Coronation day fleet

Khimi Harar's special fleet for the Empress is a success. It contributed tremendously to the standings I need to access high level agents assigned to restricted archeological sites.

I was somewhat surprised though, to find that there was an assassin hunting for me! I was informed about the hitman by one of the agents that I do distribution missions for. Thank God there were noble paladins coming to my aid: Cassadra Habalu and Hikari Lightrain made short work of the assassin and his henchmen.

I cannot imagine anyone would want to murder me. I would just reclone? And since you don't loose memories upon pod death, this is not a kill to erase some unwanted memory. Perhaps the materials salvaged from the assassin's battleship, handed over to the authorities, will reveal more...

Coronation day

Coronation day is next week. Empress Catiz I was crowned on September 27th, YC 118, and will enter the seventh year of her rule. In one more year, she will have ruled longer than the late Empress Jamyl. 

Despite a rocky start with protests against her Udorian roots, her rule has been righteous and steady. She brought stability and prosperity during the first years of her reign. She continued the Heideranian reforms regarding diplomacy with the outside world, while introducing her own doctrine to reoganise the empire from within.

She faced the storm of the Triglavian invasions, and stemmed the tide of these starthieves like no other ruler of the central powers could. She then had to root out internal enemies, the rot of the Equilibrium of Mankind infiltrators, and oversaw a purge and purification of the empire that hasn't seen its equal since long.

LUMEN will hold special fleet operations to celebrate our beloved Empress and assist the Imperial Family in its various missions of trade, hauling, policing and peacekeeping. I'll try to do my part and will hold special services to pray for her majesty's health and a long reign.

Coffee origins

I'm finishing up the documentary I was tasked to make - I've been working hard on it all week. I am getting sidetracked too often. When I stumble on an interesting book unrelated to my present search, I often cannot stop myself from reading a bit in it. I've found this old book in the library on the uses of coffee and the ways of brewing it throughout the ages.

It appears coffee was discovered by a goat herder who found that his goats became overly energetic when eating the berries of the coffee plant. He reported this to the Abbott of the local monastery, who asked the infirmarer monk to investigate the plant's medicinal properties. They made a drink with the berries, and found that it kept the monks alert through the long hours of evening prayers.

The discovery was shared, first within the other monasteries of the same order, and later outside the walls of the monastery, as knowledge of the energizing effects of the berries spread.

Relics

To do some research on the tale of Zakara and Garum, I went to the blessed cathedral and monastery on Kador Prime III, devoted to Zakara.

On the wall between two beautiful painted glass windows, there stands a peculiar piece of furniture. It is adorned with shells and bronze curls, and sculpted angels are drawing ones attention to the center of the piece, where golden rays emerge from a small glass window containing a vial. This is an ancient reliquary shrine, containing a small remnant of the saint Zakara. A piece of bone. These are the traces of the passage on earth of a person that we consider a saint.

Those faithful to the rite rather than superstition do not believe that such relics of a saint hold supernatural powers. Rather, these mortal remnants of the saints are here to remind us that the saints are not perfect creatures or magical beings who were floating a foot above the ground. They started as ordinary people of flesh and bone, who were born, and lived, and had to make difficult and very brave decisions at one point in their life. They now stand as examples to guide us and also to help us through our own difficult times.

Brotherly love

I've been working on my documentary project about friendship and brotherhood/sisterhood, but the more I'm looking into it, the more I am overcome with a feeling of sadness.

With tensions building up once again in the cluster, we seem to forget that all are part of one large human family. The hope to work together towards justice and peace, kindled by Heideran VII, fades once again. It is, certainly amongst capsuleers, replaced by a complacent cynicism and indifference for others' well-being. The chasm deepens between the obsession for our personal satisfactions and the potential of happiness shared by the entire human family.

The discussions on the InterGalactic Summit are a sobering testimony this entrenchment of national and personal identities...

I should emphasize connectedness and meeting other cultures more in my ministry. Beginning with Heir-Lord Moradian, whom I'll encourage to keep in touch with his Gallente past rather than quench it in favor of a overly traditional Amarrian stance, taken on to compensate what is wrongly percieved as weakness.

Penance assignment

Sadly, there is still no news from the Antiquarian, nor from Library Assistant. Perhaps I should go solo on this first edition of the rare item fair? No, I think I am too eager and should be more patient.

Meanwhile, I've been gathering information about scripture's take on friendship and brotherhood. To do penance for my sin of pure thought, I am to make a documentary on the topic of friendship and corpsmanship. It will be entitled "The Sense of Faith" so that it can eclipse "the scent" more easily. Zakaria and Garum will be my examples, and I will ask the question of what makes a good friend. Perhaps I will get some of Ishta's new protegés to help out with the movie, or her brother Arne...

Nihil Obstat

No answers to my mails by the Antiquarian. So, no progress on the rare items fair.

Similarly, it's been a while since there was any progress on the Syndicate Prayer Book. This is an initiative from ms. Evelyn Arnoux, and although we collected some nice prayers, I think she wants to extend it further. I, on the other hand, am in favor of publishing the first edition as is, and adding any new entries for a next edition. To stimulate further entries for the second edition, we could hold a book launch event in Syndicate. I'm starting to add graphics to the collected prayers and making into something we can submit to the Theology Council for a very quick Imprimi Potest, and a Nihil Obstat. We can get the final Imprematur in time to incorporate additional prayers for an Imprematur Iterum...

Looking for a keynote speaker

I gathered my courage and contacted the most famous collector of ancient relics and artifacts in the cluster. Well, famous in collector circles, anyway. The Antiquarian. He is still around, or maybe back in the pod after a while: he was spotted in Tanoo.

I have hesitated to write him for a while, because compared to him I am but a newbie dilletante. But it would be amazing to get him on board as a special guest or even a keynote speaker in the rare items fair that I am planning.

In order to give the fair a truly international character, I've also contacted a Gallente collector, Librarian Errant, and he has now answered that indeed he is interested to be a co-organiser. This project is slowly taking solid shape.

Back to exploration

I've been doing some more cargo hauling missions for the Empire to slowly increase my standings, using my trucker's license to get good jobs from high-ranking agents. 

But the urge for exploration is starting to itch. I may do another stint in Seclusion, bringing the Indigatrix back there. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack, you can't quite after the few handfuls of hay.

In parallel, I've tried to contact the capsuleer called Librarian Errant. It seems worthwhile to explore not only space, but also the market for relics.

Never a dull moment

Never a dull moment at the Lamp. First, plumbers that try to make an extra buck by selling Faith's bathwater. These were also the culprits that hid extra copy of The Scent in the library. Thank God the Reverend Mother and the Little Sisters came in to sort that out.

And then yesterday, there was an attempt on Heir-Lord Jason Moradian's life. His own mistake - taking unchecked neural implants that he bought from the dark web past security and into his quarters. It was rigged! He got badly hurt, but luckily no-one else got injured and security quickly got all over it. He must be much more careful!

Synod

A synod. The order I belong to from time to time calls on all its members to come to some central location and debate on some urgent matters of faith. Maybe the best analogy is a Caldari shareholder meeting being called to vote on a small change in a subrule of an article of the corporate charter. It is mandatory to go. To get to quorum, Caldari would say, but here in Amarr it is simply a moral obligation.

Even though it takes me away from my worldly obligations, this is a good occasion to meet brothers that I have not seen in a long time, and to tell each other about all that happened since we last met. It felt good, even though not all the news from friends and acquaintances has been good.

Tomorrow, it is the last day of the synod and then I will travel back to Nasreri.

Somewhere between business motivation and self-improvement

I thought it was strange: a lot of baseliners hovering around the bookshelf of Business Motivation and Self-Improvement. 

Those have never been popular here. Certainly not with Amarr baseliners. It is different for our Legionaire Caldari friends, they are more interested in that sort of works. But it weren't statesfolk hanging around the Business Motivation shelf...

So, I went to check it out. The customers that were there dispersed really quickly as I approached.

And, what did I find, lodged between "Twelve Habits of Highly Effective People" and "Mastering your Emotions to Grow Rich"?  To my utter dismay there were two copies of "The Scent of Faith." Unlabeled! These were not any of the fifteen copies we acquired and removed.

This is another copy that someone brought in, and hid there to share with their friends! It is not part of our collection, but it is smuggled in and put in between a lesser used part our collection. Only those who know exactly where to look can take these copies and view them.

The nightmare continues. 

I instructed the library assistants and the book shelvers to scour the stacks for more hidden copies, but this will take days given the extent of our collection. And I'll have to talk to Luna about this unpleasant development...

Bibliothecarial Innovation

I had to admit that Mr. Jensen is right: the new and stricter procedures for book acquisition will not work. They are stifling the influx of appropriate books and may not stop works hurtful to our members.

After talking to other librarians on the interlibrary loan network, I think I have found a solution for our book acquisition problem. It's something that is occasionally done in the Federation, but that I have not seen yet in the Empire. Usually, I stongly condemn bringing in any idea that come from the Federation, but this one is worth trying out.

