Greetings all,

Today, I’m pleased to officially announce the upcoming Rite of Supremacy: Escalation! This post will detail the event start date and timeline and explain how a new RoS-specific system is going to make this vendetta different from any in the history of the Brotherhood.

Start Date and Timeline

We are on schedule to start the RoS at the end of the month: it will begin at site time on May 30th, which means it will release on the evening of 5/29 for those of us in North America. Competitions for Phase I and the Event Long phases will go live at that point. The opening fiction may be released slightly earlier.

As is traditional, this Rite of Supremacy will not award Clan titles, but will recognize the top three scoring individuals as Heroes. The Heroes and some of the other top-scoring members will be written into the closing fiction! Importantly, because this is a Rite of Supremacy, scoring will be weighted more towards participation than placement, so although placing in events will still earn you more points, you can earn a relatively high score just by participating in as many competitions as possible and completing at least one competition per bin.

We made a few adjustments to the schedule for last summer’s GJW XIV to help members impacted by the pandemic continue to participate and earn awards for their Clans. It worked well and we are carrying those changes over to this RoS: 1) We will use slightly fewer Bins than in past vendettas, 2) We will offer alternatives, or perhaps lowered requirements, for competitions to encourage participation and accessibility, 3) We have extended the event timetable in such a way as to allow each Phase to cross 3 weekends.

The RoS will last roughly five and a half weeks. As with our past major events, there will be competitions offered in (approximately) two-week Phases, as well as in an Event Long “Phase”. We believe the number of bins will be sufficient to provide ample opportunity for members to complete at least one competition in each bin, even with limited time. Completing at least one competition in every bin will earn you the maximum available participation points for your team. But we encourage everyone to participate in as many competitions as they have time for!

Due to the timing of the event and the ongoing global pandemic, and in an effort to accomodate members with variable schedules, Phases will be slightly over two weeks, ensuring that each Phase occurs over 3 total weekends. In addition, because this event's end will overlap with Fourth of July Weekend, the second Phase will continue until the following Tuesday. As such, the RoS schedule is as follows:

Phase I: 5/30 to 6/13
Phase II: 6/20 to 7/6
Event Long: 5/30 to 7/6

Factions in RoS: Escalation

Our last Rite of Supremacy, RoS: Meridian, worked in practice much like a Great Jedi War with some scoring and reward differences. This time, the Dark Council set out to find a way to draw greater distinction between our two club-wide vendetta types. So rather than turn this RoS into another GJW-lite pitting clan against clan, we are turning the focus to our underutilized factions, the Severian Principate and the Tenixir Revenants.

For the first time, individual RoS participants will pledge their support to a sub-faction of the Principate or the Revenants. There are two sub-factions for each faction, with the SP sub-factions roughly aligning to “Lawful Good/Evil” and the TR sub-factions aligning to “Chaotic Good/Evil.” All four groups have narrative space for neutral characters to fit in based on their preference for Order v. Chaos.

If you’ve kept up with the Shadows Coalescing fiction series, you’ve noticed that the main players are members of these two factions and that conflict has been building between them. Rite of Supremacy: Escalation will result in major fictional impacts on one or both of the factions, depending on the choices you make.

Scoring

Participants will pledge to a sub-faction at the beginning of the RoS and their placement/participation points will contribute to the total score for their chosen sub-faction. We will follow the same scoring process as in the last few vendettas. As is typical for an RoS, participation will be weighted more heavily than placement. The relative scores of the sub-factions will determine the ultimate outcome of the SP/TR conflict.

Importantly, all team events will be inter-clan though all team members must be pledged to the same sub-faction.

Scores will also be tracked for Clans for purposes of awarding credits and Clan-level possessions. Clans will receive prorated points from team events based on the clan composition of the team.

Rewards

In addition to Hero titles for the top three scoring members and the usual novae and credits, the top ten participants for each sub-faction will be granted a unique sub-faction themed possessions item. The sub-faction items will also be placed in the Faction Store for purchase by all participants, restricted by sub-faction.

Dossier art will be awarded based on a modified version of the Herald Vendetta Dossier Skin Guidelines:

1st Place Sub-faction: Weapon & Accessory
2nd Place Sub-faction: Weapon
3rd Place Sub-faction: Accessory

And all participants will receive one Seal of Enmity per competition participated in:

Additionally, Clans will be granted Clan Fleet Upgrade artifacts from a pool of available artifacts. In order of Clan score, each Clan will get to select one artifact from the list. An artifact, once selected, will be removed from the list and not be available for other Clans to choose in this vendetta.

Pledging

The most important part! The pledging system is an entirely new system developed by our benevolent overlord, James. The system is now live at the new RoS: Escalation Faction Pledge page. Before anyone has pledged, it will look like this:

Once you choose a sub-faction to pledge to, you will be listed on the pledge page under your sub-faction of choice along with everyone else who has pledged to that sub-faction. Teams for group events can be organized with anyone else pledged to the same sub-faction as you. We have created Telegram war chats for each of the four sub-factions, and you will see the invite link to your sub-faction’s chat on the pledge page once you’ve made your choice. Join your side’s chat for help with organizing teams and general vendetta hype!

Note that pledging is mandatory for participation in this vendetta. You will be prompted to pledge prior to subscribing to any competition. You can begin pledging now, and you are free to change your pledge at any time until you participate in a competition. Once you have submitted an entry, you will be unable to change your pledge. Note that this includes any gaming activity submitted for an RoS competition, even if submitted by another member of your group. The following flow chart illustrates how this works:

As you can see, a small number of competition types may permit you to participate without having pledged due to coding restrictions (e.g. an SA quiz event or PvP gaming through Fist bot). We will try to remind anyone who falls through those cracks without pledging to select a sub-faction prior to the end of the RoS so that they are not disqualified.

Take some time now to think about which sub-faction you want to support, and if you already know, feel free to make your choice! If you want to read more fiction before deciding, an RoS-launch fiction will be released with (or slightly before) the competitions on May 30. Keep in mind that this system works on two separate levels: first and foremost, it’s a website and event mechanism that allows us to run something quite different than any vendetta in the last decade; second, it’s a fictional hook for your character (and alts and NPCs, if you wish) to be involved in the events of this vendetta. It can be as meaningful or insignificant to your own canon as you want it to be -- there’s no right or wrong way to look at it, it’s entirely up to you.

On the Vendetta Transfer Ban

• The clan to clan transfer ban will be enacted one-week prior (on May 23, site time) to the start of the RoS. No members will be allowed to transfer between units at that time, but rogue transfers are still allowed.

To quote the Vendetta Wiki Page:

To prevent abuse of the transfer system and to prevent the problem of people moving into clans solely for the purpose of participation in one large event, it is hereby ordered that all inter-clan transfers stop one week prior to any DB-wide event (including the competing clans during a Clan Feud), and continue that way until the event's end.*

Rogues may pledge towards a sub-faction.

Rogue members may still transfer into Clans during the transfer-ban-window, and may participate in the event as Rogues. Members participating as a Rogue do accumulate points for their pledged sub-faction, but will not transfer any points earned while a rogue to a Clan should they join a Clan mid-event. However, once a Rogue transfers to a Clan, any competitions the member enters while on a Clan roster will count for that Clan.

Remember what the Panda says: Have fun in the coming weeks, and do all the things!

A few additional notes

You'll hear much more from us soon In the meantime, don't forget to sign up for gaming brackets.

Finally, if you've never participated in a Rite of Supremacy or Great Jedi War, or perhaps not one in the modern era, you might want to check out our Vendetta course.