Neither of these days had impact on Caldari society like 10th June, when Caldari Prime was returned. I am interested not just in memorials, but in HUGE huge huge huge celebrations, events that made Caldari people happy all around. You know… festives.
Alternatively, another “biggest” of Caldari holiday can be the day when Caldari State itself was formed. And we know the exact date of this event - Caldari proclamation of Secession: CE 23154.11.22.
Hey, that’s a coincidence! That’s Traitor’s Day too in the Federation 
Secession Day I’m sure would be a long-standing day, or alternatively a Tovil-Toba Day (possibly March 15th? But might be one of those very political holidays).
While 10th June might initially have been a major day, my suspicion is that the politics of the time, along with Heth’s fall from grace and outlaw status, likely means that celebration of 10th June is quite uneven, not least of which due to the current situation on CP. After all, how enthusiastic would a line Kaalakiota employee be to celebrate 10th June when Tibus Heth nearly bankrupted KK, and Caldari Prime is now 51% administered by Ishukone, and 49% by Material Acquisitions/Quafe/the Federation?
I was thinking some site drops could be Faction-based gear, like Magnetic Field Stabilizers, Tracking Computers, or Damage Control II units. You know, useful stuff like the Guristas Event.
Certainly! FedNav stuff from FIO, CalNav from Templis Dragonaur (stolen or absconded with during Heth’s flight?), and… something form mercenaries/Intaki Bank? If we use the event template I proposed as an example, that is.
“The multi-ethnic and multi-national Federation is New Eden’s leader in absolute diversity, with no group in the majority. This is widely considered one of the Federation’s foremost defining features.”
I think something that’s been overlooked by in-game content thus far is the diversity of the Federation. That’s hard to reflect with common shorthands like the character creator - to give one faction more “races” or “identities” would be preferential treatment, which would be unfair - but it’s something that’s ripe for exploitation when it comes to events like these. If we’re to have a Federation day, we have an opportunity to take a closer look at what and who the Federation is.
Let’s have an Intaki-focused objective, in the flavour of Intaki lore. We can protect an Idama giving a speech at an anti-fac-war rally, because anti-war demonstrations are a powerful tradition in the Federation, both among the Intaki and the ethnic Gallente. Or “sit ins,” except in ships - everyone occupy this area for a certain amount of time to capture it - and make yourself heard by the Intaki Assembly! Perhaps under siege from Rogue Drones or Serpentis! We don’t have enough Rogue Drone content. Or we could take advantage of those mechanics in the high-sec sleeper data sites, which uses area-of-denial effects to encourage people to think carefully about their navigation. Let’s have a Raata Caldari gladiatorial match, remembering that there are and have been Caldari who have participated in the Federation for many years, during and after the Civil War, who have retained their ancestral culture.
The Mannar can hold a vigil for their long-dead homeworld, and why would Templis leave a vigil alone? After all, the Mannar have long been fierce adversaries to the Caldari way of life, and there should be a grudge there. The Mannar are only matched in their enthusiasm for the Federation by their staunch allies the Jin-Mei, who while small, are plucky. We heard in YC118 that Tei-Su’s Sang-Do have entered a ceasefire and are commencing peace talks, which is a bad deal for questionable mercenary groups from all parts of the cluster. So far these have been DUSTer organisations like the Kango Lo Directorate and the Namtar Elite, but we know that many DUSTer merc groups have capsuleer corporate sponsors who would take quite a blow to their pocketbook. There’s a wide range of pirate-leaning organisations who would have an interest in sabotaging those talks.
And why only the founding member identities? Why not the Minmatar, too, considering they’re a solid 30% of the Federation? There’s Minmatar in the Federation who have never been in the Republic, even, who have considered themselves Federal since leaving the Empire. We should meet them and their clans.
