence - I cannot help but assume the worst. The Drell who maintain the old ways have Amonkira and Yaauti and Otastek; all three are Gods of conflict, yes, but none explicitly command their worshippers to commit acts of - quoted from the Contact Package - "heinous violence, horrid cruelty and unthinkable atrocity" upon their enemies. I fear that, sooner rather than later, we shall be neighbours with a society of zealous crusaders who will pressure us into their mad, endless war.

►TuppossaFiend
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
Thanks for the work as usual, Mono. I'm kind of in the middle here - there's just not enough evidence to work through, and even though I'm hesitant to jump to the same conclusions as MB and The Hunter it's really hard not to freak out about this a little. Still - I think once more info's made available to us, and especially once we get a firsthand look at actual people from the Exitium, it'll be easier to actually come to a proper conclusion about things.

►Monoglass (Original Poster)
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
To be fair, these are only my assumptions based on a) wanting to be as unbiased as possible and b) working with what I have access to at the moment. I'm still reading through the Contact Package, especially the DSR-focused chapters, but personally I'm doing my best to not just jump to the worst possible conclusions. I get the distinct feeling that whether or not their War on Hell is, well, real, there's some real trauma or violence in the Exitium's history; I was really worried at first too, but there's just so much in here that talks about how their various Churches focus on the whole "defend the helpless and uphold the weak" bit that it's hard for me to reconcile exactly what's going on here.

►Doublequad
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
You can't just assume the best, man. Doesn't make sense to. Not advocating that we treat the ambassadors like shit or anything, but when a religion's god is literally demanding that his worshippers go and fuck shit up with as much pain and terror as possible it's kinda hard to, you know, think of those people as being all sunshine and picnics. Gotta agree with MB, too, like...okay so they have whole Churches whose goal is to improve quality of life, raise orphans, educate everyone, right? But doesn't that just feed their fuck-crazy war? Everyone can read - everyone can communicate better and operate weaponry. Everyone is happy - morale is high, nobody wants to stop fighting. Orphans are raised by the state - easy access to fresh recruits for their army. So on, so on. Right? You can't tell me that I'm wrong on that...

►Tuchanka Tough
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
How much are we reading into this stuff, though? It's not as though you pick up a book on Siarist religious doctrine and just assume everything in there is literally real, right? Of course some people believe literally - that's probably true for just about every faith out there - but, well, isn't it possible that all of this stuff is metaphorical? Meant to be taken as a spiritual guide? Sure, it's still a spiritual guide telling you to kick the shit out of demons or whatever, but, hey, as a krogan, I can totally see where they're coming from, at least kind of...you know, that sorta self-help crap, conquer the day! Sieze victory!...or something.

►Jumpjumpjump
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
They have entire Churches devoted to killing demons because they're so angry about it.

Think about that for a moment. A spiritual guide telling you to commit genocide in the name of a war god? Not a whole lot of ways you can swing that, and none of them or nice.

►Monoglass (Original Poster)
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
I still think that it's too early to jump to conclusions like that, to be perfectly frank. I'm worried - that's true - but again, we're working with limited information and basically no historical context as to how this society was formed and what's it's been through collectively.

►Ratcaller
Replied On Jun 18th 2657:
This is so fucking stupid. You guys can read this shit and not laugh, how dumb are you?

[User has been temporarily banned for this post: 3 hours / +1 Infraction. MOD NOTE: Really? Come on. You can do better than this.]

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 32344, 32345, 32346

"...alright, thank you very much, Luciter - I'm going to have to cut you off there, we've just got confirmation that the Exalted Exitium's ambassadors have arrived."

"No problem, Nuria."

"Alright, now then - reporting live from Priority Docking Bay A4, Relay Beacon News' own Gustan Pex. Gustan?"

"Thank you, Nuria - if you're just tuning in now, a quick update for you: we've confirmed that the ship carrying the Exalted Exitium chosen ambassadors landed just minutes ago, which means we'll be getting our very first real look at the humans and "Redeemed" demons which call the Exitium home."

"What's the atmosphere like down there, Gustan? I can see the crowds are enormous."

"I think it's a mix of concern and excitement - this is the first real Contact scenario Citadel Space has experienced in a very long time, Nuria, and, uh, it's, uh...well certainly the Exitium isn't quite like anything we've seen before - I think the atmosphere here reflects that. It's a little tense, yes, but who's not a little nervous about this - we all want this to go well."

"Of course, Gustan, nobody wants any sort of conflict at the moment - I can see that the Council agrees. It looks like there's a very large C-Sec presence down there?"

"That's correct. In fact, ah, it looks like we've got a few more key C-Sec personnel joining those already manning the barricade outside - yes - yes - I'm getting confirmation, it appears that the turian on the left there is actually a Spectre - yes, that's Saren Arterius, probably most well-known for single-handedly defusing the the Astin Embassy Crisis three years ago."

"I'm sure the ambassadors will be happy to have such a capable man providing security for them."

