Despite being one of the least well-known factions in the game’s story, the Enheduanni play a vital role in EVE’s cryptic lore - and may still be a very important part of the ongoing story.

Appearing only in the short story “Theodicy” and expanded upon in “Templar One”, this group was yet another splinter of the factitious Jove, operating in utter secrecy with the goal of guiding New Eden’s inhabitants toward what they considered the ideal civilization.

I’ll be describing the origins, history, and goals of this elusive faction in full here, with in-depth speculation concerning them and certain newcomers in New Eden as a second part.

Next came the destruction of the Abaddon to which Jamyl’s superweapon was mounted, and the unintended destruction of many caches of Isogen-V, which once again blew open the doors to Anoikis and revealed the existence of the Architects to the modern empires - and capsuleers. As new invaders poured into Anoikis and plundered the Enclaves, the Other (acting through Jamyl) began a new plan of harvesting the Architects themselves in order to create clone soldiers that would fall under its own control - a plan that was stopped in its tracks through the efforts of Marcus Jjor, with the help of a digital recreation of the now-deceased Grious (the same as in Throdicy), now seemingly on the side of the Enheduanni against the Others.

Upon her ritual suicide following the YC105 Succession Trials, Jamyl Sarum was secretly cloned and revived far from Amarr space. During this process, however, an other specifically referred to as “The Other” intercepted and embedded itself within her infomorph - and once revived, this being became a very literal voice in the back of her head, able to take control and drastically influence Jamyl. The Other was responsible for the discovery of precursor tech that was utilized to combat the Elder Fleet, after which Jamyl was made Empress.

At some point in time - presumably following their exodus to Anoikis and the beginning of their perpetual slumber - the fact that the Construct was in fact virtual was lost to the Architects living in their literal paradise, a seeming intentional decision by those in control of their reality. The Others, however, knew the virtual world to be a falsehood, and did all they could to tell those around them of that fact. The Others wanted to escape the world they knew to be false - and one did.

Under the Enheduanni, strict rules were imposed upon the virtual world in order to maintain the Construct. The most important of these were the unbreakable laws that, to be allowed to enter the Construct, you must have been born of the physical world - and that for every soul inside, there must be a body in the outside world to return to. Then came the Others - spontaneous intelligences born into and existing entirely within the Architect Virtual Construct. Whether their appearance was truly random is unknown, but they appeared nevertheless - and began causing significant problems within the Construct.

The Enheduanni, for whatever reason, saw the Minmatar as the most ideal society in terms of being able to achieve the type of civilization they had “achieved”. In the words of the Jove character Grious, the Enheduanni are capable of “non-linear teleportation” - and when asked if they are human, he responds “not anymore”. I’ll be going much further into detail on the implications of this part, among others, in the theory section.

“The Amarrians and their fear, the Amarrians and their addiction, the Amarrians and their ignorance! Eanna was all that remained of the example that humankind desperately needed to evolve, to rid itself of fear once and for all, and to embrace the enlightenment that has preserved us for millennia!”

“The need to be free of fear and uncertainty, child. The Minmatar Elders controlled their fear of the unknown by nurturing patience in their quest for understanding. That quest united an entire people! Their tribes were acting as one, even without the awareness of a single nation to define them. No other race was on a surer path towards achieving what we have than they. But the Amarrians…”

Detailed in the short story Theodicy , the Enheduanni had a direct hand in certain events leading up to the Minmatar Rebellion. Utilizing sleeper agents, they attempted to rescue the Elders of three Minmatar tribes - the Thukker, Starkmanir and Nefantar - who had been among the Minmatar claimed by the Amarr from Eanna.

When the Architects left New Eden, the Enheduanni disappeared as well - but instead of leaving completely, they had retreated to the shadows, undertaking a new mission of secretly guiding the developing races of New Eden. It is unknown how many times the Enheduanni have successfully guided the course of history towards their own goal, but one instance is known for certain: Vak’Atioth.

The Architect Exodus led them to Anoikis, where they established the dormant infrastructure we know today as the Sleeper civilization. It is unknown for how long they were aware of this cluster’s existence, or of the ancient wormhole network that would have led them there, but it is certain that they closed the somewhat literal doors behind them.

No proof of conspiracy or ability to produce a cure ever surfaced - but as the Architects continued to leave Heaven, other Jove pursued them endlessly. Seeing that they would not stop, the Architects took measures to ensure that they could be pursued no further - and the Second Empire, left behind, continued its catastrophic plunge into what Jove of the smallest Third Empire called “The Shrouded Days”.

