Family connections

I met with Keeper Thadron Dakha today. The holorooms are even more impressive than I imagined! He had prepared an overview of the Accadis family name. A large hall was filled with a galaxy of stars, each point of light representing an individual with that family name, over the ages. Countless points of light! And, if you try to pinch a star, it pops up with the information on the individual, and the links to other stars, the closest relatives, light up.

The points at the nearest end of the hall were colored, indicating the genetic match between people (named Accadis) alive today and the DNA sequence of Layla that I handed over to Keeper Thadron. He cross-referenced it with the genetic birth records of the the MIO. Colors more towards the violet end of the spectrum indicated a closer match. 

 

Then a pulse of light flowed through this galaxy, a wave going from the front of the hall to the back. It lit up a gossamer web of connections, broad in the front and funneling towards the back. Threads from different people from the present coalesced into common ancestors, until at the very back only a few illuminated threads remained as most of the namesakes of long ago did not have a line of children stretching all the way to the present. 

 

Going back to the time of the Sabik purges of Queron I, only three threads remain, two more strongly colored than the third. We are going to seek out these ones on the old records, to find out which lineage contained heretics.

 

When the scribes are instructed to strike out a name they do so using the blackest of inks. Digitally, the record disappears, but in the Book of Records, the page or card is not physically destroyed except when it concerns high ranking individuals. The name is just crossed out. This is how a poor soul disappears out of memory for all of Amarr. But in the Book, for commoners the crossed out line remains, a hidden, fading trace of existence, a last ember of hope for restitution.

 

Keeper Thadron suggests to find out about a Sabik branch of the family via these crossed out records. For that, we will have to delve deeply into the Book, with a Guide. The committee that would give the final approval for this is meeting tomorrow morning.

After his impressive display of genealogic craftsmanship, Keeper Thadron invited me for dinner and drinks with a few other Keepers and Guides tonight. I am looking forward to meet these men and women in charge of our collective memory!

The Book of Records

Maybe in your mind's eye the Book of Records is a massive tome, binding together pages of the thinnest paper, scribbled full of names in the tiniest handwriting.

Or maybe you do a bit of math in your mind, and then conceive of the Book of Records as a stack of books as tall as a mountain. A myriad of volumes, for no single book could ever hold the records of the uncountable billions of Amarr alive today and of the uncountable billions more that lived before.

You would still be wrong.

The Book of Records is a building.

It is an ancient building, stone and gold, in the old district of Dam-Torsad. At first glance, it is not very remarkable. Tourists walk past its facade without realizing it was built thousands of years ago. It looks like a very modest building, somewhat out of place. It is dwarfed by the modern shining skyscrapers around it. It did not grow along with the other buildings, since by law, no part of the Book of Records can be torn down or remodeled.

In the last couple of millennia it grew roots and expanded underground. The venerable building that you see from the nearby Square of the Records is just the tip of an iceberg stretching over half a kilometer down and branching outwards several kilometers in a network of catacombs of books, deep below the city. It keeps on expanding: even when the Book of Records became digitized, the tradition of keeping the paper and ink records was not abandoned. Still today, an army of Record Keepers use their calligraphy to add names and information on pages and cross-reference cards. On our home-world alone, half a million babies are born every single day.

The parts above ground contain the oldest records, only accessible to high nobility and clergy. And these nobles cannot enter it without a Record Guide. The facade of the building is just the outer shell - it was constructed around a building older still, that also by law cannot be altered. That older building is built around one yet older than it, and so it goes on, so that the whole edifice is like an onion layered in time.

Since no walls or floors can ever be rebuilt or changed, you go from one layer to the next by crawling through windows in the walls separating the millennia. The stacks of records are dense in the old regions. No space is left unused as subsequent expansions by enclosure were always postponed until absolutely unavoidable. 

The walkways between the stacks and shelves are tight and labyrinthine. It is easy to get lost in the old parts. Sometimes just to reach the shelves on the other side of where you are, you have to climb a ladder and walk around through several rooms and climb back down somewhere else. You can't walk upright everywhere, in some places you have to squeeze in, in order to spare yourself a long detour in this three-dimensional maze. Retrieving a record from an ancient and not digitized age is like a caving expedition, one only restricted to Heirs and the Record Guides that specialize in specific parts of the building.

