Wherever one starts their journey into the oceans-wide lore of EVE, they will inevitably encounter the Jove. While all player characters in EVE hail from the bloodlines of the four main Empires, the Jove are the fifth extant race - with an ancestry that punctuates the entirety of New Eden’s history.

Seeing the word “Jove”, you may think of the Directorate regions in the northeast, or of the Drifters; these are in fact only small facets of the full story of the race. This compilation will detail the full history of Jove race, from their original ancestors’ entry into New Eden to the murky fates of the race’s remaining branches.

THE LORE OF THE JOVE

OVERVIEW

The Jove, characterized by their esoteric history and a seemingly ubiquitous inclination toward extreme transhumanist ideologies, are widely regarded as the most enigmatic of New Eden’s peoples.

The race comprises numerous factions spanning the history of New Eden, each with their own perspectives and ambitions - the proponents of which pursue their goals with a focused, relentless determination that contrasts with the stoic disposition generally attributed to the Jove.

Three separate Jove empires have risen and fallen over the course of human history in New Eden. The First spanned an eight-thousand year golden age; the Second persisted for close to two-thousand years before collapsing far more completely than the First had; and the Third, a mere shadow of the previous eras, took up the role of the wiser elder sibling to the modern empires as they developed in the core regions.

The collapse of the Second Empire was catalyzed by the sudden appearance of the “Jove Disease”, a genetic malady that has become the inevitable and fatal destiny of all Jove among those remaining in New Eden.

However, at least two distinct and independent factions splintered off during the Second Empire era, establishing themselves in locations far beyond the limits of the cluster; these polities have resurfaced in recent years, ruthlessly pursuing their own ends and raising immeasurable concern for the future.

The Third Empire was responsible for the gift of the Hydrostatic Capsule to the empires, and took significant steps to spur on the era of the Capsuleer. Though the Third Empire has since faded, the echoes of its actions - and of those who have inherited their legacy - continue to shape the world of EVE, even as their ancestral cousins emerge from the shroud of history…

ORIGINS

8061 AD

From the waters we rose, to gaze on the stars;

Seeking over the water, we joined under the stars;

Waking with water, we sped to the stars;

The water warps over us, crossing ‘tween stars. – From The Dom’Ruystni Cycle

The original ancestors of the Jove entered New Eden just prior to the loss of the EVE Gate in 8061 AD, aboard seven colony ships carrying the necessary supplies for the colonists to establish themselves in their new home. In stark contrast to the modern impression of the Jove, this group was among the most technologically destitute of the factions to enter New Eden in their era.

Following their severance from the old world, the myriad colonists - equipped with inefficient, fuel-driven warp drives far inferior to any used in the modern day - began an arduous migration into deep space.

During this journey, the vast majority of the population entered cryostasis, linked with a bare, rudimentary virtual world in which they might limitedly interact - but not thrive. The minuscule few who did not enter stasis instead were tasked with the migration of the colony vessels and their inhabitants to their destination; and after an arduous, years-long journey wrought with hard decisions, every vessel arrived safely in what is now the Utopia system.

FOUNDATION

Upon reaching Utopia, these precursors began to establish themselves in the depths of the lost paradise they had become trapped in. The early Jove colonies were only loosely cohesive, as the original settlers carried with them a vast range of philosophical, social, and scientific perspectives; a mutual desire to survive and thrive motivated occasional cooperation.

More radical enclaves developed among them, with extreme focuses on genetic engineering, cybernetics, and physiological conditioning for the purpose of exploring transhumanist sociopolitical theories. The desire within the Jove to accelerate human development first presented during this era; even in these early years, the seeds of the modern Jove had begun to take root.

However, increasing differential friction led to conflict.

And conflict progressed into open warfare across Heaven.

In contrast with their stoic reputation, an implacable and driven ruthlessness has always been a core trait of the Jove race in every era. The foundational days were no exception; conflict was brutal, and unknowable advances were reversed or lost amidst the infighting. At the same time, notable numbers of Jove took to cryostasis once again in efforts to avoid the conflict; this would remain a major aspect of Jove culture for millennia to come.

