When I say Her Majesty, it is not her. When I say Empress, it is not her. What a miserable time to be alive.
Mad Dash Across the Border
On the early morning of September 27, all of Holy Amarr was preparing for a wondrous spectacle, the ushering in of a new dawn, a new era of joy and prosperity under the new Empress, Her Majesty Catiz I. In the Minmatar Republic, unwashed tribals and heathens were preparing a Tempest Tribal Issue battleship and escorts for an early morning unannounced visit. Artillery cannons were cleaned and boresighted. The magazines were topped off, and rounds placed in the ready trays. With the greatest of secrecy, Sanmatar Maleatu Shakor and Keitan Yun, the architect of the Elder Fleet invasion and the destruction of CONCORD’s Headquarters station in Yulai, boarded the ships for a secret morning dash across the border. It would be wrong to say that they crashed the Amarrian party, since for some reason known only to God they were invited. Presumably the reason is also known to the person that directed the invitation too, but God knows it doesn’t make much sense. Emperor Hirohito sure didn’t pop over to Washington, D.C. for President Roosaevelt’s inauguration, bringing along Prime Minister Tojo.
For over eight years the Holy Amarr Empire and the Minmatar Tribes have been at war, a sort of kind of war laid out in the CONCORD Emergency Militia War Powers Act. We players know this as the Faction Wars and they make no sense what so ever. CCP wanted to have their cake and eat it too with the whole “War is Coming” tagline. A real war would disrupt the game to much and be too complicated, but they had to do something. So, there’s a nice framework set in place by CONCORD where capsuleers can fight over a couple of regions of absolutely no consequence, to kill people over absolutely nothing. Every war in the real world that has been called pointless pales in comparison to the pointlessness of the Faction Wars.
When I deployed to Iraq, we might not have had the best idea of why we were there, but we did understand the gist of it. There were bad guys there; we were supposed to go kill them and provide enough order to let the Iraqis form their own democratic government that would lead to a new era of peace and stability in the Middle East. (Excuse me while I go laugh and cry.) With the Faction Wars, there is no win state. Sure, one side can take the whole warzone and everyone has, but that doesn’t mean a win. It just means that the fighting keeps going with one side having to defend everything. The war continues on with no end in sight.
As the Amarr Empire is technically at war with both the Gallente Federation and the Minmatar Republic, having both heads of state for those nations show up to the coronation is a bit telling; no one at the top cares about the Faction Wars. This is a problem since CCP has already said the New Player Experience is designed to funnel new players into the Faction Warfare system. If the New Player Experience is going to focus on the story the the story needs to make sense. Stalin, Hitler, Hirohito, Churchill, and Roosevelt were not going to galas in Switzerland while World War II was going on. The story matters. It would make a good bit of sense to just end the Faction Wars, but that’s not going to happen. It’s a key feature of the game and a huge part of the gameplay and economy of EVE. Something must be done lore wise. If CCP wants players to go fight in Faction Warfare then they need to do something to heat the situation up. New Eden needs some atrocities. I happily volunteer my character to go drop some warheads down the Matar gravity well.
One can only hope that this arc with Shakor is a springboard to some more animosity. I just pray the Amarr don’t wipe out the Sebiestor Tribe a la the Starkmanir. The Sebbies are the cute ones.
Spared No Expense
Empress Catiz is the first Tash-Murkon Emperor (Emperor being the position itself.) and the third ever Empress of Holy Amarr. So, it’s fair to say that she was overcompensating with her coronation. According to the in-game news reports, the coronation was supposed to be “the most lavish in memory.” This is an interesting turn of phrase, since that usually refers to living memory. For almost everyone in New Eden, excepting a few heretical clones, there’s been two coronations prior: Emperor Doriam II and Empress Jamyl I.
Emperor Doriam was portrayed as a wise, saintly man; so maybe his coronation was not particularly grand or gaudy. It’s hard to tell as there’s not actually any news on the event itself in the archives. What is known is that it was in space, in a secret place open only to Amarr and Ni-Kunni pilots (the Khanid bloodline was not in the game at this point). So, while what happened is known, the details are not. It was in space. There was an attempted coup to put then Lady Sarum on the Throne; she told the plotters to stop and self destructed her pod.
