10 Questions for Triumvirate

Triumvirate is a relatively new alliance that currently lays claim to a large portion of the Venal region. They have sprung up, seemingly out of nowhere, over the past year, controlling space and carving out their own little empire in lawless space. I caught up with Darknesss, the CEO of DOOM, one of the 3 founding corporations of Triumvirate, to ask him a few questions about the rapid rise of his alliance in the large galaxies of lawless New Eden Space.

IC: The name Triumvirate refers to a regime of three, why did you select this name for your alliance?
Tri: We felt that Triumvirate was fitting because the alliance originally consisted of three corporations with each CEO having equal powers.

IC: Why have you decided to claim Gurista space?
Tri: Our claim on venal was simply a way to generate more fights for ourselves there. After seeing D2's claim on the region and feeling that we controlled the region far more than they did we decided to make our claim publicly.

IC: How far will your conquest of lawless space go? Do you have a set number of conquerable stations in mind?
Tri: There is no set target for controlling stations; we felt like taking space was the logical next step for Triumvirate, and we also felt we were ready. As to when will we stop or how far will we go, we are happy with what we have at the moment. We are also happy to have neighbors next to us which we can fight on a regular basis; however the possibility of expansion is not something we will rule out.

IC: What is the most important thing to remember in order to survive in 0.0?
Tri: Surround yourself with targets. For any alliance to function independently they, in my opinion, need to have a well trained fleet. To surround yourself with friendlies means your fleet has less targets and becomes weak. Alliances that don’t give their fleets targets could and have in the past regretted it later on, especially as their greater experience could move on to other alliances and corporations.

IC: For our readers who live under the protective blanket of Concord, I'm sure many of them want to know about the difficulties of living in lawless space. What would you consider to be the greatest problem you've faced while living in Venal?
Tri: Even though we quite often controlled the space during the earlier times we were in Venal problems arose when we couldn’t control docking in those systems; enemies can dock when it suits them under the protection of the Guristas. But of course the protection works as an advantage for us as well. It is also a region which is used as an entrance to many other regions, so regular fleets and even supercapitals would come and go through the region. Though I must stress the fact at this time Triumvirate holds no claim over Venal, all our efforts are aimed towards Deklein and our enemies there.

IC: You’ve risen to be a very powerful alliance within 0.0 over a short period of time. What do you attribute this to?
Tri: I think it was the slow growth, when we started as a very small group of experienced fighters a lot of the north showed clear respect for us and that was reciprocated over a long period of time. During the first 6 months Triumvirate was an alliance of under 200 people but as time went on more and more people became interested in joining the alliance and our rate of expansion increased significantly. I think due to most of our leadership being in other alliances in the past we knew what we wanted and what combat pilots wanted, so we set out to accomplish what we could largely on our own while having very few rules for our pilots and most importantly as many targets for them as possible.

IC: Your diplomatic choices varied greatly during the past year, seeing yourself be at war with some larger northern alliances, then befriend the same ones. How do these diplomatic choices affect the trust you build between other corps and alliances?
Tri: Well there has been some diplomatic damage over the course of our life as an alliance, however every time we have reset a standing or befriended people we have always felt that it was both justified and in the best interests of our alliance. When we do reset standings we aren’t hostile towards those alliances, we explain the situation as best we can and why we feel an alliance is no longer necessary or in our best interests. Even though we left the forces of the north while fighting BoB, we still have very good personal friendships with pilots in alliances such as Morsus Mihi, Razor, and IRON, so I feel there is little if no damage to our trust as an entity.

IC: Which organization have you had the greatest altercations with during your time in 0.0 space and what was the eventual outcome?
Tri: Well I would say our longest standing enemy was probably IRON. We have had many engagements with them and their friends particularly in the past. However at the time we were engaged in hostilities with them we were simply not in a position to threaten their territory, due to our size and the size of the Northern Coalition. The outcome was a respect formed over a great many fights. But the southern war put an end to that dispute.

IC: Do you expect that Triumvirate will allow resident corporations to operate within its conquered space? Why or why not?
Tri: Should we maintain control of our space over the coming weeks and months I think there is a possibility of us allowing certain residents access to our space, but those residents will be very closely monitored and selected. We do not wish to put profits above the main goal of Triumvirate, war. Surrounding ourselves with a sea of blue residents is the way neither our leadership nor our members wish to go.

IC: Ok, last one: Where do you see yourself this time next year?
Tri: Hopefully as a major contending force in New Eden. Our future, however, is uncertain; we don’t plan things long in advance; we take each day as it comes. I expect there are many fights to come for Triumvirate over the next year. I also feel we have accomplished a lot in the last year, more than I ever could have predicted. Hopefully we will accomplish a lot more. It is definitely an exciting time for us.

Thanks to Darknesss of Triumvirate for this insightful look into the workings of a rather new and powerful player in the lawless regions of space.