Sansha's Nation
There are many horrors along the fringes and in the dark places of New Eden, but few of these are as feared as Sansha’s Nation. The existence of the Nation is a testament to the dark possibilities of technology and the will of one man, Sansha Kuvakei. The genius of Sansha founded and sustained the Nation, but his vision of an intellectual elite served by cybernetically dominated slaves led to its downfall. Yet, for all that they tried to scrub out the stain of Sansha’s Nation, the empires failed and the dream lived on. Slowly but implacably, Sansha’s Nation rose again.
For a hundred years, the Nation was little more than a presence haunting the space lanes and remote corners of New Eden, but now they are once more a force to be reckoned with. Sansha Kuvakei himself, believed dead for decades, has returned and reclaimed his place at the head of the cybernetic legions of the Nation. The old empires see the incursions by Sansha’s fleets and True Slave soldiers, and they see a threat that could destroy them. So grave is this threat that they must call on the double-edged sword of the capsuleer to help throw back the invading servants of their old enemy.
History
Prelude
Before there was a Nation, there was Sansha, a strange and wealthy man even before his dreams began to be realized. Sansha Kuvakei’s rise began in those wild and heady days when much of New Eden was uncolonized and unexplored. The Kuvakei family, an old Caldari industrial power, had made their fortune manufacturing armaments during the war of secession from the Gallente Federation. As that war had settled down to little more than an ongoing border conflict, the empires had begun to look ever outward, encouraging more colonization. After succeeding his father as head of the Kuvakei family, Sansha found himself wealthy but restless. He looked at Caldari society — indeed, at all the societies of the cluster — and was dissatisfied. He had another vision, an eccentric and megalomaniac vision, perhaps, but a vision all his own, and the colonization push would provide an ideal vehicle for his ambitions.
Developing his own space technology programs while maintaining a strong presence in the armaments sector, Kuvakei built up his fame and fortune. The Kuvakei corporations struck out into space and developed numerous colonies and independent mining operations. Over time a distinct realm was carved out by Kuvakei, fully independent of the other empires and highly prosperous. He marketed his domain as a new “Promised Land,” with himself as its messiah figure. Sansha’s Nation, as this small empire became known, became a significant player in the politics of New Eden, and was an ever more popular destination for emigration.
Foundation
By YC 5, shortly after the establishment of CONCORD, the outlines of Sansha’s Nation were established but it had not yet developed the lasting character that would make it infamous, and feared, throughout the cluster. With the ranks of his followers swelling, Kuvakei was able to establish apparatuses of government, such as a strong military, in his domain. Sansha’s Nation had become a very real power, but this was not enough for Kuvakei. After all, his disdain for the core empires was deeply ideological in nature, and Sansha was not interested in merely replicating an old-style polity.
Having achieved a measure of his dreams, he began to cast about for ways to fully realize his utopian vision. At first he simply preached utopian ideas, such as his dream of a nation ruled by the intellectual elite for the good of all. These notions quickly gained him more followers, particularly among those who saw themselves in that elite. The Nation continued to prosper, and everyone living within its borders—from close members of Kuvakei’s circle to the workers in his arms factories—had nothing but praise for Sansha and his achievements.
The praise only fueled Kuvakei’s delusions of grandeur and megalomania, spurring him into exploring ever stranger ideas. Sansha had always believed that humanity would be better off under his rule, and now he developed the idea of dividing his people into a chosen elite, free of all burdens, and a loyal army of workers and soldiers. Kuvakei briefly considered using technology to develop robotic servants but he believed that drones, no matter how advanced their AI, would lack creativity and adaptability. Sansha wanted to build his new world order on the only platform that would answer his needs: the human being. But he also knew that this would only be achieved reliably, to his standards, with technology.
