There’s ways to tinfoil that, though, Gaven, so I’m loathe to rule it out, too.
For example, the more the State gets battered by the Trigs—while the Empire had relatively little trouble with them—then the more the State is put into a position of relying on their Khanid partners, and through them, the Empire, for any short-term defensive needs that might arise in emergencies.
Now, I’m not saying that was at all planned, only that there’s a case to be made, and given the mustache-twirling cliche’d nature of roughly 40% of all national leaders across New Eden, I’m not comfortable ruling it out.
Wait, capsule wreckage can contain salvageable shreds of data ?
The capsules that we all use in our own activities ?
This is a huge data security issue, isn’t it ?
Has this always been the case ?
I thought the damn things scrubbed everything when it detected a breach, as well as firing the brain scanner dingus.
Also, I thought EDENCOM was a plot by King Khanid, not Empress Catiz ?
Why the fudge am I not notified about these things ?
It underscores the importance of not underestimating whoever is sitting on the golden throne. Whether or not said golden throne has been constructively abdicated, the sitter had to 1) be born fortuitously, 2) poison their immediate siblings to make sure the right bottom sat, 3) kack the previous sitter with a Drifter fleet, 4) and be picked for representation by the champion with the best fitting skills.
Rulership is a daunting challenge, and anyone who rises to it must be regarded as the Top Conspirator.
Who could have anticipated that some intern at the Trade Registry would sift through secure archives and happen across the Top Conspirator’s plot? This intern sent a (one hopes secure) transmission to another intern who recorded a summary of the previous intern’s findings. That second intern got blown up, but of all the information contained in their vessel, a hundred or so of the most important words survived sufficiently to be easily decrypted… except for the last few characters of the word that, by itself, determines the meaning of the entire thing.
The Empress was so close to stimulating the collective defense of the Cluster and getting away with it!
Wouldn’t surprise me if the Empire had utilised a poor situation to benefit themselves. But honestly, if it was an Amarr plot, it was a pretty incompetent one. Namely allowing their closes ally to suffer such awful losses.
What I mean by “Heideran is dead” and this extension of it is that times change, policies change, Chiefs change. What was appropriate at one time in certain circumstances does not necessarily apply in another. Ideals someone was seen as holding might not die with them, but sometimes the world changes and the ideals do not work the same way they used to, or they get interpreted against the wrong background, when the historical context no longer is there.
You cannot ask people to follow practices that do not fit the current world just because they once followed them in a world where they did fit, and you are a fool to do so yourself.
Just ‘Arrendis’, please. There are plenty of people with my surname.
I’m not sure that really follows. It might, if there’s reason to believe that more engagement will yield results. Do we have that reason, though? Will greater State engagement lead to a change in EDENCOM leadership? Have we seen any indication that it might happen? Have we ever seen a CONCORD division head sacked because of ‘greater engagement’ from a nation? I can’t think of one.
Ok, so aside from that… is EDENCOM putting down new Gunstars? Is there anything that suggests they’re looking to? Or that they’re looking to revise and overhaul their fleet composition procedures, or integrate their command-and-control to bring all of the various empires’ capabilities to all fronts? Any hint of that at all?
So if there’s nothing to suggest that greater engagement will actually solve the structural issues… why are those issues a reason to engage further?
Don’t get me wrong, I still think remaining engaged with EDENCOM is the right move. I just don’t see why increased engagement is indicated here, especially with the invasion optempo dropping to nothing.
Most institutions are. But there’s a non-zero chance that that’s just my misanthropy talking.
I had no idea that Paladins were so inherently corrupt as to put bribery right in their creed… huh.
You’ll never find the path of wisdom if you close your eyes to facts.
That’s not defeatism. It is working with what you have, not with what you wish you’d have. Future might be better, but it is not, if we keep on denying the constraints reality sets for us today.
Do those install themselves ? I really have no interest in reading software EULAs, they’re like all the hard braining of reading ancient script fragments on archaeological artifacts without any of the fun.
