In early September, CCP posted a teaser thread on EVEupdates.com, hinting at the return of the Blood Raiders. The promised Crimson Harvest is arriving, Blood Raiders have started attacking systems in the Sasen and Vaarma constellation.
Who are the Blood Raiders?
The Blood Raiders are part of an ancient cultist faction called Sani Sabik, meaning Bloodfriends. The cult first appeared thousands of years ago on Amarr Prime, long before space travel came into being. The cult was based on schismatic sect of the Amarr state religion, which advocated that some people were born for greatness and other people only lived to feed and breed these geniuses. To this the cult added the obsession of the Amarr elite – the Holders – about eternal life so the result was a cult so pervasive and destructive that the Amarr authorities immediately stamped down on it. But the cult lived on in the shadows, every so often mutating itself anew. At one time in their history they started using blood in their gruesome rituals, until then they’d had only used blood in the initiation ritual, but now it became the focal point of their supposed search for eternal youth.
Today the cult exists in numerous more or less independent sects throughout the Amarr Empire, and some have even moved their business to other empires or neutral space. Each of the different sects of the Sani Sabik cult vary in their rituals and doctrine, some are inoffensive and almost inactive while a few have taken ‘blooding’ – as they call the draining of blood from a body – to new heights. There are stories of ‘blood farms’, where people are kept against their will and blooded regularly; other stories tell of sects that engage in necrophilic and even cannibalistic activities. As little is known of the inner works of most of the sects it is difficult to say whether these stories are true or just urban legends.
The most notorious of the sects is the one under the leadership of Omir Sarikusa, an Amarrian with some Caldari ancestry. Before Omir took over, the sect was already infamous for killing children as they were considered to have ‘purer’ blood. Omir has abandoned that practice, but instead his sect has started targeting cloned people, as they believe blood from clones is better suited for their freakish blood rituals. In their search for cloned people, Omir’s sect has taken to space and in few short years their frequent attacks on passenger ships and other space vessels have made them feared throughout Amarr space and far beyond.
Quoted from wiki.eveonline.com
We received word that the 7th Fleet has been re-deployed to Sasen and Vaarma constellation to combat the Blood Raider menace.
THE BLEAK LANDS – A statement from the Office of Press for the Amarr Navy has confirmed that a ‘significant’ number of forces have been re-deployed to the Sasen and Vaarma constellations after several attacks on Imperial assets in the last twelve hours.
It is believed that the attacks began in Kamela, with its third and eighth planet assaulted simultaneously and a number of religious sites desecrated during heavy fighting between local Imperial ground forces and a large contingent of Blood Raiders assault troops. The highest profile of these attacks was on Kamela III, where the family crypt of the planet’s holder was razed and the adjoining cathedral’s chancel and altar became an execution site for more than a hundred local clergy members.
After Imperial reinforcements arrived several hours ago to mount a defensive assault and assess the situation, it is believed that almost four thousand more local residents of the area are reported missing, having been seized by Blood Raider Forces.
In the hours after the attacks in Kamela, further details of a large scale assault on Huola VII, as well as assaults on several orbital facilities in Sosala and Anka have been reported with a further two thousand confirmed missing.
The Amarr Navy and Ministry Of Internal Order released a joint statement a little over an hour ago, confirming that a task force from the famed “Saracens” 7th Fleet has been deployed to the two constellations in order to re-secure the area.
With the Drifter Incursions expected to be seen back on Tranquility soon, and the Blood Raiders increasing their assaults on Amarr, the Empire is starting to look more and more unstable. With the Amarr Championships beginning in November, one can only wonder what CCP have planned for the Amarr Empire, and what they may unveil at FanFest 2016, when the Empire will see a new monarch crowned.
