Intergalactic Summit

The problem with Veikitamo is that nobody is ever sure quite why she is saying the things that she says or whether she means them.

With the possible exception of Veikitamo. Possible.

I'm going to go ahead and say it, James. Never in the field of human conflict has so much been said about so little so often. If being prepared to kick over somebody's pillow fort is what renders me wholly irredeemable, then I was probably irredeemable long, long ago.

I'm very tempted to put up an uncrewed Astrahus so that you and your friends can burn it down and I can show you how one recovers from a minor loss, pulls up their big boy pants, and gets back on with the business at hand.

Oh? We weren't told about that in school. I probably recognize name Starkman, I think I heard it somewhere but can't remember exactly. Where is this Starkman Prime located? Did gallente kill them too? Maybe it was one of these unfortunate slavery worlds, that was crushed under subjugating gallente boot?

The structure was is meaningless Pieter, but you know that. It's what the affair represented.

But I understand that being disingenuous on purpose, can be fun.

These days, it's called Arzad II. It was one of the three worlds of the Minmatar Empire, before the coming of the Amarr. The Starkmanir tribe took to the teachings of the Amarr noble who was given control of their world, Arzad Hamri. By all accounts, he was an exemplar of that the Reclaiming could be. He built up their world, built schools, infrastructire, and more. The Hamri family cherished the Starkmanir, and the Starkmanir returned that affection. They believed in him, and they loved him. They practiced the religion he brought them... until the leaders of the Amarr faith declared that his teachings were heretical, and had him put to death.

Years later, one of the Starkmanir murdered the man responsible for Arzad Hamri's execution. One man committed a crime. And in response, the Amarr turned a developed world, a world that had embraced Amarr culture and religion, a world of millions, if not billions of human beings... and turned it into a lifeless, volcanic ball of charr and molten lava with an orbital bombardment intense and widespread enough to kill every man, woman, child, plant, animal, and even microorganism on the planet.

It was done to send a message to the Matari on other worlds—an act of terror, a crime in the ongoing war against Matari self-determination. Had the Starkmanir been allowed to choose their path, they might have chosen to follow the path of the leader they loved. But we'll never know now, will we?

quote was altered

free thinking is frowned on in a era of block voting

being told what to think is common being told to ignore the free thinker

reinforce the ignorance of the sheep mentality

the term block vote existence cements my mentality of the loss of free thought in a land of sheep.

Yes, well I suppose context is everything. Perhaps you should ask Pieter what you missed.

The only ice I'm involved with is the stuff in drinks.

Most people think their context justifies their position on things, Mr. Syagrius, including Ms. Kim.

I liked Xun Yu. I liked Sanxing. I was a regular at Symposium New Eden, especially at the start. I thought they did good work.

They didn't do it very quietly, though. Their attackers in that matter were not the first they'd offended-- just the first to express their displeasure by the traditional capsuleer method. We are killers, almost every one of us, and this is ruthless work we do.

The world isn't fair, Mr. Syagrius, and it isn't just. The good don't necessarily triumph, the wicked aren't necessarily punished, and ruthlessness is rewarded more often than not. Even if that weren't true, that would just mean that your own subjective sense of justice was running roughshod over others with different points of view.

Sanxing offended a stronger, deadlier power, and suffered for it. That's a sad thing. Sadder is that they broke because of it. I wish Mr. Xun well, in realms where naked power isn't so much the coin.

I don't expect you to hear me, Mr. Syagrius. It seems like your anger is all you hear. But I'll say this anyway.

If I'm reading the situation correctly at all, the people you're after won't suffer the way you want them to suffer. They're practiced, they're bloodthirsty, they're strong. And they're survivors. They're creatures of this world. They've embraced the exact thing that broke Xun Yu. Even if you engineer a betrayal within their own ranks, I doubt they'll break from it.

It doesn't make them "right." In a way it might not even help them very much. I left their company from fear of what I was becoming.

But I also remember the rush of wind beneath my wings, the taste of blood, the thrill of power-- not just shallow, fragile power that cracks in a single loss, but power that examines its flaws and compensates for them, that suffers wounds lightly and grows back strong.

The Caldari are survivors. But it's not the State you're fighting if it's the Falcons you hunt. It's the thing I went there, in part, to study, and face, but barely recognized until I found it eating me alive: the Black, the cry of hungry nothing, the true master of most capsuleer mercenaries and pirates. Maybe our curse, as well.

If that was something you could face, and defeat, Mr. Syagrius ... I don't think you'd be reacting this way to begin with. And like as not, by the end, you'll be as they are, yourself. I doubt your allies are immune, either.

There's little more to say. Spirits shield you. Wisdom find you.

Goodbye.

While I'm not privy to all the details here, I'm personally familiar with a lot of the people involved, Myxx: PY-RE alumni. They're the people I trained with when I decided I needed to learn my strength. I didn't really just pull an opinion out of a hat. Anyway, at this point the "credit" to the attackers is a little beside the point (and you might notice that I'm not arguing such a thing).

The point has more to do with the lousy record of would-be avengers trying to punish those who behave in such ways-- and also the kind-of absurdity of acting like it's because they're Caldari.