Thern alpha; & omega, & the two thieves.

I met Thern in Anckee, an area close to my current home of Mobrault. He seemed like a nice enough character and was flying with a close friend of mine, Lord Valspeir, so I decided to take the risk and engage him in an interview. He was one of the few of their pack who had an ego large enough to interview, but an ego regarding what I was not sure for I could barely find out. It seemed as if Mr. Thern alpha had so intense an ego, that he could not even capitalize his last name, or maybe it was that capitalization wasn't his fancy, another useless form of punctuation.

I asked him to describe himself to me, and he claimed he was a thief, scammer, avoxer, general horrible moral-less spaceman of tranquility. Beyond that, he wasn't much of anything, other than another American, but a nice one. Perhaps if I was to ever visit America, he'd show me around. Though, after our short conversation, it seems more likely he'd never pick me up from the airport. That's okay since I hope I never travel to that land of freedom since France is filled with much more liberty.

He claimed he had helped some people out in Omist, or was it that he helped some people out of Omist. I can not recall. He spoke in short lines, without periods and without complete thoughts, a sort of rambling, like the rambling of a thieves I've met outside of Tranquility. He used many words synonymously, avoxing for instance also meant grieving, and grieving also meaning awox, and awoxing also meaning grieving without grief, and I just can't figure it out because it's an acronym. To put it bluntly, this man confused the living piss out of me, which is probably how people fall victim to his tactics.

So, a quick talker, amongst other things, he claimed to be a wormhole lover, and an American. While I wasn't that interested in talking about America, as I live here and know the general substance of our politics, state, and society, Thern seemed to be more an American than a Tranquilitan, so it kept coming up. The only thing I can say is this man would make a better spy than whatever he does at the moment.

He might also make a decent preacher since his understanding of crime & punishment, his understanding of exploitation, and his understanding of morality where quite well-versed. He knew what was a crime, and what was not, but when posed the question, "How can you be good or evil in eve? Since it's just pixels..." he did not know the answer. However, he did know it was about personal choice, or was that "personnel" choice?

Regardless, he was a griever, an act he considered to be on a higher moral caliber (no pun intended) than avoxing, or awoxing, whichever one it is. He grieves for spaceships, assets, isk, and space, a sort of scamming when you get right down to it, taking whatever materials and goods one is willing to hand over at the time. And thus, the level of ambiguity and synomity, is 'synomity' a word? (NOPE) sure it can be one for now, reached an all-time high with scamming joining the malicious acts of grieving without grief.

He bragged about being in the crime & punishment forums, on eve online's eve gate I assume. I do not care to look it up, even as a journalist, I found the moral fiber of him to be a bit below my rational & emotional level of caring about. His heist on the forums was in the amount of "6 or so bil," then he had "another for 23 bil," finally "a few other like one where i toke 2 thana's, an orca, an rorq and several battleships from a c1 wh group". I found that one particularly amusing for its form and practice, exploiting the weak, but marginally more powerful than others, wormholers, for their industrial spacecraft which build the spacecraft of others.

As a thief, his efforts were top-notch, I just wish I had a better memory for the personal or personnel experiences he was involved in, since he spoke so much about nothing that the contentless lines kept filling up our conversation log, pushing the few points of content farther and farther apart. But then again, it is really my fault, a novice journalist, I need to take better notes as I interview.

When asked why he does it, he replied "I had the chance and i toke it". I honestly couldn't agree more! If I was in a position to steal several rorq's from a wormhole, well, I'd have to level up my skills just to fly them. I suppose that is what he meant by chance, as that is what many mean when they say luck, but I was inferring at the moment of interview that chance meant something more like opportunity. I guess we'll never know which word we really meant.

When questioned about his alts, he claimed to have 12, well, he had 12 toons, he had 4 accounts, and his mains were Caldari, Minmatar, and Gallente. Thus, he avoided having an Amarrian alt, *ahem* I mean main, I can only imagine why, being an American as well as a member of the military, I'm sure that had no impact upon his choices. When I exclaimed that was a fair number of alts, he unamusedly claimed to have had more in the past, but sold many off, and gave some to friends, and so on. I just could not imagine where this man (or woman, or whoa-man, or squirrel, or weman) found time to learn eve in 6 months and then play 20 or so toons.

When I asked what propelled Thern alpha forward in the game, what made Mr. alpha tick and move, jive and dive, he claimed, "i like playing due to the thrill/ppl", which I found quite amusing since I have found fewer role-players in Tranquility than in real life. I suppose he just really liked people, and taking their stuff, while I find most communities, whether Tranquility or not, a real bore. But then again, I'm generally the one "entertaining" the communes. When asked if he was more on the side of creation or destruction, he claimed to be on "both," since he has both industrially produced things, such as an archon, and since he also "pop"s things, https://zkillboard.com/character/577352168/ .