Then the ethnic Gallente, who are always ready to agitate against themselves. Whether it’s sociocrat-against-progressor, Essence-against-Solitude, or Garoun-Against-Morthane, the ethnic Gallente are perhaps the identity in the cluster who are best equipped and most willing to rip itself apart for the smallest mistakes. But content in this thread could encourage a different angle - unity. (Would it be possible to rep both sides of a fight until they stop being angry enough to want to fight at all?) Because this gets lost in the noise of New Eden, too…
The Federation is “founded on post-racial and post-national principles” and “Federation leadership envisioned an organization that would act as an interstellar mediator, where all… major nations in New Eden could come together to air grievances and resolve disputes without resorting to violence.” If there’s to be content, it would follow Federal principles and goals to be team-oriented, cooperative, inclusive. Ideally something that could have an appeal to people cross-borders, too, instead of further alienating neighbours and creating artificial lines in content that bars “loyalists” from participating in content that favours another faction. I can imagine State Caldari might find a draw to, perhaps, ceremonial Raata events.
Sure, combat sites are fun - especially if they take a little coordination between friends and rewards cooperation over solo-play - but why not group data sites and relic sites, for example? They could be on a timer, such that everyone in the site has to start and finish their particular node within a certain window of time, or that there could be one challenge node where several capsuleers have to hack it at the same time, to make progress. We could say we’re expanding the FTL network with data sites by installing new software. Remembering, too, that FTL communications are a distinctly Federation technology. Relic sites could be a matter of recovering last words and their belongings from the first Gallente-Caldari War in historical warzones like Sinq Laison, and we could get some cross-factional cooperation. Because if there’s still any remains to be found from either side of that war, why not return them to their respective peoples?
I think, too, this might be a good place to celebrate some of the other benefits of cross-national cooperation? A race could be a good way to draw attention to the Sotiyo-Urbaata Drive, which was one of the cluster-changing innovations of the early Caldari-Gallente partnership. Districts could try to contact caspuleers and petition them for their help with regular incursions. Certainly Solitude has a long and painful history with Nation, and its constellations might be willing to undertake any means necessary to combat them. (Have you ever wanted to see Rogue Drones vs Sansha? I have.)
TD and UDI are nice antagonists, if we are to have fighting. It’s a match made in hell.
Basically what I’m saying is this: I think it would be best if we had a lot of smaller, more niche pieces of content that could fit together well but still be unique in their own ways, rather than one big overarcing topic and theme. That’s what the Federation supposedly hopes to be, after all. Thanks for reading.
Excuse me, but most of person-related days sound just silly. There are minor holidays here and there. Probably the only country that is really deep into personal holidays is… North Korea. Even in USSR holidays like Lenin’s birthday weren’t having large festives. What did people in USSR celebrated most? Revolution day and Victory day (in WWII).
First of all, I am pretty sure that despite the political atmosphere most of Caldari still root for Heth.
Second, take for example real life situation. Who likes Stalin now? What political regime would root for Stalin? And still people celebrate Victory Day. Stalin won WWII. But nobody talks about that. Stalin was demonized even in USSR in 1956 for all his crimes. Even USSR is in the past and people still celebrate victory day - because it’s the people who won this war and there are no families in Russia who weren’t affected by it.
And now back to the lore. Caldari Prime was occupied for two hundred years, Caldari were singing songs that “they will return” - and then there was this operation. Everybody participated in this, every corporation. It was unprecedented for the State, that all Megas forgot their differences and stood together. Bringing Heth into this absolutely makes no sense.
Of course, Heth played “cowboy” and “rode into the fire”, which made him popular in the military (and loved by military character like mine Diana Kim), but again, it’s not important.
It’s the victory for all and every Caldari. It’s the victory of Caldari nation, of every megacorporation. It’s the day where you can expect all Caldari people just walk to the streets with balloons, victory bands and Caldari flags.
I would like to offer my venue for any in-character activities 
I’m thinking I might also set up to host a month long celebration of cultures. It sounds intriguing!
Is it possible to have some new memorabilia and not only skins, fireworks and boosters? Pleaseeeeeeeee
As we discussed, the reason Federation Day is now canon is for a few reasons: specifically because it is a player-run event which has been featured prominently for nearly a decade, AND because there was a gap in our Lore Holiday Calendar (for lack of a better term).
Additionally, as we also discussed, battles and invasions are best commemorated via a landmark of some sort. Not a holiday.
