An utterly boring border

I have been covertly exploring the border zone of the Jove regions now for a week. And sadly, I have to admit I did not get any results. This is an utterly boring piece of space, far from civilization, and cast aside by the large Fraternity alliance as a putrid morsel that is not worth picking up after it fell from the table.

There are no hidden conduits or locked gates that I could scan, even casting my probes way out to the edge of the system. There is an absolute infestation of Guristas sites, they form clusters around every planet in every system in this constellation. There are relatively few anomalies to scan down.

The Amarrian outpost that is supposed to orbit the first moon of JZV-F4, the one named "Vote Gigx for CSM XIV" in honor of the former king Gigx, is no longer there. Perhaps it was destroyed by his successor, king Basil Vulpine. Perhaps it is still there, a cloaked Amarrian listening post. If so, it did not respond to my hails. Not even to my "Hail the Empress".

In the background a very pretty nebula is visible - this is the direction towards the Jove regions, tantalizingly close yet out of reach. Actually, this nebula is inside Jove space.

More crackpot theories

While waiting for the barbarians outside the station to club each other to death, I am meeting interesting capsuleers that are Jove fanatics. There are many weird types of Jove devotees here. It is not just the Thoughtologists.

There exists a belief related to that of the earthers. Earthers believe that all of humankind evolved originally on one and the same planet, a motherworld supposedly on the other side of Eve Gate. The earthers get their name from calling this original cradle "earth". The Goners are an example of an Amarrian earther heterodoxy. 

The one I met in the station believes that after the collapse of Eve Gate, part of humanity got trapped here in our cluster. These colonies were cut off from the motherworld, and slowly but inexorably started to decay. The focus lay on preserving the tools and technology from the motherworld, but no new science or development was taking place. After a while, as more stuff broke down and could not be repaired for lack of replacement parts, infighting took place over the ever scarcer resources. 

Worlds declared their independence from the colonial governance and broke off - in their story the religious colony of Amarr was one of such worlds. Wars between the former colonies precipitated the coming of the dark ages, where nearly all technologies of the motherworld got lost.

A small group of scientists foresaw the coming of the dark ages, and planned to run away to a remote part of the cluster. There they would build an academy to centralize whatever active knowledge was left, and attempt to learn new things. They set out in one of the last jump capable colony ships, named after a planet in the motherwold's solar system - a gas giant called Jupiter. 

This particular earther believes that the Jove are the descendants of that group of scientists, which thrived from the preserved knowledge of the motherworld. The Jove got their name from the ship they ran away in, the Jupiter. They learned how to repair and eventually even upgrade the technology, and planned to use their superiority to intervene in the other worlds (us) in subtle ways in order to bring about a more rapid end to the dark ages. They would lead the rest of us into a new age of cluster-wide peace, and ultimately reopen Eve Gate to reconnect with the motherworld.

Well, some things must have gone wrong along the way.

((ooc: I think the dark ages from Eve lore and from Asimov's Foundation would make a nice match))

House Vulpine

The Blades of Grass barbarians are ruled by house Vulpine - not an Amarrian House, but for convenience's sake I will call the leading family a house. Basil Vulpine is their king, and his wife Eingang Vulpine is lead diplomat.

I have tried to contact lady Vulpine and her diplomats, but these scoundrels are not answering my letters or calls. I do not ask much: right of passage, unharmed, and if possible docking rights at just one of their stations in the constellation 88G-M4, one they can choose. I have given them the callsign and the fitting of the Indagatrix, and moreover promised to hand over to them all exploration loot that is not relating to the Ancients. But, no answer. Perhaps they are too busy with this conflict, which seems to involve the larger alliance in Vale of the Silent, even if it does not involve them themselves. 

So be it! I shall go forth even without having obtained their explicit right of passage. Hah, it may be of little use anyway to get these rights, for perhaps next week yet another group is in charge.

Well, I only got a few hundred meters out of the station before I had to dock back up. Landed in the middle of a battle between rival groups, right at the front door of the SoCT station in FDZ4-A. They tried to attack me as well! Even though I am neutral to their bloody conflict, and a member of the clergy of the Empire! Their attempts at bubbling or targeting did not work, luckily, but I must await a quieter moment to undock from this cursed place.

