Hoth QUA Report: Flashpoint

Introducing Phase I: Flashpoint

I’m excited to introduce Flashpoint, the first phase of the much-ballyhooed interhouse event. The competitions officially went live this evening and will run through site reset on August 31. They include fiction, small-team roleplays, graphics, and two gaming competitions.

You can find fictional narratives of the sit-rep in the competition descriptions and recent house fictions. If you haven’t already, you may want to read the fictions in my first aedile report and Edgar’s final report to set the stage. You’ll find the newest fictional update, which might inspire your competition submissions, in the next section of this report.

The House Sunrider Summit and I have been working since before the end of the Great Jedi War to devise these plot hooks and design the competitions. We heard you say you’d like the houses to collaborate more. We also heard you say members should have more ownership over storylines. Flashpoint represents the first step in making that happen. Your competition submissions and participation will directly impact plot developments from here.

For example, levels of participation in the Battleship cluster race will determine the success of the Omega Protocol, Clan Odan-Urr’s preparatory steps in advance of the conflicts at the heart of this event. Scenes from your fictions, roleplays, and visual art will inspire future fiction updates. Participation levels in the Marvel Rivals competition will represent the effectiveness of your house’s military operations. Openly published graphics from O Say, Can You See? will find their way onto the wiki narrating the history of the conflict. And did I mention placing in the container competition guarantees your character’s appearance in the next official house fictions?

Jon, Aurelis, and I have tried our best to craft open-ended competition prompts that give you space to tell the story around broad-strokes plot beats that tie up some fictional loose ends. So, I encourage you to participate in as many of the competitions as you can. Co-create the future of House Hoth with us. And have some fun getting to know your housemates and fellow Odanites along the way.

Fiction: Flashpoint

The station smelled of machine oil and something mineral. The place’s old mine bones, Corinna supposed, breathing through new lungs of durasteel plating. Why a house of the Brotherhood’s largest clan would establish their lair in a frozen, underground mine escaped her. Then again, why she was here in the first place escaped her.

A somewhat ragged-looking man in Jedi robes waited for her as she alighted from the maglev. Middle-aged, dark-eyed, calm despite his appearance and all the hurried activity, he greeted her warmly.

“Aedile Magarin.” Edgar inclined his head in a gesture that wasn’t quite a bow, but respectful enough. “Edgar Drachen. Welcome to Hoth, for whatever that’s worth right now.”

“It’s Dr. Magarin,” Corinna responded automatically, a muscle memory from correcting impertinent acolytes in the Shadow Academy one too many times. She smiled in the silent beat after her correction, hoping to offset the awkwardness she felt. “Anyway, I confess I was told very little about why I’m here. Beyond the transfer order, I mean.”

Edgar quirked an eyebrow. He didn’t quite know what to make of the pink-skinned professor in front of him. On another day, he might explore her insistence on an honorific or gently reassure her evident unease. Today, though, there was too much business to focus on.

“Walk with me, Doctor. There should be a briefing room a couple levels down that hasn’t been claimed by crates. I’d rather explain everything sitting down.”

Click here to read the full fiction.

Please note: Edgar and I developed the fiction for this phase before recent leadership transitions. Corinna’s ascension to quaestor and Turel’s to consul will be reflected in future installments.

Summary:

• Newly appointed Aedile Corinna Magarin meets Quaestor Edgar Drachen at the Trepus Mine on Solyiat.
• Implementation of the Omega Protocol, the Clan Summit’s orders for covert mobilization in anticipation of conflict with the Vatali Empire, continues.
• House Sunrider negotiates an alliance with the Shipwright’s Guild on Daleem.
• The Governor of Solyiat declares independence from the Vatali Empire.
• Loyalist forces attack the Governor’s mansion on Is Brea, killing the Governor in the process.
• Edgar is pummeled by enemy soldiers while Corinna escorts survivors to safety.

I sincerely hope you’ll find something fun about this event and the identity we’re trying to create through it. Collaborating with Jon and Aurelis from Sunrider has been a privilege. And I appreciate our new Tiger King giving us House Summits the chance to put on this show we’ve been working so hard to develop.

As always, please reach out to me by email or Discord with any thoughts, questions, suggestions, and/or memes. Through Flashpoint and beyond, may the Force be with you.