Greetings to all Odanites, our allies, and our enemies.

This is going to be a fairly meaty report, divided into two large sections: where we’re at now, and where we’re headed. This is also, unfortunately, going to be an incomplete work. We have a plethora of awards and promotions in progress that I can’t announce yet, we have a summit project that I can only give vague details about at the moment, and I have fictional schemes that will not come to light just yet.

Where We Are

Dral wanted a table flip and I didn’t have anywhere better to put it.

Rite of Supremacy

If you’re reading this, you probably already know that there was a major club event recently, and that Odan-Urr came in first place as a clan. As a unit, we spent years working to establish a place for light side unit in the DARK Jedi Brotherhood. It was a phenomenal feeling to emerge victorious from last year’s Great Jedi War, and I am so proud of all of you for proving in RoS:M that it was not a fluke. We were, are, and will continue to be a force to be reckoned with.

Quite a few congratulations are in order, beginning of course with the three heroes: Qyreia “No, Ji, not that Q” Arronen of Arcona, Alaris “MC Hobbz” Jinn of Taldryan, and Bale “Visage Barbu” Andros of Scholae.

Among Odan-Urr, the following members took the time and effort to submit to every single bin (though unfortunately a couple were disqualified from one):

• Aurora "Aura" Ta'var
• Creon Saldean
• Declan Roark
• Jael Chi'ra
• Ka Tarvitz
• Luna Okami
• Val Cole
• Xirini "Rin" Kurai
• Dral Falgorth
• Alethia Archenksova

Full participation in this event was worth 54 points before any placement, and given that we only edged out Arcona by 95 points, it’s safe to say that these members were a huge part of our success in this event.

Additionally, Odanites took home 29 novae in addition to a whole bunch of placements. You can see the full placement results here. As for novae, give a big hand to:

• Aura Ta'var: 4 Gold Novae (JA Bracket, PvP Ladder, Slither.io, Faction Creation)

• Alethia Archenksova: 3 Gold Novae (Puzzle 1, Team Fic, Faction Creation), 2 Silver Novae (Cantina Quiz, Puzzle 2), Bronze Nova (Slither.io)

• Ka Tarvitz: 2 Gold Novae (DbBot Aspects, Faction Creation)

• Kasula Daegella: Gold Nova (Station Map), Silver Nova (X-Wing Fighter), Bronze Nova (Graphics 1)

• Creon Saldean: Gold Nova (Cantina Quiz), Silver Nova (Station Map), Bronze Nova (JA Bracket)

• Val Cole: Gold Nova (Team Fic), Silver Nova (Multimedia Propaganda)

• Luna Okami: Gold Nova (Team Fic), Bronze Nova (Overwatch)

• Declan Roark: Gold Nova (Team Fic)

• Xirini Kurai: Gold Nova (Team Fic)

• Anu: Gold Nova (Collective Hunt)

• Dredgen Zed: 2 Silver Novae (Destiny 2, Multimedia Propaganda)

• Jafits Skrumm: Silver Nova (PvP Ladder)

• Nefin Nightfire: Bronze Nova (Possessions)

The Satele Shan Shuffle

After over a year of very successful terms as the founding BTL of Tython Squadron, Shan AED, and finally Shan QUA, Mauro Wynter is embarking on a well-deserved retirement from clan leadership. Mauro’s fairly quiet for a summit type, and avoids stupid drama like the plague, so he’s not always been the most visible person to people outside of his house. However, he’s easily one of the most energetic and hardworking members I’ve had the pleasure to work with, and he’s produced a staggering amount of content for Shan in the form of events, fiction, and wiki work. Everyone, please join me in thanking him for his service and stay tuned for announcements about Shan’s future leadership

Communications Channel Policy

Hey, did you know that we have a written policy for all of our communications platforms? Well, you should, because it applies to you. You can read it here. I’m bringing it up because, with feedback from the summit, I’ve made some tweaks to it. But really, the gist of it boils down to this:

• Don’t be a dick (Wheaton’s Law).

• If you are being a dick, we’ll tell you to knock if off.

• If you don’t knock it off, we’ll cut your access.

You should all feel comfortable in chat, whether text or voice, and you should also feel comfortable coming to me or another summit member with questions or concerns.

Where We’re Going

Pravus asks: what are you thinking? 3 more years as CON?

Three more months at the outside. As of today, I’ve been Consul for one year exactly. That is, I think, a good lower limit, and changing the leadership more often would get chaotic. However, I’m also at the point where I’ve made an impact and there’s a limited number of things I still want to get done. I’m going to spend the rest of the report outlining what those things before I get to the last handful of #AskArch questions.