HEAVEN : The First Jove Empire

~12 000 - ~20 000 AD

If Knowledge is Power;

And Power is Control;

Then to Know is to Control. – Jovian proverb

Sometime between mid-11,000 and mid-13,000 AD, the by-then sprawlingly diverse and specialized enclaves descending from the original colonists began to put aside their differences, begrudgingly conceding that the best way to progress in knowledge and capability would be to cooperate, sharing their accumulated knowledge. Coming together in the core of the Heaven constellation, the enclaves of the Jove coalesced to form the First Jove Empire, the golden age of the Jove.

A functioning society for 8000 years, the First was the longest-lived of all the Jove empires - as well as the most cohesive, productive, and peaceful of the three by far.

The convergence of enclaves and the overarching authority of peoples’ councils contributed largely to the continuous stability of the empire, despite the inherent factionalism of the Jove; while various distinct internal sociopolitical factions developed over time, each naturally moved into their own important roles in advancing the wisdom of the empire as a whole.

The political organization of the First Empire facilitated the birth of an uninhibited environment of scientific freedom, allowing the population to pursue knowledge as they saw fit; this provided a necessary release for the naturally fervent nature of the Jove, allowing them to pour their determination and passion into works that benefited them and their race as a whole. The Jove value knowledge above all else; across their long and broken past, this has remained an invariable constant.

Among the ruling parties of the First Empire, the vast majority desired knowledge extending the reach of man into the future; the furthering of technologies surrounding cryogenics, virtual reality, cloning, and the lengthening and perfection of bodily human life were of paramount focus. As a result, these fields underwent bounds and leaps in development - outstripping most other areas - over the course of the empire’s life.

One of these many enclaves intimately integrated virtual reality and cryogenics in their facet of society, in parallel to ongoing genetic engineering. This branch of the Jove lived long lives in perpetual cryogenic slumber, developing a shared virtuality in which the conscious infomorphs of the inhabitants could mingle and conduct research. Watching over the sleeping were the descendants of those who originally guided the earliest Jove to Heaven - now acting as the mediators between the virtual and real worlds - who became known as the Enheduanni.

The First Empire was not to last, however.

Collapse:

Near the end of the First Empire, a particularly conservative faction known as the “Elders” came into power in Heaven. This group made the judgement that the Jove had advanced as far as was necessary in terms of science and knowledge, and moved to stem the further unlimited growth of the Jove, with the intent of permanent stability.

This had the opposite effect, in reality; the unmitigated research environment the First Empire had originally fostered acted as a metaphorical pressure-release for the ambitions of the ruthless and factitious Jove. The founders of the Empire understood this and founded the Empire around that concept, but the Elders rejected this in their attempt to permanently plateau the Jove.

As a result, conflict began between various enclaves and the collapse of the 8000-year empire began. Ruthless infighting and splintered factionalism once again became the defining traits of the Jove, and the First Empire came to an end.

TYRANTS : The Second Jove Empire

~20 200 - ~22 200 AD

A City made of Wood is build in the Forest.

A City made of Stone is build in the Mountains.

A City Made of Dreams is build in Heaven. – From The Dom’Ruystni Cycle

The breaking-down of the First Empire and the distancing conflicts catalyzing it continued slowly but surely in a steady descent over the next few hundred years; Jove territory shrunk back, enclaves split off, and the Jove race became splintered across thousands of polities.

Eventually a man by the name of Miko Bour, known as the First Tyrant, emerged as an unshakably willful and now-legendary figure who would restore the future of the Jove, leading a loyal following in a faction that came to be known as the Tyrants.

Bour and the Tyrants came to power in Heaven around 20,000 AD, seizing control of the region and inviting all remaining Jove enclaves to join them. The majority of the Jove, weary after centuries of conflict and regression, assented and joined the Tyrants; but refusal was not permitted. Even among the Jove, Miko Bour was said to carry an unmatched ruthlessness in his campaigns; enclaves who rejected the call of the Tyrants were crushed into submission by Bour and his navy, and the entirety of the Jove race was brought together under the rule of the Tyrants. Thus began the Second Jove Empire.

