Externals

The Externals are a group of fictional characters. Considered a rare subspecies of mutants, most of them were X-Men antagonists. The original, unused name for the group was to be The Prophet, as seen on the back of the Sunspot & Gideon trading card included with X-Force #1.

Background

All of the Externals were originally portrayed as immortal and important, playing an extremely major role in the future and Apocalypse's rise to power (as expressed by Cable), but eventually most were killed off. Only Selene, a previously established character, was spared from the purge. Saul, Absalom, Gideon, Nicodemus, Burke, and Crule (to a lesser extent) formed the self-fashioned "High Lords", bent on playing power games and manipulating events behind the scenes. Crule was employed as an enforcer and assassin for the other High Lords, while Candra and Selene preferred to play their own schemes separately and didn't take any part on the High Lords gatherings.

At one point, X-Men regular and former New Mutant Cannonball was declared an External by Cable, although Selene denies this, suggesting it was just a ploy by Cable. More recently however, Cannonball was shot three times through the chest by Reverend Stryker's Purifiers, and was back up and around in a matter of hours. When asked about it, Hank McCoy mentioned Sam’s status as an immortal again, though it’s not sure if he was joking or not.Apocalypse has also been referred to as an External on several occasions; his longevity is believed by Selene to be mostly due to technological means, although Apocalypse was already many centuries old before his first encounter with the technology he would later integrate himself with. To note, Selene herself needs to maintain her supply of life force that she drains from human victims.