Here in the Empire, it will be a revolutionary innovation.

It is called a "Complaint Box".

It is an elongated pillar-like structure of approximately 1.3 metres high, in mahogany wood or oak, with a slit on top, and a small door in the back that is usually kept locked. People who have a complaint, literally anyone, can formulate this complaint, even about their superiors! They drop it anonymously in the slit. The content of the box is regularly retrieved and reviewed. Here, we can repurpose this technology to have the library customers help screen out inappropriate works.

I had the wood workshop contruct a complaint box and put it up near the book return desk. I had them also make a plaque to put on the box. It is engraved with the following text: "The Library staff promises to engage themselves to screen out works that are personally hurtful and/or spiritually inappropriate. If despite our best efforts you find such a work in our public collection, please report it by dropping a note in this box or talking to a staff member. Reported works will be carefully reviewed and removed if found problematic".

Now that the box has been installed, I can rescind the procedure changes, to great satisfaction of mr. Jensen. The combination of the Index, our own judgment and now also the vigilant eyes of our customers will make the library a safe place to nurture the mind and the soul.

Complaints

Mr. Jensen, the head assistant librarian, has complained to me that the new procedures for book acquisitions are too strict. 

We should not let works in that are slanderous or hurtful to our members. Recently we, no, I let in a work that was particularly hurtful in an obvious way, but as I explained to mr. Jensen, there are more insidious ways that a book can be damaging so we need rely on the Theology Council.

Mr. Jensen told me there have been numerous complaints about delayed orders and reservations. As an example, he mentioned a book that he himself was particularly looking forward too. The book is a culinary work by the famous Gallente chef Fleur Duchous, and it is entitled "The hundred best cauliflower recipes of the cluster". It has been delivered but is waiting in stock, and unlikely to getting the TC's attention soon. He claimed it was completely harmless. 

I proposed that we could both have a look at it together. 

I was soon able to make my point. Recipe #57 is for "Roasted Cauliflower with Walnuts and Parsley". And, a little bit further, #64, innocuously entitled "Cauliflower Glow Bowl", calls for, well cauliflower, of course, but also turmeric, sweet potatoes, red onion, tomatoes, chickpeas and... walnuts!

The pictures in this book are magnificent and will kindle gluttonous desire in its readers. But, for those not aware of walnuts or their inherent danger to the soul, it may lead to disaster. Of course we can put warning stickers on those pages, but it's impossible to check all the cookbooks, let alone all the works that arrive daily at the library.

Grumpy, but sharp as ever, mr. Jensen pointed out that my new procedure has a fatal flaw. What if a work is approved by the Theology Council but nevertheless is hurtful to one of our members?  "No TC committee is screening for that!", he said, as he checked out the cauliflower book for himself anyway.

He's right.

Organizing committee

I noticed a fellow enthusiast of books and ancient artifacts on the "Summit" channel. He - or she - they are masked - goes by the name Librarian Errant, and unfortunately is a member of the Gallente militia. Nevertheless, Errant might be someone I can bring on board to organize a rare item convention in a neutral venue such as Yulai. That's been one of the plans I have been working on but delaying. 

With the return of the Antiquarian and now this new capsuleer, maybe there's a possibility to set up an international organizing committee. Or have them as invited speakers. Or both! Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves, first I'll have to see what kind of person Librarian Errant is.

Changed procedures

I've altered the book acquisition procedures for our library. Up till now, it was merely necessary to check that candidate works are not in the Index, even for automated acquisitions. We've changed this rather lax, negative check into a positive check: works must get a positive recommendation first from the Theology Council or the Hedion Book Listings before they are available for loan. This will lead to a little purge for the library as it stands now.

Also, even though The Scent has been removed already, I've closed off the entire bookshelf of the New Eden Writer's Contest Award Winners until further notice, pending thorough review.

Finally, when new works turn out to be very popular and all copies repeatedly get lent out, there will no longer be an automated procedure to buy additional copies, rather the work will be flagged as suspect and up for review.

I hope these measures will keep our library safe in the future.

The ECB

Today again I found no confessor. Archbishop Baracca is away on some secret mission - the Societas' peaceful reclaiming runs in mysterious ways. Father Macauley has to rest after being overworked from taking over 200 confessions already. I don't trust any other baseliner priests to listen objectively to a capsuleer as myself.

So, my need for confession being high, I tried an ECB. The Emergency Confession Booths are cabins with a fully automated, computer-run confessor program, offered for nearly free by the Ministry of Internal Order (only 1 credit token per minute, the confessor beeps when you have to add tokens). They usually line an outside wall of your local MIO station, which has led foul mouths to claim that the Seal of Confession is not guaranteed by these booths.

I sat down, inserted a token, and wanted to start. I was interrupted by a voice that listed a menu, as a keyboard was displayed on the wall next to me. "Press L for sins of lust, B for blasphemy, A for anger, J for jealousy, ...". 

It went on and on and on. I think that it is telling that the list starts with lust, probably they use statistics to see what is most common. After fifty seconds, it had barely started the list, and it beeped already for another token. I inserted five tokens and waited. I was confused as to what category I would have to choose for allowing heretical works sexualizing fellow capsuleers into our library. That's not one of the canonical sins.

After a few minutes, finally the sin of Pure Thought was mentioned, I had to press PT. However, as soon as I pressed the first letter, P, the voice said, "You have selected the sin of [PRIDE]. Please state your confession."  So, I started saying "No, go back. Revert. Escape. Cancel."

The booth answered, "Since when have you started to experience [No, go back. Revert. Escape. Cancel.] ?"

"It's the wrong sin. Menu, please."

The booth answered "Wrong format. Please state a date.", and beeped to signal that I should insert another token.

I inserted another token, and, desperate, mentioned the date on which the automatic purchase of the New Eden Writer's contest books and holoreels was placed. Then I tried, "Restart."

The booth didn't react to my request, but said, "Do you feel contrition for [No, go back. Revert. Escape. Cancel.]? Please indicate your level of contrition between 0 and 9 with 0 being no contrition and 9 being absolute contrition."

This was wholly unsatisfactory. I tried to exit the booth, but found that it was locked. I was locked inside a small confession booth! "Booth in use, do not exit before absolution.", the booth said. I tried "Open door. Emergency."

The booth answered "Wrong format. Please state or type a number between 0 and 9." Defeated, I pressed 9. I do feel very contrite for having hurt ms. Griffiths and exposed our baseliners to heretical pornography.

The booth continued "How strong is your resolve not to perform [No, go back. Revert. Escape. Cancel.] again? Press a number between 0 and 9 with 0 being unresolved and 9 being most strongly resolved." And it beeped for a token again.

I inserted a token and pressed 9. I am very strongly resolved never to make this mistake again. 

The booth beeped again. "For absolution of the sin of [PRIDE], insert [19 TOKENS]." That seems wrong to me, I didn't feel listened to at all, and it just wants money? But, the door was locked, and I wanted out. I'd brought enough tokens with me, thinking that I would have to explain myself in detail. I paid and used up the last few tokens I had on me. From a slot that I hadn't noticed before, a printed ticket appeared. "Absolution granted for the sin of [PRIDE], more specifically [No, go back. Revert. Escape. Cancel.]."

I was glad it was over. Then, the booth asked, "Do you want to confess another sin?"

I answered "No."

The booth said "You selected 'Yes'. Press L for sins of lust, B for blasphemy, A for anger, J for jealousy, ..."

I panicked and started rattling the door. The booth bleeped again. I shouted for help, but no passer-by would stop and talk to me. 

Ten seconds later the booth said, "Insufficient funds." and the door lock clicked open. 

This is the last time I try an ECB.

Soul searching

I did not sleep well. The affair with the "Scent of Faith" holoreel kept bugging me. I tell myself that I should have reviewed its content. I then started to worry about the other contest winners, whether there might be more heresies in them. Aren't there some Electus Matari authors amongst the winners or the honorable mentions? But then, I can't read every book before it goes to the shelves, can I? There's just too many, that is why we have the Index, right?

And yet, as continued to I interrogate myself in the dark of night, I realized that all this discourse about reviewing and about the Index are just excuses I conjure up. 

Had I not heard beforehand that it was hurtful to ms. Griffiths? Yes, I had. Did I not know who Nauplius is? Yes, I knew. Have I not decided to include it anyway just for the sake of completeness of a library collection? Yes, I have.

Pure Thought is the Instigator of Sin.

I have committed the sin of Pure Thought, giving the intellectual primacy over the moral. I need to find a confessor. Why am I the only capsuleer confessor around? I'll try to contact my co-chaplain, Archbishop Constantin Baracca. I haven't seen him around as he is away on Missions but perhaps we can connect virtually.

Awarded and censored

I disapprove of personal censorship. Censorship should be left to the Theology Council, to groups of experts who decide what can be harmful. But individual persons, no, they should not impose their views.

That being said, I might have made a mistake by allowing the award-winning movie produced by the heretic Nauplius into the bookshelf of New Eden Writing Contest award winners. 