Despite modern connotations of their name, the Tyrants were not a repressive fascism. Miko Bour had no desire to rule as a despot; under his direction, the Second Empire was built up as a once-again cooperative entity, the shared peace of the Jove Enclaves - once again enabled to conduct research and accrue knowledge, bettering the Jove once again.

The Ruling Chamber was established as the central governing body of the Second Empire, where one representative elected from within each enclave present in the Empire had a say in the realization of Jove society; from within the chamber, the enclave representatives would then elect one one among them to the Chamber of Tyrant, the central seat of the Empire.

The Second Jove Empire was a renaissance for the Jove; lost knowledge was regained, conflicts were prevented and ended by the Tyrants, and new knowledge was forged through research and cooperation - though, as always, many Jove enclaves retained their own independent goals and ambitions.

By some point in the earlier years of the Second Empire, the Jove had attained a mode of life that would be recognizable by modern humanity as distinctly “Jove”, or at least as what today’s Empires saw in the Jove of the Directorate. Genetic engineering had become one of the core tenants of the Jove desire for progress, improving their minds, bodies, and lives in whatever ways possible. The recognizable physical attributes of the modern Jove found their genesis in this era. Other areas of Jove science retained their significance as well, however:

During Miko Bour’s campaign, The Watchers and the slumbering architects they cared for had joined the Second Jove Empire as one among many assenting enclaves. This enclave moved into a position of influence in Jove society, as progressive development of their virtual world enabled more and more efficient research and progress in controlled, perfect environments, untouched by polluting factors of reality.

The Sleepers were cemented as an elite group above near-all others in the Second Empire upon their achievement of a singularity: time dilation was achieved within their virtual world.

Outside of the Construct, research could only be conducted in realtime; inside, technological advances could now be achieved at exponentially higher and higher rates, outstripping real-world development in nearly all fields. Magnifying this disparity, the Watchers acted as a filter between the Construct and reality, dictating whatever technology and knowledge was disseminated in the real world, and leveraged their influence in attempts to steer Jove society towards their own ideal civilizational mode.

Collapse:

Though the Second Jove Empire never reattained the legendary heights of the First, the collapse that led to its foundation was incomparable to the one that followed.

Near the end of the Second Jove Empire’s 2000-year lifetime, limited conflicts and infighting had begun anew, no doubt partially catalyzed by the efforts of different internal factions to influence the future of their race. While collapse may already have been unavoidable by this time, a curse arose among the Jove that would prove to catalyze the greatest fall New Eden had ever seen: the Jove Disease.

By the end of the Second Empire, the ability to reproduce sexually had been lost to the Jove, erased from their shared genome at a now-unknown point during the engineered evolution of their race; nearly all Jove reproduction was by this time conducted via external means. The Jove Disease struck first in the precious Fetus Tubes, arising across the breadth of the Empire and causing the swift death of countless unborn Jove.

The second form of the Disease was far less predictable, and incomparably more insidious. At some point in the life of every Jove, it will inevitably strike. The Disease first presents as apathy and loss of focus; progressing, the victim will move into a stage of severe depression, dementia, or obsessive-compulsive tendencies before reaching a peak stage that can bring forth hyperparanoia, sociopathy, psychopathy, and a slew of other extreme psychological disorders. A final collapse soon manifests as a sort of psychological paralysis; all will to eat, drink, or simply live disappears, with the victim typically becoming comatose and perishing as a result of dehydration.

The living Jove looked to the Sleepers; surely they, with their time-unbound development potential, could solve this fatal malaise. When pressed, however, those protecting and watching the Sleepers expressed that they could not help; those living in the dreamworld of the Sleepers were, it seemed, far less affected by the unstoppable disease - separated from their living bodies and living as infomorphs within the vast construct.

This prompted suspicion; had the Disease been engineered purposefully by the Watchers somehow? A means to force the outside Jove to relent and join in their vision of an ideal civilization? The truth of the genesis of the Jove Disease is still unknown, but it is a fact that the dying Second Jove Empire then moved to attack the Sleepers - chasing the sleeping and their watchers until they fled to a place into which the Jove could not follow: the realm of Anoikis.