"Absolutely, Nuria, I agree - ah, incredible, it looks like the Exitium's, ah, 'Honour Guard' are making their entrance - absolutely incredible, it looks like the reports were true, they really do look very similar to ancient turian knights - and yes they are indeed carrying, uh, chainsaw swords. It looks like their leader is going to make some sort of announcement-"

"-HONOUR GUARD, THE FIRST PRAYER, BLESSED BE HIS NAME!"

"YES, LORD PROTECTOR, WE HEAR AND OBEY! THE FIRST PRAYER, BLESSED BE HIS NAME!"

"YOURS IS THE NAME THAT GUARDS US FROM SIN! YOURS IS THE BLADE THAT SLAYS THE DEMON! YOURS IS THE SALVE WHICH SEALS OUR WOUNDS! YOURS IS THE VISAGE WHICH GRANTS US STRENGTH! YOU ARE THE HELL-WALKER! YOU ARE THE FIRST SENTINEL! YOU ARE THE UNCHAINED PREDATOR! YOU ARE THE DOOM SLAYER! WHEN FACED WITH HELL WE BESEECH THEE: GIVE US YOUR RAGE SO WE MAY RIP AND TEAR! GIVE US YOUR HATE SO WE MAY DO SO UNTIL THE END OF DAYS! SO IT IS! SO IT SHALL BE! UNTIL IT IS DONE! AMEN!"

"PRESENTING! IN THE NAME OF THE DOOM SLAYER, BLESSED BE HIS NAME! HER EXALTED LADYSHIP, LADY AMBASSADOR ANITA GOYLE! HIS REDEEMED LORDSHIP, FAEMOCH EGI XAKHAL! HIS HIGH LORDSHIP, THE STROGG MAKRON OF TONGUES! HONOUR GUARD: KNEEL!"

"WE HEAR AND OBEY! BLESSED IS THE DOOM SLAYER! AMEN!"

"There it is, Nuria, our very first look at the Exalted Exitium's ambassadors, complete with their First Prayer - that's the human Lady Ambassador, Anita Goyle, alongside representatives of the Makron and Redeemed - I'm sorry, that is the Makron of Tongues, representing the Strogg, and, ahem, ah, Faenmoch egi Xakhal, representing the Redeemed, I believe. The crowd's mood is electric - Faenmoch in particular, I think that's incredible - if the Contact Package is to be believed, he's not using a floatation device, he's just...flying? Floating? And it looks like the ambassadors are already making their way to the C-Sec convoy - yes, that's the case. They're off to negotiate with the Council at this very moment."

"Thank you very much, Gustan."

"Of course, Nuria."

"Gustan Pex, our new Contact Correspondent. We'll now go to RBN's Panel Room where we have a diverse range of experts ready to discuss and speculate on the possible topics of negotiation and discussion at the Contact meeting…"

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Topic: Ambassadors from Exalted Exitium Have Landed!
In: Boards ► Citadel ► General
Big Dull Talon (Original Poster)
Posted On Jun 20th 2657:
For those of you who've been hiding under a rock for the past, like, I dunno, few days, the Exalted Exitium's ambassadors are meeting up with the Council today to discuss whatever it is politicians talk about when meeting another species for a first time. Their ship landed a few minutes ago (did anyone manage to get footage of it? It's being kept behind closed doors) and the ambassadors are due to make some sort of grand entrance soon! It's probably too late to get a close up spot - I got here like three hours ago and even then getting through the C-Sec checkpoint took ages. And anyways I don't think the ambassadors are going to bere here for long before they leave to meet the Council. Still I bet basically every broadcaster and newfeed is gonna be covering this so...yeah.

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►Long Drop

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Fuck just got off work, no way I'm gonna be able to grab a spot there, I guess. My entire feed's blowing up with livestream notifications but I honestly wanted to go see the big entrance yknow?

►SeaNut

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Don't think you're gonna miss much, Long Drop, I'm here now at the back and I can barely see anything. There's cameras and stuff but staying home probably'll get you better shots of the whole thing.

►Memetic_Barrier

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

DOORS ARE OPENING

SPIRITS THEY'RE ACTUALLY KNIGHTS AHAHAHAH

►Jumpjumpjump

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Aaaaand their First Prayer. Creeped me right the fuck out reading it and hearing it isn't much better.

►AkimboBBQ

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Void, what's with the Makron guy? I'm watching from a bunch of livestreams and it looks like he's got something under his cloak? And there's like...wires and shit coming out of his face? Also how's that demon Fenmok or whatever floating? His wings aren't moving or anything, he's just sorta hovering, but I thought they don't have ME tech?

►Monoglass

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

The info cleared for release so far indicates that the Strogg people - for whom the Makron(s?) are leaders of some sort - have historically been open to openly displaying obvious cybernetic enhancements, and AI factor pretty heavily into their societal makeup. Hopefully we'll learn more soon. As for Faenmoch, I believe it's just...magic, that keeps him suspended.

►SeaNut

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Well that didn't last long, they already left! I barely got to see anything!

►The Hunter

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

As much as I find the aesthetic and religion of the Exalted Exitium offputting, I cannot help but find my interest piqued at the sight of their ambassadors - what a strange collection of individuals. None fit my instinctual image of a diplomat or politician - but perhaps that is to be supposed, from such a warlike society?

