Second wreck

A message reached me from Baron Redwolfe, who is currently in Seclusion. Besides the shuttle from Interbus that we salvaged here at the Monastery, it appears that there's now a second salvaged spacecraft that is brought to my attention! Baron's Odysseus explorer found a Talocan wreck. 

image courtesy of Baron Redwolfe

He writes:

I have come across a perculiar item that you may wish to investigate more. I am unsure if you have obtained one or not. I have encountered in a sleeper data chace, a one Talocan Derelict Frigate. I had the teams in Seclusion II tow it back to be investigated. We have not opened it in case there is anything of danger inside. We await information from you if we should proceed with opening it or not.

I told him to be careful about nanites, and I am eager to go see this for myself. From the image it does look Talocan in nature, but closer inspection is needed to see if it is not some sort of replica.

Troubling salvage

We have searched through the remnants of the crashed Interbus shuttle, and found only a few items of interest. One is an Interbus public communications display of some safety instructions featuring a demon of sorts, and the other is a mining permit:

This document caused quite a stir among my brothers, and even the Abbot who struck me as an even-tempered man is in panic. They fear that someone wants to start mining on the very asteroid where the monastery is located. Needless to say this would be a huge disruption of the peace and quiet that is needed for transcribing scripture, prayers and meditation.

The paper is a weird thing. It seems that someone just states that from now on they own the land and can mine it, and the locals have nothing to say about it. I am not even sure to which land it refers to. Who could have issued such a permit? 

They do not think that the Ducia Foundry would do such a thing - Ducia is the main mining corporation in the constellation. But even if this is not issued by Ducia, then still it might be from some other organisation, perhaps a start-up, that seeks to drill into the asteroid. This is not even an asteroid that is valuable for its minerals - it is all basic regolith and silicate!

I promised the Abbot I would go and find out more about this, my first stop will be the Ducia corporation.

Salvage operation

It has been a while since I made a spacewalk outside of the pod.  

With the ice storms subsiding now that the season is over, we ventured out on the asteroid's surface. The Monastery itself has artificial gravity inside, but once you leave though the airlock, this quickly dissipates. Moving away from the installation, the gravity reduces until you barely feel it is there. 

The jagged horizon encloses you, and its curvature is clearly visible since the rock is not that big - the perspectives seem all wrong. The surface is frozen, but it is not like usual ice or snow, it is much more dilute, powdery and fluffy, and walking is awkward. We took out a large salvage vehicle, which looks more like a big cage on spikey wheels - traction control is difficult even on the usual regolith of the asteroid. There is no real sense of speed, as you have with planetary vehicles, or perhaps there is some feeling but it betrays you. 

Everything is very very quiet - the rock does not have any atmosphere.

We moved to the sunny side and crossing the from the darker to the lighter region is a brutal attack on the senses. Even the combination of the helmet's adaptive visor and vision implants has a difficult task to find a setting that does not blind you with light, nor with darkness. The white cover is thicker here - the ice particles are carried by the solar wind so the side that is more exposed to the star is more thickly covered.

We made it to the crashes shuttle without any problems, and started with checking that there are indeed no life signs. There would not be ones, since an entire side of the shuttle is missing. We did not find a corpse, whatever happened to the pilot of the shuttle - or perhaps it was on autopilot - is a mystery until we read out the navigation computer, or what is left of it.

We removed whatever pieces and parts we could - lifting even big masses does not require much effort in this weak gravity. But the work is slow, and clumsy, as you are most of the time moving yourself in stead of the mass when you try to push or pull, there is little grip. In the end most pieces were removed, and the crash site is left relatively clean. 

Now the task of sifting through the salvage to find out more about it begins.

Snow storm disruptions

I have had pleasant discussions with the new abbot, who presented me with a gift, a hand-written copy of the Book of Reclaiming. We talked about how being a capsuleer brings additional duties and obligations. 

The discussion turned to the current metaliminal ice storms, and how the monastery had been hit hard by the winds carrying ice particulates that sweep the system. Nearby shipping lanes are also disrupted, and many Interbus travelers have been stranded over the end-of-year holidays. 

It is not just here, but going over the maps, I saw that the Araz constellation seems to be a focal point for the storms this year:

In particular, the Araz "pentagram" systems are hit by strong storms. Could some link between the Drifter system asteroid and the Aphi labyrinth asteroid be attracting these phenomena?

