SPIOLER ALERT

Basically, Vodyanni found the tech and were saved.  The Dust Wars, basically nearly wiped out the galaxy, and Islandyer is the brother of  vodyani leader queen/princess.

As for the others I am not sure, I think its hearsey to guess as to the why?  there seems to be little lore on it anywhere.

Thats why I'd like to know what race is helping Islyander.  The comic tells me Lumens, but in my hear I think theres more comming on this one.

A lot of the Vodyani hero backstories touch upon this. It is never directly stated, but the lore seems to suggests that from multiple causes, many Vodyani heroes have been "touched" or possibly share a consciousness with a Virtual Endless. One is described almost like a pseudo-possession. I would think that only dust-affected Vodyani are capable of withstanding this type of existance, but someone else may be able to clarify this further -- I don't have the game on hand right now and can't read their backstories. 

As for their gear, I believe Vodyani suits are creations of their own and not adaptations of Endless gear.  

for as far as I understand anything that the vodyani use is reverse-engineered and not actual virtual tech, but they share a very similair way of thinking as the Ardent Mages from Endless Legend.

although I don't know whether there weren't any connection with the virtual during the reverse engeneering, but there are living virtuals inside of the craver quest line so there might be a virtual still alive within the vodyani network.

Okay, so I'm gonna start this off w/ a brief overview of the Endless that survived the Dust Wars.

- A vast majority of the Concrete Endless died off during the conflict, however, a few notable survivors such as the Archivists (since there are 3 known ones), the Aurigan Broken Lords (mutated offshoots of the Concretes that later "virtualized" themselves once they forgot who they used to be), and a few from ES1 who survived via Cryostasis pods. 

- As for Virtual Endless, there are actually quite a number of survivors. The Infinite Factory houses an entire collective who have been preparing it for the Cravers inevitable return, Rayaren (can't remember if that's how you spell it) is a Virtual survivor, an unknown number of Vodyani 'house' singular Virtuals w/in their suits [see Vodyani Heroes] w/ one Vodyani Hero actually encountering an entire group of Virtuals (however, I'll be discussing this topic futher below), and there is also the Virtual Endless Hero from the Stellar Prisoner Update who wrote the infamous Tabernacle of Lies. 

Knowing all of this, it is safe to say that there are quite a few Virtual Endless left over in the galaxy, and they are in no way at risk of disappearing due to how spread out they are. 

Now onto the Vodyani. 

The Vodyani had rediscovered Virtual Endless artifacts (I say rediscovered since the Endless were similar to the Forerunners from Halo, in which they interacted w/ many of the other species of the galaxy, so it is likely that ancient Vodyani knew of these artifacts) on their homeworld of Tchinomy during a period of Vodyani history in which their planet was going into massive climate upheavals (and likely a mass extinction event) due to overexploitation of the environment. Of these artifacts, the Cloth (Dark alloy suits that can house any sort of virtual presence) was used to house newly Virtualized Vodyani citizens, w/ the intended purpose of saving the Vodyani population from extinction. Furthermore, it can be assumed that Virtual Endless technology was used and/or reversed engineered to allow for interstellar travel (i.e the Arks), and for breeding vats that allowed the continuation of the Vodyani species by birthing them and then subsequently virtualizing them (see Vodyani's Vision Trailer). 

To answer your questions;

1. Yes, there are Virtual Endless consciousness's within a select few Vodyani Cloths. No, these Virtuals do not control the Cloths completely, rather they live w/in the Cloth in a symbiotic relationship w/ the Vodyani. It is mentioned that some Vodyani's personality merges w/ the Virtual Endless that also lives in the Cloth. 

It is important to note that the Virtual Endless are not found in the Cloth, rather they join the Vodyani inside the Cloth on the rare occasions that a Vodyani may encounter a Virtual Endless. 

2. No, Vodyani Hierarchs are not hybrids of the Virtual Endless and the Vodyani. Of the two known Hierarchs, Isyara St. Shaiad (the current one), and her brother Isyander St. Shaiad (the former, disgraced one and now-leader of the Academy), neither 'house' a Virtual Endless individual w/in their suits. 

Now you may be asking this due to Isyander St. Shaiads symbiotic relationship w/ the, as of right now, unknown Lost individual who may or may not live w/in Isyanders suit, but does communicate w/in his brain. However, the Lost and the Virtual Endless are two completely different species. 

3. The Cloth is Virtual technology, however, they can be produced by the Vodyani, so yes, in effect they are using old Virtual tech in order virtualize and house their consciousness's. 

As for "reach[ing] outside their minds", if anything the Vodyani have a lessened ability to freely think, and thus "reach outside their minds" due to the Vodyani Councils heavy-handed control of the suits and the inhibitors placed w/in the suits that prevent free thought. It is important to note that any Vodyani symbiotically sharing a Cloth w/ a Virtual Endless or Lost individual is not subject to this, as both of those species have shown the capacity to remove these controls. Also Vodyani in very high positions do not have these controls either.

