It depends on your choices. If you go the non-religious route, Isyara, like her brother, starts having doubts about the faith. If you pick the religious route, Isyara doubles down and becomes even more fanatical (if that's possible). The mechanical results of these choices reflect the playstyle you want to go for. The former allows you to play Vodyani peacefully. With the right tools they can happily go for most victory types through Ark specialisation. The latter sticks the the religious militarist line. I think it's pretty nice that they've included quest choices to allow you to enhance a type of playstyle. So it's worth playing all the factions a couple of times picking different quest routes and seeing where it takes you, both narratively and mechanically. UE in particular can radically change the course of the empire through quests.

On the subject of the Tabernacle. It's almost certainly a relic that records the early Torian (before they were called Endless) genocide of The Lost, and the subsequent dust creation. Given the deification of the Endless by the Vodyani, finding out your saints only achieved their power through a massacre might give you pause for doubt (a bit hypocritical of glorified Space Vampires, but who's going to tell them that?). The clues to all of this are in both the Vodyani, and Academy quests (and to a much lesser extent, the Unfallen). Basically, Isyander finds it, reads it, decides the Endless aren't worth worshipping and the damage theyve done should be repaired, rebels against the Vodyani, causes a civil war, loses, founds the academy, and that's where the game starts.

Thanks, it clarifies, even if I was aware of much of this. I think I was mostly just unclear in the initial post.

What bothered me was that the jump from "Let's find the Tabernacle" to "I am rapidly going into a depression" didn't have a natural transition, I feel. All I would have needed would have been two lines of "We were decieved, the Endless are a lie etc". It just seemed like that shift came out of nowhere to me compared to the other faction quests, which is why I created the thread. Like I said, it just felt like a few sentences were missing, but I digress.

I do appreciate some insight in the lore though. As much as I find it interesting, it has been hard to get a general rundown anywhere.

I haven't played the Vodyani in a while, even though they are my favourite faction, but I can confirm the accuracy of the above post; Isyara either starts having doubts and jumps to action on a similar path as her Brother or she goes absolutely 'Deus Vult' on the galaxy.

Yeah, no, I get that is what happens, and I don't have an issue with it. I was the genearl writing of the quest chain, it didn't seem as cohesive as the other quests, that's all.

But yes, I ended up blowing up the Unfallens home-world so...Deus Vult to them, I suppose.

[SPOILERS}

Maybe just differing tastes. The Vodyani quest narrative is my favourite one I think, other than Horatio, which is a mad as he is. Maybe something to keep in mind is that it's written from the perspective of Isyara who is more like a religious leader than a historian. Some of the vagueness comes from language you'd expect from someone with that kind of perspective and values. For example, when talking about 'lies' in that kind of context, it makes sense that she doesn't spell them out, as to do so would be sacreligious. Contrast this with the Sophons or Cravers, that read more as data log entries you'd expect due to the documenting nature of both. Or compare to the Lumeris, which are equally as vague in parts about what 'the kid' gets up to, albeit for different reasons, as they are told from the perspective of Jenestra as a kind of inner monologue. 

This is taken to the nth degree in the Horatio questline, which is probably the most confusing, but it works because the whole point is that it's not supposed to be clear who is even narrating it, or whether it's even the same narrator all the way through. The start of the quest looks like it's one clone - Four (?) - but the final bit of story looks like it's from Prime, a who knows, it might even be a switch-a-roo with Five after the second chapter. Or maybe Horatio's are just as confused about which one they are as we are. But you can see that the story would lose some magic if it started off with 'This is Four' This is 'Five' 'This is Prime'. It leaves out any room for mystery or interpretation.

You can still get a good idea of what is going on in the perspectival narrative, but certain bits of exposition need/should be left out as is fitting for the characters narrating.

As for the jarring transition between finding the Tabernacle, self doubt, and losing faith. I gathered that the seeds of doubt are planted by your choice in the subchapter that requires you either occupy the system, or send a hero there. The loss of faith is just an escalation of this to the next part of the chapter, so I didn't find it that jarring. Furthermore I think this reflects the experience of a realisation of loss of faith, which often manifests as a singular moment rather than a slow process. So I guess the quick move from 'burn heretics' to 'who the hell am I?' should be expected.

Anyway, that's my interpretation of what's going on and why some parts of the text are less forthcoming that others. Happy to see thoughts that run the other way. 

Thanks for the clarification Jeff! I actually agree with KreigorMoorkus when it comes to the clarity of the Vodyani quest, perhaps an extra sentence or two to convey Isyara's wavering faith in response to the discovered Endless atrocities would do the trick to really create a logical transition of her state of mind.

Slowhands wrote:

Hi all, and as always thanks for your interest and curiosity.

[VERY LARGE SPOILERS]

The intent of the quest is precisely as it has been discussed and worked out by WeLoveYou--the Tabernacle was an object created by a small group of Endless who were horrified at the carnage that had been done to the Lost. In it, they recorded their confessions and the events of their history that led up to the day when the Lodestones, once places of worship, were used to trap and harvest the Lost for their Dust. When Isyander discovered it (he was then in the role that Isyara holds, leading the Vodyani), the truth destroyed his faith and drove him to rebel against and almost destroy the Vodyani church. What the player gets to play out is whether or not his sister follows his path, or remains loyal...

Sadly, if that is not clear, it kind ruins the impact! I'll go back and look it over and clarify the choice where she has the change of heart.

-Slow

P.S. And yes, WeLoveYou, that is precisely how the Horatio quest line is supposed to be. I'm glad that one--for all its confusion--worked as intended!

Thanks for the response Jeff. I've really be enjoying the web series. 

Thanks for the response, did not fully add up that Isyander was Hierarch before. Regarding the clarification, I think the main concern is that the critical choice seems to be made with whether to occupy or scan the Tabernacle system, but it's not clear that this is that choice.

To be honest, as someone who went the militant path the first time, I found the harsh transition in the faction quest fairly refreshing. The fact that Isyara went from 'time to tear apart this heresy' to 'now I don't know what to do' was fairly cathartic. Seeing a huge ego and broad worldview suddenly crash to the ground, as well as the struggle to replace it with something else, keeps with the overall theme of the Vodyani questline. Some clarification on the transition to make it more apparent as to what's happened wouldn't be amiss, but for what it's worth, the quest as it was when ES2 was released didn't feel incomplete to me.