The Cycle of Life and Death

The cycle of life and death was supposed to end with us. We were to be the start of a new age. A destiny of light. An Empyrean Age.

: : - On the last day of my human life, the class of YC114-2nd Quarter was lined up single file in front of a photo booth to have our last pictures taken. We were not a large class; only 12 of us, mostly Deitis and Civre. It was explained to us the day before to dress our best, as this would be the final photograph of ourselves put on file for the remainder of our existence. One by one we each entered the photo booth, had our picture placed on file, and exited out the other side of the booth into the Transference Bay. I wonder if it also crossed the minds of the others' that, after leaving this place, we could fast find ourselves enemies on distant battlefields.

: : - The Transference Bay was a cold, metallic room; dimly lit and lined with about two dozen transfer tables. At the head of each table, upright and with arms clasped like mummies, stood our clones, bathed in the same ectoplasmic "pod goo" of hydrostatic capsules. The memory of the transfer, and the moment of death, still haunts me. I hope in time that I will be able to shake this feeling. I hope, also, to become more acquainted with my new body. It's me, but not me. Slender and lacking the muscle tone and scars of my old body; instead, baby soft skin and a bald scalp stare back at me from the mirror. I wonder how long I will inhabit this body before a podbreach necessitates another transfer.

: : - In my first day as a capsuleer, I died for the first time, and returned as a clone to slay over one thousand human beings barely hours later. Crews that had much more experience than myself at operating spacecraft fell effortlessly to my guns. My ship was no more powerful than their own, but such is the advantage of capsuleer technology which allows direct interfacing with ship systems. They were enemies of the State, and as a man of Caldari birth, it is my sworn duty to vanquish them from our skies. I will mourn their loss of their lives no more than I mourn the loss of my own.

: : - YC114.11.05 Journal of Lysander Fairewell, Capsuleer

This is EVE Online, a dark, morbid world focused on the cycle of creation and destruction. I first learned about this game over a year ago when one of the player alliances, "GoonSwarm Federation", committed a huge heist from Factional Warfare, totalling many tens of trillions of ISK. They not only got away with this, but they were rewarded with free game time from CCP. Since then I have been fascinated with EVE Online and wanted to try it, but thought it would be too challenging for me with my school schedule. Summer is here, and this week I accepted an invitation for a 21-day trial and took the plunge.

So join me, Lysander Fairewell, as I navigate through this sordid realm of exotic dancers and space gods to my ultimate goal: Wormhole space, that intractable realm of uncharted territory where the Starmap reads Location: Unknown. I'll keep weekly logs of my triumphs and tribulations, my successes and failures, and my interactions with the other inhabitants of New Eden; villain and valiant alike. The distant light of the stars will be my ever-present reminder that there is hope in this dark world of treachery and deceit.