An Open Letter to the People of Amarr

For a little under two standard years the Amarrian Empire has been without an Emperor. The temporal and religious power normally resident in the being of that individual who ascends to the Imperial Throne has become diffuse and uncertain. Whether it be the self-serving Deacon Azir of the Theology Council, the Heir and madman Aritcio Kor-Azor or even groups with questionable authority such as the Order of St. Tetrimon or the Cult of Catechization, any source of instruction that comes from above will do for those who find themselves in despair in the absence of their 'royal', even 'divine', intercessor with 'God'.

Sometimes the despair is public and we see many an Amarrian capsuleer bleating to the effect that without an Emperor there is no Empire. Others are stoic in public, even going so far as to reprove those who give free reign to their emotions, yet by signs subtle and not so subtle they betray a certain shiftless desperation. Unable to contemplate taking matters into their own hands, they wait and they pray, they grumble in private and chide in public, and they peck up such crumbs as are thrown their way by anyone wearing so much as a grimy, greasy patina of power.

Others among the Amarrian people, baseline and augmented alike, see that their destiny and that of the Amarrian diaspora cannot now be guaranteed by the workings of an Empire that has become corrupt, infected with lassitude and transfixed, almost crucified, by a diminution of the will. For centuries, a tendency to comfortable, adamantine self-paralysis has been the norm and in times past, when the tides of change were not so forceful, this served well-enough, even if it bred a complacency and lack of vision amongst the establishment of the Empire. Nowadays, this paralysis has not even the virtue of providing an armour of sorts against the dangers that change can bring with it. Today, technology advances apace in every field imaginable and the Empire cannot absorb the shock of the new.

Long a society ruled by transhumans – the Emperor, Heirs and Holders of wealth and power use advanced implant technology almost without a second thought, so natural has it become to them – the Amarrian milieu is now attempting to adjust itself to the new reality of the power, increasing and broadening, of the capsuleer class. The capsuleers, an elite group and transhumans every one, not only use cloning technology but use ever more sophisticated implants and biochemical agents to augment themselves as they make their journey into the future. Even those capsuleers who count themselves loyal to the Empire cannot help but take advantage of the perquisites of the capsuleer's existence.

Though many damn and lacerate themselves in word and thought, wracked with doubt and self-recrimination as they become 'corrupted' flesh and 'fallen' souls, all Amarrian paramilitaries accept the logic of the transhuman revolution for which the capsuleer class is the avant garde. Even while some extremists consider themselves almost a form of fleshly automata, their 'divine spark of soul' fled who knows whither, they continue to give unthinking obeisance to the banal and bankrupt religion they see as having cursed them to wander the limbo-lands of the Amarrian afterlife for all eternity.

Could there be a starker example of self-abasement and self-abnegation by those who simply cannot imagine getting out from under the doom of obedience to a 'higher power'? So much for those who hope for deliverance and have not the will to take their destiny in their own hands.

We of the Star Fraction understand well that there is no profit in addressing ourselves to certain individuals. They have made their choice and if they wish to continue down the path of imperialism and all it entails, they are welcome to it. Rather we address ourselves to a wider audience of Amarrians, low and high, in hopes that some, perhaps a few, perhaps many, will hear, truly hear, our message and at least think on it and, in time, act to take hold of their own future, to the betterment of themselves and the wider Amarrian and, indeed, human diaspora. We know that the ideas of transhumanism have penetrated deep into Amarrian society and why should they not? The Amarrians are masters of transtechnologies aimed at extending life and enhancing abilities.

Royals and elite Holders were once the only ones able to benefit from this technology but now the capsuleer class uses it with a will and even lower-level Amarrians can access this technology through Amarrian enterprises such as Inherent Implants if they have but the money to do so. Capsuleers and other Amarrians not of the Royal Houses can also use cloning technology and the indications are that many Amarrians avail themselves of it and not just capsuleers. This is despite the view of many 'religious', or perhaps better to say overly pious, Amarrians that cloning is sinful and corrupts both flesh and soul.

The absurd disapproval of cloning seen in the Amarrian religio-political establishment is a function of the 'religious' law forbidding the cloning of full members of the Royal Houses on the grounds that their flesh is 'sacred'. This is a measure obviously designed as a quid pro quo amongst the Royal Houses in order to preserve the system of rule that came about during the Moral Reforms some centuries ago. Emperors may not live and rule beyond a term fixed by their health, implants and luck, as they would, potentially for eternity, if the advantages of cloning were available to them. Unsuccessful Heirs must commit suicide in the relatively novel, in terms of the sweep of Amarrian history, Shathol'Syn ritual – a ritual that would be rendered moot if every Heir had a library of clones.

