After the storms

Metaliminal storms have weakened, as so has the pirate presence in middle and southern Aridia. We've recovered and upgraded our drill. New diamond coatings reinforce it and we will be able to cut through the door leading to the treasury in the abandoned Blood Raider station.

During the pause, I jump cloned back to Mehatoor. It is nice to talk to ms. Callamity Kell as well as to Aria about our faith. I also met a couple of new members, at least new to me. And I could catch up with our Directrix - apparently I was up for a promotion of sorts after three years of service to the Societas. I am happy to be appreciated, even if I can contribute little to any kind of war effort.

Now, back to the expedition. In the next few hours we'll probably have a good window to go back to the Blood Raider graveyard station.

A pauze

We had to rush out of the station, leaving equipment behind and running to make it for the Indigatrix.

Metaliminal winter storms have arisen in Aridia, and although the space weather phenomenon itself is not a problem for us, it leads to a marked rise in capsuleers from the Nulsechnaya Scholupen and friends (or enemies) scanning down the system for anomalies and ships to attack. 

With combat probes homing down on our location, we had to rush to the ship and warp off, leaving the bulkhead drill and some collected items behind.

We wait now, cloaked in a deepspace safe, until the initial winter nexus rush subsides.

Pathology lab

We managed to make a hole through the doors to the next section. We found it abandoned as well. 

This section appears to be a science level: we went past an electronics workshop, a biochemistry lab, and some sort of medical experimentation facility. 

At first we thought this facility was a depleterium, a bloodletting hall where they harvest the blood of the innocents. However, upon closer inspection this is more like an examination room, perhaps the lab of an anatomic pathologist. Its examination tables are adapted for huge creatures. And there is a large amount of equipment more suited for soldering or taking apart electronic devices. 

And, unsurprisingly, more blood stains on the walls and the occasional corpse or two, in perforated lab coats this time. There are mechanical and electronic parts strewn about, that at least to me seem to be of Takmahl origin.

We are no doubt getting closer to the hidden loot storage, as we hit another door welded shut, separating us from the next section of the station. It has writing on it, in a Delvish blood raider dialect, warning to leave the door sealed, or die. This is typical for a treasury room, a futile attempt to dissuade explorers by invoking some sort of curse.

Blood station

We started the exploration of the part of the station that still has a bit of power and life support. 

It looks horrible. 

Coagulated blood stains on the wall and floors. Not sure whether that is standard Blood Raider station decoration or something happened. 

The hallways are dark, with only emergency lighting working. We've encountered a few corpses, reduced to skeletons still in their non-biodegradable uniforms. Some appear to have weapons fired at them. There's a weird smell, I can't quite place it. 

We found a dormitory. There were no corpses there, but the place also had not been evacuated, personal belongings were still around. There were cryopods, some had corpses in them.

The area next down into the station is sealed off, the doors are welded shut from our side. Luckily, we have some drilling equipment among our exploration tools on the Indigatrix. It will take some time to open up a passage, but we will get through.

((ooc attribution: image from playing around with "craiyon" drawing tool))

The graveyard

I continued my exploration of Aridia, along the Blood Raider trail.

In Nalnifan, the coordinates that I got from Glitter Edifice led me to a graveyard. Hundreds of corpses are strewn around space, floating among wrecked ships, near a seemingly abandoned station. Some of the corpses have capsuleer implants, most have not, but all were drained of blood.

I was not able to identify any of the corpses, they have probably been there for a very long time. Perhaps their concord identification was cut out or disabled before the body was thrown out of an airlock. 

The wreckage is very diverse; both in origin and age of the ships. They have been dismantled and scavenged for spare parts. It does not appear to be the aftermath of a single battle. It looks more like these ships and corpses have just been captured, collected here, and discarded after the "useful" parts were taken out.

There is some vestigial power source still active in the station. It looks like one of the backup reactors that has been active for centuries longer than it was intended to work. In a small part of the station, near the main spire, where the active power source is, life support seems to be active as well. I've hailed the station, but received no response. The docking bays and hangars are not powered up, but there is an entrance hatch close to the powered up area. 

We split the crew into two teams. One team stays on board, and keeps scanning for enemy capsuleers approaching on our location - the Indigatrix can't cloak when next to a structure - and the other team (including myself) will board the station. In case of incoming enemy ships, the Indigatrix will disconnect from the hatch and move away from the structure and cloak up. It is somewhat risky but perhaps it will be a high gain gamble.

Impetus

I am back in Aridia. After Gens and Kamih, I extended my search to Hier, Nema and Shenda. I did find one of the indicated caches in Nema, but unfortunately it had already been looted. Relatively recently, probably sometime in the last four decades.

