On New Year's Eve 2025, Odysemus sat down to write a message to the whole corp. He did not bother with a gentle wind-up.
I'd like to take a moment to reflect and acknowledge the year 2025. Cause holy crap its been a whirlwind!
He was not exaggerating. TNF started the year in one alliance and one corner of nullsec, and finished it in another alliance, in another corner, a good deal louder than before. This is that year, month by month, using the corp's own words wherever we can.
Winter: leaving Esoteria
The year began with TNF still flying under the Shadow Ultimatum banner, in the region it had called home for a long time. In February the corp packed up and moved to Feythabolis.
Odysemus was gracious about the old alliance when he looked back: "For all its faults, SHADO was a long time home to many of us and we all had fun through its few triumphs." Nobody pretends the old place was perfect. Nobody forgets it either.
April: no joke
Then, "on April Fools Day actually," TNF left Shadow Ultimatum and joined Sigma Grindset, moving to Paragon Soul. Choosing April 1 for the most serious decision of the year is very on brand.
In the new alliance, as Odysemus summed it up, "we settled, we MURDERED, we thrived!"
June: we did it again
June was the month everything happened at once.
It opened with violence. On June 4 Odysemus called the corp to arms after a fight the previous day that had drawn more than 2,000 pilots, with round two expected to be bigger. If you wanted to know what flying with Sigma was going to be like, that was the answer.
Then, on June 15, Sigma Grindset announced it was moving "to the front lines of the Imperium, to Catch!" The line that stuck was simpler: "We are not moving under fire." It was a planned move, done properly, and the corp covered the costs so members could ship their belongings for free. Kloria cleared a mountain of contracts. Our full story is in Moving House, TNF Style.
Also in June: the first Fanfest 2026 planning thread, in which the Icelanders calmly confirmed they already had their tickets. More on them shortly.
From then on, in Odysemus's words, "We murdered, we settled, we MURDERED, we thrived, we MURDERED MOAR!"
Summer: changing of the watch
Somewhere in the middle of all that came what Odysemus called "the end of an era." Harrat, who had led TNF through its inception and everything since, stepped back to put real life first, "still active, still involved, just making space for our awesome community to grow even more." Odysemus wrote the handover as a naval order: "Beat to Quarters! ... Kloria at the helm! Motty 007 to the Quarterdeck, clear for action!" with a nod to GSCyber and Lex Ashwari-Thrace along the way.
July: a new FC
On July 25 Pict1on was promoted to corp Fleet Commander, and the announcement drew 38 reactions. Pict1on went on to define a lot of TNF's PvP over the following months. (His story is here.)
August: industry pays off
Not all the big moments involved guns. On August 10 Maggy Lee finished a months-long industry project, and the first T2 frigates came off the line to be gifted to the corp. The long road there is in Maggy Lee's Long Build.
August also produced the line that sums up the Icelanders: after one fight, Odysemus delivered Marri02's loot home and signed off "Well done, Icelandic Meistarar."
September: science, with explosions
September belonged to the small gangs. Pict1on and the Blue Coats "science division" ran a series of experimental raids and wrote them up as mock military dossiers. The second, "New Dawn 2," came back with 14 kills and a hold full of ESS bonds. The full write-up is in Shadow Talon After-Action.
October: the Vikings keep coming
The Icelandic contingent had been growing all year. "Then came the Icelanders! Murder became massacre," as Odysemus put it. In October Fartillery arrived, and MontyGTV announced that TNF now held about 3% of Iceland's population. See The Icelandic Invasion Continues.
On October 20 Pict1on was promoted again, this time to Director.
November: salt the earth, then carry everyone home
On November 6 Kloria forwarded the alliance's call to arms ("NOW HEAR THIS, NOW HEAR THIS!") for a scorched-earth campaign against Pandemic Horde in the drone regions. The corp promised to look after members while ratting dried up. Six days later: "WAR'S OVER! WE'RE GOING HOME." Then came a week of Motty 007 and Kloria hauling millions of cubic metres back to Catch. (The full story.)
December: small things, done well
The year wound down the way TNF likes it, with care in the details.
On Christmas Day Motty sent a message to everyone: "Merry Xmas to you all and your families. Thank you all for making TNFED the home we all love."
On Boxing Day Odysemus restocked wormhole rolling Sigils in the free-for-all hangars, with a note that members could take them, keep them and even hand them out to other alliance pilots. "Our goal is to make YOUR experience a little easier."
The day after that, MontyGTV posted seven custom SKIN designs and the SKIN channel lost its mind.
And on December 30 Motty posted a thank-you for the TNF buyback program, the quiet engine behind most of the above. It made, he said, "an amazing difference to the corp," and helped keep members' home running. His sign-off: "It has been a great year. Looking forward to 2026!!!!"
The real reason
Odysemus closed his review by admitting he could keep going with the jokes, but "there are just too many good people here I would end up having to write a book." Instead he finished with a message to every member:
you are noticed, appreciated and matter here. We are here today because of everyone here.
Three homes, two alliances, one war and a small piece of Iceland. Not a bad year's work.
