[MULTO] Our Last Stand

Fiction Portal Intergalactic Summit
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To my fellow Empyreans and the eyes of the Empire that watch these forums,

These last months have been a trying time. The Order of St. Tetrimon’s fortress monastery on Halturzhan has proven formidable. Many of our planetary and stationside operations have been thwarted, cells uncovered, and weapon caches confiscated. Assisted by the Theology Council, Order of St. Tetrimon agents discovered my family’s most recent hiding place on Tanoo II. There are conflicting rumors that they were executed, transported to Halturzhan for imprisonment, or enslaved and gifted to Lord Ekroz Salaf, but I do not know their fates. The news of the full emancipation of the 1st Mandate Redemptionists has thus brought me little joy.

And now? Our presence in space is besieged. Forces of the Theology Council reinforced the Ammatar Free State Astrahus above the planet of Halturzhan.

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And the Royal Khanid Navy and Theology Council together sent fleets against Khadrea Base in Kahah.

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But the work continues.

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Even now, our remaining operatives prepare themselves for a final mission, to deal with what this last year has taught us: The Amarr Empire is corruption incarnate; its Holders and leaders enjoy a set of laws separate, distinct, and hidden from the commoner and the slave. All of this corruption extends deep into the Ammatar Mandate, wide as it is tall. The Ghosts of Kahah may be on the brink of defeat in space, but our final gasp will be the first clean breath for a people yearning for equality before God.

Our operatives arm themselves with the Theology Council’s weapon of execution, the black dagger. We will take on this holy task of administering justice to the powerful who see themselves above the law. Over the last few months, this thrust of vengeance has walked along the same halls as Holders, administrators, and clergy. We are the servant, the janitor, the displaced, the refugee, the dock worker, the clerk, and the acolyte; the invisible who now close upon you in your complacency and comfort.

May you never know another moment of peace as we commence our holy work. From Fort Kumar to the Ammatar Navy headquarters in Sasta to the Governor’s Palace in Tanoo, we shall be the ghosts to haunt your dreams. You who stood aside during Kahah, you who invited the Order of St. Tetrimon into our midst, you who profit on Red and Silver Hand contracts to slave raids in Floseswin, we come for you.

Lord Consulate Governor Ekroz Salaf, you, an Ammatar, are complicit in all these things. And so we come for you.

We shall mark you all with blades of obsidian and send you to God, equal in your own damnation.

But my dear lords and ladies, you do not have to go into damnation alone. I shall face my judgment head-on in Halturzhan not as an Empyrean but as a mortal. At 19:15 on 12.17.YC121, two days before the anniversary that Empress Catiz, through Khemon Dulsur an-Tetrimon, declared I was “attainted as a heretic” by imperial mandate, I will shed all of my clones and stare God in the face. So bring forth all of your most terrible weapons of war, rally your mightiest fleets, muster your greatest warriors.

I face God’s wrath unafraid.

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Truly you are petty.

The Lord Ardishapur is gracious enough to make an act of mercy at the risk of having it seen as a concession to your demands - one you did not deserve due to your use of violence and heresy, and yet you still cry out for vengeance for acts of cruelty he had nothing to do with. Your people continue to make strides in spite of your pointless rebellion, and so you leave a legacy of terror with your own idiotic death rather than be satsified with the good that is being done.

Go to oblivion.

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Why are you doing this?

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First, because that is when the citadel will be vulnerable to the Theology Council’s fleet. Second, because I am not so cruel as to send members of the Ammatar ruling class into damnation without providing them company.

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I know what it is like to feel the temptation to take the knife to your own veins when all oaths break and all assets burn. It would be an honourable way out, the sure way to your ancestors, a peace at last.

So I do not blame you for wanting to die in that fire.

Still I’d encourage you not to. Seek asylum, start over. You will have it.

When Luck closes a door, Fate opens another.

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If you believe what you are doing is a path to damnation, then you should not be doing it. We should only ever do what is righteous and will earn God’s favor, not His wrath.

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Any who is prepared to face their death head held high is to the honored.

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If nothing else, @Armast_Darkar: That is what Chakaid wants. Deny him the win.

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I appreciate the sentiments, Captain Rhiannon, but I have found few places that welcome the Nefantar. Whether in the Republic or in Matari communities in the Federation, I have found little solace. Our only true home is the Ammatar Mandate, even now as it is occupied by True Amarr holders, the Order of St. Tetrimon and the Theology Council. These institutions must end and I shall offer my life to ignite the flame of revolution.

