Intergalactic Summit

Well, whichever venue you choose, I suppose then, Ayallah. *chuckles*.

But yes, it would be interesting to get a viewpoint from several nullsec alliances on this issue.

You mean on Crossing Zebras? I have heard it said that this outlet is firmly in hands of Pandemic Legion capsuleers and their sympathisers

I agree with everything you said, for sure Waffles and Horde use a more rigid director-focused style even though they still use some aspects of the meritocracy to an extent.

Only correction is that The Legion stays at or around 2500 to ensure an active, competent force. The leadership manner may be able sustain a greater number but the individual pilot skill will begin to break down. I am not sure there has ever been a test to see how far such a meritocracy will work effectively but I am sure that it goes quickly if the pilots are not good enough to contribute.

It does rely on people to run it yes, but so does every organization. Our culture ensures that the most active, competent, and willing people are always refreshing those positions. It is designed from the start to make it almost impossible for PL to grind to a halt or 'burn out.'

Just to point out, Pandemic Legion is one of the oldest and most stable alliances in New Eden. It has undergone very little leadership shakeup, almost no cultural shift, and our mission has always been the same. Even the goons with their incredibly famous management structure have undergone more organizational changes than we have. (They obviously have many many times the pilots and therefore needs.) PL leadership is never inactive and we never want for FC's or scouts or logistics pilots or people to build for us.

I understand the sentiment of capsuleer organizations and their impermanence but for certain PL has endured much and for as long as anyone and is undoubtedly still in great shape. We have watched a lot of groups die off, people leave, and PL remain the same so I am certain that we are among the most enduring.

What a lazy response. Typical of lazy moral subjectivism though. You're only saying that (or thinking that) because you don't want to tackle the nitty gritty details of the morality of killing people. Understandable, because as Arrendis showed it's quite the gargantuan task to break down if you're doing it earnestly, but if you're going to be like that, don't also grandstand and laugh at other people's necessary inconsistencies as they endeavor to do something that you skipped because it was too complicated and easier to take the nihilistic shortcut. It just makes you look pretentious and unintelligent at the same time.

That is the fantasy of other alliances. Pandemic Legion already holds as much sway and territory as it wants in New Eden and always has. Remember mobility, flexibility, and aggression are core to our manner of warfare. While we will take over territory, ...in fact maybe more than anyone in New Eden as we do so with NC., we almost universally hand it over afterwards and simply tax or dictate. PL does not have interest in governing or building things that are static.

Far better to have influence in governments than to build a government no? Shadow governments are much harder to destroy after all. Again, being an empire unto themselves is the dream of maybe the Imperium or other capsuleer alliances. What you are saying is akin to how poor a fish would do on the surface of a star. It is just not an ambition we have or ever intend to pursue beyond influence and control.

I don't know if we're actually saying different things there, or just saying it differently. I think PL's leadership structure being effective relies, in some part, on maintaining that relatively lean, focused member-count. Get too many people who are just placeholders, or not active as combat polits, in effect, and you'll demoralize a fair number of the folks who want to excel. So you have members of PL using shell- and holding corps for their external activities, ascompared to say, Goonswarm, where someone like Gaara has a hundred or so miners working directly for him within the Alliance.



And therein lies the reason, too: size. As we've grown, we've had to experiment with different things. I don't think we'll ever stop trying new structures and new approaches as we keep attempting to find the systems that best serve the needs of our membership.

Yes, exactly.

However non-coms are not disallowed from being in the alliance as you suggest, it is more habit at this point. The important component is the combat pilots themselves, that is what is kept lean and pressed to be active and up-to-date. The combat pilots are what are looked at in monthly purges and audited regularly to ensure they conform to doctrine. One combat pilot being removed can have a whole wing of followers and attendants follow but the number of attendants is not important to anyone. We are very much bloated by these attendants, it is how you will see 100 members on grid but 2500 on DOTLAN. In those times every currently active combat pilot is almost guaranteed to be on grid.

A combat pilot can sponsor any number of non-coms if it is necessary but it it infrequently is. Keep in mind that a -10.0 ticker is a target as much as a shield, you do not really gain anything by moving an industrial wing into the alliance, it is easier to just keep your own organization intact and change access lists. Again, it is not disallowed to move them in if that is what you want.It is an important distinction. Also we take far, far, more territory than we keep. It has been a trend that we will take regions and sections of space and then hand almost all of it off and have nothing else to do with it. The section we decide to keep we appoint others to dictate and rule and simply collect taxes and enforce treaties. This is very different from almost any other Alliance because it is designed from the beginning to be impermanent and transient. We are not looking for a people to integrate into the Legion or to integrate with us. We are not looking to do more for a government than ensure it meets our goals unless there is some other reason for doing so. When we leave there is no train of civilians to follow, nothing like Saranen where people who grew up under Imperium rule still feel a loyalty to it and travel alongside.

We foster an environment we desire and then leave when we want and no one within that environment will be associated with us in any way afterward. We are not building an Empire as much as enforcing a rule. The people remain and they remain separate. Yes, the administrative workload is shifted, but also the cultures do not touch. Right now there are many ethnic Caldari in Tenal who serve aboard our structures but when we leave, very few will come with us if any.

My point is we deal with senators, legislators, governments, not people. We do not care what form that government takes, who elected those legislators or what the magistrates goals may be past where they serve our goals in the area for the duration. There is a reason the Phage is our symbol: We takeover existing structures and adapt them, we "infect a host" we do not grow an organism. Phage derives from older language meaning "To devour."

Pandemic Legion does not want to create a government, we want the governments that others have built to conform to our needs. Where it does not we destroy and where it does we reinforce. Bribes and hostile takeovers, not elections. We harvest and create factories, the infrastructure we build is for our benefit. Not that we are not concerned with the needs of the conquered peoples, but only their actual needs in most cases. Anything else is usually the side project of a pilot within PL and not directed by the alliance. Human civil rights, standardized languages, culture, etc.. All outside the normal of what we care about. We are not liberators, we are conquerors. Liberation is a secondary effect, changes are a secondary effect and no government is a part of the Legion.

When it comes to the big four or the outer region powers it makes much more sense. We rent their infrastructure and conform to our own culture and standards. We hold influence over the governments, not the people. Protest against our occupation can be as common as not but it is not our problem unless it becomes our problem you know? The will of the people is barely the concern of the Legion, we operate from capital flotillas and supercapital fleets and rely primarily on direct application of force to accomplish our goals. Diplomacy is common of course but it is not our backbone.

Hopefully this has made it more clear. We are a very poor example of an alliance that would create an empire of its own. We will however have people in yours.

Today on the Federal Frontier, Tarek Raimo investigates the corrupting influence of the SDII and Mentas Blaque.

The military installation which is still down there should be decommissioned and the place turned into a museum and memorial that reminds us how even the most well-intentioned societies can go astray.

To use a civilian tourist attraction and thriving business district as a "human shield" is deeply amoral and in contradiction with the Federation's ideals.

I would not dispute that there are professional and dedicated people within the FIO who want to serve the citizens of our nation. I just doubt that the highest decision-makers are a guarantee that they can do that. Instead I see a troubling trail of self-serving political manoeuvres.