“When you see contention amongst your enemies, go and sit at ease with your friends; but when you see them of one mind, string your bow, and place stones upon the ramparts.” – Moslih Eddin Saadi
As PAPI and the Imperium continue grinding each other’s resources to dust to the tune of trillions, one alliance has managed to maneuver itself into an ever more advantageous position. Led by Noraus, Fraternity is the third largest alliance in Eve. With most of its members based in China, it also has a unique defensive time zone, a matter I will address later. 2019 saw Fraternity lose its holdings in the south to TEST led Legacy Coalition. Since then Fraternity established itself in Oasa under the protection of PanFam and later expanding into Branch and Tenal. Through early and mid-2020 Fraternity pushed out the smaller entities in Vale of the Silent, and continuing their conquest, did the same in Tribute by 2021. Throughout this time Fraternity entered the anti-Imperium “PAPI” Coalition with both allies like Pandemic Horde and NorthernCoalitionDot as well as former enemy Test Alliance Please Ignore. Fraternity has managed to contribute to the war front quite well despite also being occupied with regions like Vale and Tribute. Furthermore, tensions have risen between Fraternity and We Form V0lta with the possibility of escalation.
Noraus was kind enough to give us some insight through an interview with EN24.
Seraph:
Currently fraternity is in the north and a member of the anti-Imperium coalition known as “PAPI.” But before then you and your alliance had a fairly bloody war with Test. What do you think were the prominent factors that contributed to how that war concluded, what have you learned and changed as a result, and how do you see your relationship with test now?
Noraus:
I had my first taste at leading a bloody war in 2019, during detorid I’ve learnt quite a lot from it. Notable fact that I’ve tried to evict test twice, hopefully no one forgets UALX and C-LTXS. The outcome of last war was Fraternity moved to drone and became a part of drone family. The geopolitical landscape of the whole sov null was divided by three major blocs, and now more likely two blocs. I didn’t like the fact that legacy and imperium might band up together again attacking drone. And judging that this war would be able to shatter that stagnation of triangle, I decided to join the war.
Admittedly it’s taking longer than everyone expects; goons fought pretty well for the last 3 months. It strikes me when I realize M2 was half year ago. We’ve been surprised by goons’ will to survive, the strength of mittani’s cult and their accumulated wealth. our relationship with test now is pretty stable. We had past and so as everyone in PAPI was shooting each other at least once in their histories. The greatest tool we have nowadays is papi assembly discord as well as the implied unity behind this server. Fighting together on the same side will get FCs know each other on a personal level, in this case me and progod/vily have had way too many conversations than we did during detorid war. It’s hard to hate them after all this tbh. During the aftermath of M2, papi almost was on the blink of collapse. It was a group of fcs that wouldn’t give up held us together. That’s a brotherhood made in trench. You also can expect no less from the imperium. Being sieged by the entire game for a year, after trimming all the fat losing all the unstable members, the remain of Imperium is hardened as fuck now. They wouldn’t give up till mitten says so.
Seraph:
As an alliance Fraternity is known to have a very active response fleet to any people roaming their space. You also have a unique policy of replacing ratting supers. Can you speak a bit about the mindset behind the way fraternity approaches holding space and its unique aspects compared to other holding alliances?
Noraus:
I’ve witnessed the approaches other alliances do, none of them can rival FRT in terms of the mindset of defending krabs, maybe except goons during delve miracle(pre rorq nerf time). We ain’t good at PVP or love to raid other alliances, in this timezone we can rarely find targets to raid anyway. But we are indeed very protective, diligently defending our pixel castles. The defending fleets could go out on missions several times a day. AFAIK we built our reputation among the game and this mindset since detorid. We did get tons of roaming visitors, cloaky campers etc. People are fully adapted to it. During the height of detorid war, legacy + test + xix would simultaneously flash form 3 hac fleets in their stager of BOZ1, a YZ9 equivalent as to 1DQ. Elo and I would prepare fleets hours just to overwatch the green lights. I don’t see this in other alliances, most of them segregate pvp/pve players intentionally.
Seraph:
Last year fraternity took Vale of the Silent. This year Tribute fell to you as well. Currently you seem to be in conflict with Volta and their allies in Pure Blind. What brought on these conquests and do you see any Frat stopping its territorial expansion?
