In recent months it has become clear that some of my fellow Amarr have taken an erroneous position in which coordination against the Triglavian threat in the ongoing war to reclaim the Occupied Systems is treated as dereliction of duty, at best, and treason at worst. These positions are designed to vilify Amarr whose duty calls them to the Triglavian front and suggest that no true Amarr loyalist could possibly work with a coalition including those who are enemies of Amarr in other contexts. This divisive position actively undermines the defense of Amarr and attempts to deceive loyalists into abandoning a vital war to defend Amarr from an external threat. The following discussion responds to these misguided criticisms through an examination of the nature of the duty that binds Amarr capsuleers to the many theaters of operation that exist in defense of the Empire, the difference between tactical coordination and subordination, and the question of whether it is acceptable to work with apostates for the greater good of the Amarr Empire.
I. Duty
All Amarr have their place. When we maintain the faith, we all serve as Slaves of God in the Divine order of things. As the scriptures tell us, God bestowed place and purpose on all of creation, and Amarr is the sole place in this broken universe that attempts to maintain that place and purpose. The Emperor serves God. The Heirs, Emperor Family, military orders, and central bureaucracies serve the Emperor. The Holders serve the Heirs and Emperor Family. The Commoners serve their appointed positions, both as vassals and servants of the bureaucracy. The indentured servants serve the Holders and the criminal slaves are kept under control by the Holders. In Amarr, everyone has their place, their specific duty.
This system is separate to the CONCORD independent capsuleer program, which makes no recognition of prior loyalty. Those of us who have remained loyal to the Empire all remember our place and do our individual duty. Where this duty takes us is dependent on our individual place in the order of things. In the case of those who join the Excubitoris Chapter, for example, our duty is direct service to the office of Emperor, and as such we have ended up called to service in a huge variety of contexts over the last 18 years. Service to the Throne and to Amarr serves as the common thread that connects security work in Amarr highsec, Operation Deliverance in Providence, industrial development in Amarr, the Blood Raider War, the escort of Brother Joshua, the CEWPA War, the Sansha War, the Drifter War, the Thebeka Conflict, First and Second Kahah, and now the Triglavian Wars. Other Amarr might very well have a narrower duty, perhaps a dedication to a single house or to a single theater of operations. There is no shame in this, everyone should serve in their own way. But it is vital that the needs of the whole Empire are considered when interacting with other Capsuleers who might have a different duty than one’s own.
II. Tactical Coordination is not Subordination
In the political environment that has been established for the last 123 years, a reality of duty to Amarr is that it will sometimes call for coordination with entities that in normal circumstances are enemies of the Empire. Recently I have seen the claim that temporary fleet coordination structures represent subordination to whomever is leading the fleet. This understanding is simplistic to the point of absurdity and fails to understand how subordination and coordination work. In a subordinated fleet structure, such as the Amarr Navy, there is a stable chain of command that gives authority to those higher in the chain to give direct orders to their subordinates. Usually in such a structure, the subordinates are not allowed to refuse. So, for example, at the Battle of Vak’Atioth there were clear chains of command. The Emperor and Privy Council authorised the war. Grand Admiral Mekioth Sarum ordered the attack. The individual Captains followed their movement orders. The crew of each ship did as they were told by their specific chains of command. When the situation turned to disaster, those few Captains who refused their orders and retreated in the face of the enemy without orders were executed for their insubordination. Such a system is very traditional and in many cases absolutely correct; it was certainly not a failure of discipline or courage that led to the Jovian’s military success! However, such a system of subordination lacks the flexibility that is needed for working within a coalition made up of cultures that do not maintain the sense of duty and hierarchy that characterises Amarr organisation.