I mean, the main sponsor is the Societas - and the thing did get an award. So we have a tradition of automatically ordering the winning works and putting them in the prize winner shelf there. And we do get weird stuff there all the time. What to think about "Geology, Particle Physics, and Cheese in the Neoclassical High Ancient Precursor to Rouvenor Hegemony on Luminaire" ?

However, I neglected to realize that this particular work "The Scent of Faith" was hurtful to one of our own ranks, ms. Griffiths. Apparently, it sexualizes her in an inappropriate way. That is perhaps also why it was such a hit with many baseliners, as they tend to idolize capsuleers and fantasize about them. I am sure an academic discussion and critique of the work would have put it into context and help deconstruct it to reveal it for what it is. But, in this case, the Directix put a stop to it and exerted her powers to excise this work from our library and cancel the debate. 

She was probably right, the thing will be on the next edition of the Index anyway. Also, I need to look at the library from the point of view of the chaplain as well as the librarian...

Hauling

Drill bits. OP insecticide. Small sealed cargo containers. Fertilizer. Construction Blocks. Tobacco. Frozen plant seeds. Mono-cell batteries. Kameiras. Viral Agents. Holoreels. Crates of small arms. Coolant. Mechanical parts. Oxygen.

I've been working hard for the Empire, to bring all sorts of stuff from one place to another. And yet, it does not seem to make much of a dent to my Empire standings, they are crawling up at a pace so slow tectonic plates overtake them.

Career orientation test was right, this is not really a job for me.

History tour

Yesterday, I enjoyed the history tours, bringing capsuleers to the commemorative sites and statues that tell a story about our past. 

My fresh crew for the Vectrix, somewhat intimidated by the Amarr home world, stayed on board and read manuals and watched on-line courses about... being a crew. It amazes me how little they ever learned aside from the craft that they had as a slave. Those skills are useless now that they are manumitted. The simple fact that they are no longer slaves excludes these jobs, that they knew well, from them. They have to find commoner jobs now, like spaceship crew, and they haven't been trained in them. I start to understand why manumitted slaves have such a hard time fitting in to society.

Mission completed

I got in touch with Mr. Jepen. He is very embarassed and could not have imagined that I would go through with the career orientation programme. He tried to bend himself in all sorts of directions to apologize and explain himself.

I reassured him it was an interesting experience that I would tell about to others in a positive light.

He appeared very concerned and did not want me to relay this experience to anyone else. 

I think me made some sort of professional mistake. I'm not sure where they would demote him further down to if they knew. Anyway, on the upside he marked all my missions as completed and awarded me the standings and the hauler certificate.

Missed calls

It appears mr. Jepen has been trying to reach me desperately for the last few days. 

He must have sobered up.

I left him hanging as I was going trough the career orientation test, but I think I will release him from his worries and meet up with him tonight. He put me through this ordeal, now he owes me.

Hauler crew

In the end, the whole experience was quite interesting. After we got our results, there was a group discussion with a career coach. The others in my group were staring at me, and having a hard time to keep their mouth from falling open. I do not think they had ever seen a capsuleer, let alone have a career orientation breakout group discussion with one.

The coach was also stunned. I told him I was a librarian as well as a chaplain, for a rather large but not to be named corporation. He'd never had a chaplain looking for career orientation. He asked what I was doing here. I told him I'd like to start a career in distribution - hauling mostly - and he almost fell of his chair. He told me that my personality traits do not match that career turn at all. I told him I knew, but in order to retrieve relics, as instructed to me by God, I needed to this career orientation thing.

It's strange how he reacted when I told him God gave me a mission, I could swear he thinks I have mental issues. This career orientation thing must be run by Caldari, if they do not understand how God guides our way. The others in the group seemed to be completely okay with this, and even relaxed when I explained myself in this way. 

The coach didn't know how to react, so he just turned to the others. They didn't respond to him, but turned to me in stead. I had mentioned that I needed a crew for my hauler, somewhere in my explanations to the coach. The others in my group were all manumitted slaves, as I had guessed. They have mostly experience in manual jobs, grain havesting (John-Josiah), basket weaving (Kimberlay), and maintenance of farming equipment (Ghust). They complain that after they have been freed, there are no jobs for them. The kind of things they know how to do are slave jobs, and hence not for commoners. The kind of jobs that are for commoners require skills that they don't have. 

The coach tried to mention some jobs that came up for them, including the chicken sexer, but they were fully focused on me, asking for jobs as crew members.

I found myself incapable to refuse.

They will learn while doing, they are very motivated.

Top jobs

The day began with a holopresentation explaining the virtues of the career orientation model, which is based on personality traits and how well they match jobs. I dozed off quickly, it was utterly boring.

Then, we got our results. With a 92% match, my career recommendation is consultant social worker, I think that is a Caldari term for a chaplain, or something close. So that was satisfying. 

More suprising was the number two job, a 89% match: audiologist. I did say that I'm a good listener, but perhaps I misunderstood one of the questions.

Tied for spot number 3 on the list were psychologist and immunologist, with both 87%. Again, a good chaplain should probably know a little bit of psychology. But immunology? Well if it's machine learning that says it, it must be true, right? Unless they captured and use a rogue drone for this.

And where's librarian? Perhaps that is not mentioned since I listed it as my current job - before realizing I could only input one current job. 

Stranger still was the insistence of the rogue drone, or the AI, to ask me questions about farming. Despite the questions pushing the farm life on me, one has to go to number 12 on the suitable jobs list to find an agricultural career: livestock advisor (76% match). It's hard enough to advise humans, I'm not going to switch to yaks. Although that would surely grant me job security for life at LUMEN.

Next will be a discussion session to "critically reflect" on these jobs and what we've learned...

Career orientation test

After we were instructed to fill in the test, all the baseliners started immediately on their task, hunched over their datapads in a way that reinforced my impression that they were manumitted slaves. The hall had banners to encourage us, with slogans such as "Reach your career development goals by learning your natural talents and strengths", "Recognize your optimal career direction" and "Unlock your personal potential". All that definitely gave the impression of a detention center.

I filled in the questions from the career orientation test. It took a very long time, there were many questions. 

The first large batch of questions asked me to rate on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) some statements. Some have a clear link with a job, like "Would you like to repair damaged farm equipment?". I don't.

Other questions are better answered by friends than by myself, like "Do you radiate joy?". Or, "I am patient with people who annoy me." If that includes the ones that make me take this test, I have the patience of a Sefrim.

The next batch had a bunch of job descriptions, again to be rated as to how much I think I'd like to do this kind of job. Honestly, that feels like cheating, that way I can also give career advice. But I also learned new things. I learned that there is a job called "Chicken Sexer", which is a person who distinguishes the sex of chicks and other hatchlings.

While machine intelligence will now process my answers, I should ready myself for the second day. I've received a workbook to help me reflect on my strengths and priorities. Tomorrow, there'll be a two hour virtual retreat with prerecorded holopresentations, breakout sessions, and coach-facilitated reflection, whatever all that means. 

What have I even done to mr. Jepen to deserve this?

 

((OOC: for this mini-arc about Dozey in career orientation, I enrolled in a free online career orientation program, and will go through it fully IC for Dozey. Questions and recommendations are all taken from this IRL test. So, yes, I was actually asked to rate the job of Chicken Sexer, which I felt was not a job Dozey would be particularly thrilled to do.))

A strange new mission

After going to the appointed location for mr. Jepen's next mission, we were herded into a hall. It looked like a cross between a large classroom and a detention center. There were small, well separated desks. The desks were suitable for one person each, and were spread out over the entire floor of the hall, there must have been many hundreds.

The desks had simple datapads on them and the overseers yelled at us to a seat at any desk without delay. The overseers, who looked as if they were bored of patrolling the hall, also told us not to talk to each other. Everybody complied.

I was the only capsuleer, all the others were baseliners, scared and startled by my presence. Looking around me, I realized that most of them, or probably all of them, were recently freed slaves. They were suspicious of me, probably thinking my presence was part of some sort of strange final test following their manumission. 

In reality, I was to be subjected to the same procedure as they were.

A booming voice, reverberating in the large hall announced our fate via hidden loudspeakers:

"Using advanced machine learning, psychometrics, and career satisfaction data, we’ve reimagined what a Career Orientation Test can be! Welcome to the first day of your orientation! Please fill in the questionnaire on the datapad in front of you."

Mr. Jepen's demon

I thought I managed to bond well with mr. Jepen. He seemed to enjoy the possibility to tell me his story and hear my counsel. He asked me to go for a drink again tonight, after I would finish some other missions he had for me. I agreed, if I was allowed to refuse another ship he said he was obligated to give me.

Mr. Jepen's disappointment with his demotion from level 3 agent to career agent runs deep. It has become a demon that clouds his judgment. He drinks far too much. I tried to cheer him up, saying that the prestige of a job does not matter to God, the only thing that matters to Him is doing our job in the very best way we can do it.