These limitations preserve a balance of power between and within the five Royal Houses that otherwise would be threatened. For if Emperors could live beyond a few centuries, into millennia and protected from many of the vagaries of chance, what chance for ultimate power would the Heads of the Royal Houses have? If the Heirs themselves were able to take advantage of cloning technology they would live beyond the brutal religio-political Shathol'Syn, or at least, if it were adapted to include all clones, there would be lingering doubt that all those clones had been destroyed, bringing the Succession itself into question and doubt.

Indeed, rumours, more or less creditable or fantastic depending on the telling, hint that at least one Heir has taken secret advantage of cloning technology and lives on in the shadows. Even before these rumours were provoked by the extraordinary events at the Succession of Doriam Kor-Azor to the Imperial Throne, the Khanid Heir who now styles himself 'Khanid II' broke with the Empire, loving his life so much that he refused to comply with the abomination of the suicide ritual, and set up his own 'Kingdom' in the region that had long functioned as the demesne of his House.

Would such a one as Khanid rely only on implants to maintain his grip on life? It is an open question but anyone willing to break faith with a religious law on suicide would not, we suggest, have that much difficulty brushing aside the nonsense that denies cloning to the most powerful. These are but the most striking examples and possibilities of Amarrians of power and means seizing their destiny and taking advantage of the transhuman technologies now available to so many.

It is the view of the Star Fraction that the transhumanist philosophy has found fertile ground throughout Amarrian society. We see it clearly enough and openly in the ranks of Amarrian capsuleers, loyalist and heretic alike. We also see it amongst the establishment of the Empire itself and most especially do we think to detect it among the very clergy and theocrats who sit in judgement of the Amarrian people and think to restrict and damp down, ineptly, the flames of change and progress licking at the dry and rotten timbers of the Imperial edifice. Deacon Lorenzo Azir, for example, is either a dupe or a deceiver, for among the ranks of his colleagues on the Theology Council are undoubtedly those who see their destiny reaching out into a future beyond the cramped and blinkered vision of a backward state religion and decrepit, corrupted political system.

Is Azir among these advanced thinkers, transhumanists who look forward rationally, or is he simply a superstitious old goat who when he bleats out pious platitudes – such as "Submission is not a sign of weakness, but a show of respect." – really believes them? Deacon Azir was so keen to see the Order of St. Tetrimon's intelligence-gathering facilities destroyed that he personally dispatched the Imperial war fleet to take action. Perhaps the Tetrimon were on the verge of discovering something extraordinary about the inner-workings of the Theology Council, or at any rate were close to uncovering, or had discovered, certain things about Azir or some of his close colleagues.

Whatever the case, the Theology Council has notably acted to dismiss complaints against Amarrian capsuleers and sweep aside those who would pull the Empire back into an even more retrograde state. The petition against the capsuleer warlord Golan Trevise – an attack by religious extremists on a capsuleer who chooses to follow his own destiny – was rejected by the Council. The accusation of heresy levelled at Lady Revan Neferis by the Order of St. Tetrimon was at no time upheld by the Theology Council, and indeed rendered totally null by the suppression and exile anew of that heterodox order. Elements of the Council are clearly disposed to favour independent-minded and forward-thinking capsuleers, ignoring 'loyalist' Amarrian paramilitaries who think to render their own judgements in these matters.

The time is ripe for those elements of the Theology Council to take further steps in the advancement of transhumanism within the Empire and among the Amarrian people. With no Emperor open conflict between the elites of the Empire is breaking out: Holders strike at Holders and even Royal Heirs are barely restrained from blasting to atoms those who they imagine have slighted them.

We know that those who work in the shadows must take care but we call on all who look to a secure and advanced future for themselves and the Amarrian people – rather than an irrational and evanescent promise of an existence beyond this life – to redouble their efforts and be assured that the Star Fraction will fight openly for a destiny forged in freedom by the power of rational thought just as they secretly and subtly oppose a doom woven from threads of superstition and oppression.

The Freecaptains of the Star Fraction

The Star Fraction and Mito Constellation

Of late, questions have been asked of Star Fraction: some suggesting Guristas affiliation, as well as other questions regarding the mass transit of starships and war-materiel into the area of the Mito Constellation in Caldari State claimed space.