Anyway, that was not the point that the abbot really wanted to make. He got to the question that he wanted to ask only after a while - apparently an interbus shuttle has crashed on the far side of the asteroid. There seem to be no life signs on board, just material damage. Since the monks do not have much experience with spacewalks, or walks on the exterior of an asteroid, the abbot asked me to lead a small expedition to walk over to that side and check out the wreckage, and clear up the site.

Storms are predicted to quiet down tomorrow, so that is when we will go.

Copy demons

It is strange to see my old monastery covered in what appears to be snow. Given that it is an asteroid monastery, and not on a comet.

However, the system has had a metaliminal storm bringing ice particles, that collected on the odd potato-shaped rock on which the monastery is located; most of the monastery is underground but there are some structures outside, including a shuttle port, facing the cold vacuum of space. These structure now sport a nice wintery scene, looking as if the monks can come bursting out on its surface to roll a snow puppet or start a snowball fight any time.

We devote ourselves to copying scriptures by hand here, following in the steps of Saint Aloysius, our patron saint. This is goes on day and night without interruption. The scriptorium lies deeply in the asteroid, and is protected by relics and ringed by side-altars where always one of the monks is praying. This protection is needed to avert the copy demons, believed to besiege the monastery. 

Nowadays, it is easy to copy a text flawlessly electronically. But back in ancient times, it was believed that demons try to secretly corrupt faith by altering words, whispering errors of translation, or distracting monks who would skip a word. A single error, faithfully recopied over centuries, can bend doctrine and hollow out faith from within. Hence the protective prayers, and the presence of a hierarchy of scriptors, lectors and correctors.

I shared a simple meal with my brothers after my arrival, and they asked me hundreds of questions about my travels and about capsuleers and their organizations. I felt exhausted. They have kindly offered me to sleep in my old cell! 

A visit home

I have been asked by the new Abbot of my former monastic order if I could pay them a visit. 

It has been a little over four years now that my guide and friend, the former Abbot Bavo passed away. That was the last time I went to the asteroid monastery where I spent a good sixty years of my life. So, a visit is long overdue, and it will feel good to see my old brothers again! 

Also, I am curious about the new Abbot. Even though he is not my direct superior as I am no longer part of a monastic order and have become a friar rather than a monk, the order and the asteroid monastery is still very dear to my heart.

Tradition of gift-giving

Coordinated by Maerrin and "Happy", our fervent organisers of social events, we have held our secret gifts celebration. 

I have already attended those before, and it is a nice yearly tradition taking shape in LUMEN. Each participant gets a designated receiver of gifts, and we have to come up with a suitable gift for that person. To guide us, the person can only submit a riddle beforehand. Similarly, also you can compose a riddle about what you like or like to do in the cluster, in order to guide your secret giver.

We then get together in celebration, amid seasonal drinks and a nicely decorate pine tree, and one by one give and receive. Some gifts turn out to be poems composed specially for the occasion, or even performance art on the evening itself (we had an act both scary and heart-warming), and very often special items or ships fitted in unique way. 

It takes a bit of time and effort to organize, so I am very grateful to organizers. It boosts an already high morale, and creates new bonds between people!

Summary YC127 part 3

Hypothesis 3 - Alien abduction. With the Jove as the prime suspects. They are known to roam the stars searching for powerful artefacts, that they might consider remnants of races even more ancient than they, and that they certainly consider dangerous in the hands of fledgling young civilizations. They would confiscate such artefacts. So, the hypothesis is that the Ametat and Avetat, certainly powerful enough to be on their radar, would have been confiscated.

This hypothesis - in a slightly altered version - is favored by the Goner sect, as explained to me by the reclusive brother Sarachem who is flying sub-warp to eve gate in a corvette. The goners told me that the Ametat and Avetat are hidden along with the relic that they seek, the Anticipator device that opens Eve gate, and kept in an unspecified asteroid belt in Jovian space. 

There is enough additional evidence that at least under the Jovian Directorate of the third empire, there were specific Jovian agencies in charge of searching for and retrieving powerful artefacts. Over the years, I have tried to gain access to Jovian space, and even talked to some capsuleers who managed to get there. However, they seem to have returned with a certain madness - perhaps an exponent of the Jovian disease. 

