Report #4 - November 21st, 2011 <-

**Abyss Station

3 Days before the Invasion of New Tython**

The Headmaster shifted his stance, turning slightly so that his stronger side faced his opponent. The hilt of his saber was already in hand, the ruby blade flowing out of the emitter as his eyes stayed locked on the man before him. Emerald eyes stared back, hilt and blade matching in colour as they appeared instantaneously. Taigikori's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, shifting once more yet keeping his right shoulder pointed at the older man at all times.

In the midst of his movements the Warlord vaulted forward, closing the distance between the two fighters in a heartbeat. The blades slammed together, the smell of ozone filling their nostrils. Dupar kept moving, quickly disengaging before coming at his opponent at another angle. Again the green blade swept down to meet it, his opponent slowly moving back as the Councilor pressed forward. The large form of the Headmaster weaved an intricate pattern with his saber, a blur to the naked eye that still never managed to penetrate his opponents defenses. The metal jaw seemed to tighten against his flesh, anger boiling up into Aybara's. He prepared to change tactics, redirecting his mounting emotions into his limbs and allowing them to instinctively find his opponent's weakness'. Implementation never came, as the older man suddenly exploded forward with speed and strength belying his appearance. The emerald blade slammed into his own, the sudden burst overcoming his own prodigious strength. Sensing the Warlord was now vulnerable, the man switch the position of his hilt so that his blade was now perpendicular to his forearm and slashed across his body, the blade cutting an angry line through Taigikori's chest. The Sith's mouth opened in pain, but all sound was drowned out as a gust of wind suddenly picked him up and tossed him across the room.

Aybara landed with a dull thud, a groan escaping what lips he had as he rolled onto his back. "Dammit, Halc! You nearly cleaved me in two!" he yelled from his prone position, his fingers gingerly touching the slash on his chest.

"You would be dead if I wanted you dead, Taig, and you know it", the Deputy Grand Master called back as he watched the other man slowly rise to his feet. "And really, you have the strength of a wampa but decide to use finesse instead?"

"No one would suspect that from someone with my build".

"Granted, but it doesn't mean it's any more effective. Use your natural talents and work your skills around it. If you're not going to rely on the Force, then at least rely on your martial talents. Now, do you want to tell me why you asked for this 'training session' or do I get to continue finding new ways to humiliate you?"

Taigikori bit back the first reply that came to his head, taking a calming breath before igniting his ruby blade once more. A slight wince marred his faced at the injury to his chest, but even that pain was slowly fading away as he faced the Master across from him, both men circling each other once more.

"The Obelisk are ascendant and a Krath is in charge of the Brotherhood. Where does that leave us?"

"Us?" Halcyon asked as he made the first move in this round, closing the gap and opening with an enhanced overhead slash.

"The Sith", Taigikori grunted as he met the incoming attacking and pushed it easily aside as he fell into a more comfortable defensive posture.

"The Orders are just names; pointless", the older man responded as she renewed his attack with simple strikes made difficult by the speeds at which they came.

"That's crap", the Headmaster nearly yelled out, trying to keep up with each strike of the emerald blade. "Your Order has defined you, and you know it. I know you have mastered many of the martial skills and delve deeply into the Force, but at heart you lead! You have always led. You know where you learned that!"

Halcyon's attack faltered ever so slightly, Dupar taking advantage of the respite to begin his own counter-attack. The Sith Lord quickly regained his composure, beating aside the intricate pattern of strikes that his opponent rained down upon him.

"If we are meant to lead, then why are you a glorified scholar, Taig?"

"Someone must teach the next generation the truths of the Brotherhood", he easily answered, knowing the topic would be brought up, "just as I know you have taken some of the other Councilors under your wing".

"What would you have me do? Strike down the other Orders? Overthrow the Grand Master?"

"The Orders have their place, and are too useful to discard. But the Sith must lead!"

It took some moments for Halcyon to respond, allowing the Warlord to continue his attacks and keeping him close. Without warning a blast of anger and rage exploded from the Dark Master, slamming into the unprepared Equite and sending him careening once more across the room. He landed with a loud groan, forcing no other sound to be released as he tried to asses the various injuries.

"You'll live", Halcyon called out, "and I highly suggest you take my advice on those forms. As for your advice, plans are already in the works. Just keep teaching those truths".

"Good", Taigikori whispered under his breath as the Taldrya walked out of the room. A small smile crept along his face as he lay on the ground to catch his breath.

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It has been quite a few months since my last report, and I apologize for that. I try and release new information in my reports, which at time is hard depending on how much is happening around the DB. I hope all of the news posts I did during the GJW made up for the lack of recent reports :P That being said, I have a few things to announce including a new position to apply to! As for the above fiction, it's just something small that may or may not turn into something larger down the line. Who knows? Now, onto the report!

