PIE Inc. (Player corporation)

Praetoria Imperialis Excubitoris (also known as PIE Inc.) is the oldest pod-pilot corporation loyal to the Amarr Empire, having been founded early in 105 EST (May 2003). It is believed to be the third oldest surviving player corporation in EVE, and was originally formed by a group of former Jumpgate players. It is notable for its policy of only admitting True Amarr, Ni-Kunni, and Khanid pilots into its ranks and for only flying ships based upon Amarr hulls.

Throughout its existence, PIE Inc. has been a fervent RP supporter of the Amarr Empire and has also engaged in multiple anti-pirate campaigns. PIE is currently focusing on faction warfare, although it is also at war with several pirate groups.

Listed among its achievements are the return of an Imperial Apocalypse to the Empire through a Minmatar blockade, escorting Brother Joshua on his journeys around the Kor-Azor region, being a founding member and former executor corporation of the Curatores Veritatis Alliance, and participating heavily in the conflict between the Amarr Empire and Minmatar Republic.

PIE Inc's current CEO is Rodj Blake, and former heads include Takumi Vetinari, Snook, Hardin, Golan Trevize, Light Kominski, Gaven Lok'ri and Lallara Zhuul.

Current Directors

Rodj Blake - Admiral and CEO
Gaven Lok'ri - Admiral and ex-CEO
Archbishop - Vice Admiral and director in charge of industry
Gaius Kador - Lord Inquisitor and Vice Admiral
Vlad Konstantinov - Vice Admiral
Ruah Piskonit - Commodore and Head of Recruitment
Udyr Vulpayne - Commodore
Shaikar - Commodore

Early History

Eve's launch was not without its problems - major updates, such as Autopilot, were added during the final week open beta prior to retail. Undeterred by any such teething problems, on the 6th May 2003 Takumi Vetinari, Rogue, Jobe, Snook and other PIE members set about creating the corporation. During beta, the cost associated with this was a mere 700 isk, an extremely moderate amount of work. To their astonishment, they suddenly found that they required 170,000 isk in order to setup a corporation. The race was on in their "noob" ships to mine as much Omber ore as they could. After a number of hours, the group had sufficient money and PIE was officially born. (Although a corporation called New Birmingham Technologies beat PIE to be the first to setup a headquarters office in their chosen system of Sehmy, deep within Amarr space.)

During the first few days of operating in Sehmy, Mora and the surrounding sectors, they met many faces which will be more than familiar to PIE members. Their enigmatic Public Relations guru Hardin was found in Mora, parked up and mining. After a week or so, they also bumped into their brothers in arms in the corporation First Praetorian Guard, whose pilots Gazon and Baeloc joined them in acting out their first Amarr roleplay: chasing a foreigner from Empire space. Much fun was had by all present and the seeds were sown for a lasting relationship.

After approximately a month of play, PIE had some 20 or so members and the corporation was well established. They had undertaken a number of sorties with the First Praetorian Guard. (They had just began their RP proper on the official EVE forums in the Intergalactic Summit). The outcome of this was a declaration of war from the Minmatar corporation Oracle, comprising some 70 members. It is fair say that this was the beginning of the full scale conflict between the Amarr and Minmatar population. It was also at this time that, in musing over their close working partnership, that Gazon and Tharrn, leaders of the Guard, entered into merger talks with Takumi Vetinari and other senior PIE members. With the merger complete, PIE was now over 40 strong of active members and engaged in conflict with Oracle.

The tide turned. After initially fighting bravely but against greater numbers of fighters, the combined pilots of 1PG and PIE rose against the Oracle terrorists and dealt them repeated blows, turning the tide of the conflict. PIE was well on its way to forging a name for itself within the EVE universe, based on honour, camaraderie and being at the forefront of Empire roleplaying.

Along the way, a great many relationships were forged with other corporations, including the creation of the Curatores Veritatis Alliance (CVA). Comprising Amarr-only corporations, CVA members shared wars against the terrorists and other would-be trouble makers, as well as undertaking other joint ventures, such as the historic joint purchasing of the blueprint for one of the Amarrian Navy’s greatest: the Armageddon battleship.

(The above section is based upon "A Brief History of PIE", by Takumi Vetinari)

The Sarum Prime Days

The Autumn of 2003 saw many famous pirates (including Tank CEO and the M3G4 corporation) move into the Sarum Prime, Bagodan and Hama solar systems, which were then classed as low-security. Many PIE pilots participated in anti-pirate operations in those sytems and despite regular losses generally proved to be more than up to the task of keeping the Sarum Prime jump-in point (JIP) clear of pirates.

Highlights from this period include Risith's innovative use of smartbomb-equipped battleships to surprise enemies and the inclusion of Arbitrator class cruisers in battlegroups.

Eventually Sarum Prime, Hama and Bagodan were re-classified as high-security systems in the Castor patch of December of 2003 and the pirate menace was deemed to have been removed from those systems.

At the same time, a series of "Show of Force" operations were mounted by PIE Inc and its allies against the Minmatar terrorists of Oracle and The Peoples Front Of Minmatar. It was during these operations that the phrase Golden Fleet was first used to describe a fleet consisting solely of Amarrian warships.

Amarr v Minmatar

Following the reassignment of security statuses in Domain, PIE and its allies refocused their efforts on their wars with Minmatar RPers. This period saw many large fleet battles between the adversaries.

Two events stand out from this period.