Does God favor those who cut down Holders, nobility, and imperial magistrates and administrators? I seek a clean slate, free of those who have enjoyed power and privilege at the expense of the slave and the commoner. If I must face damnation to carry out that task, then that is a price worth paying. If wrath is all that God has in store for me, then so be it. I still believe that one day you will become a saint, Samira Kernher, but I shall not join you in those hallowed histories.

What Chakaid wants is to commit crimes and atrocities without punishment, to revel in his bloodlust and debauchery without restraint. In the Khanid Kingdom and the Amarr Empire proper, it is clear he is above the law. Justice can only be meted out by an external party to wrest him from his place of favor, destroy his warclones, and send him to oblivion at the end of an obsidian blade. The Mandate will one day be that arbiter. But for that to happen, the corrupt and complicit ruling class must be removed and replaced by the truly Faithful who are unafraid to carry on the holy work of reform.

Thank you for your kind words, Captain Aloga.

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If what you’re doing is bad, you will face His wrath.

This tells me that with all the things you’ve done, all the lives you’ve risked, and all the damage you’ve caused to the reputation of the Mandate as one of the few visible capsuleers from the region, you don’t even believe what you’ve done is good. Now, you, as a mostly immortal capsuleer, want to force yourself as some sort of martyr?

You infuriate me like no other person ever has.

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Ok, look… I really hate to say this to you again after a year and a half of saying it to you, but…

ur doin it rong.

You want to be a symbol, to go out in a blaze of righteousness and purity, and I get that, man, I do. But you screwed yourself here. And you did it literally the same way you did it in Kahah: you telegraphed the punch.

You wanna make the big gesture, you go ahead and cancel your clone contracts. Make the big splashy announcement about that. But, you know, that has to have a noble reason, a righteous purpose that it serves. ‘I want to live as my brothers and sisters live’ etc etc, ‘not afraid to face God’ blah blah. And then… live. But that doesn’t push the specific agenda you’ve been on. That’d more serve for a ‘capsuleers squander their opportunities’ agenda, or something similar. Maybe denouncing Chakaid as a coward for using warclones to commit massive campaigns of violence with no true danger to his own life, or something. That might work.

But then you live. The gesture there is standing and saying ‘we get one life, I shall live it’, and embracing the same risks as everyone else.

Dying for your cause? You can’t set that up ahead of time. You can’t say ‘look, this thing will happen in X time. I shall die then. It is totally avoidable. I am under no compulsion. Nobody is forcing this. I’m just gonna throw my life away in a gesture.’ It loses all power. It loses all of the visceral potency of ‘Omg, they killed him. Right in front of everyone!’

If you want to do that kind of thing, you can’t do it in a ‘I will let these guys blow me up’ way. You have to make it gut-wrenching. Self-immolation’s not a bad move, PR-wise. It’s excrutiating. It’s horrific. And you can do it on-camera. But it’s not the dying that really gives that gesture its power, it’s the intense, agonizing suffering of it.

‘I got blowed up in an exploding space station’… it just doesn’t have the same weight. Even if it does offer some small rallying point, it’s easy to neuter. The obvious countermove is ‘Armast Darkar’ sightings three or four months later. ‘Looks like he didn’t really cancel his clone contracts, huh?’

You want to ignite the flame of revolution, a pre-planned death with easy counter-propaganda ain’t gonna do it. You know what might? Life. Be constant. Be consistent. Be dauntless. If you are convinced that the Mandate must throw off the yoke of oppression, and you want to be the match that lights that flame… you need to stand up and say ‘I will not stop trying until they make me stop’.

And announcing ahead of time that you’re gonna go and use them for what amounts to suicide-by-cop ain’t that. In fact, it’s just the opposite. It’s an announcement of ‘I have picked a day, time, and location where I will stop fighting for our common good and put this burden entirely on you guys. LOVE ME FOR IT!!!’

The forces you oppose will laugh at you. And they will be right to laugh. Because you will have gutted your own credibility.

Do not do this.

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Stand back, I’m going to quote the Apocryphon:

“For all life is holy, and if a man revels in his own death he is become the Beast, And that man will come before the Beast after death, and stay at his knees forever.”

Do you want to suffer an eternity of torment ?

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I have spent much of my time in prayer over these last few days. There have been many words of encouragement, for which I am deeply appreciative. Yes, the fight must continue.

The Empire is corrupt. Of this, there is no doubt. The only true arbiter for the future of the Faith is God. Therefore, at the time that the Theology Council and Royal Khanid Navy wish to pass judgment on these structures, I will hold to my word. Before God and his decision, I shall be a mortal, for I believe that God is a righteous God and will deliver me from the serpents that have come to infest the Theology Council. He will provide the true faithful with a victory against the forces of the Theology Council and the Royal Khanid Navy, casting down the proud and privileged. With this victory as God’s will made manifest, I shall renew my commitment to his holy mandate to strike down those who continue to profane the intent of his word imparted through the prophets.