Lost and Found

I found frustratingly little new information on the Jove. For a school that celebrates a link to the Jove empire, they do not seem to have special knowledge about them that cannot be obtained at Hedion University.

Something that I did find and which relates to my quest, is that under the Jovian Directorate of the third empire, there was an agency called the Lost and Found Section Unit. This agency was in charge mostly of searching and retrieving missing Jove technology or artifacts that had resurfaced in the wrong hands.  Whatever they considered to be the wrong hands. More often than not, that would be us Amarr. 

The agents of this section unit, referred to as the 'Lost and Founders', were not just looking for Jove technology. In fact they were going after any advanced technology that would be harmful to a lesser advanced society that came across it. Think of cavemen finding a suitcase nuclear weapon. The job of the Lost and Founders was to identify and retrieve things like the suitcase nuke in the cavemen society.

They seem to have been quite interested in our relics as well, especially the Ametat and Avetat. They do not believe that these were a gift from God, brought by the Sefrim to emperor Amash-Akura. To them, these relics must be potentially harmful advanced weapons that the emperor has received from renegate aliens, perhaps Jovian dissidents. As they fixated on this blasphemy, they have searched for the sceptre and crown around the cluster. 

It is telling that they have been particularly active in areas and systems where also professor Bathana has been looking.

Thoughtology

The Society of Conscious Thought is quite eager to teach but at the same time secretive about the Jove. The emphasis on education is clear and their schools - including the one in this station - are renowned around the cluster. Their alumni, in every subject from biomedicine to physics to politicology, are generally successful and hold positions of importance.

I got a tour of some magnificent labs and libraries with all the latest equipment and technical gadgets. I got a library card and have started using the facilities. But, as I said, there is relatively little here that one cannot find elsewhere about the Jove.

Looking for other sources here, I encountered a group calling themselves the Church of Thoughtology. They are also both eager to teach and secretive about their knowledge. They say they have their information straight from Ion Labron, the Jovian who founded the SoCT. They claim to be linked to the School, but as far as I can tell they are not officially affiliated. 

In order to get access to what they know, they ask that you become member of their church, then follow some purification rituals for a couple of years, and then 'level up' in exchange of a hefty fee, to 'operational status'. Which means that you are allowed to pay even more in order to get piecemeal parts of their texts about aliens and Jove redemption.

I suspect they are a Jita scam, and will keep looking elsewhere for information.

SoCT station

The crossing from Jita to the Society of Conscious Thought's schools in Geminate was the first real test for my new cloak technicians. We left early, choosing a time where the local residents would not be very active, and once in nullsec I made sure not to jump directly from gate to gate. 

Both the cloak and the interdiction nullifier were manned. Although I control these modules from the pod, smooth and fast operation is ensured by technicians monitoring and tuning these delicate pieces of equipment. All went perfectly well, we did not encounter gatecamps or metaliminal storms.

The SoCT station where we docked looks unlike any I've seen before. Although a strong influence from Gallente station architecture is clear, there is also another, more alien, element. The hangars do look definitely Gallentean, but once you disembark and venture inside, you feel the same alien undertone in layout and atmosphere. There is something more organic to it, perhaps? 

I get the feeling that this station is past its heyday. Oh, it is still a fine place, services are up and running. Everything functions normally, but nevertheless there is this subtle sense of a grandeur passed. You see shops that are boarded up, and there are many offices for rent. Parts of the station meant for housing Jove are closed off for the general public, probably these habitations are still kept as they were in case the Jove return. The offices of various Jove corporations are still active, but no Jove are to be seen, and the personnel appear to act as caretakers waiting for their masters. 

The Society of Conscious Thought itself seems more active, they have found their own purpose. Or perhaps they are still maintaining some tenuous line of contact with the Jovian Empire even though they will not discuss this with outsiders.

I will spend a bit of time here, and try to gather information from the SoCT. Better not to go out of station much: an Astrahus citadel from Fraternity is reinforced in system, and Goonswarm pilots seem to be forming a fleet right here in the SoCT station. They seem utterly uninterested in Jove or their technology, and look at me with suspicion when we meet in station.