Firstly, one of the exceptionally rare Imperial Apocalypses came into the hands of the Ionstar corporation after it won a BIG lottery. In an unprecedented act of benevolence, they decided to give it back to its original owners - the Amarr Empire. The problem with this was that many people, not least the Minmatar terrorists, did not want to see this happen, and the ship had to be transported to the handover ceremony in Amarr.

PIE was one of the corporations that escorted the Imperial Apocalypse home. The convoy came under heavy assault from assorted malcontents including some Aurora actors, but eventually reached its destination.

Secondly, there was a story arc involving the ancient Tal-Romon cathedral. PIE played a major role in moving the cathedral brick-by-brick to its new home in Amarr, despite harassment from Minmatar forces.

Operation Deliverance

By late 2004, it was becoming clear that pirate infestations in southern Domain were proving to be more of a problem than the occasional ganking of random haulers.

A decision was taken with PIE's allies in the CVA to clear pirates out of the systems stretching from Kheram in the North to Misaba in the South and to occupy them in order to make the area safe for peaceful players. In order to acheive this objective, it was decided that a swathe of systems in 0.0 space would also need to be occupied to act as a buffer zone.

And so, PIE moved away from its traditional home in the Throne Worlds and flew south. Battles with various pirate corporations followed, including The Short Bus Squad, The Priory and Hooligans of War. Eventually, the pirates began to move out of the area, looking for prey elsewhere and traders, hunters, missioneers and miners returned to the area.

The campaign, dubbed Operation Deliverance, was so successful that a local Holder donated five hundred slaves to the CVA as a thank you present. This proved to be a double-edged sword, however, as it attracted the attention of the Star Fraction alliance who demanded their immediate release. Needless to say, war followed.

The slaves, dubbed the "Mamet 500", were later taken by Golan Trevize for use in his quest to regain his stolen medal.

PIE Goes it Alone

The closing months of 2005 saw major changes.

With the success of Operation Deliverance, PIE's leadership decided that their presence in the area was no longer required, and so the corporation returned to its bases in the central systems of Domain. As a result of this, an amicable split with the CVA occurred. At around the same time, some older members decided to part ways with PIE, with some joining CVA corporations and a few joining the Mercenary Coalition. A de-merger with First Praetorian Guard also occurred during this period. Despite their loss, PIE continued to inflict losses on their enemies and promote the Empire, and remains to this day a corporation with a reputation for integrity, indefatigability and innovation.

PIE continued to have active wars against both Minmatar terrorists / freedom fighters in the form of the Ushra'Khan alliance, and various RP groups opposed to the Empire on other grounds, such as the Verisum Family and the Blood Inquisition. PIE's first real taste of POS warfare comes from this period, during the war with the Verisum Family in low-security areas of the Bleak Lands.

The Electus Matari War

In late 2006 the Electus Matari alliance was spotted engaging haulers belonging to Imperial Human Resources in the Bleak Lands. This resulted in a declaration of war from PIE Inc., with the stated aim of preventing further raids. After Several months of fighting, the Fate Weavers alliance joined in on the EM side.

The Speaker of Truth and the Reclaiming of Providence

In the Spring of 2007, and during the period of the EM war, PIE was contacted by Brother Joshua of The Speakers of Truth who asked them to assist with his investigations into alleged abuses of power within the Kor-Azor region of Amarr space. PIE, assisted by other Amarrian loyalist groups, successfully escorted Brother Joshua on four separate occasions despite the efforts of the Star Fraction alliance and Holland Reclamation and Salvage to interrupt the operations. Brother Joshua eventually found Aritcio Kor-Azor guilty.

The Brother Joshua escort operations were sandwiched between PIE's participation in two CVA-led campaigns in Providence aimed at wresting control of the Minmatar-occupied segment of the region from the Ushra'Khan. Both campaigns were deemed successful - the first resulting in the capture of the Karishal's Defiance outpost and the second in the capture of UNITY station.

The successes in Providence had the side-effect of increasing Ushra'Khan raids into the Domain region, and PIE has recently been involved in defending imperial space from raids by both the EM and the U'K. Additionally, PIE members have been involved in the defence of Providence from attacks by the likes of the Band of Brothers and Triumvirate alliances.

Defying The Defiants

One of the long-running sagas in Eve is the tale of The Defiants. In late 2006 a rogue Republic Fleet officer stole a mothership, two carriers and assorted smaller vessels from the Minmatar government. These ships were subsequently used to raid The Bleak Lands in a campaign of terror that resulted in the destruction of an Imperial Navy battle station. PIE took part in several battles against The Defiants. Things quietened down when the officer (Karishal Muritor) was assassinated by Minmatar government forces.

However, in November 2007 reports of a new series of raids started to emerge from The Bleak Lands, and then an entire colony of of slaves went missing. The Amarrian government responded by deploying the 7th Fleet to the area, and soon it became clear that the Defiants were responsible.

Once again, PIE was involved in the resulting conflict. One of the Defiant raids resulted in many 7th Fleet bases becoming vulnerable to attack. PIE was assigned of defending these complexes, and did so alongside other Amarrian loyalists. The complexes found themselves under attack not only from the likes of the Ushra'Khan but also other previously neutral groups. This resulted in several new, though short-lived wars for PIE. The need for new war slots was a major factor in the decision to create a new alliance - Praetoria Imperialis Excubitoris.

The Faction War

By the time Faction Warfare started in 2008, PIE was again existing as a single corporation and so was in a position to sign up as a member of the Amarr Militia on day one.