Intergalactic Summit

People may put too much attention to the Amarr Empire of old. After several centuries of Heideran, and past Vak'Atioth, vocal minorities that still fail to learn from History are hardly a representative sample.

Of course, maybe they will prove me wrong.

The goals of an Empire, any Empire, all through history have always been based upon conquest, expansion, and dominion. The State is not allies with the Amarr Empire truly out of friendship -- true friendship is possible only with others who walk the path of Caldari -- but rather mutual advantage, both economic and political. The Amarr are still jaijii just as much as those in the Federation or Republic. And as jaijii there will always exist limits to both trust and friendship due to the simple fact that you are not Caldari.

This does not mean a degree of accord and respect might be afforded to Imperials, it simply does not change the fact that the old rustic proverb of, "Do not trust those who come from over the hills for their hearts are different," still holds true with any and all jaijii for their motivations cannot be trusted to have Caldari self-interest in mind. Attempting to appeal to a Caldari better-nature through saccharine words of friendship and the worthless baubles of permanent alliances is an exercise in futility for a true Caldari is not guided by a better nature but by pragmatism, a pragmatism which leads to the realization that there never exists permanent alliances only permanent interests.

Try as much as you want, puny scum, but your empty words are not enough to break our mighty alliance.

This word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

You're implying that I'm painting the Amarrians as inept. This is not the case - however much disdain I hold for the Empire and its policies, I recognise they had to be at least basically competent to last this long. You miss the point I'm trying to make - the Empire never, until the battle of Vak'Atioth, fought a military power that was comparable to itself. The Covenant may have been technologically comparable to the Empire but are certainly not anywhere near comparable from a military standpoint - they're a highly organised piratical organisation, but not a freestanding national empire such as the Federation, the Republic or the State. The only time the Amarr have fought such an organisation is Vak'Atioth, and the consequences were utterly disastrous.

And incidentally, the Amarrians can talk a good game about "every soul of the Empire" being involved in the effort of a Reclaiming, but like with the vast majority of the things they say, it doesn't make it true. Only a small fraction of the Empire's population would, over the course of its history, have any realistic, traceable involvement in the Reclamation of, say, the Ni-Kunni, the Khanid, the Ealurians or, yes, even the Minmatar. By many Imperials' own admission (often to counter other arguments made against them) only a very small fraction of their population holds slaves. Only a tiny fraction of the combined military might of the Empire would ever have been required to conquer single planets such as the homeworlds of the Ni-Kunni or the Ealur (especially since the Ealur were at an extremely low level of technological development when they were found), and even though the Minmatar had spread out across several star systems and were capable of spaceflight, since they were not (at the time) warlike or violent, they had almost no naval force to speak of since, tragically, they didn't forsee the need for one.

They had, of course, made the perfectly reasonable but tragically misguided assumption that their peaceful empire wouldn't be set upon by a bunch of culturally-destructive religious sociopaths.

To most of the citizens of the Empire, the conquests and annexations would be distant thunder at best, and for most they would barely even hear of it except through grand Imperial procalamations of victory. The Empire never, until the Minmatar Rebellion, experienced a situation in which even a statistically significant fraction, let alone all, of its citizens or holdings were under credible threat from a foreign power. Prior to the Elder Fleet, they had never experienced a situation in which the lives of citizens in its core holdings were placed under credible threat from a foreign military. In fact, you know what, forget credible. It's painfully clear that prior to the Elder Fleet, at least a notable portion Imperial military's leadership didn't even believe that such a thing was possible.

The crux of my point is that I believe a full-on invasion against the Republic would very likely put the Empire in a situation it's simply not psychologically prepared to deal with. Prior to the Elder Invasion, most of the Empire believed that their God will protect them from any serious harm. Sarum may have prevented the Elder Fleet from inflicting as much damage as they were otherwise capable of doing, and perhaps upheld that belief, but the wiser, more pragmatic citizens and potentates of the Empire have realised that faith alone is not enough to shield them. This perhaps explains the investment in the Ammatar Mandate and the warming of relations with the Khanid Kingdom. If God existed, then it would perhaps be within his power to shield the faithful, but belief alone won't protect Imperial citizens from orbital bombardment or terrorist attacks, and it remains to be seen if enough people of note in the Empire realise this.

Katrina, in essence, the Empire can believe that they've experienced a state of total war where every citizen is both involved in the war effort and, more importantly, in direct danger from it, but they sure as hell haven't, and I don't think they're prepared for the consequences of entering one. The only people to have historically experienced a state of total war would, ironically enough, be the Minmatar, during the initial Imperial invasion of their homelands. Believe you me when I say that the Minmatar people remember that time, and they understand what will happen if they lose to the Empire. There is no price so great that they will not gladly pay it to avoid that fate.

What the Empire wants and what the Empire will get are, in this circumstance, two wholy seperate things. The age of the Reclaiming is long past, and there will be no glory, honour or victory for those who attempt to reanimate its corpse - just blood, misery and death.

That's very nice, dear.

However.

The fact such a sentiment was expressed by a Gallente Traitor such as yourself is simply another reminder why the Federation must be destroyed.

... and this applies to every single post in this thread, including yourself? Perhaps you should specify who you refer to.

Touche. Everyone, really. Not that I protest; keep up the good work.

"Look at each other. How do you tell one man from the other? How do you know which man to kill?” - the parable of Cold Wind.

The lesson I always took from that is that once we are stripped of our flags, our uniforms, our badges of rank and the signs of our houses, we're all humans in the end. Forget coming from over the hills, or beyond the border, or flying ships of gold - there's no such thing as a 100% trustworthy human, even inside your own "tribe".

Ascribing the vice of untrustworthiness only to jaijin is a dangerous parochialism, kirjuun. Brother has killed brother in internecine war throughout history. To take recent examples, we've seen quite a lot of blood spilled between two factions who vehemently disagree on what it means to be Caldari, to be State, and to be Loyal.

That's the problem with rustic proverbs - they very often seem wise, and very often are anything but.

Of course, The Empire has made no secret of the fact that the Caldari are on the list to be Reclaimed too. And in point of fact, I do trust them to keep their word on that, if given the opportunity. Which is why I barrack for the Minmatar. We don't really know where we stand with them.

We do know where we stand with the Amarr, and it's somewhere no sane, foresighted person would choose to remain. I'll take an uncertain but potentially benign relationship over certain and honest malevolence any day.

Hah. Apologies. Please, go on.