To his knowledge, the best joining of human and machine was found with the hydrostatic capsule, as given to the Caldari by the Jove some years earlier. After studying the potential of this technology, Kuvakei came up with the idea of fusing capsule technology with existing brain implant technology to create willing slaves. The implant technologies he intended to experiment with were in the main highly illegal, and, of course, in order to perfect the techniques involved, he would need test subjects. Here were sown the seeds of Sansha Kuvakei’s downfall.
To Kuvakei the solution to his conundrum was clear enough. One empire, above all others, could supply his needs. The Amarr were the leaders in implant technology and suffered no scruples when it came to trafficking in human flesh. Indeed, the Amarr Empire was rather keen to cooperate with Sansha, anticipating that they might gain new methods of controlling their vast slave populations from the collaboration. Large numbers of Minmatar slaves were therefore shipped to Kuvakei’s Promised Land, and he experimented on these unfortunates without thought for their individuality. Sansha’s every effort was bent toward turning his subjects into an utterly loyal army who would live and die at his command.
Kuvakei succeeded, and his biomedical facilities were soon pouring out a steady stream of cybernetically enhanced slaves: True Slaves, as Sansha called them. The True Slaves were used for every kind of menial labor, but their adaptability made them suitable for many tasks above the merely routine. Sansha also began to use these unquestioning slaves as guards and soldiers, replacing the entirety of the Nation’s military with True Slave soldiers and pilots.
With his army of True Slaves providing for their every need, the scientists, philosophers, and other intellectuals became the Nation’s True Citizens. Initially, most were unaware of the extent of Sansha’s crimes, but over time they understood the nature of the new order. Most of them accepted it as simply the logical and right outcome of the philosophy that had attracted them to Sansha’s Nation in the first place. The True Citizens helped spread the “good word” of the Nation, bringing more and more followers into the realm. Only a few decades after its foundation, Sansha’s Nation spanned several regions and was beginning to rival the core empires in power. By now, even the Amarr were growing concerned, and closer scrutiny of Sansha’s Nation by the empires was inevitable.
The Downfall
The few years following Kuvakei’s development of the True Slaves were ones of turmoil for Sansha’s Nation. Many of those who had migrated there in search of the Promised Land of his promotional material returned to the core empires of their origin, as True Slaves supplanted them in their workplaces. Others, for all intents and purposes, disappeared. Some prominent opponents and investigators of Sansha’s Nation either died mysteriously or also disappeared. The curiosity of the empires was piqued, and various police and security agencies began to ask questions and send their own investigators. Some of these disappeared too. Others died in ways that were not at all subtle. Police stations exploded. Ships crashed. Kuvakei was unable to stem the tide, and his many agents and advocates had no better luck. It was fast becoming obvious that something was very wrong with Sansha’s Nation.
In YC 37, the truth of what was happening in Sansha’s Nation was revealed to New Eden at large by the joint efforts of a Minmatar missing-persons investigator and a Gallente security agency. Presented with the incontrovertible evidence, CONCORD called for Sansha to surrender himself and face charges. Kuvakei refused. Sansha had long known that his secret would be uncovered sooner or later, and he had equally known that the rest of New Eden would fail to understand his genius or the scope of his vision. He had therefore prepared defenses to resist the inevitable. However, even Sansha Kuvakei had not anticipated the strength and ferocity of the opposition that would be ranged against him.
The five CONCORD empires—including the Jove, normally reluctant to intervene, and his erstwhile allies the Amarr— banded together in a coalition against Sansha’s Nation. By that time, those remaining in the Nation were either the fanatic elite of the True Citizens or they were the insensate True Slaves. That, at least, was the position of the empires. The coalition therefore swept into Kuvakei’s domain without mercy or compunction. They destroyed every ship or fleet they encountered. They reduced the settlements and infrastructure of the Nation to rubble and ash.
The Sansha loyalists and True Slaves put up some considerable resistance. The strongholds of the Nation survived for months, but ultimately the fall was total. Sansha himself was apparently killed during the final assault that completed the invasion and suppression of his Nation. The coalition recovered remains matching Sansha’s genetic pattern. Certainly some True Citizens and elements of his fleets managed to evade capture or destruction, and hide until the coalition forces withdrew back to the core empires. Nevertheless, the once-mighty Nation was reduced to ruined stations and settlements, among which scattered survivors and aimless ships eked out an existence.