There are plans to celebrate this similarly to Federation Day. At some point, I think we should just publish our current working list of dates (or at least the ones that will show up as a Seasonal Event) but I’ll confirm with @CCP_Delegate_Zero. As long as people realize that it’s an evolving list, more likely to have things dropped from it rather than added to it.
That would be cool.
Yes. That’s what I was asking for originally. However where it comes to SKINs, Fireworks and Apparel, those things need to be requested far in advanced, and this is far to late to request anything different than what we have already coming for Federation Day.
For example, our current requests that we’re putting in are for Crimson Harvest. I’ve already started that request, so any further CH requests are for next year. Secession Day is next up. However, as much as I would like to get feedback and ideas for this kind of stuff, I don’t think this is a good venue for it. I might get some help to set up some SKIN/Apparel request pages at a later date. So write your ideas down on your notepads and I shall see if can get something started.
I collect those items gathered on “special edition commodities” and I just thought on those coins or SoE charity statue objects, maybe some federation’ banners or other propaganda stuff
As regards Heth’s popularity, my guess is this is a debate that could go on forever, as it lacks primary sources, so it’s essentially a matter of opinion. We’ll have to agree to disagree.
On 10th June, I think your analogy is inaccurate. It would be like in, 1961, celebrating Victory Day when the Germans own half of Moscow, and there’s still low-levelfighting in, say, the Lapland-Murmansk area. That’s to say, the victory’s half soured, the half that didn’t sour doesn’t necessarily belong to those who would be keen to celebrate the holiday, and there is continued fighting even if it doesn’t touch major population areas.
However, we digress. Let’s turn back to the matter of Federation Day and events related to it, eh?
Aye Aye!
You should take a look at what @Tressith_Sefira Sefira has written, she is first and foremost the leading expert on Federation Lore the roleplay community currently has to offer and has made some good points that I feel could be integrated into the Agency system if you are looking for ideas.
Even if CCP’s resources are stretched and cannot add in all the requested features at this current time, perhaps it could be done for the next Federation Day that comes about. The playerbase and community at large respond well to the CCP Actor events and always has people interested showing up. Even say five or so news articles containing some of the information we have provided would be welcome for this event.
mantel no
mantel why
Muahaha, etc! 
That said, Tressith, Mantel, I will play devil’s advocate for a bit, then note a couple of points that I think we’d all agree have value. Do hope this doesn’t sound harsh!
My concern at the outset with Tressith’s take on the Federation is that it’s unrelentingly good. While certainly each empire should be the exemplar of its ideals, it should likewise not be without vice. For instance, the ‘post-race’ component ties with potential cultural imperialism, or blindness to when racism is endemic. Exploration of Minmatar experience in the Federation in various news articles, Source, etc, notes that despite being a pluralist, multicultural society, the experience is not uniformly positive for some populations. Likewise, historical examples such as the Cultural Deliverance Society indicate that at various points the Gallente have explicitly attempted to suborn other cultures. One could even say that Federation ideals are Gallente ideals, carefully branded to be non-racial. After all, the Gallente Federation is, well, the Gallente Federation. This isn’t even getting into the security component, and the shadiness that has happened at various points to dissenters. Black bagging and a self-surveiling society is a known thing, after all.
Additionally, my concern is that non-combat sites won’t be as engaging to your average player, and that constructing engaging cooperative content has been such a historical sticking point for CCP that it’s outside the potential for a seasonal event any time soon. Likewise, seasonals seem to be oriented toward casual, short-duration play experiences, which lend themselves to solo content. Nudging friends, getting to the same location, then running coordinated content on comms, etc, is going to be a bit of a barrier to entry to a number of players.
That said, I will agree with this: if we’re doing seasonals with ties to specific empires, it should generally show off the empire in question, in some capacity. We probably shouldn’t overwhelm the good with the grim, even though fault lines and pitfalls are part of the milieu.
Additionally, engaging cooperative PvE content is something that CCP needs to work on, so absolutely CCP needs to give a thought to how to deploy that, and ideally as a part of on-going or recurring events.
Lastly, Tressith, you certainly know more about the Federation than I do, so I’ll have to yield on that front!
