Caldari Prime

Caldari Prime is the homeworld of the Caldari people, and is located in the Gallente system of Luminaire (which also contains the Gallente homeworld)

Until recently the planet was claimed by and occupied for almost two centuries by the Gallente Federation, following the Gallente-Caldari War. Following unprecedented, state wide cooperation under the leadership of Tibus Heth, a massive invasion force successfully penetrated Federation defences and the planet is now once again claimed as a sovereign world of the Caldari State, a status which is enforced by the presence of a Caldari Navy Leviathan-class Titan and its support fleet, which remains in orbit.

History

Collapse

Caldari Prime was initially a barren, uninhabitable world, and the Luminaire system was initially known only as VH-451. The planet was purchased during the colonization of New Eden, by an unidentified Terran megacorporation who proceeded to initiate a Terraforming process designed to convert the inhospitable world into a virgin planet fit for human habitation. Small-scale colonization began soon afterwards, consisting mostly of pioneers and of the technicians responsible for overseeing the terraforming equipment, and their families.

When the EVE Gate collapsed, Caldari Prime was cut off, and given its utter inhospitability towards human habitation collapsed into a dark age very quickly. Most of the colonies died off quickly, leaving only a few scattered inhabitants left to struggle on. It took 246 years for the terraforming process to reach the point where the planet was inhabitable and humans could once again venture out onto the surface.

Geography

Caldari Prime is a cold world, largely given over to tundra, with temperate zones at the tropics and equator. This is partly due to its being near the extreme outside edge of the Luminaire star's habitable zone, and also because the terraforming process, without adequate human oversight, was improperly completed, with the result that the air of Caldari Prime is quite thin, its soil is rather barren and its seas and wildernesses were not properly stocked with creatures and plants, many of which were too delicate to properly survive the frigid temperatures or incomplete ecosystem.

Notable locations include: the Kaalakiota Mountains, the city of Arcurio, and the ruins of the underwater Gallentean city of Nouvelle Rouvenor.

Civilization

The social collapse on Caldari Prime was so complete that it took another eight thousand years after the atmosphere became breathable for the first recorded civilization to arise. Prior to the point, the Caldari consisted of scattered, warring tribes who slowly came together into allied houses. The first empires grew out of these alliances, and over time these empires also merged, eventually leading to the formation of the Raata Empire in the year 17453AD. This empire lasted until 20998 when it collapsed and split into a number of smaller states that were the foundations for the modern Caldari megacorporations.

First contact with the Gallente occured in 22517AD, although the Gallente had been aware of the (at the time) less technologically advanced Caldari for fifty-four years prior to that point. The Gallentean "Cultural Deliverance Society" finally arrived on Caldari Prime one hundred and fourteen years later. When the Gallente Federation was founded in 23121, the Caldari were founder members.

The War

Buildup

"We will not permit you to tell us how to be Caldari, and so you leave us with no choice"

- Excerpt from the Caldari Proclamation of Secession. CE 23154.11.22

The Caldari never wholly clicked with Gallentean government. Even when they were co-founding the Federation alongside the Gallente, Intaki and Mannar, the Caldari megacorps were also establishing secret colonies and deep-space resources outside of Federation borders that weren't subject to Gallentean trade regulations. The Caldari viewed this as part of the process of retaining their cultural identity and autonomy.

When the Caldari extraterritorial assets were, as was inevitable, discovered the Gallente demanded that the Caldari assets be placed under Federation control. The Caldari responded by seceding from the Federation. The result was a tense standoff, with Caldari warships blockading all of the stargates that had been built by the megacorporations. The Gallentean government spent several days debating how to negotiate a peace settlement.

Peace was not given a chance, however. A Caldari extremist organisation known as the Templis Dragonaurs finally set light to the powder keg when they bombed the city of Nouvelle Rouvenor. This city, constructed inside an environment dome deep underwater, was especially vulnerable to this sort of attack. When the sea waters flooded in through the breached dome, they claimed the lives of more than half a million people.

Evacuation

"Caldari Prime burns, those left behind are choking on the dust and ash that fills the air, and you demand our surrender? Is this a joke? You have only hardened our resolve. Every drop of blood you have taken from us will be repaid -- with interest."

