EVE Evolved: History of the Interstellar Starbase Syndicate
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The Great Southern War
There have been a few Great Southern Wars in EVE over the years, but the first has special significance as it marked the transition from individual alliances waging wars to massive coalitions working together. With nowhere left to expand except into ISS systems, the Catch-based Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate declared war on the ISS and did not agree to leave the publicly owned stations untouched. A fivefold increase to dreadnought hitpoints had made death stars ineffective for system defense by this point, and the political and economic defenses that had kept ISS safe no longer cut it: The Syndicate was going to war.
With the public stations under potential threat, ISS went on the offensive, joined by fleets from Lotka Volterra and Mercenary Coalition. Despite initially pulling together the largest combined capital fleet ever seen in EVE up until that point, the group lost momentum over the Christmas holidays. Rumours that Russian alliance Against All Authorities was planning to enter the war caused Mercenary Coalition to pull out for fear of losing valuable capital ships. Red Alliance, Against All Authorities and others joined IAC and took the war to Lotka Volterra, sparking off the first Great Southern War. The ISS stations were rapidly overrun in the south, while Dusk and Dawn alliance simultaneously took the northern outposts.
Brendan "Nyphur" Drain is an early veteran of EVE Online and writer of the weekly EVE Evolved column here at Massively. The column covers anything and everything relating to EVE Online, from in-depth guides to speculative opinion pieces. If you have an idea for a column or guide, or you just want to message him, send an email to brendan@massively.com.
