Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting (Earth-4001)

"You are what you dare."

- A phrase summarizing both Bornstellar's and the Didact's philosophy towards life.

The IsoDidact, also known simply as the Didact or more specifically as the Bornstellar Didact, was an alternate incarnation of the Forerunner Promethean supreme commander known as the Didact. Originally a young Manipular known as Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting or simply Bornstellar, he was transformed into a "copy" of the Didact after being imprinted with the latter's consciousness and memories, taking on the original Didact's identity and role of supreme commander of Forerunner war efforts against the Flood in the ongoing Forerunner-Flood war. The IsoDidact intended to serve as a replacement for the Didact, who was at the time believed to have been executed by Master Builder Faber. The "IsoDidact" moniker was adopted to differentiate the copy from the original Didact, who was subsequently identified as the Ur-Didact. The Ur-Didact's madness-induced actions near the end of the war led to his imprisonment for the next 100,000 years, leaving the IsoDidact to lead the Warrior-Servants for the final days of the war. He was also the individual responsible for activating the Halo Array at the close of the Flood conflict. Following the firing of the Array, the IsoDidact gradually distanced himself from his Didact persona, being more frequently referred to as Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting once again.

History
The history of the IsoDidact is the same as his mainstream counterpart.

Personality & Traits
Bornstellar was young, inexperienced, and was close to the age of becoming an independent member of society. However, despite his noble class, he was quite rebellious in nature, even to the point of defying the history and trade of his family as Builders. Because of this, Bornstellar had become increasingly interested in the Precursors, an ancient race of "transsentient" beings far predating his own people.

After being transformed into the IsoDidact, Bornstellar's personality changed almost completely to reflect that of the Promethean commander, although in certain respects he remained as his own individual. By the time of the Librarian's testimony to Catalog, he only possessed a third of the active memory of the Ur-Didact, although this may have changed later on with the further integration of his imprint. He could, in a sense, be considered an ideal version of the Didact, possessing his intellect and capabilities but lacking the historical pressures and the immediate factors which eventually caused the original Didact to lose his sanity.

After the fall of the greater Ark and the resurfacing of his Bornstellar persona during Omega Halo's destruction, the IsoDidact appears to have transitioned toward a more integrated composite of his two identities; for example, when queried by Riser whether it was the Didact's "spirit" that forced his hand to fire the Halos, Bornstellar denied this and took full responsibility himself. Additionally, the resurfacing of Bornstellar and his discarding of his identity as the IsoDidact may have been because the Didact's imprint did as he once stated he would and returned control to Bornstellar fully once he was no longer needed. By a century after the firing of the Halo Array, he went by Bornstellar-Makes-Eternal-Lasting again and considered himself a separate entity from the IsoDidact, displaying much of Bornstellar's original personality but with a greater maturity and still retaining the knowledge of the Didact. At the time Bornstellar led the mission to Maethrillian and almost lost Chant-to-Green to Abaddon, he considered himself more than Bornstellar and more than the Didact, but an third amalgam of the two.

The IsoDidact was often forced to face doubts as to his capability in comparison to the Ur-Didact, in particular after the latter's return. This greatly upset him, as in his own mind, the IsoDidact genuinely felt that he was the Didact, while Bornstellar had become a distant and entirely separate identity. Like his original, the IsoDidact rarely showed any fear, although he openly admitted to being afraid to confront the Primordial, due to what it represented and the potential implications it may have had on his deepest-held beliefs. The subsequent revelations shook him to the point that he was unable to contain his fury and executed the creature out of anger.

However, traces of Bornstellar's personality influenced some of his attitudes; for example, he was more tolerant of humans than the Ur-Didact, perhaps as a result of his experiences with Chakas and Riser. By the point the Bornstellar Didact reunited with the two, he clearly showed sympathy and compassion for them; he treated Chakas and the other humans gently, expressing condolence for everything they had been forced to go through and made an effort to save as many of the Halo's human specimens as possible. As an additional act of sentimentality, he allowed Chakas to continue his existence as a machine even though the human's biological form could not be saved.

Later on, the differences between him and the original Didact became much more pronounced, not only because of Bornstellar's personality acting in the background but due to the very different experiences the two had gone through. The divergence of the two Didacts soon became a source of adversity between the two, most prominently due to their difference of opinion in regard to the Halos; later, the Ur-Didact's composition of Omega Halo's human population and his subsequent abandonment of the Forerunners prompted the IsoDidact to consider his original a traitor.

Trivia

 * The Greek prefix "iso-" means "equal"; for example, isotopes are variants of an element that have the same number of protons and electrons but vary in their neutron counts. The IsoDidact's title alludes to the Didact's simultaneous existence in two separate bodies: both incarnations share the Didact's essence, yet they eventually diverge into drastically different individuals.