The Beacons are Lit
August 2 at 1900, a SOTG (State of the Goonion) was held. Anticipation and attendance were high as there has been a great deal of speculation about the intended target of The Imperium. SOTGs are a rare thing for The Imperium and should not be treated lightly. Although The Mittani holds weekly fireside chats, in order to communicate and address concerns of line members, a SOTG is a very different matter.
The Imperium SOTG has already been reported on INN here. You note it states that the final destination was still not known. Somehow, within an organisation of over 29 thousand characters alone in GSF, operational security was maintained with no leaks. Even the supposedly premier intel services offered at a price had no idea what was coming and to where. It was, however, no secret that something was coming.
Suggestions as to the intended target for the might of The Imperium have been numerous. All the usual suspects in the current hot-spots around New Eden were put forward. Pandemic Horde, GotG, CVA, CO2, FCON were all considered quite viable by commentators. In fact, some self-proclaimed experts put forward so many options the only one not seemingly mentioned was hisec. Although they probably discounted hisec as being a possibility as The Imperium has already done a hisec event in the very popular and successful BJ4KIDS campaign earlier this year.
A blast from the past
Almost a year ago to the day The Imperium leader The Mittani made a bold announcement. “Delve is for Goons!” was the cry. The numerous enemies of The Imperium had already invested in infrastructure in the North. Such an investment tends to make an alliance less likely to follow their considered prey. As such The Imperium headed South to rebuild a new home. This time, one that would be built with the lessons of The Casino war well in mind.
Predictions were also made by The Mittani at that time as to what the future of the North would hold. He predicted that the “blue not blue” utopia that had been chanted by the members of the Money Badger Coalition would not come to pass. Instead, PanFam would oust any group that were likely to interfere in their own plans for the North. In a matter of weeks the “truthiness” of The Mittani’s comments became all too apparent.
NC and PH plotted against their former allies Test and the turncoats Co2. NC as ever seemed incapable of getting the job done themselves so had to wait for PL to come and finish the job for them. Test and Co2 were thrown out of Tribute and Vale of the Silent where they sought refuge in the South. They were followed by PL, then NC and then PH. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
FCON have bent the knee, kissed the ring and probably done a few other things in order to secure safety from a more capable entity. FCON have been seeing activity from The Imperium for some time so were not a bad choice. But FCON is also having “fun” of sorts with Co2. Co2 decided that they did not wish to help their valued allies. The reasons for this are not entirely clear given that Co2 is often rather closed in its nature and logic. Perhaps Co2 is still busy with their war against The Imperium which they declared earlier this year. A war that was declared without the involvement of other members of The Legacy coalition.
PH and GotG secured their homelands and made a “blue, not blue” agreement, where seemingly even Rorquals were to be treated as structures. PH even felt safe enough that they decided to declare war on hisec citadel owners and began what can only be described as an extortion racket. “Nice citadel you have there, would be a shame if something were to happen to it”. By all accounts, PH makes a nice income from this endeavour. It would be a shame if something were to happen to this income stream of theirs.
GotG, led by Dorkness, even picked up long time haters of blue donuts and renter alliances with Mordus Angels joining them. MoA have even gone so far to create a renter alliance called Mordus Legion. I wonder who could have inspired them?
NC and PL then pushed ever increasingly the creation of a new rental empire called “Rate My Ticks”. This rental empire is promoted at almost every opportunity by more vocal members of PanFam as being a great way to live in nullsec. Seemingly NC still play a part in the management of the Brothers of Tangra rental alliance as well. The evidence of this was seen last Christmas with a charming mail from Lady Scarlet of NC.
The Culture should also get a mention when it comes to renting as they have been pushing the expansion of their own rental wing. Do remember that The Culture have been quite open with stating that they are as blue to NC as you can get without being actually blue. The numerous times The Culture has bat-phoned PanFam is also very evident.
The empire created by The Imperium in the North was replaced by a larger collection of blues. In essence, PanFam controlled over half of the map and were still able to deploy South to farm in Catch and surrounding areas.
In this brief recap there is still far more to be told. The New Eden Trade Network, for instance, is a story with strong links to PanFam. The Care4Kids debacle also has plenty of ties to PanFam. Even the loss of the CVA held Sotiyo only really affected a player who dedicated themselves to helping new players. There is more besides this, and it will be very interesting to see which entities will flock to the PanFam banner.
More recently
Test Alliance then announced a deployment of their own. They would head North to fight the GotG coalition. This was a somewhat unexpected move on the part of Test which was covered here. It did not take very long though for Test to realise that things were not as claimed in the North. The pets of PanFam were very much still pets and the numbers Test faced proved problematical at times.
