The feud with Odan Urr is approaching even faster than ever. Right now it's looking like the format will be very similar to things that Plagueis has done in the past with one week phases back-to-back with a break in between every so often. All in all I would expect from a member standpoint that if you've participated in anything Plagueis has ran in the past year, you'll be very familiar with formatting.

Expect the beginning to be dropping this month! Once we get closer, e-mails will be going out over the e-mail group.

Telegram

Yes, Telegram. Again. Most of the clan is on it, but it never hurts to beat this drum. We have a great Telegram presence that seems to get more and more active every day. If you haven't gotten Telegram yet, you should check it out. The link for the Plagueis Telegram chat can be found on our unit page or you can contact either myself (@teylasramar) or Selika (@Slagar) for an invite into the group.

What is a Non-Force User?

First I'd like to start by announcing a change that I've decided to make to the Prospectus regarding non-Force users in Plagueis. This is mostly to allow for the opportunity for a NFU to join the summit if that day should ever arise. The new text reads from the caste portion of the Prospectus as follows:

Lords of Plagueis: The Dread Lord and members of the Synod make up the highest level of Plagueian society. Elevation to this level is determined solely by the Dread Lord, though the counsel of the Synod is often consulted. Members of this caste will have their name preceded by “Lord” when addressed formally by a subordinate or member of a lower caste. On very rare occasions, the Dread Lord will elevate non-Force users to this station. These individuals are rare, and will often have performed extraordinary service to the Dread Lord. They also represent the absolute apex of skill and deadliness amongst the members of the Clan unable to touch the Force.

Hopefully this remedies a bit of concern that came from some of our members. I know this change wasn't fast enough for some people, but the goal was to make the most amount of benefit with the minimum amount of change. This way, no new caste has to be added; just an edit of the existing canon.

In the end there has been a lot of concern over the canon of Plagueis and how it deals with NFU. Specifically the caste which they live in:

The Willing: Not all that serve the Dark Jedi of Plagueis are slaves or others forcefully brought to heel. There are those that serve willingly, and these members of Plagueis make up the third caste within the House. These non-Force users are considered full citizens of the Clan and enjoy more freedom and privileges than those below them. Many that make up this caste come from the remains of the Jusadih Military Regime and the officers and men that survived the Horizons Crisis. Still others come from those who Plagueis capture that are willing to serve their new dark lords freely. Only those who unquestioningly demonstrate their loyalty by allowing the depths of their psyches to be laid bare with the Force are granted this place in Plagueian society.

The Emphasis in the block quote is mine; the members of Plagueis who play NFUs would be considered within this caste. As such, their characters are treated as full fledged citizens of Plagueis with everything that comes with that. There has also been no changes to this write up since it was intitially created, so NFU’s have always enjoyed this status. Are they still "beneath" Force Users? Yes. This has been a bit of a point of contention, but I feel as though this is nothing outside of what we've seen in Star Wars canon. Boba Fett was hired help to Vader, and was clearly in an employer-employee role with him. General Hux was still clearly the subordinate of Kylo Ren. Even the Jedi treated their clone army commanders as below them. The closest that a NFU has ever come to being equal to a Force user in a chain of command type structure that we've seen would be Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin, and even then it seemed like Vader was more respectful of Tarkin's command/tactical decisions than Vader was willing to just do what he wanted.

With that being said: part of the appeal of being a NFU is seeing how the "regular guy" reacts and participates in a galaxy filled with space wizards. How does the military officer react to such a powerful dude giving him orders? How does the mercenary react? Does he follow the job and orders given to him, or does he jet out? That is what makes it so interesting. Also how other characters react to you isn't going to depend solely on what "caste" you're in; it's going to be what you write your character to be. If your character is a NFU jerk then he's going to get crapped on. If he's someone who is constantly working loyally and steadfast with the Force users, you get treated with respect. I give you an excerpt from an official Plagueis fiction around the time of the most recent GJW:

"... And we've spent the last two weeks picking up the pieces," Ranin said, the hologram doing little to blunt the intensity of her scowl. For a moment, none could speak.

"Well, it is good to know you survived," Teylas spoke, breaking the silence. "Also, it is likely that your escape, and the ensuing fire fight, blunted the bombardment launched against us. So, good work, Admiral."

"Yes, yes," she said, waving the praise away as she would an annoying insect. "And if you lot hadn't been so ensconced in your little game of king of the hill we might still have a hill to be kings of."

"Can she talk to them like that?" Taranae wondered with a whisper.

"I think she can when she's right," Selika responded, equally quietly.

Obviously Admiral ranin is someone who has a well established relationship with the leadership of Plagueis as the Commander of the Ascendant Fleet. But your character, following the same mold, could have the same. It really all depends on what type of character you want. You could just as easily be that bounty hunter that is a completely jackwad, who has a bunch of respect from the Force users because of their effectiveness at their job.

Moral of the story? NFU is what you make it, and how you write it. No line in a Prospectus is going to change that fundamental fact.

The Wise - Results

I'm really pleased with how The Wise competition went for Plagueis. For the month of February I've decided to "take off" with the launch of the Between Light and Darkness feud launching, and I want to assess values for different things. I can say for sure that the gaming section will be getting tweaked for sure.

So without further delay, here are the top 5 placements for the membership:

1. Areticus Altainatus
2. Ra'gnar
3. Lo-Kain Vamielaga
4. Felix Fulmen
5. Brimstone

Really awesome job for everyone. Nearly every member had some points in, which means activity is going on! Beautiful to see. This competition is truly something made for the membership of Plagueis by the summit (to the point that House+ summit members weren't placed) and I know for a fact that whole Plagueis summit was pushing and helping people participate and get involved in things for both this competition and just in general.

Expect this to come back in March with a few tweaks!

Clan Plagueis Run-On

Everyone is pretty aware right now, but Plagueis is running a new, official Clan-wide run-on being spearheaded by Dracaryis and Eiko. The run-on can be found here and has been extremely active so far! If anyone has any questions about how to jump into the run-on you can ask any of the Plagueis summit. The run-on is a great opportunity to get character development in, brush up your writing skills with your fellow Plagueians, flesh out your characters personality and traits a bit more in an actual storyline setting.

The ebb and flow of the run-on will be primarily left under the control of Drac and Eiko, and it will be a "secondary story" to what goes on between major Plagueis events. It'll show the different points of view of the non-leadership (mostly) types throughout the events that go on in our canon.