Promoting the arts

I've stated it before: from the various vows that I took, the vow of poverty seems the hardest to uphold. That is true even if this poverty remains very relative as I am permitted to hold on to what I need for my quest of bringing back scattered holy relics to the Empire, such as exploration ships and the ISK needed to replace them. 

Nevertheless, simply doing one's duty to the Empire - be it during the Drifter crisis or recently for the Blessed Exchange, generates in influx of wealth. I tried handing the bounties and rewards back to the Navy before, but they flatly refused.

So, in light of the upcoming jubilee of our Empress, I decided to put up some of that excess cash as prize money for an artistic work in Her honor. That way it has been put to good use - and it sort of flatters me to see myself as a maecenas of the arts. And that in turn reminds me that I should be careful not to fall in the trappings of vanity.

For now no acceptable submissions have appeared, but these always come right before the deadline anyway. I did note that mr. Quirinus is not the only one suffering from delusions about the throne - I saw submissions claiming Jamyl is still empress, and claiming that Empress Catiz passed away a while ago. 

Perhaps these kind of delusions are more common than we think among capsuleers. The internal narrative that one constructs about oneself comes under pressure -perhaps from the many kills- and rather than adjusting to reality it becomes detached from reality. Capsuleers like to think of themselves as powerful and good, but when that image of goodness starts to crumble and causes the whole narrative to detach from reality, the aspect of power is left as a dangling bond, and can latch on to the Imperial throne.

Former rulers of X4-WLO

Having done all hacking and intel gathering I can for the Blessed Exchange effort, I am once again back to mining as this is the other non-violent way that I can contribute. But I am no miner, and lack the skills to always pick good Gneiss from worthless asteroids. It goes slow.

In between tedious Gneiss mining attempts, I did have some time to look at who was in charge of X4-WLO during the time of the Sansha incursions in Yulai, what some assume was a diversion for what they were doing at the same time in Promised Land. 

In the barbarian lands, capsuleer Kingdoms rise and fall faster than the proverbial flapping of a hummingbird's wings. On the day of the Sansha incursion, January 24th YC113, a group called Cascade Associates gained sovereignty in X4-WLO. Before, it belonged to the "Warhamsters" who must have felt they were going round and round in their hamster wheel going nowhere, since they abandoned the system in October the year before. 

That leaves an uncharacteristically long period where none of the capsuleer warlords held sway over that system. After that date, it gets transferred between corporations of the Cascade Associates, and then the corporation holding it switches to another alliance, En Garde, and it gets again handed from corporation to corporation without long intermittent periods.

I will try to see if I can find a warhamster that was around back in those days - perhaps they were driven out by Sansha or Blood Raiders, or have memory of anything unusual that happened there at the time.

Odd one out

Reviewing the Sansha logs again, there was one of them which drew my particular attention. 

Log 363587633 says "Blood Raiders invade our territory. Their pestilence is not welcome in the perfect eden of Sansha. The Power that Master Sansha has given us has enabled us great feats in the fight against the Raiders. An outpost has been built in X4-WLO, to ensure a firm foothold for the soldiers of Sansha in Blood Raider space."

But X4-WLO is not in Delve, the traditional Blood Raider region. It is in Catch!  

This means that the Blood Raiders are interested in X4-WLO, and probably its constellation. Why? I will try to look in the historical records about who was there in YC113. I suspect these logs date from around that time...

Old Sansha outposts

The Sansha logs retrieved by mr. Varkonis contain snippets of text by the minions of Sansha Kuvakei, mostly lauding and praising him and his efforts. But one thing they all have in common - they mention outposts where the pilots come from or have to head back to. 

And those are by no means confined to the Stain region, which according to the MIO Universe Factbook is the region of our cluster where the Sansha took refuge!

The logs have a identifier - a number. It is not clear what the number refers to, but it would stand to reason that it should somehow not only indicate which ship it belongs to but also be a datestamp. Indeed, the numbers seem to rise slowly, within a limited range. They paint a picture of outposts retreating back from our space down to Stain:

It is deeply troubling to see Boranai, Nidebora, Dabrid and Hadonoo in Imperial space on that list of Sansha outposts. Mr. Firth tells me not to worry, these are old logs and the outposts would have been cleared long ago. Nevertheless I plan to go and check out these systems. The rest of the systems trace a retreat to Providence, Catch and Stain.

But it doesn't stop there - systems in Esoteria and finally Paragon Soul outposts are mentioned in the logs with the latest identifiers...

PS. The yellow route on the map is simply an automatically generated route to go check all the systems,  in the map one should focus on the systems indicated.

((ooc credit: map made with https://evemaps.dotlan.net/ 's route planner))

No trace

I have delivered the supplies to the geologists on Gammel XI, they were very happy with this gift. 

After that, I went with a shuttle and scanning equipment to explore the region. I tried to find traces of any Sani Sabik colony or signatures of wreckage of their cryoship - they would have disassembled it to construct their colony but parts of it may have remained, and that would be scannable.

Alas - if there ever was a Sani Sabik colony here, there is no trace of it left. I found no signatures of ruins of a colony, and no sign of the remains of a cryoship. Either they settled elsewhere, or they were completely destroyed by the cataclysm that occurred here. 

It seems I am at a dead end here, and with not much to do I will return to Mehatoor, where the Sansha logs that I received from Stephanos Varkonis are still waiting to be investigated.

Drilling down

The research outpost is at heart a large drill, mounted on a stable platform, excavating a tunnel straight down. The tunnel itself is just short of a kilometer deep, but they want to drill much deeper to reach a pocket of interest, an old magma chamber that has emptied. It is the only one of its sort, and that is why they chose this location. Reaching it they hope to find clues about what happened from the minerals and gases that were encapsulated in that chamber. 

Drilling down is more challenging than it seems. One expects a thermal gradient as the borehole gets deeper, but here the geothermal gradient is far from ordinary, with local temperatures much in excess of what one could expect. Well, what one would expect on a world where some dynamic equilibrium has settled in - the current state of this planet is clearly far from equilibrated. 

In addition to the occasional lava chamber, there are are layers of high plasticity - meaning the surrounding rock can flow a bit. Not like water, but more like a river of thick paste that closes up any cracks and holes by itself and pushes anything in its way. The force of such flows can bend the tunnel walls or push it slowly away from verticality. 

To go down the tunnel I had to wear the thermal suit again, and go partly with shaky elevators, partly on ladders, while all sort of wiring and tubes were hanging around, attempting to shuttle the heat and materials back up, and transfer cap down to the bottom where the boring equipment is at work. The tunnel is about five meters in diameter, and we go down only in the central part. The wall itself is metal plate with cooling fins and equipment, and still it is searing hot and glowing in some spots - as if it is ready to burst.

All these difficulties are compounded by a more mundane difficulty: the lack of proper funding - materials exist that are better suited for this enviroment. Active hardeners against thermal damage, such as the one we use on ships, and special armor plates to reinforce the walls. These cost a lot, and need a lot of energy.

That is why they were enthusiast to see me. I am a capsuleer, and it is easy for me to buy thermal hardeners and cap boosts and armor plating and armor repair modules that they can adapt for the tunnel. 

I agreed to help them and buy the materials they need.

Lava world research outpost

A shuttle brought be down to the surface of Gammel XI, to the station's landing pad. "Station" is somewhat of a euphemism - there is not even a proper docking bay. The arrival itself was quite turbulent, which the pilot blamed on unpredictable thermal currents in the atmosphere, due to active volcanism and lava flows.

After landing, we had to don heavy thermal suits to protect us from the heat and the poisonous gases and walk over to the main structure. Usual carry-on luggage would just melt, any regular luggage is transported in special cooling containers.