Linked to this are the various Jovian offshoot that have not disappeared from the cluster. It is widely assumed that the Sleepers in wormhole space also represent part of Jovian culture. So, with no access to Jovian regions, perhaps a way can be found via Anoikis to reach it, or at least to gain more information about the Jovians. 

Again, as with the Takmahl, there is a tantalising link to the ancient Talocan as well - it is this ancient race which engineered the wormhole network of Anoikis (somewhat broken after the Seyllin incident). These Talocan (and their stalactites) seem to be a common denominator, so it is with a resolve to learn more about them that I plan to continue my search in the coming year, and that I conclude the current status update on my quest.

Summary YC127 part 2

Hypothesis 2: According to this theory, the Ametat and Avetat were absconded by the Sani Sabik at the start of our era of space exploration. The Sani Sabik cultists had infiltrated our institutions but were forced to flee during the purges of emperor Queron I, the Iron-Fisted. They took to space in cryoships and started the Takmahl Empire in the Araz constellation. Ilash Toth tried to get the relics back, but failed. The Takmahl Empire grew powerful, but collapsed suddenly after a few centuries, taking the relics with it to its grave.

I have reported before on the mounting evidence pointing to this hypothesis, which was also investigated by prof. Bathana, Luna's archaeologist father. More evidence was found during my explorations of Gamis, but I cannot report on those due to an agreement with the Ministry of Internal Order. 

The main question to answer is what happened to the relics after the collapse of the Takmahl empire. I have found strong indications -contrary to common belief- that the Takmahl could reach further out that their own constellation of Araz. Two years ago, I started looking into the "Blood highway" connecting the Takmahl heartlands to Delve, through Aridia. Some current-day Blood Raiders consider themselves heir to the Takmahl, and it is clear that Takmahl artefacts are highly prized among them. Indeed, I found a functioning biodrone in an abandoned Blood Raider station in Aridia two years ago. 

Again, it appears that prof. Bathana near the end of his life was also tracking the Blood highway, as he went to Anath, a system at the edge of the Empire. That is where I will need to pick up the trail next year. 

This year I have also been investigating the link between the Takmahl and the Talocan - this far more powerful and far more ancient race that also influenced the Jove. Most recently, I have been intrigued by the realization that the holy rock at the center of the Takmahl labyrinth may be linked to the Talocan rock formations in other parts of the cluster and in wormhole space. I am thinking that these rocks held some religious significance for them, that was passed on to the Takmahl and perhaps even the Drifters. There is more to these stalactite rocks than meets the eye - could they house internal structures or hiding places? That is the second lead I need to follow up.

Summary YC127 part 1

Hypothesis 1 : the Ametat and Avetat stayed with us much longer than we nowadays assume. They were held for safekeeping by the Council of Apostles and the Speakers of Truth. These institutions, at first meant to advise the Emperor, transformed into forces that would keep the Emperors and the Holders in check. Finally, the Council would try to usurp the God-given power of the Emperor. When Heideran V attempted to restore Imperial power, civil war known as the Moral Reforms ensued. As the Council of Apostles faced defeat, the Order of Saint Tetrimon was charged with keeping the relics - symbolizing the Imperial power - out of the hands of the Emperor, and hid them.

This hypothesis is corroborated by historical records showing beyond doubt that Grand Master Tetrimon IV smuggled out all sorts of relics for safekeeping at the end of the civil war. Little is known about these relics from the time before the Moral Reforms, as scripture has been reworked heavily by Heideran V and the Theology Council that he created after the civil war. However, the Tetrimon are supposed to still have copies of the original versions of scripture, those versions that were tainted by the heresy of the Council of Apostles but that also contained historical clues. 

Over the years, I tried in vain to access these records at their ancient headquarters, the fortress of Teakh Tak-Teakh on Ibani VI, planet of the singing ice, and also at their new space monastery in Thebeka. However, they keep their records very private - afraid of being found heretical, I think. Many of their writings seem to advocate shifting power to commoners and leaving the Emperor with less than absolute power, in contradiction of scripture, Book I 1:14 or Book of Reclaiming 3:21. So, it is not surprising they restrict access. I was stuck.