Following the exodus of the Sleepers, the disease ravaged the Second Empire - facilitating a catastrophic collapse that brought with it perhaps the greatest loss of civilization and knowledge the cluster has ever seen.

The Second Empire, and the Tyrants, were no more.

The Sleepers and their watchers, however, pressed onward into the void…

SLUMBER : Anoikis

A wormhole closes.

Locks set. Traps laid.

Ancient enemies destroy.

Enraged, finding a place to hide. – Chronicle: “And I Shall Hide”

It is unknown when the Sleepers first discovered Anoikis, a distant cluster of star systems in which the very fabric of spacetime had been altered in order to facilitate the effortless generation of controlled wormholes as passageways across countless lightlyears.

This immeasurably hubristic feat had been accomplished through the works of an ancient human faction, evidenced to have been contemporary with the First Jove Empire, though no evidence remains of communication or even knowledge of their existence by the Jove: the Talocan.

The Talocan had in fact left both New Eden and Anoikis thousands of years prior to the collapse of the Second Empire. However, their derelicts and ruins remained - inspiring and imparting understanding of their true accomplishments to those who could glean their purpose. The Sleepers may have originally entered Anoikis through wormhole generation along routes pioneered by the Talocan, and shut the not-so-metaphorical doors to this area of space behind them following their pursuit by the Tyrants at the end of the Second Empire.

The Sleepers had undertaken the installation of their infrastructure across Anoikis during the time between the discovery of the hidden cluster and the collapse of the Second Empire, saturating the distant realm with their myriad enclaves and specialized facilities. Continuing to sleep, their lives continued under the guiding eye of their Watchers in a long period of peace, at some point during which those sleeping were made unaware of the false nature of their world; as far as they knew, it was a true, real paradise.

But as with all things, this too did not last.

The appearance of the first Other was a cause of grave concern for the Watchers; an infomorph, sapient and conscious of the nature of the Construct, had appeared spontaneously within the virtual world. This being violated a core tenant of the Construct: the rule that for every infomorph within the Construct, there must be a body to return to on the outside. With the Sleepers, bodily death is hypothesized to have coincided with the removal of their infomorph from the Construct; in other words, the end of their natural lives. But the Other was birthed from the virtuality.

How did it arise? What must be done with it? Before the Watchers could decide on a course of action for this being, more and more Others began to appear throughout the virtual world. These entities, aware that the Construct was false, spread this truth to the slumbering Sleepers within; they were faced with disbelieving rejection by the majority of the Sleepers, and direct opposition or outright aggression in the Watchers, whom they began to rebel against.

The Construct began to decay during this period of vast instability, and eventually the Watchers disappeared. There is no evidence of their presence in Anoikis today, save for the Sleepers’ autonomous sentries, quarantine areas, and two types of facilities with titles linguistically disparate from any other Sleeper infrastructure: the Oruze Constructs, and Oruze Osobnyk. It is widely hypothesized that the Others won within the false world; the fate of the Watchers, the Enheduanni, whether they met their end or escaped even further into the unknown, remains obscured…

*An enigmatic relic of the Second Empire was once discovered aboard an ancient installation aboard an asteroid known to the Amarr as “Mithra’s Gate”; the facility contained a highly unusual clone fabricator with tripled outputs…

CURSE : The Shrouded Days

Approximately 500 years

Here, we return to New Eden.

An era of profound loss and regression, the Shrouded Days constitute a gaping void in the history of the Jove. This hopelessly dark period, beginning in the middle 22000s AD, yawned forward around half a millennium - and brought with it the near-extinction of the Jove in New Eden.

During this period, Jove civilization collapsed thoroughly and completely; the knowledge of millennia was lost to the darkness of space. As the Disease ravaged those who survived the collapse, the living members of the Jove race dwindled to numbers below those of their colonizing ancestors who had first entered New Eden.