Empress Jamyl’s coronation is also a little light on details. This didn’t take place in-game, but there is a video about it. A portion of the Domain fleet was recalled for her honor guard, like with Empress Catiz. Unlike with Empress Catiz, the Amarr system was shut down completely for the event. Empress Jamyl’s coronation proper was held in St. Kuria the Prophet Cathedral in Amarr. According to the news story, this is also where Emperor Doriam II was coronated, but that might be a slight retcon to the original story. The coronation of Empress Jamyl was described as spectacular.
“I will not hesitate when the test of Faith finds me, for only the strongest conviction will open the gates of paradise. My Faith in you is absolute; my sword is Yours, My God, and Your will guides me now and for all eternity.” – The Scriptures, Prophet Kuria, Paladin’s Creed
Empress Jamyl had near universal support from the Amarr military and the general population of the Empire. Her coronation was legitimizing what the people had already acclaimed. When she came back with her superweapon and saved Amarr, there was no chance she was not going to sit on the Sacred Throne. She had a crown put on her head, named the “Holy Ordained Empress of Creation,” and then gave a rousing speech about how she was the “Harbinger of Hope” and the “Sword of the Righteous.” Everyone lapped it right up. (In all fairness, so did I, just a few years after the fact.)
It should also be noted that Prophet Kuria is noted for being a warrior, so it is likely that is why Empress Jamyl chose St. Kuria the Prophet Cathedral for her coronation. It was a fitting place for the warrior queen. Later on in her reign Empress Jamyl would dodge a bomb plot that was meant to kill her on Saint Kuria’s Day. It’s good to have a little help from a patron saint now and then.
Empress Catiz, on the other hand, is known for being rich. This is not exactly a huge virtue in the Empire. She also had an armed insurrection against her rule. This matters, even though the Purists were crushed by capsuleers gleeful to get low texture white skins that are a pain to keep clean and inappropriate to wear after Labor Day. Empress Catiz had to impress her new subjects with a lavish spectacle. She undoubtedly discerned that a massive display of pomp and ritual and splendor and glory would cement the idea of her as Empress in her subject’s minds. It almost certainly did for the commoners, which is where she needs the support from the most. The holder class will always be a stubborn bunch regardless, but Empress Catiz has the bully pulpit.
No one in Holy Amarr will make the mistake of assuming that Empress Catiz is not fully backed by the Imperial Military establishment. The Imperial Guard is still ashamed of their professional failure to protect Empress Jamyl—the rest of us are, too—and will not hesitate to back and protect Empress Catiz. The Purists have failed completely. They had one chance to stop Empress Catiz from being crowned and that was with a popular uprising. Now that she’s on the throne, there’s almost nothing they can do. The plotline might not even be closed. The people behind it will just burn their white robes, forget any involvement, and slip away back to normal life.
After being crowned the Empress of Holy Amarr, First Apostle of the True Faith, and Sovereign Defender of the Imperial Rite, it was time for Her Majesty Catiz I to go to space to review her honor guard and meet the thousands of capusleers that wanted a glimpse of the new Empress.
All Hail Her Majesty Catiz I, Empress of Holy Amarr
At around 2000 New Eden time, Empress Catiz warped onto the grid with her honor guard in orbit around Amarr Prime. She was in an Avatar-class titan, as per usual. She had a support fleet of capitals with her, including the new Apostle-class fleet auxiliary. Her support ships were in Purity skins, as was her titan. The ship’s name, TES Purity, was a clear message to everyone. Her Majesty Catiz I is True Amarr, regardless of any Udorian ancestry she might have had in her distant, distant past.
However, there is always someone that doesn’t get the memo. In this case it would be “Lord” Lysus, the champion of House Kor-Azor and Holder on Eclipticum. A significant time prior and then all through the Empress’s address, “Lord” Lysus proclaimed loudly and vehemently that the Udorian side of Empress Catiz’s ancestry made her impure and unfit for the throne. Atrocious manners.
This did not go unnoticed. The Grand Master of the Order of St. Tetrimon, Khemon Dulsur an-Tetrimon, several times commanded Lysus to shut up, but Lysus kept going. On the order of the Grand Master, Lysus’s Paladin was set suspect and destroyed by “independent Amarr Loyalists.” In essence this was everyone there, which included a significant fleet lead by Aldrith Shutaq of PIE. After Lysus’s destruction, an-Tetrimon said that the blasphemous actions of “Lord” Lysus would be brought before the Privy Council.
