The Nefantar is the name of one of the seven Minmatar tribes. Coming to be known as Ammatar during the years of Amarr rule, the name Nefantar has now been reclaimed by those returning to the Republic in the wake of the Elder Fleet Invasion.
The Nefantar is the name of one of the seven Minmatar tribes. Coming to be known as Ammatar during the years of Amarr rule, the name Nefantar has now been reclaimed by those returning to the Republic in the wake of the Elder Fleet Invasion.
The Nefantar tribe originated in the Tronhadar Delta on the continent of Houdea on Matar. The Nefantar have always seemed to be at the center of turbulent events in the history of the Minmatar.
A large and powerful tribe in the early days of Matar, the Nefantar often came into conflict with other tribes and clans. The Krusual Tribe, in particular, have historically been a special enemy of the Nefantar, with very little love lost between them. Some of the last internecine conflicts of the pre–Minmatar Empire period were between the Krusual and the Nefantar, with only the establishment of a global polity on Matar damping down the last flames of open warfare.
The Nefantar were keen to participate fully in the politics of the Minmatar Empire and established a good working relationship with the other main tribes, forging particularly strong ties with the Starkmanir. When the Starkmanir left for Arzad, and became more and more absorbed with their own issues, the Nefantar sought to replace them as the preeminent tribe on Matar.
Though the Nefantar did not quite reach the levels of esteem among the other tribes as the Starkmanir had enjoyed, but certainly their influence and prestige grew into the vacuum that had been left. While they did use their increased influence to claim the Hjoramold system, the Nefantar tribe as a whole didn't move, preferring instead to hold on to their new found prominence on Matar.
Traditionally not as nomadic as other Minmatar tribes, the exception among the Nefantar were the Wayfarer Clans. Wayfarer Clans were families that traveled extensively, often only returning once every few generations. One of these clans mapped the entire Immensea region over the course of six generations, though their name has since been lost to history. After the Amarr conquest began, returning Wayfarer clans were shocked at the change of fortune their people had experienced. Uncomfortable with their tribe's role in this new order, many simply headed out again, never to return.
When the Amarr slave raiders first arrived on the Day of Darkness, the Nefantar were as vigorous as any of the other tribes in attempting to fight back, but in the aftermath of that first crushing defeat, reality set in. As one of the largest tribes, the Nefantar had been hit hard by the raids, and their leadership debated leaving Matar for their colony world of Hjoramold. In the end, the Nefantar chief decided against the move, despite strong support for it among influential families and clan leaders. The debate’s aftermath left bitter divisions within the tribe, and the acrimony would lead many of the most powerful members of the Nefantar tribe to look to the protection of their own families at the expense of others.
The next time Amarr raiders came to Matar, they encountered no resistance in areas controlled by certain Nefantar families. The Amarr quickly understood that these members of the Nefantar elite were willing to work with them in exchange for immunity from the raids for their own families. Over time the collaboration of the Nefantar with the Amarr became widespread across Matar, as the benefits of the betrayal of their fellow Matari became clear.
After a century of Amarr raiding, the Nefantar had become the effective rulers of what remained of the Minmatar people. Any open challengers to their control would quickly find themselves in the next quota of slaves handed over to the raiding parties. The Nefantar had already begun to ape their Amarr masters, abandoning many tribal ways and adopting an aristocratic hierarchy. Finally, just before the invasion and occupation of Amarr, the Nefantar moved their capital to Hjoramold, evidently with the approval and assistance of the Amarr.
Safely on Hjoramold, the Nefantar leadership adopted the Amarr faith and pledged their allegiance to the Amarr Empire. The emperor, Damius III, was so impressed he bestowed special privileges on the Nefantar and spoke of them as “Ammatar,” in acknowledgement of their loyalty. The Nefantar, as the Ammatar, enjoyed a very privileged relationship with their Amarr rulers and considerable autonomy.
Safely on Hjoramold, the Nefantar leadership adopted the Amarr faith and pledged their allegiance to the Amarr Empire. A great purge was begun as every Minmatar not of their tribe was enslaved. The Nefantar willingly abandoned a great number of their traditions, claiming they had progressed beyond the old social structure of the Minmatar tribes, and so impressed Emperor Damius III that he granted them considerable autonomy.
In a speech announcing this favored status, the Emperor alluded to the Nefantar poetically as "Ammatar". The word was quickly picked by the Minmatar slave population who used it as a derogatory term for the tribe that had betrayed its brethren. It was also during this period that Tyrion Plethar was consecrated as the first Minmatar priest of the Amarr religion. The Gallente would be the first to legally use the term Ammatar in one of their early drafts of the Gallente-Amarr Free Trade Agreement.
The Amarr poured a great deal of wealth into the Ani constellation in an attempt to help the Nefantar build up their infrastructure. Research centers, stations, trading hubs, even hospitals and cultural buildings were erected in a short period of time. The Nefantar inclination towards establishing and developing fixed centers of trade combined with Amarr underwriting soon led to an accumulation of vast amounts of wealth that the tribe hoarded in various locations. Many high-ranking Ammatar became slaveholders, and the use of space vessels was granted them.
Even so, the Nefantar were as shocked as anyone by the annihilation of Starkman Prime. Perhaps even more so. The Starkmanir, after all, had been almost as privileged as the Nefantar, and the two tribes had maintained links even after their respective migrations away from Matar. Some of the Nefantar elites became convinced that a great crime had been carried out and were determined to save what was left of the Starkmanir.
