Isyander Shumèd

**Isyander Shumèd**, also known by his old name, **Isyander St. Shaiad** is the leader of the Academy. He's the brother of the Vodyani Hierarch **Isyara St Shaiad**, and for a long time, her enemy.

Back when the Vodyani civilization first abandoned their old and grotesque bodies, Isyander, once one of the most devout followers of the Church of the Virtual Saints discovered an ancient Endless-made structure known as the **Tabernacle of Remorse**, or the **Tabernacle of Lies** as it later came to be known by the Church. The Tabernacle revealed to Isyander the dark and terrible truths of the Endless, the full extent of the crimes and horrors both Concretes and Virtuals committed against each other and the rest of the galaxy, And the darkest truth of all: the true origin of Dust.

The Endless did not create Dust. In fact, the Endless did not even yet exist as the original three species that evolved from their homeworld of Tor. Dust originally came from an ancient race of immensely powerful beings entirely made of it, who were once worshiped by the Endless as gods. Those beings became known as **The Lost**. During the Dust Wars, both sides of Endless found out where Dust came from, and tried to make their own artificial version of it, but it was but a pale imitation of the real thing, the original Primordial Dust. Both Concretes and Virtuals, desperate to destroy the opposing side harvested the Lost to death, using multiple massive devices known as the **Lodestones** to lure them from their hiding spots, and trapped them so they could commit the horrid deed.

A disgusted Isyander's former love for the Endless became a burning hatred against them. He gathered followers amongst his people, sharing what the Tabernacle had revealed to him, led a rebellion, freed many slaves, and stole a ship. This culminated in a civil war among the Vodyani that led to Isyara's rise to power, and in Isyander's defeat. The war crippled the Vodyani Protectorate for decades after its end. Isyara sentenced her own brother to death, but before she could carry it out, a mysterious entity (in fact, one of the last surviving Lost) freed him and his closest followers: a Lumeris, a Raian, and a Niris from the dungeons they were held in.

During his journeys across the galaxy, alongside the Lumeris Brunem Berto-Lancellum, and the Raian Kinete Muldaum, he traveled to the desert planet of Sobra, the homeworld of the Nakalim, a long-forgotten race that once worshipped a Lost of the same name, and reawakened them from their eons-long slumber, earning a valuable ally in his quest to revive the Old Gods. They revealed to him a prophecy, of a great Prophet who would revive the Lost and restore their civilization to greatness.

When Isyander St. Shaiad decided to throw away his lifetime of beliefs and become Isyander Shumèd, he changed more than just his name. He rebuilt his own Cloth and the armor of his ships in crimson and white, the colors that he believed were initially used on the Endless altars to the Lost.

He founded the Academy, to atone for his people and the Virtuals' crimes, and gathered heroes from across the galaxy so they help him in his plan.

Isyander's plan involves "resetting" all the Primordial Dust in the galaxy using the Lodestones and his Academy to channel it, which will hopefully return to its original Lost selves, as the Lost were beings of pure Dust. He believes their genocide was unjustified, and that their return is the only way to save the galaxy from its turmoil.