When the Jove Disease struck, the Architects began an exodus from the Heaven constellation. At this point in time, they concealed their technologies from the outside world entirely and utilized all of their resources to progress their migration. Those on the outside believed that the Architects were capable of finding a cure, given their technological capabilities, but these claims were denied by those in the Construct; this led some to believe that the disease had itself been engineered intentionally, perhaps as a way to force the outsiders to join in the vision of the Enheduanni.

During this time, the Enheduanni had begun efforts to influence Jove society as a whole, gently attempting to guide the race toward their own ideal mode of life. They decided which new technologies produced within the construct to unveil to the outside world, which leaders to support, and sabotaged any interests unaligned with what they believed to be the only correct path for Jove society.

By the time of the Second Empire, the Architects had evolved from an elite subculture into the most influential and advanced caste of Jove society. Their gleanings and technology outstripped anything possessed by those who resided in the world outside of the Architect Virtual Construct by generations - and with the advent of artificial time dilation within the VR, their rate of technological growth became unassailable.

The main role of the Enheduanni was (and remained) to guide the Architects in and out of their virtual reality, guard their safe entry and exit, and uphold the rules of the Construct. Little is known concerning any evolution of their place in Jove society during the first Jove Empire, but what remains clear is that they persisted through the collapse and into the Second Empire, after its founding by Miko Bour.

Filled with cryopods and the necessary supplies to build their colony, the Architects (known to us as the Sleepers) entered a long slumber during their journey from the Gate to Utopia. Residing in a highly rudimentary VR world that can be described as the earliest version of the Sleeper VR, the Architects and their ships were watched over by a small group of Jove who remained awake, caring for the sleeping passengers and successfully guiding the colony vessels to their destination. These few became known as the Enheduanni .

The ancestors of the modern Jove passed through the EVE Gate in massive colony ships, very shortly before the gate’s violent closure. These ancient Jove were in fact one of the most technologically destitute factions aiming to settle in New Eden, with ships fitted with crawlingly primitive warp drives - themselves rendered inoperable due to far more powerful factions’ tight control of their required fuel - and entered with plans to slowly make their way to what is now the Utopia system in Curse.

The Enheduanni have yet to be mentioned in any EVE media since the publication of Templar One - but a newcomer to the endless conflict between EVE’s factions carry a huge amount of evidence that strongly suggests they’re still around. The speculation in this section moves toward the conclusion that the Enheduanni, originally a creation of CCP TonyG in his novella and novels, were reformatted into what’s already proving to be an extremely interesting and far deeper faction: The Triglavian Collective.

IN SHORT:

The Jove have always been connected to Trinary Data

The Triglav require Sleeper Encryption methods for their tech II items The Minmatar Tribes resemble the Triglav Clades: independent, but united as a race

The Enheduanni/Triglav aimed to influence the developing modern races

The Enheduanni saw the Minmatar as the closest to their ideal civilization mode

The Artifacts of the original Elders are the same as the “Drifter” Elements

The Artifacts relayed communication from the Triglav

The Triglav taught the Elders how to produce the Tulraug

The Tulraug is a supernaturally capable and provenly real phenomenon The Tulraug is described identically to the Amarr Serafim

The Serafim were Triglav Tulraug: identical physical appearance

The Serafim granted the Amarr Emperor Artifacts: Ametat and Avetat

The Emperor implored the Serafim to fight Molok alongside him: they declined

The Emperor commanded the Serafim leave, and so they left The Triglav Koschoi “bloodline” will likely look identical to the Tulraug+Serafim

The Koschoi are equivalent to the Tribal Elders among the Subclades

The Astromancer was a Triglav agent, intended to disrupt Abyss research

The Triglav are ethnic Jove, and halted the Disease through Mutaplasmid tech

The “Drifter Hive” Nexus structures were the entrance to the Abyss

The Sites themselves are fortifications, bypassed by the Drifters to enter the Abyss

The Triglav are the Enheduanni, now combating their ancient enemy: the Others

Something big will happen soon, in Semiki

TECHNOLOGY

The Enheduanni were described as having a telltale sign in Theodicy - non-linear teleportation. For a long time, people connected this to possible wormhole tech - but with the appearance of the Abyss, the idea of literally diving out of known space, into subspace, and back out becomes a powerful contender for a much more accurate exposition on this telltale sign. Though we ourselves can only pop in and back out in the same place, it’s absolutely likely and near-certain that the Triglavian Collective could utilize their mastery of their subspace realm in order to travel in complete independence of any occluding factors in k-space.

The concept of Trinary Data has been connected to the Jove since the early days of EVE - trinary data is a staple of the Collective, and was also involved with Veniel, the Ouria Incident, and was found in Lianda Burreau’s destroyed abandoned ship.