We have different understandings of the Federation’s flaws. I think you might be getting the first and second unions confused with the later unions. After the advent of the war, Jen Yiona enacted the widely popular Hueromont reforms, which limited power on the Federal level, increased member-state self-determination via opt-out rights, and created the district level of government. The district level of government separates the Federal level of government from the member-state level entirely; member-states are sovereign entities. The fact that they weren’t in the first and second union was considered a painful oversight that the Caldari paid for the most.
Moreover, the CDS was not a product of the Federation. It was a gross overstepping by ethnic Gallente (corporate) elites, many, many years before the Federation had even entered the realm of discussion. A valid in-universe perspective on the CDS was that these elites did what people with money do. They took advantage of a loophole. In the years prior to the Federation’s formation, there were something like 8 or more different interstellar organisations with murky jurisdiction, much overlap, and many gaps, which was the chaos the CDS used as a cover for their ostensibly philanthropic work. From an out-of-universe perspective, it would be strange to overlook the fact that the Caldari used the CDS to their advantage, and that the CDS ended up having an impact on ethnic Gallente culture, too. It is worth noting, too, that the CDS is, again, considered a mistake by the majority of populations in the modern Federation, and even before the Federation was born, had been considered “somewhat of a negative stigma attached to its reputation.” I would consider it curious to say a pre-Federation, widely-recognised mistake which subsequent legislation has sought to correct is representative of the flaws of the Federation.
Part of the issue with the first and second union was that, again, there was no governmental level of organisation to separate the member-state level of governance and the Federal level of governance, so member-states could have an outsized influence on the Federation. Member-state jurisdiction was even murkier, too, because until the Hueromont reforms, member-states could count colonies as part of their voting population no matter where those colonies were. That meant that the already overpopulated Gallente Prime (and population balances are already such a challenge to any working democracy) had an even more disproportionate punching power. The Hueromont reforms corrected this by limiting colony-control range to constellations.
The thing about cultural imperialism that I’ve noticed people overlook is that it is supposed to go one way, and one way only. It’s supposed to be about erasure and domination. The lore has stated, and I’m willing to provide sources, that whatever ridiculousness the ethnic Gallente does with other ‘identities’ goes both ways. If you read the society or culture of the ethnic Gallente pages, you will see constant references to pieces of culture (poetry, philosophy, fashion, music, ideology) that the ethnic Gallente adopted from elsewhere - even the Caldari. There are legitimate, very compelling critiques of cultural appropriation being used as a tool by culturally imperialist units, but cultural appropriation as is currently studied seems to work via different mechanics than what the ethnic Gallente appear to do, according to the lore we have at the moment. The main concern with cultural appropriation is that element of erasure, that pieces of culture with heavy historical context get lifted up, moved to a new culture without that context and understanding, and then the new culture’s “lighter” version starts to supersede the original culture’s version, until all forget it belonged to the first version.
Also, even in the years preceding the Federation’s formation, the “benefits” of such manoeuvring were not limited to the “dominant” culture, as they are on Earth as we know it today. When the West appropriates traditions from the East, and when they’ve done so in the past, it has been directly at the economic expense of those areas, as it still is. However, the 600~ years of Gallente-Caldari cooperation netted extreme economic gains for both unimaginable from their prior independent perspectives, even if it was from later in-universe perspectives regretfully skewed to favour the former over the latter.
Has there been elements of that in the ethnic Gallente past? Yes, especially in the pre-space-faring past, and I’m certain there’s elements of it still in certain populations, but later lore writes of an ambivalence and a regret for the damage it caused. Certainly Hueromont in particular blames the U-Nats for the events that lead to some spaceship parts creating a new skyline, and it still rails against elites like Mentas Blaque in modern New Eden as if constantly aware of the mistakes that lead to the succession to begin with. (Also ignoring the ‘elite purges’ that followed Jen Yiona’s reforms, which ousted and crippled many elements which did have more culturally imperialist leanings.)