There is no real evidence that supports the theory that the Vodyani have an expanded 'brain' capacity when virtualized into the Cloth (suit). 

However, the suits allow the Vodyani to live for thousands of years, so once can safely assume that the knowledge stored w/in their "minds" is greater than most other species. 

Hope this helped ! 

It does indeed! It's been fun gradually piecing together all these little clues scattered throughout the series...

It's difficult not to feel sorry for the Vodyanoi, isn't it? For all their talk of the glories of Virtuality, it still seems to be a stunted sort of existence that they mantain only because they had no alternative. For instance,  there's that mention in the faction quest of a Vod citizen who was a bit lax in maintaining their Cloth, and as a consequence, has the suit maintenence manuals played non-stop inside their Cloth speakers for a week. Yikes.

Tagma wrote:

It does indeed! It's been fun gradually piecing together all these little clues scattered throughout the series...

It's difficult not to feel sorry for the Vodyanoi, isn't it? For all their talk of the glories of Virtuality, it still seems to be a stunted sort of existence that they mantain only because they had no alternative. For instance,  there's that mention in the faction quest of a Vod citizen who was a bit lax in maintaining their Cloth, and as a consequence, has the suit maintenence manuals played non-stop inside their Cloth speakers for a week. Yikes.

Glad to hear that ! & Yeah ahah, I wish there was more of these "clues" b/c once you find out most (or all) of them, you end up yearning for more. 

It really is, but if you follow the non-religious (Heretic) path of the Vodyani quest, it can be inferred that things seem to be changing for the better for the average Vodyani citizen, so that's heartwarming in a way. 

From what I get they're the Kylo Ren to the Virtual Endless' Darth Vader analogue. They want to be like the V-Endless but totally fail at it because of their point of view and nature. It's impossible to be what you worship after all.

@Suis3i

wait, the broken lords are former endless?

I thought that they belonged to the same group of people as the roving clans and the ardent mages.

Lorco wrote:

@Suis3i

wait, the broken lords are former endless?

I thought that they belonged to the same group of people as the roving clans and the ardent mages.

In the EL artbok it is said that Lords of Amber Plains (the later BL's) were devolved descendants of Concrete Endless. It is possible that some people of Clans and Mges are also devolved Endless, but not all of them and not for sure.

Lorco wrote:

@Suis3i

wait, the broken lords are former endless?

I thought that they belonged to the same group of people as the roving clans and the ardent mages.

What @Mithrill said; this is a section directly from the Endless Legend Artbook

“Broken Lords are a “fallen branch”, a mutated descendant of the Endless Concrete. Those who had remained in stasis on Auriga and emerged on the surface to resettle after the cataclysm, were overwhelmed by the ambient mysticism and Dust magics going wild on the planet. As their technology failed, they had to gain autonomy from the “science only” spirit  of the Endless Concrete and find another path to survival.
Main inspirations:  
• I mainly sourced ideas from Ottoman, Byzantine, and Indo-Persian armor and equipment.
• I did this primarily for their unusual silhouette, because I found it more interesting to move away from the traditional European Knight dress codes and armor.
• Furthermore, this type of armor has the advantage of displaying a “softer” aspect,  and combines harmoniously pieces of clothing made from fabric.
Keeping the face partially or totally covered seemed very interesting to bring an element of strangeness that highlighted the Broken
Lords “ghostly side”. I associated this with “Kulah Khud” inspired helmets that are Persian/ Ottoman -- the idea of “Are you sure you want to know what they really look like underneath?”
Costumes, colors, patterns and textures  to focus on:
• Cotton, copper, silk, and leather, all in shades of red and old gold
• “Scales” of metal stacked plates assembled to form a kind of coat of mail, metal inlaid, engraving
• Lots of gilding and embroideries, but they are frayed, worn and tarnished (however one must understand that it was something magnificent - a long time ago)
• In the end we stylized and simplified this idea of decorative patterns/engravings for a better readability, due to the size of the characters on the terrain.
As far as the cities go, our idea was to build  a fairly traditional medieval city, albeit in  a somewhat more ghostly-Gothic variation.
CORINNE BILLON - Art Director

Suis3i wrote:

2. No, Vodyani Hierarchs are not hybrids of the Virtual Endless and the Vodyani. Of the two known Hierarchs, Isyara St. Shaiad (the current one), and her brother Isyander St. Shaiad (the former, disgraced one and now-leader of the Academy), neither 'house' a Virtual Endless individual w/in their suits. 

Now you may be asking this due to Isyander St. Shaiads symbiotic relationship w/ the, as of right now, unknown Lost individual who may or may not live w/in Isyanders suit, but does communicate w/in his brain. However, the Lost and the Virtual Endless are two completely different species. 