The innermost building in this layered structure can only be visited by the Emperor or Empress, and hasn't been so for as long as anyone can remember. The oldest part of the Book of Records, so claim the Record Guides, is a small church. That church contains no cards or books or scrolls. It is covered on the outside by stacked records from the second oldest layer, and you can only go in on hands and knees through a small entrance. As you enter, space opens up to an almost empty church interior, a relief after the claustrophobic inner layers. In the middle of this empty church stands a beech tree that died a very long time ago. 

In its bark three words are carved. They form the first line of the Book, and the oldest Amarr biographical record: "Dano loves Marie".

Outsourcing war

Khimi Harar has discovered a nest of Kybernauts in the kingdom. These Triglavian collaborators are enemies of the empire, and should be eliminated before they can grow. The corporate leadership declared war to destroy their base of operations.

I am always a bit wary of such wars of choice. They feels distinctly like vigilante action that circumvents the official channels: investigation and trial by the Theology Council, and then retribution by the Imperial Navy.

 

But I am old-fashioned. Nowadays peacekeeping as well as war are outsourced to capsuleer corporations. The modern private military industry tolerates little oversight, and is routinely asked to perform operations for the ministry of internal order. I am sure that also in the present case, the MIO attaché has sanctioned, if not commissioned this engagement.

 

Yesterday, I offered prayer service in the Chapel, to bless our warriors and ask for a crusader indulgence for our pilots. At this point in my training, I can contribute little more to the fight.

 

I have arrived in Dam-Torsad. Even though I have repeatedly visited it over the last few months, I don't think I will ever get used to the hustle and bustle of our capital. Tomorrow, I will make my way to the Book and meet with the Keeper.

Gurista cruelty

Some time ago I was told by a capsuleer that of all the pirate factions, the Guristas are the most humane.

With what I've seen this week, that does not bode well for the others.

There must have been a big leak of information at DED, and the Guristas must have obtained a list of names of DED agents undercover. What the pirates did to these undercover agents baffles the imagination.

In an unseen act of cruelty, they lock up the captured agent in a capsule, keeping them alive yet in agony. The capsule is programmed to warp around randomly for an indefinite amount of time, prolonging the suffering of their human cargo, buried alive yet incapable of dying.

I've stumbled upon some of these brightly colored capsules (yes, they took the time to paint them in cheerful colors). They can't be disabled or boarded without killing the occupant. The only merciful thing to do is to destroy it to release its occupant from misery.

But let me end this entry with some positive news. My application for a visit to the older parts of the Book is still being processed as it has to pass several internal committees. Nevertheless Keeper Thadron suggested I could already come over to do some "ground work" as he calls it. I am not sure what it means, but I am preparing to go over to Dam-Torsad, to the Book.

Veil of Ignorance

Yesterday, mr. Woyunohs joined our corporation, and had his interview with the Directrix. I remember vividly doing this interview myself - pertinent questions are asked by Lunarisse, and often the candidates are rather nervous. Maybe you too, dear reader, if you belong to our corporation, remember your own very first face-a-face with the Directrix? I too was ill at ease, but the main reason of my discomfort was that the interview was held in the corporation's canteen. Or bar, probably that is a better name for it, since far more calories are consumed there via beverages than via solid food.

One of the recurring questions at these interviews relate to the function of slavery in today's empire. Oh, I could talk a long time about the history of slavery, its waxing and waning over the course of the millennia in our empire. I do believe the most recent high tide is behind us, and slavery has been ebbing ever since the Pax Amarria. This of course brings all sorts of turbulence with it. There is always resistance to social change.

 

Anyway, I overheard mr. Woyunohs interesting answer : "If you had to live in a society with slaves, not knowing if you would be the slave or not, would you still choose that society?". He had picked this up at Hedion, he said.

 

I surmise he followed a class on moral or political philosophy. The principle mr. Woyunohs so pointedly refered to is the "veil of ignorance". Imagine a committee that has to choose how to organise society. They have absolute power. If the committee members are to design a fair and just society, so the principle claims, they have to be ignorant of their future position in that society. After the people drafting a constitution finish their job, they should trade places with a random person in that society through some lottery. They just jump clone into that randomly chosen person, not knowing in advance who that will be, and live the life of that person. You may jump clone into a slave or into an Heir, you may jump clone into Ishta or into Nauplius. How would you organise society?