The outpost is on a platform on top of a lone basalt rock mesa. It rests on pylons, as the rock here is too unstable and too hot. The support pylons are drilled deep into the rock to anchor it, and equipped with inertial dampeners and feedback systems to compensate for the incessant seismic activity. The main feature is a large tower which does not contain the habitat for the scientists, but has the instruments and drills for a deep shaft that leads into the ground. The habitats and the labs and the engineering machine shops are surrounding the tower. 

I have been received by the principal investigator, Marcus Nahrami, who introduced me to his team. They are not used to visitors and organized a mini-colloquium so the students could present their work. 

There are engineering folks who presented the low-cost solutions they found to ensure the thermal and seismic stability of the outpost. Most presentations were about the geology of the planet, and what led them to believe that it was no asteroid impact that caused the current cataclysmic conditions: the absense of a central peak, no impact basin, no crater rim mountain ranges, and a lot of other proof that I did not understand due to lack of training in geophysics.

There was a review of other possible causes, and all of them were rejected. Several presentations investigated the possibility of a truly massive mantle plume, released due to energy pent up from differential rotation at the planet's core. But that did not explain the isogen-5 decay signatures.

Tomorrow I will get a guided tour down the shaft that they drill deep into the crust.

((ooc: image from chatgpt after inputting the above description))

Lava world challenges

There is a geophysical research station on Gammel, close to the epicenter of the lava circles. 

Going there, I hope to find out more about why the planet changed from barren to lava, and if this has anything to do with the Sabik cryoship runaways.

There is paperwork to be filled in, and waivers, as the place is dangerous. And special gear to bring along - a heat suit, and mining safety equipment. Not the kind you find on mining ships, but the kind that people use in underground tunnels that might potentially fill with poisonous gas - and that allow you to get out fast if lava starts to enter those tunnels.

In addition, every few hours there are quakes, and occasional lava geysers can send molten rock boulders in the air. There are rains of hot ashes, and days when a fog of sulphuric acid blankets the station.

Needless to say, they are not used to anyone wanting to visit.

Epikouria Chronicles XV

I have received another letter from Brother Hugo - in response to my own letter asking him for clarifications about the supplies sent to the White Paladins.

He writes about a demographic change. As you may remember from previous reports, some New Huolans decided to stay in Anoikis after being pushed out of their own wormhole, and they were warmly welcomed as impoverished refugees in Epikouria. In that respect the Starborn are setting an example for all! Since then they worked hard to become an integral part of the Epikourian colony, and have de facto merged their own Anoikis operations with that of the Starborn. 

The New Huolans kept close ties with the Knights of Soliara, who fly under the distinguished leadership of Prince Seraghis. Recently, an agreement was announced by which the formal administration of Epikouria will be shared between the Knights and Comitia Centuriata - the capsuleers that represent the Starborn, some are Starborn themselves. 

Part of the agreement states that the watch duty is transferred from the Comitia Centuriata to the Knights. The supplies were snuck in during the briefest window of opportunity when the guards were changed. 

To his regret brother Hugo notes that the door to Epikouria has closed again. Moreover, after the changeover the Starborn have re-established protocols regarding planetary visits, and while the New Huolans and Knights will be managing overall system security, Comitia Centuriata and the Starborn maintain control of planetside operations.

Nevertheless Brother Hugo is hopeful for his cause and the cause of the White Paladins. In his mind, the Knights hold a more orthodox view and are more closely associated with the Amarr Militia. Personally, I am not sure this is true - I have witnessed the Comitia Centuriata active in the warzone on many occasions. Nevertheless, I can imagine that this change is a cause for concern in the non-capsuleer populations, especially the Originals. 

I do not think that Prince Seraghis would go as far as to appoint vassal lords on the planets - even though he may appoint a deputy for off-planet affairs. Involvement planetside would mean long protracted wars on the ground, for which I do not think he has any interest at all. The Knights are first and foremost a shield for the Empire, they are not involved in any forceful reclaiming of planetary populations. 

Brother Hugo will not be pleased when he finally realizes that, and I hope he does not feel encouraged to do things he will regret.

Links to keep track of the letters of Brother Hugo:

I. First Contact
II. Diplomatic Talks 
III. Refugee crisis
IV. Setting up a new home station
V. Epikouria under siege
VI. Prince Seraghis visit

VII. A suspicion of heresy

VIII. Pop-up church

IX. Intercultural fair

X. White Paladins

XI. Reactionary uprising

XII. Outside interference

XIII. Starborn and the Blessed Exchange

XIV. Aiding the uprising

Foundation Day celebrations

The Foundation Day celebrations this year were in a way dedicated to the blessed exchange campaign on the one hand, and looking forward to the ten year jubilee of the empress on the other. 

The tour of historical landmarks now also stopped briefly at the construction site of the new Deaconry of Economic Oversight. It was very well attended, I think I had markedly more participants than the last two years! It is always a pleasure to show interested capsuleers around and reveal to them the glory of the Empire through its monuments and recent history.

The upcoming decennial jubilee of the Empress also carries with it the memory of what preceeded... the Drifters' brutal attack and assassination of Empress Jamyl in Safizon. The wreck of her titan is one of the stops on the tour. Dr. Fritte Cornelius shared some footage that the Signal Cartel was able to take from the attack. I think it was not released publicly before, and stirred strong emotions in those present.

Yet, though we remain mindful of the past, we must cast our gaze -and aspirations- forward to the future. A future where the Drifters will pay in full for their crime, a future with faith, prosperity and justice for all worlds.

The first structure

What a blessed surprise this Foundation Day week! In Amarr, near the Emperor Family Academy station, the work has started on the Deaconry of Economic Oversight and the first structure has made its appearance. 

How solemn it looks! I know it is perhaps only the very first part of a much larger station, but how its gold coating reflects the beauty bestowed by God on our universe, and how it inspires hope for economic profits and excellent trade deals!

Truly, the vision of the Empress is grand; she leads us on a path to great prosperity. She presents us - unworthy wretches - with this gift during the holy week. How fitting to lay the first structure down of the new deaconry just now. Now, when we commemorate the foundation of this other great building glorifying God: the first church, built Saint Gheinok. 

May this gift fan the flames of fervor in all pilots and make them redouble their efforts for the Blessed Exchange campaign.

Lava lines

It was not easy to get hold of a planetary geologist on such short notice, just before Foundation day. During this major holiday most places are closed and folks go home to celebrate with family and watch fireworks in the park. But talking to a capsuleer -the rarest of breed- is always enticing and opens doors.

My next expert is dr. Torayedeh Vavari of the Gammel Geophysical Society. She is a young postdoctoral researcher in planetary sciences, specializing in the seismology of rocky planets. We met at the library of the society, she brought her child (she recently became a mother). Like many young researchers, she is quite ambitious and full of projects and ideas. 

The lava fields and large cracks in the planetary crust are recent. That can be seen from the cooling rate, as well as from motion of the surface as it settles back down after a shock. The original hypothesis is that the planet suffered a catastrophic meteor impact not too long ago. The small square in the image below shows the estimated point of impact. Close-by ridges circle it, and geologists identify at least four "rings of fire" of wide lava canyons and cracks partly circling it at larger distances, thousands of kilometers.  

The radius of the largest ring of fire is commensurate with the planet's radius, and dr. Vavari tells me that this is one of the signs that have put into question the hypothesis of a meteor impact. An impact gives a very directed energy with a clear signature on the opposite edge of the planet and scattering off the inner core. The patterns for this explosion are more in line with something that happened on or below the planet's surface, rather than a projectile hitting it from the outside. 

There is something not quite right with the radiation levels on the planet either. Just like the cooling rate temperature of the magma tells you it is still fairly young and hasn't been around for ages, the activity of radioisotopes can tell you something similar about these nuclei. The incident that devastated the planet coincides with a surge in radiation, compatible with an Isogen-5 explosion.