From this time on, these Nefantar families covertly gathered to them as many Starkmanir as they could and, under the guise of establishing slave colonies, placed them in areas controlled by the Nefantar. Papers were forged and much strong-arming and coercion were used as the Nefantar acquired a great number of Starkmanir slaves, hiding them in plain sight on their holdings. The Nefantar would later claim the protection of the Starkmanir as their primary motivation for siding with the Amarr during the Minmatar Rebellion.
While many small attempts had been made at revolution before, the destruction of Starkman Prime heightened and intensified incidents of unrest throughout the Amarr Empire. Ironically, the Nefantar played a role in fermenting this unrest by first exporting those Minmatar showing the most signs of dissidence to all corners of the Empire, and then hiding the fact that a fair number of Starkmanir actually survived on their holdings. It took two hundred and sixty-nine years for the spark set off by Drupar Maak to ignite the flames of Rebellion, but ignite it did.
The Amarr had always been spread too thin, and with their defeat at the hands of the Jove, they were completely unprepared for the passion of the Minmatar people. However, despite the extreme success of the Rebellion in the vast majority of places, the Amarr still maintained a heavy superiority in space. Even when the Minmatar forces had taken Hek, it was still relatively easy for the Amarr to move their fleet around, and they answered the Nefantar plea for help by sending significant forces, including a capital ship, the TES Reclamation.
Initially the Amarr force swept aside whole squadrons of rebel ships, and the governor of Ani at the time, Lord Basad, used the brief respite granted by the Reclamation's arrival to construct a formidable fortress in orbit around Hjoramold XII.
The tide turned quickly for the pro-Empire forces. A double agent lured the Nefantar tribal leader to a remote location in the Uriok system and assassinated him. This act caused a massive up-swing in disruptive acts among those slaves still held in bondage, and mere days later a saboteur succeeded in destroying the TES Reclamation in the Traun system.
With the threat of the capital ship gone, the rebel fleet turned back towards Hjoramold. The bulk of the Amarr Fleet had been forced to pull back to quell riots closer to home, and the Ani constellation was now completely cut off now from the rest of the Empire. The Nefantar prepared to evacuate.
Dismantling monuments and relics, the Nefantar packed them up and, avoiding the jump gates, snuck them out of the system along with the remnants of the Starkmanir tribe. The fort constructed by Lord Basad came to be known as Lord Bastion during its valiant two month stand against the invading rebel forces. When it finally fell, the last of the Nefantar that were able to left Ani for good.
The Nefantar tribe were relocated to the Derelik region. The Molden Heath entrance to this region was through Audesder, at the time heavily fortified by Amarr forces and thought to be well behind the farthest possible advance of the rebels. As such, this was the destination system for the relics being moved from the Ani constellation. Ironically, the rebel forces did reach Audesder, and with Fort Kumar in Kenobanala proving too hard to break, it was the last system taken by the rebels.
After the Great Rebellion, the Nefantar, now almost universally known as the Ammatar, retreated from the Minmatar worlds with their Amarr masters. Uncertain whether or not the Minmatar rebels would ultimately survive, the Nefantar conspirators took their Starkmanir charges with them and settled them on one of the worlds under their control in the new buffer state the Amarr set up for them: the Ammatar Mandate.
With both the Amarr and the majority of the Nefantar unaware of the deception the tribe's leadership was undertaking in regards to the Starkmanir, the relationship between the Empire and its subjects in the Mandate seemed stronger than ever. The inadvertent discovery of the Starkmanir by the Sisters of EVE was a disaster that almost turned into a second genocide.
Late in the Year YC110, the secret the Ammatar leadership had been keeping was exposed to the whole cluster when the Sisters of EVE announced the discovery of a large population of Starkmanir living within the Mandate. Fortunately, the Nefantar conspiracy controlled the Mandate through the governorship of Ana Utulf and was able to delay repercussions until the Elder Fleet invaded the Mandate and recovered the Starkmanir.
While the Elder Fleet carried out its coordinated attacks designed to liberate the Starkmanir, Ammatar Consulate Governor Ana Utulf encouraged her people to go with them. The Nefantar conspirators and their families led a mass defection of many Ammatar back to the Minmatar Republic at the same time. Not only slaves and commoners, but slave-owners and members of the Ammatar Navy defected. In fact, it was the Ammatar Navy defectors who first provided a clue to what was happening when they altered their ship transponder signals to identify themselves as "Nefantar Tribe" vessels.
With some of the slaves freed by Jamyl Sarum's proclamation returning to the Republic along with the Starkmanir, Thukker, and the Nefantar, it was the Nefantar who seemed to be getting the shortest end of the stick.
The ancestral lands of the Thukker and Starkmanir on Matar had been held in trust, but no such accommodation had been made for the Nefantar. Court cases, and other land disputes, along with rising religious tensions have made it difficult for the Nefantar refugees, some of whom had left relatively opulent lives and positions of power in the Mandate.
Today, the Nefantar tribe has been restored as one of the Seven Tribes of Matar, even while many of their bloodline remain loyal to the Amarr Empire. The Nefantar chose Eleca Valkanir as their chief in YC115.