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I will get this first announcement out of the way. I am officially opening up applications for anyone who wishes to be my Praetor. The main focus of this job will be to help me in getting all of the fictional and non-fictional DB elements completed or updated. This includes things like the DC Dominion; DC Fleet & Army; Completing past events; updating the DB Codex; etc, etc... All of this information will be eventually found on the DB wiki, but I do not need someone who is a wiki-good (that's what Ben is for :P). What I do need is someone with both the skill and the drive to help complete all of these projects. That means someone who is skilled at writing, has a history of completing such projects and has shown to have common sense.

While that is what I am looking for in terms of skill-set, I am also looking for someone I can bounce ideas off of. Anyone who believe they fit the above description, and is both in good standing with the DC and myself can apply. I am looking for someone who wishes to truly help the DB. With everything else being equal, I will probably be going with someone with a little less DB experience, but they must still meet all my criteria. Someone who has in the past been a leader (AED+) is also something I will be looking into, as I do need someone with leadership experience to help me when coming to certain decisions. So, if interested please send your applications directly to me. I will be taking applications until Nov. 30.

While on the topic of applications, just a reminder that we are still accepting application for Combat Master. I will be extending applications for that position until this Friday, Nov. 25. Also, applications are open for Arcona Proconsul and Quaestor of House Shar Dakhan. If interested please apply to the respective leaders, cc'ing both myself and Muz

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I would just like to publically congratulate some recent promotions and medals that were awarded. Ronovi has been promoted to Primarch for her work both in Arcona as well as in the Shadow Academy. Dash has been awarded an Emerald Dagger for all that he's done both for Arcona as well as in the MAA Office. Kaira was awarded an Amethyst Kukri for all of her efforts in keeping Odan-Urr together while they worked through various issues with leadership. Muz was also awarded an Amethyst Kukri for putting together the Great Jedi War.

I know there are a number of other medals and promotions awarded these last few weeks, and I would like to congratulate everyone who has received something. There are always opportunities to receive even more medals and promotions, so long as you're willing to put in the effort.

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Now that we had some good news, time to report some bad news. This may not come as a surprise to many as it was not really a secret, but I am just officially announcing the closure of House Revan. Our first "Independent House" in a number of years, they started off with a bang and won a Rite of Supremacy. However, it became clear that the core of the House was not nearly as active as it needs to be to stay open. Many of it's leaders have left for other units, or just do not have the time necessary to lead a still young House. Eiko has been tireless in his efforts to keep things afloat, but eventually reality must set in. While it is not something we want to do, or like to do, it is necessary. A House cannot survive if only a handful of people are truly giving any effort. As such, Revan is being closed. Any remaining members will be moved to the Rogues and are free to return and join any unit when they feel ready for it.

I would like to thank Raken for his initial efforts in building up the House and to Eiko for taking over when still a very new member of the club and keeping things running as well as he did. We do hope that at some point in the future this House can return, but for the time being I hope that it's members can be revitalized in other areas of the club.

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You will have noticed already that the fictional time on both the website and the wiki are still at 35 ABY. We recently had discussions on the topic of 1:1 vs. 2:1 and we all readily agreed that we should revert back to a 1:1 format of time. We no longer need to truly catch up with the rest of the SW universe as much of what is coming up will never effect us directly, unlike the time of the Vong invasion. As such we now have the time to truly focus on our own fictional development and flesh out areas we want to, without aging at such a fast rate. We can develop our character's much better, and take some time to truly flesh them out.

Our official "New Year" will always coincide with Exodus Day, April 13th. At that time we will rollover to 36 ABY and each year thereafter we will have a new fictional year.

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Just a small little announcement to make. Longtime member of the club, Keirdagh Cantor (Yacks to the rest of us) was added to my staff as a Magistrate. During the choosing of new possessions he had made a quick little file with various statistics for fleet strength. Seeing the work, I have asked him to work with me and develop that further into something usable by the Dark Brotherhood, both for informational purposes as well as having the ability to create a wargame around it.

Speaking about possessions, all of the choices made will be updated on the official list this week. The final House sent in their choices just last night so now I can make sure everything gets updated at one time. I hope to see a lot of these choices used in future fictions, as there were some interesting units and creatures available.

Last, I would like to thanks Orv for fixing the script that places new members in Houses. For at least six months, if not longer, certain Houses were not receiving any members at all. That problem should now be fixed and every House should be receiving an equal number of members.

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Time for my little non-DB talk...although this is still SW related. I just finished the new Revan book yesterday. It was a fairly quick read as the book is pretty short overall, and I would have to say that I am disappointed in it. The KOTOR series of games were some of my favorties every, and I enjoyed the story. However this book was not truly a sequal to those games. It was instead more of a prequel to the upcoming Old Republic MMO featuring characters from the KOTOR series. There were some interesting little tidbits littered throughout the book, but really it could have been so much more. We do find out what happened to Revan and the Exile after the games (yes, the Exile is here and now has a name as well as officially being female), but that is not the main story of this novel. I would probably save your money and look at updated wikipedia entries on those two character to see what happens.

That's the end of the report. As always, please feel free to poke me or e-mail me if you have any questions or comments.

Report Lyrics:_ "He's gonna buy a parrot that speaks her language "_

In Darkness,

Dark Jedi Master Halcyon Taldrya

Deputy Grand Master

Sith Lord