He then got this crazy glint in his drunk man's eyes. I don't know if he was angry about what I said but before I could ask, he stood up and shouted "I'll be the best career agent EVER!", after which he downed his final drink. He turned to me and said "I have a brilliant idea! The most brilliant ever! I'll send you the mission coordinates later, be there on time tomorrow!" After that, he  stumbled towards the exit and shouted a slurred "goodbye and good luck!". I thought he went home. At least that's where I hoped he was going, as ideas hatched under the influence of two bottles of wine only seem brilliant until the hangover.

But instead he went back to the office. I know, because forty minutes later I received the coordinates and there was no way to opt out of the mission, Jepen must have faked my approval. Does he want to help me or hurt me (or both, he's Khanid)? Only one way to find out: I'll go there tomorrow.

Career agents

I met up with mr. Jepen at one of Conoban's dining establishments, a place that makes soups in front of you with fresh ingredients. Mr. Jepen mostly gets the attention of starting capsuleers. More experienced ones look down on him. These older capsuleers rarely go back to career agents, and if they take and do missions from him, they complete them in an instant, they don't even look back as they finish the career track. 

He seemed happy that I showed respect and some humility.

We talked about the career office, and mr. Jepen explained me that he was a level 3 agent before. He messed up. Two times in a row, he sent the capsuleer to a wrong deepspace location and got them podded. It was the stress of delivering good enough missions that got to him.

There's a sort of hierarchy in agents: the higher the level, the more esteem they get. The higher-ups get to deal with more experienced and more reknowned capsuleers. When one messes up... badly... you end up as a career agent. The lowest rung on the agent ladder. He does feel bad about it and wants to go back to high level missions. I tried to tell him he was reaching a lot more capsuleers as a career agent, and dutifully doing God's work, but that didn't seem to provide comfort... 

It's often so strange, where people get their worth from.

Free junk

I've gotten into a heated discussion with mr. Jepen. He insists in giving me frigates and useless modules and a bunch of isk. I have tried to explain to him that I operate under a vow of poverty, and I am not going to accept ships. 

He can keep his Venture and his Sigil, the gesture is appreciated. Less appreciated are all these civil-grade modules, like the civil data or relic analyzer. I showed mr. Jepen that I have a data II and relic II analyzer on stand by and hence no need for this cheap junk produced in some Caldari megafactory at a discount price. 

It was to no avail. I have no choice but to accept a package delivered to my hangar... I think I will donate these things to the first new capsuleer I get to chat with in Conoban, that is the only way to get rid of it.

Mr. Jepen

My career agent is mr. Jiekan Jepen, a middle-aged Khanid man who made me fill in a bunch of forms and provided me with some simple missions. I explained to him that I am no longer a starting capsuleer, and he reassured me that many of his clients are actually more experienced capsuleers. Either looking to boost standings or get a quick injection of skill points, due to a new rewards programme that started recently.

Mr. Jepen agreed that in principle my standings - given my background and recent history - should be higher and that this little bureaucratic dance is rather superfluous. But there's little he can do, in order to get me certified as a hauler (even though no-one asks for these certificates anyway) I have to go through various training missions.

Conoban

It's a bit of a weird vessel, the Sunesis. Looks like a fly impaled on a tiara that was made for electroshock therapy. But all in all the fly flies well, and is very agile. It aligns and warps out almost immediately. So, after the test ride, I decided I'll take the vessel. It will be my third ship (apart from shuttles or corvettes), and I'll baptise her the "Vectrix" or transporter.

With a bit of fitting she has a cargo hold of over 1000 cubic metres, and still allows for probes, and drones as defense against prossible pirates attacking me. 

The next piece of advice I got to bring up my standing quickly, is to ... go to career agents. It's again a bit humiliating, I already have a career. But I guess this is a lesson in letting go of my pride and so I will go to the Conoban system to learn how to be a hauler for Empress and Empire.

Sunesis

I got lots of good but often contradictory advice from friends, as I told them my plans to increase my standings through delivery missions. I'm grateful they also allowed me to vent vented my anger and disbelief at having to start at such low standings.

For the hauling and delivery missions, the Bestower and Sigil obviously received good reviews, but surprisingly I was also recommended the Sunesis. It's a vessel that was designed by the Society of Conscious Thought, so Jove influence. Casting aside my initial worries, it seems a decent vessel, with a fairly big hold. Enough for simple hauling missions, at least. It's agile, with a very fast align time. And what convinced me is that it is bonuses for scan probes. So - if I do find some interesting signature, and can still to a little bit of exploration with it. 

I've got an appointment with a salesperson at the Empire Family Academy to go for a test run...

Space trucker

Back in Nasreri, with the crew this time. I'll be doing the occasional wormhole exploration in the future, with them if it is for a longer expedition, without them if it is for a short probe.

So, contemplating the strategy for my quest - it seems like I do need to improve my standings. That would allow me to visit the Museum Arcana and the Labyrinth. These are well known Takmahl sites, but they are guarded by the Empire and only accessible to those with high standings. 

I've complained about this before, I am a loyal subject but still I must somehow grind missions to gain standings. Moreover, my vow of non-agression pushes me towards pacifism. Although the vow only forbids violence ("DPS") against other capsuleers, I try to extend it to non-capsuleers as well. This kind of restricts me to delivery missions.

I'm going to be a (part-time) space trucker.

Return home

Time to bring the crew back home and end the expedition in Anoikis. We've been out here nearly a month, and I can feel the crew aching to return home. They are getting a bit grumpy about me jumping back and forth to Nasreri several times while they waited in Seclusion.

And, to be honest, we did not find Takmahl relics during this month. Nor Talocan ones for that matter. There was a very nice find of an ancient space cathedral at the onset of our expedition, but nothing as enthralling came up later.

Still, I believe it is worthwhile to organise further expeditions here. We've barely gotten acquainted with this strange new part of our universe and its network of unnatural wormholes. I am sure here many more secrets are hidden.

Jason's manucision

I was back in Nasreri late yesterday evening, for the ceremonial manucision of Heir-Lord Jason Moradian. Jason only recently found out about his Ardishapur heritage, and wanted to impress friends and enemies by following the Ardishapur Decree to the letter. This law states that the male members of the Ardishapur family must have their right hand removed. 

It is not a very pleasant ceremony. Lots of blood and pain, accompanied by scripture passages about sacrifice. Bill Cypher was the surgeon at hand (no pun intended), and he wielded the ceremonial catlin knife with great skill. He fitted Jason's new bionic arm as well.

Many noble houses close to the Ardishapur court also follow the Ardishapur Decree. Indeed, most of these houses are intermarried in complicated ways over the millennia to House Ardishapur, and consider themselves linked to the extended family. House Moradian is part of this inner circle. Seeking acceptance from his peers, Jason underwent the rite...

Meanwhile, my impression is that the Ardishapur family is holding off any judgement as to when exactly Jason can claim his Holdership and regain control from the lord-regent. It was telling that they did not send a family member to attend the manucision, as they usually do. Lord knows they have enough family members. But they did send a representative, a clerk from the Ardishapur Family Bureau, which is sign that they do not reject his claim either. I think they're keeping their options open. And, it will probably remain difficult for Jason, given his Gallentean upbringing, to ever fully fit it. Then again, he doesn't have to.

Where next?

The engine tests came out fine. Personally, I had preferred it if they'd found something so they were able to fix it.

We've continued exploration, and the ever changing network of links reminds me of the vastness of Anoikis. It's unlikely to get linked to the same place twice. Our expedition just scratches the surface... Perhaps I should do a 'deep dive', without the crew. Just keep on jumping from wormhole system to wormhole system for a long period of time, to see, as they say, how deep this rabbit hole goes. 

However, duties for the moment prevent a long absence. Jason is having his hand cut off in the Ardishapur ceremonial rite, back home...

Fire rekindled

News of worrisome developments reached us in Seclusion. I heard it while taking some time off in Pilgrim's rest, awaiting the results of the stress tests of the engines of the Indagatrix III. 

The Empire and the Republic seem to have rekindled the battle for Floseswin and the Eugidi constellation in the war zone. Messages to the respective militia call for immediate action. Yet, for the moment, the constellation appears well secured in the hands of the Empire.

But, this comes on the heels of a conflict between the militia and LUMEN, less than a month ago. The Empress calls on the militia to defend and fortify the constellation and while this does not involve LUMEN I think some of our capsuleers will feel the urge to heed the call. Especially our friends in PIE may feel some honor-bound obligation. And, our foes may use this call to beat their chest and push others to join the warzone.

I would advocate leaving the warzone for the militia, we are not welcome there anyway. In stead, let us keep our focus on Arshat and the stellar transmuter device. It is quiet now there, but I don't think we should keep our eyes away from it. In fact, Societas, PIE and KHPER have been diligently patrolling it, and seeing from time to time some scouting from the Triglavians and other reds.

From lines to circles

The scanning tip that I mentioned before for lines also works for circles. If the results of your scan yields a circle - meaning just two probes picked up the signal - then swivel around to find the point on the circle that lies farthest from your probes.

