EVE Fiction

Hey guys and gals, just trying to get a handle on the Caldari for some exploratory writing, and I feel that the lore gap is almost insurmountable. Reading a bit about them in the Source ebook helps, but there are marked stylistic jumps between it and the Chronicles. Maybe that's because the former is supposed to be more clinical, or due to an author change in the latter. Regulars here know better than me.

So instead of looking for a right answer, I would like to hear from other writers about how they tackled storytelling in the State. Tropes, archetypes, devices; what did you embrace or avoid? My own desire is to emulate the 70s-80s wave of cyberpunk genre fiction, but I feel that the slick canon of Eve renders this a flawed approach. Old future Earth is such a simple place is comparison.

If you have thoughts outside of Caldari, that's fine too, since I don't really think more ideas would be a bad thing.

Oh, you can find plenty of cyberpunk in Caldari and Galllente. Caldari's a megacorp culture, with clandestine corp warfare going on at any given moment as their directors and CEOs smile and shake each other's hands while clutching daggers behind them. Then the Gallente Federation has got this massive income gap between the have's and have-not's despite the available of very advance technology so widespread even your hobo has access to devices considered high-tech by our standards. The richer cities also see heavy automation especially on the upper strata of society, which doesn't help matters. Then we have the part about the One Day War causing the current Federation Administration to become paranoid about spies and collaborators (Red Scare reference) too.

Plenty of cyberpunk opportunities there.

If you like, you could check out my own fic where I attempt to make something cyberpunkish out of the slickness. I let you judge whether it's a passable attempt.

Federal Cyberpunk:

Companies and corporations exercise their authority through government proxies, bribes, corruption and lobbying. A character would be exposed to themes of the massive daily barrage of information across a media culture driven by trillions of people leading to easy obfuscation of the truth by those in power in contradicting reports and trivial commentary. Individuals experience the effects of a consumer culture that emphasizes that happiness is defined by what you buy, what you wear, and the subcultures you identify with all neatly packaged for you by the algorithms of your search history and metadata. The latent disconnect in a culture that wants you to share at all times, what you think, what you like, who you're with at all times -- not sharing is considered an abnormality -- and privacy, real privacy is a luxury of the wealthy or those who decide to go off-grid in some Delta class city disconnected from everything.

Federal companies have access to private security forces; get sweet outsourcing deals from local governments to manage the infrastructure and essentially control what most consider vital services. They're only it for your ISK and will sell you the dream you want with their slick and well managed PR wings.

State Cyberpunk:

Companies and corporations have assumed direct control. While deeply authoritarian and driven at the top by a management and executive caste who know the ins and outs of a corporate bureaucracy almost byzantine in its committees, sub-committees, steering comittees, oversight committees; their driving concern is the continued survival of the overall system and its acceptance by the employees/citizens within the Megacorporation. You are surveilled at all times, anyone even your own family could be an informant who will tell the internal security folks if you don't seem to fully accept the particular Megacorporate narratives on how and why you're meant to be Caldari. All the Megacorporations have their different PR narratives on how they, and they specifically are the One True Caldari corporation and if in public it is expected if not outright tacit approval is given then silent consent is expected unless you want a nice re-education deal amended to your work contract.

If you're Ishukone you must buy Ishukone. If you're Wiyrkomi you must buy Wiyrkomi. To do otherwise is a display of your own disloyalty and lack of corporate spirit. Masks must be worn at all times, there are times and places to disagree, and the layers of written rules and unwritten expectations bind everyone in the red tape of latent paranoia and suspicion.

My views anyway.

Yes, there is that. I think at core cyberpunk is essentially meant to be cynical -- it has its roots in those old hardboiled detective stories in pulp fiction and the core theme is the same. It's an exploration of power, and how those in power abuse it for their own ends. The technological aspect is an additional layer: how those with access and the resources to certain technology also use it to abuse the power it grants.

The protagonist is meant to be the every man, the beat cop, the detective, the hacker, the salaryman or whatever else who see underneath the facade and the abuses of that power and privilege and how they react to it.

Always Quafe.

The State are very oriental. I had always compared them to the South Korean Chaebol conglomerates with a Germanic education system.

Required Reading:

http://wiki.eve-inspiracy.com/index.php?title=Demographics_of_the_Caldari_State

http://www.wraithwerks.net/blog/2008/06/the-caldari-dialogues-1-founda.html

http://www.wraithwerks.net/blog/2008/06/the-caldari-dialogues-2-the-co.html

http://www.wraithwerks.net/blog/2008/06/the-caldari-dialogues-3-the-ra.html

http://www.wraithwerks.net/blog/2008/07/the-caldari-dialogues-4-those.html

Also look up some Shadowrunner background lore if you're interested in Caldari life for non-entities.