Tarentum,

In the sections below you will find a summary of news from across the club, a fiction update regarding a big announcement from today, announcements regarding new developments in our Clan structure, and the launch of several new projects that will grip our unit over the next couple months. I will also address members' bad experiences here in Tarentum. Furthermore, a personal apology to two forgotten souls.

Before I begin however, I would like to take the moment to point to the Clan Address. I received a lot of good feedback, not just from Tarenti, but from the club as a whole. A quick look at the comment section shows a lot of support for us - for Tarentum. Remember that as we move forward we aren’t just changing to survive, we’re changing to become an active, contributing part of the club. And should you ever have think that the DJB doesn’t want Tarentum, that everyone is against us, or that people are out to shut us down; remember that support and encouragement that the club has already shown us.

Tarentum is part of the DJB, and everyone wants to see it continue to be so. We will be the ones to insure this.

In Darkness We Trust

SBL Raiju Kang
Consul of Tarentum

• Justicar Jac Cotelin has released his first report regarding the going-ons of the Chamber of Justice. Of particular note is the fact that he and his staff have picked up several cases not completed prior to Taigikori’s resignation. More news will be coming out upon the completion of these cases and, as always is the case with these events, expect to see how their outcomes will influence Brotherhood’s future and the development of the Covenant.

• Deputy Grand Master Telaris “Mav” Taldrya Cantor released a report covering the announcement of his new Magistrate (Congratulations to a fellow Tarenti; Meleu!), along with an outline of projects the office will be covering, and an update on the Magistrate policies.

• Our friend Wally shows he doesn’t know the meaning of the word retirement - leaving us all the wonder if he really should be incharge of a fiction platform of the club. ;) He nonetheless announced major changes in the ACC, covering everything from open spots on his staff as Judges, a new kind of battle, reminders about ACC features, changes to Disciplines (Including new additions), and plans about upcoming changes to the Character Sheets, venues, and more.

• The Lightsaber Guide launched this past week, including a web version

• Grand Master Darth Pravus left us with some updates on admin and appointment changes, but of particular note to everyone was the news on Possessions

• Fist announced testing a new LFG chat. Just remember, all challenges must still be made in #dbgaming

• Possession Survey is still continuing, if you haven’t posted already please do so: We are aiming for 20 Tarenti participants, help us reach our goal

Excerpt: ”A lesser being would’ve nervously looked around for support, they would’ve refused to challenge their Consul, they would’ve plead for mercy or begged to be spared - all things a Tarenti wouldn’t do.”

Many of you would have seen the news Farrin posted on the mailing list earlier today, if you didn’t its my honour to inform you that Jalen Ramz has been raised to the rank of Dark Jedi Knight. I invite you to please take a moment to send him your congratulations, as well as to check out the recommendations.

Dark Jedi Knight is no small feat, and it is something it should be a huge milestone in a member’s career in the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. To honour such an achievement, like I and so many other Tarenti have been, a fiction update has been composed to mark the occasion. I invite everyone to check it out, and keep an eye for some foreshadowing of our new storyline:

A Knight’s Fitting

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Furthermore, another fiction update is the alteration of my Clan Address fiction. Originally this was suppose to be a single update, leading up to a couple more releases before the next storyline but at the members’ suggestion it’s been made into a Run-On:

Half Past Midnight

I encourage every Tarenti to get involved, check out the discussion thread or the discussion on the mailing list. I will be using this opportunity to drop in tidbits related to the new storyline, but there is also a competition available for this Run-on so take advantage of a chance to make some Tarentum lore and earn some shinies while you are at it. This will be the lead up for the new storyline so everyone involved in the Run-On will be have their stories canonized and it will be from there that we launch the new storyline.

Battleteams

Earlier this week there were a couple changes that happened regarding BTs, Farrin covered a few but in total:

• Battleteams were announced to be going under restructuring
• Jen Kaari and Knights of Tau were both closed, no plans to reopen
• All BT members were returned to General Population
• Both Samael and Oberst were removed from their positions as well (with our thanks)

The reason for this was outlined in my proposal to those working on the restructuring:

Problem:
For months now the current Battleteams of Tarentum have sat inactive, ineffective, and maintaining status as placeholders within our little society. Few activities have been recorded attributed to them, no clear design or purpose is establish for their co-existence, and their relationship to the Clan is either weak or in the case of KoT, non-existent at this moment. In the past, fleeting moments of change and prosperity quickly return to the status quo and neither has done any sort of recruiting or engaging members outside of their own units.

Needs:

• To develop a purpose/connection to the parent unit, defining their status as a sub-unit of Tarentum
• To create a realm of co-existence between the two units; including elements of rivalry, competition, camaraderie, shared history/purpose/design
• To become an active, contributing tier of the Tarentum organization
• To define, test, and develop new leadership for Tarentum
• To provide active, engaging, regular, and consistent activity opportunities on a local (BT-only) level
• To provide active, engaging, regular, and expanding lore/backstory to the BTs and their members

Our Solution:
Because of the attached history to the current form of Jen Kaari and the stubborn, hostile view to have anything "Tau" be relative to gaming, it's been decided that these two units should cease to exist. While the established history of the units should be prepared, and I promise an acceptable end will be declared in the Clan's canon/lore; renovations of things people have grown attached to will be an uphill battle on top of an already mountainous task.