►AgileVolcano

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Gotta say I'm kind of pissed that they even let people line up to watch this thing when it barely lasted like...two minutes, if that. Still I can't help but wish we could get a peek behind that big door - I wanna see that ship real bad, plus, you know, talk to the actual rank-and-file crew who came here. Wonder if they're all as crazy as their religion makes them out to be.

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 46226, 46227, 46228

"Breaking news - RBN has received multiple reports from both our own sources and eyewitnesses on-scene that the Exitium's healers, who were given the chance to apply their so-called 'magic' healing techniques on a select group of patients as part of a clinical trial, have managed to miraculously cure - at minimum - roughly two dozen people who were afflicted with what were thought to be terminal diseases. For more, we go to Contact Correspondent Gustan Pex, who's live on-scene outside Chalua Hospital. Gustan?"

"Thanks again, Nuria. As you can see here there's still a sizeable C-Sec presence outside the hospital here, and we've been told by hospital staff that access to the wing where the healings are being done - as well as the aftercare area - will remain restricted until further notice. I can confirm, however, from a trusted source that several persons who were known to have terminal illnesses, including but not limited to Kepral's Syndrome, Lorrosian Blight and Iresta's Disease, have all been seen to be seemingly cured of their afflictions. Of course it's too early to tell if these patients have actually been returned to full health, as our source notes even the ability to suppress or partially treat these terrible afflictions would represent an incredible breakthrough in the Citadel's medical capabilities."

"That's - that's certainly true, Gustan, and really quite incredible, if our source is correct. Has there been any word from the authorities - either from the hospital's administration, the Council or the Exitium itself?"

"I'm afraid not, Nuria. Eyewitness testimony noted that the Exitium's ambassadors were seen heading straight to Chalua Hospital directly after their initial meeting with the Council several hours ago; while nobody's been able to concretely place their current location due to the heavy C-Sec presence and general media blackout regarding the hospital itself, it's probably a safe assumption that the Exitium's ambassadors met with a healer - or carried out the healing themselves. Until a press release, however, it'll be hard to confirm with any sort of certainty-"

"-sorry to cut you off, but we've just received news that that a joint press release from both the Citadel Council and Exalted Exitium's ambassadors will be live in a few moments; we'll be broadcasting it in just a minute - thank you, Gustan."

"A pleasure as always, Nuria…"

Official Citadel Council Press Release
Jointly Produced with the Exalted Exitium
[Cleared for public release: June 20th, 2657 Galactic Standard / 21st of the Third Umbral Wind, Year 1157 of the Twenty-Sixth Age]

The Citadel Council and the ambassadors representing the Exalted Exitium are pleased to announce that its initial round of discussions - and, by proxy, First Contact between our two societies - has concluded peacefully and without incident. Several important topics were discussed during this first meeting; notably, accords were reached regarding matters of immigration, trade, travel restrictions and religious matters. Further information regarding these accords, including concrete details of policies and regulations which will apply to the matters in question, will be released in the coming days as we continue to work closely with one another to ensure that all parties are satisfied with the outcomes reached.

In the interim, the Exalted Exitium has agreed to a further declassification of its Volumes of Unity; an updated copy of the initial Contact Package which was released to the public earlier in the week has been uploaded to the Citadel Governance website at this time. It contains information regarding the Exalted Exitium's society, culture, technology, history and, critically, their magic. The Citadel Council strongly recommends that all Citadel denizens read the new Volumes of Unity, even if only briefly, in order to facilitate stronger and more prosperous relations between the Citadel and the Exalted Exitium.

We would also like to address the rumours surrounding the so-called 'mass healings' which have been reported in the news. Shortly after the initial Contact meeting, several patients - whose identities will remain undisclosed to ensure their privacy - consented to undergo an experimental healing process carried out by one of the Exalted Exitium's finest healers. These patients - all of whom were terminally ill - did so of their own volition and without any sort of pressure from any person or authority. We are happy to announce that, thanks to the advanced medical techniques of the Exalted Exitium, all of the patients, who themselves suffered from a variety of illnesses and hailed from a wide-range of backgrounds, have indeed been entirely cured. Moving forward, the Exalted Exitium's Church of the Saviour is pleased to announce that it will be working in tandem with the Citadel Lower Council's Department of Health and Public Safety to carry out further medical operations via a triage process, beginning with the terminally-ill and injured, followed by others as needs arise and supplies allow for. The Exalted Exitium's Church of the Saviour stresses that any and all procedures it carries out are entirely voluntary, and notes that only those who wish to be healed via their "magitechnology" will receive treatment.

In a similar vein, the Exalted Exitium will be holding public demonstrations of their magic, starting tomorrow at 9AM Citadel Standard Time in Priority Docking Bay A4. The demonstration will include showings of spatial compression, healing, instant construction, and other various non-destructive displays of sorcery, thaumaturgy and hermetics. All members of the public are invited to attend; regular, guided tours of the displays and demonstrations will occur every hour until the Exalted Exitium's ambassadors leave the Citadel. We would like to remind all persons that while the Exalted Exitium does not formally hold status as a Citadel member, as honoured guests of the Citadel and the Council all members of the Exalted Exitium remain under the protections afforded to them under the full extent of the law; any persons who violate the Exalted Exitium's rules in the demonstration area or otherwise harass, injure or interfere with the Exalted Exitium's personnel and property will answer to the Exalted Exitium's authorities, as well as Citadel Security.

