Proposal: Chemosh Corpse Reliquary
Elevator pitch
Give the Chemosh a unique Blood Raider mechanic that converts personally harvested enemy corpses into a temporary combat resource.
A new capital module, the Corpse Reliquary, slowly consumes corpses to empower the Chemosh’s signature systems. Overheating the reliquary increases those bonuses, but accelerates corpse consumption and damages the module.
The result would be a faction dreadnought that does not merely resemble a mobile sacrificial altar. It would actually fight like one.
Core concept
The Chemosh gains a dedicated Corpse Hold that can only contain capsuleer corpses.
Corpses become eligible fuel only when:
- The Chemosh pilot appears on the killmail that created the corpse.
- The corpse is recovered from space.
- The Chemosh pilot personally scoops or tractors it into their ship.
- The corpse has not previously been registered as reliquary fuel.
This makes the mechanic depend on genuine combat activity rather than buying thousands of corpses from the market or repeatedly killing an alt.
New module: Corpse Reliquary
Slot: High slot or dedicated Chemosh utility slot
Hull restriction: Chemosh, potentially other future Blood Raider capitals
Charge type: Validated capsuleer corpses
Function: Converts corpses into temporary Blood Saturation stacks
While active, the reliquary gradually consumes corpses and maintains the Chemosh’s Blood Saturation.
Higher saturation could improve the ship’s defining abilities:
- Energy Nosferatu amount
- Energy neutralizer amount
- Stasis webifier range
- Local armor repair effectiveness
- Capital energy turret capacitor efficiency
The exact bonuses should be tuned conservatively, but the mechanic should strongly reinforce the Chemosh’s identity as a webbing, capacitor-draining capital predator.
Blood Saturation
The reliquary builds or maintains a limited number of saturation stacks.
Example structure:
| Saturation | Effect |
|---|---|
| 0 stacks | No reliquary bonus |
| 1–4 stacks | Minor enhancement |
| 5–9 stacks | Moderate enhancement |
| 10 stacks | Maximum normal enhancement |
Each corpse supplies a limited amount of operating time. As corpses are consumed, the remaining saturation slowly declines.
This makes the corpse supply a tactical resource rather than a permanent unlock.
A pilot must decide whether to:
- preserve corpses for a serious capital escalation
- activate the reliquary during a smaller engagement
- maintain moderate saturation
- burn the entire pantry for a brief period of maximum violence
Overheating: Feast Mode
The Corpse Reliquary can be overheated.
While overheated:
- Blood Saturation bonuses increase
- corpses are consumed substantially faster
- the reliquary takes heat damage
- heat may spread to adjacent high-slot modules
Example balance concept:
| State | Corpse consumption | Bonus strength |
|---|---|---|
| Active | 1 corpse every 3 minutes | Normal |
| Overheated | 1 corpse every 45–60 seconds | Approximately 20–25% stronger |
| Burned out | No bonus generation | Reliquary requires repair |
Overheating should feel powerful but deliberately unsustainable. The pilot is literally feeding previous victims into a furnace to gain a temporary battlefield advantage.
Suggested bonus profile
A fully saturated, non-overheated reliquary might provide something in the neighborhood of:
- +10% Nosferatu and neutralizer amount
- +10% webifier optimal range
- +5% local armor repair amount
- −5% capital energy turret activation cost
Overheated maximum saturation could temporarily increase those effects by roughly 20–25%.
These are illustrative values only. The important design principle is that the reliquary should strengthen the Chemosh’s existing identity rather than simply adding generic damage.
Abuse prevention
The system should prevent easy corpse farming.
Possible safeguards:
- Corpses must originate from a killmail involving the Chemosh pilot.
- The pilot must personally recover the corpse from space.
- Each corpse receives a hidden fuel-validation identifier.
- Self-kills, same-account characters, repeated reciprocal kills, or extremely low-value manufactured losses could be excluded.
- Only corpses created after the feature’s introduction would qualify.
- A corpse can only be consumed once.
CCP could also require the destroyed ship or pod to meet a minimum value threshold, though killmail participation plus personal recovery may already provide enough friction.
Loss and loot interaction
Unused corpses should remain physical cargo.
When the Chemosh dies:
- unconsumed corpses may drop normally
- active Blood Saturation immediately disappears
- the reliquary itself may drop or be destroyed according to standard loot rules
A destroyed Chemosh could therefore leave behind a wreck filled with the remains of its previous victims.
That is not merely loot. It is the ship’s operational history spilling onto the grid.
Visual and audio feedback
The Chemosh should visibly react to Blood Saturation.
Possible effects:
- stronger internal red illumination
- increasingly aggressive energy effects around the hull
- darker or more turbulent engine exhaust
- pulsing Blood Raider glyphs
- an intensified reliquary hum while overheated
- audible warning cues as saturation or corpse reserves decline
At maximum overheated saturation, the ship should look less activated and more fed.
Why this fits EVE
The mechanic would:
- reinforce Blood Raider lore through gameplay
- create a unique faction-capital identity
- reward combat participation and battlefield recovery
- produce meaningful decisions around resource consumption
- create memorable stories, losses, and loot
- give corpses a mechanically relevant purpose without making them ordinary market ammunition
- provide a powerful ability that is limited by preparation, risk, and finite fuel
Most faction capitals are distinguished primarily through stronger bonuses and unusual fitting possibilities. The Corpse Reliquary would give the Chemosh something rarer: a mechanic players would immediately associate with that specific ship.