Elkar Lemard
Elkar Lemard initiated the eponymous Lemardian Movement. As a prominent member of the Sevyet and a well-known geneticist, Lemard maintained a fair amount of public attention.
Lemard was of Genetically Enhanced descent, from a desert world. His lean countenance provided him with an air of authority among unenhanced humans. His people enjoy an extended lifespan and traditionally kept a lifestyle of having two consecutive carreers. In his first carreer, Lemard gained prestige by passing many of the creators tests, particular in the area of xeno-botanical hybridization.
Lemard served part of this carreer as an officer in the Frontier Scout Fleet. Not only did this lead to common falsehood that he was involved with the discovery of Esperopteris Koinsii, but it later served popular conspiracy theorists with “evidence” that he was a member of the supposed Hilkedge Light Horse secret society.
As his second carreer, Lemard became a politician. His letters and writings from this period seem to indicate that he genuinely believed that politicians and the public just needed to understand things better. Unfortunately, when he started making a point of fostering skeptical education and seperating mythology from fact in education, he made many enemies among the Kuberians. As his conflict with them intensified, he made increasingly pointed speaches, and started garnering much support from the scientific and military communities. Reluctantly, he found himself the founder of a counter-movement to the Kuberians, a position he did not want.
Lemard and the early Lemardians put up with much annoyance and interferance from the BID for several years before their influence stabilized and then later declined. Lemard died peacefully almost 20 standard years after retiring from public life. He is revered as an exemplar by the followers of Qin Lop Shu.