In these times of great change, we look forward to developing a bond of friendship and cooperation between the Citadel and the Exalted Exitium. May peace be lasting and eternal between our peoples.

WRITTEN AND AUTHORIZED BY:

HERANE TEVOS, COUNCILOR, ASARI REPUBLICS
SARAL VALERN, COUNCILOR, SALARIAN UNION
FALLOX SPARATUS, COUNCILOR, TURIAN HIERARCHY

Blessed is the Doom Slayer, for in his guiding fists do we find purpose, strength - and comrades, even across the vast reaches of the planes of all reality. Let His name and His words guide us as we march ever-onwards to the anointed day, when, hand-in-hand with one another, we step into the gore-soaked light of the Final Peace. Amen.
WRITTEN AND AUTHORIZED BY:

HER EXALTED LADYSHIP, LADY AMBASSADOR ANITA GOYLE, REPRESENTING THE CHURCH OF THE SLAYER AND THE ORDER OF THE LONG KNIFE
HIS REDEEMED LORDSHIP, FAENMOCH EXI XAKHAL, REPRESENTING THE CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR AND THE ORDER OF THE REDEEMED
HIS HIGH LORDSHIP, THE MAKRON OF TONGUES, REPRESENTING THE CHURCH OF THE LECTOR AND THE ORDER OF THE IRON MINDS

Topic: Exitium Healer(s) magically cure terminal diseases, fatal injuries
In: Boards ► Citadel ► General
Throwthrowthrowaway (Original Poster)
Posted On Jun 20th 2657:
Throwaway account, already PM'd mods to verify info. Worker in Chalua Hospital.

The press release from the Council / EE ambassadors is 100% true. Not gonna leak anything about the patients - they deserve their privacy! - but I can confirm that as of me writing this the Exitium's healer(s) somehow managed to cure approx. 35 patients, each of them either terminally ill or damn close to it. The EE's ambassadors arrived onsite before the healer(s) did - they met up shortly after, made their way up to the palliative care ward. Wasn't able to actually see the healing take place but I have seen proof of the following:

- Patient #1, Drell, Kepral's, palliative care - man was going to die in the next month or so, maybe before then, due to organ degeneration and the like. Last I saw him before all this he was bedridden and barely able to talk. Saw him up and about, running around and doing fucking martial arts moves in the hallways and talking about how he's gonna go spend some "quality time" with his wife to anyone he thinks won't be grossed out by it.

- Patient #2, Turian, Lorossian Blight, long-term care - some kid who's been in and out of the hospital since birth. Kid could move last I checked but his scans were really bad - saw him with a bunch of other kids in a play area pretending to be a krogan and throwing pillows around. Haven't seen scans in person but people I've talked to say that he's perfectly healthy, maybe even better than average when it comes to general health. Full skeletal and bone density recovery.

- Patient #3, Krogan, fatal head injury, palliative care - old guy who got shot in the head. Helmet took most of the hit but dented his skull badly enough to crush a good chunk of his brain - well there sure as shit isn't a dent there anymore and the guy's super pissed about being forced to stay in the hospital for now. Heard rumours that the guy was actually slated to have a bunch of surgeries prior to the latest wound, but he's not on the list anymore as far as I can tell.

- Patient #4, Elcor, some sort of industrial accident (I think), Emergency - poor bastard looked like he'd been shoved through a fucking meat grinder last I saw, was missing three legs and even with all the medical foams and emergency sealant you could pretty much see into his guts when they hauled him in. Not anymore. Guy's up and about, mentioned that a limp he's had since he was a kid isn't there anymore. No way to tell about the second bit but 100% he's got all his limbs back.

Seen a bunch more but can't find a way to talk about it without disclosing info about myself or patients.

Still not sure re: how many healers are in the hospital ATM. Managed to get a quick snap of one healer - could only get what looked like the head in the shot though. There's also a bunch of flaming skull things (?) in the hospital, but I don't know if those are healers or assistants or something - last I checked they were scoping out the Infectious Diseases / Quarantine Ward.

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►Red Sandwich (Moderator)

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

I can confirm that the source's background as a worker in Chalua Hospital is legitimate. As per the Citadel Lower Council's Freedom of Information and Whistleblower Protection Acts, we've allowed this post to remain up; any attempts to document or identify the worker in question without C-Sec backing will be treated as a crime and offenders will be reported to any relevant authorities. Thank you for your co-operation.

Speaking as a poster and not a moderator - this is absolutely incredible. I still don't know how to feel about the Exalted Exitium as a whole - I think it's reasonably fair to say that we know as little about them as they know about us - but taking this on its own this is something anybody with even a shred of empathy can get behind. I know I've lost more than a few friends and families to injuries or diseases that were thought to be uncurable - and now it looks like pretty much everything you can throw at the Exitium, they can heal with magic? That, at the very least, has got to be a net positive.