It would not be wrong to say that the inner workings of Test are at points complicated. Sapporo Jones has freely admitted that it was Test that went back on the deal which led to the Fountain War. Also that PL and NC played a large part in convincing Test that it was a good idea for them to go against those who had helped Test grow in the Testagram.
The wounds from the Fountain War are seemingly still fresh for some. This is seemingly a little irrational given the beatings that Test has taken from PL ever since. But perhaps this mood within Test has also altered slightly. Only time will tell in how Test decides to set its own narrative.
Even the East of New Eden has seen some changes in standings and structure. Triumvirate have been doing some housekeeping in order to present themselves with more PvP opportunities. This move on Triumvirates part soon saw FCON run into the arms of the DRF for protection. This has potentially upset the plans of Triumvirate who will now have to look elsewhere for the “good fights” they seek. It should be remembered that Triumvirate also have some history of activity in the North. Perhaps their eyes will turn in that direction again.
The Initiative have also been busy with Mercenary Coalition in Syndicate. The Initiative fought very well by all accounts in the region despite being vastly out numbered. After seeing a brief respite in order to regroup The Initiative are back into the fray.
The Gears of War
Sometimes the gears of war turn slowly. The Imperium have a history of having very long wars in which a clear winner and loser is not always apparent. It is most certain that The Imperium were removed from the North by the largest assembly of hostiles ever to be seen in New Eden. But perhaps for The Imperium this was only to be their Dunkirk. The Imperium then returned to their ancestral homelands of Delve in order to rebuild. A task that was set about in all seriousness as has been seen time and time again in the CCP Monthly Economic Reports.
With the sham of the Money Badger Coalition being exposed and the reality evident to all concerned, The Imperium is making their first offensive move. It has been made clear by The Mittani that this is to be a dirty war. What precisely this involves is yet to be discovered. But it can be said for certain that The Imperium learnt an awful lot over the last 18 months.
Special Interest Groups within The Imperium have been quite active since moving to Delve. Many pilots have become quite adept at fighting in remote regions far from their homelands. Doctrines and tactics have been formed to inflict pain on often more numerous defenders. You would not have to look far for the successes of The Imperium, with Initiative being a notable example of this.
The Imperium forces have been on the move as can be seen here and here. No matter how these fake analysts and supposed experts try to spin it, the evidence is clear. The Imperium is on the march and their intent is to burn it all to the ground.
The contents of The Imperium SOTG have already sent some shock waves through Test and other alliances. Disconnected commentators have been eager to try and set their own narrative in a shockingly naive way. Entities that suspect that The Imperium is coming for them scurried about trying to fathom the final destination.
Now is the time to choose
Test have already demonstrated their intentions. The Imperium have also done the same. This is not to even suggest that there is any inclination for an official joining of the two entities. If anything quite the opposite is desired. Eve is a healthier game with many entities making their own stories and for conflict to be present. But the enemy of my enemy is my friend is perfectly valid in this case.
As such it is not expected that Test and The Imperium will be flying alongside each other. The reality is very much more likely to be a shared interest in overall strategic goals. These are likely to be spread over many, often sparsely inhabited, regions of space.
There are still many groups who will have a chance to align with one of the sides involved. But with past deeds to consider, as well as the lack of the infinite dirty money from casinos, who can tell how this will shape up. Perhaps Co2 will even come to help their new friends NC as they did in the South against The Imperium just weeks ago.
There has even been propaganda sighted calling hisec into action as seen here. PanFam has been creating their own trading monopoly for some time in hisec. This may stir those that suffered loss of business and profits into action in one form or another. Even if it is to simply pay less tribute given the more precarious situation that PanFam is finding itself in. This may even be sage advice for the many renters associated to PanFam as well.
It will be interesting to see how long it will be before that sweet and lovable little rogue Elise “YOLO-Swiggity-swoo 420 blaster wizard oh how I wish I was 16 again” Randalph is rolled out to try and appease the masses. Historically he will pop up to say how it is just all about good fights and being space friends. For others, it will be to try and bring up every “crime” ever committed by The Imperium members. All the time skipping over how many of those that were in charge in The Imperium at that point are now in PanFam. After all, it is fine for NC and PL to suck up the dreggs of Eve with a litany of crimes, but should you put on a wizard hat then you are in for a kicking and perpetual guilt.
What is known though is that The Imperium have ensured that they are able to fund this action comfortably. The Mitanni has stated that he only expects this deployment to be for a month and for it to act as a template for future actions.
Normally at this point, I would suggest names for this war. But then I realised that it had already been more than eloquently named. You see despite the claims of others The Casino War never ended for many in The Imperium.
This is all from the perspective of an F1 Monkey though. So I would love to hear your thoughts on all of this. What side will you be on? Who will win the propaganda war? What do you think will be a good outcome to this ongoing saga? Oh I should mention that the final destination has been reached. But I have to leave something for those who seek upvotes or credibility of some sort.