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So let me see if I have this right:

Either a) The Amarr and RKN will blow you up, and all your efforts will be for naught because you, yourself have made that result out to be God favoring the Khanid,

or…

b) Someone will show up and kick their asses, demonstrating the power and righteousness of the Amarr God, thereby ensuring absolutely none of the Minmatar groups that might have bailed your ass out will come and be the agents of legitimizing your sociopathic deity.

I’m gonna say it again:

Make the ‘God has judged my cause righteous’ speech after someone pulls your balls out of the fire. Not before. Not when it might make people decide ‘I refuse to be an agent of that god, I’m out.’

You’re gonna die. You’re gonna die, and you’re gonna do immeasurable harm to your cause, because you have absolutely no idea how to not shoot yourself right straight in the dick.

Edit: And if you’d like an idea how not to shoot yourself right straight in the dick, here’s a hint: Stop making public statements until you get a PR team to look them over and work on your messaging.

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Empty martyrdom is a foolish idea, and suicide is a cowardly act.

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There are actually two more options. The first of these two is that the Theology Council and Royal Khanid Navy fail to carry out their attacks, which is a possibility as they are populated by cowards similar to the ones who govern the Blood Raiders. The second of the two is that the Ghosts of Kahah defend the structures successfully with no outside intervention.

We will not ask anyone to fight this battle for us, not even our cousins in the Minmatar Republic. God has presented us with this test and it is up to us to see it through to the end. I am sorry that you believe that the God I believe in to be “sociopathic” instead of attributing the term to those who committed crimes and horrific deeds in his name. However, your opinion I have found to be the majority, which reinforces my thoughts on the plight of the Ammatar and Nefantar.

There is no place for us in this cluster except the Ammatar Mandate. To those in the Republic, we embraced an evil deity and collaborated with the Amarr occupiers, while for those in the Empire, we are still governed by a foreign occupation encouraged by House Ardishapur. Even my brothers and sisters of the faith in the Republic among the Nefantar and Starkmanir Tribes face the challenge of ongoing distrust and suspicion as we hold to our beliefs. I have discovered that this distrust extends to the Minmatar enclaves in the Federation as well.

But I believe our God to be a just God. He will decide who lives and who dies next week. Perhaps my death will be the straw that jolts my Nefantar and Starkmanir brothers and sisters into the apostasy you would prefer.

I agree. Just as I agree that murder is an evil act. But yet I will take up the knife and arm as many as I can to commit murder until the Empire is forced to changed.

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What Arrendis considers ‘telegraphing the punch’ I consider a gross manipulation of empathetic interest akin to bad Gallente reality holoseries.

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The kind with C-list actors and a script that was written in part by a drunken Fedo.

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It’s that, too, but that’s a concern from the perspective of the targets of the manipulation, not from the ‘here’s what you’re doing wrong’ angle. After all, effective PR and messaging is all about manipulating the observer.

Seriously, stop talking. That statement right there? HURTING YOUR CAUSE. Holy crap. If you want people to see what you’re doing as a moral thing don’t go equating it with murder. ‘We’ll find out if God is on the side of rampant mass murder… or a guy who wants rampant mass murder’.

Congratulations! Now you get to explain to your Ammatar brethren why they shouldn’t be rooting for law enforcement to get rid of a guy who’s an aspiring mass murderer!

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A brief report from Kahah.

A Royal Khanid Navy and Theology Council flotilla formed in Kahah, though whether it was a joint task force or two separate commands is impossible to determine as both fleets did not utilize the system’s Local channel. A separate structure—which we have not been able to verify association with resistance efforts in support of the Free Kahah Army—in the system was assaulted by the RKN.

Before the structure would have been destroyed, the Royal Khanid forces disengaged and warped to Khadrea Base but did not engage. The structure administrator held her fire in the face of almost certain annihilation. A stand-off ensued and Khadrea Base, which was reinforced by Royal Khanid Navy forces on 12.5.YC121, was allowed by the Royal Khanid Navy and Theology Council forces to repair.

The structure administrator cited the Yulai Conventions in the Local channel to illustrate the illegality of the Royal Khanid Navy’s actions, though it is unclear if those challenges affected the outcome. What is clear is that no structures have been destroyed in Kahah, though the Royal Khanid Navy maintains a blockade around Khadrea Base.

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