We live in troubled times. Our empire is under attack from without and from within. It is easy in these times to lose faith, to stray from the path, to be lead by doubts into damnation.
In response to the chaos of our times, our Divinely Appointed Empress Catiz I, blessed be her reign, has released a sweeping reform, the Pax e Kilizhi Do, that turns the page on the Era of Heideran. Alongside the repeal of the Heideran Edict banning house navies, this edict revives claims on the Rebel provinces that have long lain dormant, as well as claiming Providence for the Empire.
The response from much of the Amarr capsuleer population has been dismay. This is understandable, Amarr has been working for peace and for reform to avoid conflict with the galactic community for over a century now. It is all most of you have ever known from Amarr. We have been a sleeping giant, non-responsive to even the most egregious attacks upon our sovereignty.
I have been warning you all that this situation would eventually break if we were sufficiently provoked for over a decade. Well, now it has. The empress has spoken and the Empire is waking from its slumber, revitalizing its military capabilities, and reorganizing itself to face all of the many threats that have brought us to this point.
In the face of such a once in a lifetime change, it is understandable that people would cling to what they know. It is also a failure of loyalty and of faith to do so.
Amarr is a society of divinely inspired order. When we are acting with faith and loyalty as a society, each and every person has a place in the structure of the system designed to bring humanity back into unity with the divine.
When Amarr is stricken by the cancers of heresy, this order breaks down. Holders forget their duties and live lives of decadence and excess. Commoners believe that they can second guess their lieges. Slaves think they can pick and choose which holy laws apply to them. And throughout it all, everywhere one looks, they see the signs of Sanist individualism and wanton violence.
But the answer to such a sorry state of affairs is not sedition, mutiny, or apostasy. I see a situation now where many Amarr watch other Amarr flouting the rules, but instead of being watchful and using the other as an exemplar of what not to do, these Amarr think that they are free to also deny proper authority and law. By this process, the plague of free thought grows exponentially and society collapses.
The Throne of Amarr exists as the ultimate authority to counter these breakdowns. The Emperor has the divinely granted right to harness good and punish evil. The Emperorâs ultimate job is to defeat the enemies outside of the Empire and to control the enemies within.
It is in this context that Imperial Edicts like the Pax e Kilizhi Do are so important. They are the rubric for communicating divine will as understood by the Empress to the rest of the Empire. When faced with such a moment of changing Imperial policy, there is only one choice if your faith is true. You obey the edict and you find your new place in society without complaint.
But perhaps, as a result of the edict, things change so that something you had worked for in the past becomes impossible. Or perhaps you see someone promoted who you do not believe deserves the honor. Perhaps itâs one of a million other quibbles.
None of them matter. The only acceptable choice in times of change is accept your place in the order of things and do your duty. The edict will not immediately set things right, the Sanists will still be embedded in the system and it will still be your job to call them out as you see them. But their existence does not create permission for your own dissenting views. Publicly questioning an imperial edict itself, either directly or indirectly by questioning the actions of those acting in clear accordance with the edict, is perilously close to sedition against the Empire, and acting to counter the edict would be treason.
We are only human. Wavering in these tests is understandable, but it is imperative that when the test of faith truly arrives that we stand together and hold fast in our faith and loyalty to Empire, Empress, and God. We must face the enemy as a solid wall, armored in faith, through which the enemy will find no breach. We must surround ourselves with the faithful, we must stand together. We cannot fail, for we have the Empress to lead us and destiny to follow!
May God Bless Amarr and all the Faithful,
Chapter Master Gaven Lokâri
Excubitoris Chapter of the Order of the Sacred Throne