►VolusMostus

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

This is fantastic news!

Still, I have to wonder what this means for pretty much every section of the pharmaceutical / medical industry, though. Sure, I imagine learning to do this sort of healing doesn't just happen overnight, but even if it did take five, ten years to learn, that'd still be a decade or less before a not-at-all insignificant sector of the galactic economy basically becomes totally obsolete. Some of the bigger consortiums will be fine - I know Armali and Vaios are both way too big to really worry about losing their pharma / medical divisions, Zadela & Vulin can shift their investments elsewhere and so on...but the big, focused players in the market, especially Alsot Medical? They're totally screwed.

Of course - and this is just wild guessing on my part - there might very well still be opportunities to be had in selling medical / pharmaceutical stuff to the Exitium - and who knows, maybe there'll be a whole new "magic" economy to build from scratch soon? Either way, the future's exciting and not just because diseases might be a thing of the past soon.

►TuppossaFiend

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Seriously? You manage to turn news about how we've managed to find a cure for a whole bunch of previously-untreatable illnesses into a financial investment report? Come on, man, time and place for everything.

Anyways - I'm really not sure about that picture of the healer you've got their, Throwaway. Like...you say that you only managed to capture the head of the demon (?) in the shot but that's a huge spirits-damned head if I've ever seen one. I'm still not up to date on all the different species in the Exitium so maybe I'm just missing something obvious here. As for the flaming skulls, I've got nothing. Is it an aesthetic thing? Are they just, like...drones? But on fire? I'm so confused.

►Wingspan

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Wait wait wait, hold on a second, so you're saying that these magic cures don't even differentiate between...injuries and diseases? They can just cure...anything? And I'm supposed to believe that there's literally no downside to any of this?

I get it, it's supposed to be "magic," but I have a hard time believing these cures don't have some sort of hidden cost. What if the patients are cured of their diseases, but have been mentally changed somehow? Not that I'm accusing the healers of purposely doing anything wrong, mind you, but it's not like you can just apply the same medical practices you'd use on, say, a krogan, to an asari without taking into account a whole bunch of differences.

►TwoChanka

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

To be fair, this is, you know... magic. There's no reason why it has to abide by any rules other than its own, right?

I can't help but wonder how things would be different if the Exitium had shown up earlier in our history. Can you imagine how many lives might have been saved? What would our history look like if diseases and illnesses just weren't a thing? Maybe it's a bit naive of me, but I like to think it would've been for the better. I've come to terms with the people I've lost in my life not being around anymore but that doesn't mean I wouldn't wish to still have them with me, y'know?

►Fistyfight

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Wouldn't be all that surprised if this "magic" turns out to be some sort of fancy nanotech or something. Either way this is incredible news. Now we just have to get our hands on it - I hope the Exitium's willing to share...

►Ratcaller

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Come on, seriously, you can't all be thinking this is a good thing? Think about it. Either this is some BS hoax so that we all think that the Exitium's peaceful and friendly - guess what, they're not, according to their own religion and stuff - or it's real and the giant empire of nutcase crusaders has magic that lets them basically be immortal. Isn't that great?

►Throwthrowthrowaway (Original Poster)

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

VolusMostus - I don't know. Couldn't see too much but it looked like the healers still do need supplies to do their work - a bunch of C-Sec and Exitium bodyguards actually did a run back to their convoy and picked up a bunch of bags after an hour or two. Not sure what was in there but I don't think they can just heal people with a wave of their hands.

TuppossaFiend - tried to get better shots of the who I think is the main healer, couldn't manage it. One of my co-workers says there are some species of floating head things (?) in the Exitium so maybe it *is* just the head and there's nothing else. No clue how that works.

Wingspan Well they started with the patients in the palliative ward since - as bad as it sounds - they didn't really have much less to lose. Everyone who's been healed is still under observation and probably won't be let out for a while, even if the Exitium says there's no side-effects or anything.

Fistyfight - Magic or not, if it works it works. Have heard some rumours floating around from staff that've talked to Exitium personnel - apparently learning to do healing magic specifically isn't all that hard?

►SeaNut

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Any word on when we get to see the patients in question? I appreciate you doing all the work and putting your job on the line and all but I still think it's too early to say anything concrete when we can't even have the patients available for public interviews, etc.

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Topic: Examining the Exitium's History, Part I
In: Boards ► Citadel ► General ► Exitium
Monoglass (Original Poster)
Posted On Jun 20th 2657:
Hello everyone, Monoglass here again. I'm still working on the second part of my Doom Slayer Religion analysis, but I'm still working through the enormous amount of material related to the DSR that just got released - it'll probably take me a few days to get through it properly. I'm also hoping to speak to some actual people from the Exitium at some point tomorrow once they open up their hangar for their magic demonstrations and the like.

In the mean time, I'd just like to share some preliminary thoughts on the Exalted Exitium's contact info - in particular, today I'll cover An Abridged Introductory History of the Exalted Exitium, the introduction to which I've attached below.

