Welcome to the Christmas season, ladies and gents! What a crazy week. Crusade results released, the Shadow Academy society released (and if you guys didn't know I may or may not be a massive fan of it, considering it features on pretty much every graphic I use now) and generally a great week to be alive. Congratulations again to House Plagueis for a great win and for Arcona being only slightly behind them in the Crusade. And, of course, well done to you guys (again), for a great year. But now it is over, and everything is going to be fine again. It's okay. Your souls are still crying, I know, but it's going to be alright.

Yes, I know. I'm actually putting out one report a week. This is actually happening. I said I would, and damnit, I will. You guys need to know what's happening, and I will deliver.

Let's get on with the report!

Current Competitions!

The first thing I'm going to draw attention to here is our trivia. After a couple of hiccups (my accidentally messing a question up, non-CNSers finding ways to submit to the trivia, my freaking out at the competition system), we've finished our first trivia! Hurrah! The winner of this week's trivia is Locke, with second place going to Syntari! Congratulations to the both of you, and Legions of the Scholar have been handed out.

Other competitions currently going on include:

• ACC: Create A Venue - Want to make new ACC locations for the big re-open? Submit a short entry here and get your work immortalised in fiction forever!
• Monthly Mobile Gaming: Hungry Santa - Can you make Santa weigh in at epic proportions? Get a high one-time weight and submit a screenshot!
• Monthly Mobile Gaming: Racing Santa - Play Racing Santa on mobile and get the highest score on level 1-1.
• Ghost of Christmas Present - Play on the current Tier 1 gaming platforms in some PvP matches - The most wins takes out the prize!
• Ghost of Christmas Past - Play on the old Tier 2 gaming platforms for some PvP and some Clusters of Fire. Earn the most Clusters to take the win!
• Star Wars: Angry Birds II - This competition is still running, if you want to play some Star Wars Angry Birds.

Promotions and Awards!

Finally some awards to talk about! Yes! These are mostly the awards handed out for Crusade participation (which, by the way, thank you all. You are all great.)

Teu: 1 Anteian Cross, 1 Bronze Nova, 29 Clusters of Fire
Sanjuro 'Sledge' Keibatsu: 1 Dark Cross
Maelous Ascarend: 1 Dark Cross
Xia Long: 1 Dark Cross
Vaar Mai: 1 Dark Cross, 1 Cluster of Fire

Congratulations to everyone who won some more awards. I know I like shiny things. Well done for chasing your dreams and acquiring loot.

Current Events!

The biggest news of the week is the release of the Shadow Academy society. It's a great incentive to get out there and do some stuff for the Shadow Academy to get more things to add on your dossier, like super-cool robes, all-new Accessories (this could very well be the precursor to Possessions! Ohmygod!) and a new Warbanner pattern which I will be rocking momentarily. Almost everyone has a rank in it and so I won't talk about those, but believe me, I think this is one of the coolest DJB releases in a very long while. It's managed to make me want to do more exams to get to the next rank, so there you go. If you want new shiny things and like having dossier stuff, as well as enjoy learning a thing or two, check out the Shadow Academy for sure! Or, even, how do you feel about the new Shadow Academy rankings? Drop a comment on the report page and let me know what you're thinking.

Xantros, our Tribune of Recruitment, has released a new report that's got a whole bunch of new DJB social media accounts in it. Want to follow the DJB on Facebook, Twitter or Youtube? Maybe even interested in a DJB blog? Check out Xantros' report and find out more. Definitely worth looking into, especially if you're into the curios of marketing and advertising.

Hey! Look! Character sheet update! The CS team has released some new races for character sheets (including one by yours truly) and have asked me to put out a reminder that you should totally do your character sheets because they're great. The system is still new and the kinks are being worked out, but these sheets are surprisingly intuitive to put together. It allows a little more creative freedom in your writing and, frankly, I like it better than the old D&D-based system. If you've not got a character sheet posted, now is a great time to get it done. If you aren't sure how to build one, the Character Sheet guide will be your best tool. If you'd like a new race added, contact Sarin (our Voice of the Brotherhood), Telaris 'Mav' Cantor (our Combat Master) and Marick Arconae (smelly Arconan that I love).

Sadow News Network!

I would like to take a minute to talk about the run-on. CNS has a super-strong fictional tradition (we've had a great deal of amazing writers over the years) and now is when we are showing that said tradition has not died out. This run-on is still going strong after a long while and is probably the next big thing that we're doing. It's been a great thing to read so far, and I hope we get more of it. Thank you to our PCON Xanos for getting it started and thank you to everyone who's participated thus far.

For those of you who are interested in reading, check it out here: Clan Run-On

I'm going to drop this, quietly, here, where you can see it. You didn't get it from me. Two words: Black Guard. Stay tuned.

In Closing

Holy wow. Lots of Crusade awards handed out and the coolest content update for the DJB we've seen in a while. I'm super-excited for the SA society. I'm keen for the upcoming Clan Artisans. I'm super-excited to be running weekly trivia. I feel rejuvenated after the Crusades and I hope that you guys are too, because I'd love to see CNS take a big jump forward. I know House Shar Dakhan are looking at some great stuff, so Marka Ragnos needs to follow suit. I'd love to see you guys getting out there, doing some stuff, being active. Come do some Shadow Academy. Let's do some more run-ons. Do what makes you happy.

In fact, what do you want to do? Leave some comments. Your feedback is actually really important to us as both House Summit and Clan Summit, to bring you guys the content you want to see. So let us know and we'll do our best to bring it to you.

And, I know this may seem a little crazy, but bear with me: don't forget to log into the DJB website once in a while instead of just guest-browsing. It keeps you out of AWOL, and I know there are more of you out there than you'd care to admit. You do love us, in our cesspool of nerdery. We love you too. Share the love. Log in.

Alright, guys, that's it from me this week. Stay classy, Marka Ragnos.