I docked up at an Impetus Development Studio station. They are present all over the Empire. Impetus is a Gallente holoreel and card game producer. They provide entertainment for all over the cluster, and way back when, they were the first developers of the holoprojector! 

There is a "museum of the holofilm" on the station. I found it very entertaining, and it has a beautiful media library of ancient reels. I bought some reels of live speeches of Heideran VII for our own library.

Online only

Drop-off is only via an online appointment (conveniently made through their app), and the earliest free dates are about two months from now !!

That's what you hear when you call in saint Gennareus' lost arm to the Theology Council in Amarr. 

I remember a time when a cleric could walk into the Theology Council with a found relic at any time,  and present it at the intake desks. You would be greeted by the Director of the Reliquary or the Manager of Bones and Bodily Fluids. Then you would work together with an investigator appointed to the case to get your relic certified. It would take an entire day, working closely with the person looking at your case. But it would be done after a day, and if it was a good relic you could earn a lesser relic for your own chapel or church. 

I had my eyes on St. Lucio's eyeballs for my cheese chapel.

In stead, now I get a ticket "Request Id: 727c9706-2aa8-3a4a-afdb-a2590405ffd3". Presumptuous, as if they'd ever need that many letters and numbers! And I get an appointment the second week of February YC126. Meanwhile, please send some holos of the relic in question.

I called a friend that I still know at the Theology Council's department of relics, and he says these long waits are due to the department being understaffed and overburdened. At this moment, there are just too many requests to certify Tetrimon fingers and too few people to handle the fingery influx. They're drowning in fingers. 

Still according to my friend, Empress Catiz favors efficient management techniques from the Caldari. That comes with smaller and more digital government, which led to cutbacks in staffing for the relic department.

Hah! What happens when I find the Ametat or Avetat? Do I have to wait two months while the rest of the cluster is hunting me down?

My anger helped somewhat, I could get the lost arm to the relic department in a mere five days...

Saint Gennareus' arm

The unraveler worked perfectly. In addition to mary useless items, the magnetic bottle contained one well-known lost relic: the arm of saint Gennareus. 

He was a bishop abducted by the Sani Sabik, and kept alive for his blood to be harvested and used in demonic rites. While in captivity, he prayed fervently to God to make his blood unusable for these rites, and in response the Lord petrified his blood, which of course killed him, allowing him a martyr's death. Other accounts say that he drank a poison that coagulated his blood in his veins.

His corpse was thrown away by the Sabik as there was no useful liquid blood any more in it. Beetles ate his flesh, and bone worms consumed his skeleton. The only part not touched by the scavenger insects was the petrified blood. His body turned into a strange red network, a latticework of arteries and veins all the way down to the smallest capillaries, a three dimensional system of threads in the shape of a human. All other parts were gone, except for a large heart-shaped clump in the midst of the latticework. 

His body was divided in several relics for different important planets and Houses, but his right arm has been missing for two thousand years.

I am happy to bring it back to the Theology Council in Amarr!

((image credit: Koerperwelten/Gunther Von Hagens exhibition))

Station blessing

I have been kept busy, first by a Sansha incursion, and then by the delightful blessing of the Zaraevahr Initiative's new station in Haimeh, along with some ship blessings.

The previous station blessing for Prince Seraghis proved very fruitful, as the station in question survived onslaught from the Tribal liberation force and other barbarians. I do hope Prince Seraghis' new venture in Aridia will please God and this new station will be equally successful in pushing back the barbarian attacks!

Several ships were presented for the traditional blessing, and even though I forgot to keep track for my statistics I am confident these will prove to be much more resilient against attacks from any groups outside of the faith.

On another positive note: I've brought the Wilson line unraveler with me, and will use it tomorrow to crack open the secured magnetic shielding in the first site on the Neopians' list. Also, today I met another barbarian tribe, called "In Extremis". I think some of them warped in to get their ship blessed, but warped off before it could be done because Edencom gunstars started shooting at them. I advised them to get their standings up.

Reaching out

I started investigating Gens and Kamih. One of the locations listed by Glitter was very interesting! There were some abandoned data stations with the usual loot, but it also contained a sort of vault, a shielded magnetic bottle:

I believe this to be one of the artefact caches by the blood raiders. It was casually placed away from the usual loot containers, but it is much harder to crack than the containers around it. I will need some specialized equipment for this one: a Wilson line unraveler. This piece of equipment can't be found in far-flung Aridia: I'll need to hop back to Amarr for it.

