Intergalactic Summit

25:V:CXV A.Y.

Monsters in the Mirror

Once, I saw a cheap horror holoreel where a character, just before being eaten by an alien creature of some sort, tells to the protagonist: "My mommy always said there were no monsters – no real ones – but there are."

I, too, thought that there were no real monsters.

But there are.

An ancient thinker once said: "Hell is other people". Not all; but many of them, yes. Their inner hell is covered by a thin veil of what we call civilization, culture and law. For the many, this veil is held in place only by external pressure applied by the society. Remove the responsibility for their actions - the veil falls, and the inner Beast breaks loose.

From the beginning of time, every human society built complex systems to protect its members from the hell of each other. Eye for an eye. Defile the sacred tree and you will be stoned to death. Drink other's blood and burn at the stake. Lose the face and you'll be left alone with your last cup of tea.

But now, for the first time in its history, the humanity has created a social group for which there is no immediate perceived responsibility for the actions of the individual, except a minor financial loss. Capsuleers. The last grand social experiment of the dying Jovian race.

Our veils have fallen.

Earlier, I looked at the capsuleers and thought "Why? Oh, God, why have you allowed this to happen to us? Where is the sense, the purpose in this horrible, mindless and cruel freak show we all are forced to watch?.."

It took some time to understand. The capsule is a tool of selection. It separates the mindless animals from the people who can think of more than themselves and this moment's random desire.

The capsule is a test of the soul.

A human, a person, is a creature who can live for something greater than his ego. The inner motivation for this may vary; be it sense of kinship, sense of honor and dignity, love or faith. For many Amarrians i've met it's the Faith; our civilization makes us this way. For the Caldari, it's Duty and Honor. For the Minmatar, it's probably blood ties to their tribe and clan - hard to say, as I can only try to understand Minmatar mentality through the most archaic facets of the Caldari.

But whatever the reason for staying human is, only those who feel that they are the part of something greater than themselves do so. The rest turn into monsters that roam the stars, the horrible mirror of everything wrong that lurks within our souls.

When you jump into a place like Rancer and see the red flashing wall fill your overview, look them in the faces. Those disfigured bogeymen are the humanity's reflection in the Jovian magic mirror. They are our hell, the hell that is also within each and every one of us, sealed shut by everything a person holds dear.

The monsters that must burn.

I wonder then what you think of me.

If I didn't know better I'd think you were insinuating something, Sepherim.

Beast that is the void lives in all of us being quasi-immortal just brings it closer to surface some embrace it, some succumb to it trough trauma or pain and others guard against it. I suspect the ones that most successfully guard against that metaphorical beast are those that maintain connection to what they were before becoming capsuleers.

It's easy to think your self all powerful and disconnected from your actions regardless how insignificant they seem. Since it is in our nature as capsuleers to be able to shatter lives of millions or billions out of whim. In my opinion that does not excuse us from the responsibility to those lives.

These of course are only my thoughts based on Tamiroths

Of course. I understand well the reasoning of many of those who chose to join the Nation.

It's a pity that once you become the part of that entity, your reasoning doesn't really matter anymore, as well as most of your previous personality.

Sansha's Nation is a clear case of a cure that's worse than the disease, a cure which one should stay as far away from as possible.

A cunning wolf that is a part of a successful pack is still a wolf. The Beast is not necessarily mindless, and can take much pride and fun in the destructive achievements of its hunting buddies.

You are a member of one of the most notorious organizations of New Eden, the organization which takes trolling, scamming and exploiting CONCORD regulations to a form of art, while casually using its military power to harass random innocents. I am a Khanid and believe in guilt by association. What should I think of you?

Indeed.

You're not vanquishing them, Evi. You're embracing them.

Why? So your master can replace them with a holofeed that he controls for the purpose of manipulating perception?

Pirates are people too!



Hi Anabella!



They're a bunch of W-space lunatics who sucked up too much gas, don't worry about them.

Thanks for that, Sid.

No, it was not satire. People in that thread are quick to point out Saede's past words and deeds (often out of context), but they've failed to note the power and force of will I wield to take my organization where it can truly shine.