My EVE

Greetings traveler. I claim no people. No nation. I am a wanderer without a home, seeking refuge. Please allow me safe passage through your lands. I wish nothing against any man and claim no goal but to witness the beauty of the cosmos. Mayhaps our paths shall cross again someday for some other purpose, but until that future day let us depart now and say no more, for I have far to go and to stay here would be time wasted.

Ok, mood sufficiently established? I have been involved in EVE for a reasonably long time. As you can tell this character (my main) has an employment history that extends back to 2010. However, I have only been active for approximately a year out of that time, so my experiences and skill total are significantly less than you would expect from a character that has been around this long.

Having recently resubscribed and discovered that I just completed covert ops training before I left, I decided now was the perfect time to do something I had wanted to do for some time now. I will take a pilgrimage throughout all the space that EVE has to offer and see some of the many sights and marvels of this universe. The purpose of this expedition is both to get a chance to look at the larger universe of the game and discover what I want to do, as well as to give my skills some time to train so I can get on with whatever I decide to attempt after this journey is complete. Hopefully this will allow me time to find a place my character belongs so that after I am finished with my tour I can settle in and have a happy time doing stuff. The main reason I left EVE before was because I found myself involved in activities I was just not happy with and didn't really see any point in continuing.

I would like to thank mark726 very much for his excellent EVE Travel blog. Even though his site descriptions are biased by his uneducated stance as a dirty Gallente who doesn't realize the glory of the State, his list of sites by region is most helpful and will serve to be my roadmap throughout this pilgrimage.

For the duration of this trip I have established some ground rules I will try to follow to the best of my ability. Hopefully this will let me get the most out of the experience and provide the best content to you all.

1: No AFK. Pretty simple, all flying from place to place will be done manually. This is just a smart idea in general and will be good to appreciate the true scope of the EVE universe

2: Look around. Like the above, but I will try to remain in the EVE window as much as possible so I can get a chance to look at all the people and places that I may come across. Another part of this is to make sure I take a good close look at each site I come across. I won’t be traveling here just to check off boxes.

3: Don't touch anything. I'm just here to look. If at all possible I will disturb nothing by my passage, and if I can leave no more trail than my name in local I will be satisfied.

So, ladies and gentlemen, without further adieu, I present to you: The journal of the pilgrimage of Edington Trent.

Region Landmark Checklist:

• [ ]Black Rise
• [ ]Catch
• [ ]Cloud Ring
• [ ]Delve
• [ ]Derelik
• [ ]Devoid
• [X]Domain
• [ ]Esoteria
• [ ]Essence
• [ ]Everyshore
• [ ]Feythabolis
• [ ]Fountain
• [ ]Genesis
• [ ]Great Wildlands
• [ ]Heimatar
• [ ]Immensea
• [ ]Kador
• [X]Khanid
• [X]Kor-Azor
• [ ]Lonetrek
• [ ]Metropolis
• [ ]Molden Heath
• [ ]Outer Ring
• [ ]Placid
• [ ]Sinq Laison
• [ ]Solitude
• [ ]Stain
• [ ]Syndicate
• [X]Tash Murkon
• [ ]Tenal
• [ ]The Bleak Lands
• [ ]The Forge
• [ ]Vale of the Silent
• [ ]Wicked Creek

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Hearing rumors of an unusual Amarr station design I decided to stop at Ardishapur Prime and examine the construction. While very different from the usual elegant Amarr structures it is not completely beyond the realm of rationality. It certainly wasn’t anything compared to the fractal and inhuman Rogue Drone architecture I had witnessed in their deadspace pockets. Memories from some of those pockets still cause me to wake up in the middle of my rest phase with elevated vital signs and the ship winding up to full combat alert around me. This was simply the most efficient way to create a livable structure in space while mining planetoids for valuable resources at the same time. Certainly a noteworthy site, but nothing to spend too much time on.

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The last stop on my route as I neared the border of the Domain region was a CONCORD advisory marker filed simply as “abandoned battlefield.” Intrigued, and with thoughts of the previous battle still fresh in my mind, I decided to investigate further. This site was an altogether different affair. There was no indication of what had caused this battle or why it had come to pass. The only clues were two large stations of apparently Minmatar construction located in the center of the wreckage. Perhaps this is another relic of the Minmatar war for independence. Perhaps this was a staging base to resupply their fleet? Could it have been a prison facility where Minmatar commandoes rescued some of their own? The answer is beyond me.

As I sat lost in concentration I was abruptly pulled back to reality by my ship’s combat information processor warning me of nearby hostile elements. Fortunately I had cloaked myself as soon as I entered the system, that is a habit I advise to any fledgling explorer, so I could evaluate the threat at my leisure. For whatever inscrutable reason the agents of Sansha’s Nation had decided that this site was worth their time, and had dedicated a small patrol to it. The resistance would have been minor if I was in a properly fitted ship, but the one I was wearing currently was certainly not up to the task.

