To all foreigners wanting to understand the Minmatar, happy Liberation Day

Fiction Portal Intergalactic Summit
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If you have found yourself struggling to understand the key nature of the Minmatar or wondering why the Liberation Games, I sincerely suggest you watch this:

A masterpiece in evocative imagery and rising words by Grar’Olro Lightpainters and Sanmatar Maleatu Shakor, it very effectively captures what we are. We pride ourselves on our history of peace, but we are a people of war.

Everybody serves. There are few adults, young or old, who cannot pick up a gun in a pinch. There is no child who does not know who The Enemy is. There is no respectable clan who cannot respond to ‘how will your livelihood serve in a war’. Signs that everybody knows - whether they like them or not - are the bloody hand and the raised fist and the lifted Khumaak. Calls we all recognize and are taught to heed are ‘never again another Long Night’ and ‘we come for our people’.

For us, as a nation, peace is dear, but it is also largely history. It is legend. Where individual clans or worlds find peace, it is temporary, a shelter in a winter storm rather than the sun of spring. For we were burned to ashes by the Days of Darkness and re-forged: in centuries of preparation, in years of Rebellion, and in the decades of Vindication Wars. The one short attempt at peace we have had post-Rebellion almost led to a civil war. A civil war that in the end, eventually, even the most stubborn and hotheaded of us would have to admit we cannot afford.

We can kneel, but only to bide time until it is time to raise the Khumaak. We can run, but only to live to fight another day. We can hide, but only to gather our forces and strike again. We can live in peace, but only as long as the peace serves the one duty as well as or better as open war. And as the Liberation Games remind us, the defense of the Seven Tribes is the duty of us all.

You do not have to like what we are. But this is what we are. Ally or Enemy, Triglavian or human, this is what you have to deal with, when you deal with us. Strike the shield, expect the sword.

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In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Matari Invictus

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In this day of your celebration, a gift from one of our wise:

The light of a candle
Is transferred to another candle—
Spring twilight

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Regular guns don’t work underwater, where most of the wildlife on Krirald lives. We still learned how to use them, though. Just in case we had to.

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What are those words, exactly? What are you proposing?

What cause is that?

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It is what it is. We were a people of peace. Then the Day of Darkness came, and we became a people of war. You still come for our people. You still try to obliterate all that we are.

Whatever may be left once all is said and done will probably not be much… but it’ll be a damn sight more than the utter darkness you would leave if we allowed you to achieve your goals.

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Oh, darling Ms. Cora. Please accept my sincerest wishes for you to well and truly ■■■■ ALL the way off with this classic Amarrian (but ridiculously reductivist) take on Minmatar society. I know it sticks in your Imperial craw; how dare these Matari manage not merely to survive–but thrive–and do so on their own terms? To my own shame, it took hearing the same false criticism about the Triglavian Collective for me to understand just how ignorant it is.

And for everyone else reading Ms. Cora’s arguments, a word of caution from someone who took far too long to learn otherwise: Never attempt to fathom the depths of Amarrian patronization–that’s a hole with no bottom.

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Nicely put, Miss Cora, definitely something to think about, but I think you are missing a little detail.

Matari do not strive to destroy or wipe out Amarr. If they would do such thing, they would do it in a self-defense manner, as a means to make the constant oppression, coming from the enemy, to stop.

As I see it, Minmatar folks just want to be left alone, to take care of their own and exchange goods and works in good will between their allies.

They are forged in combat in the recent hundreds of centuries, and can you blame them - when Amarr keeps coming to them, trying to make their proud people bend the knee to them.

But yes, a nation should not build its structure and mindset with the sole intent to destroy an enemy. As you said, it would leave them with no purpose, whether they win or lose in the end. This applies to other nations conflicts that we see today.

However, in the case of Minmatars, they have a higher goal - to preserve their nation, ensure its well-being. I am sure they haven’t forgotten what they fight for, despite all these years of struggles.

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And this is why I believe the Republic has already lost. A state that requires an external war to avoid civil war is in deep trouble, especially when it is surrounded by neighbors like Amarr and the Federation that are well out of its weight class.

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I believe I answered this in the first post: you - or me - don’t have to like it, but it is what it is.

Maybe one day we will change; maybe a day will come when the Ray’s vision can be fully realized. But that day will likely never come while we are under pressure, when there’s still The War to fight.

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It never will change. If Matar won “The War”–or more accurately if Amarr lost it by self destructive acts–the tribes would start brandishing Kri’tak at the Federation the very next day.

And at every step of the struggle the Tribes will continue to promote those who are good at war over those who are capable of imagining a future without it. Every Ray will be replaced by a Shakor until the movement self destructs.

This is the fate of all violent rebellions against order.