Additionally, all tech II Triglavian items require “Sleeper Encryption methods” to invent.

Then, the Minmatar, and the Amarr:

THE TRIBES, THE ELDERS, ARTIFACT, AND TULRAUG

Theodicy is the first part to make a strong link between the Enheduanni and this modern race, with the Enheduanni upholding and considering the Minmatar mode of civilization to hold the most potential to evolve into what they considered the ideal society. The question as to why they held this belief was mostly speculation - until now, with the appearance of the Collective.

The Triglavian Collective is composed of three Clades - Svarog, Veles, and Perun - which are each in turn composed of myriad subclades. Each of these groups operate independently and often hold opposing views - but they all come together in the face of a greater threat, for the good of their race. This way of life is undeniably similar, if not identical, to the Minmatar Tribes - independent from each other, but all an essential piece of the Minmatar as a whole. And things go far deeper - the article for the Minmatar Elders on EVE’s fiction page is a goldmine for the connections made here.

ARTIFACT

In the depths of Minmatar history, the Elders may have had far earlier contact with a far more advanced group. The original Elders of the Minmatar Tribes at some point in time divided an “artifact”, originally discovered at the Crystal Steppe (itself now thought to have been the landing spot of great colony ships in the days of New Eden’s original colonization) among themselves, when the people divided and ventured out at a time of great difficulty.

Whether the artifacts themselves led to the significant differences that have evolved in each tribe has not been established, though it is agreed that the authority imbued within those in possession of these items led to their significant influence over the formation of each respective tribe. What seems clear as the chronicles of each tribe are assembled and studied is that these artifacts were imbued with knowledge and were consulted or meditated on. Each tribe has their own language for what was drawn from the artifacts though this seems to be colored by the persuasion of each particular First Elder that came to possess them. Sebiestor chronicles, for instance, refer to them providing knowledge, Brutor strength and Krusual secrets. Each artifact is also described in a different way in terms of their physical appearance, though they were understood to be extraordinarily complex in design and/or mercurial according to the nature of how they were employed in storytelling.

The artifacts and its pieces are eerily comparable in description to the once-thought Drifter “Elements” found in the hive complexes under their control - a different concept evoked memetically by each separate part of one whole - Barbican, Conflux, etc. - combining to form a “Coalesced Element”.

TULRAUG

All of the Elders of the Minmatar simultaneously began received visions and messages from their artifacts at what would become a significant event in the race’s history, all calling them to the island of Mahj. Traveling to the island, the Tribes arrived in turn and all of the Elders of the Minmatar Tribes came together.

Once the Elders had all come together they were approached by powerful spirits offering great knowledge, in particular the ability to literally walk as a spirit. It was the Elder Sebiess that apparently argued for the other Elders to accept the gift, but she faced strong opposition from Brute, who had until that point been supportive of Stark but now stated that he recognized how “blinded” he had become by his adoration of Sebiess. It was Vheroka that was eventually chosen to consult with these spirits about this gift and she wandered away to be amongst them. In her absence the other Elders squabbled when they weren’t talking to visiting spirits. Eventually they agreed that these entities and the knowledge they were providing was a negative influence, leading to covetousness, materialism and competition. These were dark spirits, evil in intent, that tested and tempted them. The decision was eventually made to leave the archipelago as soon as Vheroka returned. When she did, she was pale and weak, near death, and did not speak. Brute was as enraged as the others were afraid, and he was the one who confronted and refused the spirits, who grew very angry. The island shook with volcanic activity, said to be due to the anger of these terrible dark spirits. … On their return journey, the squabbling intensified, influenced in no small measure by the fact that the artifacts continued to channel communications from the evil spirits. As a result, Brute moved amongst the fleet one night with an armed escort and took all the artifacts from each of the Elders, in some cases under threat of force The most fierce confrontation took place between Brute, Stark and Sebiess, who refused to give up theirs until Brute threatened them both with death. As soon as their artifacts were seized Brute threw them all into the ocean.

The first Great Tribal War unfolded following this - and a time later, when Vheroka was close to death, she meditated alone for seven days before returning to the Elders gathered, and revealed what she had been taught by the “spirits” - the Tulraug.

