Landfall Shrine is one of the most sacred places in the Caldari State, with both civil and spiritual importance to the Caldari. The shrine is located on New Caldari Prime, in the middle of the largest Kaalakiota enclave on the planet, Kyano Uretsuu. It is a national landmark under the stewardship of the State government, with millions of visitors each year from all over the Caldari State and the cluster.

History

The ground upon which Landfall Shrine is built was the landing site of the first Kaalakiota colony ship to arrive on New Caldari Prime more than 350 years ago. For a short while, the colony ship remained here as it was broken down and recycled to build the colony around it, but by the time of the Caldari secession, it had already become a large park dotted with a number of statues honoring the planet's first pioneers.

After the evacuation and the creation of the new Caldari government, however, it was decided that the park would be rebuilt as a shrine to remember those who had been lost and left behind during the evacuation, as well as to the sacrifice that had been made for the Caldari future. Despite the ongoing conflict, the corporations contributed a substantial sum to build the shrine and surrounding memorial gardens, and within a decade of the evacuation they were completed.

The Shrine and Necropolis

The full size of the shrine and its grounds is slightly over fifteen square kilometers, largely covered by carefully tended gardens consisting of plants native to Caldari Prime and crisscrossed with paths. At the center of the gardens is the shrine itself, built on a hill in the architectural style of the ancient Raata Empire, common to Caldari religious temples. The clean, straight lines and spartan design are intended to let the mind contemplate the spiritual weight of the shrine, rather than the actual physical building itself.

Surrounding the shrine itself is a maze of what looks like bare stone walls; in actuality, this labyrinth is a massive necropolis, which holds the ashes of thousands of Caldari. To be buried at the shrine is one of the highest honors in Caldari society; however, traditions dating back to the Raata Empire demand that anyone interred at such a holy place must have sacrificed all to the State. As a result, no names are written anywhere on the tomb complex. Each grave is marked only by the words, "They died as they lived - Caldari." The tomb complex is continually expanded to allow more room, but while nearly 10,000 people were laid to rest here during the first 50 years of the Gallente-Caldari War, only a handful have been buried here in the years since. Today, there are some 12,000 in the necropolis.

Evacuation Memorial

Roughly a kilometer from the shrine itself is the Evacuation Memorial, which commemorates the final stand of Yakiya Tovil-Toba and the evacuation of Caldari Prime. At the center of the memorial is a statue depicting a Caldari soldier carrying a small boy and girl, shielding them from a fierce wind in the middle of snow-covered landscape. A brazier, refreshed with incense every evening at dusk, burns constantly in front of the statue. Both the statue and the brazier are built from scrap metal salvaged from spacecraft involved in the evacuation. Surrounding these items is a wall with the list of every ship and captain involved in the evacuation, more than 50,000 in all, from small shuttlecraft to the Kairiola itself.

Stewards and Honor Guard

The shrine and its gardens are cared for by an army of hundreds of stewards, ascetics who come to the shrine to attend to its grounds as a spiritual experience. The selection process is extremely difficult, as stewards are chosen from thousands of applications every year submitted from all over the State. They are screened carefully by the stewards themselves, the Navy's Intelligence Office, and the Caldari Business Tribunal in an effort to weed out any possible miscreants. The stewards, along with the shrine's maintenance costs, are paid for by a special endowment.

A marine honor guard, numbering an entire regiment, patrols the shrine and its grounds, one of the most prestigious postings for any Caldari marine. Security at the perimeter is extremely tight, and a shield surrounds the grounds both for security reasons and to protect the structures from the elements; trouble at the shrine is very unlikely. However, the marines at the shrine all generally have combat experience, and many have special forces training, which usually leads to most trouble at the shrine ending quickly and decisively, with little or no collateral damage.