Greetings my fellow Odanites, allies of the Lotus, and dark side spies.

The War is here and there is a lot to talk about including a COU-specific fiction update regarding the war…

This month’s featured art is of Ka Tarvitz by Ka Rolding (try saying that three times fast).

Brotherhood News

• GJW XII Launch - The official war launch announcement with links to all the competitions and resources.

• Chamber of Justice Ceiling Jac reminds everyone to play fair and if there’s any doubt ask the competition organizers or your local summit.

• GJW XII Updates - Mav explains bins and gaming sign ups

• Fist - Drac goes over his first year as fist and updates on Destiny 2 and Battlefront 2.

• Transfer Ban - No Clan transfers between now and the end of the war. Members can still go to or come back from the rogues.

• Voice - Wally launches some new fiction courses in the SA and WOLFMEN!! Get your woof on!

• Herald - Vyr welcomed Abadeer and our very own Nero (aka Chris Winchester) to the Herald staff. Herald releases will come in every three months to give the staff a healthier rhythm.

Clan News

• RM - Another great report from our rollmistress featuring all your amazing artwork!

• Hoth QUA Report - Egg...I mean Ed laid out an outstanding report full of information with up-to-date Scimitar of Lord Hoth results

• Shan Combined report - Maximus and Len assumed the helm of Shan as the new QUA/AED combo with an opening combined report. I’m excited for what the future has in store for Shan. Be sure to drop any BT ideas to them.

• Wildcards - Keiji took over as the BTL of Wildcards with this opening report. There’s been a lot of work behind the scenes to get the team’s wiki and assets running.

In recent events on Solyiat, members of House Hoth were sent on missions to gather information on the movements of Governor Kopchack and to find possible allies. During these events, it was discovered that Kopchack has formed an alliance with the leader of a paramilitary organization, which was thought to be disbanded a decade earlier when the former leader was executed on charges of high treason. It is believed that Kopchack formed this alliance after being forced to house the Jedi and allies of House Hoth by the Vatali Empire. One aspect that is known is that they wish to have the Jedi removed from their planet, though there is suspicion of a secondary objective.

Within the ranks of House Hoth, Augur Takota Okami has stepped down as leader of the Wildcards. The new Captain, Mercenary Keiji Suoh, has taken the reigns.

With the situation brewing on both the home front and news of the other Clans preparing for War, Commander Edgar Drachen has begun preparing his people to expect the worst.

Hey everyone! As we approach the start of the Great Jedi War, we will begin winding down House Competitions. Enjoy the rest while you can, because I hope to see us hit the ground running in the War. During this last bit of rest, expect to see a "House Hype" pack created by our own resident wookie, leocadio!

The Odanite Code

Before I talk about the war in earnest, I would like to share something that I think should guide you as you compete. Edgar spearheaded writing down the until recently unwritten principles which guide our clan. We’ve talked about these in previous House and Clan reports but here is what we call the Odanite code. It’s a statement of what our clan believes in and in another sense what we fight for out of character in competitions. If you take nothing else out of this before the war remember honor and integrity always comes before winning.

• We treat all members with respect, all the way from the most senior elder to the newest initiate. All of their ideas are valued regardless of rank or title.
• Odan-Urr is a safe place for all. We will never use discriminatory, abusive or offensive language and will treat all with the same respect we want to be shown.
• We will compete with Integrity and Honor in everything we do, both of which are far more important than winning.
• We welcome newcomers to our community and give them a chance to be a positive member of Odan-Urr. We do not discriminate based on who they are, where they came from, or their past history.
• There are no borders within Odan-Urr. We help out other Odanites and do our best to make our fellow members feel invited and accepted. Odan-Urr is a family and we will do our best to support and help fellow Odanites, regardless of what House or Team they are in.
• Odan-Urr is completely built by the members for the members. Clan leaders will always remind and strongly encourage all members, from novices to elders, that they have the ability to create anything that will expand and enhance the lore of the clan and its houses.
• Odan-Urr strives to lead by example in the larger brotherhood through contributions to club-wide projects, staff work, friendly competition and above all else treating all brotherhood members as extended family, regardless of clan affiliation. Odan-Urr endeavors to maintain positive relationships out of character with our sister clans.
• The main focus of the Odanite community is on having fun and promoting a free and relaxed environment for its members to enjoy.