 

This principle has been used by Federation philosophers to "demonstrate" that slavery is not just, because they claim no-one would want to risk being a slave. But their reasoning is flawed, and not only because they have no idea how it is to be a slave in the Empire. Every person is shaped by their upbringing and their culture, and what a person considers a worthwhile life depends on this upbringing and culture. Our concept of fairness and justice is shaped by the culture we grow up in. And so, a panel with representatives from all of the Empires would never agree on what is fair, even if they would work under the "veil of ignorance".

 

Of course a Federation philosopher would choose the Federation democracy and freedom! Well, probably just tweaked a bit to have a little less corruption. But equally an Amarrian would choose a slightly tweaked version of the Empire. And a Caldari would choose some form of the State. I believe most slaves in our Empire would probably not choose the system of the Minmatar republic with all its uncertainty and cutthroat violence, he or she would go for the lottery ticket to improve his or her lot in Amarr. And I? I would not want to live in a society that does not put scripture first, no matter what station I would have!

The Record Keeper

I had my "intake interview" with a Record Keeper. The Keepers are both the guards and maintainers of the Book of Records. Somehow there was an immediate connection between me and Keeper Thadron Dakha. It was as if we both recognized a kindred spirit in each other.

I explained him honestly my situation which he found most amusing. 

Admittedly, I had no idea how to ever start searching based on a family name alone. I thought it would be a wild goose chase, but planned to do it anyway, just for the fun.

But Keeper Thadron had plenty of suggestions on how to query the records to reconstruct the genealogy of the Accadis lineages. He says that it doesn't matter if there are many of them, the Keepers have advanced techniques to map this out and reconstruct all the links. They have large holo-projection rooms, where the individuals appear as stars in a three-dimensional star map, and their relationships show as jump links of different color between them. You can literaly walk through a family galaxy. 

Keepers have an instinct for navigating these maps and extracting information from them. I was told even the topology of the map reveals a lot. He suggests to go back to the reign of Emperor Armani I and find if there are since then branches of the family that were suddenly cut off as a result of members being struck, and then -assuming the ancestors of Layla were among the Sabik that fled- work our way back to the current day heir of the nearest branch. 

Keeper Thadron is very excited at the prospect of going back that far, as it will take us to quite old parts of the Book, from before the Moral Reforms. Special permissions are necessary, but Thadron thinks he will get them.

Message from the Book of Records

I received unexpected good news. 

 

Somewhat over a month ago, I filed a request to visit the Book of Records - not the online version but the physical one in Dam-Torsad. It contains more information than the digitized version, and moreover you get a Record Keeper to help you with your search. 

 

Today I got a message that my request was tentatively approved, and I should now schedule an interview with a Record Keeper, to further evaluate my request.

 

I had almost forgotten about this, as I had filed this request impulsively and somewhat in anger at the bureaucratic absurdity in the Department of the Deceased. 

 

You may remember that I found a Takmahl corpse during one my archeological missions. I keep it in stasis and I want to bring it into the station to analyze its cybernetic implants and try to get them online again. A clerk at the DoD refused to give me permission to move the corpse unless I get a signed statement from the closest living relative. I still think that the clerk doesn't know his job. Or he wanted to spite me. 

 

But I do have a family name, Accadis, a name rare enough to attempt some genealogical research and trace the lineage. Of course, the dead Takmahl won't be in the book, but maybe the family line itself could be - it may have branches that stayed in the faith and in the book. 

 

It's a long shot, and in all honesty I must also confess a more selfish motivation: visiting the Book of Records is something I always wanted to do. And now an excuse to do so presents itself.

Conversions

The Gallente lady that commissioned the work on the history of the Khanid was very pleased with my treatise. She told me she wants to convert, and I hope our discussions contributed to her decision! This is the second person I can bring closer to the faith - little Charlene who stays in touch from Dodixie, apparently used the scripture datapad I gave her: also she considers converting.

