Plagueis Consul Report #10: Deja Vu All Over Again

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Plagueis Consul Report #10: Deja Vu All Over Again

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Introduction

Welcome to my first, and also tenth, report as Consul of Clan Plagueis! There is quite a bit to cover in this report, from new units and structure to the RoS on the horizon. So, let's get into it!

Table of Contents

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Feels like the first time all over again

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I find myself in the odd position of introducing myself to a Clan for a second time, returning to the Consul chair after nearly three years out of it. It's an odd situation, as a lot of you are new faces to me since I spent the last three years as Herald instead of getting moldy in a corner of Plagueis somewhere. My biggest goal in returning to the position of Consul is of course to work to rebuild Plagueis, but, even more importantly, it is to ensure that the members here are getting recognized for the activity that they are participating in as much as possible. The part of being a Consul that I always liked the most is writing up recommendations for awards and promotions for the members that I serve. I will be working with the Clan and House summits, some new to me and others familiar faces, to ensure that we are all doing the best job for all of you that we can possibly do.

I cannot say enough about the upcoming Rite of Supremacy that the Brotherhood will see in the coming month. Vendetta time is often seen as a time to compete with all the other units within the Brotherhood, and it is, but it is at the same time something much bigger and much smaller. Helping out your Clan and your Clanmates through your participation is a huge part of what the Vendetta is about. But, more importantly from where I'm sitting, a Vendetta is between you and your activity assessment page and nothing more. At the end of the day, having fun and making your own mark on your assessment is all there really is. The former is key because we're all here to have fun, but the latter is something that lets me and the rest of the summit get to do the best part of our job: Taking time out to write those recommendations I mentioned above. Whatever happens on the scoreboard, wherever Plagueis ends up, if you do your own best and make the summit do their work to write you a recommendation for something shiny or that next promo, you're a winner at the only part of the "contest" that matters. What Plagueis has always been known for is showing up, and if you all show up and make me go fight the good fight on your behalf to convince Howie and the MAA staff that you guys deserve everything I want to give you we all get to be happy when all is said and done.

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A New House & New Staff

One of the biggest ways to achieve the goals that I feel are critical to our Clan is to use structures, in this case units, to work towards those goals. One of the first things I included in my application to Evant that will be done to work along those lines would be to return to the two House structure that has been used successfully under successive Consuls. Creating two balanced teams within the Clan creates the opportunity for friendly internal rivalry to be used to generate activity. Houses can be leveraged as organizational sub-units to drive activity in a number of ways. First and foremost they can focus leadership on a smaller group of members. Much of the rhetoric around units and when to create them is focused on the idea of too many leaders, which I believe is a fundamentally flawed way to approach the problem. If instead we were to approach the problem of Houses from the same perspective of class size in schools, the questions about when to House and when not to come into much sharper focus. If we approach the Brotherhood from the perspective of an educational analogy the club as a whole functions as the school district, each Clan is a school within that district, and the House is a classroom inside that school. The benefits of smaller class sizes in schools are well documented with many of them applying just as well if not more in our setting than they do in classrooms. Students get noticed more in smaller classrooms where they are less likely to get left behind. Small class sizes ensure that teachers can spend more time teaching the material and less time trying to regain the attention of those who are easily distracted. Smaller class sizes lead to more opportunities for one-on-one interactions where teachers can cater to students’ different learning styles and ensure that they stay engaged and understand. All of these directly translate to our Clan.

As a result, I have asked for permission from the Grand Master, Deputy Grand Master, and Master at Arms to be granted permission to open a second House in Plagueis and that permission has been granted. So, without further ado, I present you the newest House within Clan Plagueis:

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In keeping with the theme established by House Tyranus and Battleteam Opress, I'd like to welcome House Ventress to the fold in Plagueis. Asajj Ventress was one of the Dark Acolytes of Darth Tyranus along with Savage Opress, but brings a different feel and flavor compared to the other two. Helming this new House as its Quaestor will be Warrior Qormus Aquila. Qormus will be looking to build this new House so that it can become very much the equal of House Tyranus, making sure its members are being recognized and given the guidance they need to have the most successful and enjoyable time in the Brotherhood that they can. From now on, as well, all members of Plagueis not serving on the House summit will also be part of one of the two Houses, either House Tyranus or House Ventress.