- CEP response to Federation demands for unconditional surrender after initial bombardment of Caldari Prime. CE 23155.1.18

The immediate response was for the Gallente to initiate an invasion of Caldari Prime, beginning with a sustained orbital bombardment. Massively outnumbered, the Caldari had no hope of holding on to their homeworld. Evacuating the civilian population required the Caldari to hold the orbit of their planet for a month.

Earning that month required that the Caldari Navy be able to keep the Gallente out of the homeworld's orbit and engaged elsewhere. The details of the Caldari holding actioned are detailed in the chronicle Gallente-Caldari War: The Breakout

The result was a month-long and bloody fight for the orbit of Caldari Prime, that ultimately came to an end with the heroic sacrifice of Admiral Yakiya Tovil-Toba in what became known to the Gallente as the "Hueromont Incident". The Caldari completed their objectives for the evacuation of their homeworld, but could not ultimately consider themselves successful - they were still forced to leave, and would not return for nearly two hundred years.

The war endured for another eighty years after the evacuation of Caldari Prime.

Capsuleer Era

Pilot capsules were actually a direct product of the war, and intially used exclusively by the Caldari Navy in battle against the Federation. The technology only became widespread in YC.105, however, more than ninety years after the end of the war.

Gallente Occupancy

From the end of the evacuation through until YC.110 (AD.23346), Caldari Prime was part of the Gallente Federation, with a population demographic consisting of Gallente and expatriate Caldari in almost equal parts. This was always an uneasy arrangement, and Caldari Prime remained a segregated world, with distinct districts for each culture, and even whole cities where one ethnicity or the other were in the considerable minority.

After the war ended, the continued occupation of the planet became a significant bone of contention for the Caldari, many of whom felt that the homeworld should be returned to them. The Federation, wary of allowing their former bitter enemies a potential foothold in the capital system never agreed to this point of view, and continued to claim the planet as their own.

Up until the rise of Tibus Heth, the possible reclamation of their homeworld was at most a distant, impossible fantasy for the Caldari. Heth's rise, accompanied as it was by a surge of ethnic violence on Caldari Prime, prompted President Souro Foiritain to declare a state of martial law on Caldari Prime. The enforced curfew resulted in increased levels of segregation among the planet's inhabitants.

Invasion

in YC.110, Tibus Heth siezed the opportunity created by the Elder attack on the CONCORD Headquarters in Yulai to initiate a massive invasion of the Federation with single-minded intent - the recapture of Caldari Prime. Heth committed 90% of the Caldari Navy to the invasion. Assisted by the sabotage of the Federation's "Tripwire" border monitoring system, and the proximity of Luminaire to the Caldari border (a mere two jumps), the massive invasion force was pretty much guaranteed to succeed.

With a total of twenty million soldiers committed the ground invasion, and the Luminaire system emptied of Federation warships and every entrance point thoroughly blockaded, the recapture of the planet was swift and ruthless.

The martial law and resultant seperation of the Gallente and Caldari populace into seperate districts made it very easy for Heth to twist President Foiritain's arm. Faced with the deaths of every Gallente on Caldari Prime and maybe on Gallente Prime as well, Foiritain relented and used the presidential emergency powers given to him by the Federation Senate to ratify the Federation's surrender of Caldari Prime to the control of the State. Under Foiritain's orders, the Caldari fleet was allowed to withdraw, leaving a single Leviathan-class titan and its support fleet in orbit over the planet.

Current Status

Caldari Prime is currently a bubble of Caldari territory inside Federation space. Foiritain's signing of the treaty that handed the world back to the State has been alternately hailed as the best possible decision in a bad situation, and viciously criticized as being "spineless".

The planet is under occupation by the State's forces, with the occupying forcces consisting mostly of State Army regulars, supplemented by Provist auxiliaries. Naturally, there is still a significant resistance movement - either Gallente military who refuse to surrender, or rebellious civilians unwilling to take their home's change of ownership lying down. The Caldari have been forced to take extreme measures for dealing with these dissidents, as covered in the chronicle "Under the Sea, the City".