New Eden Historical Overview
EVE's four empires started out as colonies far from Earth. Access to Earth was cut off and the colonies were left to fend for themselves. They collapsed, civilization regressed, and from the dust eventually arose the four major forces that govern New Eden today: The Amarr Empire, the Minmatar Republic, the Gallente Federation and the Caldari State. A fifth nation, the elusive and powerful Jovian Empire, has been hovering around the edges for a while, but they keep their affairs shrouded in secrecy.
The Amarr are a massive, slave-driving theocracy. The Minmatar are their former slaves, a rebellious coalition of tribes who have not forgiven their past masters. The Gallente are the democratic hedonists of New Eden, while their old war opponents, the Caldari, are their militaristic, rigid counterparts.
It should be noted that Amarr slavery of Minmatar people still exists and is very much a current issue, while the Gallente-Caldari war is a thing of the past and holds far less political weight. The current state of the universe is one of approaching war.
General History
EVE takes place in New Eden, a cluster of stars far from mankind's original habitat, planet Earth. How far away - and whether or not that cradle of civilization still exists - is a mystery. Humans originally arrived through a natural wormhole. Gazing upon alien heavens they had never before seen, they were completely unable to determine where this new world was located. From the New Eden solar system, where the gate of EVE led to the old world, humans expanded in all directions at a furious pace, exploring and colonizing rapidly.
The natural wormhole that led mankind to New Eden was soon deemed too unstable to sustain massive traffic for any extended period. It was thus decided that in order to fully exploit the opportunities that the new world offered to the stagnant venue of old Earth, a stargate linking the two worlds would need to be built. The construction of the EVE Gate was the largest, most massive undertaking ever attempted by mankind and it took more than 200 years to complete. At some point during that period the natural wormhole collapsed, but the construction continued, as people had foreseen the collapse.
Since this was widely viewed as a new beginning for mankind, the solar system where the EVE Gate was located on the new side was given the name of New Eden, a name which has since spread to refer to the entire cluster. But the EVE Gate only stayed open for 70 years after completion. Then, in a catastrophe of a scale never before witnessed by the human race, the gate unexpectedly collapsed, ruining the New Eden system in the process. Thousands of small colonies were left to fend for themselves in complete isolatio, cut off from the old world. For millennia they endured, clinging to the brink of extinction. Only a handful managed to survive.
Of those that lasted, five were to rise up and become the major empires that, between them, hold the balance of power in New Eden. Today, they are known as the Amarr Empire, the Gallente Federation, the Caldari State, the Minmatar Republic, and the Jovian Empire. Additionally, the universe is full of several small, independent factions and states. The Amarr initially conquered and enslaved the Minmatar, while the Gallente incorporated the Caldari. The Caldari eventually started a war with the Gallente, during which the Gallente government was toppled, the Caldari were forced to flee their home planet, and the Gallente had their own home planet bombarded with a Caldari spaceship on a suicide run. The four Empires then came into contact with the Jove, with whom the Amarr started a brief and futile war. The Minmatar seized on the Amarrians' distraction with their Jove war, rebelled, succeeded for the most part (with secret assistance from the Gallente) and achieved independence.
For more than a century, the five empires have lived together in relative peace. They've continually striven to maintain this state of affairs, as each faction realizes only too well the grave consequences of a massive interstellar war. Recent technological breakthroughs in FTL travel - and the ensuing increase in space travelers - have shaken the fragile peace.
