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[Louella Dougans]

Also, it is about the Theology Council's order: "All copies must be destroyed", rather than the misspelling itself.

The existence of a copy, means a Council order is unfulfilled. To have a copy, is to defy the Council.

But still, it is hardly a case for orbital bombs.

Also, the Amarr Empire, has been in space for 2000 years, and has existed for >8000. They are also a practical society, and would know that extreme authoritarianism is not very stable.

Furthermore, the Khanid Zealot background would be nonexistent, if such inquisitions were routine. Given that the Khanid Zealots ancestry is all about the various Khanid cults that have different interpretations of the Scriptures. If such inquisition tactics were so trivially used, the Khanids would have been wiped from the Empire a long time ago.

[Louella Dougans]

also:

http://community.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=137&tid=4

where is the amarr emperor?
2003.09.08 17:31:31
Since emperor Heideran VII failed to attend a CONCORD meeting the other day there has been no signs of him anywhere. All plans for his public appearance have been cancelled, including many book signings of his new book, Pax Amarria. News from the Amarrian authorities have been conflicting, with offices of the Imperial Chamberlain saying he's resting from a slight ailment, while the Imperial Chancellor says he's on a vacation at one of his remote palaces and does not want to be disturbed. The rumor-mill is already at full speed as could be expected and speculations are ripe.

emphasis added

[Seriphyn]

Also, the Amarr Empire, has been in space for 2000 years, and has existed for >8000. They are also a practical society, and would know that extreme authoritarianism is not very stable.

Very true. I think its own of those pandering to lowest common denominator things. 98% of the playerbase won't care...and now they feel badass for having a naughty book. for a funny reason.

[Jade Constantine]

Was the American South during the time of slavery okay with obliterating one of their own cities over a book?

I suspect they'd have been happy to burn a barn full of runaway slaves teaching each other to read the Rights of Man though. (sense of scale in proportion) Amarrian Empire millions of times bigger than the Confederate States.

Was the Roman Empire?

They sure razed and salted one of the greatest multicultural trading cities of the era into the ground and salted the ruins so that nothing grew there for a couple of thousand years. Roman Empire (well republic technically) with orbital lasers - sure I believe they were completely capable of razing a village from orbit for ideological reasons.

Were the Greeks?

Alexander the Great destroyed the City of Thebes to send a message to the other greek city states (you're either with me or against me more or less). All inhabitants slaughtered outright or sold into slavery.

Now, Rome and Greece burnt towns and villages to the ground all the time when they were conquering them or quelling full-blown rebellion. Not in peace time because there was some vaguely threatening document supposedly in the general vicinity. I'm alright with bad things happening, just not them being so utterly implausible it's mind-boggling.

Why is it implausible that an empire built on the interpretation of faith with religious devotion as a method of civil control would consider written ideas a significant threat? Our own history on Earth tells of some of the violent purges the early Catholic church had against its own on minor matters of interpretation after the Nicaean council and subsequent ecumenical councils.

Its interesting reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heresies_in_Catholicism
Specifically in what it actually takes to get somebody labelled a heretic and burned at the stake.

(and consider that a couple of heretical priests in our history certain = settlements and towns in the Eve Universe given the vastly wider scope of the space opera we play)

[Aldrith Shutaq]

Why is it implausible that an empire built on the interpretation of faith with religious devotion as a method of civil control would consider witten ideas a significant threat?

Yes, for significant threats. The chronicle never explains why two 'misplaced' letters are such a significant threat, which is the most frustrating thing about the story. WHY are some of the most powerful institutions in the Empire wasting vast amounts of resources tracking down misprinted books when they could be weeding out Blooder cults or stomping Minmatar terrorists? Is there something deeper about the meaning of the 'misprint', is it some kind of hidden message, subliminal mind control, or is a mark on the professional dignity of the Imperial Presses that humiliating that everyone involved in it needs to be tortured and killed, then everything in the general vicinity of that error needs to be melted? This would all make perfect sense if the book was in some way seriously heretical. But there is no indication to that. It's just a misprint.