This year however, I made headway! God's providence brought Baron Redwolfe's legacy to the Societas. Trough his ancestry, he is linked to the Tetrimon - today he leads a related order called the Tetrimon Order of Saint Jamyl. He has uncovered on his holdings an ancient monastery of Khanid paladin knights, where there is a library that holds copies of texts and scrolls by the Order of Saint Tetrimon. I found the Vita Magistrorum Magnorum of Tetrimon IV, which led me to find one of the hiding places of ancient relics, deep inside the forbidden city of Mezagorm. Unfortunately, these were not the relics of Ametat and Avetat, but still we recovered important lost relics of the legion of Ves-Udor. 

While these were not what I was looking for, it does give me confidence that I am on the right track. There is still a lot more to uncover in the Vita, and I will pursue this further in the next year.

Reflecting on the past year

The days of the Yoiul celebrations and the turning of the year inspire people to look back and reflect upon the year that passed.

As the veterans of the Societas know well, I have received long ago a quest to fulfil. It was given to me by Saint Tal-Romon, who visited me in a vision when I was still a monk cloistered in an asteroid monastery. The mission I have been given is seemingly impossible, and has been attempted by countless people before me: to find and return the most holy relics of the Empire, the lost Ametat and Avetat, the sceptre and crown given by the Sefrim to the first emperor, Amash-Akura. 

It is no coincidence that God led me to join the Imperial Society of the Sceptre and Crown, our Societas whose full name is indeed "Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque".

Over the years I have been able to formulate several hypotheses of what happened to these relics, and I am following up leads on each of those, along a winding path. Over the coming days, I will review each of those leads in turn and log my progress report for them.

-to be continued-

Epikouria Chronicles VII

Brother Hugo's latest letter reveals that business is going about as usual in the Epikouria colony. Industry seems to have expanded, as do anti-piracy efforts against the ever-present roaming bands of wormhole miscreants. Mostly, folks have settled in and gotten into a comfortable routine in Publius' colony. 

Mining and resource extraction are booming after trade and sovereignty agreements were finalized with the Originals. In exchange for unfettered access to the bountiful deposits on the planets of Epikouria, system-wide space security as well as regular connections and transport to trade hubs are provided by the Starborn. Diplomatic missions and embassies have been established on most planets, and the Originals have a diplomatic mission on Ouranos, the main station and space-home of the Starborn. 

Stories about the Originals trickle down to the Ardishapur quarter in the lower decks. Although the Originals keep their own personnel inside their diplomatic zone, folks working in the station do see these foreigners going about, and stare. Although many of the Originals appear human, some are heavily augmented, and there are even cyborgs and biodroids. There is talk about sentient AI's walking among them. All in all, they seem to be a extremely heterogeneous group, exploring the limits of what they can do with their bodies and infomorphs.

Brother Hugo is collecting evidence of all sorts of heresies among the Originals. There are signs that some of them are Sani Sabik cultists. Of course, sentient AIs are also forbidden - by all four empires. And he has also found some proof, he writes, that the Originals flaunt the cloning laws, and allow the use of multiple clones simultaneously by a single person. He writes, "The more we get to know them, the more horrors and heresies we uncover". 

To find out more, Brother Hugo plans to go with some of his companions to planet VI. That is the home world of the Originals, which they call "Renaissance". It hosts their capital, "Foundation City" and has the largest population of all the planets in the system. Publius' colonists, such as the good brother, cannot just go about anywhere freely on the Original's home world, but there is a 220 square kilometer area designated for meeting, trading and cultural exchange. It is called the "Free Trade Friendship Zone", and has a spaceport where shuttles from the colonists can land. Brother Hugo has filed for a permit to visit.

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

Writing awards night

This weekend the awards ceremony took place, in which books and works of capsuleers are honored. It is always interesting to see what we should get for the library - although one has to be extra careful to screen for heretical writings.

To my delight some fellow researchers were present. Dr. Fritte Cornelius, with whom I recently collaborated on a project in Sanctified Vidette, and Ninavask of the Syenose Accord, who sold me a Talocan life support unit during the rare items fair. 

We got into an interesting discussion on extracting energy from celestials for spacetime engineering, and I do hope we get to collaborate on that topic as well. Science knows no borders, but sometimes I fear we work in a bubble in each of our four core empires. Events such as the award ceremony bring us together,  and are wonderful occasions to forge new plans for joint projects.

Also, Fritte got an award for some of his earlier scientific work, well deserved! 