Noraus:
Believe or not this is my perfect spot. If [redacted] believe what FRT achievement today is guided by a mindless expansionist they are the reasons that lost their home. You would find those who advocating a greedy expanding machine are usually the people I evicted. We previously lived in vale or tribute. Of course starfleetcommander is an interesting figure. His alliance is absurdly strong, but he’s a super paranoid troubled man. Volta went from an elite assassin group, to a warlord and now they are organizing a mini coalition. They are gradually stepping into the area that won’t suit them. All these because I hinted him that we might invade if he sees us as a farmland. SFC walled up fade deklein CR, blued a few hundred people and turned PB from a fight club to mini coalition. I’m looking forward to see how this turns out.
Seraph:
So you gave him (StarFleetCommander, head of Volta) an ultimatum? If they continue hitting your holdings you might invade? Not for expansionist purposes but to secure your members’ safety?
Noraus:
Yes. No point for FRT to expand we already have all the key space that matters
Seraph:
Some people have speculated that with test and ncpl grinding their resources against the imperium, Fraternity with you at its head will emerge as the most powerful entity in the post WWB2 dynamic of null. Do you think this is likely and if it occurs in such a way do you foresee possible tension arising with current allies?
Noraus:
What do you think the most important resource in the game? Isk, space, material accumulation? In my opinion is active player number, or how to keep them active. The war has benefited horde, test, above all goon itself on this. I watched goon number from trash tier to nowadays steadily form 200 men in 5mins. That’s like volta but triple its size in any timezone. All of these alliances are now truly battle hardened, their members know what to do in bloc warfare. I doubt FRT will achieve anything remotely similar. First of all we ain’t dominant in any other tz. I could be a dream ally in defensive or offensive war but I can’t do it alone by myself. I’m more interested in being the game’s factory and merchant. That’s why I choose tribute.
Seraph:
What do you think Test will do if they lose vs what will Imperium will do if they lose?
Noraus:
If imperium lose they gonna crawl in lowsec i think or NPC null and crow the weakest link in papi once papi gets bored. If test lose hmm they will consolidate in eso I think. Then papi will reassemble from eso.
Seraph:
If Goons remerge from this and become powerful once again, are you concerned with Mittens being vengeful with you for supporting PAPI? He’s known to keep grudges.
Noraus:
Then we will know if the council of warden meme is true.
Seraph:
And finally what can you say to people who are worried that you’ll form a big blue donut with most or all notable null entities? There are concerns once Imperium loses, it will lead to null stagnation, more botting and loss of content.
Noraus:
I don’t like the current status quo either. Goons blame the rest of the game teaming up but that’s only after years of their widotting. Once they became the single supreme alliance in the game, there is literally no other way to fight them except this. Some game mechanics to blame. Everyone playing this game hate losing, naturally we gonna use the best tactics. The end justifies the means and those who got fed can make morale post on reddit. I don’t know what an ideal nullsec landscape should be. I really have no clue how it is possible without stagnation and diplomatic agreements under such game mechanics. But I’m not going to figure this out in lowsec, so yes I will choose to team up, blue around and make deals.
Post interview analysis
Noarus, like most successful leaders, is unapologetically pragmatic taking opportunities where they can be found and making use of every advantage available. While Fraternity may have problems in offensive wars against large groups, they played their cards well evicting the Vale and Tribute holders in non-Chinese time zones. Once Fraternity acquires territory it then becomes much harder for them to lose it for the same reason. Depending on how Noraus plays his cards, it would not be too hard to imagine his alliance acquiring all of the old CFC’s northern territories.
Beyond destroying the Imperium coalition, PAPI seems to have little else holding it together. The fear that all of null would remain as a blue donut appears to be unlikely and the existence of PAPI itself as Noraus claims, was merely a necessity needed in order to be able to contend with the Imperium itself. Of course this remains to be seen and a topic of its own article certainly.
The immediate point of interest beyond World War Bee 2 will be to see how things develop in Pure Blind and Fade. With We Form V0lta and Fraternity skirmishing on the border the likelihood of escalation into full blown war draws nearer with every inflicted loss from one side to the other.