Schools of conscious thought

Rather than going straight from the Forge to Vale of the Silent I decided on a little detour via Geminate. Well, the shortest route is arguably also via Geminate, but I plan to go first to the constellation N-K4Q0 which is held by the Society of Conscious Thought. 

There are two stations, that the SoCT calls schools, in FDZ4-A. They are open to the general public, and even offer cloning facilities for capsuleers. This seems a good base of operations, until I get permission from the Woodland Nymph Lovers to use one of their stations closer to the edge of Jove space. 

I am also curious to see the SoCT stations, and talk to people there. At one point, when the Jove were still in contact with us, they passed on their knowledge - or at least the part that they saw fit to share with us - via these "schools". Schools have libraries, these ones should not be any different. If I can spend some time there I might find information about possible links between the Jove and our missing relics. Perhaps even why they are so interested in Anath, in faraway Aridia. 

Jita 4-4

I remember my previous visit to the vast trade hub of Jita 4-4. It has been three years since I came here. It has changed a bit, parts have modernized and the hangars are even more flashing with advertisements all screaming for your attention. The whole place is maddening and insalubrious like an Achuran pachinko gaming hall at its loudest and busiest. That hasn't improved. It got worse. 

I was somewhat prepared for this, but my crew, mostly new, was not. 

Mr. Firth and Avindya were clearly impressed, looking at everything with eyes as big as dinner plates. Levular was mostly looking annoyed, I cannot blame him. He proved to be a good help in negotiating with the merchants to resupply our ship, he is better at haggling than I am.

After dealing with the thieving merchants and ever-present scammers, I took the new ones and the rest of the crew to a nearby food district. Just as the advertisements are a full frontal assault on the eyes and ears, the food district is a massive attack on the olfactory system. We escaped it, and nausea, by going to an overly expensive restaurant (capsuleer funds provide), all the way up in one of the spires. It has a clear view of the moon colony below, and of its space elevator. 

The sight is amazing, the moon looms large over the station and takes up a good portion of the sky. The circular structures of the moon colony are clearly visible. The moon illuminates the station's vast exterior on which cities seem to have been built, right atop the hull of the station. Once you get away from the noise and the haggling merchants, you can start appreciating the engineering miracle that the Caldari have built here.

We'll stay the night here in Jita. The crew can book a nice spa hotel on my expenses. I think I will spend the night in the dark and quiet of the backup life support unit.

Crossing over to Jita

The life support backup unit has been installed in the Indagatrix. Of course the crew did not want to give up the ping-pong room, so the only possibility was to give up some cargo space. The unit takes up about one quarter of what I had for cargo space! But, if it makes mr. Firth feel safe enough to allow us to go on this expedition, it is worth it, I guess.

We loaded up on copies of the Pax Amarria as well, to spread the good word, but for the rest we travel lightly. Our first stop will be the trade hub in Jita, in the State. We can easily get all the  necessary supplies there, apart from the Pax Amarrias. 

The journey through warzone systems from Mehatoor to Jita will be a first test for the new cloak technicians. I'll let each of them do one half of the journey, and measure system response times. Perhaps simulate a malfunction (in highsec parts).

New personnel

Two candidates remain. The one preferred by mr. Firth is Avindya Alijia, fresh out of the Academy, head full of the kind of war propaganda that mr. Firth is also fond about. Personally, I prefer Levular Damus, who has the advantage of experience flying with capsuleers and handling cloaking in difficult circumstances. But he's a cynic, a trait not liked by mr. Firth.

Rather than keep discussing endlessly with Ivan Firth, I hired them both. They can take turns and then we'll see who is best.

When the enemy of my enemy is still my enemy

I have scheduled interviews with various applicants for the post of cloak technician on the Indigatrix. Of course mr. Firth will join me in interviewing and selecting a proper candidate. 

There were a lot of applications... I am always surprised at how eagerly people put their fate in the hands of us, capsuleers. They must be lured by the spiritual rewards that come with greater impact for the glory of the Empire. Yet they are wrong to think that somehow work in space is worth more than work, say, in the vast wheat fields of Nakregde.

