Jovian Directorate Withdraws from Concord Inner Circle and Designates SoCT as Successor

BREAKING NEWS – YULAI – In a stunning development, CONCORD Inner Circle President Seri Okonaya has just announced the formal withdrawal of the Jovian Directorate from the CONCORD Inner Circle, with the Society of Conscious Thought designated as the full successor state of the Jove Empire for the purposes of the CONCORD Assembly and Inner Circle.

Speaking to the role of the SoCT in CONCORD, President Okonaya said: "The Society of Conscious Thought has been in regular contact with representatives of the Jovian Directorate, as one would expect of an organization with its origins in the Jove Empire. In recent years, the Jovian Directorate has indicated to the Inner Circle and the Society its wish to step back from its foundational role in the CONCORD Assembly and the institutions of interstellar diplomacy. In the last few months, a final determination was made that the Jovian Directorate would designate the SoCT as its full successor state for the purposes of CONCORD."

President Okonaya was joined at a special Inner Circle press conference by SoCT Elder Mentor Matshi Raish, introducing him as the Society's representative on the Inner Circle. This was Mentor Raish's first public appearance since the destruction of his Gnosis-class vessel by Amarr Navy and capsuleer forces, after allegedly scanning the late Empress Jamyl I's personal Avatar-class titan, last July. While Mentor Raish's appearance laid to rest rumors of his death since the incident, questions as to his purpose on that July day in Sarum Prime loom large.

Addressing the new status of the SoCT, Mentor Raish said: "The Society's ties with the Jove Empire have always been close and we have been the inheritors of a great cultural legacy. We have now been given the great responsibility of inheriting the role of the Jovian Directorate as partners with the four great nations of New Eden in maintaining and regulating the institutions of CONCORD and keeping the peace wherever possible in our home, the New Eden cluster. In particular, the Society hopes to assist with efforts to resolve the conflict with the entities New Eden knows as the 'Drifters'. We believe that a basis of mutual understanding can be achieved."

President Okonaya and Mentor Raish declined to take questions as to the present status of the Jove Empire or the implications for transfer of Jove technology. Mentor Raish also declined to explain his actions in Sarum Prime last July, or his long absence from public view. The Scope continues to pursue investigative avenues on these and related matters.

Following the transfer of key Jove corporations to the SoCT, this historic event brings to a final close the involvement of the Jove Empire in New Eden's astropolitical scene, while catapulting the SoCT to a place of prominence an order of magnitude beyond its previous, considerable and much speculated, importance in the affairs of New Eden.