In a coordination model of fleet organization, there is not such a clear chain of authority. The roles taken are temporary and the individuals performing them are making requests rather than giving binding orders. So, for example, at the First Battle of Eruka, LUMEN members were coordinating logistics and providing the fleet anchor while a member of EM took on the job of active target calling for the line ships. The whole campaign was designed and coordinated by people from all of the Lux Invicta members. These roles then effectively lapse until the next operation, where there will be a different coordination structure based on who was able to be present for the operation. Subordination structures do not come into this. The members of the Excubitoris Chapter were still subordinated to the Chapter Masters, the Grandmaster of the Order, and then to the Empress. At no point was any Excubitoris Chapter member given an order saying that they should consider anyone outside of that chain of command to be their superior or even that they were required to be present for a Lux Invicta operation. I do not believe that any of the associates of Lux Invicta believe that the coalition has any authority over their members.
While I would, of course, prefer a more traditional command structure that looks more like the Amarr Navy, such a model is impossible in the context of a coalition drawn from loyalists to all four of the CONCORD aligned empires. If our duty demands that we work with other EDENCOM loyal groups, as it certainly does in the case of the Triglavian invasion, then we by necessity must adopt coordination rather than subordination models.
III. Working with Enemies to Fight Greater Enemies
Perhaps the hardest pill to swallow for traditionalist loyalists who still seem to think we are facing the conditions of the Unchallenged Era is the understanding that working with one enemy against another can often be a requirement of our Duty. Regardless of whether we like it, we are no longer dealing with a situation in which Amarr can sweep all enemies before it. The test God has given us is one in which we have to trust the Emperor’s guidance as we chart our course through a fraught political environment in which a wrong step can lead to mutually assured destruction. In this environment, four different Emperors have chosen a path of limited cooperation with the other entities in New Eden, and it is our lot as loyalists to trust their wisdom.
The precedent for working with apostates and other heretics who would be normally enemies of Amarr for the greater good of the Empire was set decisively in YC 37, under orders coming from the Emperor Heideran, of blessed memory. In that year, the Imperial Navy deployed alongside the Minmatar Tribes, the Gallente Federation, the Caldari State, and even the Jovians to destroy the existential threat that was Sansha’s Nation. Despite our many differences, the CONCORD states came together to crush an entity that was a greater threat than they offered to each other. Like the current situation with EDENCOM, the navies drawn from each nation maintained their internal subordination structures despite actively coordinating with each other to destroy the nascent Sansha’s Nation. Now, at the time, in YC 37, the Minmatar Republic’s naval command structure was still drawn from those who had once been Amarr subjects and rebelled. When we deployed against Sansha, we actively worked with apostates who had turned their back on God. The situation today is similar. The Triglavians, with their ability to outright steal systems from the empires, represent an existential threat against Amarr that must be answered, and the development of EDENCOM reflects the official recognition of this reality. If answering that threat means coordinating with those we would normally shoot at in other contexts, so be it. We should never let our individual pride keep us from doing our duty to God and Amarr, for the good of the whole Empire must always come before the individual lives of its inhabitants.
Until such a time as the Triglavians are driven back to the Abyss from whence they came or the Empress in her infinite wisdom chooses to normalize relations with the invaders, those serving on the Triglavian front have a duty to, in the words of the Heir Arim Ardishapur, “put aside petty differences of ideology in order to defend against the inhuman threat of the Triglavian monsters.” This means that we are duty bound to adopt a nuanced policy in which we work with Minmatar and GalFed loyalists in anti-Triglavian operations and against those same loyalists in other contexts, such as the CEWPA warzone. At the same time, it also forces us to treat those who choose to side with the Triglavians in any context as active threats to Amarr interests.
We remain loyal servants of the Throne and of Amarr and will continue to do our duty to the Throne. We will continue to do our part to make sure that Amarr will prevail in this conflict, and in all others, and that the Empire will prosper under the leadership of the glorious Empress Catiz. It is the mark of the Amarr Faithful that we remember our duty and our place. We should aspire to avoid internal discord and accept that not all Amarr will have the same tasks set before them. And we should always remember that the faithful are strongest when they stand together, for there is no strength like it under the heavens.
-Chapter Master Gaven Lok’ri
Excubitoris Chapter of the Sacred Throne Order
Khimi Harar
December 2, 23,359 AD (YC 123)
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