House of Mercury

This is an alliance for Industrialists, where industry is defined as manufacture, research, trade, mining and all related endeavours such as ratting and protection of trade routes.

Members of this alliance will not be permitted to publicly and overtly take sides in any other alliance disputes.  The House will uphold the anti-slavery laws of any state it is in - and will respect the freedom of all wherever it is upheld.  The House will not unduly favour any particular corporation or alliance against another.  Family members must uphold this respect of other powers and remain courteous at all times.  Any threats of hostility against the House of Mercury must be immediately reported.

Mutual Protection

The larger the House of Mercury, the easier it will be to defend. The House itself will work to hire protection to defend in case of wars, and diplomatically will attempt to resolve and end those wars as quickly as possible in a way that is favourable to both parties - so not just paying a ransom, but receiving something in return.  More details on this below.  The more resources that the alliance has, the greater it will be able to protect its interests.  However, hired forces will not be sufficient.  The following will outline our various strategies:

Military Wing

There will be established a single official military corporation wing of the alliance.  Members may not all be interested in industry exclusively, so this will give opportunity for pvp as well.  The military wing’s goal is to defend the House's trade routes, and mining operations, and to protect interests we might have in low-sec.  This corporation will receive donations from the alliance funds, rather than paying any fees, to provide it with the ships and equipment necessary to fulfill its duties.  As a result it will have strict rules on operation, and any members who are not happy with them will not be admitted.

This wing will not replace the role of other member corporations to participate in pvp when the time is needed, so all corporations will be exected (though not required) to be at least partially pvp ready.  This will become especially important when we have 0.0 systems to defend on our own.

Acceptable Behaviour

The House of Mercury is dedicated to industry and trade, and desires freedom to operate throughout New Eden above all. If we should not succeed and someone declares war against us, we will have need for both a war time and a peace time set of behaviour guidelines.

Peacetime Behaviour 

Respect towards all must be displayed at all times.  Absolutely no smack talking or disrespect to opponents, even if they are acting this way towards you.  If you sense that statements may lead to aggressions against the corporation, inform your CEO and the Executor of the House of Mercury immediately.  Do not engage other pilots in pvp unless engaged first.

Wartime Behaviour

Our primary goal during war is to have that war end as soon as possible without paying any surrender fees, or negotiate the best peace terms possible, so as not to encourage others to ransom.  We want to make war with us costly, and peace with us beneficial.  The alliance will not actively seek war with anyone, so if any aggressions begin it will be by the choice of our opposition.  Therefore, when war is declared against us, family members may use any wartime strategy possible, including all forms of deception, in order to make the cost of war as high as possible.

No trade with the enemy is permitted whilst a war is in progress.

0.0 Home

Eventually we will seek to set up a home in 0.0, and wish for safe travel to and from this area for not only House members, but indeed anyone.  When we establish this home, it will be necessary for some players to protect the systems from other aggressors and pirates who act with hostility to the alliance.

Reparations after War

There will always be granted opportunity for previous enemies of the alliance to make payment to restore standings with the alliance.  This will be a fair fee which will see standings restored to initial levels once paid, allowing entry into the House’s territory and trade to resume with them again.  The alliance wishes to bias itself towards or against no particular group, and to live at peace where possible – so such reparations will be easily obtained.

Membership

Membership is available in two ways.  First is the individual seeking entrance to the House via entrance into one of the member corporations.  Second is for a corporation itself to join the House of Alliance as a family.  The House exists to serve those who wish to take part in trade, industry, mining, research, ratting and other similar activities – but to do so as part of a larger group working towards a common goal, while enjoying some measure of protection against hostilities.  More information:

Individuals

An individual will be welcome to join the House in two ways.  Gateway Industries is the standard introduction to the House, and will accept members after a review.  This allows for easy access to some of the benefits of the alliance, without needing to find an appropriate other member corporation.  Such benefits will include discounted POS access for members, advice, help, a common goal, and room to apply to other member corporations that involve greater trust and access to greater resources.  More on Gateway Industries later

Corporations

A corporation may find itself wanting to join the House of Mercury in order to avoid or handle war decs, to gain access to trusted contacts, protection in 0.0, help, or a variety of reasons.  The more family members the House has, the more wealth it will have at its disposal with which to ensure the protection of its members.  The House will accept corporations currently involved in a war if an appropriate fee is paid (circumstance dependent) and the House believes that the war can be negotiated to an end upon membership.  Corporations will be free to operate as they please, within the requirements included in this document.  There will be differing levels of corporation membership available in the House, with commensurate benefits.  A brief outline of the shape these levels may take can be found below, but at the lowest level the base cost of membership will be a small monthly fee to cover alliance costs and contribute a small amount towards mutual defence costs.