Once you found it (from the first to the second frame in the figure above, I just rotated to get a better view) move the probes to this farthest point and you can zoom in at least two levels. It will yield a much better pinpointed source and save you additional scans.

A stone in the shoe

A new ship is always a bit like new shoes - doesn't quite fit as comfortably yet as the old vessel. I have to get used to it a bit before I can fully merge myself with the ship. I don't know quite how to express this differently, capsuleers will know what I mean. Explaining to baseliners what it means to become one with the ship... well it's like explaining what the color red is to a blind person.

But the Indigatrix III turns out to be a shoe that has a little stone in it, and I can't get it out. 

The engine doesn't feel quite right. Crew has remarked it too, the sound of the engine is different and there is a periodic hum that intensifies and ebbs. Techies can't find anything wrong with it, it attains nominal speed without problems. 

Perhaps I should bring it back to the manufacturer? We're going to run some tests while overheating the engine first - in close orbit to Seclusion station in case things go wrong.

Scan probe line result

Another tip. 

This happens regularly: the anomaly is only picked up by three of your scanner probes, and you get a line, the intersection of the three signals. Where to scan on the line? Many capsuleers will reposition the probes in the middle of the line, not gaining any resolution, and scan again.

But there is a faster way. Find out which of the ends of the line, as in the figure above, is farthest away from your current probe scan location. Sometimes you'll have to swivel the view around and turn it to see. The view in the left panel shows that the lower right end of the scan line is farthest from the probe location. The stuff you're looking for is there.

So, in that case, don't hesitate! Put your probes on the farthest end of the line and narrow it down. Close in on it, two zoom levels even, as shown in the middle panel. You'll get a ping close up on its location every time - as in the right panel.

Minmatar clothing

The crew quickly adapted to the new hull. Most things are the same, but there are some tiny differences. The visuals are sharper, better. A new generation of video probes circling the craft, I guess.

There appeared some Minmatar data sites. Probably some lost exploration, rust buckets must have buckled and failed in the end. 

We retrieved capsuleer clothing from them, and the crew seems to be intent on selling it, they claim it will get a decent amount of isk. I checked the market and I am aghast as how much a piece of fabric is worth. It must be absolutely revolting to baseliners, at least when they can't make a profit from it themselves. I advise the crew to wait with the sale - probably the Minmatar rebellion celebrations are not a good time to sell this kind of apparel, as the market gets flooded...

Maiden flight of the Indigatrix III

It was pretty quiet on the Indigatrix III today, as the crew took hold of this new yet familiar hull. We scanned down some standard anomalies, and investigated a relic site that did not offer much new insights. But I could still feel a tense atmosphere from my crew. Trigger fingers on the cloak and the warpout, and d-scan spamming even during hacking. 

I do feel safer when they're around, but I'm not sure that is reciprocated...

Help line

I've had a bit of explaining to do to the crew, for showing up with a brand new hull. They reacted with a mix of relief - that they hadn't been aboard the lost ship - and dismay - that they could have been aboard. There was general disbelief that this wouldn't have happened with them on board and that my wits were the only thing to blame. And a general worry about what they should do should they find themselves in an escape pod. In Seclusion their emergency beacon will be picked up by the station. But if they are in another wormhole, perhaps one without stations? 

Actually, not all hope is lost. The Signal Cartel provides rescue caches in most systems - a little refuge and a little help in the form of scanner probes. If that's of no help to you, then it is possible to contact the scout rescue team, who will send a search and rescue party. No wonder LUMEN has set the Signal Cartel blue and supports them with docking rights. The technicians have been making sure that also the baseliner rescue pods can contact this wormhole search and rescue folk.

The price of hubris

Bad news: I got podded.

Mitigating circumstance: nothing of value was lost.

I got greedy, and reckless. Yesterday evening, I saw a relic site on d-scan that I hadn't seen before. I decided to go at it alone, the crew was already off for the day. I was tired, but I felt I didn't need the additional split seconds that their interventions grant me. I was wrong. 

An Astero was laying cloaked, waiting. When I warped in and approached the first relic can, it grabbed me, and as I do not carry any DPS and did not have the split second reflex that my crew grants me, I stood no chance. 

I'll have to explain it to them tomorrow. The usual chain of events was set in motion: I recloned, and my agent used my funds to purchase and fit the Indagatrix III. At first, the crew will think I just went off to Nasreri again, to do some personal stuff like feeding Mittens. But I'll have to tell them eventually and I am worried about their reaction. Truth is, I got too complacent, too blasé and relaxed about doing those sites, while in reality danger is always lurking in Anoikis.

Pathfinder

A good galnet tool for wormhole explorations is pathfinder. It allows you to map the wormhole connections, yielding a chart that can be used by all in the alliance, 

Here, you see seclusion, and how it links to several other systems. There are two wormholes, and one link (our static) to highsec. I've been exploring and found that the Ursus, the C1 hole connected to home, is a dead end, leading to a nullsec and a highsec system. The additional wormhole lead to further exploration, and I haven't finished to complete that branch. Every jump is registered. You can even see where I am, the C4 hole. I tend to log anomalies, and pathfinder shows you an overview like this

but only after someone uploads it. But, the most useful part of it is the list of killmails from the wormhole system you are in. If you warp in, check it. It will reveal active hunters will kills on their name. In that case, just warp back out. But if the system has been dormant, you know you can stick around.

The Antiquarian

The Antiquarian has been spotted in Tanoo!

This is so exciting - many believe him to have disappeared, retired! And yet, there is now visual confirmation that he is spaceborne, flying through Tanoo towards Sashta. I have received footage and d-scan of his shuttle from staff I befriended in Tebu Amkhiman, I'm glad I shared these stories about the legendary capsuleer with them.

The Antiquarian is one of the oldest capsuleers, and a famous collector of rare and precious items. His collection is the stuff of wonder and myth, unmatched by any in the cluster. From the earliest days on, any special item would draw his attention and he would be the first one to grab them. He is reclusive, a hermit, nowadays.

Now that I know he is still active, I do want to speak to him, and learn about the relics he has collected over the years! If anyone can help me substantially in my quest after a single meeting, it is him! Oh, if only I could convince him to be the guest of honor in a convention for rare items I would plan... it would draw out every collector in the cluster, I am sure! 

Perhaps items obtained from more recent activities could raise his interest, as he's been less active? But perhaps this is a mistake, and he has stayed active all along to collect also newer items from events and activities. 

Could this be linked to what it going on in Athounon or Arshat? Is this why he woke from his slumber and did he get caught on camera flying towards Athounon from wherever he is stationed, passing Tanoo?

I must find him.

Earthers

The explorations have thusfar not turned up any evidence of Takmahl -or Talocan- presence in Anoikis. This is not a surprise: Anoikis is immense, and we have only scratched the surface of it, a few systems. Finding any remnant of these ancient civilizations here is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

But it also allows for the fantasy to run wild. What if the Takmahl established a colony here, and it got cut off? Could it have endured undetected? Or would it have collapsed, as its parent civilization did?

The "Earthers" believe that we are in a similar situation; that humanity has a common ancestor coming from a single system of origin, and that we essentially got cut off from them. In that scenario, at least us, the colonists, survived. Who knows what happened to the home system, "Earth" ?

In fact, after Anoikis got connected to our cluster, many Earthers through that we had reconnected with the "home cluster", and that our planet of origin lay within Anoikis rather than behind the Eve Gate. They started expeditions, and searches to locate our ancestors - or rather, their descendents, our far-removed nieces and nephews. It did not prove succesful. They did encounter the Sleepers - an offshoot of the Jove, to all likelihood. I don't wish to encounter them - they do not look kindly on explorers as many folk from our cluster plunder their sites, for lucrative loot.

Anomaly scanning tip

Signature Anomalies are strange things.

You scan them down and find all sorts of things hidden behind them. Wormholes, but also relic and data sites. One wonders how it can be that there is a steady daily stream of these anomalies in every system, every day.

Hasn't there been a very thorough search yet of the home worlds? How come these things keep popping up? For the temporary wormholes, it is not hard to understand, but sites that remained hidded for many centuries or even milennia? Why do they pop up? Is it because their cloaking finally failed? Or because the many baseliner vessels that we don't see on our scans came accross them?

No, it's got to do with the fickle nature of solar winds and how they interact with celestials. These reveal disturbances, in a random and ever changing way, leading to this constant stream of anomalies we find. This leads to an interesting tip for scanning. Say, you see anomalies around a celestial like this:

The red spheres are 8 AU wide, and so you think you might need to set your scanners to 8 AU. But in fact, anomalies are never located further than 4 AU from a celestial! So, the best first step to scan down the above situation is to center your probes on the planet or celestial in the middle, and set range to 4 AU. This saves you time and effort in the scan, and will give good pinpointing results for all anomalies close to the celestial.

Deeper into the holes

Today, we decided to push deeper into the wormhole network and explore beyond Seclusion by jumping through the Ursus wormhole. First, we checked that it had not reached end of lifetime, and that it did not have its stability degraded by the amount ships going through it. The information that we called up on the hole showed it was still nice and stable, at least for another day.

