Today I kept mulling over the disappearance of the Jove from their own sealed off region of space. I have been thinking about the possibility that they retreated to just one world in their region. Even if they could, it would be a dangerous thing to do. Putting their entire population in one place is putting your survival at risk: a single cataclysm or invasion may mean extinction.
It seems unimaginable now, but there was a time when we were restricted to just one planet, Athra, and this was more than enough for all Amarrians alive then. For millennia, living anywhere else than on that planet's surface was just not something that anyone gave any thought. Athra was the obvious home, a given, and only futurists and dreamers longed for the unreachable stars.
Of course, there were far fewer people back then, and just one planet could sustain this small population. To return to living in a single system is unthinkable today, with uncountable trillions of souls scattered over a vast interstellar empire. But there was a short window of time in our history when leaving Amarr or not was indeed a point of discussion.
In the early years of our space age, there was a group called the Sealers. These heretics rejected what is now recorded in Book of Reclaiming,
"I give to you the destiny of Faith,
And you will bring its message to every planet of every star in the heavens:
Go forth, conquer in my Name, and reclaim that which I have given."
It is sometimes claimed that the words "to every planet of every star in the heavens" was not yet there during those early years, it would have been "to every land of every continent on Athra". The Tetrimon say that the wording was changed after the Empire was purged of the heresy of the Sealers, to clarify the correct interpretation.
The Sealers argued that Prophet Gheinok led us to Amarr to live there, in our promised land, and nowhere else. This put them at odds with the Council of Apostles (which back then had theological authority just like the Theology Council now) and of course the Emperor, who argued for expansion into the heavens.
The dispute was not settled without a fight...