Admission Requirements and Sponsorship

Applications will be considered individually.  If you are interested in joining, it is required that your corporation find a sponsor within the House.  Iron Overlord will provide you, upon request, with a list of corporations currently permitted to sponsor new corporation applications.  The sponsor is responsible for ensuring that you are going to be an asset to the House, that you will respect the rules, and that inviting you in will not cause trouble to existing members.  If accepted, you will be a probationary member for a period of two months.  During that time, if you cause trouble for the alliance by breaching any of the rules or guidelines, the sponsoring alliance will be charged a disciplinary fee, and your corporation will either be removed from the House or charged a fee also - depending on the nature of the breach.

In return for this heavy responsibility, sponsoring corporations can require of you a joining fee, payable to them.  This will offset for them the risk involved with sponsoring a new corporation.  10% of the sponsoring fee is payable to the House.  The House of Mercury recommends that corporations keep this fee between 50 million to 500 million ISK, depending on the risk involved with the member.

Non-probationary corporations may be given permission to sponsor corporations, as outlined below. 

Membership Levels

This is a draft proposal of corporation membership levels, and is subject to change.  No corporation will be required to share its POS’s with the alliance.  For those who wish to share, the alliance may pay an appropriate monthly fee for that corporation to share its POS.  The corporation membership levels are:
 

• Level 1 – Grants membership only, which grants protection and access to any space we may eventually hold in 0.0.  Does not grant any special rights to POS access.   Cost: 10 mil per month +  200k per member per month

• Level 2 – As level 1, but also grants access to shared POS’s.  Cost: 10 mil per month + 1 mil per member per month.  Allowed to sponsor one corporation per month. 

• Level 3 – Grants advantages of above, but also grants a seat to selected corporations to have one representative on the alliance council.  10 mil per month + 5 mil per member per month.  Given first priority to refunds using alliance money for ships or other things lost while on official alliance business.  May sponsor unlimited corporations.  Requests for negotiating specific terms with other alliances such as permission to plant POS's, or blue, are heeded much more so than other corporation requests from a lower level.  Allowed to plant POS's in House of Mercury sovereignty without being required to obtain permission.

Expectation from Members

Members will at all times be representing the House, so are expected to display a good image to strengthen our reputation.  This means behaving in the ways outlined earlier in this document.

The House of Mercury does not wish to have members who will run at the first sign of trouble, but rather people who are interested in taking a sense of ownership over the House, helping obtain benefits for themselves and members, and protecting those benefits or assets when needed.  To this end, all member corporations are expected to involve themselves in at least one project that the alliance is running.  A list of these projects will be available after membership for members to choose.  Projects vary dramatically in terms of time and effort commitment, so members define their own level of membership, but are expected to involve themselves in some way. 

Funds

The funds obtained from members will be used for:

• Building new POS’s for alliance use
• Purchasing warfare equipment
• Hiring mercenaries, and paying remuneration for member corporations involved in war time losses
• Purchasing blueprints for use by the House
• Funding ventures for the benefit of the House of Mercury
  

The Housewill be dedicated to serving member corporations for as long as those members uphold the vision and ideals of the alliance.

