Introduction

Welcome, boys and girls, to the place where I make the words!

It's been a busy few months in my world - more on that in a bit - so I want to start out by extending my boundless appreciation to Kat and Zuji, for keeping the ship on course and occasionally beating me into action when required. You two are phenomenal. <3

Kat has been keeping things moving with her ceaseless wiki updates. She's also been helping out Zuji with her questions, and keeping an eye on House issues that pop up. Thanks so much, Kat.

(Kat has informed me that this is her reaction)

Zuji, meanwhile, has been stellar in Shadow Gate. With 19 members, nearly all of them active, anyone would be hard pressed to keep up with the entire team. I don't know how Zuji manages it, but she does. More on Shadow Gate's roster later, but for now: thanks Zuj. You're a rockstar.

As for real life, I was working 70 or so hours a week for over two months there. It's been exhausting, but such is the life of a software engineer at times. Things have finally started to settle down over the last week, and with Episode III of Sins having come to a close I've been digging my teeth into the meat and bones of Quaestoring. Our members. We got a number of well-deserved merit medals put through for you guys. We're reviewing the status of our ongoing projects at the House and BT level, and I'll include brief details on that below. I'm also hard at work writing Episode IV of Sins. No set release date yet, as we're not 100% sure when the DC is going to debut the next Great Jedi War, but we'll keep you updated as we learn more. Essentially, things should be under control again. :)

For now, I'm proud of each and every one of you who participated in Sins, but especially Zuji and Skar who went all out and submitted to every event. Great job, guys. <3

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Projects
3. News
   
4. Competitions
   
5. Awards
   
6. Promotions
7. Transfers
8. TL;DR
9. Crescent Leaderboard
10. Closing Words

Projects

Wiki Revamp

From the Crocaedile herself:

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Hey you bunch of delightful nerds! I just wanted to give a quick heads up about the wiki project! I KNOW! SO EXCITING! But it actually is. Since my term as Aedile, a large number of you (I'm lookin at you Shadow Gate) have contributed to this large project and I can't tell you how happy and proud I am for that. What is even better is how close we are to finishing. I'm not going to give you arbitrary numbers (yes I am), but we are over 80% complete. This was nearly two dozen individual wiki pages that needed creation, updating or revision and A SLEW of them are 80-100% complete with just a couple stragglers remaining. Adem, Tali, Kelviin, Lucine, Leeadra, Celevon, Skar, Rinsz, Koliss and Juliane. You all have been pivotal to the overarching success of this project and your House. Your help was vital and appreciated. We still have a few more pieces to complete and I have a few members who have not yet been able to contribute who I will be getting in contact with shortly. The rest of you, big sister has her eyes on you now and is expecting great things.

NOW! GET LOST AND MAY THE REVENGE OF THE SIXTH COME SOON!

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You heard it right, folks. HQD's long-running wiki revamp is nearly complete. Kat has done an amazing job shepherding this project to its current near-complete status. I'm immensely grateful for both her hard work, and the hard work and time of everyone who contributed. We have a handful of articles that need some additional content and revisions, mostly dealing with the new selection of NPCs and Gangs we've created, and we're targeting a completion date of May 14th. This is huge, and I hope all of you will take the time to thank both Kat and everyone else who contributed to this effort (see her list of amazing volunteers above).

What's next? Well, once these articles are all completed and uploaded, we're going to be making some organizational and visual changes to HQD's wiki presence. We're currently working on a new look and feel for some of the wiki articles, and working out how we can fit all of them into categories and series to make them easier to navigate and cross-reference information to find exactly what you are looking for with as little effort as possible. This should help our veteran members who are venturing into new areas or just need to refresh their memories, but it is doubly important for new joins who often find themselves overwhelmed with information. We already have a few volunteers for this second phase, but if you're interested, drop me and Kat a line.

Beyond this second phase of improvements, we'll be hoping to find someone who can take point on keeping wiki articles updated in the future. This person would be a curator of sorts of HQD"s overall wiki presence. When we have new events, they'd be responsible for updating existing articles with new information, so everything is always current. While this wouldn't be an official position on the site roster, it would come with commensurate rewards as well as the knowledge that you would be helping out your fellow members, House and Clan. As with the above, drop myself and Kat a line if you are interested.

