_ House Gladius Rollmaster Report Report ID: RK001 Rollmaster: OT Raiju Kang _

Greetings Gladius,

For those of you that do not know me yet, I'm Raiju and I was appointed the Rollmaster of Gladius just prior to the RoS. While I've mostly remained quiet in terms of reports, I'm sure most of you have seen or heard of/from me as I've been on IRC, emailing the list on other things, or putting in some of your promotions :P But let's go over a few questions here:

Who am I? I'm known now as Raiju Kang, but was also known as Warhunter (Arawn Entar) before. I've been in the DB for almost six years now, having joined in the summer prior to Firefox's resignation as GM. I served in CSK with people like Armus and Enahropes until it was merged with CEK to form CP. I was hated almost as much as Chi-long by CSK for my role in helping with the merge as I tried to coach the CSK members through the merge but was seen as just doing it for the QUA position I got (I was actually QUA before the merge and on my way to PCON when Mav approached me about doing the merge :P). After the CSK-CEK merged, I remained in CP for a bit as QUA and than PCON before leaving for CSP. I worked in CSP in a bunch of house summit positions while Saitou was there but than resigned from there and the DB when I discovered World of Warcraft :P Feeding my WoW addiction for a year, I wasn't involved in the DB and actually had my dossier deleted so that I wasn't being bothered by people trying to recruit from the rogues. Once I gave up WoW though, I returned to the DB as Raiju Kang and have been serving Tarentum for most of my time since (having a brief time in CP again as AED and QUA for HSK).

As you can see, I'm fairly familiar with clan positions having held everything from BTL to PCON, while also serving as a judge in the ACC, EP in the SA (when the graders were still called EPs), and in a few misc positions all-round.

What is my job as Rollmaster in Gladius? I'm going to be your friendly neighbourhood house-historian. While in most houses the RM's function is to record activities, monitor your progression, and promote you guys when you are ready; in Gladius, the Aedile is handling that for the most part (with the other summits helping out of course).

What the Rollmaster in Gladius is going to do, what I'm going to do, is work on developing all aspects of our house fiction from working on our history and making sure its uptodate on the wikis, to developing storyarcs between competitions and for competitions, to providing you with fiction related competitions and workshops. If it involves writing, I'm on it. So count on hearing from me on everything fiction related.

Why have I not released a report yet? Well, for the most part the RoS has been the main priority of the house summit since its start, and while I know some of you had me editing your posts or fictions, I was mostly focused on doing my part in participating and promoting it than what my reports will consist of. From this point on, every report I release will be focused on the development of our house fiction and while this is important, the fact is I didn't want to bother you all with this until our focus was off the RoS. Now that the RoS is over, and the results officially out I've been developing my stuff behind the scenes and will able to start pumping my stuff out to you guys in the coming weeks.

Where is House Gladius currently sitting (in our fiction)? This has been my focus since the end of the RoS, believe me when I say the house summit had stuff ready for me when I took on this position and since the conclusion of the RoS we've been focused on how we are going to bring it to you and what it is. While the release of my official first fiction for Gladius is delayed (due to changing events in the clan coming shortly), you can expect the following to come from it: -New House Identity and Role -New House Ranks -Introduction to coming house competitions -Gladius Chronicles

While the first three items will have to be explained more when the fiction comes out, the Gladius Chronicles is my own contribution to the House Fiction. What this project is, is a holding place for each of our chapters for our house fiction that each of you will be able to contribute to and include your character in. More details when I've officially launched the house fiction.

Announcements House Fiction/Gladius Chronicles Like I said, this is Delayed for the moment. Just are waiting on some behind the scenes developments on the clan level that may impact us.

AWOL Check AWOL Check has concluded, I sent the list to the MAA but there seems to be an issue. Unless Korras is okay with it, we might have to wait until a DB-wide AWOL check by the MAA. I'll announce how it goes.

Recruitment Project So I've gathered three great assistants that are going through the rogue list with me to see if we can save some souls from the region of the damned. :P We'll be going through each rank by individuals, emailing them and inviting to join us here in Gladius. Afterwards, I have some ideas on where to recruit new people to the DB. You'll know if we're successful if you start seeing new faces around. If you want to help, feel free to shoot me an email.

