Celestial Horizon Corp.

From EVE History

Celestial Horizon Corp. [CLS] was founded by Ishkur (formerly Tarpeia, from Earth & Beyond's Galileo server) on January 17, 2004. It was started when around ten players who became bored of Earth & Beyond moved to EVE. They soon expanded to around 30-40 people, and when Electronic Arts announced the closure of Earth & Beyond CLS membership exploded almost overnight. Tarpeia was a well liked and respected member of the Earth & Beyond community and he invited anyone wanting to start in EVE to join CLS.

Early History

CLS was, for a while, a medium sized but still growing corporation with headquarters and base of operations in Carirgnottin. Gradually as the corporation grew, departmentalisation led to the opening of new offices across many regions of empire space. CLS' member base steadily grew as 'refugees' from Earth and Beyond joined the ranks, however as time passed and the corporation became larger and more well known, the majority of the new recruits were from other corporations. At its peak, CLS had over 550 members, and was for a time fairly early on in its existence the largest corporation in EVE, which is attributed to the influx of EnB players. At this time the corporation was seen as 'huge', and was large enough to afford fairly high levels of autonomy to each of its departments.

CLS' first war in Carirgnottin was with Mercenary Frigates (who later became Mercenary Forces). Most members were still only days old, and thus battles were short, and mostly involved rookie ships and frigates.

CLS was later in at least 2 other wars involving MF later on. At one point CLS hired them in Empire wars against the Curse Alliance [CA] alongside Body Count Inc. (BDCI) and Sharks With Frickin' Laser Beams (FRICK) (who later formed the Mercenary Coalition [MC]). MF lasted approximately 1 day and then swapped sides. They declared on CLS, FRICK and BDCI. MF then joined CA and due to the war system mechanics, their wars transferred to CA. BDCI and FRICK had no lack of targets in empire. It was around this time that Ishkur stood down and CYVOK took over leadership of CLS, where he would remain until the fall of ASCN.

Around the end of their first empire war, CLS was already dabbling in the then extreme risk areas of 0.0 space, and eventually managed to secure membership in the Immensea Federation, part of the Xetic and Immensea Federation [XIF]. Initially they operated from an area of space in the South East once upon a time colloquially referred to as 'the [stick] man', an area comprising mostly Feythabolis. CLS gradually increased its presence in 0.0 space, in the Feythabolis Region, swiftly becoming one of the major players in the essentially separate 'Immensea Federation'. All of this occurred in the frontier-like setting of early 0.0 space, when there was no Player Owner Structures (POS), no Outposts, and when each 0.0 region in XIF space had only three stations: One Cloning Facility (VNGJ-U), one Refinery (UB5Z-3), and one Factory (2-RSC7). With UB5Z-3 in the middle, there was an average of 10 jumps to the nearest station. Though manufacturing slots were severely limited, and research non-existent, the activities performed included mining of high end minerals (Arkonor, Bistot), production of ships and consumables, and local area defence. As their presence in 0.0 grew from a handful of fighter/miners, CLS adopted a more proactive role within XIF, providing input to leadership discussions and, once the facilities to develop space became available, heading the local construction effort along with the other big players in Feythabolis such as Corporation of Red Moon (CORM), and others.

Curse Alliance/Xetic War

It was during their membership of XIF that Waagaa, then a pilot of Celestial Horizons, blew up HatePeace LoveWar's hauler and CA declared war in retaliation. In retrospect CLS generally believes this was a setup, but at the time no one paid the political underpinnings much attention outside of the forums, the result being a long-anticipated all-out war. As Stain Alliance (SA) were already at war with CA, XIF and SA combined shred CA's forces over the next few months. CA ultimately imploded, officially due to 'internal issues', however it would be ridiculous to imply that the combined alliances' fleets were not a major cause of strife. Fleets which were, by the end, essentially roaming the heavily NPC-Station Populated Curse region at will.

The Five/Xetic War

A year after CA imploded, a Thorax piloted by Cinnander of CLS (still a part of XIF) destroyed a Sigil piloted by Shredder (of Shinra) and The Five declared war along with MASS.

Most of the regions of Xetic were decimated, and many stations rapidly secured by The Five in one of the largest single military ventures to that point. CLS and Dirty Deeds Corp. (DDC) held fast to their respective home regions of Feythabolis and Impass and, having given up on XIF, left to form Ascendant Frontier (ASCN). This dissociation from XIF gave them the ability to open diplomatic discussions with the invaders outside of the slow XIF administration system, and a deal was shortly brokered which allowed them to keep the regions.

Ascendant Frontier

Ascendant Frontier was born. ASCN was given the regions of Feythabolis and Impass, all other previous Xetic regions (Immensea, Omist and Tenerifis) were taken by The Five with Shinra managing Immensea, and Supremacy (SUPRM) in charge of Tenerifis.

CYVOK and Steel Rat, the leaders of CLS and DDC, respectively, were originally equal leaders of Ascendant Frontier with the political/leadership system a self-confessed 'enlightened dictatorship'. At this point CLS became the executor corporation for what would soon grow to be the largest alliance EVE had seen to date, and also adopted sovereignty over the entire Feythabolis region. At this point the history of CLS becomes tightly intertwined with that of ASCN: See Ascendant Frontier.

Post-Ascendancy

After the war with Band of Brothers and the fall of ASCN, CLS dropped sharply in membership stabilizing at around 300-odd members (down from 600-odd members in its prime). After the fall, CLS did not join one of the other splinter alliances which formed in the vacuum left in the South-East, but rather remained a separate corporation continuing to fight guerilla style in Feythabolis. In addition to keeping a presence in Feythabolis, CLS later moved its 0.0 operations into the Ka-tet sovereign space.

With the fall of ASCN CYVOK resigned from the leadership of ASCN and Ramius Monteagne successfully led CLS through the difficult transition time out of the space that they had occupied for so long. For professional reasons only, in May 2006 Ramius passed leadership to SamuraiJack who is the current CEO of CLS.

Since the rebirth, CLS has moved out of the Ka-Tet soverign space and repositioned itself at the boundaries of Feythabolis Region in an on-going fight against their former invaders. Also a greater emphasis of operations in both 0.0 and empire aid in maintaining a more stable base regardless of 0.0 warfare. With these new found changes, CLS continues to grow and prosper economically and diplomatically. This transition phase has shown the resolve of this great corporation and its future potential.