With respect, I think there is an assumption here that engagement with EDENCOM is a good thing in itself. That is, that to be negative is “pessimistic” or represents a “defeat”. I assume this is because EDENCOM is a collaborative effort between the Four, and any institution which brings the four “closer together” is the way of progress. I fundamentally disagree.
EDENCOM was a defense agreement formed to counter a particular threat at a particular time. Insofar as it performed its function (if this intelligence is to be believed, it was quite flawed), it was admirable. But many of us think that a push toward political consolidation between the Four in general is not a good thing at all.
Consolidation is one thing. Cooperation for shared aims is quite another. I believe the difference is governance-- essentially, whether the various individual bodies are subordinated to the central organization or operate independently of it. In theory, CONCORD sits on the right side of this.
Of course, whichever path it takes, there must always and ever be a way to hold institutions to account. However noble CONCORD’s ideals, the potential for abuse without some form of ability to identify and punish transgression is clear. We’ve seen it time and again, whether with Drust or other authority-minded agents of CONCORD.
I see a lot of people in this thread trying to dismiss the OP through various theatrics and condescension, but I think people are missing how this log fragment only serves to reinforce the case against EDENCOM biases, not support it on its own.
It’s a known fact that the Provost Marshal’s allegiances lie with the Empire. It is a fact that the Empire (and Sanctum) have been disproportionally successful in repelling Triglavian invasions, with systems being reinforced even without any hint of Triglavian incursion present. It is a fact that for the vast majority of the conflict, only the Empire benefited from the fruits of this collaborative effort through the deployment of GunStar emplacements (which their navy even adopted independently soon thereafter for the reinforcement of their beachhead in Stain.)
Instead of attacking and dismissing the latest, shakiest piece of ‘evidence’ on the subject, how about we take a look at everything else?
Really, Makoto, you should take the sane option here and go mad. You can drive yourself crazy trying to hold onto sanity in an environment like this. Go mad now, and save your sanity for when and where it matters!
is a) not anything even remotely resembling EDENCOM, and
b) impossible, short of all-out war that leaves one side completely obliterated so the other side can conquer. The various polities are too diametrically opposed. State/Fed, Empire/Republic, and even Empire/Fed are just completely at odds with one another on too many fundamental issues to ever ‘consolidate’ politically. The only realignment that’s even possible (and that, only very remotely) would be State/Republic cooperation, which has been discussed many times on this board.
The only appropriate response to discovering that Valkanir intentionally withheld support for the State is to either have her immediately replaced by someone more impartial and suited for the post or to cut State funding for the entire organization. I have spoken of this before on these forums, but the Corporate Security Forces were exceptionally more effective in combatting the Triglavians than EDENCOM-commanded fleets.
It is often better to assume incompetence before malice, and this latest leak is only one of many that seem to point to malice.
Faith, I find, is a desperate denial of reality, an investment in belief in fairy stories and comforting lies over truth.
No, it came into existence as a result of some people recognizing circumstances for what they were—an unjust violence being perpetrated upon our people generation after generation, attempts to force us to abandon home, hearth, culture, even our language in the name of Amarr self-aggrandizement—and a refusal to allow such circumstances to endure.
You know better. The very fact that your scriptures so often include exhortations to corruption and grift demonstrates that. Look at your ‘Paladin’s Code’, as I said before:
‘I will do X… because it gets me a reward’.
If I need to be rewarded for my virtue, then it is not virtue. It’s just being paid. It becomes pliability, and nothing more than a quid pro quo. Anyone who adheres to the tenets of your faith because they seek paradise is clearly just announcing their desire to be bought off. ‘Please, God, bribe me to do your will!’
Faugh. That’s not virtue. It’s vice, parading itself around and insisting that everyone should proclaim how noble it is to be bought and paid for like a common whore… except the whore, at least, is honest about what they’re doing.
