Header art by Major Sniper
Today, our hearts are heavy with sorrow. On December 14, 2023, we lost our dear friend and comrade, Zedz Dead. He leaves behind his wife, capsuleer Bettie Rayge, and their two little sons. Zedz’s passing has created an immeasurable void in the lives of his family, relatives, colleagues, and friends, both in this world, and in New Eden.
Amidst our profound grief and sadness, we find solace in celebrating the life of this wonderful man. Zedz touched numerous lives with his presence. A United States Marine, he served his country with unwavering honor and dedication. In the world of EVE, we knew him first as a member of GSOL and later as one of Ascendance. He dedicated the last five of his six years in ASCEE to its leadership, helping run the HR department and military operations, and guiding the ASCEE high-sec corp. He was a dedicated fan and supporter of Mind1’s streams and a mentor to many newbees, guiding them into becoming integral members of our community.
We will always remember Zedz for his caring personality and ccelebrate him for his generous attitude. No matter how high he rose, he was always there to lend a hand. Whether it was a minor issue or a significant struggle, Zedz provided the necessary care and support. He consistently put others first, always going above and beyond, and managed to make others around him laugh and made sure they had a great time.
We take solace in the knowledge that he is not truly gone but lives on within us. Within the lives he touched, the memories we made together. His love, his wisdom, his compassion, lives on. We can still feel him and we will never forget the man that was Zedz.
You went ahead of us, but when our time comes, we will meet each other again. See you among the stars!
Cyno Vigil Invitation
A Cyno Vigil will be held for Zedz this Sunday, 2023-12-17 0200 EVE time at 1DQ1-A 1st Imperial Palace. Attend if you can to light a cyno or some fireworks.
Eyes forward, capsuleer, the cyno is not yet lit.
Consider your modules, your rigs and ammo before you undock,
for the cyno is not yet lit.
Break free of the station and witness the universe before you,
for the cyno is not yet lit.
Set your ship to fly through the vastness while you wait,
for the cyno is not yet lit.
Pay attention, capsuleer, for those who have gone before you call for you to join them.
The cyno is now lit.
– Dranchela
Memorial fireworks lit by friends on the 1DQ keepstar
Remembering Zedz Through Stories Told by Friends
Dave Archer
[Zedz was] one of the greatest friends I’ve known and had the honor of knowing for the last 6 years in game and IRL spending many a night on PC and in person doing drunken shenanigans such as walking several miles down the Las Vegas strip drunk at 6AM for literally no reason at all, or waking him up at 4AM after locking myself out of our hotel room trying not to wake him and Bettie up.
P.S. He always said cherry was the best flavor of crayon so here’s a box bro.
Aetryn Shade
Our time together might have been short but left a lasting memory.
May you fly boldly into the unknown, clear the coast and build a lighthouse. So when we look upon the stars that we may see your light shine brightly.
Apsalar Coruscan
One of my favorite memories in Eve was the time Mae, Zedz, Bettie, and me did a double-date night in Pochven with Vedmaks,
We were warping around, kicking (absolutely nothing’s) ass, and we finally ran into a gang on a gate. Naturally, we tried to fight the first ishtars that came through, but we quickly became overwhelmed.
Spider-tanking hilarity ensued and we finally decided that discretion is the better part of valour and that we should warp away.
Zedz decided to click on my icon and remote-rep me, but failed to click the correct module and ended up scramming me instead!
“Apsalar, get off grid! I’ll leave once you’re clear!”
“Zed..I’m scrammed!”
“By what?”
“YOU!”
We were laughing our asses off as we both died in gloriously pitiful balls of fire.
As the gracious dude he was, he bought me a new vedmak a few minutes later that was subsequently lost in an “accident” of a similar nature.
Speaking of gracious!
Most of you don’t know this, but through the most roundabout and convoluted way possible (as was the norm) Zedz got Mae into a Rorqual, me into a Hel, and Kain into a Ragnarok – all by leveraging one Avatar.
Ellee Mae
Zedz was my recruiter. One of the guys to teach me null. Many roams, many memories made. My fav and 1st memory was zedd major and 20 others taking caracals to brave space and blapping a nidhogger. Still have the damn drake I looted from that wreck. He was a great man and a close friend. I’m glad I was able to meet him and am proud to call him a brother. Our last meet up in Arburn and having beers is a cherished memory and will always be on my heart.
Bettie, Mini and the boys my thoughts and prayers are with you, I love you guys.
Zedd brother you are Loved and will be missed. I haven’t forgotten I still owe you that beer and plan on having it with you one day.
rhang
Bettie Love you, and you have my deepest condolences, Zed I´ll miss you crazy RIP
Best time with Zed…. him and I semi drunk, maybe even drunk beyond repair… shooting each other at the 1dq keepstar… with 2 titans each…., after a while KS suddenly target us, and we got yelled at to stop!…
We were finishing off with DDs at each other and afterwards we docked and was having a great time on mumble.