Bringing two people closer to God - this is not something I could ever hope to achieve while secluded within the cloistered confines of the monastery. But becoming a friar opens up these possibilities. Ah even if I can bring the gift of faith to a single person, my life will have been worthwhile!

Copying Right

I received the imprematur for my little work on the Khanid. Yes, I finished it finally! Here in the Empire, when you want to publish a work, it is clear what to do: submit it for screening at the Theology Council and get approval. If it is not heretical or dangerous, you get the go-ahead. Easy and fast.

 

Yet in the rest of the cluster it is more difficult. The Caldari have the concept of copyright. For anything you use in your own work that may have been used or produced before, you must get approval from every possible person or corporation that is linked to it. There is no central censorship to send it to, you need to sniff out whom to contact, and your need to beg for permission with each single whimsical individual. It is hugely inefficient and stifles creativity. I made a historical work - of course I wasn't around in the twenty-first millennium! So no, the historical footage of the Reclamation isn't mine.

 

The Federation took over this idea of ownership of texts and ideas by individuals - I don't see how this can be reconciled with their "freedom". Surpisingly, CONCORD supports the idea.

 

Of course, the Minmatar don't care. In the Republic, you just go ahead and if someone doesn't like what you publish, you'll get knifed.

 

Still, I can divulge my work now privately, and -most importantly- to the individual who requested me to make it.

Library churches

Yesterday I visited Amarr with Lunarisse, to see the reverend mother Kahoudi to discuss things that needed discussing. 

 

The Chapel of the Most Blessed Sword is magnificent. It borders the square of the same name in one of the old quarters of Dam Torsad, across the abbey of the Little Sisters of the Most Blessed Sword. The soothing sounds of prayer and processions can be heard all around, only occasionally pierced by chirping birds or screams of penitents that are gently helped by officers as they visit the MIO offices that also border the square. It is a place where the mind can find rest, and such places are rare in Dam Torsad. 

 

We attended service in the Chapel, and there was a marvelous sight: one of the walls is a library! Books, datacubes, scrolls of scripture can be brought by drone to the lectern. To be a preacher in such a place! They must have a separate library inside the abbey - I wonder how they do the logistics of it, treat it as two separate libraries or as one extended place...

I took the opportunity of my visit to Amarr to get approval for publication of my educational work on the Khanid. It is now almost finished, the draft good enough to apply for imprematur.

The fallacy of insult

I'm afraid our dear Directrix made a terrible mistake.

I realized this when I was studying background literature for my treatise on the history and customs of the Khanid. I came across a bulky tome, Tullius Ranin's famous "Heathens in heat: courtship rituals of the pre-reclaiming Khanid tribes". I read that it was common to impress potential partners by gifting cattle, to show off one's wealth and power. 

It seems this tradition still holds today, Nauplius apparently gifts livestock to those he deems worthy of his romantic affections. I also learned that Lunarisse was the recipient of thousands of head of cattle. She had the dung collected and delivered right into Nauplius' quarters in Mehatoor. However, dung was not without value in the ancestral homelands of the Khanid. It was dried and kept as fuel for stoves in the cold winter months. When a potential partner would send dried dung back, it meant not only that he/she had accepted the gift of cattle, but also conveyed the lewd message "I will keep you warm at night".

To me it comes as no suprise any more that Nauplius applied for membership of SFRIM.

Renewed exploration

The long campaign against the gate pirates has finally ended, and traveling has become more secure again. I have resumed exploration in the Takmahl pentagram constellation. Most sites are plundered long ago, or have been used by blood raiders. 

I have completed my project proposal for transplanting the cybernetic implants of a Takmahl mummy to a fresh clone, and submitted it to the Amarr Science Foundation. I hope it will be funded and approved. The funding is not necessary, but since I chose the baseliner's way of doing this, I need approval of the ethics committee.

For the investigation pertaining to House Deritan, I heard today that lady Ithi Deritan adoped a former minmatar terrorist called Litheria. That sounds very weird to me, especially since I do not see any connection between Litheria and the future consort of lady Deritan. Apparently, this has drawn some attention from others on the so-called "Intergalactic Summit", and also on the "Imperial Congregation" Channel. I am glad this is exposed to the light of peer scrutiny.