Your EVE Online story:
In May of 2004, I was 15 years old and visiting with one my oldest and best friends, Saphon Antaran. His older brother, Kain Aegis, caught wind that I was into cyberpunk â– â– â– â– and MMOs. It was the start of summer, a perfect time to get into a new MMO. I was brought into the Intaki fold and was shortly doing whatever the hell I wanted as a drone pilot in my Vexor.
I had real-life friends in the game already, I brought more in with me at a rapid pace. We never needed to be loyal to a large organization because we brought our own gang everywhere. From fighting pirates to being the pirates forcing a haiku ransom, I had fun with my friends for more than a decade, and friendship was, in fact, the best ship. As we all got older, the game-scape shifted. You couldn’t just undock into low-sec any more with a single tech 1 cruiser and expect to be blessed with the spoils of war, so we took up in wormholes for a few years, specifically C4 space, and I enjoyed that for a very long time.
Eventually, I ended up joining Pandemic Horde with my friends and my partner, who was fairly new to the game. Pandemic Horde helped her and others play out some really interesting gameplay niches, including market PVP and intel as full-time jobs. I loved the onboarding, loved the Newbean Initiative. It was a good place to settle and bring others in. I learned a lot and had a ton of great experiences. If it weren’t for The Invasion, I might still be there.
In 2020, ■■■■GOT WEIRD. Suddenly, I was very interested in smashing EDENCOM for the sake of Proving. Dropping out of Horde, falling under Asheterothi and the collective Kybernauts, I became an Invasion Fleet Commander. Picking up at weird hours to keep the fleets rolling. I kept the imposter syndrome at bay by saying “well if I wasn’t here, the fleet would stand down.” With a few of my real-life friends around me, we attracted more and more loud voices who wanted to do MORE, and we formed Stribog, I was the first Director. Our First moves were a lot of fun, especially taking Nalvula when consensus was that low sec couldn’t become Liminal. Moved out of Stribog pretty quickly due to cultural differences, and then proceeded to play political and strategic grab-ass with friends during the pre-totality structure shenanigans.
Between 2020 and now, I hadn’t been playing as fiercely. I was frustrated with in-game leadership, I was frustrated with my real-life friends who had grown out of the game. If I couldn’t tolerate being led by some ineffective random, and couldn’t gather my friends who were busy starting businesses and raising children, what could I do?
At the end of 2021, I kicked off with Bunzil and made an alliance, AZDAJA CLADE, based solely on unifying the infighting and fractured Kybernaut Clades. I told myself that once the organization was self sustaining, I’d bring my friends in. We did the struggle bus in C4 wormholes again to relight the fires of industry, and nowadays I’ve got a decent sized alliance going on and fruitful cooperative diplomacy with my Pochven Neighbors. Because of some of the other issues I’ve faced before, organization growth has been secondary to curating a lasting and intentional community.
Sometimes we’re not really good at the game at hand, but I love everyone who trusts me with their Eve Experience™ so much. We try to curate an environment that is actively safe for our girls, gays, theys, neurodivergents etc., and it pays off so much in our culture. We’re finally really emerging in Pochven, and our ONLY political loyalties are to other Pochven Residents. We’ve got a cute little icon, and I’m very pleased with our growth so far.
Your areas of expertise. In which areas of the game do you feel you are the most knowledgeable? What qualities set you apart from other candidates?
Triglavian Lore/Investment in Pochven: I fought in the Invasion for the Triangle. I’m very fond of it. I want to see it flourishing and vibrant. This isn’t the Pochven I fought for, though. Capsuleers squander the gift they were given and soil the ancient domains. Working as an intermediary between the most invested Triglavian Groups and CCP, hopefully we can continue the weaving we began.
New Player Retention/Attraction: My beautiful partner, Bunzil Sigrun, was kidnapped and brought into New Eden in 2014, and she is still around. In that time, she developed skills that she’s taken out of New Eden into real life. At the same time, she brings a fresh set of eyes to everything. Surrounding myself with new players instead of spooling up a legion of alts give me a unique insight into the new player experience.
Roleplay: I used to make fun of dedicated character roleplay a lot, but as I’m entering my 20th year, I see the appeal. Unlike ERP in the Silvermoon Inn(sorry not for me), I never really feel the need to break character with my capsuleer. At some point I really became Melicien Tetro and he became me. These days, I lean into it. I pore over every word in The Triglavian lexicon, I try to divine the flow the best I can. I’m very serious about reaching Bujan.
Why are you applying for the CSM?
My primary goal is to bring an invested Pochven candidate to the Council with no null loyalties, somebody who is accessible and engaged with the Triglavian Community. I think a little bit of guided feedback could push the region forward.
What can players expect from you?
Players can expect me to be extremely accessible on any issue relating to Pochven, new player retention, and Triglavian Lore.
Players can expect me to ONLY answer to those loyalties. I don’t want to buy votes, I don’t want any unwanted riders on my platform.
You cannot expect me to care about the diminished ding dang on the entosis folds lowering your indexes. I don’t even know what that is.
Oh yeah you can expect me to advocate for gender affirmation for capsuleers. It’s good for the culture, and it’s the Transhumanist Cyberpunk future I dream of every day.
I was banned from r/EVE after asking where the people who actually like this game go to talk. I’ve been happily playing this game for almost 20 years, you can expect me to love it and champion for it accordingly.