The answers to these questions are quite simple: Star Fraction remains an organisation firmly committed to combating repressive authoritarian structures in states and empires just as firmly as the would-be empires of tyrannical movements inhabiting nullsec regions. It is not only the ever-venal alliances of the frontiers that are committing treason against the potential of humanity by their perpetuation of the territorial meme (the notion that human society needs exclusionary zones of habitation to survive and grow).

This taint is sourced in the old empires, its corruption spreads like a festering wound to contaminate the frontier. The hard truth is that humanity shackled firmly to the surface of planets is no true humanity at all. Refusing the gift of stars and immortality, the tyrant meme impels those who’d restrict their fellow’s movement and act as jailors of the imagination, kidnappers of conscience and murderers of the spirit.

The Star Fraction has therefore moved to the Mito constellation to diminish the threats of would-be expansionists loyal to the State, recognizing also that the area is used by nullsec imperialists as a gateway from their activities in State-policed space. Any forces, organizations and individuals recognized as hostile to the liberation and advancement of humanity's potential as a spacefaring, self-sufficient and free species may be considered targets.

The Star Fraction ideology is not a soft and lilting melody to ease the troubles of the heart. It is a siren song of strife and revolution. Mankind dwells in bondage and we’d see it free. There is no act nor duty so arduous and harsh that we’d turn aside from the righteous toil. No hierarchy will be spared. No nationalist conceit left unburned.

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

The Star Fraction has long held that intellectual freedom and the expression of that freedom are vital for the development of social, economic and political structures that will truly meet the needs of the capsuleer class and the human species as a whole. The situation in the universities and academic institutions of EVE today is a parlous one and yet another symptom of the retrograde wave sweeping across human societies in the core of the cluster. A society falling into tyranny can be recognised by many means but one of the most poignant and terrible is the restriction of academic freedom and the suppression of teachers and students alike.

We the Free Captains of the Star Fraction pledge our support for those in the core empires who seek to reassert the freedom of the mind and who protest in an effort to secure their future and, by extension, the future of us all. Besides the support of our words, we offer all practical help to those who may need it in order to advance science and technology outside the stifling atmosphere of the corrupted universities of the cluster.

The Star Fraction also notes that the ancient enmities and petty disputes of the old empires are a major factor in the economic and political suppression of research and debate. We specifically support and endorse the calls of those students who have suggested focused and free study in neutral territory. We agree with them that it is essential for ground-breaking research and cutting-edge technology to be developed in an environment where all can participate and benefit, despite the political and military agendas of the old empires. We note that the forces of the corrupt Gallente Federation shamefully moved to suppress these students and observe that this is further evidence that the facade of 'freedom' in the Federation is nothing more than the flimsy, mottled shell of a rotten egg.

The Struggle for the Future is the war of minds and ideas. Without the space, both physical and mental, for ideas to grow and find their expression there is no future, save a brute mechanical existence without purpose or hope. If the new must fight to succeed the old, as so often before, then so be it. We shall not shrink from the battle.

~ reason is the means by which the chains of ignorance shall be broken ~

The Star Fraction notes the reports and analysis of the Kassigainen IV incident and considers it further evidence of the retrograde nature of the Caldari State and the megacorporations that constitute this increasingly tyrannical regime. The true nature of the corporate state – a society not of individuals but, rather, a society of monolithic collectives such as Kaalakiota – is further exposed by the suppression of workers demanding fair recompense for the value of their work and the atrocities carried out by the thugs of the corporate police force, Home Guard. We have seen that the State is increasingly protectionist in its trade policies and in the field of intellectual co-operation. We have seen that the bureaucracy of the State machine stifles those who do seek to fulfil the promise of their forefathers: the Caldari of yesteryear who truly believed in the freedom of the individual and opportunity for all. Now we see that hard-working men and women who dare to speak out against mass lay-offs and slashed wage packages are subject to the most brutal of sanctions: violent murder at the hands of the very corporate police who cast themselves as the peace-keepers of Caldari society.

The workers and families of Truiisu Station are planetbound baseline workers, it is true. They no doubt volunteered in a technical sense for their stint in the dark underground of Kassigainen IV. Yet we of the Fraction feel a kinship with anyone who works for a better life for themselves and their families and demands the proper fruits of their labours. Many are the Caldari loyalists who have complained that the 'Caldari Way' is not so far from the ideology of the Fraction and protest the war we wage against those who support the State machine. We say that the policies and actions of the State, its member corporations and their agents of repression are in no way comparable to the ideology of self-reliance and freedom we profess or indeed the spirit of independence shown by the Caldari who fought for their liberty in the past and those Caldari willing to fight for what rightfully belongs to them today.

