Reykjavik, Iceland-based MMOG developer CCP has announced Empyrean Age, an EVE Online expansion promising new content and features, available for free to subscribers starting June 10.

The expansion's announcement comes at the heels of EVE Online's fifth anniversary since it first launched and the recently announced formation of the Council of Stellar Management, a democratically-elected committee of nine delegates chosen by EVE Online players to represent their interests and exchange ideas for the game's evolution with its developer.

EVE Online: Empyrean Age will introduce a faction ranking system, new militias, and a dynamic new structure of system occupancy to the sci-fi MMO. The summer expansion will also debut a new region in space, "Black Rise."

The expansion incorporates elements of fiction introduced in a novel by the same name by author Tony Gonzales. Scheduled to release on June 19th, the novel covers New Eden's transition from a somewhat harmonious setting to a world of broken alliances on the bring of war.