To All Good Folk of New Eden, near and far, greetings —
I take up my pen this evening by lamplight to set before you my intentions, for I am given to understand that a Council is soon to be chosen, and that I am resolved to stand for a seat upon it. Let it not be mistaken for jest, though I confess I have been known to jest a great deal. I mean to represent the whole of this territory — not the Nullsec companies alone, nor the builders, nor the duellists of Lowsec, nor the settled folk of Highsec, nor even the hermits who dwell in the Wormholes. All of you, I should hope, might find some account of yourselves in me.
I set out upon this road in the year 2007, having been turned out of my former fellowship in another land entirely, on account of my having meddled where I oughtn't — I had attempted, over the wireless apparatus we called Teamspeak, to mend a quarrel between a husband and wife of that company, and was thanked for my trouble by being shown the door. I came into New Eden with little more than my wits and made my start in the quiet Highsec country, before venturing into Nullsec proper, where I served first as a common line-rider, then as a recruiter of new hands, and at last as Director of our Household — always laboring to see that our pilots wanted for nothing in the way of occupation and purpose.
In these years I have made it my particular business, through a correspondence I call This EVE Life, to seek out and speak with as many souls of this territory as I am able — one hundred, by my own reckoning, before the close of the year 2027. I have this day spoken with five-and-thirty. It is on account of this travelling, and the many fires I have sat beside, that I have come to believe you — the whole of you, whatever banner you fly — are the very reason I mean to make this journey to the Council at all.
I will not pretend this undertaking is without its vanity. But I have watched, from my place upon the trail, how the great Companies quarrel among themselves for want of anyone troubling to speak plainly to the other side. I do not come as a partisan of any one wagon train. I come as one who has broken bread with Nullsec captains and Frontier pioneers and green emigrants alike, and who has found, in every case, good people beneath the dust and the armor.
It was never, I have come to believe, a matter of ships or of territory. It has always been a matter of the people who steer them.
Set down as I would set down the by-laws of a wagon company, for the good order of our journey together.
It is my resolution that the Council ought to hear from every soul in this territory, regardless of the banner beneath which they travel, and that this hearing shall not cease the moment the campaigning is done and the seat is won. I shall set aside an hour each Saturday evening — an “Open Fire,” as I mean to call it — where any traveller may sit beside me and speak their mind freely.
I do not claim to be learned in every matter of this game. But I know well that you are, each of you, learned in your own corner of it. Let us talk, that I might carry your knowledge to those who can act upon it.
I have observed, in my travels, precious little regular word sent down from the Council to the settlements. I mean to press Fenris Creations, so far as any oath of confidence allows, for regular Minutes of Council business, shared plainly with all, and for an occasional hour of open questions upon my own stream or those of my fellow Councillors, should they be willing. We are sent to represent you, not our own companies.
I wish, above all, for more correspondence to travel in both directions between the Council and the settlements. I mean to be a ferryman between the two shores, and should hope my fellow Councillors might be persuaded to keep a ferry of their own, that this territory not depend upon a single crossing.
Belonging to no Company, region, nor manner of play myself, I mean to labor between all parties toward some fair and common understanding whenever changes to our territory are proposed. A wise friend of mine once remarked to me that most quarrels in this game are born of bitterness, and I have come to agree with her entirely. I mean to place myself, so far as I am able, between quarrelling parties and search out the ground upon which a solution might be built, without recourse to insult or to the baiting that too often passes for discourse upon the public wire.
Either this will succeed, or the whole territory shall despise me for the attempt. I am willing to risk it.
I shall propose that the phrases “TEST Is Dead” and “TEST Is Next” be declared contrary to the Terms of our Service, punishable by three hours' banishment per utterance. That Company has suffered enough for its past. Let us allow them to grow, and to enjoy themselves, in peace.
I shall petition Fenris Creations to set aside the Fourth of July, each year hence, as “Dark Shines Day,” in honor of the Leader of Initiatives who, upon a visit to these shores, delivered me from a runaway donkey at the pumpkin patch to which I had taken him, that he might see the most October of American amusements.
I shall ask that FC Overload permit FC Swift to advance our engines to Python the Seventh, for it is well known that Six goes in fear of Seven.
I shall request that CCP loan unto KarmaFleet their very finest Viking, that his particular talents might be put toward the search for one Wade Ambraelle, lost in the wilderness while hiking in the company of Tachypnea Starhop.
I shall ask that Fenris Creations appoint CrashNaps to stand as permanent Diplomat to the United Nations on behalf of New Eden.
Should you wish for more — or for a manifesto some one-and-forty pages long, promising a great deal I could not keep, nor ought I promise, in treating with the Space Vikings to whom we each render twenty dollars a month for the privilege of this game — then I fear I am not your man.
A letter of recommendation, I should think, speaks to an appreciation for one's ideas — and ought never purchase influence over them.
Word of our departures, our arrivals, and all campaign tidings travels first through our Discord, alongside the rest of the This EVE Life company.