Emperor Calus

"I don't have time to explain why I don't have time to explain."
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Emperor Calus
Biographical information
Species:	Cabal
Faction:	Loyalists
Rank:	Cabal Emperor
Gender:	Male
Combat information
Mission:	Leviathan
Weapon(s):	Emperor's Gaze Arm Cannon Meteor Storm
Abilities:	Restriction Zone Initial Immunity Burning Effect Mind's Eye Debuff Mental Collapse Boundless Consumption Psionic Overload Imperial Nova Afterburn Blast High Durability Super Quake Attack Summon Cabal

"Grow fat from strength."

— Emperor Calus

Calus is the former Emperor of the Cabal Empire, who was usurped by Dominus Ghaul many years prior to the Red War.

Biography

Reign

"For centuries, I led the revels of my empire, and the stars themselves burnt sweet and clear. But in time the jealous and the tight-fisted rose up and sent me into exile."

— Emperor Calus

Many years prior to the invasion of the Solar system, Calus led a populist revolution to eject the military aristocracy known as the Praetorate from power and became Emperor. Under his rule, the Cabal Empire became a seat of all-encompassing hedonism and revelry. His accomplishments during that time included redistributing Praetorate wealth to the people, granting citizenship to the imperial Legions, and putting down various alien threats such as the Sindu, the Clipse, and the Psions' OXA Machine. However, when the OXA machine was rebuilt by the savant Otzot, Calus was impressed enough by her genius to order the machine preserved and hold a festival in her honor, elevating Otzot to his court as Imperial Dreamer.

His reign was not without personal troubles. Calus was wary of Umun'arath, his Evocate-General, for her paranoia and obsessive fixation on war. His own daughter and heir, Caiatl, grew up similarly despite his efforts.

One of Calus's pleasures was the coliseum, and one day, an albino gladiator named Ghaul made his first appearance there. Ghaul's patient skill and unusual coloration soon made him a favorite of Calus's, and the Emperor eventually made him Primus of the Red Legion, where his talents would be put to better use. Calus grew to love Ghaul like a son, and believed they were kindred spirits who both envisioned a newer, more perfect world. Ghaul's association with The Consul and members of the Praetorate worried him, but not enough.

Behind his back, Ghaul was in fact organizing a coup with the Consul and some of Calus's closest friends and advisors: Umun'arath, Shayotet, Otzot, Moli Imoli, Iska'al, and Caiatl.

Coup and Exile

Ghaul launched his coup in the dead of night. With the Emperor too popular to simply execute, Ghaul, his Red Legion, and the Consul arrested Calus and an unknown number of supporters in his own court and exiled aboard The Leviathan, taken far from the Empire along a pre-programmed course.

On the Leviathan, Calus wallowed in despair for an unknown amount of time until a strange event shook him out of his stupor. The Leviathan had come up against an expanse of utter nothingness, shorting out the navigation systems and the course the conspirators had set. Calus looked into the void and came to an understanding, believing that it had chosen him to carry out a great victory on its behalf. From that point on, Calus was changed, and took control of his own fate. He sought revenge.

With control of the Leviathan back in his hands, Calus set out on a long voyage of his own, "[plumbing] the secret places of the cosmos", visiting strange realms and old ruins. This cemented both his conviction that his hedonistic philosophy was correct and his intent to retake his empire. Along the way, he gathered forces to strengthen his Loyalists. He created the Shadows as his elite champions, allied with aliens such as the Clipse and the Sindu, and sent messages promising that whoever slew his conspirators would be given great wealth and glory. Eventually, he set a course for the Sol system, which the Red Legion was planning to assault. He sent his Shadows to assassinate Ghaul and failed, but he learned of other warriors in the system that might serve his purposes.