I cannot help but connect this in my mind to the Sani Sabik colonists. Although no technology available at that time could destroy a world, it seems too much of a coincidence to me that a natural cataclysm  of such magnitude would take place exactly around the time they would have made it to the planet. Dr. Vavari is sceptical and tells me that often the most simple hypothesis turns out to be the correct one - and certainly early-space age colonists blowing up a planet is very contrived.

That will not deter me to go and have a look at ground zero for this event. But first, I must return to Mehatoor for Foundation Day celebrations. 

The unmiraculous saint

I met with the expert in local history in Gammel, dr. Octash Quenai. He took me to dinner in a nice restaurant serving rockjaw stew.

Unfortunately our conversation was not very helpful. His historical records do not reach that far back, which of course makes sense since the Sabik cultists tried to escape to a system that at the time was uninhabited. We had not yet met other races, so all known inhabited worlds were in fact under control of the Emperor.

During our dinner, dr. Quenai went on a rant about the unfairness of the sanctification process. In particular he took offense against the requirement that saints performed miracles or intercede still in miraculous ways. He is preparing a beatification request for his uncle, who led according to him an exemplary life - building schools for the children of the impoverished - and is worthy in his view of being pronounced a saint. But he will not get past the stage of beatification and on to the stage of sanctification: there is not a single miracle that can be attributed to dr. Quenai's uncle.

Dr. Quenai took the entire evening to make his case for sanctification, and explain the injustice. He argued that the fact that little Jimmy passed his mathematics exam was, in fact, a miracle regardless of the opinion of the Theology Council. He repeated the uncle's life story in many different ways, illuminating the case from different perspectives, that of the uncle, of himself, of the children, of the teachers, of various people that crossed the blessed uncle's path, even of God. 

It dawned on me that he would keep going until he was certain that I was as outraged as he was about the affair. Only then he would conclude that he had properly impressed on me the gravity of the situation. Yet with every retelling of his grievances, while his outrage grew indeed, unfortunately so did my boredom. It was too late: I had arrived at a point where I could not even feign outrage.

I was saved by a lucky twist in his sprawling diatribe: the uncle had built these schools on barren worlds. Suppressing a yawn, I agreed that the barrenness of the location adds to the saintliness of the act. He casually added that "my" eleventh planet of Gammel used to be barren too, according to geologists. I jumped on that comment, and pushed the conversation back onto my own topic of interest. Now it was dr. Quenai's turn to be bored. He referred me to the Gammel Geophysical Society to find out why it is a lava world now.

May dr. Quenai's uncle, should he now be counted among the saintly hosts of heaven, grant me that tomorrow I find an expert that gets to the point quickly.

Scouting

It was nice to be of help to our pilots. As I focus on exploration I usually am not very useful in fleets (unless they need logi support, which I have been doing in the past). But this fleet just needed a scout in the bulwark systems. These are systems bordering the war zone, forming an impregnable defensive line against the Republic's agression.

Our pilots have been working hard to make the Blessed Exchange a success. One of the goals along the way is to clear these bulwark systems from Minmatar spy data outposts. My humble task was to go back and forth and scan down the systems for these data exfiltration sites, reporting them back for the fleet to sweep up. 

The fleet was joined by his eminence, archbishop Merdaneth. His mere presence deterred any Republic terrorists from trying to interfere, and our pilots were even more motivated to show their zeal in getting rid of the Republic's defensive frigates guarding the data canisters.

This activity also bought me a lot of good will from mr. Firth. In his good mood he wholeheartedly agreed on my plans for an expedition to Gammel.

I have contacted the Gammel Archaeological Society, and will be meeting up with an expert in local history at the Ministry of Assessment Bureau Offices station orbiting a moon around the tenth planet.

Sansha logs

I have received a rather large collection of old Sansha ship logs. These are unrelated to the ancient blood raider colony ship manifest that I discussed yesterday. They arrived in a big box, shipped to me by one of our pilots, Stephanos Varkonis. 

I do not know where he got them from - he sent them to me, and I have not yet seen him around to discuss it with to him. 

I remember that he is quite interested in an event that took place a while ago - a Sansha raid in and near Eve gate, back in YC113, with diversion manoevers in Yulai, I think. Perhaps his interest in that event is connected to something that happened to him in his past and left a mark on him. Or it could be just a hunch he wants to follow. Or a question he wants to answer - why would the Sansha make this special effort go to the gate?

The logs contain various transcripts of commands issued by Sansha Kuvakei and reports by his minions. It might be possible to reconstruct what happened, and who knows to answer the questions that mr. Varkonis has. But that will require finding the connections between these logs. 

I will have to lay them out as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, in order to begin making sense of it all. Perhaps I should get one of these cork bulletin boards and some string, to pin the short messages on the board and connect related ones with the pieces of string...

The colony ship's destination

The destination of this cryoship is a barren world, the eleventh planet of a G-class star 5.9 light years from Amarr. They codenamed the system "The Old One". Nothing to do with current-day "Old Man's Star".

Taking into account a bit of slack, let us say 0.1 light years, there are still 15 systems between 5.8 and 6.0 light years from Amarr.

Of these, eight have a G-class star, namely Unkah, Raren, Hutian, Luromooh, Arayar, Gammel, Basan and Ana. Only Gammel in the Bleak Lands has eleven planets, the other candidates have less. So, that must have been their destination. However, the eleventh planet is not barren, but a lava world.

Usually lava worlds are found closer to their star, where the heat from the star in combination with tidal forces sometimes prevents the planet from cooling down. But it is not impossible to have lava worlds as outer planets, especially if there is a gas giant nearby or if the world is heated by a lot of internal radioactivity.

In those early days of astronomy, planets were detected either by tiny dips in the star's brightness as a planet passes in front of it, or by tiny wobbles of the star due to the gravitational pull of the planets - these wobbles are revealed by the Doppler shift in stellar spectral lines. Planets are much fainter than stars, so direct imaging of exoplanets took a while to develop, following breakthroughs in phased array telescopes. But if you can collect even a tiny bit of light from the planet, you can also make an educated guess at what planet type you have.

In general, the number of planets was under-estimated, rather than over-estimated, as small planets in far orbits are much harder to detect than, say, a gas giant in a close orbit. So, I guess it is unlikely that in those days the number of planets around their "The Old One" star was overestimated. It is more likely that they got the type wrong.

This must have been an unwelcome surpise when they woke up at destination...

Cargo manifest

The Lamp's mainframe completed my decryption job after priority computations about metaliminal storm predictions finished. It did not take long to break the primitive cypher.

The documents show that they were indeed preparing to start a colony and this was a one way mission. 

Cryosleep pods are listed in several classes. The manifest contains a few very expensive ones that basically serve also as a medbay, probably for their "prophet" and his family. Then 1858 regular ones, I guess the mainline colony members. Livestock ones for cattle... and three thousand small cryojars, for human heads!? Why did their bring frozen heads - surely not with the idea to revive them? Infomorph scanning and restoring were not available then. My guess is that it was for some blood ritual, part of their heresy.

The cryoship was large, to accomodate such a big group of people. It had energy and spares to last them well over sixty years in space, and half a year of supplies to get them started when they would reach their destination. The bulk of the cargo is machinery, building blocks, vehicles, and habitat prefab modules. They also have containers with cult objects, among them one that they must have cherished, the "Globe of Destruction". I have not yet heard of that relic, and will have to look up possible matches.

There is also a summary description of the cryoship itself. It seems to have been capable of landing (but not taking off again). They must have planned to dismantle it and re-use its parts in their colony. I'm not an expert in archaeological engineering but it seems to me built in a way that it can be taken apart piecewise with the equipment that they had with them on board.

Finally, there are tables with navigational data. Those I will try to use to see to where they were headed -  my initial guess is that it should be about six light years from Amarr; much further out would take them too much fuel given the duration they planned their cryosleep, and closer by they could have saved mass and fuel in their designs.

An ancient voyage

The old shipping records found in the library of the monastery of the Tetrimon Order of Saint Jamyl in Neyi prove to be of great historical value. They are listing preparations for a long voyage in cryoship, away from Amarr. 