So instead, two new Battleteams will be established, fresh and with clean slates. Not only this but it has been confirmed with several members of the Dark Council that once Tarentum has a successful application to create two Houses (You can read the policies and requirements here ), these two Battleteams will be promoted/evolved up to House status. This will mean that for all intensive purposes, this is an opportunity to start a new House in its infancy as a Battleteam that will carry members, lore, history, events, and even reports and other historic pieces with them until their end of days. It is hoped that this design will inspire members to get in on the ground floor creation and assist with pushing the unit forward to its success bringing about a full team mentality for the units from their very inception, -inspiring loyal, activity, and drive to make them grow. This will also challenge the established BTLs to project manage the development of these units, from managing their creation teams to working along side their counterpart and even with said counterpart. We, the clan summit, will basically be looking at these BTLs as QUAs in training.

These new Battleteams and their new Battleteam Leaders have already been decided:

• Battleteam Mortis - Lead by Sith Warrior Egregious
• Battleteam Inmortuae - Lead by Krath Archpriest Samael Ozriel

Release:
As you may have guessed from the names chosen, a certain theme will be returning to Tarentum (which will be redeveloped to meet canon). However, this will be a clan wide theme so each of these new units will have to work out how they want to plug into that theme - the only requirement that we have given is one team (Mortis) connect to Dead/Death and the other (Inmortuae) connect to the Undead - doesn’t necessarily have to have a direct connection, use your imagination. How the creation teams view/develop from this is up to them.

Right now, the Battleteam leaders have been given a few extra days to work out the beginning of their unit proposals. At this point I’d like to invite interested Tarenti to contact the BTL of the unit they are interested in helping and that BTL will get you involved on the creation team. Those that are on the creation teams will have a chance to develop what will become our new houses (again once we meet the requirements for houses), they will be part of the BTs on their launch, and will be listed as founding members of the units.

After the release of the BTs, I will be giving BTLs free reign to recruit for their BTs - so long as they recruit from Tarentum’s general population, the rogues, or outside the DJB (common sense here says recruiting from other clans will not be tolerated). Once we have the membership in the clan to have two houses, those remaining in the clan population will either be automatically sorted into the two new houses (or offered a chance to start their own BT under Tarentum’s banner).

It is my hope to launch the two new BTs in a week, however we will be launching them together at the same time so this depends on both teams having approved proposals by that date. However, if we can approve proposals earlier - we will. So its in your best interest to contact Samael or Egregious asap if you want on a creation team/listed as a founding member.

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Project Managers & Summit Liaisons

In case you didn’t know, there’s a lot of work involved in running a clan. Furthermore, there is a lot of opportunities to grow, develop from, and cash in on. Today we had one of our members earn the rank of Dark Jedi Knight, and he won’t be the last. Furthermore, we have a healthy collection of Equites who are looking for the next big project to earn that next promotion. The Clan Summit welcomes and encourages this, and we want to help you wherever we can to reach that next rank. So we want to make more opportunities available to you the members, not only this but it will allow more transparency letting you see what’s coming down the pipe and giving you a chance to contribute or voice your feedback. Finally, it also gives you the member a chance to get more involvement in the direction of the clan because we want to make things more accepting of the proposals/ideas you come to us with. Every project needs a primary person. Yet, our role as the summit doesn’t require us to be the lead on all the projects - or even any of the projects. We just have to be involved for guidance and support, that’s why we are going to be using the terms Project Manager and Summit Liaison.

Project Manager will be the lead contact for the project his/her group is working on. They will be responsible for coordinating that group, recruiting new contributors, assigning tasks and making sure all resources are being used, and will be directly responsible for reporting to their summit liaison on the progression of their team. Any member of Tarentum can take on the role for a project, regardless of rank, and may even be a summit member from time to time should no other Tarenti be available. However, our hopes is by offering this opportunity members will have a chance to earn higher merit towards their next promotion - by taking a more involved role than group members by having a leadership component on top. Additionally, to share the wealth, the summit will be monitoring and possibly limiting the number of projects a member is declared project manager at a time.

Summit Liaison will be an assigned summit member, attached to the project either due to personal skill sets or interest level. Their responsibility is to act as coach to the Project Manager, providing guidance and support, and addressing any concerns the group has to the summit as a whole. They will be responsible for witnessing the activity levels of those involved so they can insure the proper level of awards are handed out at the project’s completion. They may also act as a group member, though this may not a requirement all the time such as when perhaps in the best interest of the members involved. They should be CC’ed on all group communication in other to perform their duties.