Anyway, I should not complain. The faster I get a new expert, the sooner I can quit collecting conduit data. The appearance of so many of these conduits does worry me a little bit. What if the Triglavians and the Drifters start fighting here in our space? Without guidance of the Empress, what side should we take, or should we just be happy to let them slaughter each other? The Triglavians threaten to drag our systems into Pochven, and the Drifters assassinated empress Jamyl I, both are dire enemies of the empire. But what if we are forced to take sides due to the nature of the conflict, for example if it threatens our populations? 

In that case, with Luna is still on leave, the acting directors of the Societas -whom we now met during the 'meet and greet' session- will have to make a choice.

Conduit data

Hopefully I can soon return to actual exploration rather than collecting data from these collapsed conduit sites. 

It is a menial task, but nevertheless half of new Eden's capsuleers seem to be going for these sites: It is hard to find one untouched by other explorers. One practically has to queue to get into them just like for a favorite ride in a theme park. Well, perhaps I exaggerate, but they are really quickly looted after they appear on the scanners.

They do not contain all that much of interest, to an archeologist interested in the ancients. There are some pieces of technology that will help access new parts of abyssal deadspace - and this is of course what matters to the Imperial Navy. So, I diligently hand these things in. 

The appearance of these collapsed conduits is, according to the Society of Conscious Thought related to a war between Triglavians and Drifters. It is set to spill over from abyssal deadspace into our own space. The navy seems to push capsuleers to construct filaments to access this abyssal battle space, which makes mr. Ivan Firth quite nervous. Suddenly, exploring conduits seems less of a priority to him.

Objections

There has been a bump in the road to Vale. The political officer disagrees with going there. Mr. Firth objected that it is not safe, and pointed out that there is plenty of exploration to do, even on Amarr itself, to which the recent discovery of an ancient lance point testifies.

I objected that this kind of exploration can be done by non-capsuleers, and that our particular gifts as capsuleers should be employed for situations that require our unique skills. God wants us all to make the most of our given talents, after all. 

I know where his hesitation comes from - he is unwilling to venture beyond concord controlled zones. I tried to assuage him by pointing out that the Indigatrix is already fit with extra measures to ensure crew survival after ship loss. 

He wants me to do more, and install a "life support backup unit" - a unit costing over hundred thousand isk. These were developed during the Triglavian war to reduce crew casualties. I agreed, even though that means that we will have to give up the zero-gravity 3D-obstacle ping pong room. 

This compromise was not enough: we will have to hire a new cloak technician before leaving highsec. I still have not gotten round to doing that. In the meantime, he has suggested I investigate the collapsed conduits that have popped up in (highsec) Imperial space, and bring whatever we find there to the MIO. That would be the Amarrian thing to do, he claims, and a proper use of capsuleer skills.

Tale of the King and the Judge

The outpost's name, "VOTE GIGX FOR C S M XIV" refers the Council of Stellar Management. The elections for CSM XIV took place in YC121. This Gigx was no candidate then, rather he was a deposed barbarian king. The constellation had been part of his kingdom "Circle of Two" just a year before, in YC120. 

According to legend, Gigx built his vast kingdom by being uncompromising, deceitful and brutal. He commanded absolute loyalty from his murderous troops. He reigned as a god, and his soldiers worshiped him, fueling his narcissism. Rumors have it that he started to believe that he was indeed a god, or at least an equal to the Amarr Emperor. Divine punishment was inevitable. Beneath the veneer of fearful worship, discontent was growing in his kingdom. 

It was growing also at the royal court, in the dark heart of the Judge, a member of the king's privy council. This judge was often ridiculed by the king, even though he was a great diplomat. The king took joy in the downfall of those whose success became threatening. So, he used the judge's diplomatic skills and reputation to gain the trust of the neighboring kingdoms only to betray them more effectively. Humiliated, the judge vowed to take revenge. 

For years he schemed and prepared the biggest heist ever recorded in the outer worlds. The king, believing all his followers were fearful worshipers of his godhood, had left the judge in charge of the treasury and of the keys to the main keep. One fateful day, when all preparations were done, the judge set his plan into motion. He stole 1.5 trillion ISK, and handed the keys of the keepstar over to the enemies of the realm, who slaughtered a large portion of the royal fleet. 