Spoiler: Intro to An Abridged Introductory History of the EE

The history of the Exalted Exitium is a long and storied one; as such, our recordkeeping must account for periods of time which, to those who call Citadel Space home, must seem positively ancient. Let us familiarize ourselves with two common terms, then. First is the Era; an Era is used not to measure any specific amount of time, but can be used to group smaller periods of time together in order to better categorize and order a timeline of the Exalted Exitium. Next is the Age - a period of two thousand years, and generally named after its passing by the Church of the Lector for the general events and atmosphere of the time.

Though the formation of the Exalted Exitium itself would not occur until the Second Era, the many scholars and historians of the Exitium begin all timelines with The Great Ignorance, itself placed at the times before and up to roughly 50,000 years Before Council Era. The Doom Slayer Himself is our only true source of knowledge of this time; this was when a planet called "Earth," whose location and histories have long since been lost to the ravages of war and time, was the home of a humanity which knew nothing of Heaven, Hell, or the war between the two.

True knowledge of our past only begins in the First Era: the Era of Survival, lasting from between roughly 50,000 BCE and 43,000 BCE. These dates are merely estimations, based on the Doom Slayer's testimony, blessed be His name, and the miniscule scraps of information left from this time period; still, we can say with some certainty that the war between Heaven and Hell culminated in some sort of great victory for Hell, and that humanity somehow caught the attention of Hell's rulers. Thence came the Great Scattering - humanity fled its homeworld using precursors to our modern Aether Rending Drive engines, settled down across the galaxy once they'd believed they'd either outrun Hell's forces, or were forced to do so. So too is this the time when humanity is first known to have concretely met with the Doom Slayer, blessed is His name; experts believe that many of the stories within the holy texts of the Exitium which reference His guiding of pre-Exitium humans come from this time. The Doom Slayer Himself rescued the Wretch, whose Hands most Holy did craft the Doom Slayer's own armour, at this time, and so too did humanity begin to truly understand and wield sorcery, hermetics and theurgy.

So it was that the Second Era - the Era of Resistance began, lasting from 43000 BCE to 37000 BCE. With magic and technology in hand, the Exalted Exitium was formally founded in name and spirit; it was at this time that the Strogg peoples were integrated into the Exalted Exitium. Thanks to the combined power of magitechnology, the proliferation of true Artificial Intelligences, and the genius of the Wretch, for the first time in our history we did not merely survive Hell's attacks, but brought war to their unholy host. Even so, Hell would not back down from this new challenge, and so it was that for the first time, Hell carved a bloody swathe through its foe, and pushed the Exitium's forces all the way back to Gaia. It was only the intercession - and sacrifice - by the Wretch, blessed were his Hands most Holy, which saved the young Exitium from eternal torment, by use of a theurgic bomb which slew all demons - Redeemed or not - within Gaia's vicinity.

Thus began the Era of Sin. May our folly be your chance to learn, for the time from 37000 BCE to 29000 BCE is without question the darkest and foulest stain on the Exalted Exitium. Fearful from this first loss of life, territory and knowledge, the Exitium descended into zealous madness; guided by those who claimed that we had failed in our worship of the Doom Slayer, we turned upon ourselves with sword, torch and whip. Let no words be hidden, no deed be obscured: the Exitium of this time, led by those who would call themselves the Flagellants, proclaimed that those who would not adhere to their extreme and severe interpretation of religious law could only be heretics. A vote to kill every Redeemed demon within the Exitium was avoided only by a margin of three votes; His word was spread with cruel fire and wicked blades. Countless people - and even entire worlds - were put to the torch merely for "lacking piety;" many more were enslaved, tortured, and made to suffer treatment that Hell itself would be proud of, all in the name of the Doom Slayer.

Yet the Doom Slayer, blessed is His name, has always been the protector of man and the Exitium! His return during the Era of Sin is not forgotten, and never shall we forget! On the Fourth Sun of the First Umbral Moon, in the Seven-Hundred-And-Fiftieth Year of the Eighth Age, He returned to us, and found us wanting; He saw our madness and our sin, and judged us harshly! Thus did He speak to us of mercy, compassion and kindness; thus did He command us to raise our fellows above us, to find virtue in protecting the helpless, to spread knowledge in place of pain. So too did He warn us: that He punished wickedness in all forms, Hellish or not - and that upon his next return, we would face his judgement once more. So it was that His guiding fist returned us to the light - for return He did, and we were not found wanting.

Thus begins the Modern Era - which did begin in 29000 BCE, and continues to the present day. We march ever onwards towards the Final Peace; every Age brings new magitechnology, new methods of war, new warriors for the War Eternal and new people who labour without end to ensure that one day our descendant shall wake to find only the sun and the stars waiting for them. May His guiding light lead us to that time, when His fists may be unclenched, and His hate become mere vigilance, for blessed is His name. Amen.

There's a more detailed timeline later in the Volumes of Unity that goes into more detail about each age, but for now I'm just going to address the surface-level stuff that's been presented to us (keeping in mind my previous caveats regarding the limited sources, lack of Citadel POV and verification, etc.)