In one short moment, “Lord” Lysus managed to ruin the Amarrian opinion of the Deteis bloodline for a thousand years.
Just a couple of weeks after Lysus’s outburst at the coronation, the Privy Council responded to an-Tetrimon’s petition. The judgement was swift and decisive:
“The sustained public outburst of impiety and prideful defiance of the Imperial will during the inspection of the Imperial Guard by Her Imperial Majesty Empress Catiz I suffices as evidence to convict Lysus on the charges of both blasphemy and heresy. He is therefore stripped of all status within the Holy Amarr Empire. The Holder’s title and fief conferred on him by the noble and lamented Lord Aritcio Kor-Azor is revoked and confiscated, to revert to the Royal House of Kor-Azor.” -Ruling of the Amarr Privy Council
The reason that Lysus got off so lightly with only his title stripped and not executed or sold into slavery was his status as an independent capsuleer. In the minds of the Privy Council, Lysus got off with the proverbial slap on the wrist.
Firstly, one has to recognize Lysus’s devotion to the role to toss away a Paladin at an event like this for some roleplay. He committed to his role.
Secondly, it’s interesting to compare the reactions of two different Empresses when confronted with such blatant disrespect and blasphemy. Empress Jamyl and Empress Catiz have a wildly different idea of power actually is.
In the movie Schindler’s List, there is a scene where Oskar Schindler, played by Liam Neeson, explains to a drunk Hauptsturmführer Amon Goeth, played by Ralph Fiennes, what power actually is. For the uninformed, Goeth was a real bastard of a man, who for fun would go up on a balcony overseeing the Płaszów concentration camp, take his rifle, and randomly shoot the Jews imprisoned there. Schindler explains to Goeth that “power is when we have every justification to kill and we don’t.” There is every reasonable justification to kill someone who has committed a crime. It feels good to punish the wicked, but that’s not power. That is justice. Schindler, in an attempt to save the lives of his workers, tries to explain to Goeth that the real power comes not in taking a life, but in sparing it.
In the Amarr Scriptures there are several mentions of the juxtaposition of the Amarr. They are called to be shepherds in the darkness and Angels of Mercy. The same verse called them to be retribution incarnate and Angels of Vengeance to those that turn against God. Empress Jamyl knew the power she and and her position had, and that a religious—that is to say moral—imperative held that power in check. One of Empress Jamyl’s best lines in CCP’s prime fiction is this: “We need to save them, all of them, from themselves. We need to reclaim their fates and envelop them in ours. And we need to love them, no matter how much it hurts.” She understood when to be an Angel of Mercy and when to be an Angel of Vengeance.
This is also reflected in the chronicle “Chained to the Sky,” which deals with Empress Jamyl’s emancipation decree. “This was Amarr’s preferred way of silencing her enemies. Killing was too crass. It acknowledged too much fear. The real victory didn’t lie in brute extermination (except in cases where required on a large scale for logistical or geographical reasons), but in defeating your picture of things with theirs.” No real empress needs to say that she’s the empress. Nor do the powerful, the truly powerful, fear the words of weak men.
After her coronation, Empress Jamyl also faced some opposition by the holder class. One particular, Lord Kerrigan Orsha, had denounced Empress Jamyl in open court. Rather than having him executed for heresy, which is the standard penalty for that crime, Empress Jamyl showed mercy, letting the man abdicate his titles and retire to a convent to study Scripture. However, she also ordered that he be tattooed with the words of his outbursts, Scripture, and his children.
“There was someone, I forget his name. I did everything I could in difficult circumstances and it wasn’t enough for him,” she said. “He had to take a stand. For some, when they’re desperate, it simply isn’t possible to solve things reasonably. They must have noise and fire to match whatever’s in their heads.”
“So what do you do?” Jetek asked, despite himself.
She fixed him with a steely glance. “You react. Sometimes you have to hurt someone to make them understand how badly they’re hurting themselves. You have to come to the rescue by being the villain, not just for them but for everyone they touch, lest they lose themselves in that same hellish fire.” -From “All These Wayward Children”
For someone secure in their position, an insult from their lessers is not something to react strongly to. Of course, Empress Jamyl had to take action; she cannot simply allow herself, or the position of Emperor to be openly insulted in court. So, by both punishing him in a creative way and by letting him live, she showed her real power. She had every justification to kill and she did not. When Empress Jamyl issued her emancipation decree, freeing all the slaves ninth generation and up, there were several holders in the Aridia region that refused. They became known as the Refusards. Because of their challenge to the Imperial Throne, the Empress sent the fleet after them and crushed those that resisted. The survivors were sold into slavery.