A few questions about this:

1. Though Saint part meant that they housed a Virtual (Shaiad)
2. Im a bit lost on the Lost part(forgive the redundancy) Are they concretes?

Suis3i wrote:

As for "reach[ing] outside their minds", if anything the Vodyani have a lessened ability to freely think, and thus "reach outside their minds" due to the Vodyani Councils heavy-handed control of the suits and the inhibitors placed w/in the suits that prevent free thought. It is important to note that any Vodyani symbiotically sharing a Cloth w/ a Virtual Endless or Lost individual is not subject to this, as both of those species have shown the capacity to remove these controls. Also Vodyani in very high positions do not have these controls either.

As far as i know, the only hero who shows not being controlled by the church, and their worries about this, is Enav St Lyeaor as stated in his lore

@Lardes 

1. For the other Vodyani heroes, it clearly indicates that they are housing a Virtual presence and thus the addition of St. *blank*. But as for Isyara and Isyander, as far as I can remember, there are no pieces of lore that state whether or not they have housed or are housing a Virtual presence. This is also partly b/c they both have the same St. Shaiad, which may mean during the naming process the DEVs might have first used the St. as last names or as position titles, not just indicators of Virtual presence (though it very well could be that taking the position of Hierarch means the Vodyan in question has to house the Shaiad Virtual, if it exists at all). Also, after reading through all of the Vodyani quests, there are no indicators that Isyara (the narrator of the quests) is two people. 

2. The redundancy is fine lol. No the Lost aren't Concretes, they're a completely different species that are the origin of Dust, or as Isyara put it, "primordial dust". Before the Dust Wars, the Endless committed genocide against them in order to harvest the Lost for their Dust; they attracted them to the Lodestones, and places like Harrow, and killed them all off. 

The 4-eyed beings at the end of some of the videos, in the 'anarchy' concept art, and in the Vodyani prologue are all Lost beings.

 [Spoilers] 

Koyasil, Auriga, possibly Teonha, the voice speaking to Isyander both in the comics and in the game are all Lost individuals, and the one speaking in the Amplified Reality trailer (it was never made clear if that one is the same as the one who speaks to Isyander) is.  

3. Enav is the only one where it's clearly stated the Church has no control over him, however, there are indicators in the other heroes bios. 

Varbs Bio:

Unhappily, Zouieina awoke within Varb memories of a lost family and of other ways that a people might choose to live. Torn but triumphant, overtly efficient but silently in turmoil, Varb is a hero who is not sure where he will stand when Great Penance comes.

Klevs Bio: 

She saw also, and stood upon, the brink of her own insanity as her mind attempted to breach and process that scope. While she has risen to the top of her profession and now runs entire Arks and systems, it is said that Klev thinks long on questions of free will, purpose, and the grand design of the universe during the long nights of sleep that she no longer requires.

Daros Bio: 

Still driven to serve a god, and yet sharing her Cloth with its presence, Daro now alternates between burning with faith and aggression and fearing what ultimate sacrifice her symbiotic Saint may require of her. What is the recompense for sacrifice? What is the ultimate act of fidelity? It is one thing to act as if believing your god follows your every movement and thought; it is quite another thing to live that way.

All of these indicate freedom of thought, something not allowed for ordinary Vodyani, as stated here from the Wiki page; 

Results are carefully monitored, however, and as mechanical control of the "Cloth" worn by every Vodyani is in the hands of the Church, there is little room for independent thought, much less rebellion.

Showing that the Virtuals likely disrupted the control that the Church has on any individual they inhabit the suit with. Though most of this is my own interpretation, I believe that any Virtual is less likely to want to be controlled by the Church of Virtual Saints when they're sharing the suit with a Vodyani. 

I was going to sign in here and bring the "official version" and explain everything, but now I don't think that's necessary! 

@Suis3i and @Mithrill have done a great job of lorehunting; if there are any other specific questions let me know and I'll try to clarify them.

-Slow

@Slowhands Awesome ! Just curious, after writing that bit up there about Vodyani naming conventions, I was wondering what the St. Shaiad means. For some Vodyani it clearly has to do w/ their connection to a Virtual Presence. However, for Isyara and Isyander, they have so many other connections (being brother and sister, both were/are Hierarchs, etc) and there are no indicators of either housing a Virtual being that it begs the question if the St. Shaiad has a unique meaning for those two individuals, if there was some sort of shift in the meaning during the creation of the Vodyani, or if the St. has multiple meanings ? 

What a great thread!

On a not-terribly-related note: I had a lot of very confusing and violent early ES2 games, because C. Mieville writes a fantasy series containing a race of cantenkerous fishy-froggy people called the Vodyanoi, and the word "lumeris" feels like a very luminous, glowy, firey sort of name to me.

"Oh, look! The Vodyani are next door! Time for some trading and peaceful relations!!"