Exalted Ones

""Reach for the sky, for you shall find the Dragons to guide you on your way. Call to the heavens, for you shall find the gods there to illuminate your destiny. If your exsistence is valued, never seek the realm beyond, for only death and hate lies within.""

- A warning about the Exalted The Exalted Ones are supernatural beings whom have ascended from the mortal flesh, and then shed the chains of godhood. The Exalted are the mightiest beings known to mortalkind, largely considered to be the magnum opus of magic, the final destination for magical practitioners. Yet despite bascially being the god of gods, there are few to no disciples in the world that dedicate themselves to the being which truly governs. Not that an exalted would actually give a damn about that.

Biology and Traits
The Exalted is a most mysterious being. They never reveal themselves, they almost never interract with the "lowly" human beings, thus, they are rather difficult to pinpoint what they appear and are like. Luckily, in recent times, the more kind hearted of the "common" gods of Earthland have shared what information they have with humanity regarding these secluded beings. Through the countless millenia, the gods have only held witness to the forms of two Exalted. The first of them have been described as being nothing more than an amalgamation of tendrils, eyes and an oily substance, forever writhing, ever thirsting. The second one would be the Exalted that took the previous ones place. The Second exalted that came into being had a far more humanoid frame, rotten black skin, long and sharp claw-like fingers and a mouth "sewn" together with strands of meat. However, if the gods are to be trusted in regards to the Exalted, it woud seem that the forms they take are forms of preference rather than being set and decided. Forms means little to an Exalted for they have transcended the physical form.

The Exalted are titanically massive, easily exceeding the size of gods and dragons alike. Exalted are monstrously durable, able to endure excessive amounts of trauma and still remain standing. Their frames are so tremendously strong that no magic can cause them any real harm. The only form of magic that has proven itself able to inflict any form of lasting damage to them, wether corporeal or not, is a form Lost Magic known as God Slayer Magic. The Exalted also expresses a lot of hatred. Not necessarily for mortalkind but mostly for their own choices and themselves. An exalted is the ultimate creature. There is nothing else to become, no other goal to reach. Exalted, more often than not, simply lacks purpose with their existence.

But if there is there is something that an Exalted hates above all else, more than that, the one thing an Exalted even fears is another Exalted. There is never more than one, not because any form of miraculous law or anything of the like. It is simply a matter of one flawed element in their being. Their nature. It is in their nature to despise fellow Exalted and to fear them, and thus, for their own safety, kill them.

However, it is not always bellow the Exalted's dignity to strike pacts and bargains with the lesser gods, or, hell, even mortals for that matter. They may do this for a variety of reasons. It could be that they want the reciever to influence the mortal realm in their stead, maybe to just witness what they might do with all that inconcievable power. Or perhaps, unlikely as it is, they may want to see someone rise to their levels so that they will finally have a proper threat and challenge once more. Then there is the least likely reason: The kindness of their heart. Due to their empty existence and mind breaking realm in which they reside, they have all but lost their... "humanity". While not impossible, more often than not, the exalted couldn't care less about the well being of the mortals.

Origin
The Exalted's true origin is clouded with thick mists of myth and legend. What little is known about the Exalted in this matter is that the beings known as Exalted came before any other species on Earthland. They predate the humans, the dragons and even the very gods themselves. Some even believe that it was the Exalted that saw to the growth of the plant and shaped it into what it is today. Some even believe that while they most likely did not actually create the life on the planet, their hands may very well have shaped and guided some of the greatest moments and also the most catastrophic incidents in history.

While the true origin of the Exalted are shrouded in thick mystery, what is known is how they presently come to be. There are a few ways to rise to Exalted state. It can either happen when a god causes the death of a multitude of its kin. When a sufficient amount of gods have been slain, they can tear open rifts in the dimmensional space which allows them to enter the realm of the Exalted, where they can contest with the current exalted for it's position. The other way is for a God Slayer mage to grow to such sufficient power that eiher the Exalted itself will consider the mortal to be a threat to it's existence and will thus engage with it in hopes of destroying the mage before it can rise to such levels where the mage would become near unstoppable, or they remain unaware of them until the point where the God Slayer finds and engages with the Exalted.

Miracles
The Miracles are what trully sets an Exalted apart from any other being in existence. Miracles are a form of magic, previously believed to be impossible. It is the paradoxical power that is both above and below the might of traditional magic. Magic, at it's core, is very much about the concept of equal exchange. To take something and transform it into something else of similar value. This something would be the ethernano that the body has absorbed and in the more special cases, at the cost of the individuals own health. Miracles differ from this norm by grasping the concept of taking absolutely nothing and making something out of it. In other words, Exalted are fully capable of performing magic without any cost or drawbacks. Or, well, if there is any form of drawback to this kind of magic it ought to be that the spells cast through miracles are ever so slightly weaker than what they could perform through typical magical means. Still, considering the near unthinkable amounts of power an exalted being possesses, that is often not even considered an issue to begin with, as just about no creature could ever hope to stand up to something as grand as an exalted. These miracles only carries with them one true weakness. Unlike magic where verbal expression of what the spells names are is more of a preferential thing than anything else, miracles have the inherent requirement of the user to voice their actions and desires. For example, if an exalted desired to burn's its target with fire, a line such as "Heathens and infidels shall be put ablaze", or if specific temperatures of the flames are desired, such wishes must be vocalized as well. However, there is the magical limit. What they would not be able to perfrom through magic, they can not perform through miracles. If the Exalted were to desire to burn the opponent with flames as intense as the sun, if they can't perform such an act through their magic, then they will be incapable of doing so with their miracles. Despite these restraints, miracles have a near unlimited potential, able to perform nearly any task and spell that the user has intricate knowledge of.