The first prize in the academic category went to a book about ground crews, by Kirin Freir. It is a very useful manuscript that mixes business advice and human resource wisdom, putting it all together in a pedagogical primer. I have been reading through it and it has got me thinking. I have a crew on board of  the Indigatrix, of course, but not really a ground crew in our Mehatoor home. I just use the services that the station provides. However, mr. Freir's book convinced me of the usefulness to hire dedicated personnel for that purpose. I will put up an advert on Mehatoor's hangar message boards.

The first prize in proze and poetry was actually poetry, by someone with the pen name Dark Magni. Although very evocative and dynamic, the poem is indeed somewhat dark. It leaves space open for one's own interpretation. Could the character who flew "on his path grim" be an emissary from above, pushing us to fight on and do our duty? Or is it a commander running away from the fray, or perhaps someone scolding us for having failed? I will have to re-read it to savour the different layers of the poem.

The Conflux Stalactite

It is not that obvious to find the Drifter homes that are not monitored by the Empire. Conflux Eyrie is controlled by the State, and since our alliance cooled down they are not that forthcoming with information. 

I did not receive a direct answer to my request about the location of an entrance wormhole. Mr. Firth took some notes and looked annoyed, even though he says this is to be expected. Nevertheless, on our own we did find an entrance, and proceeded to scan down the system and investigate.

What I found there is deeply disturbing.

Contrary to what I saw in Sanctified Vidette, there are plenty of bands of roaming Drifters in Conflux Eyrie. We located the stalactite asteroid, and when I went over to scan it down for detailed telemetry, I found a host of Drifter ships at the small station at its foot.

They appeared to be interacting with the disabled sentry guns around the abandoned station (or colony, or prison, who knows what it used to be). Luckily, the Indagatrix was cloaked and I could observe undetected. Several battleships and many cruisers were present:

And then it happened. The entire stalactite asteroid seemed to phase, or rather, to be enveloped by some sort of Drifter overshield shimmer,

They must be drawing energy from this rock, interacting with it, using it in some way that the sensors on the Indagatrix could not make out. I have not seen this before in the other stalactite asteroids. Does it contain some hitherto unknown ore, providing a kind of radiation they can use? Are these rocks more than just ancient relics of a bygone Talocan religion? Is this really a rock, or could it be some camouflaged mothership or station?

After the "powering-up", some sort of entrance tunnel lit up, in the middle of the rock:

At this point, I am not allowed to share anything else since mr. Firth wants our full report with telemetry to stay under wraps as it gets sent to the Ministry. But let there be no doubt - the Drifters are far from vanquished in the systems that we have conquered. The Empire may have a firmer grip on Sanctified Vidette than the State on their hole, but the Drifters are up to something.

This has strengthened my conviction that I need to revisit the Takmahl Stalactite asteroid. I also want to keep a closer look on the Conflux Eyrie artefact, and perhaps try to enter the asteroid via that tunnel. I could not approach it too closely with the Drifter fleet patrolling it - any accidental uncloaking of the Indagatrix would mean its immediate demise at the hands of the nearby Apollo Tyrannos. Finally, I also need to figure out what sites the other Drifter homeworlds still hold, perhaps there are more of those asteroids or related objects.

Stalactite asteroids

Something at the edge of my memory kept nagging me, and kept me from sleep. Something I had seen in a Drifter home system. Unable to catch sleep, I started looking through the image database of the Indagatrix. Drowsy browsing goes slowly but in the end I found the corresponding log, and the monstruous rock formation I saw during the Drifter war.

Compare the Drifter rock (left) to the Takmahl holy rock (right): 

There is to me a striking resemblance. The asteroid singled out by the Drifters for special treatment (with a station in the small round rock just before), and the rock at the center of the Takmahl are both "stalactite asteroids". They have spikey protrusions pointing to melting and resolidification in a strong uniaxial field. This strengthens my conviction that these particular types of stalactite asteroids held a particular significance for the Talocan, as this ancient race is the only common link between Drifters and Takmahl!

I have to find this rock back - it was not in Vidette, but in Conflux Eyrie according to the logs. And I also have to head back to the Takmahl, for better scans and probing of their asteroid. 

But first I have to catch up on sleep.