Fast travel was only possible via jump gates. But these were still few, and well guarded. Access was restricted and strictly controlled after a foiled attempt in 21304 by fundamentalists to blow up Hedion gate. These fundamentalists were part of a heretical movement that believed it was sinful to go to other star systems and that we must remain in the one system that according to them God had destined us for. 

There were heretics with the very opposite view, too. Namely that they had to go away from Amarr, and start a new society in some promised world in order to freely pursue their false beliefs. These groups commissioned cryoships to go off into space without using the limited system of jump gates active then. This was often under false pretenses - economic or exploration. We had not invented warp drives yet, so journeys to other stars could last decades, during which most of the colonists would remain in cryosleep.

I think these papers reveal the preparations for such a journey by followers of a Sani Sabik self-proclaimed prophet fleeing the purges of Emperor Queron the Iron Fisted. 

A lot of it is in some sort of code - probably a primitive one based merely on some mathematical problem that takes a non-polynomial time to solve on a classical computer available in that age. I have digitized the texts, tables and ledgers, and submitted this as a easy decoding job to the Lamp's mainframe. 

Epikouria Chronicles XIV

Brother Hugo's latest letter came as a quick answer to my own missive informing him of the Vanguard. He appears happy that I "saw the light" about the Originals and the sinfulness of their experiments with infomorphs. He also mentions the so-called "digitals", sentient artificial intelligences that have been given citizenship by the Originals.

I remember my successful collaboration with Glitter Edifice - a prohibited artificial intelligence, a 'warmind' - and hope Brother Hugo does not read those log entries... 

Anyway, he writes that he has secured the collaboration of a Holder to bring into Epikouria crates of weapons and a battalion of Kameiras, belonging to the Holder's own House forces. They are bolstering the revolt of the White Paladins, by offering them training and assisting them in raids. For now, it is still a sort of guerilla uprising - on any open field they are no match for the Originals' armed forces. 

It has somewhat soured the relation between the Originals and the Starborn, even though the latter claim they have nothing to do with this local matter. I do not think they know of Brother Hugo's interference in local politics... Anyway, the Starborn say they are doing their part by providing customs offices, but if people use private launchpads then there's little they can do against that.

Nevertheless, even Brother Hugo has marked a reduction in the amount of industrial activity the last month or so. This could be due to reprisals by the Originals revoking mining rights - there has been a sharp reduction in the amount of resources mined and extracted from the planets. Also industrial stations have been taken down.

This may have other reasons: Brother Hugo notes that the Starborn seem somewhat restless of late, perhaps itching for new wormhole conquests? Publius and Isidorus are seen less often on station. I think this is due to their efforts for the Blessed Exchange, bringing them outside Anoikis more often, but Brother Hugo thinks something else is afoot.

Links to keep track of the letters of Brother Hugo:

I. First Contact
II. Diplomatic Talks 
III. Refugee crisis
IV. Setting up a new home station
V. Epikouria under siege
VI. Prince Seraghis visit

VII. A suspicion of heresy

VIII. Pop-up church

IX. Intercultural fair

X. White Paladins

XI. Reactionary uprising

XII. Outside interference

XIII. Starborn and the Blessed Exchange

The Paper Age

I am happy to hear on Amarr Certified News today that the insurgency in Eredan has been quelled as well! No doubt in a couple of days traffic will flow as usual along the silk road connecting Amarr to Jita.

I had to head out the other way, today, towards the Kingdom, to Neyi IV. There, specialists from LUMEN's library are working on a restoration project for the old books and scrolls in the monastery of the Tetrimon Order of Saint Jamyl, along with the Order's own experts. It is a long project, as the monastery has been in decay for a long period before Baron Redwolfe discovered it. 

Most civilizations discover and use paper at some stage in their development. It usually signals a major transition, a turning point between a primitive and ignorant planet-bound society, and a digital society entering its space age. Paper and printing allow for ideas and knowledge to spread much faster than before, and it spurs discoveries and innovations. The Paper Age, usually lasting only a few centuries, is an inflection point. 

It is not only books that appear then, but also administration paperwork. That is an often undervalued part of the historical record, at least in popular accounts. But the true historian will value what others would find boring lists and ledgers and reports. During the Paper Age, the level of civilization is usually proportional to the amount of paperwork it produces and archives.

The library collaborators working on the restoration projects contacted me because they found a trove of old shipping records from the dawn of our space age, at the very end of our own paper age. These are records from an ancient shipping company called "Red Star Shipping", that we now know was a front for the Sani Sabik.

Vanguard

After the insurgency in Mehatoor has been quelled, the Angel Cartel gangsters have taken their racketeering and piracy to Eredan, and their corruption is now endangering freighters journeying between Amarr and Jita.

At the same time, Upwell convoys are targeted by a group of warclones, calling themselves the Vanguard. More lawlessness! 

This latest scourge is the result of the unholy and unnatural experiments of the Deathless, meddling with Jove artefacts out in his Fulcrum station in Zarzakh. In blatant disregard of the laws of God and humankind alike, these warclones exist as infomorphs without a body. They are stored (and perhaps live) in a virtuality they call "the garden of souls". If this sounds to you a lot like the sleepers in Anoikis, then you are right! The technology for both is similar, Jovian. 

The Deathless' pirate haven, Fulcrum, probably had an old store of these infomorphs, left in the freezer so to speak. The Deathless uses these disembodied infomorphs as a personal army, incarnating them into clone soldiers when and where he needs. That is the essence of the breacher pods that he developed for his ships.

Creating a disembodied or "ghost" existence is unnatural and sinful. It reminds me of the complaints of brother Hugo about the Originals in Epikouria, about the freedoms they take altering their bodies and minds. And not only the Deathless, but also Upwell is guilty of this sin. Upwell does not want soldiers, they wanted a controllable and easily transferrable workforce, via the so-called "Upwell workforce clone transfers". You can find them for example in Metenox moon drills. Many unlucky subjects of the Empress who chose "a new life with Upwell" ended up in a work clone in some forlorn factory, stored in infomorph stasis in between different jobs...

Now, both the Deathless and Upwell face retribution for their sins. A group of infomorphs -the Vanguard- appears to have fled from the Fulcrum, stealing a ship that stores the garden of souls and can be used as a basis of operations. This mobile operating base is their home, and they call it "Avalon". From there, they are raiding Upwell structures and convoys.

I will write to brother Hugo telling his about this development in Imperial space, as he might not have heard about it out in the wormhole. He can hold this up to the Originals as an example of how such sins lead to disaster ultimately. Divine justice cannot be escaped.

Ms. Yubari's conversion

Last night we held the conversion ceremony for Ms. Yubari. After her physical recovery, she started studying scripture and working on her spiritual recovery. She decided she wanted to convert and join the ranks of the faithful. 

The arch-heretic obsesses over Ms. Yubari, and even attributes a role to her in his latest cult. He imagines her as mother of a future anti-emperor. I think that Ms. Yubari's conversion to the real faith dealt a major blow to the promissae matris cult, more impactful than any purge by the Ministry of Internal Order. I made sure during the ceremony to impart on her the importance of raising her children in the true faith. I am confident she will instill in them deep devotion to our blessed Empress Catiz. 

The arch-heretic messaged me in Mehatoor local, and I feared he would try to stop Ms. Yubari's conversion or sabotage it. Luckily nothing of the sort happened, and we had a serene ceremony. We gathered in the recently consecrated chapel dedicated to Saint-Emperor Amash-Akura. Ms. Yubari participated in its design and was instrumental in its realization - another clear sign that she wants to be in closer communion with God. 

It was good to see fellow LUMEN pilots present for this joyful occasion. In times when the Empire is once again beset on all sides by its enemies, such moments give strength and hope.

