The Pakhshi Peace Conference (P.P.C.), named after the Pakhshi system in the Genesis region, is the brainchild of Arkon Sarain, with the organized assistance of Utari Onzo and Liam Antolliere. This ambitious political event attracted everyone from the ranks of the most serious of roleplayers in the game, to even the casual observers, all interested in participating as EVE history was taking place.
Given the nature of Capsuleers in EVE online, and the fact that the lifeblood of the game is conflict, many are curious as to what the conference hoped to achieve.
In response to a comment on the Intergalactic Summit (The roleplay section of the EVE-O forums) post announcing the P.P.C., one of the organizers of the event, Liam Antolliere, had this to say as to the purpose of the conference:
“The purpose of the Conference is not to establish an all-encompassing letter-of-law, it is to build a framework for a road to military, ideological and economic peace.” Liam Antolliere, 11.5.YC117 (citation)
This means that the players are coming together of their own volition to not only combat threats such as the Drifters, but also to address and possibly make amends between the factional divides that separate the loyalists of each faction. All with the hope for a more cooperative future.
Originally organized into 3-day weekend increments, the conference started on May 9th, 2015 at 22:00 EVE time, and ran for an unprecedented 5 hours over schedule.
At the beginning of the night, the delegates who were in the system formed a fleet for an official picture. One such image taken is shown above. Afterwards, the opening speech was given by Arkon Sarain himself, then the delegates socialized in the different rooms until called into the Press Room for an unscheduled Press Conference.
Here is the opening speech given by Liam Antolliere at the unscheduled press conference after the first day.
Liam Antolliere leans in to a mic to speak “Good evening. I would like to take a moment to thank each of you for coming. I know this conference has high hopes and lofty goals, I know it stands against a backdrop of violence, enmity, animosity and prejudice.”
“I know that we are dealing with threats, new and emergent. Old hatreds die hard, new friends come slowly. I also know that many of you likely had other plans for these coming days, other things you may have preferred to do or could have done….but you have chosen to be here, and for that I am thankful. So thank you for coming.”
The crowd applauds. Liam, again. “I’d like to start us off by simply stating what most of you already know, and that’s why this conference was initiated and formed.”
“The Pahkshi Peace Conference is not looking for a short term cease fire or temporary suspension of hostilities between our respective governments while we focus on “bigger” threats.”
“The P.P.C. exists because only through honest discourse, only through actually approaching our grievances and differences, can we hope to establish a workable solution toward something more permanent. Capsuleers may be immortal but we’re a minority in the cluster. The cluster is populated by those who do not have eternity, those who spend each moment as if it could be their last….those who, in our day and time…..may be born into and die surrounded by war.”
“Maybe those of us gathered here can do something about changing that future and giving them something else to look forward to. If not for the parents of today, then for their children and their children’s children. Maybe we fail ultimately in our goal and a workable solution is never found…but it is our heartfelt belief that any goal worth striving for is worth the effort, fail or not, and even small steps of progress are more valuable than idleness. So that is why we are here and hopefully why you are here.”
Another applause from the crowd.
“Each of you here, whether delegate or observer, business personnel or press…each of you here represents something bigger than yourself. Be it governments or corporations, people or nations, beliefs or ideals. Things we each hold sacred to ourselves. It is these very things that have subsequently given each of us our greatest strengths and our most bitter differences. It is our hope that by recognizing these differences, we can learn to use them to sharpen one another and to ascend beyond divisiveness toward something even greater. With that said, I’d like to open the floor to questions.”
The only issue that truly permeated the first day was the disagreement between Diana Kim, a zealous Caldari patriot known for her anti-Gallentean policies, and the representatives of Repracor Industries at the time, Jennifer Starfall and Rhiannon Dellacorte. The disagreement eventually caused everyone involved to be dismissed from the conference. Beyond this, the night went rather smoothly. For more information, please read the converted logs by Utari Onzo.
Day 1 minutes by Utari Onzo.
The second day’s proceedings were taken up almost entirely with speeches given by delegates from all over the cluster on the different topics they wished to discuss during the peace conference. As the conference is open to observers, many non-delegates were present. Max Singularity himself attended as an observer.
Day 2 minutes by Utari Onzo.
The Third day saw mostly voting on the topics to discuss leading up to the next meeting. Apparently due to the lack of support for the Minmatar faction, the Delegate Tabor Murn officially abandoned his participation. His explanation for leaving was sent to the congregation mailing list.
I am withdrawing from this congress. It is clear that no peace will come from this conference. If any progress has been made, it has been that the Amarrian delegates have shown a remarkable understanding of the principles of democracy. Best of luck.
-Tabor Murn, Warrior of Clan Surionen.
Whether or not more delegates chose to withdraw as well remains to be seen. Fortunately most of the delegates, including those representing factions associated with the Minmatar Republic, have chosen to remain thus far. In response to this development, and after a heartfelt apology, Liam Antolliere expressed interest in leading the conference towards a more balanced system of decision making.
“I will strive to have the conference restructured appropriately and push for a recast of the votes under the new structure to allow a more balanced approach to each matter.” – Liam Antolliere
Quote taken from second to last comment.
Day 3 minutes by Utari Onzo.
The next scheduled weekend is to take place on May 16th, with a roleplay dinner and ball planned. If you are interested in participating as a delegate, or for other informational inquiries, please send your requests to Utari Onzo and Liam Antolliere.
Disclaimer, the following is purely reporting something that happened in-character and to a character. As far as I am able to gather, no one in real life was harmed in any way. The words in parentheses are out of character explanations
Dr. Arkon Sarain, the original organizer and founder of the Pahkshi Peace Conference, was found dead in his private offices following Day 3’s events. As of now there are no leads pointing to the identity of any assassin.
Unfortunately, due to religious reasons, Dr. Arkon Sarain did not use a softclone, and has been pronounced officially dead. (Soft clones are the understood/accepted in-character way for people to come back to life without being in a capsule)
Beyond this horrible tragedy, the Pakhshi Peace Conference should be proceeding as planned.
The memorial was held at 22:00 on 13.5.YC117 (5/13/15 eve calendar) and the delegation are still in hot debate as to what topics to discuss leading up to this Friday when the real discussions are planned to begin.
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If you have anything that you think should be reported on EN24, please contact me at @VulxanisViceroy on Twitter, or Eve Mail me in game.
Headline Photo by Zenariae