Goals

Short Term:

• Establish a few member corporations
• Build a handful of POS’s to be accessible to appropriate member corporations
• Begin construction of a defence fleet and military contacts
• Have a group operating in 0.0 for those who wish access
  

Medium Term:

• No-sec POS constructions for moon mining
• Expanded list of member corporations
• Begin construction of capital ships owned by the alliance (in particular jump freighters)

Long Term:

• Gain sovereignty of a small number of 0.0 systems for use by anyone – alliance members or otherwise
• Significant internal military force dedicated to protection of the 0.0 systems
• Construct an alliance owned Outpost in 0.0

Ongoing:

• Establishing blue with powerful alliances, and negotiating trade terms 

Roleplaying

It is our belief that all players engage in roleplaying in EVE to some level just by simply playing the game.  You take on a role, and you play it.  Some people take this to levels where they will not say anything that their alter-ego would not say, while others will happily discuss about real life issues such as family and study.

This alliance at different levels falls into different groups.  Its ideals of neutrality and cross border trading should all be seen as in-character, and thus can engage with other roleplaying corporations and alliances appropriately.  However, we do not require that members roleplay beyond the general levels dictated already.

Market Practices

This alliance is interested in profits first and foremost.  While piracy is not permitted by members (except during cases of wars against the alliance), all market practices are, including trading with pirates.  Member corporations are free to behave in any anti-competitive behaviour, market racketeering, etc.  The only exception is that questionable business practices should not be targeted against any members of the alliance, or any alliance which we have made an agreement with regarding trade practices.  It will not always be possible to discriminate between targets when using questionable practices, but in cases where it is it is expected that fellow members of the alliance will be treated as close allies.

No-Sec Plans

The alliance hopes to carve out a handful of systems in 0.0 that can be used by the House and also non-members for purposes of mining and industry in safety.  It is the hope that the House of Mercury can maintain peace with as many as possible and outlaw any acts of aggression against other pilots in the area so miners can operate in peace.  Eventually there will be a dockable outpost provided for the sale and purchase of goods, and jump freighters used to transport goods back to Empire.

Discipline

It will become necessary at times to discipline member corporations.  This will happen in cases where the member corporation was shown to have political biases and act on them, provoking someone to war, dealing inappropriately with another member corporation, etc.

In most cases the corporation will be required to pay a fee to remain in the House, but in extreme cases expulsion will be necessary without an opportunity for repenting.  In cases where the corporations offence was against another member corporation, or an outside political group, part of the reparations will be paid to the offended in order to restore trust.

Executor Corporation

Gateway Industries will be the Executor corp and also the first point of contact for new members who come individually rather than through the alliance.  Members will eventually have access to some of the House's POS's and the opportunity to participate in House operations managed by the executor corp or others.  The primary advantages for members will be:

• Easy entry
• Help – members will cover a wide variety of experience and should be able to help each other out, both with information and resources
• Great opportunities – this corporation will give the players a good taste of EVE, as well as the alliance activities.  Mining, missions, manufacturing – and pvp whenever there is war.
• Room for advancement – members will be able to advance in the corporation itself and help make decisions about the alliance direction when they are appropriately trusted.  More importantly, they will find they have a ready inroad to join other more specialized member corporations that might otherwise be inaccessible to outsiders
• Alliance membership – you get access to the alliance for little cost.

Members are expected to uphold the neutrality expected by the alliance, and will be removed if found to be provoking anyone to violence, taking sides, or generally talking inappropriately to others.

This corporation may be in many ways the center of activity for the corporation, because we anticipate that it will have the largest membership.  However, other members of other member corporations will be treated equally in terms of having input into the direction the House takes.  Usually this will take the form of communication from the CEO (or chosen representative) of those corporations who have level 2 membership or higher.

House of Mercury Management

A council for the House will be formed to advise and direct.  The Council will consist of 12 representatives, elected from two streams:

1. Honorary lifetime members – these will be the initial founders of the alliance, and will keep this position for the time they are members of the alliance, or a unanimous vote (excluding them) by the council to remove them, or the executor elects to remove them in cases where they pose a threat to the alliance
2. Level 3 member corporation representative – these corporations will be trusted members of the alliance and will be given the opportunity to have a representative on the council of their choosing.  This representative is chosen by the CEO of the corporation and may be changed at any time.

The alliance council will serve as the directors of the House, discussing actions to be taken, making decisions about the direction, applications, expulsions, disciplines, etc.  The decisions of the council will be evaluated by the executor and then announced to the House of Mercury family members.