Gonna miss you bud….
See you in Valhalla my man.
Triab
Funniest memory is likely the goons trying to lance episode up north, he was out front so got hit by a couple dozen lances taking his rag into structure.
I’ve known him for as long as he was in ascendance. We had great times doing the kickascee special projects, HR & IA among others. Definitely will be missed.
He was always one of the first to check if someone was ok in RL, had a heart the size of Texas.
Insidi Us
Despite having known Zedz for just one month of 2021, he had enough of an impact on me that I was shocked and saddened by the news of his passing and wanted to share a story
In 2021 I’d been out of the game a few years, I’d always get those nostalgic urges to return, but it never took until I started playing with ASCEE and AR
I’d started being somewhat of a mentor/leader in AR, which became my first official introduction to Zedz, he wrote to me saying how noticed and appreciated my efforts were, in a short span of time, this became thousands of messages between us
I found Zedz to be the kind of person that drove you to be your best, he supported, motivated and pushed you to fulfill your potential, without ever asking anything in return
To those of you that recall an AR roam where we found a drifting rorqual halfway across the Galaxy and brought it back to Delve, it was Zedz who assisted with key logistics to make that possible, he didn’t want fame or money, nor anything in return, his only desire was to help others. His level of support and selflessness will no doubt live long in many of our memories
Aristotle Leatherface
Zed was the first Goon I met in real life.
I had been in corp some time when I met him, but had never gone to a meet. I caught up with him back when he lived up towards Seattle. He met Aramis and I at our brother’s 50th birthday since he lived just down the street. We connected over our love for good drinks and good company and our love for this community.
Meet after meet we always had a great connection, and online I had so many awesome interactions with him it’s hard to name any one. He introduced me to recruiting and HR, and showed me the ways of finding more people to grow our tribe.
Brandon was a great friend and I will miss him. I can’t believe any of this.
Arsig Dadunur
Brandon was a huge presence and personality in ASCEE having brought many people into the corp as a recruiter. He was also the guy that would help with friendly advice or selflessly give his time to those that needed it. A proud Marine and devoted father and husband.
When I went to Vegas for the first time I didn’t know many people in ASCEE despite having been in corp for a couple years. Zed was the first person I met when I crashed the lunch party. He went pretty hard the rest of the day for his birthday but we caught up later and he was a great friend ever since. He encouraged me to move up in corp and was my early mentor.
I have countless fond memories of Zed in Vegas, Seattle and home in Texas where all the corp friends hung out drinking on his patio watching Mind1.
We had many late night Discord talks about life, love, Jeeps and music. I’ll miss your presence and voice terribly, until we meet again my friend.
JasFromTornNA
Zedz was one of the kindest people and a true friend. So many of us have memories of going on roams or gate camps with him leading to all sorts of shenanigans, he always made sure everyone had fun and the emptiness he leaves behind is going to be impossible to fill. He would always be there to help anyone out, that’s the kind of guy he was.
My condolences Bettie, my thoughts are with you and the family.
Ayrn Crendraven
Zed and I would often speak about the community we share, and how much It meant to both of us. In this virtual space that we have all carved out together, we would marvel at how many of us learn more about one another playing a space game than many of our friends and family that surround us in everyday life. The connections we make are very much real, and those connections are the reason we continue to race to our computers to spend time with the space family we are a part of. Its the reason we would stay up way to late together, drink way too much together, laugh with each other, cry with each other, share each others burdens and frustrations, and always try to lift up the people around us in a way only Goons could understand when real life was just a little to heavy. While Zed was no exception to this, he was exceptional. At the entry gates to our corporation, no one stood taller or prouder to welcome new members to our ever growing family. I don’t think I will ever be able to articulate what a massive hole that will be felt with Zed’s passing, but then again I don’t think I need to…it’s what we are all feeling now.
Zed, I’m going to miss staying up way too late laughing, joking and being completely inappropriate with you on our “late night comms”. I’m going to miss reminiscing about the many space shenanigans we found ourselves in over the course of our time in eve together. I’m going to miss harassing Dave with you, arguing over the best tasting crayon or which branch was better, Marines or Air Force in a way that only veterans could understand. I’m going to miss seeing who can out drink the other at meet ups or reminding you of who won our last competition. Mostly, I’m going to deeply miss my friend. I don’t have the heart to say goodbye today…I’ll just say see you later brotha.
Bettie’s gofundme
If you want to support Zedz’ family, you can do so via their gofundme. The funds raised through this campaign will be used to cover immediate and essential expenses, including funeral costs, outsanding bills and providing a stable environment for their children.
Additionally, any proceeds on any ASCEE gear purchased in Mind1’s store will go to Bettie and her family to help as well.
