The Deathless Circle is a coalition of pirates and criminals headquartered in the shrouded system of Zarzakh, and it is the reason you exist as a Warclone at all. This is the organization that built the immortality technology behind the Vanguard, recruited the first mercenaries, and then watched them walk away.
Led by the figure known only as The Deathless, the Circle rose out of Zarzakh - a former Jovian system hidden behind an impenetrable shroud. In Operation Avalon's story, the Warclones it created sever ties, seize the Avalon flotilla, and set out to build something of their own beyond the coalition's reach.
Who the Deathless Circle are
The Deathless Circle is not a single gang but a coalition - pirates, outlaws, and criminal outfits that banded together under one banner. What holds this loose alliance together is capital, technology, and the promise of power outside the reach of New Eden's empires. The coalition answers to no CONCORD writ and recognizes no imperial law, which is exactly why it could pursue a project the lawful powers would never sanction. The coalition emerged onto the New Eden stage in YC125, and it has been a byword for lawless ambition ever since.
For players, the Deathless Circle matters because it is your origin. Every immortal mercenary in the Vanguard traces their existence back to this coalition's laboratories and recruiters. Understanding the Circle explains why the Warclones fight, who they used to serve, and what they broke free from.
Zarzakh and The Deathless
The Deathless Circle operates out of Zarzakh, a former Jovian system sealed behind a dense shroud that keeps outsiders blind to what happens inside. Zarzakh is the coalition's stronghold and the seat of The Deathless, the singular leader whose name the whole organization carries.
Little about The Deathless is public, but the figure's grip on the coalition is absolute - this is the mind that turned salvaged and stolen technology into an army that cannot truly die. From Zarzakh, the Circle projected influence across New Eden while staying hidden from the authorities that would shut it down.
How the Deathless Circle built the Warclones
The Deathless Circle's defining achievement is the Warclone itself. The coalition developed the technology that stores a fighter's consciousness in neural implants and transfers it into fresh, expendable bodies after death. That breakthrough is what makes a Warclone a weapon you can spend and redeploy, over and over, without ever losing the person inside.
With the technology working, the coalition recruited. It gathered mercenaries, promised them a form of immortality, and forged them into the Vanguard - a strike force loyal, at first, to the Deathless Circle and its ambitions. For a time the arrangement held: the Circle supplied the bodies, and the Warclones did the fighting.
The break in Operation Avalon
That loyalty ends in Operation Avalon. The Warclones sever from the Deathless Circle and seize the Avalon flotilla - the wandering fleet that becomes their new home and forward base. The creators lose control of their creation, and the mercenaries they built to serve them become a power in their own right.
The break reframes everything you do in the alpha. You are no longer the Circle's tool; you are a free Warclone raiding New Eden on your own terms, with the coalition left behind as a former master rather than a current commander. Whether the coalition moves to reclaim what it built is a thread the ongoing story leaves open.
Frequently asked questions
Who leads the Deathless Circle?
The coalition is led by The Deathless, a figure who operates from the hidden system of Zarzakh. The entire organization carries this leader's name, and it was The Deathless who drove the development of the Warclone immortality technology.
Are the Warclones still part of the Deathless Circle?
No. The Deathless Circle created and recruited the Warclones, but in Operation Avalon the Warclones break away and seize the Avalon flotilla. Throughout the current alpha they operate independently of the coalition that built them.