After jumping through, there follows a choreography that I trained the crew to handle. First and most importantly, without breaking cloak, the wormhole entrance leading back to Seclusion is bookmarked (I usually just label it "-> home"). 

Then, a "new bookmark" window (ctrl-B) is opened and I select a celestial to warp to at 100km. In close sequence, I then 1) initiate the warp, 2) launch the scanner probes, 3) cloak my ship, and 4) bookmark a safe spot between the entrance hole and the celestial. After arrival at the celestial, I warp back to my safe spot, cloaked all the time.

Only then I relax a bit, and evaluate the system. If there's other probes or ships on d-scan, or a history of recent kills, I would bail out. Luckily, there was no activity in J102734.

Unluckily, there were also no relic signatures...

Celebration

I have been tempted by feelings of vanity once more: it appears I won a prize in the New Eden Writing Competition. I submitted a poem about the demise of our astrahus station, Farthest Shore, located at Eve Gate. My vow or poverty prohibits accepting the large monetary prize so I will distribute it to LUMEN members who want to buy a skill book with it. As librarian, I feel the need to give books, even if they are of the injectable kind.

Crew members felt the need to celebrate, and threw a party in my honor, during which they also exercised their poetic talents by reciting rhymes of dubious content, mostly involving large chested Amarrian ladies, goats and cheese. After some libations, they decided I should sell the rubble that we collected in relic sites rather that throw it back into space. After some more libations, they argued that I should upgrade to a Stratios exploration cruiser, assuring me that they'd crew it most excellently and not many additional hands should be hired, and that they would take care of the hiring process.

It appears that not much exploration will be done after these celebrations.

Deep space particle accelerator

People leave all sorts of junk in space. 

Today, after performing the morning's scan to bookmark wormhole exits, probes picked up a strange matter signature, emissions of exotic elementary particles not known to appear in natural phenoma. Upon our arrival in the deadspace pocket where the signal was from, we found an abandoned particle accelerator, not even powered down. There was no sign of struggle. The science outpost had been abandoned and someone had forgotten to turn off the reactor on the thing.

The outer two acceleration rings were already sparking, and a high-curvature spacetime deformation was glowing in the center ring. It seems whoever built the station attempted to make gates or open up wormholes on demand. 

Right after Anoikis connected to Eve cluster, there was a flurry of enthusiastic exploration, and a lot of grant money flowed to learning about the wormhole worlds. The Arataka Research Consortium played a major role. This abandoned structure did not belong to them, it appears to be from a private Gallente research institute. Often, after projects from this initial exploration wave were completed, researchers returned, leaving their infrastructure behind in the hopes of coming back. But after the initial rush of excitement, grant money levels dropped back to normal as yet another topic became fashionable for science agencies to pursue. 

And so, we have functioning abandoned particle accelerators in wormhole deepspace pockets...

Comparative study of Amarr space cathedrals

Continuing our search for relics in Seclusion, LUMEN's wormhole system, scanners picked up a signal corresponding to an abandoned small space colony. Warping the Indagatrix over, we found that not much was left, except for the ruins of a large cathedral complex.

 

Figure 1: Ancient space cathedral, Seclusion

The structure was definitely Amarrian. Even from far away, the gold ornaments on ivory white hull revealed its link with our beloved Empire. Closer inspection confirmed this, as the structure contained inscriptions quoting scripture. In the cloud of space debris, we found and collected liturgical objects, altar fragments, cloth, chalices.

What is striking, however, is the shape, size and layout of this cathedral. It is a cruciform design, typical for many of the ancient architectural designs of our cathedrals. In this particular ruin, both the nave and the transept were still preserved, as was the domed roof at the center of the cross. The structure emphasizes the vertical, with pillars several hundred meters high connecting roof and floor. 

Imagine for a moment visiting this ancient cathedral, standing on its floor. You would feel humbled in this enormous space. Your gaze will be pulled up, following the lines and the perspective of the pillars directing your eyes to the roof, vanishingly high above you. The architecture leaves you devoid of pride, and with your sight towards Heaven, prepared for prayer and adoration of God. This style of cathedral cropped up on Amarr as well, and can still be seen in ancient pictures, such as the one below.

 

Figure 2: Inside view of an ancient land-based cathedral, similar in architecture as the space cathedral of figure 1.

However, this type of structure is not well suited for space. On a planet, the structure has to bear its weight, the pillars have to counteract the force of gravity pulling beams and ceiling down. That is why structures struggle to reach a height that is easy to reach in space. In space, a very different type of force is prominent: the pressure difference between the inside of the structure - at breathable atmospheric pressure - and the vacuum of space outside. This results in forces not pulling down on walls, but pushing them sideways. You have to design architecture as if it is a pressure cooker that wants to explode outwards. 

The outward force moreover scales with area - this is why the large outer walls of the cruciform space cathedrals are the weak spots, and end up being blown apart when the structure fails. They're no longer present in the ruin that we found, and in many others like it. 

Over the millennia, this has changed the shape of space cathedrals, as religious architecture habits slowly became better adapted to space. The shape that minimizes the area, for a given volume, is the sphere. It is the best shape to deal with pressure differences. However, more things have to be taken into account in choosing the optimal shape. For example, you also want to have a maximum useful floor area, or perhaps fit in landing bays and hangars. So, a compromise between a more rounded shape and optimized floor area and usage led slowly to Amarr's modern design of space cathedrals.

Figure 3: Modern Amarr space cathedral

The emphasis on height, directing your gaze upward is still present in the modern architure; but the cruciform shape with large flat panel walls has been abandond for a more rounded, cylindrical or semi-cylindrical shape. Note that the anchorages - the bottom "claws" where the crypts would be - have been retained, but also adapted to the more rounded shape. Interesting, this change in shape for space cathedrals in turn influenced planet-based cathedral architecture - it takes just one look at the Dam-Torsad cityscape to see the many cathedrals in tapered (semi-)cylindrical form. 

A question may have arisen in the reader's mind: what is an ancient Amarr space cathedral doing out in wormhole space? Anoikis has only become accessible very recently. However, many, often smaller, religious orders in the Empire felt the call to reclaim these strange worlds, and decided to start a mission there or relocate there. I can only surmise that the remains we found were from an order that decided to move its entire ancient space cathedral out to Anoikis. Probably it housed the relics of their patron Saint. Such a move has been done before, even with planet-based cathedrals. Indeed, emperor Doriam II moved the Tal-Romon cathedral from Eclipticum to Amarr Prime, dismantling it and building it back brick by brick, only missing a few bricks.

So, what happened to the missionaries of Seclusion? In figure 1, left of the cathedral, a broken piece of engine can be seen, comparatively large because of its proximity to the camera. It turns out to be of Sansha origin. The religious community living here was brutally raided by the Sansha, who destroyed the monastery and turned the cathedral into the ruin it is today. At least one missionary must have survived the raid, for at the heart of the cathedral's ruin a memorial stone was found, with the inscription:

"In this year fierce, foreboding omens came over our Anoikis home, and the wretched people shook; there were excessive metaliminal storms, space lightning, and fiery comets were seen flying in the sky. These signs were followed by great famine, and a little after those, that same year on 6th of January, the ravaging of wretched heathen men destroyed God's church."

I will try to find out who these missionaries were, using as a clue the relics and scans collected. May their souls rest in piece.

 

((ooc attributions: the inscription in quotes is an adaptation to Eve from the medieval description of the Viking raid on Lindisfarne, reported in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle. The paiting is the interior of Antwerp cathedral painted by Peter Neeffs the Younger around 1650))

A mystery solved

Yesterday after the ceremonies for the fallen in the battle of Aset, I met up with Jason Statesman. I have been helping him find his father and his origins for a while now, and after hitting a dead end I proposed him to involve a friend at the MIO. 

There is a decayed photograph and some DNA that could be used, and I thought the MIO would have no problems tracking this down. Despite some trepidation about involving the ministry, Jason agreed. The material was forwarded and the request made, and then there was a long wait.

The, yesterday evening, we got summoned. And what an unexpected turn of events was revealed! 

My trusted friend in the MIO, after a very friendly inquisition of Jason - not even a single thumbscrew or pulled nail - revealed that he is the son and possibly only living heir to Lord Hadish Moradian, subservient to House Ardishapur. The affairs of the holding are now in the hands of a regent, Lord Arya Nagad, and will likely remain so while Jason learns more about his heritage and about the faith and his tasks as a future Holder. Of course, it came as a shock to Jason, he'll have a lot to process and it is good that he remains surrounded by the faithful.

This joyous news diverted my attention from the shadows of war that are darkening the cluster, as I made my way back to Seclusion during the night.

War

Tensions between the Local is Primary (LiP) militia and the Edencom aligned alliance of Phoenix Naval Systems (PNS), Electus Matari and LUMEN came to a breaking point. LiP attacked a PNS structure earlier, and now PNS called upon the Edencom aligned alliance to retaliate.

The targeted stations are dens of sin, for the lustful pleasure of the mercenaries. Theologically, these places should indeed have been destroyed. However, the fight over them - after they'd been reinforced - took epic proportions. 