Years later, when the arch-heretic “Lord” Max Singularity, publicly insulted Empress Jamyl, he found himself looking at her in her titan. Again, despite “Lord” Singularity’s blasphemy and insults, she didn’t order his ship destroyed. She knew her power, and she knew his power. The two were not equal in the slightest. Empress Jamyl was secure in her position and showed mercy. Though she is known as a warrior queen, she knew when and where to apply force.
Empress Catiz is not a warrior queen. She’s a merchant princess. For someone not used to applying force—violence—it can be hard to tell when it is appropriate. Empress Catiz doesn’t really understand power; she understands politics. Obviously the insult from a holder, a newly made holder of one of her rivals for Emperor, could not be tolerated. Something had to be done about it. However, Empress Catiz took the direct immediate route. Lysus’s ship was set suspect and blown out of the sky.
Astute observers will note that it was actually Grand Master an-Tetrimon that issued the kill order. Even more astute observers will note that there is no way he would have done that on his own with the Empress right there. In fact, having him issue the order instead of Empress Catiz is a play straight out of Machiavelli’s playbook. Empress Catiz gets all the benefit of having someone challenging her get stomped on and none of the blame for ordering it herself. Politically, she’s extremely skilled.
This is not surprising given her background. While most of the time the Emperor would have come up schooled in the internal politics of their house, Empress Catiz actually left House Tash-Murkon and went off on her own. She’s had to manage a corporation and all the trade deals that go with it without relying on the appeal to authority that she would have had operating under the aegis of House Tash-Murkon.
As Empress Catiz takes the reins of the Amarr Empire, she is likely to continue the emphasis on military might that started under Empress Jamyl. War is good for business. Empress Catiz did back Lord Merimeth Sarum in his calls for a military reclaiming. Although CCP has said they want to see a four way Faction Warfare system with the alliances broken up, but that hardly seems likely to happen if Empress Catiz has her way. Under her rule, she’s likely to try and make sure the Empire’s alliances are strong and that the Empire’s enemies only fear Amarr, not hate it.
The greatest trouble spot for the Empire is actually the Empress herself as she starts to feel her way into her new position and, more importantly, takes steps to ensure that her position is secure.
Die Rote Kapelle
While Empress Catiz was giving her speech to the assembled loyalist, the alliance Rote Kapelle maneuvered two freighters into position alongside TES Purity. Rote Kapelle packed the freighters with as much antimatter rounds as could fit and, just for good measure, six slavers in each around a triggering bomb. Once they were set, they self destructed alongside the Avatar. The explosions did significant damage to TES Purity, requiring it to be in gravdock for eight weeks to be repaired and upchecked for service again as the Empress’s transport.
This didn’t actually play out as well as it could have in space. The event actors had no idea of the plot when it was going on, and thus didn’t react to the explosions as they happened. It wasn’t until Seraphim Risen posted for Rote Kapelle on the Intergalactic Summt—EVE Online’s in-character roleplay forum—that CCP was aware of the scale of what Rote Kapelle had done and incorporated the fallout into the in-game news.
The last time an Empress was in space, the Drifters destroyed her Avatar with contemptuous ease. This time, the Empire’s intelligence arms, or at least threat analysis, must have been confident that the Drifters did not pose a continued threat. The question is: what do they know and are not telling capsuleers? It’s obvious that the Empire doesn’t consider the Drifters a threat to the Empress in Amarr, but why? It’s true that the Throne World’s invasion was beaten back, though only after a long slog of a fight with significant loss of life. Since then, the Drifters have not been conducting offensive operations, but they are still out there. Groups of capsuleers go into hive systems on a regular basis and inflict losses upon the Drifters, but not in any stretch can those losses be considered significant. Thus far, capsuleers have not encountered any of the Drifter’s industrial base. In fact, the names of the Hives point to them being outer defenses: Sentinel, Vidette, Barbican, and Redoubt. The creamy center of the Drifters is still protected by the outer shell. For all anyone knows they could have completely rebuilt their fleet since the attack. Still, the Amarr Empire let the Empress out into space.
