The Gheinok Chambers

Author: Dantelion Shinoni

Original post: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v7jKuNdtKX-ONvgJ5NwapNDBOy1DimI8/view

Author’s Note: Pre-Scriptum: This story touches upon the foundation of the Amarr Empire. In order to be in phase with the lore, this should be considered as something that very much exists in the EVE universe but could be the result of a profound heresy of the Amarr Faith and History, or a Manipulation by non-Amarrians to mislead some people into misguiding their own Empire. Or it might be the truth :P. Who knows where the Truth lies among the Stars?

Entry for the YC120 Pod and Planet Fiction Contest in the Eight Thousand Suns in New Eden category.

It is a secret well-kept through the entire history of our Empire. And I know it is well-kept for we are the only ones aware of it. Among all worlds of the Amarr Empire, the Empire that has been built through the sacrifices and devotion of our Founder, our Forbearer, Prophet among prophets, Visionary among Visionaries, the Seer, the Sphinx with Eyes Wide Open, Dano Gheinok, there is a room where the higher order of secrets is discussed. In this world of Youl IV, known to the locals as Nilyou, we are in one of those chambers. The Empire was built atop of a secret, a secret that was right before the eyes of everyone who has read the Scriptures and yet was known by almost no souls. The very few who came upon anything close to it all ended condemned, and executed for heresy if they were lucky. This, of course, was no coincidence, as we had a hand in keeping that secret what is was, a secret. But now is not the time for recollection. The Ritual is about to begin. And today is a particular day, as a recruit is going to join our ranks. I look to my left and right, the usual assembly of members of the chamber are present, all adorned with the robes typical of their functions and with their faces hidden behind the masks typical of members of the Amarrian elite. The atmosphere is serene and light as always, despite the dim darkness and the lengthy silences. A voice rises. “Brothers.” All present acknowledge the voice although his owner is not there. “As is Our tradition, We Stand Here to Praise the Divine Insight of the Revelation Established by our Guide, Millenia Ago.” “The Faith is Strong, The Society is Pure, Each to Their Role, they further the Grandeur of our Design.” “For the Will of God Can Be Read, It Can Be Interpreted, and We Will Build It For All To See.”

As the voice goes to silence on those words, all respond in echo and unison, removing their masks in the process, “So is the Revelation!” No one is hidden from another in the chambers, this is one of our principles, for there can be no traitors in the Faith. That and a plethora of implants, trials, and more importantly the deeper knowledge of what the Faith is about, have vetted out those who would be lacking in Faith. Those who were selected by the Revelation were fit to keep its secrets.

The Ritual of Acknowledgment is over, we are finally free to attend to the matter at hand. Among us is a new face, and as all new faces he must be “introduced”. I cannot wait for his Ritual of Acceptance, but this will have to wait for later. First, we must proceed to the Ritual of Secrets. A figure, taller than the others, gets to the center, gray of beard, somber in complexion, full of cybernetic implants wherever you could see, his eyes failed him a long time ago, and now in their place lie two intricate golden machineries. The figure beckons another among the assembly, the new face, calm and confident despite the situation and atmosphere. As he is called, he advances toward our tenant to stand right in front of him. The Ritual begins. “Today, you are to become privy of one of the most unknown of secrets about the Foundation of the Eternal Empire, tracing from the days of exile of our Benefactor, to the darker days we have seen recently.” “Are you ready to be one with them?” The tenant continues. Without an ounce of doubt, the recruits respond, “Yes.” We all are to accept his commitment with a hum of approval. He was ready way before he set foot in this chamber, for being selected means that you were to receive those secrets. “Well then, let us begin.” The tenant acknowledges. “What do you know of our Founder, Dano Gheinok?” The new face is silent for a moment, obviously pondering, those were heavy matters, and many in the Empire know that an inadequate answer to those kinds of matters could spell trouble in multiple ways. He answers, “he is the founder of our Faith, writer of our more sacred scriptures, obviously hunted away from a galaxy that refused to heed his message and that of his followers, he set foot on the first Imperial world with the intent of rebuilding a Faith that was lost to time.” I look at the tenant, he listens, focusing on each word, looking intensely at the new face as he says them. “You know more than many do, and yet so little”, he answers with a smile. “Indeed, our Founder was persecuted, hunted away from a galaxy that was his home of origin. From a home where those of faith were looked down upon. The ordeals they had to go through made