A Nation Rebuilt
Following the forcible dissolution of Sansha’s Nation, the empires debated what to do with the systems they had liberated. After much contention, the space was divided up among the core empires but little was done to actually make use of it. Except around the fringes, close on existing empire territories, there were few attracted to the old Nation systems. Eerie stories abounded, and occasionally there were reports of weird and fearsome ships unique to Sansha’s Nation. No colonization projects got very far, and the Stain region, the heart of Sansha’s empire, was left alone with its ghost stations and ominous shadows among the asteroids and moons.
The scattered remnants of Sansha’s Nation were by no means idle. Many isolated units of the Nation’s space fleets remained, ready to obey the dictates of their protocols and programming, which would still bring doom upon the unwary. Others, more purposeful, had survived the purge. True Citizens and some True Slaves capable of leadership and planning were at large. Over several decades following the fall, what remained of the Nation slowly gathered together. The surviving commanders and warlords pulled together the aimless True Slaves in the heart of Sansha’s old Promised Land. Certain carefully hidden stations had never been discovered by the coalition, and these surviving outposts of Sansha’s Nation served as the new foundation for rebuilding. The scientists and commanders slowly began the process of rebuilding the Nation from what remained. They built new ships and fresh stations, and secretly recruited new followers to the cause. Operating through shell corporations, gobetweens, and mercenaries, they procured new subjects for the True Slave conversion process. Slowly, carefully, avoiding the attention of the empires, and not without some infighting, Sansha’s Nation was rebuilt.
By YC 105, Sansha’s Nation had regained sufficient strength to operate in an increasingly wide area beyond the Stain region. Initially, Nation raids and expansion took place in neighboring regions such as Catch and Esoteria, but soon enough they felt bold enough to raid the Amarr Empire, hated for the treachery that the Nation elite believed the Amarr had perpetrated against them. The Nation leadership had read the political situation accurately enough, for no new coalition was likely to be formed against them. The Jove were increasingly reclusive, and the other four empires were ever more at odds with one another. Even so, for as long as it could, Sansha’s Nation fed the illusion that the raiding was the result of desperate and isolated units of the old Sansha navy, driven to seek resources for mere survival.
Ultimately, increased exploration by the new class of independent capsuleer pilots disrupted the Nation’s operations ever more. The Nation decided to emerge from hiding and openly claimed the Stain region as its own. The response to the capsuleer threat was to try to recruit capsuleers to their banner. In early YC 108, the Nation began to make raids against the Angel Cartel, igniting a brief territorial war between the pirate factions that featured capsuleers fighting on both sides. A figurehead known as “Sansha’s Speaker” released an ultimatum to the Angel Cartel and their capsuleer supporters. The war cooled, and before too long the Nation returned to inscrutable silence. As New Eden was shaken by the events of YC 110, Sansha’s Nation relapsed into quiescence, apparently content to see to its own purposes as the Empyrean War played out.
Resurgence and Incursions
Sansha’s Nation still appeared to many to be an erratic power, possibly even a house divided. The empires’ intelligence networks reported that some surviving elites were following their own plans and setting themselves up as warlords. Others claimed that the vast bulk of True Slaves were old reserves following orders received during the heyday of the Nation. In May YC 112, events forced a reevaluation of these complacent assessments. In a series of sudden, massive assaults, multiple empire star systems suffered incursions by Sansha’s Nation forces. The initial invasions took place in the empire systems of Niarja, Tama, Balle, and Kamela, but most shocking was the means of attack. The invading forces poured through unstable wormholes seemingly created at will by the Sansha’s Nation attackers. The assaults were against temperate, inhabited planets, and approximately two hundred thousand people were abducted before the invaders were driven back. The rapid response of capsuleers played a key role in fighting these incursions and the many more to come.
