Greetings fellow Empyrean and welcome to your immortality.

If we were to follow the old calendar, the year would currently be 23,354 AD but we have abolished that way of counting time. For us it is now YC 118, a timeframe established at the Yoiul Conference more than a century ago.

While we still aren’t really sure how we all got here, no one besides the Sisters of EVE and possibly the Society of Conscious Thought have put too much concern into it. What we do know is that we are not from here originally. Some time ago, humans came to this area of space and for one reason or another the civilisations collapsed. Eventually space travel was rediscovered, soon followed by the intricacies of other advanced tech as well. It wasn’t long until they came upon planets with other successors of the old human colonies.

the Gallente (…),used their technological edge to unify the people into the Federated Union of Gallente Prime.

The Amarr were the first to reach the stars and saw this as a sign that God had given all other people to them as servants and slaves, born only to serve the True Amarr. Across the Galaxy, the Gallente were discovering several other planets themselves, using their technological edge to unify the people into the Federated Union of Gallente Prime. However, over time the Caldari began to bristle under the control of the foreigners and soon started overshadowing their new allies. Eventually, Gallente Prime renamed the FUoGP to simply “The Gallente Federation” and triggered a series of events that led to the Caldari leaving the Union.

Meanwhile, the Amarr had not been idle. They quickly spread and eventually consumed a group known as the Minmatar. For hundreds of years the Amarr pillaged the Minmatar civilization, some to near eradication including one of their largest tribes, the Starkmanir. The Amarr managed to do this using a grand armada that was feared across the cluster: The Golden Fleet.

With all this commotion in the galaxy a fifth race managed to remain in the shadows. The still mysterious Jove had seemingly advanced beyond anything the others had seen before. Although it was eventually discovered that the Jovian population is a shadow of its former self, their cloaking technology in particular impressed the other races. Around the same time as the Jove made contact with the Gallente, the Federation began secretly supporting the Minmatar rebellion against the Amarr. In return the Amarr saw weakness in the mysterious Jove and attacked using their Golden Fleet.

It was a disaster.

The blow was so crippling to the Amarr that the Minmatar were able to rebel and uplift much of their people out of slavery. They formed what is now known as the Minmatar Republic, but almost a third of the Matari are still slaves to the Amarr to this day.

Eventually, the five Empires fatigued by war and crippled by internal struggles finally came together to achieve peace within the cluster. This monumental occasion was known as the Yoiul Conference, named after the Jove cruiser The Yoiul. This also marked the creation of the CONCORD Assembly, a body to serve as a kind of intermediary between the nations. CONCORD’s symbol is a circle and a five pointed star: One for each of the five great empires.

However, peace was not obtainable and over the next one hundred years the nations have maintained a steady arms and technology race, ultimately resulting in the creation of you and me, Empyreans.

What it does is quickly scan the brain, saving the exact state of every neuron.

The notion is deceptively simple, but terrible complicated in execution. There is a device known as a Transneural Burning Scanner or “burner” for short. What it does is quickly scan the brain, saving the exact state of every neuron. This data can then be uploaded and then inserted into a new clone body that is prepared for you. The problem is, as the name implies, this process is very destructive to the host. Additionally, this technology was originally quite bulky and so it was built into a gift from the Jove: The Hydrostatic Capsule.

The capsule was originally designed to allow pilots to interface with their ship systems by jacking their brain straight into it. While this is tremendously useful, it had the added effect of being the perfect conditions to install the Burners. These two technologies combined is what gives us our immortality.

Within a few short years Empyreans largely stopped being interested in the affairs of the humans. By YC 105, Empyreans had effectively become independent of their sponsoring nations. Entombed in our pods, we became more and more disconnected from their affairs. However, the Empires were obviously not comfortable with the threat we posed and CONCORD stepped in to function as a police and defense of humans from us. In high security space, we are expected to keep our affairs mostly personal and only target those who we have been authorized. However, there are areas of space designated as null security where folks like us have became the law of the land.

Welcome to the Empyrean Age.

The lore of EVE is rich and the story of EVE is compelling, but for many people it remains largely obscured. Most of this is because of simply how much there is, but an even bigger reason is that the lore of EVE isn’t something that happened, it is something that is happening. Like a book series written across nearly a decade and a half over time more events occur, not only adding new stories but revealing clues about the universe we all play in. What is described above isn’t all we know, clearly there is much more going on, but the above description is intended to show how an Empyrean (Capsuleer, what you play as) would view these events.

Frequently asked questions:

How do I get into the lore?

Unfortunately, the old wiki is no more but to be honest it wasn’t well maintained. The team at the Backstage has archived the wiki and still host it as best they can.

However, it is true that the lore can be a bit tough to get into, Hydrostatic has done over fifteen hours of just panels discussing the events of the last two years. However there are some things you can do to get up to speed quickly. Mark 726’s Lore Survival Guide and EVE Source are still the two best ways of getting caught up with the backstory.

Finally, if the chronicles are too much to slog through, the EVE Reader podcast does an amazing job of narrating them for you.

Why should I get into the lore?

Well you really don’t have to, but realize that you take a part in the story, even if you are unaware of it. You can’t not role play in EVE.

Why The Story Matters

EVE Lore and Investment in the Universe

What other quick resources are there to let me know what is going on?

In the Name of the Jove – An Excellent primer on the Jove.

Rise of the Merchant Princess – An in-depth look at the Empress-to-be.

The Story So Far – The “Emergent Threats” story between this and the above cover the events of the last year.

You seem to know about some awesome lore focused videos. Where can I watch more?

Research, Lore and Roleplay with Makoto Priano

Emergent Threats + bonus playlist of SCOPE Videos (Fun fact: they used audio from the Hydrostatic Lore Panels to compile most of the audio for the trailer)

CDIA Files: Sansha Incursions

Prophecy

Rubicon Trailer

Cinematic Trailer 2012 (Dust intro video)

Empyrean Age Teaser 1 & Empyrean Age Teaser 2

Empress Jamyl I Coronation

Quantum Rise Trailer

Old Storyline Intro

EVE Online VR – The Ships and Factions of New Eden

Feel free to link additional resources in the comments below.

Welcome to your immortality.