Capsuleers who align themselves with the State are complicit in the actions of the corrupt kleptocrats who balance atop the terrible, crushing pyramid that is the State. Those bloated corporate officers handing out their pronouncements from the safety of CEP meeting rooms – their real decisions made in dim and smoky corners of the Mercantile Club – clapping one another on the back as this week one megacorporation commits its vile acts of suppression safe in the knowledge that the rest will look the other way as surety and payment for their own horrible actions past, present and future.

The acts carried out against the workers of Truiisu Station are the acts that the State will carry out against any who fall within its power only to later struggle in realisation of what they have lost. Avoid the trap of the mind that the State sets for those it seeks to seduce.

Stay free.

~ when a man knows his own worth no other can make him a slave ~

The Intaki Question

In recent years, the question of the Intaki people and their future has become ever more pointed a source of dispute and conflict. This is doubly so as the Gallente Federation has become ever more paternalistic yet neglectful, while the ranks of the capsuleer class have swelled with Intaki and others who support them. The Star Fraction, and before its formation Jericho Fraction, has long been sympathetic to the aspirations of those Intaki who would see their people on the path of self-determination. In part, this is due to the many Intaki in our movement who hold the future of their people to lie in freedom at home and amongst the stars. Yet it is mainly a function of the ideology of the Fraction, which holds self-determination to be an essential that must be observed and upheld in any association or society in which all may fluorish. Even so, we are from time-to-time asked what our position on the Intaki Question is and recently a number of interested parties have made enquiries in this vein.

In essence, the Fraction stands for the sovereignty of the individual as claimed and won by the individual. This is reflected in our radical freespace politics, our emphasis on self-reliance in matters economic and military, and our profound belief in the necessity of free and informed self-determination. The latter has an obvious connection to the Intaki Question but all aspects of the Fractionist belief and insistence on the Individual as Sovereign have application here. The struggle for freedom that so many Intaki are concerned to prosecute is simply one of the most pertinent and provides a timely illustration of the role capsuleers and others on the frontiers of space and time can play in the destiny of a people and the individuals that make up that people.

As is common knowledge, the Gallente and their Federation have played a part in the development of a number of races: the peoples of Caldari Prime, the Achura, the Mannar, the Jin-Mei and, of course, the Intaki. The facts of history, let alone their interpretation, are much disputed when it comes to the role of the Gallente and the races they drew, by one means or another, into the Federation. Let us then cut through such disputes and assume, for the sake of this argument, that in every case where the Gallente obtruded themselves into the affairs of another people they did so to the initial benefit and technological enrichment of these peoples. This is an assumption of great controversy but to grant it allows us to examine the conduct of the Gallente as their client races came to full awareness of their place in the universe and its myriad possibilities without becoming sidetracked in arguments that are not necessarily germane to the present discussion.

The Gallente Federation was not 40 years old before what may have started as an association of autonomous peoples began to travel down the well-worn path of tyranny that too often begins so innocently. We shall not linger long over the terrain of the Caldari-Gallente War but the simple facts are clear enough: the peoples of Caldari Prime, their Achura partners and those Intaki who sympathised with them and their ideals sought to maintain their autonomy and when they saw this simple freedom would not be granted them they chose to secede. The secession of the Caldari bloodlines, the Achura and the Intaki were met with violence by the central authorities of the Federation. The Caldari and Achura succeeded in gaining their independence and established that polity which would, sadly, devolve into the sad mockery of freedom that is the Caldari State. Those Intaki who sought to imitate them in seeking freedom and independence from the deadening hand of the Federation were brutally suppressed and the survivors exiled.

No doubt the Federation authorities expected little would come of a handful of Intaki rebels expelled into the outer darkness. Meanwhile, some Intaki were able to fight in a cause that was certainly noble enough and became the nucleus of that force which later became Mordu's Legion and was in its origins an expression of the desire for free association, the right to bear arms and use them, and the importance of economics and technology for a free future.

Since the Caldari Secession and the Intaki Risings, the Federation has had much cause to regret those times though it has shown little remorse and a tendency to compound its errors anew. The Outer Ring Excavations company caused many an alarum in the Federation Senate when it threatened to dominate the Nocxium trade and the authoritarian reflex showed itself once more with a crass attempt to coerce ORE into revealing the location of its prize ore fields. The response, as with the Caldari, was secession, albeit on a much smaller scale and this time that of a single corporation rather than an entire people.