This is who we are and this is what we stand for. Remember that as you dive into the war competitions and the HYPE. What you do represents all of us, so give it your all but be the man or woman who the opposite team lines up to shake their hand at the end of the big game.

Sound advice from the great sages of our time

War Spotlight

General Tips

The DC has started a wiki page that will be updated as the war progresses with fiction updates, competitions and other information. This will be your one stop shop for all things GJW.

The GJW competitions can be found here. Be sure to pay close attention to the competition rules and which ones are Phase I competitions (ending October 30th) and which ones are event-long ones (ending November 20th). Phase II comps will launch after a week break following the conclusion of Phase I. If you have any questions at all about competitions, don’t hesitate to ask. If we don’t know we’ll find out for you.

Also stay tuned to the COU War telegram channel and your mailbox for updates about the war.

It’s time for WAR

Know your enemy

We have a new enemy known as the Collective who have an intimidating amount of stuff. The Collective are some bad dudes who want to wipe out all Force users and those who support them. You should read these official GJW updates to get caught up on where we are at and how we got to the war.

• Prologue

• Chapter 1

• Chapter 2

The Dark Council put untold hours of work into this new faction, the competitions and using our shiny new possessions system in a Great Jedi War for the first time. Be sure to show your appreciation and pat them on the back whenever you see them (especially our very own Councilor Vyr). I know they worked hard so you could have fun with this war.

COU’s Place in the War and FICTION UPDATE!!

So, if you read the official updates you may be wondering why is COU going to Nancora? or I kinda agree with Rath, where does my character sign up?. Those are natural questions and the thing you have to keep in mind is the official updates are for the entire Brotherhood and there just isn’t enough space to cover all seven clans’ different motivations for going to war. Arch and I have written a DC-approved clan fiction which deep dives into the Collective’s attacks against COU and why we made the difficult decision to join our Arconan and Tal allies on the front lines.

The clan fiction can be found here

TL;DR

• The Odan-Urr council initially decides to ignore the Collective after Rath’s forceful refusal of an alliance with the resistance and focuses on hitting Iron Legion targets of opportunity while they are focused on the Collective.
• Lotus forces are ambushed by Collective forces at target after target, indicating the Sentinel Network had been deeply compromised.
• Meanwhile, Rath orders sleeper agents within SenNet to attack their Force-using counterparts and then broadcasts a stirring propaganda speech on Odan-Urr’s hacked communication network calling on all the clan’s NFUs to rise up against the Jedi.
• A second wave of attacks begins after Rath’s speech by NFUs sympathetic to the Collective cause while Collective agents attack spacers who have helped the Jedi in the past.
• Tensions between the NFUs and FUs of COU reach a near breaking point in the wake of the attacks as no one knows who they can trust. The council receives intelligence that the Collective is developing a bio weapon on Nancora that can kill all Force users. The vote to join Arcona in assaulting Nancora passes narrowly and Turel confides in Alethia that he doesn’t believe a Jedi High Councilor can hold COU together in the wake of the attacks.

---

So another major question you may have is what about our war against Pravus and the Iron Throne?. That is not going away. We are still at war with the Iron Throne and the Inquisitorius, the Collective is just a separate front that has opened up in the larger conflict for the control/liberation (depending on which side you’re talking about) of Brotherhood space. The Lotus / Iron Throne conflict will just continue as a clan story with COU and Arcona instead of being front and center in DB-wide lore. The Inquisitors are still our mortal enemies but the war may present some interesting scenarios where characters from both sides are forced to team up against a common foe.