Suppression blitz

LUMEN and our allies responded very quickly to the threat of Angel Cartel insurgency. That dangerous situation appeared only yesterday, and already today our suppression activities have fully secured the system.

Pilots were busy day and night, relentlessly removing Angel safe spots in space. I have never witnessed such a swift suppression before! The newest generation of pilots to join our ranks have certainly proved their mettle.

Not only Mehatoor was fully secured, but also Raa came under full insurgency suppression. It will not quite stop the insurgency from spread to other bulwark systems adjacent to Mehatoor, but at least the main base of the militia and the center of operations for a lot of our work for the Blessed Exchange is secure.

I hear reports that the Angels were helped this time by Minmatar Militia. They saw an opportunity in corrupting Mehatoor, of course. While not actively working together, they had a common cause: to inflict damage to the Empire. And so, having no conscience to rein in their hatred for us, they helped the very pirates that are a scourge in their own republic. It was to no avail, the forces of the light overcame those of darkness today.

Sleuthing

I have had no success in finding the Antiquarian. I feel like an unlucky private detective... 

I asked around in the AIR station in Manifest, but new capsuleer pilots are strangely tight-lipped. Was I equally untalkative when I was fresh out of Hedion University's capsuleer academy? I do remember it was all very overwhelming - but I put that down to the fact that I have been living on an asteroid monastery before my piloting days. Now I see that being overwhelmed and uncertain is more general than I thought.

Anyway, the Antiquarian is not someone you would forget, should you meet him. He has a fairly expressive face, somewhat more round than the average Amarrian, and wears a strange cybernetic monocle. It looks antique but no doubt has modern sensors in it. His face is strongly scarred, giving a stern and resolute impression. He definitely looks as if he is a very tough negotiator and will always get the better part of the deal. On the few scarce pictures of him, he wears a warm padded leather coat, which makes me think he was raised on an ice planet.

I did get some confirmation that he has been parading around, orbiting the station in strange ships, but not offering anything for sale. He might have been heading towards Haven. I will look for Amarr agents of Imperial corporations that I have good standings with, and see if they can help me locate him.

But perhaps this will have to wait a bit...  While I was away, a crisis is brewing in Mehatoor. The dark clouds of an Angel insurgency are once again amassing on the horizon. They are bringing their corruption already to Raa, at our doorstep. If their tentacles reach into Mehatoor over the next few days, this may hamper the virtuous works done to fulfil the Empress' vision of the Blessed Exchange. Many of the goals to be reached need to take place in and around Mehatoor, but brigands on the road make this more difficult. As before, LUMEN will step up to restore order, but we will need all pilots...

Completed AIR station

After a slight delay - I completed my contributions to perform remote repairs in the warzone and this took more time than I thought - I finally proceeded to Manifest. I traded the Augoror repair ship back to folks in the militia, and made my way to Exordium via shuttle.

The AIR trade station has been completed! No more scaffolding and welding bots. Compare today's view with that of just over a month ago:

It must be one of the very few large building projects that I have ever known to finish in time. It must have been way over budget then. There is a sort of Heisenberg relation for major infrastructure works - if you reduce the time it takes, the budget grows, or vice versa. 

Unfortunately, the station's interior is just as cramped as it was, despite the fact that also there the scaffolding has been removed:

Well, it is all relative, of course. But in Amarr stations there is definitely more sense of open space and solemnity. Among the various corporations that opened offices, I did not find the antiquarians. But that is not to be expected, a reclusive collector such as him would not advertise. I will start my search in earnest tomorrow.

Epikouria Chronicles XIII

It is always nice to run into old friends in space! I noticed Isidorus Orissus in local as he was doing anti-piracy patrols in Sifilar - he is making his contribution to the efforts for the Blessed Exchange. 

Sansha pirates roam the asteroid belts there, and they can be quite tough, even bringing battleships to harass mining fleets. So, I saw an opportunity to help Isidorus via logi support. I used the Inquisitor-class hull that we have at the ready in Mehatoor. It is nimble enough that large Sansha ships cannot track it with their guns. 

Isidorus is a leading member of Publius Cornelius Felix's colonists, who moved from our own wormhole holdings in Seclusion to Epikouria. In fact, he is Publius' right hand man, his main lieutenant. 

The only news that I have been getting lately is from brother Hugo, and of course this is colored by his interpretation. It is nice to be able to get a view from the "top", so to speak, in stead of the "lower" layers of the colonists. This is not meant in any derogatory way - especially since in his organisation, Publius does not have a fixed or hereditary hierarchy. In stead, he uses the very Caldari concept of merit. This is a bit worrisome, but I think it will be viewed favorably by the Originals in Epikouria.

Isidorus does not have a reputation of being a chatterbox, and he was indeed focused more on combat than being verbose. Nevertheless he conveyed the message that the colonists are doing fine. They have spread to various other systems in Anoikis. And, following the call of the Empress, they have been working hard to contribute to the Blessed Exchange. He has shared some internal confidential memo with me, showing their dedication to the cause.

((ooc info: As this was marked 'for authorised eyes only', Theo would set viewing permissions to LUMEN officers and above exclusively: adept rank, praefecti and upwards - for others this is not IC knowledge!))

I am delighted that Publius and his fellow colonists are fully devoted to the Blessed Exchange, but I am also somewhat worried about their focus on "technological innovation". This part at least seems to agree with brother Hugo's claims of transhumanist tinkering with minds and bodies. But, overall, the picture I am getting is much more positive than what brother Hugo relays to me, and gives me confidence that Publius and his companions are still strong in the Faith!

Exordium antiques

The Antiquarian is in Exordium. Well, he was spotted there a little while ago. As a famous collector he was happy he could show off his most prized old-timer ships and drones under the cover of heightened CONCORD regulations: in Exordium, piracy among capsuleers is suppressed.

If anyone has obtained clues that can point to the location of the Avetat and Ametat, it will be him. I do not know yet what kind of person he is, or if he would even be willing to cooperate on such an important quest. So, the first step would be to meet up! 

I will travel to Exordium again to see if he is still there. Perhaps he has set up an antiques shop in Manifest!

Slave influx

Once again there is an infernal ruckus coming from the arch-heretic Nauplius' hangar. This time it is not a new offshoot of his sedevacantist movement, like the Promissae Matris cult with their chants. I made some inquiries, and it turns out that he has created a freelance job to purchase a million slaves!

These kind of jobs are offered specifically to capsuleer pilots. Often they are contracts to deliver stuff at a certain location. In this case, slaves to Mehatoor. 

The sudden influx of one million slaves has caused not only overcrowding and station-wide malfunctions of the waste disposal system, but it is also a cause of great worry in veteran pilots of the Societas. They remember a time when the arch-heretic sacrificed a million slaves to the blood god (a deity in the heresy that he was adhering to at the time), I think by blowing up the freighter that carried them. 

It has also caused some distress in ms. Yubari. She was working on composing a prayer, as part of her conversion to our faith, and now her prayer is a supplication that these slaves may be treated well and not harmed.

Personally, I am surprised that the freelance job was concluded so quickly. I wonder how many contributors there have been to this, and how many pilots consider going into the slave trade. Perhaps this is only a stunt to attract more people into slave trade and into a more violent sort of reclamation and there will be no repeat of the massacre that took place? 

Industry

Industry is another area that I have never ventured into. We have outstanding captains of industry in LUMEN. There are veterans of the "Bounding Bunny Brigade" for example, but also folks like Drabar Corinnine who builds large ships and the most beautiful freighters. And of course there is Dranghoul's company "Long and Short" which is supplying all sorts of ships in Mehatoor. 

From time to time I get nice glossy advertisements of golden ships sold by Long and Short. Very tastefully done, much nicer than the pushy ads from the Federation or the violent ones from the Republic. 