Destiny 2 spoilers

Return to Power After the death of Ghaul, Calus immediately set to work on reclaiming the empire. He gave elements of the now leaderless Red Legion the chance to "join the loyalist regime," sending them on missions to collect geological data on Nessus. These transmissions are intercepted in the Adventure Invitation from the Emperor. Calus intended to convert the soil of the planet into "Royal Wine". Calus extended an invitation to The Guardian to board his vessel for slaying Ghaul. The Guardians accept Calus' challenge and following a long journey through Calus' palace and defeating his loyalist army, the Guardians seemingly meet Calus in person in his throne room. Facing off against the exiled Cabal Emperor, the Guardians survive his strange powers and after dealing critical damage, they find that the Calus they are facing is really a robotic duplicate. Regardless, the Guardians succeed in destroying the robot. Before the machines destruction, Calus boasts about his power and claims to know the "real truth" about the galaxy. Nonetheless, he rewards the Guardians for completing his challenge and offers them a place by his side should they seek him out. As the Guardians step past the machine's body into a large room to claim their reward, they see countless robotic bodies, all in the image of Emperor Calus. Traits Calus's personality is defined by four key characteristics: his hedonism, his narcissism, his ruthlessness, and his need to be adored. As a hedonist, he loves opulence, extravagant displays, and pleasures of all kinds. As a narcissist, he considers himself godlike in status and power, is incapable of accepting any point of view other than his, and immerses himself in royal scenery that often depicts his own image. When roused or denied, he is fully willing to use force to achieve his goals, throwing the old Praetorate to the mercy of mob justice without remorse and annihilating the Sindu fleet when they refused to join his loyalists. Fundamentally, however, Calus wants to love and be loved by those he rules. He abolished the Cabal Praetorate as he believed they abused their control of the Cabal Legions for their own benefit at the expense of the people's welfare, attempted to free the indentured Psions but was overthrown before he could complete the act, and considered the Consul and Ghaul turning the Cabal into a warmongering empire to be the ultimate betrayal to their way of life. Altogether, Calus is a figure of contradictions. He is an emperor enthroned by and supporting populism; he is capable of genuine altruism immediately following ruthless conquest; he is self-centered but dotes on his subjects. Calus is also a very overweight and inactive individual. He sent an automaton to face the Guardians instead of confronting them himself, only directly fighting them from a distance by pulling them into his psionic realm to face his avatar. It is unknown if Calus uses robot stand-ins because of cowardice, contempt for his challengers or is simply testing his challengers. Calus also has been imbued with potent psionic abilities by his Psion council, having the ability to pull individuals into an alternate dimension composed out of the sheer force of his psionic energy, similar to an Ascendant Realm, making him a force to be reckoned with. Calus also claims to have knowledge on the true origins and purpose of the Traveler, and to have encountered a far greater power during his travels. Gameplay Emperor Calus will initially be immune to damage, and will attack from afar with his Emperor's Gaze laser. He will summon an onslaught of Loyalists that must be killed, after which four unique Psions will appear on each of the four plates around the throne room. They each will each have a unique symbol above them: a War Beast, a chalice, a sun, or a pair of swords. These symbols need to be memorized for the next section. Kill these Psions and Calus will clap his hands twice to inflict the Mind's Eye debuff, teleporting all Guardians into his mindscape, where they will be met with a giant projection of his head. There will be three Psionic charges that will teleport three players back to the throne room, while the remaining three are stuck inside. Those who remain inside will be sucked in by Calus' Boundless Consumption attack. Those who remain in the throne room will have to kill more adds, and the Psions from earlier will appear, with the symbols appearing above them. In the mindscape, Calus' projection will show a symbol on his forehead. Each of the three players will each see a different symbol. Whichever symbol has not been seen is the symbol whose Psion in the throne room needs to be killed. This will repeat a total of four times for each symbol that does not appear. Those being sucked in, meanwhile, with have to kill two different kinds of Psions: regular Psions and their projections. The regular Psions must be killed so that their ruptures cannot send players into the air, and the Psion projections must be killed so that Calus doesn't use his Mental Collapse attack. As soon as they are all killed, Calus' projection will unleash a Psionic Overload, where he will spew purple skulls from his mouth. This is a sign that Calus is charging up an Imperial Nova attack that can wipe the entire team. He will be shielded while doing so. Destroy the shield to stop the attack, while those inside will shoot down the skulls. Killing a skull grants a stack of the "Force of Will" buff, and these stacks are shared by the whole team. The more stacks the team carries, the more damage they can deal to Calus. After a while, Calus' projection will stop spewing Psionic Overload skulls, and three Psionic charges will appear that will teleport each player back into the throne room. And thus, the damage phase begins. Everyone needs to step on the same Psion plate to deal damage. Since there are four plates, there are four chances to get in as much damage as possible. However, Calus will charge an Afterburn blast that can shut down the plate and kill everyone standing on it, thus causing players to jump to a new one. After losing a set portion of health, parts of his body will break off, revealing a machine. He will also gain new attacks in addition to his laser: an arm cannon and a meteor storm that leaves behind circles of fire which deal damage over time. As his health nears zero, he will charge up his Imperial Nova attack again. If Calus is not killed in time, the entire team is killed.

Trivia

• Calus is the third Cabal character to speak English fluently. The first being Ghaul and the second, The Consul.
• Calus inadvertently foresaw The Consul's death, as he wanted the Consul to die by his own weapons. Ghaul was The Consul's weapon in overthrowing Calus and when he killed the Consul during the Red War, Ghaul unknowingly fulfilled that vision.
• Calus could be considered among the most powerful Cabal the Guardians ever faced, rivaling Ghaul.

Gallery

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  Calus's crest on the Cabal Booklet

List of appearances

• Destiny 2 (First appearance)
• Cabal Booklet (Mentioned only)