Doriam II Memorial

The Doriam II Memorial.

With tensions just a tad high across the Cluster at the moment, maybe now is the time to look back at what was, in retrospect, a more peaceful time for almost all concerned. YC 105, probably best known as the beginning of the age of the capsuleer, was also notable for the death of Heideran VII. Heideran had been the ruler that empires across history dream of: beloved, peaceful, and, in a particular rarity given later events in the Empire, long-ruling. During the reign of Heideran, the Empire made peace with the nascent Minmatar Republic and joined CONCORD, two events that would have been unthinkable for almost any other emperor in history. Indeed, Heideran was the only ruler that many in the Empire had ever known. His death, though not entirely unexpected given his long battle with Turit disease, still acted as a wake-up call to many in the empire.

A closer view of Doriam’s statue.

Although it couldn’t have been known at the time, Heideran’s death also marked the end of an era of peace in the Cluster, though you probably would not have guessed that based on his successor. Doriam II was, in many ways, cut from the same cloth as Heideran, and in retrospect it seems a minor miracle that he managed to win in the first succession trial to be fought with the use of capsuleer champions. Although he ended up having a famously poor taste in chamberlains, Doriam strove to maintain the legacy of Heideran, both within the Empire and in terms of its relations to the other major nations of New Eden. By no means particularly seeking to rock the boat, Doriam sought to maintain peace with all except for that splinter sect of the Amarr religion known as the Blood Raiders. Indeed, it was his particular antipathy for the sect that ultimately led to his assassination just 2 years into his reign. No Amarr ruler since Heideran has lasted more than a handful of years.

The recently constructed Emperor Doriam II Memorial in Kor-Azor Prime sums up Doriam’s legacy thusly:

During his short rule, Emperor Doriam II was known as a benevolent leader to his people, a peacemaker with the neighboring empires, and a stalwart enemy of the heretical Blood Raiders. Born Doriam Kor-Azor, he was elevated to the Golden Throne thanks to the support of the capsuleers Ecliptical, BlackViper, Grikl and Kileak in the Amarr Championships of YC105.

Doriam II strived to be a just leader for all citizens of the Amarr Empire, demonstrating this commitment early in his reign by embarking on an extended tour to visit every inhabited planet within Amarr space to hear the concerns of local Holders and appear before their populace.

Viewed as a sympathetic successor to Heideran VII, Emperor Doriam II continued his predecessor’s irenic stance towards the Amarr Empire’s neighbors, including efforts to maintain the tenuous peace with the Minmatar Republic. His primary military interventions were directed towards the Blood Raider Covenant, including a major assault on the Blood Raider strongholds within the Bleak Lands by combined forces of the Amarr Navy and capsuleer loyalists.

The success of Doriam II’s campaign against the Blood Raiders saw them driven from the Bleak Lands and the reassertion of imperial rule over the systems the cultists had occupied. However, this success was not to be without a price, as Doriam II was assassinated in the Imperial Palace on July 4^th, YC107. While the killing was a great mystery for many years, the assassins are now believed to have been members of the “Red Chamberlain” Dochuta Karsoth’s Blood Raider cultist cell.

This monument was erected in YC123 by the Order of Royal Heir Ersilia Kor-Azor in memory of her uncle’s leadership of House Kor-Azor and the Amarr Empire.

Half of the Kor-Azor Armageddon-class battleship honor guard.

The site itself is pretty straightforward. A colossal Doriam II stands guard above the clouds of Eclipticum (itself renamed after the captain of the Emperor’s Championship team in the Succession Trials), his back upright and his arms outstretched as if ready to bear the weight of the empire in his hands. As usual, I find myself impressed by the craftsmanship inherent in the statue. The marble used to construct the giant monument captures the gathering of his robes of state so well it seems as if the statue was the man himself covered by only a thin veneer of stone. Standing in two lines stand an honor guard of 8 Armageddon-class battleships, resplendent in Kor-Azor colors. It’s a grand site to honor someone who was, by all accounts, a kind man devoted to his empire.

A side profile of the statue.

That being said, Doriam’s legacy can’t be viewed solely in terms of the good decisions he made or the good intentions that he had. Although I sincerely believe he was a peaceful man who sought to maintain the Empire’s good standing, his errors in judgment cannot be ignored, nor can the chaos that those errors ended up causing. He was, to be sure, not the only one fooled by Dochuta Karsoth (he was initially Heideran’s chamberlain, though Doriam kept him on in the same role), but the fact that a Blood Raider was able to maintain such a high position within the Imperial Palace of an emperor so avowedly anti-Blood Raider is an embarrassment to Doriam’s legacy. And Karsoth’s betrayal directly led to a multi-year interregnum that was only ended by the arrival of Jamyl Sarum, whose legacy is also… questionable at best.

The Professor flies by.

But perhaps I am being unfair. After all, while Doriam may have been a god-emperor revered across the Empire as infallible, he was still ultimately human and therefore imperfect, even if Amarr theology strenuously disagrees with me on that point. He tried, was successful in some ways, and failed in others. Who among us hasn’t experienced that on some level or another? But despite his failings, there can be little doubt that he was devoted to peace across New Eden. As I look back at the events of recent days, I can’t help but be reminded that rulers devoted to maintaining peace for trillions of souls should never be looked down on.

Basic Information:

• Attraction: Kor-Azor Battle Site
• System: Kor-Azor Prime
• Security Rating: 0.9
• Region: Kor-Azor
• Potential Hazards: If you’re below a -2.5 in security status, or -5 standing with the Amarr, you’ll have to deal with some rather unpleasant policemen.