One the other hand, the political angle is too much for Catiz to ignore. She has to go out and be seen to be unafraid. Cowering in the Imperial Palace would be bad optics. It makes a lot of sense for her to go out and have the people see her. She has to reassure everyone that things are returning to normal, and that was a key part of her speech.
Her speach was very much a return to normalcy speech. She spoke of the turbulent times of the past decade, with the past two of the Empire’s leaders murdered. Assuming no catastrophes, Empress Catiz should be ruling the Empire for a few centuries at least and it’s hopeful that her reign will provide some needed stability. For the Amarr Empire, with the normal reign of Emperors lasting for centuries, the fifteen year period since Emperor Heideran VII’s death is somewhat akin to the Year of the Four Emperors, where the Roman Empire had four different emperors in 69 AD.
“However, with great military power comes great responsibility. The might and the honor of the Imperial Armed Forces will be restored, and with it we will usher in a new generation of capsuleers to support the Golden Fleet. . . . To support this growth, our administration will work to make the Imperial economy a powerhouse of activity, with new foreign policy and trade legislation that opens up our markets to the cluster like never before.” -Empress Catiz I
The Empress’s speech is everything one would expect from the Merchant Princess. It was focused on the economy of the Empire and hit key words like prosperity and growth. She also mentioned that the “might and the honor of the Imperial Armed Forces will be restored,” which is perplexing as it was not immediately clear that they had lost their honor. The Imperial Navy fought and died bravely against a superior foe. It’s not clear how many Amarr died fighting the Drifters, but unofficial CCP estimates puts it in the high millions. Any Sarumite would know that there is no shame in losing so long as they fought bravely. With regards to the might of the Imperial Fleet: yes, that needs help. A lot of help. Those millions of lives lost against the Drifters translates to hundreds if not thousands of ships. There is going to have to be an expansive rebuilding program in the Empire to restore the Navy to the pre-war size. Empress Catiz is right on the point that the Imperial economy will have to improve to support that much shipbuilding in a short amount of time. Her focus was going to be economic regardless, because that is how she thinks. However, Empress Catiz was careful to cloak her economic initiatives in the bloody cloak of the Navy. She is a skilled politician.
Alpha Clones? Alpha Clones.
“Tens of thousands more capsuleers will graduate from the Imperial Academy to join our already established and prized loyalist forces, in the largest expansion to our pod pilot training program ever conceived.”
If there was one key takeaway from her speech it was this line. The playerbase has known about the upcoming infinite trial/free to play Alpha Clones for a while. This is the first mention of them in-game. So far, though, it’s just a mention. The actual lore behind them will need some more explaining.
It is difficult to become a capsuleer. According to EVE: Source, the requirements are a 98th percentile intelligence, a level of physical fitness a Navy SEAL would find impressive, no physical defects, and genetic perfection. All of that is required to just get into capsuleer school. Once in the school it gets harder. The numbers are not solid, but one single phase of the school has a 10% mortality rate. There’s no data for the overall mortality rate, but it is higher. Implants can be rejected. The prospective pilot can wetgrave. There is also plain old suicide from all the stress. Regardless of the mortality rate, only 5% of those that enter capsuleer school, who passed the rigorous prescreening, make it to graduation.
It’s difficult to make a capsuleer. The entire course takes five years. It’s expensive. The amount of training and hardware that goes into making a capsuleer comes up to quite a sum. If there are suddenly going to be thousands more Alpha Clones running around New Eden, they’re going to need to have come from somewhere. More to the point, if they are going to be coming out in November, then the initiative should have started years ago. So, if Empress Catiz is announcing that there will be thousands of new Imperial capsuleers graduating, then this initiative likely started under Empress Jamyl’s reign.
Even if this is new cloning technology, there’s no way that it was put in place, and capsuleers, even diminished capability Alpha Clones, were created in the few months since Kelon Darklight’s win in the Succession Trials and now. It is also possible that Alpha Clones are not an Amarr led initiative, but something the Society of Conscious Thought, or some other group, came up with. CCP Falcon has said that there will be more in character news about the new Alpha Clones soon; so speculation will wait until then.