“The brutal flashpoints that had taken place in Luminaire as a result of the Caldari secession created a distrust of interstellar government amongst the ethnic Gallente, something that has never truly dwindled. Large volumes of ethnic Gallente began to migrate from the capital system to settle elsewhere, either forming their own politically autonomous systems as new Federation members, or moving onto completely independent areas of space such as what would become Solitude. Though the union would reform significantly in the early years of the war to become a far less heavy-handed body, the perception of Federal government being a meddling entity would continue indefinitely, even when the capital was moved from Luminaire to Villore.”
“Today, the interests of the ethnic Gallente are not only distributed across the great expanse of the Federation, but also include the wishes and desires of the many other races they live alongside.”
And I’m not sure how productive it is to conflate the ethnic Gallente with the Federation in current New Eden, either. Especially considering the ethnic Gallente’s relative ambivalence towards the Federation in the post-civil-war era. Certainly in the years before the Federation and the first and second union - likely, too, the third and forth - the ethnic Gallente numbered over 50% of the known population (accounting for the fact that the Empire had not been discovered, and the secret Caldari colonies could not gain democratic representation.) It didn’t help that the Caldari have always had an unusually small population, even compared to the Intaki and Mannar who were uplifted much later than them. So bad then, definitely, I would equate the ethnic Gallente with the Federation. But modernly, the ethnic Gallente’s growth has either leveled off or been matched and exceeded by their neighbours in the Federation. They’re only 30-35% now, which could be even less because of peculiarities exclusive to the Federation census, matched by the Minmatar, rivalled by the Intaki, and a fair amount beyond the Mannar. Plus, in the modern Federation which offers opt-out clauses, population is no longer the singular determiner of power. The Jin-Mei are only 5% of the Federation and have far more authoritarian leanings than even the Caldari did at first, but they have an outsized impact on interstellar policy. (Also, in a true culturally imperialist unit, population domination would never be surrendered the way it has now, and it certainly wouldn’t have such a ‘racial’ mobility in governance. The Federal level of government is noted to have a disproportionate amount of Intaki in it, and indeed, the president of the Federation in the time of increasing Gallente-Caldari tension was an Intaki woman. That’s pretty early for that kind of phenomenon to happen.) Or even the continued existence of the cultural Caldari within the Federation, who surely would have been devoured had there been a more predatory ideology at work.
The “Gallente” in the Gallente Federation is an interesting point. “Gallente” as a term of nationality to refer to all citizens is separate from the “ethnic Gallente” who specifically identify with the cultures that originated on Gallente Prime. (I’m sure you know that, I’m just reiterating for the purpose of clarity.) Internally, “Gallente” isn’t used by member populations almost at all, even in ethnic Gallente groups. The fact that all citizens get labelled as Gallente by external entities - not internal - is a bit of a shorthand that was introduced by the Amarr Empire, who didn’t feel a need to discern between the distinct pluralistic groups that reside inside of it. And it’s not a point without contention in the political sphere: “This freedom to self-identity on own’s one terms is constitutionally protected in the Federation, but critics both inside and outside the nation are not so enthusiastic about the idea. To them, the fact that anyone can call themselves Gallente or ethnic Gallente represents a very sinister method of cultural imperialism and assimilation, eradicating the identity of traditional cultures and peoples, simply labelling it with a term that originated from a single planet, and not one that was developed as a consensus between multiple ethnicities (such as Minmatar, for example).” I’d love to see an in-universe debate crop up for alternatives to the “Gallente” identifier, something to represent a consensus of the member-identities of the Federation. (But really, that would take local populations actually caring about the Federation, and they don’t. They don’t even think about the Federal level, if they can help it. So maybe it wouldn’t go far.)
I didn’t mean to go on so long about this. I don’t mean to say that the Federation doesn’t have flaws - though I’m not sure that a celebration event is the right place and time to get into those flaws - because it does. They’re far more insidious than something relatively simple like out-of-universe examples of cultural imperialism and assimilation. It’s a matter of elites and elite manipulation of local populaces, of corporate greed and overreach, and of cultural relativism run amok. I have a semi-in-character piece (warning, in-universe partialism incoming) my character wrote on it, because I realise now I’ve gone on too long on this post. But if we do want to zoom in closer on the issues of the Federation, I think the easiest avenue would be to examine how much latitude Federation Megas like Quafe, Egonics, Scope, Impetus, Fedmart, and more are given. Not just in their borders, but across borders, because the Federation and CONCORD have made it very, very easy. They’re insidious. It’s all very insidious. Or within the suggestions I made before, looking at the individual flaws of each identity. The Intaki’s insistence of seeing both sides of any major issue, for example. Who wants an entire identity whose core defining feature is that they’re a constant devil’s advocate?
