Gila Emperor Bear SKIN

Description

The high lords of the ancient Caldari Raata Empire used many different sigils but one of the most famous is the sign of the Emperor Bear, believed to have been the personal sigil of Emperor K'vire III Fuukiuye of the Second Unification Realm. While the ancient histories of the Caldari are shrouded in myth and legend, this bear sigil is clearly derived from a totemic attachment to the large Emperor Bears of the southern polar archipelagos. The Fuukiuye tribes are thought to have ranged as far south as the island taigas in their remarkable migrations across the face of Caldari Prime, and surely encountered the golden-furred Emperor Bears.

It is likely that a golden bear totem was used by one of the paramount tribes and became associated with leadership over the centuries. Emperor K'vire III Fuukiuye was no doubt concerned to cement his leadership of the Raata Empire by using the symbolism. The sigil was dispensed with some two centuries later when the Fuukiuye emperors were supplanted by the Orioyoni under the leadership of Emperor Deteaas IX Orioyoni during the Third Unification. The Emperor Bear, like its northern Storm Bear cousin, remains a potent symbol for Caldari, indicative in some animist traditions of leadership that serves the collective.