Though it was a hard blow, the king might have recovered from it, were it not that the judge had still prepared a final act in the theater of his vengeance. One from which the king, and his kingdom, would not recover. He had installed hidden cameras to record the king's temper as he heard the news of the theft and the lost ships. Oh, how disgracefully the king raged and frothed at the mouth! How he wailed in despair and panic as a little child! The judge streamed it all, so all his subjects could see it. The image of the God-King was shattered, and his followers scattered, demoralized. It was the end of Gigx's reign: he was forced to flee, never to be seen again, and his lands were divided up by his foes. 

Yet he must still have had some staunch supporters that believed in him, as this graffiti from a year after Gigx's fall from grace shows.

((ooc comments: I found the station and its name on Dotlan, and that is what led me to look up Gigx and find the tale of a heist that actually took place in Eve, which you can read about here. Of course, I can make no claim to know what really happened, nor do I know any of the persons involved, so beware: Theo's romanticized story must not be interpreted as an accurate portrayal of events or persons involved!))

The outpost in the vale

Blades of Grass seems to have been in control of the star system JZV-F4 and its constellation for two years now, and for the outer worlds this is a long reign. Perhaps they have built up some infrastructure, and I have been looking for possible stations that I can use as a base of operation. I was quite surprised to find in the records of the Amarr Trade Registry that there is an Amarr outpost in neighboring VORM-W. It is orbiting the fourth planet, an uninhabited oceanic world. 

This seems to be an old outpost, and it is odd to find one so deep in the wilderness. The records list that it was built on initiative from Ducia Foundry, to explore the mineral wealth of the constellation. Ducia is indeed known for far-flung operations, but I think the mining was just a front, as most personnel seems to have come from the Amarr Navy. So, in all likelihood this used to be a listening post to keep track of Jovian activity. 

Anyway, it was abandoned a long while ago, when the Jovian threat receded. I guess it was sold off to the  local barbarian warlords. Of that, there is no record, and officially it still belongs to the Empire. But there are no regular transports to or from the outpost any more. And, it has a strange name now, a name that is almost graffiti. It is called "VOTE GIGX FOR C S M XIV". 

Praise

The Amarr Certified News reported on the praise given by our blessed Empress Catiz to the Imperial Crusade for quelling the Cartel pirate insurgency in Mehatoor! 

My heart swelled with joy and pride hearing those words. Ah, that the loving gaze of our most holy Empress rested, however briefly, approvingly on our labor here in Mehatoor, and makes all those efforts worthwhile. I did good to join the Crusade's militia, at the right time, even if my stint with them was short and seemingly ineffectual.

No doubt this will boost the morale among our brave pilots and among the baseliner staff here at the Lamp.

Shores of an unknown sea (2)

((continued from 24/4))

The region that lies closer to Jove space than any other region is Vale of the Silent, to the southeast. It has a couple constellations just about 2 light years away from the Jove constellation 4I-WP1. In particular, the closest distance is the star JZV-F4 (in constellation 88G-M4, Vale of the Silent), which lies only 1.4 light years away from N-FKXV. If there are still hidden jump gates they are likely to be found there, in the constellation 88G-M4.

This constellation, the bridge to Jove space, is under the control of the "Blades of Grass alliance", in particular the corporation "I Love Woodland Nymphs". The title seems perfectly pacifist to me, evoking love rather than quarrel. They are the ones I should probably contact first to obtain right of passage through their lands, to explore the shores of Jove space. 

The figure shows the star systems within 3 light years of the southernmost Jove system of N-FKXV. Jove systems are indicated in red, stars in accessible space (all belonging to the nymphs of the Vale) are shown in blue. Coordinates are in lightyears (with x-y being the galactic plane and the origin centered on Amarr).

To complete the list: the remaining regions to the east of Jove space are Kalevale, Oasa and Cobalt Edge. They are buffered from Jove space by an uninhabited region, UUA-F4 that lies in between. These regions are controlled by "Pandemic Horde", but given their distance from Jove space are of lesser interest for my expedition.