The Collective may have bloodied our nose and allegedly possesses super weapons we have to deal with immediately, but they didn’t burn New Tython, Pravus did. We will never bend the knee to the Iron Throne, we will never stop until all of Brotherhood space is free from their tyranny and we will never forget.

The proverbial north remembers…

Know your clan forces

So, with the launch of possessions our clan military will play a major role in many of the GJW competitions, most notably the battleplan competition. The military will also show up in your fiction competitions and run-ons as well. I’ve prepared a short summary of the current state of our armed forces and the thoughts behind it.

Clan orders of battle can be overwhelming at times

The clan military (aka the Odanite Expeditionary Force( or O.E.F.) is comprised of an army, navy and intelligence service (The Sentinel Network or “SenNet” for short). Elements of each are attached to our two Joint Task Forces (Houses) that enable them to operate independently of the clan if needed. Forces not attached to the JTFs remain in the clan force pool. Forces in the clan pool can be attached to a JTF on a mission by mission basis, which gives us flexibility. (e.g. if Hoth has a large land mission they can get command of one or both of the larger regiments, if Shan has a large space mission they can get the Solari and additional support ships, etc.) The idea of the O.E.F. is "plug and play" vs a more rigid command structure.

I also prepared this graph back in the day to illustrate the relationship between the clan force pool and the joint task forces (aka our houses) which may or may not help. The main idea is COU primarily operates via our houses and clan resources are allocated to the houses based on their mission requirements. Only the largest of operations will be clan led. So in your fictions and battle plans you can have your house using whatever they need to get the job done, more or less. Make sure you follow the prompt and battle plan scenario.

If you have a question about COU’s military don’t hesitate to ask. You can always find the latest and greatest on our clan possessions page.

Also save your work when it comes to developing our military units. If you feature a military unit in your stories or create some military NPCs we’d love to put them in the wiki and make them part of the clan canon. COU content is created by members, for members.

AskTurel

Edgar - #askTurel so I your opinion how has cou changed for the better under your command. What are you most proud of and reversely what has not progressed well enough for your liking and anything you are not proud of?

So much has changed in the past year and even more the year before that. There's not a single change or decision I can point to and say "ah ha! That's the thing that's made the year what it was for the clan." In actuality we did what we've always done and followed what the clan has always believed in, we just got incrementally better at it. We "tightened up our shot group" as they say in the military. Possessions, lore developments, personnel changes, etc are all significant in their own way but really they are tinkering around the edges. We, being the entire clan and our awesome summit team, took care of our people and made COU a welcoming and encouraging community for anyone.

Now in the interest of answering the question asked and not rambling,

Proudest - How the clan did in the ACC prelim. We really came together and encouraged one another, I saw many get out of their comfort zones and take match after match after match. There was frustration mixed in with the triumphs to be sure, but to me it represented the best parts of COU

Not so proud - The COU-TAL event didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. Much of that was my fault but collectively we learned a great deal and people generally had fun. I would have also liked to see our clan development (system, military, lore) keep up with the renaissance of house development we've seen this year.

Nero - #askTurel After one year as a CON how has your outlook of the DB changed, if at all, and when do you think the change happened?

As far as outlook goes I'm a lot more optimistic about the future of the club. I really feel like members will look back on this time as a golden age. My perspective has certainly changed working at this level and representing the clan members before the Dark Council, I've learned to understand and appreciate the DC's perspective on things and the value in my role as a bridge between them and the member base. And I can tell you guys that while it can feel like your feedback isn't going anywhere and you're talking to a brick wall, it does. They listen, we all do. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with Sarin, Mav, and the functional area DC'ers based on member feedback. You may not always get the precise result you wanted but if you present feedback with a solution you will be heard.

Arch - #askTurel If you had to change one thing about your year as consul, what would it be?