ACC Reopened! As the title says, CM as reopened the ACC. Get out there and battle! Feel free to challenge me in the ACC if you want to try to gain some experience or if you are lucky earn some points on your record and maybe make it to the next ACC rank. ;)

Fiction-Related Competitions Gladius Chronicles: DELAYED

Wiki Development: Update your wiki with the recent events of the RoS, or create your wiki if you haven't already. I'm looking for a least a half page of fiction being added to each person's wiki. Best wiki article wins. Email me a link to your wiki to be considered for the competition. Here's the link: http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/competition.php?id=4766

My Dark Valentine: Write about your character's girl or boy friend, wife, husband, random pick, or sex slave and send you submission to Frosty. http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/competition.php?id=4788

Connect the Dots: Here's the details from the T:W's report: The wiki is meant to be a collection of interlinked articles, but just how easy is it to get from one article to another without using the search box? Using only the links present in each article's content (not the categories down the bottom) and taking note of each article you navigate to on your journey, find your way from:

Exodus To: Phoenix Crest

Your entry will be a list of articles that you had to "pass" in order to get to the destination. The shortest list will win and in the case of a tie the person who got in first will wins. Winners will recieve third level cresents (or second if more than ten entries are recieved) and will remain open until this time next week. Send all submisions to [Log in to view e-mail addresses]

Fiction Workshop Okay, so this is where I post a little tidbit to help improve your writing. Before we get to that: Please understand, I'm always available to read and edit your work and I love listening to ideas people may have and help them sort through it. As for this report's workshop, let's look at a few things to avoid while writing. This list comes from a writer for the TechRepublic magazine:

#1: Echoes Bad practice: Repeated words or phrases set up an echo in the reader's head or a "Didn't I just read that?" glitch that can be distracting. Example: -Several "but"s or "however"s or "for example"s in one paragraph (or in nearly every paragraph); a series of paragraphs that begin with "Next" -A favorite crutch word or phrase used throughout an article ("ensure that", "as such", "that said")

Best practice: Vary the language to avoid annoying or distracting readers with repeated words. Even better, get rid of some of the repeated verbiage, which usually turns out to be overkill anyway.

#2: Agreement problems Bad practice: Sometimes we lose track of what the subject is, and our verb doesn't match. Examples: -Neither of the editors are very smart. -The dog, as well as the goat and chicken, are easy to parallel park. -One-third of the company are color blind.

Best practice: Scrutinize the subject to determine whether it's singular or plural. It's not always obvious.

#3: Referring to companies, organizations, etc., as "they" Bad practice: A company - or any collective group that's being referred to as a single entity - is often treated as plural, but it shouldn't be. Examples: -I wish Wal-Mart would get their pot hole fixed. -Microsoft said they'll look at the problem.

Best practice: Unless there's some compelling exception, use "it".

#4: Hyphenating "ly" adverbs Bad practice: "ly" adverbs never take a hyphen, but they pop up a lot. Examples: -We like to avoid commonly-used expressions. -Click here for a list of recently-added downloads.

Best practice: Don't hyphenate "ly" adverbs. The "ly" says "modify the word that comes next," so there's no need to tie them together with a hyphen.

#5: Using "which" instead of "that" Bad practice: We sometimes use "which" to set off an essential clause (instead of "that"). Examples: -The meeting which was schedules for 1:00 has been cancelled. -The option which controls this feature is disabled.

Best practice: The commonly-accepted (haha) convention in American English is to set off a nonessential clause with the word "which" and a comma. One good test is whether the information is extra - not essential to the meaning of the sentence. If the clause is essential, use "that"

#6: Wordy constructions; deadwood phrases Nothing is worse for a reader than having to slog through a sea of unnecessary verbiage. Here are a few culprits to watch for in your own writing. Has the ability to can At this point in time now Due to the fact that because In order to to In the event that if Prior to the start of before

#7: Using "that" instead of "who" Bad practice: Some writers use "that" to refer to people. Examples: -The bartender that took my money disappeared. -The end user that called this morning said he found my money. -The folks that attended the training said it was a waste of time.

Best practice: When you're referring to people, use "who".

#8: Inconsistent use of the final serial comma Bad practice: One convention says to use a comma to set off the final item in a series of three or more items; another (equally popular) convention says to leave it out. But some writers bounce between the two rules. Examples:

* Word, Excel, and Outlook are all installed. (OR: Word, Excel and Outlook are all installed.)
* Open the dialog box, click on the Options tab, and select the Enable option. (OR: Open the dialog box, click on the Options tab and select the Enable option.)

Best practice: Decide on one convention and stick to it. Those who read what you've written will have an easier time following your sentence structure if you're consistent.

#9: Using a comma to join two dependent clauses Bad practice: Commas are a great source of controversy and often the victim of misguided personal discretion. But there is this rule: Two dependent clauses don't need one. Examples: - I hid the ice cream, and then told my sister where to find it. - The user said he saved the file, but somehow deleted it.

Best practice: If the second clause can't walk away and be its own sentence, don"t set it off with a comma.

Peace, ~RK~