DIRECTORATE : The Third Jove Empire

~22 700 - 23 354 AD (YC118)

Once we were mighty,

Stars bent to our will,

Our reach was infinite,

Our power incontestable,

With outstretched hands we tried,

To touch the face of perfection,

But we came too close,

To that which is not due mortals,

And our punishment is our curse,

Our endless sorrow. – Translation of an old Jovian poem

When the dust had settled, the few remaining Jove in the Heaven area - now known as Curse - wearily reconnected with each other, and unanimously cooperated in order to preserve all they knew to be the dwindling flame of their once-great civilization. Gathering information, it became apparent that the remaining Jove would now have to rely entirely on artificial methods of reproduction; none of those who remained retained the capability of reproducing sexually. Wealths of information on the history of the Jove Empires and people had been lost forever, including all records of the engineering of the Jove genome.

The Jove Disease, still ever-present, deadly and inevitable, was understood to be at its base a genetic malady. The position of eschewing any further genetic engineering was taken up by many Jove (known as “Statics”), understanding the damage that had been done and moving towards other methods of improving their cursed lives; others (known as “Modifiers”) believed that further engineering of their genome was the only path to solving the horrors of the disease. Regardless of their persuasions, both groups recognized that it was in their best interest to cooperate - for the survival of their race.

The Jove Directorate was established as a coordinating empire body for the surviving enclaves, organizing cooperation and gathering whatever knowledge and technology remained available to them. Smaller than either of their previous empires by vast magnitudes, the Directorate was by comparison a stoic, pale ghost of the former lost glory of Heaven - but for the first time in their history, every group among them had put aside their differences and factionalism for the shared desire to survive.

The few Stasis People enclaves (a small Static group who heavily utilized cryostasis and virtual reality) that had joined the others left in Heaven argued to the rest that their home region was no longer a safe or proper home. Only a microscopically small number of Stasis People enclaves remained in New Eden following the collapse; the vast majority had vanished without a trace, with the few who remained numbering among the more conservative parts of the faction - but those who remained comprised the majority of the survivors versed in sciences and other lost knowledges of the Second Empire.

Most Modifier enclaves assented, arguing that it was dangerous to remain in Heaven, where unknown threats that may have contributed to the fall of the Second Empire may lay in wait. The other Statics were hesitant to migrate, but the words of the Stasis People carried a heavy influence.

The Jove constructed three Motherships - each measuring only 4 to 5 km in length - filled with cryostatic tubes intended to carry the remaining few Jove to a new home in the clusteral northeast. Once again the Jove set off on into the unknown, and arrived in what are known today as the inaccessible “Jove Regions”. Over time, the Jove restored themselves to a point of stability and strength; though much of the knowledge of the old Empires had been lost, the Jove remained a highly capable and technologically advanced society.

Across the modern age of New Eden, the Directorate played a part in many significant events.

HUBRIS : The Talocan

22 986 AD - 23 036 AD

“Ah, what a wondrous thing it is to realize the limits of our species are not yet within our sight."

– Veniel, Inheritance

In the year 22,986 AD, a Directorate deep-space exploration team made the most significant discovery of the modern era; a stellar engineering swarm, an orbital lattice enveloping the red giant star of the W477-P system. Thousands of structures surrounded the star, the majority of which were power converters and transformers - but a particular few orbitals were radically different from the rest. The explorer named Ouria navigated his team to the closest outlier structure, and discovered it to be a wormhole gate.

Probes were sent through these gates - firewalled off from the autonomous systems of the lattice and intended to only be operable by a human being - for some time, before a formal expedition into what was identified as Anoikis was mounted by Ouria, joined by another Jove named Veniel. On the other side of a gate, these explorers located and docked with a Sleeper Enclave floating silently in its place. The implication of this discovery was immediately apparent; this was where rest of the Stasis People enclaves had gone.

Peering into the Construct, the Jove discovered the presence of apparently spontaneous, artificial sapients. No action was taken at this time, however, and the Sleepers were left to their slumber. Some knowledge had been restored, but more questions arose: when had the Sleepers become aware of Anoikis? When had they discovered the swarm? And why did they now rest forever in their perpetual sleep? These were questions the Directorate could not answer.

The stellar swarm itself measured to around 6000 years in age, placing its construction period squarely within the lifespan of the First Jove Empire. However, it became immediately apparent that its builders had hailed from another faction altogether: the Talocan.

