The Vanaheim Project

In Norse mythology the gods are divided into two families, the Aesir and the Vanir.

Today, the Aesir are easily the most well known of the Norse gods, primarily because they were more likely to engage in the sort of adventures that make interesting stories. Moreover, the gods invoked during times of violence, such as Odin and Thor (both Aesir), were more likely to make an impression on the Roman and Christian historians who made the records we rely upon today.

Conversely, the Vanir were relatively peaceful gods (by Norse standards) of prosperity, fertility, wisdom and the natural world. The archaeological evidence suggests that their worship was widespread and very much a part of day to day Norse life, but not the stuff of great stories.

The Vanir lived in Vanaheim (literally, 'home of the Vanir'), and I thought that was a fitting name for a (relatively) peaceful project that I am hoping will bring me a bit of prosperity. My intention is to move into a wormhole, and to use that wormhole both as a means of generating an income, and as a staging area for low sec pvp.

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I've known since early December that I would be leaving Chaos sometime after the holidays. I've had fun, but there are some issues. On their own, none of them are major, but taken together, I think I can do a little better.

In no particular order:

1) I prefer low sec to null sec for pvp. I could probably write a whole post on why that is, but in the end it doesn't matter; it's a question of personal taste and there is no 'right' or 'wrong' about it. But the main selling point of Chaos - constant access to null sec - just doesn't interest me.

2) Null sec is expensive. When I do engage in null sec pvp I need to fly expensive ships in order to be useful, and we have no ship replacement program. I also don't get any loot from these fights as it all goes into corp funds. Granted, I, along with everyone else, benefit from those funds, but it does mean that I have to spend a disproportionate amount of time grinding ISK.

3) Chaos is not a great wormhole for making ISK. Of our six planets, two are good, two are marginal, and two are very poor. There are too many of us running the sites in Chaos, and our w-space static is a C5 - too much for solo work.

I'm not complaining, though; many pilots prefer the much shinier kills of null sec, and have enough ISK (or generate enough ISK outside Chaos) that the cost does not bother them. For these pilots, Chaos is pretty much perfect. Indeed, I've enjoyed my time in Chaos so much, I'm now looking to move into my own wormhole. The lifestyle is fantastic. I just think I can improve on it in a few ways.

I won't be pulling out of Chaos completely - I will be leaving a selection of fleet ships in our Fortizar. When I have a large block of playing time (so, some weekends), I can simply fly back to Chaos in an interceptor and join in whatever fleets are running.

A couple of other Tuskers have moved into solo wormholes on a similar basis, and this seems to be working for them. And of course, we have some pilots still living in low sec full time, who make day trips to Chaos. The advantage of high numbers of active members is that we can maintain a presence in a number of places simultaneously.

I'm now just about ready to go. I'm not going to rush things, but enough of my prep work is coming together that I want to be ready to move when the connections I need appear.

I'm primarily looking for a good high sec connection from Chaos (so I can move out PI product and ships, etc) at the same time as I have a good connection to my chosen wormhole (so I can move in the POS, ships, etc). If things go on too long, I can move back to high sec and wait for a good connection to the new wormhole, but every day that I'm not based in w-space costs me about 50 mil in lost PI income, so I'd like to keep the transition as seamless as possible.