My initial reactions previously were astonishment at just how old the Exalted Exitium is (or at least claims to be), and frankly I'm almost inclined to believe it just based on how casually the authors of the Volumes of Unity reference incredible spans of time. The founding race of the Exalted Exitium - humans - had clearly managed spaceflight and some form of limited FTL travel before The Great Scattering - no small amount of history - and yet the Exalted Exitium is so old that they basically have little to no recollection of that time period. As a thought experiment, let's just copy and paste, say, Turian history as an example; most historians place the beginnings of civilized Turian society around 13,000 BCE and were enough of a spacefaring society to have their colonial wars around the time period of 300 BCE. If we use that as an example for human history, we're talking about ten thousand years of history almost entirely wiped out; humans have no idea where their homeworld, Earth, is, basically no concept of what life was like (to the point that they've straight up termed their pre-Exitium days as "The Great Ignorance") before their endless war began, and had to even ask their God what the name of their homeworld was.

I've previously mentioned that I thought there was trauma - serious, serious trauma - baked into the Exitium's history and society, and I think that's pretty much settled the matter. I've read and heard a lot from people both on and offline, all more or less speaking about how terrible the Exitium must be - look how violent their religion is, look how much they venerate martial prowess and wanton slaughter, etc. Part of that, I'm sure, is constructed - a conscious effort to shape and mold the Exitium's society by its leaders to create a more effecient and dangerous fighting force, but I'd wager that it probably has at least some roots in this collective and ancient sense of cultural loss. The Quarian peoples have lost their homeworld, and in less than three hundred years their entire culture has changed into something almost wholly uncreognizable from its original form - the Migrant Fleet and its inhabitants are a culturally rich peoples, to be sure, but even the most pro-Quarian people (myself included amongst their number) would be hard pressed to say that Migrant Fleet culture isn't rapidly evolving - if it hasn't already - into something very different from Rannoch-era quarian society. Think about that for a moment. Imagine if the Migrant Fleet had been wandering the stars for so long that nobody could remember the name, let alone the location of Rannoch. I think that'd probably be a pretty big sticking point for most Quarians at that point - and here's the Exalted Exitium. Assuming their records are true - the humans of the Exitium would still remain ignorant of their own homeworld's name, if the Doom Slayer hadn't given them that information.

And that leads me into the section covering the "Era of Sin." Word of warning: the abridged introduction talks about how the Exitium spent eight thousand - EIGHT THOUSAND - years in a state of religious mania that makes the old Thessian Crusades look like toddlers playing at the beach, but the later chapters that go into detail are really, really, REALLY explicit about the atrocities the Exitium inflicted upon itself. Imagine the worst excesses of the Thessian Crusades, of the Five-Month-Night of Palaven, of modern Batarian society, and you'll get an idea of what's in store for you if you read on - at one point, on Gaia's capital city of Indomitable, it's claimed that dozens of city blocks were cleared with channels dug beneath them where civilians were hung up, cut open, and bled dry all so that a "Pool of Penance" could be filled in the city's centre.

Apparently, the Pool of Penance overflowed and flooded a large portion of the city with the blood, viscera and corpses of more or less innocent people. On multiple occasions.

Lots of people talk about how the Exitium is going to convert all of the Citadel species into soldiers for their cause by force; about how ridiculous it is that the Exitium claims to be a religion of peace and tolerance when it preaches nothing but violence. I'm inclined to disagree. My hypothesis at the moment is that the Era of Sin was a collective "venting" of sorts - a buildup of trauma and loss and anger which culminated in a furious, eight-thousand year long timespan of society-scale flagellation. Of course I'm not going to say that the Exitium's all flowers and sunshowers now, but I think that the records given to us make it pretty clear that:

a) This "venting," despite all the horrors that came with it, did its job of getting all that frustration and hatred at being stuck in such a garbage position out of the Exitium's collective system,

b) The Exalted Exitium is downright terrified that it might slip into this sort of behaviour again, to the point that there are references to how they must never forget the Era of Sin and its excesses littered throughout the entire Volumes of Unity,

and c) The Doom Slayer's personal intervention (whether it actually happened as recorded or not) is a sign that the religious powers which hold sway over the entire Exitium see this period as something they're still paying penance for, even to this day.

Look at it this way: the Exitium measures its history like so. The First Era of Survival covers the time between The Great Ignorance and the founding of the Exitium. The Second Era of Resistance begins with the founding of the Exitium, and ends after the first time Hell nearly wipes all of the Exitium out. The Third Era of Sin - we've discussed that. Literally everything after that? That's the Modern Era. Over thirty thousand years of history, and the Exitium sees nothing noteworthy enough to create a new "era" in its own records - the Exitium's been pushed back to Gaia several times, new kinds of magic have been discovered, countless numbers of people have died - but nothing has been out of the ordinary. This can't be a mistake or a lack of effort on the parts of the historians who have made the narrative of the Exitium as it's been presented to us - I think there's been a concious effort to take all of that anger and frustration and sorrow at being forced to fight what might as well be an eternal war, and focus it solely on their enemy, instead of anything else. It's why I'm honestly certain that the Exitium won't really pressure the Citadel races into doing anything.