Shores of an unknown sea

I have been reading constellation reports from the Ministry of Assessment on the geopolitics of the regions bordering Jove space. As fickle as the barbarians of the outer rim are, there appear to have been alliances that endured for a little while now in this corner of the cluster.

To the northeast of the Jovian regions J7HZ-F and A821-A  is our cluster's northernmost region, Tenal. It is governed by an alliance called Azure Citizen. The Azures have a treaty with the Fraternity alliance, which still owns the gateway systems to other regions.

Slightly south of Tenal, lies Venal. This region is the heartland of the Guristas, and visitors from the core worlds are generally not welcome there. Although, it appears that my non-violent stance resulted in my negative standing with the Guristas to be only -2.34, so I shall at least not be shot on sight.

The next region anticlockwise around Jove space is Tribute, to the east of A821-A. It is held by the Fraternity alliance. I note that their name does not refer to a religious brotherhood. There is one  system that is relatively close to Jove space, namely QFF-O6. It lies only 2.91 light years from W-WQM5 in Jove space. 

((to be continued))

Archaeology in the news

There was an interesting news item on Amarr Certified News (copied by the Scope) : it appears that archeologists have discovered an ancient lance implying that tournaments between Holders are older than previously thought. 

The common belief is that such tournaments originated during or around the Udorian wars, at the height of knightly culture. It was fashionable for young nobles to make their reputation during these wars on foreign shores. Back home, they were keen to show off their prowess and bravery, especially to the ladies of the Imperial court, during jousting tournaments.

The lance from the news has been discovered on Amarr island itself. That makes sense if it is to challenge the common belief that such tournaments originated around the Udorian wars. Indeed, if the practice is older than that, is has to take place on Amarr island, because before the Udorians arrived on our shores, we were not a seafaring people.

Tournament lances are different from combat lances, as shown below: 

To the right, you see a common combat lance. The lance-head is sharp and designed to kill. The left shows a blunted lance-head typically used for jousting. They were mounted on a heavy, difficult to control wooden lance-pole. The knights would thrust at each other with the heads of their lances, and try to unseat each other rather than kill each other. They would do so by first shattering shields and then very often splintering the opponents lance. In fact, knights inviting each other to a joust would do so by asking to "break lances with each other".

So, it is no wonder that very few tournament lances were recovered. Surviving lances from the early Udorian period are rare, and mostly identified from heraldry. It is not just the helmets and shields that were used for heraldic displays, but also the lances - they could bear inscriptions identifying the owner of the lance. In connection with the Book of Records, this can be a very useful method to date the items, perhaps more accurately than with radio-isotope dating. This must have led to the surprising conclusion that the lance mentioned in the news is indeed older than any other tournament lance found previously.

((ooc images attribution: The Metropolitan Museum of Art))

A hunch

During my explorations in Aridia I noted on several occasions interesting signs of Jove presence. They are not around today, but were in the past, and possible the recent past. They were quite active, especially in the Fabai constellation. I have already conjectures that they were monitoring the Blood Raider trail, waiting to intercept relics. 

The Jove have always been quite controlling about which technology should be available to the Empires and which should stay hidden. Yet it is not their will, but God's will that we should have back our holy Ametat and Avetat, even if these items hold unimaginable power! The Jove have no right to keep these hidden, but I am sure they tried, and certainly tried to get their diseased claws on the sanctified crown and sceptre. 

I am of a mind to investigate the Jove somewhat more. They are gone now - no one has seen any of them for years. Their empire consists of the regions known unpoetically as A821-A and J7HZ-F. These are the regions that they retreated to after God cast them out of heaven, or rather the Heaven constellation. Their regions seem no longer accessible, there are no official jump gates into them. Whether the Jove still persist in their isolated space or whether they have gone extinct is not officially known. To find out, one would have to access the inaccessible regions.

Now, there are still abandoned passages and jump gates and jump technology scattered throughout space. The best evidence are the gates to the hellhole system of Zarzakh, and the Jove station that the Deathless has appropriated there for himself and his cronies. So, why could there not also be secret passages into the Jovian regions? 

I am considering exploring the regions bordering the Jove domains to find out.