Edit to add: You are entirely right that it is what it is, though. There is no changing the course Tribal culture is on. It will reach its warrior’s end, no matter how anyone works to stop it. The only question is how much will be left to rebuild from when the war machine finally runs out of fuel.

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We have already shown us capable of changing as situation warrants, many times over. Many people believed in The Ray and even our current government shows enough restraint to make the continued defense possible.

We’re a people of war, Gaven Lok’ri; not one of mindless destruction. War takes skill, it takes cunning and strategy and patience and diplomacy, all the quiet virtues, as much as it takes strength or courage or other boisterous ones.

The times were not ready for the Ray in YC102. But I have not lost hope that when the time come, we will adapt to peace, too.

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As Caldari I don’t understand the Minmatar to begin with.
Once liberated they almost instantly started bending the knee to their knew Gallente Masters.
That the Gallente have a history of oppression, somewhat similar to the Amarr goes without saying.

Where as the Amarr conquered by force and subversion.
The Gallente did so by subversion and force.

Our peoples have more in common as you may think. Both fighting for their liberation from their oppressors. Retaking their homeworld and striking back at the Subjugators.

I care little for the Amarr. It is an Alliance out of necessity. However with the Minmatar I can identify.

Perhaps it is time to reshape the Universe…

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Violent rebellions against order. Is this how Amarr sees the Matari when they try to push the boot that the Empire tries to put on their necks? The Republic has its own internal order, that, while not perfect, has worked quite fine for the most part. Why would they accept Empire’s order, especially when it is violently enforced upon them?

Even if Amarr has the best intentions towards Minmatar, trying to teach them the ways of their religion, to tell them about God, the methods for this cannot be oppressive, no matter how much the Empress and the Church think they love all other nations, who are not like them.

And if we look at the “fruits of Empire’s works”, they do not taste well. Even during the Triglavian invasion, where we saw Matari besides Amarr, Gallente besides Caldari, fighting to preserve what we call our home-worlds - even then the Ammar command took oppressive actions in Floseswin and not only (correct me if I am wrong, I am tired, been working a lot, memory not fresh enough at times).

It is sad when our nations unite only in the presence of a greater threat. But in that regard if you think Matari are prone to self-destruction, look at Amarr, they are just as prone to this, if not more. And this only shows that the Empire has more enemies within itself, rather than enemies from the outside.

How much of your religion is blind tradition and how much of it is based on divine interventions and writings? Look for the answers. Look deep.

I remember what Jamyl Sarum did to tone down slavery practices among the Empire and I still have deep respect towards her, may she rest in peace.

And again - a humble word of wisdom: You will know them by the fruit they give. Gotta take a step back, maybe more than one step, and look at the deeds of every large nation in the cluster. And each of them has its dirty crimes, but from all of them Matari are the most sincere and straightforward. They fight the good fight.

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Because for someone faithful to the Amarrian God, there are no different orders, there is only the order. And that is another like it or not, it is what it is, matter.

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Certainly.

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And this is why we cannot have nice things.

The goal of getting people to let go of their own gods and to serve yours is inherently hostile. Even if you never pursue it with anything but words and smiles, your goal is to end us, to stop us from living freely as we are, to have us submit. That goal can never be peaceful. Similarly;

While destroying the Empire (that I said my nation would do if they could) is different from wiping out Amarr (which I did not say was the general goal), it is a goal that we have to have in mind in defense to the above. And even if we did it by gentle means of subversion, it would still inherently involve ending your culture’s key tenets. Such as loyal service to God for all.

Unlike you and yours, I have the courtesy to not dance around the fact that our nations as they are are inherently incompatible. We cannot peacefully co-exist unless one or the other of us will either be changed beyond recognition, submitting to giving away what it considers the basic tenet of human existence.

You can take that as a threat. It is not one, however. If you tell me how to solve this riddle, I am all ears. (Just to be clear: “Just serve my God” is not the solution. It’s been tried. It did not work.)

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It is the outright stated intent and goal of the Empire to eradicate our culture, our beliefs and thus all that we are. There is no misunderstanding here, it is the words and goals of your superiors, your leaders and your scriptures. The Reclaiming does not leave room for anything else.

This is darkness. It is obliteration. It is why there can be no peace.

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Pointing out the obscene levels of hypocrisy you and your LUMEN colleagues display to your own alleged ideals is entirely independent of my critique of those same ideals.

Bad enough that your principles are flawed, but you can’t even be bothered to abide by them.

Pathetic.

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It’s chillingly simple. The Gallente saw an opening to cripple the Amarr, and used it. The same can be said on our part when the Amarr decided to put us last on their Reclaiming list because it is easier for them to deal with the Gallente this way. The fact is, we have a lot in common with the Minmatar, from our history to our missile systems. But it’s the friends we made that we disagree on. Things would probably be very different if both of the larger empires cease to be a threat to our survival.

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