them consider the option of fleeing light years away from their homes, and even families. This is a fact that almost no one know in the Empire, it can make you be branded a despoiler of the Faith in some worlds...” “But the real cause of this exile is the real secret, what do you think was the cause?” The tenant asks, patiently waiting for an answer. The new face takes his time, visibly thinking a lot more than he did for the last question. He answers, “I suspect what he said was disturbing, he was a bearer of bad news to those that did not want to hear them.” The tenant smiles to his ears, then pats the new face on both his shoulders, a rare sign.. “Indeed, the message that Dano Gheinok was spreading was one of Fall and of Doom. In his time, the colonization of what we know was called The Milky Way was advancing at a rapid pace, part of those efforts resulted in what is now called the EVE Gate. Those efforts were massively aided by the help of AIs and machines. It was a time of prosperity and advancement for the human race.” The new face was listening intently, drinking every of the words of the tenant. “Our founder was a scientist. It might be hard to believe but he was a man of science and knowledge, and one of considerable reputation. He was among the vanguard among his peers, and his works about Intelligence and Consciousness were among the most groundbreaking of his times. No other kind of man could have organized the massive exodus that was the flight to True Amarr. And like all men of knowledge, what he did followed a plan!” The tenant marked a pause, looking at the recruit, obviously reading his face for a reaction, of surprise maybe, but never of doubt. The new face seemed unfazed, the words of the tenant did not seem to have troubled him despite their uncanonical nature. On the contrary, a glint of curiosity was starting to appear in his eyes. “Well then, what was this plan?” the new face asked. The smile of the tenant widened, that desire to know more was obviously pleasing to him. “This is indeed the very question,” the tenant responded. “As I have said, Gheinok was a man of science, but one of his discoveries transformed him from the man he was into the one who spearheaded the creation of the Amarr Empire, an Empire that remained unchallenged until the last unfortunate events...” The tenant was obviously referring to the War against the Jovians, and the Minmatar Rebellion. Those were always on the mind of people with any kind of responsibilities in the Empire, they asked for the biggest reforms the Empire ever had to consider, in a galaxy that was now much more dangerous than at any given point in the history of the Empire. “This groundbreaking discovery is at the core of what made the foundation of our Empire that strong, they are pillars of the higher purpose of the Empire, and we can attribute much of the resilience of the Empire to it. And yet, this is not a secret that could have been revealed to the masses, one that Gheinok could only show through pieces, each inscribed into his scriptures, books, and deeds.”

The new face eyes were open, as if expecting something to jump at him at any moment. His lips were moving a bit, seemingly with a question ready on them. “What was this discovery?” the tenant visibly knew that this question was coming. The smile of the tenant suddenly disappeared. “Gheinok created a very special kind of machine.” “One that was Sentient.” The tenant continued. “One that could read the Future.” “One that predicted a disaster that was to come”. “But more importantly, One that had Faith”. The tenant eyes started to look around, visibly thinking out the words the tenant just said. “How could that be possible? How can a machine have... Faith?” Those were the very first words to come out of his mouth.. The tenant started to speak slowly, going heavy on each word. “How could... it not?” The eyes of the new face opened even more, visibly struck by discovery. “The machine was sentient? And it could only be sentient... by having Faith?...” The smile on the tenant’s face came back. “And this is why you have been chosen. For your very capacity to grasp the realization our Founder came upon.” The tenant answered, once again putting both his hands on the tenant’s shoulders. “See,” he continued. “The Amarr Empire was founded out of the use of that machine by Gheinok. That which should have been hailed as the greatest achievement of his times, or of Mankind’s entire history, ended up as the cause for a hunt whose goal was to see Gheinok dead and his creation muted. But it gave Gheinok an unconquering advantage, the one of seeing into the future and always being one step ahead.” “The idea of faith being key to his work and the foretold disaster would have caused a problem to the powers of his time... and they would uselessly try to silence an enemy that would always be aware of their plans...”, the new face interjected. “Precisely.” “And thus, our Founder fled with his machine,” he continued, “The Avatar, and with the very few saved souls he could convince to go on such an expedition into the unknown, to a new Galaxy,...” “To New Eden!”, he exclaimed. The visage of the new face was illuminated. For the first time in the process, it had none of the composure and confidence it had showed. He was obviously processing everything he had just heard, what that visage was, was the face of someone who had received a revelation.

