::bow::

Disciples of the Dark Side,

December begins and the machine bogs down. Typically, this time in the Brotherhood is consumed by the Holiday Season and activity drops to all-time lows. In an effort to combat that, the House Summits have created Christmas competitions for your enjoyment and I have begun the Dark Traveler Saga (more to come on this) for you to participate in. I know time is hard to come by, but it is my hope that each of you will make time to compete. Because activity is the best gift you can give your peers and leaders during this time of the year.

Clan News

Dark Traveler Saga. I have created a three-part long-fiction competition for your enjoyment. Place yourself into the midst of the wild ride through the bowels of the Dark Tower and the underground kingdom of Kapsina. The unlikely pairing of your character and a thief named Nerius will result in an epic tale and become part of the Clan's canon. In addition to Third Level Crescents for each portion, I will be awarding the Top 3 (whom compete in all acts) a copy of "Star Wars: Republic Commando" or "Star Wars: Battlefront 2"

Leadership & Projects. We have several projects in-progress, but most of the leaders are consumed with finals and wrapping up lingering issues before the forthcoming Great Jedi War. Please be patient with our command staff as they struggle to balance the demands of the holidays against their duties of leadership. Remember, we all are only human. Though, we have been getting some brilliant support out of our Clan's Battle Team Leaders. Massive props to Vivackus Kavon and Cethgus Incendia.

What is coming? I get nearly a hundred variations of that question on a daily basis. Where are we going? What is our identity? What projects do we have in the works? The answer is... a lot. We are re-detailing the planets of the Jusadih System, drafting new member material, creating an Army, redrafting the Navy, exploring the lore of the clan, revamping the administration of the Master-Apprentice Program, planning a post-GJW competition and bringing the meritocracy program on-line. It takes considerable coordination and I am merely directing traffic at this point, as the workload has surpassed what I can individually complete. However, and I state this last to 'stamp' this thought... if you have an idea to fictionally or functionally enhance our Clan (a la Cern Unnos' idea to create an activity tracker), please bring it to my attention. I want to be daring and explore new methods of competition, fictional advancement and more.

Communication. With some forthcoming changes, the leadership is going to make a promise to provide greater, in-depth coverage of events and happenings across the Dark Brotherhood. We will be moving into an era where the clan e-mail address will become the medium for finding activity and being in the 'know' of your club. If you happen into a discussion with another member of the Brotherhood (say, a Grand Master), I want you to impress him with your own understanding and knowledge of the Brotherhood's current events and mechanics. So keep your eyes peeled for more about this down the pipe.

Brotherhood News

Tribune:Wiki Report: Krath Pontifex RevengeX Palpatine issued a new report concerning all things DB Wikipedia. I strongly recommend that every Wiki user goes over the report and learn about 'user pages' and create their own. Also, major congratulations to RevX for hitting his 100th DB Leadership report.

Link (to report): http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/comments.asp?ID=R:12067

Deputy Grand Master Report: Dark Prophet Muz Keibatsu Sadow tackles another update in his latest report. The gist of the report... the web site may experiences some down time as the Seneschal, Grand Master Emeritus Jac Cotelin, begins transferring updates and changes over to the site. New Character Sheets... soon.

Link (to report): http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/comments.asp?ID=R:12070

Tribune:Fiction Report: Sith Warlord Raken covers winners of last month's competition, discusses the possibilities of the ever-developing Star Wars Galaxies Emulation (SWGEmu) and begins to delve into the fictional updates (see next topic) leading up to the Ninth Great Jedi War: Unification.

Link (to report): http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/comments.asp?ID=R:12082

Plot Update Four: Nothing Follows. The fourth installment in the "Fall of Antei" story arc is riveting and should be read by all. Be sure to cover all of these fictions before the start of the next war of wars.

Link (to story): http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/comments.asp?ID=N:5394

The Message

Great Jedi War.

The Great Jedi War (GJW) is a Brotherhood Vendetta meant to pit the rival clans against one another to determine the dominance of those clans until the next, major event. The clan whom claims the top spot is awarded the honorable title of "First Clan" and remains as such until they are dethroned. These competitions are the pinnacle of competitions within the Brotherhood and success in this arena often is rewarded with high level promotions and sacrificial awards to those amongst the top.

The competition will be fast paced. Events will have extraordinarily short deadlines, forcing members to create and submit competitions in a time span of seven days, at times. In addition to these quick fiction deadlines, the duration of the event will (in some member's cases) be a saturation of gaming and Antei Combat Center (ACC) matches. There will also be clan-centric events where we work as a group to present the best, possible submission for points (run-ons, battle plans, debates, etc). At the end, the scores will be tallied and points will be awarded based on the total participation of individuals in their respective Clans.

Thus, the clan whom competes the most is given a dramatic boost in the odds that they will prevail above their rivals. It does not necessitate that one would win, but - like anything - the more you put in, the more you get out. To assist in the madness, your clan leader (that is me) will facilitate avenues of communication and provide captains to oversee specific, GJW related questions. For example, one individual will spearhead the clan run-on, providing direction and mentorship to all members whom work with the group. At times, dependant on the task at hand, there will also be appointed lieutenants to help. These positions are highly honorable and come with great responsibility to not only the clan, but your peers.

Traditionally, Clan Plagueis has not faired well in these events. And it stems, I believe, from members not having proper guidance nor structure to provide understanding. I strongly suggest that every member partake of every event, but that is not a realistic expectation. Instead, I tell each member that their support in the arenas of fiction, poetry, graphics is necessary. Without the submissions we will fall behind the pack. And, beyond that, they should choose one or two additional avenues of participation: run-on, ACC, gaming. For those whom are wholly dedicated, you will compete in every event across many platforms. Those individuals will become not only Clan champions, but Great Jedi War Heroes.

I could, literally, discuss this topic for pages and pages. Instead of boring you, however, I will simply say... if you have further interest in this topic, please contact me via IRC or my personal e-mail address ([Log in to view e-mail addresses]).

THE FIN

Do the Dark Traveler Saga. Do all three parts. I promise it will be worth the time.

Join your clan mates on IRC in our channel #plagueis. Yes, it is a chat room. Yes, you will have to talk with your peers. Yes, it is pure insanity... but it is fun!

Ideas. Share them with your leadership.

Read. The fourth plot update by Raken. It truly is worth your time.

I am, your servant,

Braecen Kaeth

Consul of Clan Plagueis

Safeguarder of Sheep

Braecen Kaeth (Dark Side Adept) / CON-EP / Clan Plagueis

[GMRG: RG3-G] [KSoE:FE] [ACC: CE:3]

RS / AK / SB / GC-PoDP / SC-SoA / AC-RoF / DC-GP / GN-BL / SN-BL / BN-BL / Cr-3D-12R-24A-32S-15E-11T-6Q / PoB-AgL / CF-PlF / DSS-PL / SI-AuL / SoF-AgL / SoL-BE / LS-GL / S:-2R-18Al-19D-7Dk-9P

{SA: MVN - DML - DMW - DMP - SVT}

You are not what you were born, but what you have it in yourself to be...