Assuming this book is really that dangerous, the act of repression makes perfect sense for the Empire. But still, the scorched earth method still does not, because it simply would cause more harm than even potential good. I admit that practicality is not always on the mind of Imperial officials, but there is a certain point where routine destruction of settlements is going to get noticed and complained about. "Pardon me, but I was the Holder of that town and I rather liked the income I was receiving from it... Now, I understand the importance of a mandate from the Theology Council, but could you please do your operations with a bit more FUCKING PROFESSIONALISM?!" I suppose then you off the Holder and his family, silence anyone else who might have known the real truth (at this point probably a few hundred people), blame it on the Minmatar and fly off to chase the next lead. Job well done! Only had to behead the leadership and collapse the economy of a small corner of Silly Planet #143. Now to do the same to the rest!

There's a big difference between this:

"Sir, we believe the book is in this town. What are your orders?"

"Gather up suspects, interrogate them thoroughly and scour the town. The book will not escape us."

And this:

"Sir, we believe the book is in this town. What are your orders?"

"Blow it up, zero shits given."

So please, explain to me how any of this would make sense in any society besides the Imperium of Man. As I said, I really don't mind the Empire doing evil things, I just want these evil things to be complicated affairs that make sense in the end. Now, I am going to assume that there is more than meets the eye with the story described in the chron, and I will chalk it up to poor writing that it is not well hinted at. However, if you take the chron at face value it just makes the Empire seem like a caricature; an over-simplified mass of stupid government and even more stupid bureaucratic floundering. This is boring. If we're going to have something uber ebil, please take the time to have it make some sort of sense.

[Mithfindel]

Noteworthy that old Aritcio's blowing up one of his subjects' settlements was something that was intervened by the Speakers of Truth - in a case where there was significant evidence that they were acting against the Heir's orders (no matter how nonsensical they were). But yes, at least I think the references to "Amarr God-Emperor" were retconned out of the game.

[Gottii]

I love the idea of rehabilitation slavery in this case.

Thousands of shackled slaves in front of chalkboards, writing "Pax Amarria has only one m" over and over again.

This has to be the worst way to recover from a programming error ever.  ("wait, didnt someone get the correct spelling down from Storyline to Programming?  Shit, ok, ok, we can fix this...")

[hellgremlin]

Why is it implausible that an empire built on the interpretation of faith with religious devotion as a method of civil control would consider witten ideas a significant threat?

Yes, for significant threats. The chronicle never explains why two 'misplaced' letters are such a significant threat, which is the most frustrating thing about the story. WHY are some of the most powerful institutions in the Empire wasting vast amounts of resources tracking down misprinted books when they could be weeding out Blooder cults or stomping Minmatar terrorists? Is there something deeper about the meaning of the 'misprint', is it some kind of hidden message, subliminal mind control, or is a mark on the professional dignity of the Imperial Presses that humiliating that everyone involved in it needs to be tortured and killed, then everything in the general vicinity of that error needs to be melted? This would all make perfect sense if the book was in some way seriously heretical. But there is no indication to that. It's just a misprint.

Assuming this book is really that dangerous, the act of repression makes perfect sense for the Empire. But still, the scorched earth method still does not, because it simply would cause more harm than even potential good. I admit that practicality is not always on the mind of Imperial officials, but there is a certain point where routine destruction of settlements is going to get noticed and complained about. "Pardon me, but I was the Holder of that town and I rather liked the income I was receiving from it... Now, I understand the importance of a mandate from the Theology Council, but could you please do your operations with a bit more FUCKING PROFESSIONALISM?!" I suppose then you off the Holder and his family, silence anyone else who might have known the real truth (at this point probably a few hundred people), blame it on the Minmatar and fly off to chase the next lead. Job well done! Only had to behead the leadership and collapse the economy of a small corner of Silly Planet #143. Now to do the same to the rest!

There's a big difference between this:

"Sir, we believe the book is in this town. What are your orders?"

"Gather up suspects, interrogate them thoroughly and scour the town. The book will not escape us."

And this:

"Sir, we believe the book is in this town. What are your orders?"

"Blow it up, zero shits given."

So please, explain to me how any of this would make sense in any society besides the Imperium of Man. As I said, I really don't mind the Empire doing evil things, I just want these evil things to be complicated affairs that make sense in the end. Now, I am going to assume that there is more than meets the eye with the story described in the chron, and I will chalk it up to poor writing that it is not well hinted at. However, if you take the chron at face value it just makes the Empire seem like a caricature; an over-simplified mass of stupid government and even more stupid bureaucratic floundering. This is boring. If we're going to have something uber ebil, please take the time to have it make some sort of sense.

Aldrith, I fucking loved your post. This may be due to vodka. I am responding to it specifically.

