Stuff on the Elders:
First, there's a Jovian bloodline named "
Elders". There's really no evidence they're connected to the Minmatar Elders; indeed, they apparently became more reclusive after the fall of the first Jove Empire. (Many thanks to the EM forums for this info!)
From ingame descriptions:
- Elders were apparently much more common in earlier times (pre-Amarrian invasion?); when they were about, they influenced the Tribes to the point of being able to declare entire regions as neutral ground. -Molden Heath region description.
- Elders can be killed; doing so is quite damaging to a tribe. - Y-DSSK system description.
From here on out, the information becomes confusing, sometimes contradictory, and even just plain silly, but I've tried to pull up the basic facts.
From "Theodicy":
- During the initial invasions of the old Minmatar Empire, Elders were rounded up en masse and sent off to deadly working conditions in an attempt to wage psychological/sociological war on the Minmatar.
- They were sometimes killed after arriving in their new working location... presumably just to make sure they did die.
- Some Elders were young, even chilren.
From "The Empyrean Age":
- by YC 110, few Minmatar still believed the Elders were about.
- despite this, the Elders managed to run a large network of agents to do their bidding.
- the Elders were, in large part, responsible for the building up a secret fleet using the aid money donated by the Federation to the Republic.
- Coordination between the Elders and the Thukker Tribe on a massive scale was possible; it isn't clear if the Thukkers were contacted directly by the Elders or the by their network of agents.
- It also isn't clear if there is an Elder representative for the Thukkers, since their Elder at the time of the Amarr invasion was apparently killed.
- The ships present during the Elder invasion made it quite clear they were representatives of the Elders. This was apparently accepted.
Hope that helps some.