Recruitment Drive

And now, a word from your Gate Wardeness:

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Qel-Droma has been slowly gathering active new members and they've been sticking around! (Yay! We're interesting!) It is within our vision to increase these numbers and to do so, we have started the Recruitement Drive a few months ago. Our goal is to create active, organized, and entertaining promotional accounts via a number of selected social platforms. With which, we plan to share information on what is the DJB and Qel-Droma, house events, featured members’ content, Star Wars franchise hype, etc. A generic blurb has been created for these accounts which give a quick introduction to the DJB that will lure in these prospective joins. A similar yet smaller blurb has been made for those who would like to promote on their individual accounts, but wish to take a more passive part. We are nearing the ribbon cutting ceremony (Terran, can we do this?! I want silver scissors!) with just some organization, volunteer account managers, account creation, and several smaller items. This project could really benefit from 2-4 more volunteers joining. We hope to have no more than 2 platforms per person. If you are interested, see farther below.

The nominated platforms so far include:

• Facebook
• Google Plus
• Tumblr
• Twitter
• Imgur
• Reddit
• Youtube
• Fanfiction.net

Volunteer Requirements:

• Has at least a general knowledge of the social media platform(s) even just from a general user viewpoint.
• A willingness to expand that knowledge in their free time.
• A 24 hour turnaround time on replies, messages, etc.
• Ability to work cooperatively with a team, good communication skills, and a fun loving attitude.

If you are interested in volunteering, or use one of these platforms and do not mind helping to promote individually, please fill out this form. Thank you in advance. Any questions or suggestions, contact Zujenia.

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Zuji has done a terrific job in summing up the Recruitment drive, so I'll just urge all of you to contact her if you're interested in helping out or if you have any questions. The go-live date for this is May 15th, so hop on it if you're available. In a time when people seem more interested in Facebook and Twitter than in social clubs like the Dark Brotherhood, projects like this are incredibly important for the long term health of Arcona. And it's not something we can do alone. So, please reach out to her if you have even a few minutes a week to spare. <3

Dramatis Personae

This is an ongoing project being helmed by Zujenia. The goal is to help keep fictional tabs on all of our active members' characters. As an example:

• Timeros: Shadow Heart, enforcer, DIA head. Spends most of his time wherever DIA headquarters are (now that the Last Light is gone). Working relationship with Maenaki based on her needing to be trained, but otherwise fairly distant from the rest of the Clan. Role: Terrifying, hoary reminder of Arcona’s past.

• Zujenia: Champion, rogue undesirable, likes rescuing Jedi, infiltrated a gang, driven to protect the species/people on the low end of totem pole. Main focus: stopping the purge and aiding undesirables.

This is a deceptively involved task, as it requires interviewing members, doing research on their characters via the wiki and character sheets, and constantly keeping the list updated with changes due to ongoing plotlines or other fictional development. Zuji has been terrific in volunteering to take charge of this effort and putting in the time and dedication to see it through on an ongoing basis.

Why do we do this, though?

First, it helps us organize fictional events and write House and Clan storylines. If we want to feature a specific member, we can refer to the list and see, quickly, where they are at and what sort of role would suit them. It also helps with the reverse: if we have a role in a storyline that needs filled, we can quickly see who fits into that role and choose that character. It saves an incredible amount of time when it comes to planning big events like Sins or the new Shadow Gate Run-On.

Second, it helps us gauge the fictional interests of our membership. This is useful in determing what sort of events to run, as well as how to expand the House in the future (see the next project below for more details).

Now that you know it exists and what it is: how would you guys like to have access to it? Would a public Google Doc or Wiki Article with the information be useful to you in your own writing and plotting (and scheming)? Let us know in the comments. If it's something you guys would like to see, we'll make it happen.

Battleteam Expansion

Shadow Gate is huge. Gigantic. Like, if they were guarding a physical gate, that gate better be the size of the Great Wall of China to justify the number of members responsible for it. This is amazing. Brilliant. I can say, without hesitation, that the Battleteam is healthier than I've seen it in years. I'm so very proud of all of you for making that happen, and staying active. You're all beautiful. <3

(However, this is how I imagine Zuji feels in Shadow Gate)

The flip side of that is that it is now untenably large. It's too large to expect any one person to be responsible for every member in it. Zuji does an amazing job helping everyone. Nonetheless, we're going to need to see things change in the near future. With that in mind…(drumroll please)

We're going to be opening up a second Battleteam. Nothing is set in stone, but we'd like to see this new team open up in the near future. We're not yet at the stage where we're comfortable releasing details on the new team's objectives, name, leadership, etc. But we're discussing it, and the Dramatis Personae I mentioned above is a big part of that. Using that information, we can try and come up with a team that a large cross section of members will be interested in joining and will have fun expanding. Obviously we don't want to force anyone to move, but keep an eye out for additional details in the near future and, if you're interested in what you hear, let us know.