As I want do as much as I can to follow the Empress' call to action for the Blessed Exchange, I have tried my hand at building Dragoon class ships and Infiltrator drones. It is very hectic at the Navy Anchorage in Mehatoor - it is a new station, large and expansive, with plenty of hangars and a vast industrial district. No need to set up factories yourself, all you need to do is bring some blueprints and the necessary building materials, and then have it be picked up at your hangar and brought to a factory in the industrial part. You pay for the factory, and after a while receive the fabricated goods back in your hangar. It goes much more smoothly than I expected!

To make things even easier, alliance contracts are up with the blueprints and the materials required to help push forward the Blessed Exchange campaign.

Now I still need to figure out where these Dragoons are actually needed...

A better match

Even though it was more adventurous than expected, I am glad I have completed my part for the mining contribution to the Blessed Exchange. I prefer to leave the harvesting of ore to professional miners, who have the know-how and the proper tools and a love for ores and minerals.

Another way to push the goals of the Empire has presented itself. This time it is right up my alley, as they say: hacking relic or data sites. The sites are in low-sec regions, and luckily the sites are the regular ones that do not have incessant waves of republic security service frigates homing in for a kill. 

Although Concord offers no protection in low-sec parts of the Empire, many systems are relatively empty of pilots. And if you see pilots in system, check whether they are mining, or are in a slow battlecruiser or battleship. If you remain attentive, you can elope those rather easily in a nimble magnate, should they decide to warp to you. 

I did not use the Indagatrix, because in my experience it disturbs any mining fleet that would be present too much. They are afraid of the Anathema-class ship's ability to activate a covert cynosural field, and will often reship to scare the covert frigate away. A good old Magnate-class ship does not cause them as much anxiety, and is a more than capable exploration vessel. So, I sold the Pioneer mining ship - may it be used by a new pilot to get more Raspite for the Empire - and with the proceeds I bought a exploration-fitted Magnate.

I had no trouble completing the hacking assignment: as slow as I am at mining, at scanning and hacking I am fast. 

The Empress' champion

Whoever claims mining is boring, is wrong.

I have been mining raspite in fleets offering boosts and compression. Our very own alliance pilots (including Lunarisse) regularly offer these services in their orcas or porpoise-class ships to all present. I have also been helped by Brother Grimoire - of galnet streaming fame - and a kind pilot who goes by the name of Fury Bastaria. 

During one of those fleets, while I was peacefully mining raspite in my pioneer, minmatar terrorists struck. None other than one of the founders of the terrorist organisation Electus Matari decided to assault random miners. Det Resprox picked pilots who had recently enlisted in the Amarr Militia and who had not yet resigned from their soldiering. That made them legitimate targets for the terrorist in his Navy Thrasher.

He overplayed his hand though, by staying too long, hovering like a bird of prey hundreds of kilometers off the asteroid belt. None other than a true hero of the Empire came to our aid: Lord Kelon Darklight, recipient of the Cross of the Sacred Throne Order! He is one of those elite pilots that make little girls swoon and grown men tremble...

He was Empress Catiz's champion during the Succession Trials. This is a battle to determine the new Emperor or Empress, after the previous one left the Golden Throne. Each Royal House picks a champion (in old days could even be an Heir) to fight. Through the outcome God shows us who the successor to the Throne has to be. Ten years ago, Lord Kelon and his retainers defeated his opponents and ushered in the current era of the Empire.

Next time you go to the Emperor Family Academy station in Amarr, perhaps on a shopping visit, take a look at the four Avatar-class titans outside the station. One of these titans is named after Lord Kelon Darklight.

It was this living legend that came to the miners' rescue. Of course, Det Resprox was no match for House Tash-Murkon's champion - the terrorist was soundly defeated. 

So, yes, in conclusion, mining turns out not to be boring at all.

Out of my comfort zone

Mining. 

I have never done it before, although I learnt the theory in capsuleer training. It is simply not something I needed - not for my quest, and not for money as I have more than enough to pursue my quest.

But now the Empress calls for faithful capsuleers to mine raspite. And so, for the first time since capsuleer training, I mined. I got myself a pioneer class ship, and had to fast-track learning mining destroyers for that. 

It is very different from the Indagatrix. The ship is cheaper and dirtier. The ore dust goes everywhere, I think I will still find it in my monk's gown and in my living quarters for months to come. 

Mr. Firth declined to come along, claiming there is probably nothing I can do wrong while mining in bulwark systems. I wanted to run the pioneer without crew, but there is a mining crew union that insists on taking on crewmembers to help with managing the mining hold. 

-to be continued-

Call to action

We are all called to action by the Empress - to contibute in any way we can, within the boundaries of ones abilities, to the great goal of the Empire.

I had hoped for research assignments, but in stead I found heavily guarded and criminalized intel sites, combat missions for agents of the Empire, and mining. None of which I am any good at.

At least for the combat missions, I figured out a plan. I had only done level IV hauling missions before, so I turned to my good friend Gaun Arel, who has helped me often in the past when force was needed. He kindly agreed, always a paladin looking for a righteous quest. 

We met up in Dresi, and I did have some trouble finding an agent that was working today. They are all overworked from having too many faithful capsuleers take up missions all at once. But in the end, with a bit of insistance, a tired mrs. Dahyaron Lahara, agent for the Emperor Family, agreed to give me a level IV security assignment. 

The Indagatrix is not suitable for this, but during last year's "secret santa" someone gave me a tanky Stratios-class cruiser with armor repair systems, both in-ship and remote. 

The Stratios managed to tank the incoming fire using its armor repairer, and by moving relatively fast and staying far enough from the pirates. Gaun was clearly well trained for this sort of missions. The light of justice shone bright from large battleship lasers and his Paladin-class marauder melted the pirates without even a scratch on his armor. It was a sight to behold! 

Mrs. Lahara was pleased with the outcome, and I was pleased to have contributed to our common goal today.

Raspite mining

Mehatoor has not been that busy since the pirate incursions - there were at some point nearly 200 pilots here. At first I thought it was because Amarr is now only 8 jumps away.

But then it became clear they were all mining a new kind of ore, grade X Raspite. 

I had missed the morning news, and when I caught up with that, I found out that the Empress has called upon us all to work towards a glorious goal: the creation of a new trade hub, in Amarr. I have never very much liked Jita and its noise and its scammers and other shady figures... I am sure we can organize this in a more orderly manner here in the Empire.

And now Empress Catiz has ordained that it shall be so. Through the Deaconry of Economic Oversight, we shall set up a Blessed Exchange. 

Every Emperor or Empress puts their own mark on our history, and Empress Catiz I is definitely focusing on the economy - recently the opening of a trade consulate in Jita, constructing new gates to shorten trade routes, and now announcing a trade hub that might one day even eclipse the fabled Jita! Her Imperial Majesty's interests still bear the hallmark of House Tash-Murkon, and we stand all to profit from this. 

I am happy that also so many independent capsuleers heeded the Empress' call. The Raspite field was cleared in the blink of an eye...

Construction sites

The mystery of the construction site that I saw in Mehatoor, and a similar one I found in Kemerk, has been solved. I had already noticed that the finished gate from Yulai to Manifest had what looked like the remnants of such a construction site layout around it. My guess was that there would be also new gates in Mehatoor (and Kemerk).

This turns out to be right. The Empire will get new jump connections.

Sources tell me that the Mehatoor gate will connect to the Akes system, bringing down the Mehatoor-Amarr trip to 8 jumps through highsec (from the current 13 via highsec, or 10 via lowsec). 

If this turns out to be true, this is a substantial shortening of the supply lines from Domain to the warzone headquarters! And it will modify the "silk road" connecting Amarr to Jita, also shortening it by five jumps. I can imagine the pilots involved in hauling will throw a party.

The danger of transhumanism

Our library has drawn another researcher to our ranks - Stephanos Varkonis. He is investigating religious and sociological consequences of transhumanism, and working on his manuscipt "Theological Considerations of the Soul in the Age of Transhumanism", of which he showed me a first draft. At this stage it is mostly an ambitious outline, but it is already very exciting! 