First, a battleship blast pitted our Typhoon fleet against their assorted mish-mash fleet. It appears that we were winning, when the fight escalated to dreadnaughts. It was a slaughter on both sides...

So, today I am hopping back from Seclusion to Nasreri, to hold some memorial masses and comfort those who lost loved ones among our many baseliners. The crew and the Indigatrix stay behind, I am shuttling back and forth.

All this is taking place behind the backdrop of another escalating conflict, of larger magnitude: the Federation and the State are openly fighting in Athounon...

Statics and bookmarks

Wormhole space is different from known space in that there are no fixed jump gate connections. Rather, the set of links between the wormhole systems gets randomized all the time. Any wormhole link stays open only for a few days, at most. This is due to the unstable nature of the wormhole, and makes mapping of Anoikis impossible. How would one map a continuously changing random network?

Some of the wormhole links connect Anoikis to known space, to our gate-connected cluster, and that is how we can access this region. Many explorers that jump into a wormhole to get to Anoikis subsequently get lost, especially if they do not carry scan probes and forgot to bookmark the wormhole after jumping. Luckily, they can contact the Signal Cartel, who have made it their business to rescue wormhole explorers.

So, can the constant metamorphosis of the map ever lead to systems being completely disconnected from the network as a whole? No, there are "static" wormholes in every systems. It's a confusing name, they move around and there's really not that much static about them, except in the sense that there are a minimum number of wormhole entrances that are present at any time in a given system. 

Our wormhole has two statics: one that will always lead to some highsec system, and one that will always lead to another wormhole system. We call the highsec connection "Nexus", and the wormhole connection "Ursus". Some days there will be more wormholes in the systems, but never less than these two.

The entrance of these two statics does move about every day within Seclusion, without leaving the system though. So, it needs to be bookmarked over again every day, for fellow explorers to use. The exit of Nexus hops around in highsec, and also needs to be bookmarked. Joy when the connection happens to pop up close to a trade hub, disappointment when it leads to a backwater system.

It is an unwritten gentlemen's agreement between explorers to keep the bookmark folder up to date, especially for Nexus. It is the wormhole itself that should be bookmarked, not the anomaly. If you jump to the anomaly, you'll land some ten kilometers off the wormhole and need to approach it. This makes you vulnerable, and a proper bookmark will let you land at zero, able to jump immediately. Also I plan to keep up with this courtesy of keeping the bookmarks up to date (and set them with an expiry of 2 days for wormholes). Today, scanning and probing was our first task, but some good soul had already preceded us and the bookmarks were up to date. At least still for a couple of hours...

 

PS. For reference, this is how the bookmarks in the seclusion folder are formatted:

The green ones are in the same location as we are, Seclusion. They start with the identification code for the anomaly, and then a description. QED-968 is the Nexus, the portal to highsec. The other side of that is denoted by "Seclusion - Nexus", and today it is in Keba, in Aridia. If you'd go to Keba, and warp to that bookmark, you'd land on the wormhole entrance to Seclusion. By the luck of the draw there appears to be a second highsec hole still open, to Polfaly.

Edencom woes

Today, we did some simple scouting in Seclusion itself, to get the crew acquainted and removed their fears of space monsters in wormhole space.

Meanwhile, the growing tension between LUMEN and the "Local is Primary" militia is causing me worries. Here in Anoikis, I should not be bothered too much by this conflict, but it affects my friends back in Nasreri and Mehatoor. 

The militia have never forgiven LUMEN's participation in Edencom alongside Electus Matari, even though the Empress sanctioned international collaboration in the framework of Edencom in order to fight the Triglavian menace. 

Edencom itself is under fire. Our State allies seem to suspend their collaboration with Edencom and even with Concord in the Athounon system, in order to obtain technology from a cloaked station there. Never since the Elder fleet have the Yulai accords been under such strain.

Luckily, the Empire will not fall behind in the arms race, and has fortified our position around the Stellar Harvester. However, all this goes not without causing incident with the other powers.

Docked in Seclusion

We arrived yesterday in Seclusion's station. I'd been here before, but it had been a while. The station has been much expanded since my last visit, the upgrades allowing for more inhabitants, more cargo hangars, and better defenses. The park is still there: it's known by travellers as Pilgrim's Rest. It is underneath a cupola that opens up to space, and allows for daytime sunshine from Seclusions small yellow star. At night, the unfamiliar sky shows none of the known constellations.

Scattered between grassy meadows and forested patches, the park is home to temples and churches devoted to of various faiths of New Eden. No heretical sects, but also not just our Amarrian faith - there is a small Achur temple, for example. Probably this is because Anoikis is a refuge for people of all over New Eden, who want to disappear in wormhole space and build a new life there. Seclusion wants to be welcoming and inclusive.

As the crew had never been to Anoikis, and the Indagatrix needed supplies and checkups of the scanner systems, I gave them the rest of the day off. Idesbald went straight to Seclusion's most famous bar, "Two Shots Minimum". I do not think he stopped at the minimum.

Heading for Seclusion

Now that our charity in Mycena is operating smoothly again, I can embark on the expedition to Anoikis that I had planned a while ago. One of the technicians has found other employ, I guess she was restless, or scared about the space monsters supposedly living in wormhole space. 

I know I could fly the ship without crew, but I do like to take them on board to relieve me of some tasks. However, I'm not going to replace the techie now, six crew is more than enough. 

We leave in a couple of hours, heading for Keikanen in State space where the wormhole entrance to LUMEN's wormhole base called "Seclusion" was last seen. 

The wormhole to our base is short lived, so the entrance system changes every day, and hopefully it will still be there by the time we arrive. Otherwise we'd have to wait for someone in Seclusion to explore where the new entrance is: when the old hole dies, a new one appears connecting Seclusion to a seemingly random system.

Start-up troubles

The clinic in Mycena experienced some trouble - it was even inaccessible for a while. The front door was jammed, of sorts, and the medbots were missing. 

Luckily, things are back to normal out now, and the clinic is resupplied and back in shape. It's very busy, there's clearly a need for this type of medical care in the district. As soon as it re-opened, there were again queues.

The local authority, mr. Ignis Phage, has been strutting outside and taking credit for this development in the neighborhood, much to my dislike. He had little to do with this LUMEN initiative.

After the disruption of a couple of days ago, now everything seems to run smoothly, and I can go back to the Lamp, and look at my duties there. Apparently, there's some yak handbook that everyone wants to read and I have to figure out how to order it.

Yun-Hee's home

I had a most pleasant evening visiting Yun-Hee Yubari - she had invited me to see her new home. 

Her home itself is minimalistic and spartan. A bit like a monk's cubicle, which I approve but at the same time find strange for a young woman of marriageable age. There's also a martial arts training building called a dojo, and a tea house that is still being installed. 

But the most magnificent part is the garden! It encircles the house and meticulously reconstructs a beautiful achuran landscape, in miniature. As the eyes wander toward the horizon, larger trees complete the illusion of a house in the middle of rolling hills and nature. There are dwarfed trees closer in, like the one I have, but with needles rather than leaves. There are elegantly arranged stones, and raked sand, and a beautiful pool. It is a place that invites for meditation and calm. 

The only downside is that there are no benches, except for sitting down right on the floor at some low table. I'll need my cyberlegs to avoid a screeching pain in my knees.

I brought her a plant for her garden, without knowing the design of the garden. Wild garlic - you prepare its leaves rather than a clove of garlic, it is a medicinal herb and grows well under trees. However, as a flowering plant it is probably unsuitable for her garden.... a faux pas of a gift, I'm afraid. 

Anyway, this makes me yearn for a little garden of my own, a herb garden. An aromatic place. A place to let the mind come to rest and stop thinking. I don't want to take up more space than I do, so I'll look for some publicly available grounds. More accurately: I'll put that on my ever growing to-do list...

A day on Oris

I had the honor of meeting the Praetoria's chapter master again. It took a while to get a proper appointment and to find a time where Lord Lok'ri could find a spot for me in their busy agenda. I do not think I know anyone who works as hard as his lordship does, perhaps with the exception of Lunarisse.

So, I went back to Oris, this giant of a planet, and the Oris Chapterhouse of the Praetoria. After an interminable wait, I was brought to the Chapter master's office by an orderly.

Lord Lok'ri took an interest in my work in the Societas, I was pleased that time was made to inquire about that and about how I had settled into my ministry there.

But once I came to the point, and asked about the operation of the Tetrimon order to retrieve their relics from the blood raiders now sixteen years ago, I had the impression the tone changed. Not only did the mention of the Aegis Militia and the Verisum family left a sour taste in the Chapter master's mouth, his lordship also held a devastating opinion about grand master Horm and the Tetrimon Order. There was no room for the subtle arguments that Horm was fighting the Blood chancellor, or that Horm challenged his own order to support Empress Jamyl, at least according to the records shown to me by the Tetrimon themselves...

