Its definitely an RP war.
Our reasons for declaring on Moira were firmly rooted in the in character perspective and idealism of the Star Fraction. Basically Moira had already aggressed one of our vessels in nullsec (earning the -10) and a few weeks later took to messing with out engagements against the local pirates with bumping, prank locking and general local goading to gcc etc. This was fine to a degree and expected and we chased them about a bit but then...
Moira declared that Pelille space was theirs and closed to us and Free Captains "were not welcome there".
It was a red rag to the bull of our institutional RP and we had a snap vote of the directorate (which was confirmed a week after by full open vote of the membership in council) and immediately declared war to allow us to freely engage Moira vessels in nullsec and began steps to move our operations over to Pelille to show that our transit, commerce and general operations could not be dictated by any Federal bullyboy in lowsec.
Tactically, the war was about ensuring we'd not be losing sec level to shoot at Moira and to dissuade them from messing with our ships while we were fighting the main pirates in the area.
Strategically, sure we knew that by moving into their HQ system and putting up a Drug-manufacturing industry a few hundred thousand klicks from their base would be a provocation in turn and draw them out perhaps.
Ideologically, well, we're demonstrating that Freespacers cannot be denied access to systems without consequences on the attempted road-blockers.
For what its worth we've enjoyed the Moira blogs, tweets, rp spin and such immensely and it got loads of our players logging in for the summer eager to teach the "federal fascists" a lesson in real politic.
Current status is interesting. We had begun to win the war in earnest last week and felt it was moving towards a conclusion with the likely destruction of the Moira HQ tower in Pelille. But then Moira received surprise reinforcement from Rote Kapelle and Veto corp (and accidently from Rooks and Kings but we think thats purely coincidental) and SF took some major isk losses from hotdrops/surprise ganks whatever you want to call them and we've taken a step back for a couple of days assessing options while leaving the war and blockade in place.
Last I saw last night (had an early night) was that the Moira tower still hadn't been completely repaired but Moira were tooling around with a few guardians trying to complete the job.
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Thing is though please don't try to reach the conclusion this is not an RP war because non-rp'ers have muscled into it. The reality is that it IS very much an RP war declared for purely RP reasons to support the RP of the entities involves acting according to their indentity and belief-systems in-game.
Its the nature of eve that people call friends when things are going wrong and escalation is inevitable, but that does not discredit or ruin the essential seed of creative roleplay at the heart of such conflicts.
SF vs Moira will end in one of two ways. Either we'll have proved the endurance of freespace ethics and radical commercial interest in Placid and outlast Moira + allies ... or Moira will gain dominance over the Fraction and keep Soter's pledge of forcing us out of the region as a "unwelcome destabalizing factor".
Where I think its particularly interesting is it has already highlighted some fascinating comparisons and contrasts between Federal RP and Anarchist RP. The public demonstration and recognition of the Fractions democratic decision-making and voices of the Free Captains make us look like paragons of egalitarian democracy compared to some of the rigid militarist hierarchies of our foes ... which I think asks some interesting questions of Gallente Federation roleplay corporations and those that play characters relishing and celebrating the ideals of the federation political freedoms.
And also provides (nodding at Silas) great mileage for those from non Gallente backgrounds looking for proof of hypocrisy in the vaunted ideals of the Federation.
All in all its great stuff and I love it.
Important posts on the thread btw. I provide direct links past the noise. Like all exciting conflicts it does attract a fair bit of offtopic random trolling by uninvolved people but skip past that .. the meat and drink is good.
Soter's Opening post (sets the terms of the war etc)
http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1505380&page=1#1Soter updates with some kills and Titan sighting
http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1505380&page=1#27Our first public report (war so far)
http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1505380&page=2#58Our second public report (post veto/kapelle intervention)
http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1505380&page=2#60http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1505380&page=3#61http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1505380&page=3#62Timeline of the conflict
http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1505380&page=5#148http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1505380&page=5#149http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1505380&page=5#150