Only two things matter to the Exitium: survival, and winning their war against Hell. In their view, the second will happen - eventually - so long as they survive, so really it's only the first thing that truly counts. The Citadel being allies is nice, and I'm sure they'd love to have us as formal combatants in their war, but frankly I don't think they really care about us in terms of combat potential or even by numbers all that much. The Exitium doesn't need more bodies - they're not even actively expanding their territory, supposedly - what they need is better equipment, better magic, better technology, and so on.

Anyways - this has gotten kind of out of hand, so I'll stop there for today. Hopefully I'll have more soon, epsecially once I get the chance to speak to some preachers and wizards in person.

Goddess, that's so weird to write out.

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►Tuchanka Tough

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Void, you are NOT joking about the Era of Sin bit. I skipped ahead in the Volumes of Unity and that thing with the giant blood-corpse pool you mentioned isn't even scratching the surface of the shit that went down then. Apparently at some point the nutcases running the Exitium during that time locked an entire city's population on a giant space station, kept the power running, then destroyed all the ways out just so everyone there could die of starvation or something? What the actual fuck? How messed up would you have to be to do something like that?

Not to detract from the work you're doing, thanks a ton as usual Mono, just...I'm gonna have nightmares after reading what I've read and I'm not even a quarter of the way through that section yet.

►Ratcaller

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

[TEXT DELETED]

[User has been temporarily banned for this post: 2 weeks / +25 Infraction. MOD NOTE: Racism is not permitted on Ascent. Doesn't matter if you have Quarian friends or not, pal.]

►The Hunter

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

I suppose the Exitium's martial outlook - and their religion, and their official stance of tolerance - makes more sense in light of the history that's been made avilable to us at this time, but I remain hesitant. Even supposing that the Exitium does not wish for us to be involved in their conflict unless we choose to step into that arena, I have no small inkling that, at some point, the decision will not be theirs or ours to make.

Regardless, I must admit I find myself interested in such a redemption - of a society which fell to madness, and yet, despite spending eight thousand years festering in the pits of religious excess, managed to claw its way back into propriety. My distaste for the Doom Slayer Religion aside, I think that in and of itself is very commendable.

►Monoglass (Original Poster)

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Tuchanka Tough - Well, so am I, so you're certainly not alone on that one. Still, I think it speaks to a rather...perverse sense of guilt, perhaps, that the Exitium's kept all the records on all the horrible things they've done. They could easily have just purged their records, conveiently "forgotten" or "lost" all these details - but they haven't. They've coded it as a religious matter of importance, sure, but I think it's a noble thing that even all these years later they're still adamant about never returning to the excesses of that time period.

Ratcaller - I don't particularly care to reply to you, besides the fact that the moderators will most certainly ban you for saying as such - and I really think you should go take a good look at yourself in the mirror, and ask what you've done in your life that's gotten you to the point where the quarians, of all people, foster such anger in you. Have you even spoken to a quarian in person before?

The Hunter - Well, if we are dragged into this war by circumstance, I really still don't think it's the Exitium's fault. As far as I'm aware, they didn't fire the first shot in this war on Hell, and they also didn't ask to meet us - there's more info regarding the Mass Relays (or what they call Spatial Tunnelers) in later chapters of the Volumes of Unity, but they locked the relay linking their space to ours and were content to leave it alone.

►HornySalarian

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Holy fuck the Exitium doesn't do anything by halves, huh. Guns? Big. Ships? Big. Chainsaw swords? Bigger. Crusades? Biggest.

I really want to meet this Doom Slayer - guy's got to be a massive goldmine for information on the Exitium, since it sounds like he knows way, way more than the actual historians do - and I also do wonder if the Exitium's higher-ups actually do know more than they let on, or if they've altered their history to be, somehow, nicer-sounding than it actually is.

►JustSomeTurian

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

I can see your terminal, jackass. Get off Ascent and get back to work!

(Also, well done, Monoglass, as usual.)

►NoFishInTheLake

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Wonder if this record's even remotely accurate, though. So...the Exitium's been pushed back to their homeworld a whole bunch of times, lost and rediscovered tons of their tech and history a whole bunch, yeah? I mean, I know this is their official record of history, but I can't imagine their view of events is accurate given how much info's probably been lost through time, misunderstandings, etc, etc...

►RannochDreamer

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

I don't usually post in your threads, Monoglass, but I'd just like to thank you for not jumping on the quarian-hate train; I really do appreciate your comparison of quarian and human history. I can't imagine the Migrant Fleet not resolving the issue of Rannoch - or finding somewhere else suitable for habitation - within the next few generations, and thousands of years of not having a homeworld (understatement of the year, I know) must really be scarring, even if the humans think it's ancient history at this point.

►AgileVolcano

Replied On Jun 20th 2657:

Reading up on the Exitium - from your analyses to the Volumes itself - I dunno, I kind of see a chance for the Krogan to shape up, now that the Exitium's here. Endless conflict for a good reason? I know there's no shortage of mercs and soldiers who'd jump at the chance to get their fight on while actually contributing to a good cause. Void, if the Exitium can build a society out after all the shit they've been through, there's no way the Krogan can't do the same. I'd like to think that, anyway.

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