The Sansha’s Nation incursions escalated over the following weeks and months, almost to the point of becoming regular. In yet another shock, an individual calling himself Master Kuvakei emerged and became the main spokesperson on behalf of the Nation. Most were skeptical and dismissed this as a propaganda ploy by Sansha’s Nation. However, others believed that Sansha himself had returned—resurrected by the advanced science that the Nation controlled—to lead his followers again. While most declared themselves against the Nation and all its works, some expressed support for the ideals of Sansha’s Nation. A number of capsuleers even fought on the side of the invaders whenever they appeared.
The Nation attacks continued for several months. Despite capsuleer resistance, many systems, particularly those in low-security areas, were devastated and completely depopulated by the assaults. Resistance on the planetary surface was usually reported to be low or nonexistent. Some means of suppressing the population, speculated to be biochemical agents or nanotechnology, was clearly in use. The body of evidence pointing to the individual known as Master Kuvakei indeed being Sansha Kuvakei himself had mounted. While some maintained their skepticism, the majority began to accept that somehow Kuvakei had returned. The means by which Sansha Kuvakei might have survived remains a mystery, but his access to the most advanced biotechnology and cybernetics before the downfall is not in doubt.
By the beginning of YC 113, the constant Sansha’s Nation attacks changed their focus. Rather than assaulting planetary populations directly, the incursions began to disrupt capsuleer activities across entire constellations. Incursions began to take place in the nullsec regions controlled by capsuleers, as well as the low- and highsecurity domains of the empires. This change in tactics appeared to be a response to the capsuleer resistance, with several propaganda statements by the Nation indicating that the capsuleers were now considered a threat that needed to be eliminated. For their part, capsuleers, both those loyal to the empires and those giving their allegiance to capsuleer alliances, responded by fighting the incursions wherever they appeared. The Sansha’s Nation forces, once dismissed as no more than the remnants of a madman’s nightmare vision, are again considered among the most dangerous of threats by the empires and CONCORD.
Culture
The vast majority of the Sansha’s Nation population is composed of True Slaves. Only a very small number of Nation members are free from the control of the enslaving implants they bear. These individuals, known as True Citizens, are mostly scientists, researchers, philosophers, doctors, artists, and other intelligentsia. Recently, certain generals and warlords have emerged as True Citizens. This trend may be an effort to strengthen the might of the Nation’s navy or it may reflect some attempt to reincorporate splinter groups that arose after the downfall. Even so, independent Sansha’s Nation military governors are somewhat rare, but they are utterly ruthless and indifferent to appeals for mercy. Ethnically, the Nation is rather diverse, closely matching the overall demographics of the cluster at large.
True Slaves
True Slaves fill a variety of functions, from performing custodial and other menial labors to serving as the military forces of Sansha’s Nation. Today’s True Slaves come primarily from abducted populations, which are fitted with slave implants. These implants are advanced cybernetic control systems that completely subvert the will of those implanted to that of Sansha Kuvakei and his most loyal commanders.
True Slaves have no will of their own and are often, incorrectly, described as “mindless” by outsiders. In fact, in line with Sansha Kuvakei’s vision, individual True Slaves are very much capable of thought. Moreover, True Slaves display varying degrees of personality and freedom, depending on the degree of control their implants exercise over them, their personal psychology, and the requirements of their tasks. Scouts, recruiters, and intelligence operatives typically present an appearance and personality much like they had before being fitted with implants. Such agents, and other True Slaves whose tasks require extended solo or small group operations, often retain a high degree of individuality.
Necessarily, a spectrum of control and individuality is seen throughout Sansha’s Nation. For example, commanders of fleets are allowed to retain their creativity and decisionmaking skills, while assault troops typically exhibit a singleminded focus on the instructions they receive. It is true, however, that most True Slaves exist in close concert with a form of hive mind that mediates and reacts to the flow of data between Sansha’s central command and individual slaves.