And it is an extremely important thing to investigate. I need more than a couple of words to explain why I think that, so bear with me as I try to explain it below.

Technological progress throughout history has allowed us to overcome ever more limitations. Cave dwelling ancestors made clothing to overcome the limitations of our bodies to withstand cold. Monastic scholars developed glasses to correct eyesight failing with old age. Paladin-surgeons developed bionic legs to replace lost limbs during the global reclamation wars on Athra. 

Not only do we keep inventing new things to overcome our limitations, but we make the existing technology better: our "clothes" can now keep us safe in the cold of space, perception implants allow us to see things our eyes never could have seen, and cloning replaces not just our limbs but our entire bodies. 

We have changed so much that our cave dwelling ancestors may not even see us as humans, should we be transported back to their age and appear in front of them. Transhumanists embrace the vision that the human body and condition is something to be surpassed, and even transcended into a new evolutionary stage altogether, unrecognizable to the humans of the past.

But there is a grave danger in this. If we devalue the human body as a mere instrument that needs tinkering and improvement, then we implicitly rank human beings along certain dimensions: those that are stronger, faster, smarter, more beautiful versus those that are less so. This can lead to a disdain for those which have not reached the "transcended" or improved state, and therefore a condemnation of some lives as less useful and less desirable. Those are the lives most in danger from technological progress, as they will bear the burdens of the sacrifices to be made in the name of progress. When the most vulnerable among us become the victims of progress, the transhuman program has turned against humanity. 

Indeed, the very hallmark of humane thought is that it considers the vulnerable to be valuable! Consider for a moment that which is truly precious to you in your life. Is it not true that those things of true value are vulnerable? They are not to be repaired or augmented, they are cherished exactly because they are defenseless. 

Transhuman or posthuman thought must never lose sight of the value of vulnerability. The way to achieve that is by pairing the technological advances at all times with equal advances in the sphere of religion and morality. And that is why Varkonis' book is timely, necessary and important.

Interview

I do not like to be in the limelight, so when Haapsalu from the LUMEN News gazette asked to get an interview for a piece on capsuleer ship crews, my instinct was to decline.

While casually chatting with mr. Firth, I mentioned Haapsalu's message. I could see some cogwheels turn in mr. Firth's mind, and indeed he quickly saw in it an opportunity to promote the practice of having political officers among the crew. 

It is common practice on non-capsuleer ships and mandatory on non-capsuleer military vessels of the Empire. Political officers complement the military expertise of the captain with their doctrinal expertise, and make sure that actions are not going against Ministry of Internal Order directives. They also keep an eye on the crew's activities and morale.

But it is very uncommon on capsuleer ships. Somehow this tradition never took a hold among us pilots. Perhaps because some even fly without a crew altogether, at least for the smaller ships. 

The Ministry would like that to change, and realizes this sort of change cannot be imposed on the independent-minded folk that capsuleers are. So, the next best thing is to promote it through various channels like news outlets.

And so, I was slightly pushed into doing the interview anyway...

War clones

The riddle of the new alphabet seems to have been solved. The symbols that dr. Cornelius brought to me, and that decrypted to a passage from Epitoth, is not an ancient script. He, and a pilot named Elinore en Divalone found the full code, and the symbols can now be considered as confirmed.

It appears to be linked to the so-called "war clones". Rumor has it that this alphabet is in use both by Upwell and by the war clones. It is easily stamped or templated, and it has a standardized square shape. So it would indeed match military-industrial needs.

Upwell is using cloning technology to give workers a new body and boost industry, and it is no surprise that this technology also found military applications. The same is being done with soldiers: uploading them to upgraded clone bodies, and then treating these bodies as disposable tools to be used up on missions - the war clones. It is not a good evolution. We have seen that in capsuleers this sort of immortality leads to worsening moral standards. 

Cloning has always had a bit of a strained relation to Amarr culture. The Theology Council says it is not a sin, and the soul is transferred too, during a clone jump. But there is a tension with the Doctrine of the Sacred Flesh, which states that the members of a Royal family should not be clones. 

Now, in principle God could elevate any of the faithful to become a member of a Royal house, or even to the station of Emperor. Even though it is always extremely unlikely, provided you remain in your original flesh it is not impossible. There is a feeling that by cloning one closes off any possibility of such a miracle. We as capsuleers are often not aware enough of this sentiment that lives among non-capsuleers, and that makes them think twice before installing even a medical clone. 

((ooc attribution of the alphabet picture: this ooc forum thread))

Epikouria Chronicles XII

I received another letter - just a short one - from brother Hugo in Epikouria.

I think he is disappointed at my refusal to help his friends of the White Paladins. His letter re-iterates the heresies of the planetside dwellers, the Originals, and he exhorts me to support those who want to restore Amarrian rule on at least one planet.

He writes that he has contacted someone else, another capsuleer pilot who is more devoted to the task of helping the White Paladins. That pilot has apparently already reached out to Publius, and is planning a meeting to discuss rights to visit Epikouria. Brother Hugo contrasts this pilot's eagerness to my refusal and makes a lot of reproaches.

He also writes of another eviction attempt that was thwarted, by the same group that tried it before. Again, friends showed up to help, the Knights of Soliara as well as allies from the Dronelands regions. They are getting more products from that region into Epikouria, especially from Malpais nowadays it seems. Power has been shifting in the Dronelands regions, but wormhole corporations still retain a footing in that part of space.

It is clear from his letter that brother Hugo expected another response from me. Still, I remain convinced that we should not yet interfere in what has now become, for better or for worse, an autonomous system in wormhole space.

Links to keep track of the letters of Brother Hugo:

I. First Contact
II. Diplomatic Talks 
III. Refugee crisis
IV. Setting up a new home station
V. Epikouria under siege
VI. Prince Seraghis visit

VII. A suspicion of heresy

VIII. Pop-up church

IX. Intercultural fair

X. White Paladins

XI. Reactionary uprising

Script

I had the pleasure of having dr. Fritte Cornelius over for a visit. He did not simply make a social call - he brought a riddle. He had come across some ancient alphabet or code.

The symbols are not pictograms or icons or hieroglyphs. For that, there are not enough different ones. They are not phonemes or syllable tokens either: there are the same number as in a regular alphabet. By frequency analysis and decryption algorithms, the different symbols were found to correspond to letters in our own alphabet:

The greyed out letters are uncertain, and inferred from similarities found in a different sets of letter symbols. It could be a block script, usually encountered in either primitive civilizations who use square wooden or lead blocks (or potatoes, even) that are carved, then inked and then pressed on paper or stamped. Straight lines are easier to carve than curved ones, hence the absence of curvy lines or wiggles.

The other possibility is a spray-template font. For those the idea is that the places where the ink should come are cut out of a template; the template is placed over the surface to be written on, and the paint is applied over the template. This is used in military or mercantile applications: crates or equipment can be easily marked via spraying paint on such a template.

The idea then is that the letters are such that the template should not fall apart. The only non-grey letters that give a problem in that respect are the H and G form: they have a little white triangle inside the green that is not connected to the rest of the white, at least not clearly visible. None of the other letters have disconnected white pieces.

So, either block stamp letters or spray paint template letters, and an alphabet with possibly only 21 symbols if the grey ones are not present. The only other clue is the text that dr. Cornelius came across: a quote from Epitoth: "Their power being mighty and their presence potent the people were wise not to look too closely upon them." 

That seems to suggest it might be some alphabet from somewhere in the Empire. There have been many over its various millennia and its vast space. A quick first search reveals no match, though...

Treason!

I have been doing some hacking during my usual search for relics, and bringing in warpath information to the Ministry of Internal Order and the Ministry of War. Whenever I find one of these Minmatar listening posts, the Indagatrix's political officer urges me to do my duty. He assures me that my contributions will be noted.

