The Lifecycle of an Alliance
Similar to that of new products on the market, the entities of New Eden go through various stages throughout their lives. These are the growth, maturity, decline, and death phases. Even though there may be a variety of factors governing the transition between these phases, it is to be expected that someday all corporations and alliances will experience them all.
The birth of an alliance is a wonderful event in New Eden. Whether for profit, security, or common ideals, corporations bind together (albeit for a hefty fee) and through unity become more able to achieve their goals. This is the start of the growth phase, where recruitment is often rampant. As has been observed with alliances in control of 0.0 space, their creation is often followed by an influx of pod pilots and member corporations. Whether for the glory of battle or the potential of riches, many dreamy-eyed pilots clamber to the opportunities that 0.0 space are rumoured to have. If alliances are not careful in their recruiting, they may attract pilots whose ideals do not align with their own.
Following rapid growth, alliances find that they can hit a saturation point in terms of the members of their alliance. This limit could be due to spacing and expansion constraints (a problem easily solved by invading a neighbour’s territory) or difficulties for the alliance leaders in managing such a great deal of members. An unruly pilot may create a fatal diplomatic blunder if not properly trained and monitored, generating the potential to prematurely throw the alliance into a situation it is not prepared for.
Decline phases are noticeable, as their name would imply, by a markedly decreasing member count in terms of both corporations and pilots. This commonly segues into the death phases, depending on how the decline is brought on. There are two predominant ways this occurs within the larger 0.0 alliances of New Eden.
The first occurs when an alliance is on the losing end of a war. As seen relatively recently with Ascendant Frontier, Lotka Volterra, and Dusk and Dawn, the defenders fight for as long as possible but eventually break under the weight of their opposition’s offensive. As the alliance dies, individual corporations withdraw their assets from the war zone and retreat to a safe ground to rebuild and rethink their strategies. Very frequently, they relocate to CONCORD patrolled space for this period of time as they look to strengthen again in the relatively safe space therein.
The second method of decline occurs when there is disagreement between one or more member corporations of an alliance. One possible outcome of this is a collective division of assets, with one group splitting off and reforming under another name. At this time, both of these groups have potential for renewed growth and new paths of survival.
Inevitably, as all people must die, so must the alliances of New Eden. Though they may cease to exist, their actions and accomplishments can live on through the memories and monuments scattered throughout New Eden. For generations to come, wrecks of broken ship hulls and huge monoliths of spacestations will remain floating through space. These will serve as a tribute to the glorious battles fought and the large corporate and alliance entities that have roamed our diverse galaxy.