(On a second consideration, I think one of the other major flaws of the Federation is an overriding apathy for the Federation. There have already been issues in the past where a blank refusal to engage with the Federation has allowed problems which could have been prevented to happen. That would be easy to embed in my earlier suggestions, if any of my earlier suggestions made sense. I’m not a content expert, and I think every concern you had about the agency missions I suggested were very smart, and definitely beyond what I’m capable of considering.)
So, certainly won’t be able to respond at length, given relatively limited familiarity with the wealth of GalFed info on the wiki! I will say that having a more nuanced portrayal of the factions should probably include negative components. After all, events for the Republic, Empire, and State are likely to highlight what we as westerners might conceive of as negative components, right? There has been an occasional trend for the GalFed to be portrayed as a bit of a Mary Sue in EVE lore, and I think it’s in everyone’s interest to moderate that tendency. EVE doesn’t really have good guys, after all, right? So-- why not highlight some of the potential failings of the faction?
Additionally, I should note that the Sotiyo-Urbaata Drive in old lore is mentioned as being constructed by Caldari engineers (https://community.eveonline.com/backstory/scientific-articles/interstellar-traveling/ paragraph 3, section 4), while jump gates (now called stargates) were explicitly mentioned as being developed by both Caldari and Gallente from fragmentary remains in the system.
In any case, I can only assume that future events for the respective factions would similarly highlight both good and bad, while generally leaning toward the good.
Does this seem fair?
Sure! I think a certain amount of it would be inevitable, anyway. You can hardly talk about the Mannar and Jin-Mei without stumbling on their tireless bloodlust, for example. It’s just so ingrained. I think people take things like that for granted as a fact of the cluster, even though they’re definitely not ok. Which, again, that normalisation thing. It’s ‘just their culture.’ Horrible thing people do in the Federation, accept something as fact because it’s part of a culture and hold it above reproach for that reason.
(I’m not sure Mary Sue means much of anything anymore than “I don’t like it.” It gets tossed around a lot for a number of different things which appear to have little in common.)
I don’t mean to suggest they’re good guys! I don’t think they are, and any kind of celebration of governance is, itself, a questionable endeavour. I think I’ve written quite a bit about the things that make them questionable and insidious. I think it’s just harder for people to recognise what makes the Federation questionable? Especially Americans. Corporate culture, democratic apathy, cultural relativism, and the divide between economic/intellectual elites versus the working class are harder for us as audiences in the modern world to grapple with and work with, since we don’t have the luxury of hindsight to show us their consequence.
The old lore seems to go back and forth on that too, actually ( https://community.eveonline.com/backstory/scientific-articles/faster-than-light-communication/ ) which I’ve found curious. Everything from 2013+ seems definitive that it was joint, but it makes sense from an in-universe perspective for the Federation and the State to have different takes on it. I like that it’s a little ambiguous, even if it wasn’t intended to be.
Not sure that’s ambiguous, though; splitting hairs, but one unambiguously says ‘Caldari engineers built this,’ and the other says that ‘Gallenteans and the Caldari faced the same problems following the creation of the Sotiyo-Urbaata Drive.’ Stargate was likely a joint or shared achievement, FTL comms clearly Gallente, while the warp drive Caldari.
As for the Mary Sue comment, I think it’s more that at least during the TonyG era that the Federation seemed either largely blameless, and infinitely capable. The Minmatar were grrr-angry-and-always-needed-saving, the Amarr were either bloody-handed zealots, just waiting to become atheistic, or hypocrites, and the Caldari were either frothing xenophobes or Ishukone-which-is-as-good-as-the-Federation-almost. Of course, we could get into a lengthy discussion about the changing tone and style of the prime fiction over the years.
In any case, I digress.