• *For clarification, a group member is anyone attached to a project but not a project manager or summit liaison. They may contribute to discussions, assigned tasks, or a variety of things and are meant to report their actions back to the group as a whole for the project manager. *

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Current Projects:

Necromancy Cookbook

• Project Manager: Samael
• Summit Liaison: Darth Aeternus
• Current Group members: Levathan (Krath liaison), Egregious (Sith liaison), Aynar (Obelisk liaison)
• Description: A general guide on necromancy, with annotations by the three different orders on how best the dark art can be used from their perspection.

Planetary/Population Project:

• Project Manager: Aynar
• Summit Liaison: Raiju
• Current Group members: Caesar, Meleu, Farrin, Bloodfyre
• Description: An in depth look at Yridia system, aligning and updating the related wiki articles and also developing the socio-political system we live in. Perhaps possible reform and renovation for the planets and the socio-political system under the new clan storyline.

Wiki Update:

• Project Manager: Meleu
• Summit Liaison: Farrin
• Current Group members:
• Description: Complete overhaul and update of all existing wiki articles, bringing them up to standards, archiving those that need to be, creating new ones with the coming changes, and other general details. Member, planets, socio-political system, and military articles will all be reviewed under this process.

New Storyline:

• Project Manager: Samael
• Summit Liaison: Raiju
• Current Group Members
• Description: New clan storyline, redeveloping clan theme, introducing new NPC, villians, and long term story arcs. Will also introduce the new BTs and involve the membership storylines as much as possible. Not looking for group members in the traditional sense, but Raiju is looking for guest writers (both in and outside the clan).

Want to be a group member? Contact one of the listed Project Managers above.
Want to be a Project Member? Keep an eye out for upcoming projects, or if you have an idea or concept of your own submit a proposal to the Clan Summit.

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Summit Feedback Form

After my Clan Address last week, I received a lot of feedback. Many people were encouraged to share with me their Consul applications, and its from there I got to see a lot of what the membership feels is the problem with Tarentum. I also got a number of emails from members, confirming what I had wrote in my report. Some examples of different feedback I received:

“When I joined I was asked what I was interested in, I said mainly gaming and was made to feel like "meh, who cares, we do fiction". It took about a month before I was given a master, who talks from time to time, but for the most part anything I have done, I have done on my own. I have reached out from time to time to ask questions or ask for help in trying to get promoted... It has fallen on deaf ears. So I just carried on on my own.“

“I asked for help and advice on a fiction and was told it was wrong and given no feedback on how to make it right.“

“I feel like I am pretty active member, but it doesn't seem to matter much. Then you add the horrible attitudes I have observed as part of this house/clan and the negativity from most members in the clan and it makes me wonder why I joined.”

These aren’t the beliefs of a single individual. Several members, both new and old, Journeymen and transfers, and old dogs sitting around have shared similar thoughts with me. The simple truth is, this isn’t one person’s or summit’s fault. It’s been a collective break down of the Tarentum summits for years; and yes I include myself in that from my time as Aedile. We failed Tarentum, and as I said last week; we did this to ourselves.

To those that have experienced this, I am sorry. We can and will do better for you and the next generation of Tarenti, and it starts here.

It’s never too late to change things around. Opening a dialogue is a great way to get things moving. Furthermore, before we can truly change anything and need to understand what the problem is. And for that, we need members to continue to give the summit feedback like this so we know what to change, where to adjust fire, or what needs to be scrapped/added to the unit. In hopes of making a safe environment to share, I have created an open and anonymous form for members to submit their feedback - whether positive or negative.

Please feel free to save this link, and use it multiple times, and regularly.

There are several options to chose on the form, and you also have the chance to chose who will address the issue/concern/feedback you have submitted. Once again, its open to all DJB members and anonymous, so there are no fears of what you share

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Tarentum-centered TOR Raiding Group

Oberst announced the other day that he was looking for a Tarentum-centered raiding group for TOR. We haven’t had a chance to coordinate yet, but there looked to be a lot of interest and some good feedback so I would be interested in creating this as official project for Tarentum to develop. If you are interested in the idea, please feel free to speak to Oberst & myself, and we will look at getting a schedule worked out and coordinating where to go with this.

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Upcoming Projects

• Recruiting - this is will my highest priority as Consul. Tarentum will no longer live off the system damnit! ;) We will bring in our own members, while working on a great new member experience to be had by all that join us.

• Promoting/Awarding review - One of the highest complaints the summit has received + was in a lot of Consul applications was the need for a better activity tracker and review system for promotions and awards.

• Communication Guidelines and Policies - As was mentioned in the clan address, bullying and negativity will be something strictly address in the coming days. A communication guideline and policy document will become our own covenant on the matter to insure a great time is had by all in Tarentum

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An Apology

No one is without fault. Everyone has things that they can make amends for, it’s whether they take the time to do so that sets people apart when it comes to having errored. Last week I errored by only highlighting two of my students. That was unfair of me, and insulting to those excluded. I apologize for that. I am equally proud to also have had Sith Battlemaster Evant Taelyan as a student, whom now is a veteran of the MAA office and PCON of CSP. Furthermore, back in COU (moo!) Droveth Kathera Vectivi is another one of my promising students who is also just one more task away from Knighthood. My apologies fellas.

In Darkness We Trust
RK