The Talocan were seen by the Jove as the Jove were seen by the modern empires. Sophisticated beyond all compare, they possessed the capability to engineer this grand structure, advancing forward to modify the fabric of space itself. The current form of Anoikis is owed to them entirely; the very topology of spacetime across its reach was modified thousands of years ago by the Talocan, allowing for controlled wormhole generation where the structure of space would have once rendered it impossible.

The Directorate had begun to glean the capabilities of the ancient Talocan, and the scope of their immeasurable hubris - changing reality itself to accommodate their grand design.

See also: Inheritance

SPIRIT : The Society of Conscious Thought

~23 050 AD

In the tail end of this period of exploration, a group known as the Society of Conscious Thought formed within the Directorate, founded by a Jove by the name of Ior Labron with a novel focus of philosophy and spirituality. Though few Jove pursued such aspirations, those who did did so with the same fervent dedication seen in every other member of their race in their respective given ambitions. For a short time, the Society moved into a position of power within the Empire, becoming a hidden shadow government in a period known as the “War of a Million Lies”. Upon the discovery of this influence, the Society was pushed out and severely shackled by the Directorate - becoming a fringe group for many years before slowly climbing back to a humble, once-again spiritual role within the Jove.

The Jove Veniel joined the Society in its early days following persuasion by his close friend Ouria. When the fall from grace occurred, Ouria left, disillusioned, and joined the Navy of the Directorate; Veniel, however, stayed, and eventually grew to the role of Archon - playing a major role in many of the more significant actions the Society has taken during the Capsuleer era.

RECONNECTION : The Five Empires

~23 075 AD - 23 216 AD

Around 23,075 AD, the Directorate became aware of the fledgling modern empires in the core regions of New Eden. Conducting stealthy reconnaissance for between 50 and 100 years following this discovery, the Jove initiated limited diplomatic contact with the Gallente government in 23,149 AD, concealed from the Federation’s public - with the occasional sighting of strange alien vessels spurring many conspiracy theories - until the outbreak of the Gallente-Caldari war in 23,155 AD, at which point the Jove retreated from communication. It was not until 23,192 AD, after the four young Empires of New Eden had made contact with one another, that the Jove stepped forward and openly revealed their existence to the four races.

SEVERANCE : Vak’Atioth

23 216 AD

“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." – Unknown Enheduanni, as “The Order” "The sworn mandate of the Enheduanni was to ease the Architects in and out of the Construct responsibly, governing the perception of the virtual world and managing their preparation for migration back to reality. “They expanded that mandate to include the guidance of mankind toward utopia.” – Grious

At some point in history, the Directorate became aware of the long-thought gone “Enheduanni” attempting to influence the civilizational directions of the young empires, and began to fight their efforts wherever possible. In 23,216 AD, the Enheduanni attempted to rescue the Minmatar Elders from the unknowing grasp of the Amarr Empire, expressing a deep appreciation for the Minmatar way of life and lamenting their domination by the “misguided” Amarr. The Jove Grious led Directorate efforts to prevent the influences of the “Enheduanni” during these events, but even the Jove were not immune to their plans.

Directorate involvement following their gleaning of Enheduanni activity led to the Battle of Vak’Atioth, in which the Amarr attacked the Jove before being quickly routed - in part due to the leaking of strategic and technical information to the Directorate by an Amarr who had had a change of heart.

Following this, the Directorate cut off its regions from all others - not just offlining the inter-regional stargates, but dismantling them entirely. The Amarr’s loss at the hands of the Jove directly led to the Minmatar rebellion, and the eventual formation of their modern republic.

See also: Theodicy and The Lore of the Enheduanni

APOTHEOSIS : The Capsule

23 224 AD

In 23,224 AD, the Gallente federation began encountering far more able and agile foes in their Caldari enemy. It soon came to light that they had come into possession of technology of Directorate origin: the Hydrostatic Capsule. The Directorate had arranged the secret trade of this technology to the Ishukone corporation, with the intent of subtly aiding the Caldari in their campaign for independence - thus laying the foundation for the genesis of modern Capsuleers.

These original capsules did not include cloning technology, the source of modern Capsuleers’ immortality; instead, the level of single-person control they granted over a vessel was utilized by the Caldari to push back against the Federation, bringing some semblance of balance to their conflict.