Talocan rocks and labyrinths

The Jove are thought to have found the ancient Talocan wormhole control network and gained access to the wormhole cluster Anoikis via it. The Jovian wormhole settlers are believed to be the forefathers of the Sleeper civilization. And many experts (including authorities in the field such as Uriel Anteovnuecci) theorize that the Drifters are, in turn, offshoots from the Sleepers. This is a reasonable assumption, given that they live in Anoikis. In addition, technology such as the thermo-electric convertors that the Drifters use to power their structures clearly bear the hallmark of the Sleepers.

The start of the chain of knowledge transfer for advanced spacetime engineering seems to be the Talocan, and this begs the question of whether the Drifter's Nexus superstructure is also based on Talocan spacetime engineering. And since the Nexus appears to influence spacetime also in our own cluster (via the appearance of phased fields), I would conjecture that it could influence other structures in our cluster as well, namely structures built with the very same Talocan spacetime technology.

The main "suspect" for me is the Takmahl labyrinth. There is a link from the Talocan not only to the Drifters but in parallel also to the Takmahl. The Drifters chose wormholes which have certain rock formations that are of particular ritual importance to the Talocan. Those are very much different from the asteroids found in belts in common Anoikis systems. Also the Takmahl incorporated most unusual rock formations in their cult.

The Talocan must have liked labyrinths too, and both Drifter and Takmahl cultures indebted to them have inherited this peculiar penchant for mazes. Although they are very different in nature, spacetime engineered labyrinths have been found in both Drifter and Takmahl home systems.

This makes me wonder whether the current changes in our spacetime allegedly due to Nexus tinkering may have induced changes in the Takmahl labyrinth too. I am planning to revisit it, but will need to enlist the help of SFRIM pilots to keep the Blood Raiders that infest that labyrinth at bay...

Pinning the blame

As I predicted, foreign news commentaries are trying to pin the blame on the Empire again - however this time we are not the only scapegoats. The phase anomalies appearing in spacetime have a similar energy signature as the Drifter Nexus superstructures, and so their appearance seems connected with the experiments that the five powers occupying Drifter wormholes are performing on those structures.

From my own observations, the Empire is dealing with the Nexus with great precaution and care. We have no doubt learned from the Turnur sabotage disaster. 

Dr. Cornelius thought that EDENCOM was not so careful, and went out to set up watch there expecting something bad to happen, but I have not heard from him since. It does seem suspicious that ORE - who is in an industrial partnership with EDENCOM - all of a sudden possesses the technology to anchor down these phase anomalies and exploit them for mining.

Personally, I think the Triglavians are behind this. They do not seem to mind much about our spacetime - that is the least you can say after the creation of Pochven. They must have the same disregard for the integrity of our spacetime when it comes to prying around into the Nexus superstructure. 

Library services

It is nice to see that the library's databases are well used. We have a state-of-the-art search engine for the Book of Records, with three-dimensional visualization of the genealogical links between the faithful subjects of the Empire going back millennia. We are also linked to the databases of the Amarr Trade Registry and the Amarr Civil Service bureau of information, and can do cross-linked searches.

A question that seems to come up regularly among capsuleers is to find some long-lost relative. Recently, I was asked to find the whereabouts of the parents of a former slave, an acquaintance of one of our pilots. All that the pilot had to go by is a name, and an approximate date of the raid when the former slave was separated from her parents. She was not an elite slave, and so we did not find any mention of her among incident reports of that time in the Amarr Civil Service database.

But we found a way! Noting that her family name was rare, we looked for transactions of slaves by that name (not all slaves have family names even!). We could identify one trade that fits the timeline (and name) for a parent of the slave. The transaction allowed us to find the Holder who now owns that parent, and that gave us finally something to go on in the Book of Records! Indeed, any Holder not stricken from the Book is listed with links and holdings, and we could find where the holding is and presumably where the parents are!

That is yet another example of a -quite satisfying- positive result and of what we can achieve by doing research using the library rather than flying about in space firing beam lasers and battling pirates.

Marriage at the Lamp's Chapel

It is nice to be on the other side for once! We had a marriage in the Chapel, and this time I could relax as part of the congregation. I did not have to worry about everything going perfectly, since I was not the one officiating. 