He holds a strong relationship with the goons, whom he likes, and says they are not more evil or bad than other groups, since they just like the "bad guy" image. It seems like you're not really evil or bad in eve, considering its just pixels, but the pixilation didn't matter to Thern, what mattered to Thern was stealing a huge load of hard-worked for isk and getting out of the wormhole alive to tell the story about it... if he & I could only recall a few more details. I figure if people like Thern can be friends with the goons and still blow up their spaceships, I could too, so I set out to make this a new goal of mine, if I could find the time in my busy schedule.

Dharen Wakefield; the knight inside the armor.

In the system of Hare, constellation of Elerelle, region of Solitude, I stumbled onto Dharen Wakefield. For those of you who don't know who Dharen Wakefield is, you're about to find out. What I can tell you about him before we go any farther is that Sir Wakefield is a renown legend in the Solitude Agora, a member of the SteRoid alliance, and a member of the White Knights of Britannia [UKLTD] corporation. I stopped to ask him a few questions, where he went to from Hare, I can only guess, but some of the questions I had time to ask were quite illuminating about just who the legend is behind the face, Mr. Dharen Wakefield.

I let him know our conversation was on the record, the content of what we said would be recorded, which I can only assume struck him as a polite gesture. Considering we're always being recorded by the Gallente Federation, under the scope, in our travels through Solitude where we both call home, it seemed polite on my part. And since Wakefield is a man of the public light, as far as I can tell, he seemed quite open about discussing the details of his life here in Solitude, or at least some of them. Once I started to interview, I took a seat in my Retriever, amidst a belt of top isk plagioclase, and started to query the mystery for all of us to read at Thee Free Press.

One of the questions I just had to ask, and I'm sure many of the readers of Thee Free Press were curious about, was who Wakefield is. So I asked him, "Who are you?" and surprisingly enough, he told me just exactly who he thinks he is.

"Well, you see, personally, I see myself as Solitude's vigilante hero," I thought as Wakefield spoke, time and time again about this 'vigilante hero,' "whenever I see some poor guy ratting alone in a shiny ship, I make sure to help him out of it in a timely, professional manner." It definitely made sense, vigilante hero was just the right phrase to use, "I even provide free pod express service as well!" He boasted at the conclusion of his short explanation of his identity.
It wasn't that he was wrong as some of you might be thinking, as a member of the press, I know there's always two sides of the coin, the story always goes further, so I asked, "Many that I speak with regard you as a pirate, do you have anything to say to those people?" Perhaps, he found this question too brazen of an attempt to dissect morality, though his response, "But you have heard of me," referral to a popular image, Pirates of the Caribbean, was more than poignant: http://i.imgur.com/QM4V96V.gif He also responded with laughter, something I found enjoyable throughout my conversation with Wakefield, his jovial spirit!


I wondered, what he was suggesting. That I was the British soldier, come to ask him questions, and I had heard of him but knew nothing! Or he, a member of the White Knights of Britannia, a British soldier, and I was the pirate suggesting he had heard of me but knew nothing. This universal appeal to a movie I unfortunately missed out on, since much of the collection of holoreels I have aboard my Retriever are audio, non-visual, surrealist works of fiction and essays and lectures on theoretical dialectics.

Lost for a moment in the context, I decided to start another approach, I queried Dharen on life before the White Knights. And in an honest, but relatable account, he told me his short tale of coming to live in Solitude. "Oh, I'm afraid my past was horribly dull, I would spend my time in a Retriever in Nare," a system located in the Kor-Azor region, within the constellation Panoumid, "going at Pyrox(eres) all day, this was until I met an older pvp'er by accident who took me under his wing, and we decided to join White Knights to see what was cooking," he paused to laugh for a moment. I could only guess what the accident was that connected those warriors' fates together.
"After https://zkillboard.com/kill/42029555/ ," a combat scenario wherein Wakefield landed the final blow, with a group of White Knights, in the system of Eytjangard, of Metropolis region, Wakefield was hooked! "There was simply no going back, I could never shoot at stuff that didn't blow up again." That was the event that catalyzed Wakefield's current ego, 'the vigilante hero of Solitude.' But what it unveiled to me was that Wakefield was in fact a miner before being a lawful or lawless, vigilante or pirate, hero.


This I had to know about, since many of our brothers and sisters in Tranquility are industrialists such as myself, I wanted to know, "Is there anything you see in common between the industrial sides of Tranquility, and the militaristic sides?"

To which Dharen revealed to me a quite freeing viewpoint of the universe, "I believe in the military economy of eve, everything goes a full circle. Without miners, there would be no minerals to create our ships, and without pvp'ers, there would be no market for selling ships! At least not a proper one!" was what he said regarding the differences between the sides, or rather their functioning together, I chuckled as I wondered if Dharen considered himself a fixer of the market, whatever that might be. "As for actual similarities?" He added, " Blow up defenseless shit during both!" Of course with the healthy dose of laughter.