Fiction

Pravus asks: What is next for the clan fictionally? Tying in to Collective drama? Something more to home? Something old? Something new?

Turel asks: The RoS fictions depicted a more pragmatic relationship between COU and Arx. How do you think that worked out and where do you see things going in the near future?

Tarvitz asks: As I have asked similar things previously in relation to our members, may I ask what you feel the Clan needs most in terms of fiction related resources?”

There was a lot of interest in the clan’s fictional direction, which is comforting because that’s something I’m going to be devoting a lot of attention to over the coming months. When I took over we were in kind of a weird place. During the Moro and Turel eras we transitioned from being a Jedi-centric tribute state in a primitive colonial setting to being a resistance movement based on the Rebel Alliance and in active opposition to the Dark Council and the majority of the clans. There were a lot of mixed opinions about that change and the larger changes in the Brotherhood that went along with it, and I won’t re-litigate them here. It also created some unforeseen headaches for both Odanites and the Dark Council.

As with every new GM, Mav has his own vision of where he wants the club to go. As Consul, part of my job is implementing that; however, a fundamental part of my job is protecting the interests of Odan-Urr. From the Muz era, we learned that we wanted to be an equal partner and not a subjugated client, a whipping boy, or a buttmonkey in-character any more than we wanted to be one out-of-character. From the Pravus era (and TLJ, for that matter), we learned that people get more invested in storylines when they proceed organically instead of abruptly changing course. I wanted to take those lessons forward into the Mav era, and that’s something I worked out with Mav, Vyr, Blade, and Wally back in the spring.

This is getting long, so have a birb.

So I’ve known where I’ve wanted to take the clan since the end of the Arcona co-op, and we’ve been walking that path through Station to Station, Tipping Point, certain aspects of house events, and so on. There are a few more steps to take to get where we’re going, though, so here are some elements you can expect to see addressed:

• Our landlords, the Vatali Empire, are locked in a civil war. COU managed to fight off the initial coup attempt, but our main patron, Empress Kaltani, remains comatose and both sides are still engaged in bloody combat throughout Kiast. It’s a mess.

• Alethia ended up as Kaltani’s regent, which is a development that nobody is happy about, least of all the Vatali nobility. Although the Empress’ forces need all the help they can get, Alethia’s aware that every noble who perceives this as a Jedi Outsiders vs. Sephi conflict is a noble who’s going to defect to Beldroth’s side. Alethia sent the O.E.F. out on the Meridian expedition in large part to get them out of the Vatali war. How well that’s worked out remains to be seen.

• Unbeknownst to our heroes, but beknownst to us, Grand Inquisitor Ishanta helped stir up the war, and hopes to use it to force the Odanites out of Kiast and into some place where we’re more vulnerable. I guess some folks just can’t move on from the New Order arc. Unfortunately for Ishanta, the Inquisitorius has developed a pragmatic streak and if the Odanites don’t kill her for being obnoxious, the Voice might very well kill her for being insubordinate.

• Oligard still wants to kill us, despite repeated invitations to Aura’s yoga classes.

• Meanwhile, Alethia’s been getting downright cozy with Deputy Satan Morgan Sorenn. The two have developed a fun habit of killing mutual enemies while making catty comments about the other’s outfit. Morgan used this back channel to leak intelligence about the Meridian to the Odanites, and Alethia was happy enough to unleash the O.E.F. on some cyborgs.

Does this count as friendship?

• Alethia has not bothered telling the Council about this arrangement. It might have something to do with how she’s spent the last three years constantly whipping everyone she meets into an anti-Sith frenzy.

• We just charged into the Brotherhood-Collective battle for the Meridian Leeroy Jenkins-style and took Daggo Mouk’s Magic McGuffin. It’s an open question who’s more irate about this between the Collective and the Brotherhood, but either way we’re back into our comfort zone of having the entire galaxy shooting at us.

So that’s only three ongoing wars to deal with and like fifteen Odanites who have earned themselves a spotlight in official clan fic. As Ed always used to say: what can possibly go right? We’ll be releasing short, staggered fiction updates instead of a mammoth one, partly because nobody will read a 30-page fic because too long, and partly because nobody will read a 30-page fic because it’d take me till June to write the damn thing.

Faction

One of the things I’ve been working on with the summit over the past several weeks is a potential reorganization. We approach houses and battleteams now more or less the same way we did when we were first clanned back in 2015, and there are aspects of the system that I’m increasingly unhappy with. I started off brainstorming with Blade, leaving every possible option on the table, and then brought the QUAs and AEDs in to get their perspectives. The good news is that we’ve got a general direction; the bad news is that, because it relies on a few items above my pay grade, we can’t have all the details worked out just yet, so you’ll have to settle for a teaser. So here are a few details:

• Although I entertained some fairly radical changes, in the end it looks like we’ll be sticking with the two-house system starring Hoth and Shan. I would also not expect any big shifts to the leadership team.

