The [[Wend]] are not made, they are proof of [[Celestial Empress|Her Majesty's]] incomprehensibility. Every Wend can claim to be unique in some way, but even among that number, Sha the Disciple has a reasonable claim to being special. Unlike all the other Wend, Sha was not cursed because she rebelled, or because she committed some grand heresy, but because of a conversation. Where countless souls before her had tried and failed to summon the Empress' attention for even a moment, Sha was successful. No one knows exactly where she came from, but one day she appeared in the orbit of [[Lastvault]], the greatest stronghold of the [[Imperial Bureaucracy]], and informed the soldiers who intercepted her that she must speak with the Empress. While every piece of history and good sense suggest she should have died countless times along the way, somehow Sha managed to convince each person in turn, until she stood before the Saint Bureaucrat Aeschyla herself. The (in)famous Saint heard her case and, inexplicably, brought her into Her Majesty's presence. No one knows the details of that meeting, only that Sha left bearing the cursed mantle of the Wend. As a Wend, Sha seems to experience unequaled freedom of action. Some have speculated that Sha is the first of the Wend for whom that title was not meant as a curse, and even pointed to what appears to be proof. Every other Wend spent centuries, millennia in some cases, being vaporized and reformed, bound in the hearts of stars, used as gladiators (read: food) against Voidbeasts and other horrors, the works. In Sha's case, the Empress placed a curse unparalleled in the records of humankind, and then apparently forgot she existed. Now, Sha travels the galaxy in contemplation, offering the things she discovers as lessons to those who would learn. Her reputation is complex, because though she seems to have accepted service without suffering, she hasn't ever actually been deployed as a war asset. Most folks don't really know what to make of her. To the people of [[Sandcastle]], though, Sha is a friend, mentor, and ridiculously successful colleague. None of them understand her any better than the rest of the galaxy, but unlike most citizens of the [[Celestial Empire]], they don't feel the *need* to understand her. As far as they're concerned, talking your way into a curse more powerful than death itself is to performance art as splitting the atom is to geometry. Sha has taken their ideals and elevated them beyond comprehension. The Disciple is often in contact with her favorite Holding, passing along lessons and thoughts. Nearly every member of the Holding can quote at least one of her teachings from heart. Sha passed word to the Castellans that this temple contains some kind of priceless art older than the Empire itself. She seems to have little stake in these events, other than as a motive force, but even at the best of times her motives are impenetrable, not unlike many of her lessons.