At the same time, I tried to forge diplomatic ties with the locals. However, they jumped out of system before I could connect:

[ 2023.11.17 22:00:57 ] Theodosius Savnar > Ave Aleksey! How are you doing tonight?
[ 2023.11.17 22:01:13 ] Aleksey Spaks > hey
[ 2023.11.17 22:01:18 ] Aleksey Spaks > all right=0
[ 2023.11.17 22:02:20 ] Theodosius Savnar > Good! I'm an explorer, from the Amarr core worlds. Have you seen any blood raider activity here recently?
[ 2023.11.17 22:03:03 ] Theodosius Savnar > In particular, I will be searching along the path from Kador to Delve, which runs through Aridia.
[ 2023.11.17 22:03:47 ] Theodosius Savnar > I believe this path is controlled by LowSechnaya Sholupen, your
[ 2023.11.17 22:03:59 ] Theodosius Savnar > ...ah and he is gone.

The error here is that I should not disclose that I am from the core worlds of the Empire. This may be too impressive and scary for the simple souls in the fringe worlds, who probably never journeyed beyond their constellation.

The Anath connection

Glitter's data includes the system of Anath. It sounded familiar to me and I have been mulling over that for the last few days, trying to remember where I heard about it before. 

Then it struck me, as I was talking to Franco and the Directrix. This system was raided years ago by the Blood Raiders in a rather focused attack where the father of our Directrix, professor Tertius Bathana, was killed!

He was an archaeologist, pursuing the trail of the most precious Amarrian relics stolen by the Sani Sabik who became the Takmahl. When I started my investigations, it seemed odd to me that he retired to this remote place, rather than to Gamis or the Araz constellation. But now, the pieces of the puzzle start to fit: after the fall of the Takmahl empire, our relics were part of the loot that the ancestors of the Blood Raiders tried to haul from Araz to their Delve strongholds. Prof. Bathana had not retired, but was pursuing a lead! And I'll wager that his death was more than just an unlucky accident.

The blood trail

In the map below, the arrows indicate the most probable route that the Blood Raiders would take to ferry artifacts and relics from the Takmahl systems to their remote stronghold in Delve. The double red lines delineate the systems where the Zaraevahr Initiative is most active. This includes Mishi, the world where our Directrix's family (on her mother's side) is from.

The records that Glitter Edifice gave me provide coordinates of five abandoned locations where artefacts could have been left by the Blood Raiders looting the remains of the Takmahl empire. Four are in systems on the trail: Gens, Kamih, Sazilid, Nainifan, and Defsunun. One is just off the trail: Anath. I will start with the closest ones: Gens and Kamih.

Base camp

As this may be a rather long expedition, I have been shifting resources to Aridia, basing myself in the Ministry of Internal Order's station in Mishi. This system, in the Mayonhen constellation, is a rare highsec pocket in the region. 

It is somewhat out of the travel route to Delve that the Sani Sabik would have taken, but it is an excellent base to explore the region and the systens on this route. Moreover, I have received very gracious help from Prince Seraghis and his new "Zaraevahr Initiative", who shared useful bookmarks to help me navigate these lands.

I will be happy to perform a blessing of their new headquarters in Haimeh next week Monday. These faithful capsuleers will be a blessing for this region which has perhaps faced some neglect from the Imperial central administration.

Allies in Aridia

It appears that the infamous prince Seraghis - leader of the famed Task Force 641 in the warzone - has established new headquarters in Aridia. He is launching the Zaraevahr initiative, to boost imperial control in Aridia and drive out piracy there.

This is a blessing, as the initiative is part of LUMEN, and as such it will allow me to perform my research in Aridia under at least some protection of these valiant paladins of the faith. I will contact prince Seraghis to inform him of my exploration intentions and gain his advice.

Gateway Aridia

I've been going through the data that Glitter Edifice sent me. It mentions sites in Aridia, prospected but not thoroughly explored. Mishi is perhaps the most famous system in that region, but one must not forget that the region is also connected to the Blood Raider realm of Delve. 

The Blood Raiders (evil in its purest form) are in a way the successors to the Takmahl empire. They loot and raid the Takmahl temples. That became very clear to me during the expedition to the labyrinth, as our valiant LUMEN fleet found them crawling all over the holy rock of the Takmahl, at the center of the labyrinth.

This proves that the Blood Raiders haul treasure from the old Takmahl systems to their hideouts in Delve now, and to staging posts in Aridia before that. Aridia is the gateway region from the Amarr Empire into Delve! 