The Tulraug form, despite its very supernatural-seeming abilities, is a very real and demonstrable form which the Minmatar Elders can produce. They appear as a tall, white-coaked, masked, glowing figure, and can speak with the voice of past Elders. … It is considered extremely offensive to enquire as to the actual science behind the manifestation of the Tulraug, presumably not only because it is the province of the Elders but also to protect the process by which they are generated, which is considered tainted concerning the bad spirits that were involved. … Whilst it’s not understood how it was first achieved, in recent history the Tulraug form is rationalized variably as either a rudimentary form of cloning technology developed by the Elders, illusions that have become more technically sophisticated with the passage of time, hallucinations, hypnotic suggestions or a mix of all these elements. Traditionally, however, it is considered a thoughtform, resulting from the extreme mental and spiritual discipline of the Elder, who wills it into existence. … There have been accounts of Tulraug crossing vast distances of space in seconds, though it is understood that there may only be one such manifestation in the universe at any one time. As of YC116, there has never been an encounter with an Elder’s Tulraug form in wormhole space.

(The lack of any Tulraug encounters in w-space meriting mention is highly suggestive.)

THE AMARR AND THE SERAFIM

In the establishing history of the Amarr Empire, Amash-Akura (the first Emperor of the nation) encountered “heavenly beings” that became known as the Serafim. Clad in white and amber robes, and wearing masks, they descended to the city limits of Dam-Torsad amidst an eclipse, and the Emperor walked out to meet them.

They provided him with two artifacts - Ametat and Avetat, a scepter and a crown. With these, and with the continued presence of the Serafim in the city, the Emperor ceased to age for over a century. When Molok the Deceiver attacked, however, Amash-Akura requested that the Serafim aid him in battle - and when they refused, he cast them out - and they left amidst another eclipse. After the departure of the Serafim, the Emperor immediately began to rapidly age - becoming far more withered and old in a matter of days. Despite this, he went to his war and succeeded against Molok, securing the Amarr Empire.

The first and most major takeaway here is their appearance - far too similar to that of the Tulraug to be dismissed as sheer coincidence. Then, the cessation of aging; though this part is admittedly a stretch, Triglav mutaplasmid tech would absolutely match this process, especially given the bioadaptive suits we’ve all begun using ourselves.

KOSCHOI

One of the “bloodlines” of the Triglavian race takes the name of Koschei, from Slavic myth. This character had hidden his soul away, and could not be killed as a result. The Koschoi of the Triglav seem to serve in leadership positions within the Subclades, and if the above connects, may very well be the equivalent “Elders” of another race. As such, and seeing as they would in all likelihood have been the ones to teach Vheroka the secrets of the Tulraug form, the assertion here would be that the Koschoi appear in the same white-robed, masked form - and the Triglav already wear masks, after all.

THE ASTROMANCER

In January of YC120, CONCORD attempted timebase measurement experiments that were strongly related to their research of the Abyss. However, they were interrupted when a man calling himself “The Astromancer” attacked the research convoy, flanked by associates who all belonged to Altingal Core - a corp dedicated to the study of Rogue Drones. The Astromancer’s smoldering wreckage contained a trinary datastream relic - and when a lone Drifter battleship arrived on the field not long after, it did nothing but observe the experiments as they successfully concluded.

Combining the trinary evidence and Altingal’s study of rogue drones with the current rogue drone-involved digital infection unfolding in Semiki, the Astromancer was likely a Triglavian agent in some way, acting to interrupt research on the Abyss.

This also connects to the Enheduanni in Theodicy, where hidden agents within empire space were utilized to enact their will and influence events toward what they saw as the ideal outcome.

HIVES AND NEXUS

The “Drifter Hive” sites may have in fact been forced into by the Drifters. The Drifter Battleships seen in Hilen Tukoss’s broadcast number in the hundreds, but where did they go? All but one of the Hive Sites’ names are fortifications, echoed by the memetically active elements stored in their respective vaults (not incomparable to the memetic threats posed by Triglavian datastreams). The Nexus gates themselves may in fact have been the original route through which the Enheduanni-Triglavians entered the Abyss and hid themselves away.

THE OTHERS (AGAIN)

With the theory of the Enheduanni having become the Triglavian Collective, what of their abhorred enemy in the Architect VR? Many have speculated that the Drifters are in fact the progression of the Others - now again in conflict with the once-admins of the virtual world. The next post I make will be a full exposition and speculation on the Drifters themselves - stay tuned for that~

SEMIKI

As events unfold in Semiki aboard the Aliastra warehouse station, we’re likely approaching a flashpoint in the Drifter and Triglav storyline - Trinary Datastreams being collected en masse, the appearance of Drifters within a system devoid of a Jove Observatory, the all-but certain connection of the rogue drone-based virus to the Triglav Navka and the Vodya subclade of Veles, and the impending “INVASION” world tour replacing the traditional fanfest this year, keep your eyes and ears open - something big is coming.