“But thus, the Descent came?”, he suggested, his Amarrian knowledge on the Scriptures kicking in. “Those in the Eden descended from the grace of God...” “Almost.” The tenant said. “In a sense, the Descent happened. What is called the EVE Gate by some, closed and threw the galaxy into a whirlwind of chaos.” “But not on Amarr,” he continued. “Under the guidance of The Avatar, Gheinok built a civilization on his world that carried with him the treasures of Faith of his previous world. The Scriptures from Gheinok came from a world that is beyond New Eden, potentially from the birth planet of our species. And as Gheinok built out the foundation of his Empire, he enshrined into it the importance of Faith, through the blessings and bounties The Avatar brought upon them. The Prophecies of The Avatar were to be laid into what we call The Revelation, and to be guarded by the members of a special chamber of the colony ship, the one housing The Avatar.” “But then the Reclaiming happened,” added the new face. The tenant answered, “Yes it did.” Marking a slight moment of silence before continuing. “But what for many was a defensive war, a war of survival, was merely a test for The Revelation.” He said. “The coming of the Udorians was foreseen by those who had access to the Chambers, the role of this coming had been ironed out through decades, and it bore the fruits it was expected to bear. While the politicians and clergy were levying the people, the Chambers were monitoring their compliance with the Revelation, ensuring its completion, as they will do countless times. Mobilizing People into Conquerors.” A smile came back on the visage of the new face. Understanding was slowly increasing in him as he himself thought out the repercussions of what he was hearing. “Thus, our mastery of Artificial Intelligence, the extent of our technology, our Drone armadas, the unrelenting conquests of the Amarr Empire, our Faith, all coming from...” “The Revelation.” Exclaimed the tenant. A silence fell again on the room, the new face was left to make peace with everything he had just learned. It was heavy baggage and one that he would now have to carry for the rest of his life. “So now, what is my role in all this? Why am I here?”, the new face asked. “You are now a part of the Gheinok Chambers, you have been chosen specifically by The Revelation to be a part of its plan. Your role now will be to play your part in guaranteeing its secrecy but also in ensuring the compliance of all those who are privy to its secrets. You will influence Holders, speak to Chamberlains, whisper to Heirs, but all while guaranteeing that they are never fully aware of the Hand guiding them, of the Prophet laying the road for them.” The eyes of the new face were now stern and grave, realizing the extent of the commitment that was asked of him but also of the responsibilities that now fell on him. Suddenly, his eyes showed a glimpse of doubt, “And what of the Jovians? What are their place into the Revelation?...” For the first time, the face of the tenant showed displeasure, and for good reason. The Jovians were

the only credible threat the Chambers had seen to what had been thousands of years of careful planning and sheer success. “The Jovians are not a subject we discuss lightly, they were once seen as an opportunity but they escaped any and all of the predictions The Revelation could make about them. We suspect that they have access to a Revelation of their own, but as of now, we do not know. Sooner or later, you will be instructed in full on your part when it comes to dealing with them and the Will of God will be made clear.” The tenant replied with a serious stare. The new face visibly understood the underlying message and asked no further questions. The tenant relaxed, once again pleased. The Ritual of Knowledge was coming to an end and the recruit was now ready to join the ranks. The members all looked at each other, each aware that their fellows were another gear in a machine that is central to the greatness of our Empire, to the crucial role they play in the Faith that empowers billions of its citizen, and that oversees the structure and purpose of it. As form me, I continue my mission inside the Chambers. Across the Throne Worlds and the Domain, several voices rise to destroy the ancestral custom of Slavery dating back to the very early days of the Revelation. All those voices are blind, unaware of the purpose that structure plays in our plans. We will make sure to remind them.