That duty was for the Directix Emerita, founder of the Societas, Nicoletta Mithra. I was in awe to finally meet her. She had always remained but a familiar name I encounter, an author of theological treatises. My favorite one is an essay on sin and redemption that she wrote, expanding and commenting Lord Gaven Lok'ri's earlier work on the "Rejection of the Recent Concept of Forgivable Generational Inherited Sin".

But I digress into academic considerations, so let me get back to the marriage of Neferure Giergali and Thulla Icin. It was a magnificent ceremony, imbued with symbolism. First, Neferure and Thulla approached the altar and each other carrying a torch. The fire of their hearts and hearths was conjoined in a central brazier, and it shone more brightly than the separate fires. From there candles were lit throughout the congregation bearing witness. 

There was also a touch of Mishi - as the Ni-Kunni focus on life-giving water in most of their ceremonies. Neferure and Thulla washed each others hands, symbolizing the purification of the soul and washing away any obstacles left from the past.

Finally, after signing and sealing the marital contract, they pronounced their vows, hands bound together with a ribbon, representing the unbreakable bond that now ties them together, just as their unbreakable faith binds them to God.

In our vast Empire, we have many different variations of the marriage rite. Speaking somewhat disrespectfully one could say that there is a big portfolio of Theology Council approved customs from which a priest can choose. In today's ceremony there was such a nice balance between the three parts! One that puts the light and the warmth of the hearth central, one that revolves around the water cleansing the past and preparing them for the future, and one that "ties the knot" and expresses their bond. It is a wedding I will remember very fondly. 

And I do hope it has given incentive to the Directrix Emerita to grace us with her presence more often.

Epikouria Chronicles VI

A month ago, in Gottin's Lamp we have had a state visit from queen Synthia of Kaztropolis, but now it appears that also the wormhole colony of Epikouria got a state visit, from Prince Seraghis.

Brother Hugo writes about this visit in his latest letter - as before, this letter took time to reach me so it is relaying events that are several weeks old... Anyway, brother Hugo did not get to see the famous Lord himself, but he knows about this from the janitors and lower deck workers who had to work triple shifts to make sure the station was in perfect order for this high-profile visitor.

Prince Sergahis has had an illustrious career as military commander. He was a high-ranking officer (tribunus colonel if I remember it right) in the Amarr-Minmatar warzone. He unified Amarr capsuleer ranks and led Task Force 641, an elite group of pilots. After a long and arduous siege, known as "Operation Winter Sapphire", he managed to wrest Huola from Minmatar control, and purge their seditious influence from this rebel stronghold. This cemented his fame as the Hero of Huola.

I personally met Prince later, after he retired from the warzone and handed over command there to Cyrelle Aurilen from the Praetoria Imperialis Excubitoris. He went back to his native Aridia, and formed the Zaraehvar corporation to bring order back the Mahoynen constellation and boost trade and industry in the region of Mishi. During that time, I was exploring in Aridia, following the historical Sani Sabik routes that connect the old Takmahl constellation of Araz to the Delve region. My goal was to learn more about the reach of this ancient civilization, and to prove they were able to venture outside Araz. Prince offered me hospitality and protection, and even joined me and several LUMEN members in the exploration of an abandoned Blood Raider station. I was happy to help out in turn, doing logistics during his policing operations against the pirates of Aridia.

After that, I sort of lost track of Prince Seraghis - I do remember that his plans to pacify the entire Aridia region got frustrated by the so-called LowSechnaya pirates. He went back home, to his ancestral Holdings in Soliara, and there founded the "Knights of Soliara". I think he has been mostly tending to his Holdings and businesses, and his relations to the Holders of other systems in the Helan constellation.

After Prince left, the Zaraehvar group command passed to Cardinal Umbian, who chose to start a colony in the wormholes. They call themselves "Ghosts of Aridia" and named their wormhole system "New Huola" in honor of Prince's most well known military victory. They are the very same Ghosts that got evicted from New Huola and were taken on as refugees by Publius and his colonists.

So, given their joint past, it is not surprising that Prince Seraghis would visit his old brothers in arms here in Epikouria. Brother Hugo does not discuss the purpose of the meeting, probably this is not known publicly. In between the lines I can read that the Knights of Soliara came out to help the Ghosts during the battle that took place in Epikouria as described in Brother Hugo's previous letter. I surmise that probably trade discussions were also on the table, as wormholers are always looking for a market to sell their rich harvests.

PS. 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