My working theory now is that first, the fleeing Sani Sabik took a large number of holy relics with them, and created the Takmahl Empire. After that collapsed, the Blood Raiders took the artifacts from the Takmahl with them - including our ancient relics, and stowed them in their hideouts in Aridia. Some made it to Delve, but I reckon many remained buried in "treasure islands", never retrieved as the pirate raiders were killed by our Navy before they could retrieve their buried loot.

Builder's progress

The cheese chapel is progressing well, as is the museum. The rooms are ready for the exhibits to be installed, and this has taken much of my time besides the work at the chapel and the library. 

Unfortunately, I have not yet received a response to my letters from professor Valate. 

So, in stead of an interview, I've decided to have a voice actor read part of her popular science work on the downfall of the Takmahl. The advantage is that in this way, the faithful will not be exposed to the voice of a blood raider siren. And if the interview still takes place, I can always replace it in the holoreel.

Paper interview

As I mentioned before, I want to interview prof. Valate for the museum holodocumentaries.

My original plan was to visit prof. Valate in the Blood Raider systems in Delve - she is tenured at the Kaztropolis imperial university in, well, Kaztropolis. However, it is hard to get there, and now with the crimson harvest incursions of the Blood Raiders, it is impossible to get the permission of the Ministry Of Information (MIO) to travel there.

So, I sent her a missive with my questions for the interview. I hope she answers them, and if it is in written form, I will use a voice actress to read her answers. This also complies with the MIO guidelines not to expose the faithful to a Sani Sabik Siren voice.

Trip to Villore

Villore. It is a hub in Essence, but nevertheless it is a system that is rather off the map, and deep in less controlled Federation space. 

I made the trip back and forth, taking a shortcut through the warzone, in order to retrieve the library that I acquired through the auction. The vast cache of skillbooks from Moira have been added to the Mehatoor general hangar, for all to use. It includes some quite interesting books, like precursor battleships. 

But all in all, I think this might be most useful to our newest members, rather than to the experienced one. I will discuss with the Directrix how to give them access, even the acolytes that do not yet have access to the ship hangar. Perhaps the easiest is to put up a list, and tell them to contact me first in stead of buying a skillbook on the market.

In addition, there is a large collection of non-skillbook books and records. There are many records of expeditions to Anoikis, and these seem to point to a Talocan - Talmahl link. The more I read about it, the more I get convinced that the Takmahl stashed their most valuable treasures in wormholes that they could access from Aphi.

Liquidation auction skillbooks

I participated in the public auction for the liquidation of the assets of a capsuleer corporation, called Moira.

This corporation was founded by captain Julianus Soter of the Federation. He also participated in the Arek'Jalaan research project, and he was the leader of its Multidisciplinary Division. So, in exploration circles he is a famous man, and my hope was that some of the artifacts that he recovered during his investigations would be up for sale.

They were not. Probably they have been transferred to the successor corporation for Moira., called "blades of justice" or something of that gist.

However, the library of the corporation, including mostly a large number of skillbooks but also other types of manuscripts, and I hope records of the Arek'Jalaan project, was auctioned off. Strangely, it was lumped together with a bunch of expensive cybernetic implants in one lot. The auctioneer, general Rinai Vero, was willing to split the lot and sell me the skillbooks only, a very gracious offer which I was happy to take.

This will be the starting core of a permanent collection of skillbooks available for Societas capsuleers in our general hangar in Mehatoor. 

Over the past few years, the skillbook fund has given me a good insight in what our initiate pilots most frequently request: all sorts of laser and missile specialisations, Amarr battleships and battlecruisers, and advanced infomorph psychology. There is also a big demand for some lower level skillbooks, like armor layering, cloaking, thermodynamics, cruisers, shield systems, etc. If I can build up a stock of those in Mehatoor, especially bought at heavy discount in the occasional auction, this will be a wonderful addition to the skillbook refund programme as it will spare our pilots a trip to a trade hub.

Plans

Today I entered for the first time the space that will become our Takmahl museum. It is huge, and empty for now. Movable large wall partitions are separating four exhibit halls with a lot of floor space and very high ceilings. Light and climate control is being installed, for now the walls are blank.

Jenny suggested a layout where these four exhibit halls wrap around an entrance hall that can be used as a room for receptions and fundraisers. The entrance hall will sport huge windows that show a projection of Aphi below, as if you are in orbit of the planet and looking down on it. Of course, this will be only a clever illusion - the museum module could be in the central part of a station with no views to the outside. But it is nice for receptions to have a view to a planet below, even if it is fake. To the side, where the visitors exit the fourth and last exhibit hall, there will be a souvenir shop.

We're going for a rather symmetric plan of the exhibit halls, but I would also like a lecture room at the side, for conferences and colloquiums on history.