That leaves the big question: What is happening to Battleteam Opress? In short, it isn't going anywhere and will be forming the core of the newly opened House. The long version? In years past the Battleteam was less an independent, structural unit within the Brotherhood and was instead more like a small, flexible, almost personalized group of people that wanted to engage in similar activities or more focused lore. The House, as a unit where all members of a Clan need to be able to fit, have to maintain a somewhat generic feel to them within the confines of what the Clan lore is. A House cannot be a special forces unit or a starfighter squadron, because that would alienate a member who has a character that cannot fit within that structure. A House also cannot be a unit that focuses on a single activity, such as gaming, as it would alienate members that came to the Brotherhood to take part in other activities. The Battleteam, however, can operate as less of an independent unit and instead more of a specific facet of the lore or activity within the House, much as it has in years past. The Battleteam Leader can also focus almost exclusively on the most important aspect of their job, engaging with their members without having to sweat as much of the administrative work. To circle back to the Clan-as-school analogy from earlier, the Battleteam would move from being a sort of sub-classroom level organization to instead being more like an extracurricular club. The member is still a member of their classroom, but they can also join the debate team, chess club, or football team to focus on special aspects of their school experience. Or, in Plagueis, Battleteam Opress.

At this time, given our personnel realities and activity levels, I do not foresee appointing an Aedile for Ventress right away, nor opening up a Battleteam within House Tyranus just yet. However, our goal through the upcoming Rite of Supremacy and beyond is to build our activity levels to the point where those changes will not just be possible, but will be something we will not be able to refuse.

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Clan Lore

I know there are major Lore developments that the current summit members have been pouring their efforts into for months, and it is not my intent to come in and upend the apple cart. I see it as my job to help set up a campaign setting and then get out of the way while all the Plagueis Players go play in it. But, with that being said, I'd like to look at a bit of the overarching lore that drives our Clan.

Plagueis is, at its core, Dark. We are the only exclusively dark unit in the entire Brotherhood while everyone else mixes in at least a touch of gray (It's like they're the Grateful Dead or something). But, with that being said, I know that over the years there's always been some thoughts and concerns about where people's characters might fit within that "dark" moniker. I'm going to repost something that I wrote as a news post comment a number of years ago years ago that later made it into another Plagueis Consul's report and then again in my (other) first Consul report as I think it still merits saying from time to time:


What is Dark?

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The biggest problem about the dark/gray/light dynamic is the misconception that exists as to what both “evil” and “good” actually are in Star Wars. This has been further entrenched by how many others see the "cartoon" villainy that is often seen in places like TOR, the latest of a long line of "dark = evil asshat" morality systems. The "dark side" doesn't have to be Snidely Whiplash, mustache twirling villainy any more than the light side has to be Dudley Do-Right going off to save Nell. Often times the dark path has been pigeon holed into being the side where you will go out of your way to kick a puppy just to kick a puppy because puppies are cute. Yeah, some people in the dark might be that person, but most wouldn't be. Dark and light are both more nuanced than that, and it’s disappointing to see people assuming that anything in between those extremes must be gray.

Many folks talk about going gray while still retaining selfish motivations, the idea that they'd still do whatever it takes to achieve whatever goal. The problem with that is that light and dark in Star Wars aren't just about what you do, they're about why you do. We've all heard that for years in various works of Star Wars. The Jensaarai from the Legends continuity are a perfect example of this. They were taught by Sith, many of their traditions were based on evil things, but they themselves weren't "dark" because they were an order dedicated to the protection of others. There were people that were still light of alignment who were "Gray Jedi" (I'm looking at you, Qui-gon). Jolee Bindo was a Gray Jedi through and through, but that didn't stop him from being light of alignment and having strong opinions about why the Sith sucked eggs.

But, as said earlier, it’s a bit depressing to see "complex character with inner conflicts that isn't thoughtlessly evil" being characterized as the exclusive purview of the gray of alignment. Dark alignment isn't unabashed devotion to puppy kicking and baby killing. Evil doesn't have to be Stalin, engaging in purges to kill massive portions of society because they looked at you funny (including meteorologists who failed to accurately predict the weather in the 1930's). Evil can just as easily be Vladimir Putin doing what he thinks is right for his people and other ethnic Russians, boundaries of sovereign nations be damned. (Though I feel free to revise my opinion on Vladdy if he goes off the deep end at a later date.) Are you a selfish character who will do "whatever it takes" to achieve a goal? Congrats, you're dark of alignment:

From Wookieepedia: The dark side was seen as having been used for selfish purposes, although many darksiders who were accused of such selfishness claimed that the dark side was simply a means to achieve an end. One of the most notable examples was Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi who embraced the dark side with the intentions of saving his wife after seeing her die in a vision, even at the expense of the Jedi Order.

The definition of "whatever it takes" of course differs from character to character. You might draw the line at a massacre of a village but not at a death here or there. Still dark. "Dark" and "light" both contain spectrum within themselves, they're not points that are solely at the "extreme" end of the spectrum. Selika is, character wise, dark. Not because she is motivated to go around killing people for "funsies", but because she's going to do for herself and if anyone else gets screwed over (or dead) on her way to getting hers, well that's too bad for them. It's important that we as a Clan, the sole bastion of unabashed darkness, make dark more than the extreme of all black. Dark needs to be more than rabid, thoughtless evil. If we don't there's really going to be next to nobody that wants to actually align "dark" and members will end up skewing gray which, most importantly, will slowly lead to every unit aligning gray. All three alignments should offer equally divided portions of the canvas, gray should not get to lay claim to everything that isn't at the very edge.