It is extremely difficult to remove Sansha enslavement implants once they have been installed. After a certain time has passed, most True Slaves lose the capacity for independent individuality. The individuality still exists, in a sense, but is so enmeshed with the Nation gestalt that psychological recovery from the enslavement process is irreversible. When a True Slave reaches this point, he lives only for Sansha’s Nation, knowing this and accepting it.
True Citizens
Those who join Sansha’s Nation willingly and are allowed to retain their individuality and personalities without modification or control are known as True Citizens. They are the elite, new and old, of Sansha’s Nation, placed in a position of command and ease according to the grand vision of Sansha Kuvakei. True Citizens are typically those scientists, researchers, philosophers, and other intellectuals who have answered the call of Sansha’s utopian vision. They work together to improve the Nation’s science, technology, and organization. Additionally, most of Sansha’s top commanders are True Citizens. These individuals are given great control over True Slaves, though always with protocols ensuring their control can be superseded by Sansha’s will.
While their status grants them freedom within the Nation, many True Citizens choose to be fitted with implants anyway. These implants link them to the same hive mind the True Slaves are beholden to but do not enslave them. These implants are highly modified and advanced versions of Sansha’s core technology; with all the control functions cut out, they have the primary purpose of boosting the individual’s faculties while linking the True Citizens in a greater whole. Outside analysts of Sansha’s Nation take a more cynical attitude and suspect that many of these implants are indeed greatly advanced, vastly more subtle systems of control willingly adopted by the deluded fanatics of Sansha’s Nation.
CONCORD intelligence has established that, on rare occasions, Sansha targets specific members of society for integration into the Nation’s greater hive mind, exerting additional control over them through the slave implants. Additionally, if a True Citizen has disloyal thoughts or attempts to act against the Nation’s interests, even the limited implants she has voluntarily accepted can be used to bring her back into line. Often, this kind of action results in psychological damage. Depending on the True Citizen’s worth to the Nation, this can end with her converted fully to a True Slave. For their part, Sansha’s Nation and its supporters dismiss these claims as propaganda aimed at undermining the utopian vision of Sansha Kuvakei.
Government
Sansha's Nation is a totalitarian dictatorship, ruled solely by Sansha Kuvakei. He holds complete command over the legions of True Slaves, directing them to whatever whims he holds at the moment. The True Slaves are instructed through implants connected by a fluid router system, allowing Sansha to issue orders to any True Slave at any time, no matter his or their location.
However, Sansha does not have the faculties to control every individual detail of his Nation, no matter how much he might wish he was able to. Instead, he delegates local control to a number of highly trusted, loyal True Citizens such as Vizan Ankonin, Chelm Soran, Citizen Astur, and Citizen Arson. These commanders are given carte blanche to act as they see fit to advance Sansha's vision. However, because they too are fitted with Slave Implants, they are prevented from acting against Sansha's will in any way.
Foreign Relations and Military
Sansha's Nation takes a hostile stance toward most sovereign powers in New Eden. It currently continues to make incursions against the space of all members of the CONCORD Assembly, as well as several non-aligned organizations as well. It has come into open conflict with the Angel Cartel in the past and remains hostile toward them and the Serpentis.
The Blood Raiders and Guristas maintain an uneasy truce with Sansha's Nation, born more out of a mutual hatred of the Amarr Empire and Caldari State than any similarity in ideals. The three groups refrain from attacking each other or preventing the interests of the others from
being achieved. They rarely work together and the Nation has been known to poach members from its allies.
Sansha's Nation is defended by legions of True Slave crewed and piloted ships. Its vessels are instantly recognizable for their unusual designs, featuring spine-like antennas and dark, domed windows. They possess powerful shields, armor, and laser technology, being on the cutting-edge of design and in many cases surpassing the technology of the empires.
The Nation has recently discovered a method of creating artificial wormholes at a whim, enabling them to quickly strike across the cluster and lock down entire constellations. This technology has not been replicated by the empires, giving the Nation logistical superiority over its many enemies.
