As mentioned in yesterday’s EVE Online patch notes, there is a new tourist attraction in New Eden, the monument put up to celebrate the journeys of Katia Sae. Of course I had to go visit, though I was hardly the first.
While the monument’s location in the system Saisio puts it inconveniently distant from home in Delve, I have my share of high sec alts. Logging an alt on in Jita put me just five jumps from there, so I hopped in a Kestrel and warped off to see this new thing in space.
I arrived in Saisio, warped over to the Abagawa gate, and saw the monument looming in space.
Arriving on grid with Katia
If you go there and miss it, it will only be because you were not looking for it.
The jump gate visible behind Katia
Being the tourist, I went into orbit and took some screen shots of Katia, poised in space in all her bronzed glory.
Well, she looks bronze to me
The planetary system above her upraised hand is pretty nifty, though I read that the cloaked Astero that orbits in it is, like Katia, larger than life… though not as much so.
She holds the system in her palm
That is one way to get a sense of scale though, knowing that the frigate above her is even larger than it should be and is yet dwarfed by her. Still, space has a way of both distorting and enforcing scale via perspective.
My Kestrel looks big, but then there is that gas giant
The only hitch on seeing it is that, for overview purposes, the monument is a large collidable object… and it is literally so I suppose… which is something I have hidden in most over my overview settings.
Do not bump the monument please
There is, of course, an inscription describing the achievement celebrated by the structure and who erected it.
The words in space
My only quibble with any of this, and it is a very minor one indeed, is the use of the word “memorial.” I realize the dictionary definition says it isn’t necessarily so, but where I come from a memorial is usually something put up to remember the dead, and the last I checked Katia Sae was still flying about very much alive. In fact, one of the stand out aspects of her achievement is that she did not die while visiting every system in New Eden. Though, when you’re a clone capsuleer rocketing through the hazards of space with your consciousness backed up an essentially immortal, pinning down what death even means is a bit of a chore on its own.
Anyway, it is a fitting monument… that is the word I prefer… to an exceptional achievement.
If you’re interested in reading more about her journey, I wrote a post about it which includes links out to much of the coverage the even received.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 
Well, the definition of “memorial” is “something designed to preserve the memory of a person or an event”, so the term fit the use.
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@Dravik – Yes, I covered the definition in the post. I am just noting that in my experience, it tends to be used to refer to a memory of the dead and, as such, has an odd connotation to my mind in this case. I had to dig around a bit to find an example in real life, among all the various memorials to the dead or those fallen in wars (Memorial Day is a thing here, and a memorial park seems like a fairly common civic addition in many cities), of a memorial which wasn’t related to death that I might have just gone with monument rather than memorial. But, as I also said, it is a very minor thing.
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Thanks for the great write-up! Just a quick correction: The character’s name is Katia Sae, not Sai. Thanks again!
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Dammit. I hate when that happens. Fixed. Thanks.
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Thanks again for the wonderful writeup and for visiting the memorial. :) It’s always interesting to read others perspectives and I really appreciate yours. Truth be told, memorial struck me odd at first as well, but grew on me quickly. I realize different parts of the world have different ways and words to reflect upon the same things, so it’s all good.
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Good tribute to the achievement, and nice write-up about it. Same exact thing occurred to me before you even got there in the post. Monument, not Memorial. Spot on.
But GJ Katia!
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