If you want to play Jolee Bindo and really have a character balanced on the knife edge, you should be gray. If you want to play a character that is being pulled to the dark end of the spectrum that's resisting the fall, be gray. But, if you're not playing a character who's genuinely trying to maintain neutrality, nut up and call yourself what you are: dark. Admit that the dark alignment is more than Hitler, Stalin, or Mao. Admit that "evil" can come in many different shades of dark (maybe as many as 50), and that a character motivated by self advancement and selfishness doesn't have to execute subordinates willy-nilly to be dark. Dark isn't one shade, it's many.

#darkiscomplicated


Our darkness isn't going anywhere, but I think it's important to reach out to people who feel that such a dark, evil place doesn't fit their characters. Dark doesn't have to be clubbing baby seals (Arden would be sad at the idea), it can just be monumentally self centered, a person who doesn't really care all that much about others when their interests run against their own. It can be the compassionless authority, unwilling to unbend the rule of law even if somebody is stealing a loaf of bread to feed their family. That's right, I'm looking at you Javert. It isn't as simple as "bad guys" or "good guys".

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Thanks, Ward. But he's right, protagonists and antagonists don't have to be locked into the more narrow view of good and evil that often seems to be the default setting. Sometimes it's just a guy that likes to dress up as a butterfly and "arch" his mortal enemy.

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Brotherhood News

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In Closing

I'm very much looking forward to serving the membership of Plagueis once again. It's been a while since I was here, but it feels like coming home to a welcoming place. It is my genuine hope that everyone here makes me do copious amounts of work, both creating events for you guys to consume as well as writing up all the fun promos and medal awards that go along with it. We've got an RoS in front of us, with all of the great opportunities for personal growth and advancement that go along with it.

I'm excited to see what we find over the next rise.

bye

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Great first/tenth report. Good to see you back at the helm.

Excellent recap on “what is dark.” I remember that discussion!

A solid report! I like the observations on "Dark" as well.

Great report! So much meaty information.

Nice definition of dark!

I love that definition of dark, Slagar. Awesome report!

Huh, nice read on 'dark'. Although regarding ToR I have to say that it isn't all that extreme, there are plenty of nuanced choices and weird ones where dark is the 'nicer' option (think of a quick death vs a slow one, much like Renegade choices that resolve a situation faster). The most extreme choices are in the Inquisitor storyline. I think the absence of a grey dialogue option and other gameplay reasons (like Dark vs. Light) probably don't help it's case.

My own character doesn't have a power level scouter that shows exactly how dark, grey or light someone is. But her second skin does literally crawl near too much light and she abhors the Jedi code and its followers due to the flaws, emotionlessness and arrogance. She has never seen any self-proclaimed Gray Jedi recite a code, so she just doesn't have a stance on them. Except for the few that want to either see the death of the Force or see other's connection to the Force shattered.

To Alaisy the Dark Side means survival, a meaningful life where emotions are encouraged, power and true freedom. Kicking a puppy doesn't gain her anything, so why would she do that? Life is precious, the Force is beautiful and babies are very useful for rituals. At least she uses every part.

/wall, great report Slagar ^^

Great report! And those report graphics, hooo lol

Man, I heard that last gif in my head when I saw it.

Great essay on the Dark Side. I completely agree…I’m not out there clubbing baby seals for jollies. But…I’m not opposed to doing it if it serves my needs.

Great report and points about being "dark."

Solid report and agreed an interesting take on the Dark Side. Good luck on your second term.

On another note for Plagueis as a whole - really enjoyed getting the chance to feud with you all and wanted to thank Ronovi and Liandry for the work and effort put into the event. Looking forward to the next time!

Was good working with you, Ronnie, well done and thanks! See what Plag does next in the new term. ;P

Whoooo Great report Selika!! Love the Dark side bit. Definitely saving this very important and informative report ;) <3 <3 <3

Very nice report as always Slagar.

good report

I really enjoyed your perspective of "dark". I've also found all too often (mostly outside of this website) people limited by the scope of "dark" and "light" being "evil, mustache twirling" and "freedom, liberty, good-like" respectively. I was basically laughed out of a reddit thread for saying "you can be a moral person and be a dark sider".

It's clear you have an expert understanding of the subject and it adds immense value to the club's fictional development. I know you'll do great things as leader of Plagueis.

I believe the appropriate subtitle would have been

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

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