It is telling that the security of this fledgling corporate faction was greatly enhanced by the services of Mordu's Legion. To be sure the Legion sold its service for the coin that ORE's resources brought it but it is perhaps not too fanciful to imagine a certain satisfaction in the job among the Legion's many Intaki veterans. Even now, with the Legion elsewhere, the fortunes of ORE remain connected with the Intaki exiles of the Syndicate region not least through their freeports and markets but also the strategic alliance forged between the Intaki Syndicate and the Serpentis Corporation, another grouping late of the Federation and come into its own since shucking off the restrictions of the Gallente polity.

What then of those exiles who made their homes in the region that came to be named for their syndicate? The Intaki Syndicate began as a band of those Intaki who most loved freedom and sought to fight for it during the tumultuous years of the Caldari-Gallente War for which actions they were suppressed and transported beyond the limits of civilisation. Not content with expelling them from the territory of the Federation, the authorities forbade them from settling on the surface of those moons or planets within easy reach. Why the Federation chose to impose this vindictive condition on the 5,000 Intaki they had cast out is a matter for speculation but if it was intended to limit the potential of these people the plan backfired.

Forced to embrace space, the founders of the Intaki Syndicate built themselves numerous space stations throughout the region. The Syndicate arose as an association of station-owners, each sovereign and operating their stations as freeports beyond the purview of the Federation or anyone else. The Syndicate does not seek to close the space in which its stations are set like so many diamonds on a sable background and does not discriminate on grounds of race, national politics, religion or any other of the many stupidities that set human beings one against the other. Rather the Syndicate deals with people in terms that are universal, rational and equitable: free and fair trade in goods and services.

How then did the Federation choose to respond when it became clear that the Intaki of the Syndicate were making their own way free of the Federation and its strictures? With police actions and military incursions. With seizures of goods and the capture and trial of Syndicalists as 'criminals'. Not content to see these men and women cast out, the Federation has spitefully pursued a vendetta against the Syndicate under the usual tawdry and ragged cloak of 'maintaining order'.

Yet this is a grotesque fiction when set against the state of Placid region, where the green jewel that is the Intaki homeworld hangs in the midst of stagnation and underdevelopment, mindless chaos and unthinking neglect. In the 200 years since its foundation, the Intaki Syndicate has spread nearly 70 stations through its region on its own account, with dozens of stations belonging to organisations as diverse as Thukker Mix and even the Quafe corporation.

All this was achieved with no help from a paternalist state but rather through the independence of the Intaki who made their lives in the space of Syndicate region. While it is hardly perfect, the Intaki Syndicate and its constituent stations represent achievements anyone can take pride in as the fruits of the free human spirit but most especially the Intaki people can do so. Compared to the stations of the Syndicate, the insurance brokerages, storage facilities and mining depots that tumble about the Intaki system are simply banal outposts of a society that seeks to impose its values to the exclusion of all others.

The object lesson here is in the benefits that self-reliance and self-determination bring and how readily people can fluorish in circumstances where these are to the fore. The Intaki especially seem to fluorish when given the chance to strike out for themselves with their path among the stars, their faces to the future. This spiritual people are indeed almost naturally posthumanist, their native philosophy lending itself to an appreciation of long-term trends and the possibilities inherent in new technologies such as the capsule and cloning techniques.

What future then would the Star Fraction wish to see for the Intaki? Certainly not one where an 'Intaki Free State' rises full of dreams of greatness only to fall into squalid tyranny and the cruel suppression of Intaki by Intaki. Do we wish to see the Intaki free then? Better to say that we wish to see those Intaki who desire freedom and are willing to seize it for themselves left to tread a path of their own making rather than a narrow, sign-posted way that some central authority deems is good for them and their descendents. The Syndicate is a stop on a road that may split and lead in many directions and while it is a good stop for a time, it should not be the final destination of Intaki hopes and dreams. No more than the Federation should seek to be both start and finish for the frozen aspirations of the Intaki.

Ultimately, self-determination will tell, either in its fulfilment as individuals make themselves free and sovereign or in its denial as empires, federations and states reveal themselves for the dead mechanisms of tyranny they inevitably become if they do not make way for those who have outgrown them.

Therefore, in the case of the Intaki, as for all, we wish to see true, informed self-determination and will be content if they find their way clear to it, have the will to take it and summon the strength to hold it.

~ unity cannot be compelled ~