Lord Lok'ri was quick to tell me that no member of the Praetoria participated in this operation, even though at the same time they claimed not to have much recollection of this operation. I was refered to the Praetoria's archives, and given permission to consult those. I'm not sure what to think of all this, to be honest. Is it the old wounds caused by the Aegis Militia that were opened up again, or is there something to hide?

Clinic is up

Our clinic in Mycena is up and running. I'm glad to report we've already had a lot of customers. It seems many inhabitants were delaying a doctor's visit and letting their problems get worse. So the medical drones have been working almost non-stop.

There seems to be somewhat of a problem with pollution here, lots of symptoms related to heavy metal poisoning. However, we are well equipped for it, with the help of good doctors at the medbay of Gottin's Lamp. 

I am glad we can make a difference here. Helping everyone in the cluster is not possible, but at least we can look after those who live at our doorstep.

Mycena

I visited a worker district called Mycena. It is located in the same station as our headquarters - the size of these stations keeps amazing me. Mycena somewhat of a city in its own right, with bars and shops and bad hotels and public transport. The parish is run by father Marn, an amicable man tending to his flock with great care.

There is a lack of good medical facilities, though, so I was happy to arrange for a semi-automatic clinic in that neighborhood, having obtained the permission from the representatives of Lord Valdant, the holder of this vibrant community. I'm looking forward to see this clinic serve our station neighbors!

Legs up

I am slowly getting used to the new legs. At first, it seemed like something else was propelling me forward, my upper body was dragged along by these legs. I have to find a new equilibrium, and a new pace to move my arms about in the right tempo for my legs.

On another matter - one thing I do not like about covert missions for SFRIM is that we have to compromise with folks that I think are evil. For our goals, it appears we have to strike a deal with a man raising child soldiers. That seems utterly wrong, even if the alternative will leave the children potentially worse off. I am struggling with this.

cyberlegs

I've had to postpone my expedition to Seclusion, because of urgent Societas matters.

Also, I need surgery. Well, not me as such: I need to have a clone that has cybernetically enhanced legs. Training doesn't work fast enough, and my trainer in the Lamp's fitness tends to forget my age just because I'm a capsuleer. 

Many capsuleers choose to reclone themselves in a young version of themselves, at their prime. I do not, I like to keep track of my age, and so my clones reflect my actual age. Of course, without any old-age disease and especially with painless joints. But that is not enough: I need to be able to run fast, and pass Ishta's "beep test". So I bought a clone with cyberlegs under real skin, the salesperson told me it looks and feels natural...

Down the hole

In between the cloak and dagger work that keeps my somewhat busy these days, I have been preparing for an expedition into wormhole space. The crew is a bit nervous, most of them haven't been to wormhole space and heard all manner of old wives' tales about space monsters living out there.

I could keep their anxiety in check by telling them we would be going to Seclusion, a wormhole system controlled by SFRIM. This reduces significantly the risk of being out there, as there will be a station where we can safely dock up and rest. The station, also called Seclusion, will be the basis of operations for this expedition.

Bersyrim relics and conjectures

I've continued to investigate the nature of the artefacts I recovered in Bersyrim. I think they were not collected over the years there from all sorts of other places. They are too consistently from a single time period, and in a singular style to be a hotchpotch mix you usually find in capsuleer's cargo holds or adventurer's collections. 

So, I hypothesize there was an expedition or a colonization attempt from the Takmahl at some time. The stuff they brought with them would be representative of a particular era and maybe particular style. The problem with this is that there is no known colony, nor did anyone find a colony ship wreck or exploration vessel wreck here. 

The other mystery is why they would choose such a place, far from their homelands. Maybe the even bigger mystery is how they got here! It is out of reach for their ships unless they would travel for decades. So, this leads me to another conjecture: Talocan wormhole technology. 

The Talocan, a much older and more advanced civilization than the Takmahl, possessed ways to open up wormholes. It is well known and document that the Takmahl found Talocan technology and reverse engineered it. So why not experimental wormhole tech?

The search continues

I responded to mr. Thorne, asking him what he intends to do with the Matari aspirant he wants to get from me, but again he has gone silent.

It appears my questions are compareable to kicking rotten woodwork in that all of a sudden a lot of strange critters crawl out. I've been contacted by several people pretending to help me find cardinal Graelyn for all sorts of payment. None of them have seemed trustworthy. But there is something about mr. Thorne that makes me think he could actually find his eminence, even though I do think he does not have pure motives.

Also, the small tortured tree is not doing well, a couple of leaves are starting to turn brown...

Thorne responds

Thorne finally responded. I had already given up on him.

It appears he has started the search. I had written a message I wanted to convey to his eminence Cardinal Graelyn, should he be found. However, Ulrik Thorne seems to think this message is -I quote- "good bait" to lure the Cardinal out of his hiding. 

So, I have come to suspect mr. Thorne has ulterior motives, perhaps nefarious ones as concerns the Cardinal. This is definitely not a Jita scammer who wants my money, no, he seems to use me and my cause to find the Cardinal for his own purpose! Sometimes I even imagine Thorne might want to harm high clergy, such as his eminence. Ridiculous as that thought seems at first sight, it is not impossible.

To complicate matters, Thorne has refused my ISK payment, and wants something else instead. A Matari aspirant of any sex or bloodline, third generation or later whose contract is held by the Praetorians. What does it mean? I'm not a holder, and why would I procure a slave for mr. Thorne? I don't know how to react to this request, to be honest.

Tree torture

Yulai and the systems around it are a melting pot for the different cultures in the cluster. 

That's how I found out about a horrible practice, in the State and more particularly in Saisio. 

They take a young sapling tree, and torture it. While it is growing, they knack it branches and curb its shoots so the tree never grows. It remains small, constrained and broken by its torturer. It is seen as an art to create these miniature trees, but in reality it is a slow torment to create a hobbled and abused plant.

I bought one, and I am going to let it grow how it wants, if it can in any way recover from its harsh treatment.

Letter from the Paladin Warden

Paladin Warden Saltz has replied to my inquery about the Aegis Militia, and told me the tale of how their relation with CVA deteriorated, and how they fell victim to the "Rekking Crew" invaders.

Few men were tested and put through such hardships as the Paladin Warden. May he remain strong and patient, and may his trials bring his soul closer to God.

I have decided it may not be prudent to accept mr. Thorne's request for money to find the Cardinal. The Paladin Warden dissuaded me from this course of action. I will look for other eye witnesses of the events surrounding the Temple of God's Assuring Whisper. 

Perhaps I should make work of a visit to Oris again, and try and meet Lord Gaven Lok'ri.

No answer

Still no reply from Ulrik Thorne. Did I insult him, offering only 75 million for his help? Should I reach out to him with a higher offer?

No.

There are enough veterans about that I should not bow to the whims of mr. Thorne. If he does not respond, then so be it. 

I've decided to go back to Oris and request an audience with lord Gaven Lok'ri. He has a sharp mind and a flawless memory, he might help me in this matter.

At the same time, I'm preparing the Indagatrix for another inspection of the Eve and Monalaz constellations.

The chivalry of SFRIM members

I have not yet heard back from mr. Ulrik Thorne, but the faithful members of SFRIM helped me. I had only speak half a word to Gaun Arel before he contacted his own agent specialized in finding a capsuleer's last known location. He quickly found out that Lord Cardinal Graelyn was last seen in commanding a vessel in E-YCML, in Providence. It's a bit creepy, this lack of privacy that we have.

This agrees with the information that his Eminence has retired in Providence, as indicated by mr. Thorne as well, although he pointed to Misaba. 

Enter a second champion, Jason Statesman. He rushed to his exploration vessel, and made haste to Providence to both systems mentioned. He talked to the locals but apparently no-one has seen the Cardinal for a while. He also reported that civility is in decline in Providence, and locals treated him quite boorishly.

Finally, ms. Renalard and especially our Directrix were very helpful in recalling events from the past, from a time before my kind paladins Gaun and Jason had joined SFRIM. The Cardinal appears to have a long and interesting history. 

Lunarisse also recalled Revan Neferis - though with great distaste. She fired a barrage of names at me, of capsuleers from decades past, and now I need to get cards, pins and tread in order to visualize all the connections.

I am grateful for all the gracious help from the members of SFRIM, and touched by their chivalry and unquestioning help.

Ulrik Thorne's offer of help

I have been contacted by a capsuleer named Ulrik Thorne, who offered his assistance in finding Lord Cardinal Graelyn. 

He asks for a reasonable recompense, and I informed him that I cannot spend more than 75 million. My vow of poverty does not allow me to have more isk than strictly necessary to replace the Indagatrix and her modules. I have to admit I blinged her out a little bit, and 75 mil is what she is worth now. If he will require more, I will have to figure out a down-payment plan.

Mr. Thorne seems to have a connection to the Cardinal. He was aware of his last known whereabouts, in Providence, and mentioned that he was owed money by the Cardinal. He wanted to try and broadcast my message to him, to draw him out.

I agreed, but I've become a bit worried since. I didn't sleep well. What if he uses me and my quest in order to draw out the Cardinal and harm him?