Most recently, Sansha's Nation has been targeting capsuleers with their incursions, though it continues to make attacks of opportunity against empire targets. Some capsuleers have declared their loyalty to the Nation; recently the Nation has been openly welcoming and recruiting them.
Economy
As the majority of its population are True Slaves who do not require money in any form, Sansha's Nation has no internal currency. True Citizens are given anything they desire, either produced by the True Slaves or captured during raids on its enemies. Resources more generally are allocated throughout Sansha's Nation according to local needs.
The Nation produces the majority of its material needs internally through labor of the True Slaves. It has several colonized worlds dedicated to food production, while utilizing stations and mining colonies to produce raw materials and transform them into new ships and stations. The Nation even has several small factories to produce luxury goods for its True Citizens.
While Sansha's Nation does not actively trade with any party, it does occasionally exchange resources to a limited degree with various outlaw organizations and on certain black markets of New Eden.
Technology
Sansha's Nation is technologically advanced, matching and in some cases surpassing every empire save perhaps the Jove. Even then, the Nation may have access to Jove technology, as they have been captured occupying stations in Jove space. Its areas of particular expertise are ship design, gravitational manipulation, and implant technology.
Slave Implants
All slaves in Sansha's Nation are controlled with Slave Implants. Far more extensive and advanced than the implants capsuleers use to augment their mental acuity, Slave Implants completely subvert the will of those implanted. They can take a variety of forms, ranging from simple neural implants for those considered easy to control, all the way to bulky and invasive "slave helmets" that suppress even the smallest contrary thoughts.
Unlike devices such as transcranial microcontrollers, Slave Implants do not eliminate the ability of the slaves to function on higher levels. True Slaves are capable of utilizing varying degrees of problem solving and creative abilities, often surprising those they are opposing. While a True Slave will never be capable of breaking a command, they are capable of acting in a variety of ways to follow those commands. More trustworthy and loyal slaves are given increasing amounts of autonomy, with some barely appearing different from how they did prior to their transformation.
Even True Citizens are fitted with a form of Slave Implant, though these are primarily designed to enhance the user's abilities rather than subvert their will. Some of these devices have fallen into the hands of capsuleers, who use them to augment their captaining abilities. As yet, these implants do not appear to link the users to Sansha's will, making it seem likely that another vital component is necessary to complete the shackles.
Ships
Sansha's ships are well known for their alien designs, with smooth, bulbous shapes and protruding spines. They possess advanced laser technology, similar in design and function to the weapon systems of Marauders, though all Sansha ship classes utilize it. It's most recent ships have displayed highly efficient energy neutralizers, powerful shields and armor repair capabilities, effective afterburner and microwarp drives, and extensive electronic warfare capabilities.
The Nation utilizes several basic hull designs, though they have great internal variations. The four most well known are known as the Succubus, Phantasm, Nightmare, and Revenant. Blueprints for these designs have fallen into capsuleer hands. However, at least one other style of frigate has been seen, though its name and
design has not been disseminated outside the Nation.
Wormholes
The Nation has also discovered a method of creating artificial wormholes, seemingly at will. These wormholes allow only Sansha ships to pass through, though they can be disrupted by continued gravimetric jamming. The method the Nation uses to create and restrict these wormholes is unknown by the rest of the cluster, giving them a huge logistical advantage.
It is strongly suspected that the wormhole-generation technology employed by Sansha's Nation is based on Jove technology discovered somewhere in the former territory of the First or Second Jove Empires.
Structure
True Power
The military and command structure of the reconstituted Sansha’s Nation was concentrated in the True Power organization by the will of one man, a True Citizen named Vizan Ankonin. By YC 102, the majority of surviving Sansha’s Nation military units had come under the control of the main successor group to the original Nation. The task of persuading other splinter groups of their legitimacy was reaching its limits. There again some True Slave units were particularly obdurate and refused the commands of any True Citizen. There was a need to clear the board of these pieces so that the rebuilt Sansha’s Nation could operate unchallenged in its core domains. Vizan Ankonin proved to be an able commander, and his creative skill on the battlefield was without equal. The True Citizens decided to place Ankonin at the head of their military, an organization they named True Power—after a famous speech by Sansha Kuvakei in which he had proclaimed his Nation as “the true power behind the future of New Eden.” Vizan Ankonin, outfitted with command implants that gave him control of True Power, duly removed all threats external and internal.