News

Brotherhood

• DGM Report
  • The DGM has released his latest report, including the quarterly review of the Clans. Go check out how Arcona placed and sound-off in the comments if you think we can do even better next quarter! You can also find some cool info on the ACC here, including how it's going to factor into the Great Jedi War.
  • And if you want a sneak peek at how that war is going to look, then look no further: https://i.imgur.com/kTadklI.mp4
• Celebration Store
  • In honor of May the 4th, the Regent has temporarily opened a new storefront on the DB website for possessions. This storefront has limited time items that might not be available elsewhere in the future. Go check it out if you haven't already. Some of the items are really awesome (I've already picked up two Legendary Phoenix Edition WESTAR-35's)!
• Fisting Incoming
  • In which Drac wows us with his data visualization skills and makes me consider buying a Piktochart subscription. Seriously though, it was interesting to see the breakdown on submissions across platforms. Plus, seeing how Warp is absolutely killing in the activity leaderboard. #D3Represent
• Aediles, Aediles Everywhere
  • Both House Hoth and House Dinaari are accepting Aedile applications. If you're interested, make sure to check out the links above. They're both terrific opportunities, if you've suddenly decided you hate being awesome in Arcona.
  • (No, but really, if you're interested, submit an application. You guys are all amazing, and any of you could do an awesome job in either position.)

Clan

• Galeres Shakeup
  • Galeres is currently seeing an interesting shakeup, with Q offering to step down to Aedile and let the Rascally Ryn take the reins. Best of luck to both of them, and you can read more about it in their latest House Report.
• The Log Heads To The Chipper
  • Our illustrious Proconsul Uji is stepping down, as you've no doubt heard. While we wait to hear who his new successor will be, go check out his latest and final Proconsul Report. And don't forget to thank Uji for all his time and service to the Shadow Clan. You'll be missed, bud.

Competitions

There's only two competitions I'm going to be mentioned this time, because the second one is that important (not that the first isn't awesome, it is, but...you'll see).

Clan

Blind Justice: This is a fiction comp being run by Gal's resident Ryn. The gist is that your character is brought up to face Atyiru's justice. It promises to be a lot of fun, and I can't wait to read the winning entries (assuming you guys publish them - one of you is going to win it, right?).

Brotherhood

May the Fourth Be With You: This is a short series of competitions being run by the Dark Council is celebration of May the Fourth. They've run these in the past, and they're always terrific fun. You can check them out at the link in the title, and I highly recommend you give them your all. In addition to all the shinies waiting to be claimed, the winner gets a rare custom robe from the Herald's staff. This is an honor normally reserved for Dark Council members, so make sure you win it while you can!

Additional competitions can be found in the Competition Center.

Awards

So many shinies! Great job, everyone.

Strategos Thanatos Entar Arconae

• Anteian Cross

Leeadra Halcyon

• Dark Cross

Edema R'uh-Kalinor

• Steel Cross

Adem Bol'era

• Dark Cross

Lucine Vasano

• Dark Cross

Tali Sroka

• Dark Cross

Kelviin

• Dark Cross

Promotions

Huge shoutouts to both Kelviin and Koliss on their promotions to Professional. They both reached JM4, the pinnacle of Journeymen, and I have no doubt we'll see the inducted into the ranks of Equite soon! Likewise, big congrats to Lucine and Juliane on their ascensions to Hunter. JM3 is a big step, and both of them are on the cusp of Knighthood. Congratulations, guys! Keep up the awesome work!

Transfers

I know everyone has long-since welcomed her via Telegram or email, but I'd like to thank Leeadra for joining us from Clan Never Sober. As a former CNS'er myself, welcome to Arcona!

TL;DR

• All the Projects!
• The Log Gets Recycled
• Merits All Around!
• May the Fourth Be With You competitions are live! Go do them!

Crescent Leaderboard

Below you will find the numbers used to determine the scoring and the leaderboard itself.

• Diamond: 7
  
• Ruby: 6
  
• Amethyst: 5
  
• Sapphire: 4
  
• Emerald: 3
  
• Topaz: 2
  
• Quartz: 1
  

Since we haven't done one of these in a while, the numbers might be a bit inflated. Nonetheless, great job to everyone in racking up those wins. And most of all, congratulations to Tali for finally unseating Strategos! I'm pretty sure that in all the time I've been putting these out that's only the second time Strategos hasn't finished on top - and the first time, he took a vacation. Seriously Tali, kudos. <3 It's about time.

Member	Points
Tali	65
Strategos	63
Zujenia	60
Kelviin	16
Koliss	15
Edema	8
Celevon	7
Lucine	6
Juliane	5
Terran	5
Timeros	5

Closing Words

We have a war on the horizon, but the in the meantime go head out and do the May the Fourth competitions. Show the rest of the DB exactly what HQD is made of, and why no one is coming near our title of First Clan!

That's all for now, folks.

Augur Terran Koul
Quaestor, House Qel-Droma