I decided to advance under cloak and attempt to determine why the Sansha found this place to be of such interest. I must confess that in all my travels I have never encountered the Sansha before, so other than various rumors and second hand accounts about their motivation I am at a loss as to what makes them tick. I suppose from what I’ve heard that nobody really knows much about them anyway, so I may not be at as great a loss as I think. I held position as close as I dared, barely 8km when they approached closest to my position, and let my sensors record data for a while. Perhaps CONCORD or the Amarr authorities will be able to make use of it.

With that eventful site I concluded my tour of Domain and bid farewell to the seat of Amarr power. I had found myself near the Genesis region, the very first human settlements in New Eden. I hope to continue my travels in that area by means of a brief transit through the Kor-Azor region. I have wished to view the EVE Gate for as long as I can remember. Now I will finally get my chance.

End Journal Entry 1 – Domain.

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There seems to be a disproportionate amount of war and destruction in this universe. Of the sites I have seen so far the vast majority have been wreckage and ruins. The Kor-Azor battle site in Kor-Azor prime certainly seems to support this (not that I ever doubted it). While not nearly as large in scale as the Mekhios wreckage I had already discovered, this battle was no less important. It was fought directly in orbit around a planet; the Amarr Navy trying to hold off the same Minmatar invasion fleet that so nearly made it to the throne world of Amarr itself.

The anatomy of this battle was fairly straightforward as far as I could tell from the wreckage. The two fleets simply took up positions facing each other and began shooting. This engagement was limited in size to the point that even wrecks of frigate sized vessels were easily identifiable amongst the general debris. It was puzzling that frigate wrecks were found floating in two distinct clumps so far outside of the usual optimal range for weapons of that size. I cannot understand any useful purpose a frigate could serve at that distance that would warrant it becoming a target.

With all the thought I had put into the battle in space I completely neglected up to this point to examine the sensor scans of the planet itself. The scars of the battle were still evident, most plainly in a large impact crater near the planet’s north polar region. As I searched the data nets for information that could explain this I learned that the purpose of the Minmatar attack on this planet was to land assault ships on the surface and liberate their comrades.

Despite my long time in space I had a sudden vision of what this conflict must have looked like to the inhabitants of the planet. Flashes of light streaking across the sky, flaming wreckage and orbital bombardment projectiles descending like meteors from the heavens, the reverse lightning bolts of planetary defensive weaponry striking back at the aggressors from beyond, and through it all the swarm of assault craft descending like flies to either land or be picked apart by sub-orbital defense craft on the way down. Battle would rage on the ground as well since the Mimnatar would naturally stage an uprising when they learned of these events. Truly an impressive sight I am sure. Although I would much prefer to view it through my ship’s sensors as I que up a list of planetary targets for bombardment.

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Continuing through the Amarr worlds I came upon a most interesting and disturbing sight in the Geztic system of the Khanid region. A lone shuttle patrolled restlessly very near the star itself. It appeared from the construction to be of Cladari origin, although the paint scheme differed from the standard shuttle template. No ship has any reason to navigate to this area of a solar system under normal conditions unless there is a territorial claim unit of some kind involved, and obviously this is not the case in this region.

As I approached the shuttle I decided to make a small departure from my standard rules of operation and inquire if perhaps the ship was in distress and needed assistance. Maybe they would offer a reward for the help. I dropped cloak and began the customary procedures to establish communication with the shuttle but there was no response. The flight path didn’t even change when I began to pursue the craft and initiated a full scale sensor lock consistent with aggressive action.

As the result of the sensor scan began to be processed through my ship’s automated filters the truly unsettling nature of this vessel emerged. For one thing, there was only one life sign on board. This would not be unusual at all for a capsule controlled shuttle, but this showed all the diminished signs consistent with long term cryogenic hibernation. Cryo hasn’t been used on spaceships for a very long time, hardly ever since the advent of the warp drive and never once the jump gate network was established. I didn’t think this model of shuttle was even fitted with cryonic equipment. There is no reason this should exist. It’s not right.

That was not all; however, the shuttle was apparently emitting some kind of electromagnetic field that was subtly manipulating the field surrounding the star itself. This technology is so unlike anything I have ever encountered that not even my ship’s sensor suite could give me any useful information on it. I was not aware that such modification was even possible on a platform this small, let alone what purpose it may serve. A scan of the star reveled no abnormalities. Whatever this shuttle was trying to do it obviously would take time. And the sole inhabitant of this shuttle possessed anything, it’s time.

My investigation on the info-net revealed little decisive. An interesting theory is that the shuttle has something to do with the recent Incursions from Sansha’s Nation. The star in the Geztic system is the same class as those destabilized by the Sansha, and the shuttle’s Caldari origin would be consistent with that theory (not that the State wishes to claim this individual I am sure). I see no need to take any additional action but I will avoid this system in the future. Something about that “ghost ship” is far too menacing.

There are still many more things to see in Amarr space, however I must regretfully bring this journal entry to a close. My further travels will, of course, be recorded as they take place.

End Journal Entry 2 – Amarr Space