With a single, unified Sansha’s Nation once again established, True Power became its most visible presence in space and across New Eden. Defense, raiding operations, and much of the intelligence and security apparatus of Sansha’s Nation are controlled by True Power. The Stain region heartlands of the Nation hold many True Power stations, while Sansha’s Nation battle stations and military complexes can be encountered in the dead spaces of New Eden. The vast majority of True Power personnel are, of course, True Slave soldiers, crew, and workers. However, there is still a place for the elite True Citizens. Notably, even with the apparent return of Sansha Kuvakei, the head of True Power remains the capable Vizan Ankonin, loyal as ever to the ideals of the Nation.
True Creations
Once True Power established itself as the sole heir to the Sansha’s Nation legacy, it found a need to spin off certain related functions into a separate corporation. True Creations was established to run the various assembly plants, shipyards, logistical support, and testing facilities scattered across the Stain region. Naturally enough, many True Citizen scientists gravitated toward True Creations, and the current head of the organization is Koratama Akkaga, a notorious supporter of Sansha Kuvakei from the old days. Akkaga is wanted by every security and police agency in the core empires, but the Republic Justice Department in particular would like to get their hands on the scientist, due to his record of assisting Kuvakei in experiments on Minmatar slaves.
Oddly enough, given the nature of Sansha’s Nation, True Creations has numerous business and political connections beyond the confines of the Nation. The Intaki Syndicate’s Intaki Bank even lists True Creations on its stock investment boards. As the Intaki Bank facilitates anonymous investment quite happily, this makes a certain amount of sense, extraordinary as it may be. Certainly, there are known to be a large number of investors in True Creations, possibly reflecting a latent support for the ideals of Sansha’s Nation across New Eden. Given the recently demonstrated advances Sansha’s Nation has made in several areas of science and technology, many have begun to look more closely at True Creations and its work.
Leadership
With the apparent return of Sansha Kuvakei, the picture of Sansha’s Nation as a totalitarian dictatorship peopled by mindless slaves under the complete control of its founding genius has once again come to the fore. This is a convenient, readily explained concept for the core empires that remain implacably opposed to the Nation. However, this propaganda image does not tell the whole story. It is certainly true that Sansha Kuvakei, or whoever controls the slave implants carried by most members of Sansha’s Nation, wields enormous power over his people. The True Slaves, whatever their level of individuality or capacity for thought might be, are in the final analysis under the irresistible command of he who controls their implants. That person is currently and credibly believed to be Sansha Kuvakei once again.
Yet Kuvakei, for all that he has undoubtedly enhanced himself, and for all that the Nation hive mind assists immeasurably in joining the many skeins of control together in a coherent pattern, cannot exert close control over the entirety of his empire. Sansha Kuvakei needs and has help, most of it the willing help of his fanatical True Citizen followers, and some of it the useful aid of those True Slaves under the loosest degree of control. The very fabric of New Eden also makes this distribution of power and agency necessary. While Kuvakei undoubtedly dreams of technologies of command and control that break the limits of existing faster-than-light technology—and some believe he possesses technology that to some extent already breaks those limits—he and his hive mind remain limited by the fabric of reality.
The leadership of Sansha’s Nation are a varied and disparate collection of scientists, soldiers, administrators, and warlords, but they all have one thing in common: whether True Citizen or True Slave, they all willingly pledge total loyalty to Sansha and his grand vision. Fanaticism is found in many empires, factions, and corporations across New Eden. But seldom has such deep and abiding fanaticism as is commonplace in the leadership of the Nation been yoked to the service of one man’s dream.