I'd pick my battles better from the get go. You know, talk less, smile more. :P

Sista (Atty) - #askTurel what appeals to you in writing your various characters, like your brand new official Knight?

Each character represents a different perspective to explore on our shared universe and on a more fundamental level themes and types of stories I want to tell. On any given day one may speak to me as an author more than the others. I like to describe it as the stories are inside me, wanting to get out and the characters are the vehicles for that.

Cora is probably closest to my heart right now as the perspective of a bright-eyed and hopeful 19 year old almost represents something I've lost or at least lost touch with in my jadedness. But that's probably a bit too personal.

Tarvitz - #askTurel May I ask what you would say members need to focus upon improving the most for the clan at this moment in time?

Well I believe the great sages Bill and Ted stated it most succinctly with "be excellent to one another." Be a friend, be a mentor, offer encouragement, offer support, be a sounding board, listen when someone needs a sympathetic ear or a shoulder, support each other's competitions and projects, hang out together, game together, welcome newcomers. On a fundamental level the clan is something we do together, we are above all else a community. Taking care of one another is far more important than any activity or project I could list off, especially with the war on the horizon. Oh and have fun. We will always need member talents to build up our lore and participate in clan activities but members will far more readily invest in something they care about.

Mord - #askTurel How do you manage to not only be an active and well known writer, one of the Club's most respected leaders, a prolific gamer and also from time to time do some art? How do you manage all of this and what tips can you give us that would help us emulate you?

Well, the short answer is I’m single with no kids :P But in reality this doesn’t feel like work most of the time, I enjoy the creative outlet provided by most of the fiction activities and exploring new ones through slowly learning to graphics like senpai Vyr (which I need to invest far more time in) and generally hanging out with my friends to game. Leadership comes natural to me because I want to give back to the club. I never really did any creative writing before I wandered over here as a gamer and I’ve since found it therapeutic and fulfilling. Not to mention the collection of like-minded geeks and weirdos I’ve gathered as friends in my time here.

As for advice on how to emulate me? I’d say find an aspect of the club you love and plug into it. Connect with others and be a friend/mentor/gaming buddy.

Seraphol - #askTurel What has been the best thing that you have seen Odan-Urr carry over from its young days as an Independent House. Also is there anything you wish we could revive from those days as a carefree and strapping young unit?

So A’lora gave a pretty good answer to this question which I’ll steal:

I don't know if Turel's response would differ from the one I would have to offer as someone who's been around from Day II of HOU and in his shoes at the time of our move to COU, but I'll give it a shot for funsies.

When we made the call to "reboot" Odan-Urr in its transition from a House to a Clan, we left a lot behind. Several pages and a half-decade of lore, as well as our entire fictional reason for existing in the club at the time. A lot of work that people contributed was moved into our historical articles. We wanted to move forward, while preserving our non-fictional qualities (which I still feel we haven't lost.)

We never cared so much for winning as opposed to being a fun, stress-free environment that our members can enjoy as a hobby or group of friends that are fun to interact with. As the 'new kid,' we also never fell into the pitfalls of old club structures and markers that stigmatized clans who hadn't managed to shake them. Even now, we're careful about it, and never value a title holder above even the 'greenest' participating member.

As far as revival goes, I want to see our fictional development grow. Its been at a standstill since the Undesirables plot took over our interest, but I want to see a return to fleshing out our own, personal stories and the articles that go with them. Harakoa was full of lore that was, admittedly, overwhelming, but it held a certain appeal as being one of the richest and most developed planets in the club. Our militaries were also much-loved creations that I remember being featured in half of the member-submitted fictions I've read, being so personalized with their own identities. I haven't seen a member-submitted fiction featuring our clan's forces for a long, long time and want to see a return to that.

Closing

Special thanks to Alethia/Arch for his help in putting Clan fiction together. Get those entries in and have fun! Get out there and show the rest of the club what we’re made of!

Remember New Tython!

Turel Sorenn

Consul, Clan Odan-Urr