#1: Do not bring an army. If you bring an army, it’s an invasion, not a rebellion. Invasions are fine, but this guide is not about them.
#2: Work where people are actually in a shape to do ■■■■. Revolts and riots do happen in backwater colonies where everyone is already starving and lacking medical attention and where the majority of people can barely read and few know how to operate a modern weapon - but they are also quickly put out by either force or promises of marginal improvements in material conditions. Actual rebellions need organisation, communications, equipment, and unbroken spirits.
#3: The title of this guide is not “Elsebeth’s Quick Tips to Starting Rebellions”. This is intentional. You cannot actually properly start a rebellion from scratch from the outside - the best you can do is help Resistance that is already there to have theirs. But you are a capsuleer, so you can do quite a bit to incite and encourage. The most unique thing you bring to the table is capsuleer-level free movement and communications in CONCORD controlled space, on public space stations and on friendly structures. Bridging the gauntlet from capsuleer areas to the baseliner world is not always exactly easy or risk-free - again, don’t dream of just landing an army on a high-sec planet or sending that convoy of military-grade equipment down the gravity well via normal customs routes - but it is still roughly a million times easier for you than for someone without CONCORD-guaranteed free movement. Use that.
#4: What to bring. Weapons help, sure. As much or more, though: food, water, shelter, communications equipment, medicine, transport, evacuation capability. Officers and consultants, instructors, people who do not want to lead a rebellion but to help one. Lack of effective communications is the most typical killer of rebellions in the early stage and there capsuleer immunity can be a real game changer. Protection for civilians can remove one major obstacle in the willingness of locals to commit. Also see point #1 - do not bring a foreign army, it’s not an invasion. When mercenaries pro bono and other volunteers inevitably show up, try to point them towards someone local who has a use to them, rather than have them operate individually or directly with you.
#5: Publicity is a weapon ffs, don’t just throw it around wanton, or it’ll explode and ruin everything. Building up a rebellion takes time. Loose lips kill ships. Resistance dies of careless talk. The stairway is silent. This is thankless work with little glory and if you are in it for your public image get the ■■■■ out of the way right now, people are trying to work there. But sometimes it is time to go public, and then you need to time it and you need to use it, and use it fully. Baby Rebellions elsewhere feed on those stories, they grow up in the knowledge that others are fighting too, and once mature are often spiked by hearing of legendary events. The fire might be put out in one place, but it is spread by news and stories, and will flare up again elsewhere, always, until the day the Great Rebellion is finally over.
#6: You won’t be able to control it. Once you fan the fire it will take up a life of its own and it might fizzle or everything might burn to the ground and there’s no predicting which way it will go. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Trust your military advisors, trust your local leaders. Help where you can but let the Rebellion run its own course.
#7: gl hf don’t die & ■■■■ the haters