I tried to relate as best as I could, I tended to see asteroids as a resource separate from harvesting pain in the way of tears, or isk in the way of bounties, and I barely could relate to the idea of blowing asteroids up. To me it seemed more to be about collecting the pieces of the asteroids, more than simply destroying the asteroids for the ceasing of the asteroids themselves. And I just couldn't make the theoretical jump of fully tying the pieces together, for when one's ship is destroyed, it is really gone, whereas asteroids reoccur every 24 hours. However, there was some truth in it, and since your clone is eternally afforded you from the Gallente Federation where we call home, there was no real harm done, since his outlook was not that of a lawless pirate, but again, a refined Knight of exceptional tastes.

So, I took on the next question in my stock of questions, "Is it the fun, or the isk? What do you do it for?" And Wakefield told me the honest truth about the legend he is, "I'm here for the whole package. I'm here to gank and be ganked, I'm here to kick ass and get obliterated, to cause as much destruction and havoc as possible, and of course," which of course to me was knowledge I was not privy to, "to fuck up Bitslix whenever they turn off the batphone and offer a 'fair fight.' The isk is merely a means to keep at this, since throwing ships into every fireball I can find gets expensive." I wasn't sure if Wakefield had a particularly horrible killboard record, nor have I checked, he represents to me something larger than what his killboard could make him out to be. & what his response told me was something equally important, he's got heart for this land, this land of Solitude, he's a man out there everyday making sure Bitslix doesn't oppress industrialists at gates, or cyno drop on an ally of his and unbalance the odds, Wakefield is a man who stands for not just the White Knights, but for no Bitslix, and for no batphone tactics in combat. Wakefield also stands for true honor and sport, as he added "Where's the fun in only picking fights you KNOW you can win," he shouted the know at me, I could only imagine he was taunting me to come out and duel him as he said it.

I wasn't much in the mood for fighting, rather in the mood for analyzing Dharen Wakefield, the man behind the mask, the legendary vigalante of Solitude, while collecting a few plagioclases from the belt. So, in the spirit of Thee Free Press, I querried further about Bitslix, and Wakefield told me about them, "Whelp, besides their unimpressive set of morals, they seem like quite a successful corporation, strong core of players, trained doctrines and good coordination. They also seem to be having fun in this game, again, even if that is by awoxing and batphoning." Perhaps Wakefield was working with the White Knights, attempting to destroy Player Owned Customs Offices of others, and undermine their influence in the region, to some that would be regarded as a negative action. But at the very same time he was recruiting for them, the White Knights, and their executive alliance, SteRoid, making something out of the group, giving it growth and a future. Certain activities within Tranquility, Wakefield was above, and certain activities within Tranquility, Wakefield was below, but he is still a very moral man, a Knight.

With a sense of respect for oneself as Wakefield had, I had to know where he saw himself in 6 months to a year, was this it? Were the White Knights really that amazing? Was Dharen's heart really in accord with the British ideals of, 'who dares, wins,' the famous White Knights tagline? So I asked, and he told me, "I'll stay as long as I'm having fun getting into retarded fights with my brothers in arms, and I see us doing great things in the future, we are growing strong and we have experienced leadership. We got something good here, and people will know our name." It seemed he really was along for the ride for good. While he was just a recruiter and warrior in their ranks, he felt their ranks held greatness above him and around him, that was something worth striving and investing in. "For better or worse, hopefully the former" he added with a laugh.

I asked about the Radical Turnips, a corporation involved in the SteRoid alliance formally, to my querries he would not reveal who they were or what they did, other than stating "the real boss may or may not be in there (the Radical Turnips)" with a wink. So seeing that Dharen Wakefield's lips were not sealed about the secrets of who he is, the legendary hero of Solitude is not ashamed of any of his actions, I felt complete with my overview of him for the moment. Seeing that Dharen Wakefield's lips were sealed regarding the White Knights inner workings, I would have to schedule an interview with someone a little more in management position, someone who might enlighten Thee Free Press regarding the how's, when's, why's, the who's of the White Knights of Britannia.

Finally, an utopianist myself, I had to know, "If you could change Tranquility in one way, what would you do?" Wakefield told me he would nerf cloaks and remodel the rupture. Precisely, Wakefield would like to see a dedicated probe come out of Gallente Federation's research here in the near future, perhaps with some Jovian technology attached, to probe down cloaked ships, sitting on-grid near stations in home systems, I can only imagine he has had trouble with this sort of tactic before. And when asked to comment farther upon the rupture's esthetics, "Anything would help the drill look better, to be fair." he stated.

A man of many words in the public spotlight, a man of legendary qualities among so many capsulleers with so few, a knight of chivalry, sport, honor, and a respectable sir in the courts of Solitude, especially that low security region from Boystin to Amarr, where his heroism is felt so ubiquitously. I felt I hadn't really grasped who Dharen Wakefield is, but grasping wasn't my goal, I was still always learning who Yoshiyo Solette is, I knew from talking to myself that there was always another question to be asked to solve the mystery of the ego, but I felt I had done justice enough to unveil the Who of Wakefield for Thee Free Press.