• We are going to work to get members more involved in building lore, clan fiction, and building small communities off of those things. This should be a key feature of how we approach the DB universe, and right now I don’t think it is. Our current system, and for that matter the habits I’ve built and passed on as a leader, haven’t really caught up to the modern DB where established members can have multiple characters and member contributions can be easily documented by the activity notes system.

• I want to specialize summit members more. Right now the QUAs, with AED assistance, have to do everything in a way that makes those positions difficult to staff and frequently burns QUAs out or leaves duties unattended to. They should be focused on their members as people. That is the core responsibility, that is where house identity and community should come from, and I want to clear their plates of other duties that distract from that.

As I said, we still have a little ways to go with this. One issue is that Mav and Vyr will be determining the ultimate fate of the Rollmaster position in the near future. Another is that I want to make sure our expectations for everyone are clear and that they make sense, both so that all the jobs get done and so that members are appropriately recognized for their contributions. Expect more news on this front in the coming weeks as we get those issues hammered out.

Fashion

Vyr contacted me this morning to let me know that our RoS performance earned us two goodies: a weapon skin and an accessory skin. Those of you who were with us last year may remember the gorgeous Vatali-theme armor and weapons we got from GJW XII:

We’ll be taking suggestions for what you guys would like to see over the next few days in the COU War Room on Telegram and the mailing list.

Important note: these are dossier decorations, and won’t correspond to an item in the possessions system. Of course, if you have an appropriate item, you can use a custom cosmetic aspect to refer to your dossier, but it won’t gain any special properties.

FAQ

Dael asks: Or more seriously list three things you’ve learned in one year as CON?

I gave you answers on Telegram, but I promised you better answers in the report, so how about three things I think I’ve learned that I wish other people would learn?

1. Every time you say something, you have a goal and an audience. Be intentional about both. I routinely see people make their own jobs more difficult or accidentally stir up drama because they forgot this or never learned it. As a member—and especially as a leader, positioned or not—you set the tone for the people around you.You don’t get the luxury of being a jerkass and then acting surprised when the people around you follow your lead.

2. Leaders need to lead. What’s going on? Where are we going? What kind of club to we want to be? If you don’t know, nobody else is going to figure it out for you. And if nobody’s making steps towards whatever vision you have in mind, it is your fault.

3. Other people do not think the way you do. Your assumptions are not theirs. You need to know what they want and why they want it or your ability to give it to them will come down to dumb luck.

Len asks: What is one real life skill that has come in handy for you as CON? What is one CON skill you have used in RL?

I honestly don't know where one begins and the other ends anymore, but either way it's been the ability to understand your audience and frame what you say in a way that works for them. A large part of my job, to put it tactlessly, is to know what's best for people and then con them into thinking it was their idea to do it.

Vyr compared me to Palpatine in what I think was a complement.

In any event, understanding that people are saying what they do because it makes sense to them is super important. It's tempting to believe they're just stupid or malevolent but that's almost never true.

Drac asks: Introspection time: what is one major area you think you can improve on (As CON or as an overall clan) over the next year?

I think I mentioned this in a previous report, but my first breakthrough was it took me a few months to really internalize the fact that I'm an autocrat. Within the very broad confines of the Cov and what Mav makes me do, I can do whatever the hell I want and I'm also responsible for everything. I'm not bound by what we've always done, or what Turel thought was a good idea, or what the core DC wishes I would do, or what I think won't piss people off. Everything is ultimately up to me, and if it is broke, I am responsible for fixing it. That sunk in around March/April.

Around July/August I realized that, without airing too much dirty laundry here, I had fallen into a rut where my relationship with the core DC was too antagonistic too often. I made a conscious effort to really wargame scenarios from your perspectives and remind myself that you are people doing your best at difficult jobs, and to try to figure out when I was fighting because I actually needed to fight, and when I was just fighting because I'm used to solving problems by being a pedantic smartass who out-talks people.

Those were two things that took a lot of beating my head against a wall and introspection to even realize that they were paths I could take. I don't know what my next breakthrough will be. Right now I'm taking a hard look at some of the things that I think we do because HOU did them or because Moro and Vyr and Nathan set the clan up a certain way, but I'm also mindful of the fact that we really are a great unit and I don't want to screw that up just because I can.

tl;dr A lot of times people are bad at something because they don't know they're bad at it. Hopefully I keep recognizing my faults and fixing them. Feel free to help.

Alethia Archenksova
High Councillor, Odan-Urr