A Day of Remembrance, A Day of Victory

September 10, 2014 became infamous due to the acts of barbarism committed on that day. Now, thanks to the Agents of the New Order of Highsec, September 10th has transcended its dark past and has been transformed. It is the day on which we remember all of the martyrs of the Code.

Of course, not every banned Agent met their fate on September 10th. But in the spirit of the two great virtues of unity and convenience, all have adopted September 10th as the honorary day of their permabans.

The ranks of the permabanned are filled with EVE players as diverse as EVE itself. What they have in common is that they were all creators of emergent content.

As CCP has pointed out, the best content in EVE is the content created by the players themselves. Thus, our martyrs must be considered among the creators of EVE. Everyone who plays EVE owes them a debt of gratitude.

(Amusingly, despite having been banned for the last two years, Agent D400 is still ranked among the top bounty collectors in the entire game.)

What is there to say about our heroes that hasn't already been said? Nothing, perhaps. But that doesn't matter. It simply means that we'll say it all again, each and every year.

The "Permabanned Heroes of the Code" are credited with inspiring the purchase of more than 181 billion isk worth of New Order shares. But it's impossible to calculate the total impact that our fallen Agents have had on EVE. They touched the lives of so many.

I've often observed that our Agents all possess courage and decency. It's no coincidence. The New Order seems by its very nature to attract the best of us.

However, I also believe that some of the courage and decency of our Agents is developed and strengthened after they join the New Order and begin enforcing the Code.

Not only do our Agents have the Code, they have their fellow Agents to lean upon. Iron sharpens iron, good reinforces good.

As for the permabanned Agents, they still encourage those among us who haven't been banned: Their history inspires us.

Indeed, it's not unfair to say that the Permabanned Heroes have more of an impact on EVE--have more relevance--than the leaders of all those petty nullsec alliances with their shifting loyalties, inconclusive wars, and kill-less roaming ops.

And, of course, it is far better to have enforced the Code for a single day than to have lived a lifetime of carebearism and bot-aspirancy.

The experience of our Permabanned Heroes reminds us that our time in EVE is precious--and only because we have made it so.

EVE, apart from the emergent content created by its best players, is empty, hollow, dull, dry, and meaningless. Our Agents bring it to life. They make it a game worth playing. The Permabanned Heroes of the Code embody the very essence of EVE.

Finally, there are the Unknown Permabanned: Those who lacked the ability to inform us of their bans, and those who may be banned in the future. Whoever they are, wherever they are, we salute them.

As we remember the martyred Agents, consider that although they may have been banned, we can still feel their unmistakable presence in EVE. They are still alive and still with us--in our hearts.

Because the CODE always wins. Always!