Notable Characters
Sansha Kuvakei
In his origins the scion of a wealthy Caldari family, Kuvakei considerably enhanced his fortune as an industrialist and arms dealer during the Gallente-Caldari War. His great wealth and access to expertise in the space technology field allowed him to colonize a great swath of space that he subsequently forged into one realm under his utopian rule: Sansha’s Nation. Over time his ideals and dreams became ever more perverted into a grotesque vision of a select elite, led by him, served by legions of cybernetically enhanced and controlled slaves. His achievement was to actually realize this megalomaniac scheme. CONCORD and the five empires uncovered the reality of Sansha’s Nation and waged a war that seemingly ended with his realm in ruins and his life at an end. Yet decades later, Sansha Kuvakei has apparently returned to lead his True Slave legions once again.
Vizan Ankonin
A skilled and ruthless military leader, Vizan Ankonin rose to lead True Power during the years when Sansha’s Nation was rebuilding itself in the hidden pockets of the Stain region. While Sansha was reckoned dead, Ankonin was considered by many to be the effective head of Sansha’s Nation. In fact, while powerful indeed, Ankonin always worked with the upper circle of True Citizens that had done so much to resurrect the Nation. Since the return of Sansha, an event seemingly welcomed, and perhaps worked toward, by the elites of the Nation, Ankonin has loyally commanded True Power in the name of Sansha Kuvakei.
Koratama Akkaga
Truly one of the old guard, Koratama Akkaga was an early follower of Sansha Kuvakei in the heady days of the Nation’s founding. One of the few that managed to evade the purging invasion by the core empires, Akkaga was instrumental in assembling as many surviving True Citizens as possible during the rebuilding phase of Sansha’s Nation. When it became logical that the production and research functions of Sansha’s Nation should be spun off into a separate entity from True Power, Koratama Akkaga was the logical choice to head the new corporation. Akkaga is especially reviled by the Minmatar for his role in assisting Kuvakei with experimentation on Minmatar slaves supplied by the Amarr.
Citizen Astur
Citizen Astur was one of the most prominent Sansha’s Nation commanders during the initial period of incursions and planetary raiding that took place through YC 112. Astur led numerous raids against each of the core empires, usually commanding in the field from a capital ship such as a carrier, and was for a time regarded as the architect of the Nation’s campaign of incursions. Citizen Astur faded into the background somewhat when the figure calling himself “Master Kuvakei” emerged from the shadows of the Stain region. Astur was confirmed in battle to be a capsuleer, with extensive additional implants and modifications discovered on her various recovered corpses.
Brokara Ryver
Brokara Ryver is one of the relatively few top commanders in the Sansha’s Nation military who is a True Slave. Ryver was at one time a slave in the Amarr Empire, but during the early days of Sansha’s Nation, she was shipped to Stain and fell into the hands of Kuvakei himself. She became one of his most successful early True Slaves, and it is whispered by some that Kuvakei was always rather fond of Ryver. Whatever the truth of those salacious rumors might be, Ryver herself is as emotionless as the machines that riddle her body.
Chelm Soran
Chelm Soran was born with extreme autism. When this condition became evident, he was nothing but an embarrassment to his Amarr holder parents. Chelm was put away until a chance encounter between Sansha Kuvakei—on one of his trips into the empire to arrange transport of slaves to his budding Nation—and Holder Soran. Kuvakei, curious as to the effect his techniques might have on the severely autistic, offered to take the young man off the hands of his parents. The Soran family readily agreed, and Chelm Soran was soon another of Kuvakei’s subjects. Chelm’s unique mind, in fact rather quick and capable of a great depth of analysis, adapted well to Kuvakei’s experimental implants. In the end, Kuvakei, pleased with his new recruit, left the entirety of Chelm’s individual personality in place without controlling implants. Chelm Soran is today one of the most formidable officers in the ranks of Sansha’s Nation, with a bold, relentless drive to succeed in battle.
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