Imagine if there was an empire. One built entirely on the precepts that some people are holier than others, and thus automatically know better than you, how to live your life. Imagine that at the head of this empire sat an Emperor, a quasi-immortal being who has defied centuries of death to bring you a message from god. This Emperor is infallible because he was chosen by GOD HIMSELF and if you believe anything different you get sold into slavery. Now imagine how such an infallible emperor would deal with a typo misprint of his treasured work, meant to be read by all Amarr.

There is plenty of bureaucracy, yes, and there is plenty of civilized-acting fellows in shiny coats who do not think they are evil; but in the end, their very empire is an evil, a stratified slave-ridden caste system where everyone gains the handholds to advance forward by driving their daggers into an older man's back. This is what the Amarr are, an ever-expanding religiously justified termite mound.

[Graelyn]

If that's all they were, we never would have cared.

If that's all they are now, then we won't care any longer.

[Aldrith Shutaq]

I think what I'm the most upset about is that the chron just confuses the hell out of me. I have no idea why things are blowing up, and that's the author's fault for not being clear about it. Is the Theology Council, MIO and Chamberlain trying to eliminate all first editions of the book because it is the only one that is untouched by their censorship (which would make for a compelling story), or is it because some dude goofed on the front cover of one of the most important books in the universe and SOMEHOW the 5-jillion people working on it didn't notice until after it shipped. Option #1 is awesome. Option #2 is derp.

I'm going with Option #1 because I really can't imagine anyone willing to die to protect a 2-letter misprint.

[Yoshito Sanders]

People getting all bent out of shape out of a chron that's intentionally written to be jokey.

[Ghost Hunter]

People getting all bent out of shape out of a chron that's intentionally written to be jokey.

The chronicle does a poor way of conveying that, unless its complete absurdity is meant to show that.

[lallara zhuul]

Ass Mode
   
An intentional series of behaviors or statements by a disgruntled employee designed to harass the employer with out reaching a level that would result in the justified termination of the employee.

Ass Mode was first seen on the CBS "Late Late Show" with Craig Ferguson. Where Craig often say's something that is not politically correct or controversial ad will end the statement with the CBS catch phrase "CBS Cares" This behavior has also been seen on the "David Letterman Show" when Dave will say things about GE which owns CBS.
Craig will sometimes tell the audience that the show is running in ass mode because CBS is so cheap that the lighting hasn't been fixed, or a graphic was reused by crossing out part of it and crudely drawing in the new material

[Lyn Farel]

If that's all they were, we never would have cared.

If that's all they are now, then we won't care any longer.

^

Can we get less goofy Amarr material for once or are they just here to be the laughing stock of the cluster since Heideran and Doriam died ? I am starting to get seriously bored of the usual "Amarr are evil twirling mustache jesters". DONT MAKE NO SENSE IN MY EVE.

Reminds me of Clear Skies 2 "Blame the Amarr. Nobody likes them anyway." No wonder why Amarrian RPers are dying since TEA.

I think what I'm the most upset about is that the chron just confuses the hell out of me. I have no idea why things are blowing up, and that's the author's fault for not being clear about it. Is the Theology Council, MIO and Chamberlain trying to eliminate all first editions of the book because it is the only one that is untouched by their censorship (which would make for a compelling story), or is it because some dude goofed on the front cover of one of the most important books in the universe and SOMEHOW the 5-jillion people working on it didn't notice until after it shipped. Option #1 is awesome. Option #2 is derp.

I'm going with Option #1 because I really can't imagine anyone willing to die to protect a 2-letter misprint.

This is what I have never liked with most of their newer chrons (unlike the old descriptives ones about Concord, Khanid, Blood Raiders, Vak'Atioth, etc etc) : they always have to be cryptic in some way, and make you scratch your head over and over again wondering what they meant with that. Sometimes to a point where I start to wonder if they are not thinking "omg look how deep my stories are !".

Reminds me of the end of ME3. Want to be artistic and tends to forget everything else related to the context.

[Arnulf Ogunkoya]

I think you are missing the point here.

The narrator of this chronicle is, presumably, a Paxista or Paxist as per the definitions given within it. The stories of settlements being obliterated for suspected posession of a copy is the view of one person. Think of this person as a conspiracy theorist and the chronicle makes much more sense.

That's not to say the bit about copies being hunted down because their existance goes against an order of the Theology Council doesn't make sense.