Regardless of how the new Alpha Clones come about, the Empire is moving in the direction of making sure that clones know they are loved by God and embraced by Mother Church. The Supreme Sobor of the Theology Council issued an advisory position that clones do have souls and can be in full communion with the Imperial Rite. This clarifies some of the muddled waters that the doctrine of Godflesh, or Sacred Flesh, had made. The Amarr consider royal flesh to be sacred, cloning something sacred would desecrate it. A relic is a relic, but a copy of the relic is just a copy, holding no value. The question for capsuleers was whether this desecration would extend down to the holders and the commoners. More important was the question of whether clones had an actual soul. That question has been answered and should satiate some of the more conservative Amarr who might have otherwise taken to the pod.
Sunset
With the Empress crowned, it was time for one last rite to finalize her ascension to the Sacred Throne of Holy Amarr: Shathol’Syn. Shathol’Syn is the ritualistic suicide of the losing heirs. The original idea came from House Ardishapur back in the Moral Reforms, 1500 years prior to present day. The point is two fold. First, Shathol’Syn ensures that the Emperor—or Empress Catiz in this particular case—will have no equals, no rivals. She sits uncontested on the Sacred Throne to rule as she wishes. Secondly, Shathol’Syn legitimizes her rule. If the five most powerful men in the Empire die publicly to show their support for her ascension, then all of Amarr should accept it as well. While most of the time Shathol’Syn isn’t needed for the last bit, in this case it came through in spades. The unpure charge laid against Empress Catiz just isn’t going to stick anymore.
The other side effect, more on the first point, is that the Empire is entering a new time. There is a new Empress and a new Privy Council. The leadership of the Empire is refreshed. This is beneficial to the Empire under most circumstance given how long those at the top actually live. The older someone gets, the more resistant they are to change, any kind of change, even change most needed. However, with two Emperors dying in rapid succession, Shathol’Syn has eliminated the cream of the Royal Houses. The current Udorian Heir is in her thirties. For the Amarr, that is extremely young.
On the Friday after the Empress’s coronation, it was time for the losing heirs to get their last rites, say their last prayers, and go join Empress Jamyl in Paradise. The news article put out was simplistic, but in its simplicity it showed a great deal of respect for the passing of the heirs. The chronicle, titled ‘Sunset,” fully covered the events of the day and was hit out of the park by the ISD writers: ISDs Archetys Traum, Sheliak Mesarthim, and Starsweaver.
“Sunset” traces the last steps of the heirs before they go to Paradise, with little scenes for all five of them prior to the bloody finale. The framework for the story is based around Lord Uriam Kador, with it being his rehabilitation. It finally gives an explanation for his invasion of Gallente space in the wonderful video that served as a guide to identifying cynosural fields ever since. The chronicle is extremely well written, highly recommended, and much too deep to analyze here. (We would be here for another two thousand words while I talk about Ariticio’s wound and the parallels to Lancelot.)
A New Dawn?
Right now there is someone at CCP, probably Falcon, griping about how my news article on the new Empress talks a whole lot about Empress Jamyl. Sorry, not sorry? Regardless, Amarr has moved into a new era of storytelling. In the past, the lore team had to deal with characters that were not their own. Ex-CCP Tony G screwed the Jamyl character up so horribly that the lore team had to rehabilitate her just so that when they did kill her, her death had impact. They had to pick up the pieces of storyline not their own and put them together. It’s been a hard road. While CCPs Delegate Zero, Falcon, and Affinity have done well, Catiz is their first character they will own. There’s not a lot of lore, not a lot of backstory to constrain them. I expect good things from them.
There’s a lot of room to explore Catiz’s story; to flesh out her character and Amarr with it. She’s the third ever Empress. There have been plenty of Emperors, but only two Empresses before her. We know that the Empire has at least some gender bias to roles, specifically a male bias to leadership. Science fiction is supposed to be a reflection of the present and an exploration into the human condition. I hope that CCP has the courage to write some of that. It’s much too easy for a company to want to play it safe. Though, by exploring some tough concepts and showing Catiz’s mettle, her strength, her reaction to the ever popular catchword adversity, the players can learn about her and fall in love with her. My attachment to Empress Jamyl sure didn’t come from ex-CCP Tony G’s novels; it was news and chronicles that made me love the character. The same can happen with Catiz.
However, the Empire has been in the limelight for a while. CCP is likely to pivot to other empires to set other arcs in motion. While the Empire is not likely to be neglected (hopefully), the focus will be elsewhere while Empress Catiz settles into her new position. Still, the Amarr live in interesting times.