Divine Assassin

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In the science fiction television series Lexx, Divine Assassins are undead that carry out the will of His Divine Shadow, in adherence to a religious cult called the Divine Order. Numbering in the thousands, Divine Assassins are dead flesh, processed by the Divine Order's "Bio-Scholars" under the direct supervision of the Grand Bio-Vizier. They are decarbonized, removing any trace of organic material, and cybernetically augmented. As a result, Divine Assassins are very nearly indestructible. Their only weaknesses are their dependence on protoblood, a liquid that is necessary to animate them, and an inability to swim (due to the increased density of decarbonized flesh).

The body of a Divine Assassin is polymorphic. If one is sliced in half, one would simply rejoin the two parts.

[edit] Executioners

When a Divine Assassin is no longer needed or fails to behave as expected, His Shadow calls on a special subset of Divine Assassins called Divine Executioners. Divine Executioners are far more deadly than regular Divine Assassins. As Kai said, "If Divine Assassins are Death incarnate, then Divine Executioners are the Apocalypse made flesh." These two classes compete for protoblood. An interesting paradox develops here because Divine Assassins are designed to be immortal, to always survive, a concept developed in episode 18 of season 4, "The Game."

[edit] Kai

Main article: Kai (LEXX)

The most famously known Divine Assassin is Kai, last of an ancient and powerful race known as the Brunnen G. Despite a prophecy that the last of the Brunnen G would kill him, His Shadow was encouraged by pride to allow Kai to survive. For over 2000 years, His Shadow used Kai as a tool to further the Divine Order. When he used Kai in an attempt to prevent Heretics from stealing the LEXX, a living spaceship that is the focus of the show, he inadvertently completed the prophecy that led to his demise.

Aboard LEXX, Kai makes contact with the brain of a dead Divine Predecessor, the one who had killed him 2008 years before, accidentally regaining his memories and some memories of the Divine Predecessors. Upon recovering his former consciousness, Kai is overcome with the horror of his prior actions and decides to join the Heretics, depicted by the archtraitor Stanley Tweedle and the love slave Zev Bellringer. He described his emotions thus:

"I have killed mothers and their babies. I have killed great philosophers, proud young warriors and revolutionaries. I have killed the evil, the good, the intelligent, the weak and the beautiful. I have done this in the service of His Divine Shadow and His Predecessors and I have never once shown any mercy."