Today, I received a mail from Sword Marshal Sirdan Xer Qosh. It read:

Hostilities between the Amarr Empire and the Minmatar Republic have escalated with more conflict zones emerging across high security space. As a result, your continued involvement in the defense of the Republic during this Warpath Crisis will be rewarded with fast-tracked access to blueprint copies of the new Navy Issue destroyers.

The boldface is mine. 

First, I was terrified. Am I being accused of treason? How shall I clear my name?

Next, I was even more terrified. Is the Sword Marshal himself a traitor, delivering the Empire to its worst enemies? Encouraging me to help the terrorist rebels? Ironically trying to bribe me - who has sworn an oath of non-violence - with a destroyer warship? 

In panic, I went to mr. Ivan Firth. After he helped me calm down with some breathing exercises, I could explain my predicament. He was stunned at first, but after a bit of communication with the Ministry, he told me this was an unfortunate error. These kind of mails are not sent by his excellence Lord xer Qosh himself, it would not be befitting for someone of his station to communicate with commoners directly. The mails are sent by his office, prepared and then sent by some clerk to large groups of capsuleers.

Tonight I thank God that I am not this clerk.

Spring cleaning

Cardinal Dex has answered my mail and has accepted to visit the Lamp's Chapel! The date is not fixed yet, but it is not every day that we have a cardinal over for a visit, and everything has to be perfect. 

I have requested urgent quotes from several parquet servicers and woodworkers, to make sure the woodwork of the chapel will be polished and scratches are repaired. Mittens has been using one of the pews as a scratching post, despite the fact that I have a cat scratching post from a famous brand at home.

The gold filigree on the altar cloth is a bit dull, and also the blood stain from that time Ishta pinned a sedevacantist to the altar with a knife never really got washed out completely, so I ordered a new altar cloth with same-day delivery. Janitorial crew is scratching the wax drippings from the candle racks and the floor, and is polishing the chalices. 

In his answer, Cardinal Dex also explained his plans for the Providence Theological Seminary. I am impressed at the scale that he has in mind! Our local congregation is not small, but the Providence seminary will -when finished- be a place of learning for up to two million students from all over that region. It would be nice to have our library accessible to the seminary students remotely, so I will also give the cardinal a tour there.

My own interest is more about a seminary specifically for capsuleers - for the peregrinan members of LUMEN that want to learn more about the faith. For now I have been working with each pilot who expressed interest individually, working out a personalized trajectory. But perhaps we can come up with a common learning plan and common resources rather than my ad-hoc improvisations...

The Amarr Sector

-continued from yesterday's log-

The first Amarr station that one encounters is in the Steadfast system, a Tash-Murkon trade post. God always choses the Emperor or Empress for a reason, and it looks as if now we are due for some additional trade and prosperity, with our current Empress coming from a more mercantile House. The Tash-Murkon colors give the station a palette that lacks a bit in gold but will be quite reassuring to those who want to make good deals.

The first system in the Amarr sector is Adaz, home of an Emperor Family Bureau station. That is where I decided to make the delivery. It is a fine selection of books to hand out to new pilots joining our efforts, in order to enamor them of Amarr ships and technology. 

I traveled around the Amarr sector, and was happy to find a Hedion University station. Various other institutes in our sector have stations and outposts here. I was surprised to find a Navy Anchorage that again reminded me of what has recently been built in Mehatoor. A very similar station is found in Taikud:

There is something odd about space here. It lacks the usual anomalies - they are either very easy-to-scan training ones, or level V signatures that turn out to be the usual level I anomalies. And, quite to my surprise, there are no wormholes here. This region of space must have remained disconnected from the Talocan wormhole network. 

It is neatly divided up into the central area managed by Concord, and the four sectors, each controlled by one of the four core powers. On my way back, as I left the Amarr sector, I saw a hastily put-up sign warning people:

I'm sure this is something temporary, part of the overall constuction getting this region ready to host freshly licensed pilots soon.

Manifest

 -continued from yesterday's log-

The mystery of the new construction sites may have been solved in Yulai. There, the new jump gate into Exordium is located at a construction site similar to (but not the same as) the ones in Kemerk and Mehatoor. It is dissimilar in that it is not the Empire building something, but Concord, and it is also in the process of being cleared up again. Nevertheless it bore a close enough resemblance that I am now convinced that the things being constructed are new jump gates.

I wonder where the one in Mehatoor will lead to. And Kemerk? It was probably chosen so the Empire will have a better connection to Yulai and Exordium. We shall see.

The Yulai gate leads to he very heart of the Exordium constellation, a star system called Manifest. Also there, the construction is not yet complete: a vast AIR station is in the making, still wrapped in scaffolding, with building materials in containers next to it, and little welding bobs and carry-all drones darting around.

It is already possible to dock in the station, but the inside of the station is not finished either - it is also still covered in scaffolding. Construction materials clutter the station, and there is a relentless activity of drones and workers welding, painting, putting in wiring or tubing, installing or removing machinery, the sound of which barely drowns out the shouts of contractors panicking about deadlines.

Making the wormhole map has gotten me interested in the nebulae that one sees in the different regions. So I warped to some spot away from moons or planets that might obstruct the view. All four of the core nebula are visible in the sky, with Verge Vendor appearing largest. All in all, the sky here looks like in Sinq Laison. That's not too surprising, since the stars of Exordium are located quite close to that region.

There is not much to do yet in Manifest, and I got the impression that though welcome in the AIR station I was mostly standing in the way of the construction workers. So, Urad and I headed out towards the Amarr part of Exordium.

-to be continued-

Book delivery fleet

I am curious about Exordium, the new region that has been opened up for exploration. The Empire has already claimed its share of systems there. AIR plans to use the whole region for its training programs for new capsuleers - and the Concord powers did not object to this, given the relatively low strategic and mining value of the region.

There are various stations there already, among them an Emperor Family Bureau station in Adaz and also Hedion University opened a branch, in Mazor. Since a few days they are open for business, and I think it is a good place for various corporations of our alliance to open offices. 

Any LUMEN main office should also have a library annex, with books of interest to new capsuleers. Textbooks on Amarr cruisers, battlecruisers, battleships. Handbooks on energy turrets of all sizes. Reference works on boosting armor resistances. Everything for new capsuleers to learn about the most capable ships in the cluster, and avoid weapon systems not based on light (Khanid missile systems are fine too). 

And because it should not all be about spaceship skills, also a bunch of Pax Amarrias.

So, I decided to indulge my curiosity and do something useful at the same time: deliver books to Exordium's Amarr space. I went up to Yulai first, since the only gate to the entire Exordium region is located there. I was joined by Urad Gula, in a confessor-class destroyer - he had already been to Exordium, and very kindly provided an armed escort to keep the book shipment safe.

On the way from Girani-Fa to Yulai, I noticed something interesting in Kemerk: another new construction site. One completely similar to the one in Mehatoor that I wrote about in yesterday's log! I can understand reinforcements in Mehatoor, given the escalating war, but Kemerk?

-to be continued-

Not just us

It is not only LUMEN that is expanding its presence in Mehatoor with new stations. Our alliance built new structures over the past year.

Also the Imperial Navy has been adding strongholds, such as this one close to the inner lava planet.

Those navy installations have been built fairly recently, and are now more busy than ever. And now there appeared a new construction site too that I had not seen before!

It is not clear what is being constructed, and when I was inquiring I was told to move along. 

I suspect that this is related to the worsening of the relations between the empires and the low-key warfare that is going on all over the cluster. It is not too surprising that Mehatoor as the Navy headquarters is getting reinforcements. 

Mehatoor will soon become a fortress system the likes of which have not been seen since the Traumark Installation. That too was a realization of House Tash-Murkon, the royal line which has given us Empress Catiz. This time, for fortress Mehatoor, the Navy fleets will be bolstered by the presence of the brave LUMEN capsuleer pilots!