Continuing my summary of what I learned in the first year of search for the Ametat and Avetat.
Part II - The Theft
Several sources - including Lunarisse's archeologist father - point to the great purges under Queron I as a possible time when the relics could have left Amarr.
Queron I ruled not that long after we took to the stars. Our first jump gate, to Hedion, had been built only thirty years before he ascended to the throne. We had not yet met any other intelligent life in the universe. He had inherited from his uncle Armani I an empire rife with heresy. Equilibrium of Mankind was operating from its hidden lair in space, and the Imperial institutions had been infiltrated by Sani Sabik. Queron I cleaned up the Empire.
Those Sabik that survided Queron's inquisitions (21310-21346) fled Amarr in cryoships. They took important relics and artefacts with them and set course to distant lands. I conjecture that they took with them also the Avetat (and possibly the Ametat too, but more on that later). Their cryoships -such as the well-preserved wreck shown in the picture below- were slower than light, and traveled many decades in the hope of finding a good world to start new colonies.
Most of these attempts failed, but at least one colonist fleet succeeded. They made it to the Araz constellation, probably arriving around 21400. There, they flourished - perhaps with the help of the stolen Avetat and its wisdom-granting powers. Certainly the Talocan artefacts that they found in Aphi helped. They would become known as the Takmahl, and their civilization would last for a millennium before collapsing.
The theft of the Avetat by the Sabik runaways must have been known in the highest circles of the Council of Apostles and the Speakers of Truth. A young religious reformer, Ilash Toth, was working with these institutions in their role of curbing
the growing powers of the Emperor and the Holders with planetary
holdings. The Imperial and Holder power grew through the interstellar expansion, and this planted the first seeds for the conflict between the Throne and the Council. Ilash Toth found out what happened to the Avetat. He organised his famous expedition to retrieve the artefact(s) - bringing his followers along - and left Amarr with his fleet in 21432, in pursuit of the Sabik thieves.
The Sabik colony in Araz -that would become the Takmahl empire- was a mere 30 or 40 years old only when Toth set a course to them. At this point the theories branch: did Toth succeed or not?
Let's first explore the theory that Toth did succeed, and was able to wrest the Avetat and maybe also the Ametat from the budding Takmahl. He sent word of his success back to Amarr, but did not turn his fleet back to our holy homeland. Famously, his fleet disappeared and presumably hasn't been found since.
The Goners, founded by Brother Sarachem after he found his truth in old texts long forgotten in the Hedion archives, believe that Toth flew to Eve Gate. Early last year, I spent a good deal of time in the New Eden system to study this and to talk to the Goners. The Goners believe the relics can open the gate, and devote themselves to flying subwarp to the gate. Maybe one day they will find Toth's lost expedition somewhere between the New Eden star and the gate, but thusfar they have not succeeded. They also mention legends that the Jove or some other ancients stopped Toth from opening Eve Gate and hid the relics in an asteroid belt in the now inaccessible Jove systems.
It is fair to say the Toth trail has gone cold for now. So, next we must look at the alternative: Toth did not succeed in retaking the relic(s?), and they remained with the Takmahl.
