In Exalted, you play gods. You start off as a normal person, then you exalt (typically off-screen, or prior to the start of play), after which you are a living, breathing, god. The typical starting Exalted character is roughly the conceptual equivalent of a 30th Level D&D character. The closest things Exalted has to typical D&D heroes in terms of power are Heroic Mortals, which are a bit like gnats compared to the might of the Solars. The only real similarities to Exalted that I'm seeing in 4e are the adoption of flowery (as opposed to textbook-ish) spell names and, to a lesser extent, the decision to provide a largely 'open' default setting for new players to build on as they see fit.