Introduction

The Republic seemed to be in crisis, an ever increasing amount of flashpoints all across its territory appeared to allude to some shadowy presence trying to further destabilize the great united block of star systems. Pirates, slavers, crime syndicates on the outskirts and tensions in the heart of the Taldryan sphere of influence were all taking away from the lustrous Republic which by all accounts and comparisons should be on its way towards a Golden Age of consolidation. Individually, all planetary systems were doing great. The Republic was investing in updating existing infrastructure and even upgrading outdated facilities. The Fleet was diversifying, expanding and upgrading their assets to better perform their current functions. There shouldn’t be this much chaos and distrust, historically, it didn’t make sense to the Neti.

Browsing through the reports that kept flowing in endlessly, Ood kept adding items to his agenda. A meeting with Commodore Faerin about something called the “Carrier Force Expansion Proposal,” could be shifted to that empty slot right before his meeting with the Chancellor of Chyron about that other matter…. Wait, what’s going on in Dalicron? That does not look good, nor can Taldryan afford to get into a long conflict like this. Not with the Iron Throne making moves and most likely requiring the Republic to start pitching in resources at some point. Hmm, remove those who are not part of the problem and set up a full interdiction blockade around the area until resources could be allocated to handle the mess? Doable. It would cause a somewhat temporary refugee crisis in the Republic though, as the fleet would be moving thousands into its own dominion. But doable, if managed properly.

---

Ood Bnar was not happy. He knew he’d had little meaningful choice when he made the call, and he was more than content with bending rules in his favor, but this...

His pitch-black eyes grazed the desk for another uncountable time and settled on the slate-grey OSI evidence box resting there, large enough for a pair of shoes, way too large for the object he knew it held in secure stasis.

A soft chime announced the arrival of his guest. Oh well. Procrastination will not reap any benefit. “Come in, please.”

The man who entered looked like a whiplash poured into casual clothes, a stark contrast to the position he held on Kasiya’s closest neighbor.

“Chancellor Na’trej. Thank you for meeting me on such short notice,” the Neti rasped and extended his gnarly hand.

“‘sup. You need something?” Jorm’s reply came with a firm shake and his trademark lopsided smile. It left Ood to guess whether he was making fun of his own position or just dispensing with the formalities.

“I have a few questions for you, Warlord. Please, have a seat.” Clan business, Jorm. The Kiffar raised an eyebrow and took the offered seat opposite of Ood. Palm open, he urged the Consul to continue, who pressed his thin lips together before he spoke.

“You are of course aware of the collapse that destroyed our Senate and the injuries Lady Second Cassandra Oriana suffered therein, and the following amnesia,” Ood began his inquiry.

“Hard to miss,” Jorm replied.

“The investigation conducted by the OSI has not found evidence of any chemical explosion or kinetic input from the outside. Which leads me to believe Lady Second Oriana had a fight with someone strong in the Force - I can think of nothing less that could have escalated so badly.”

“Wasn’t me.”

The ghost of a chuckle rose in the back of Ood’s mind, quickly stifled by the weight of the possibilities he had mused before requesting this meeting. “That, I already know for certain. The command crew of the Drake has reported your intervention aboard at the time the Senate fell.”

“Shiny. So why did you call me here?”

Ood stipled his fingers. I could turn him away now and deal with Oraina’s assailant whenever he or she shows up again. But that would leave the initiative with someone who has already proven to wield it with ruinous effect.

“Ood. Any more friction and your hands’ll catch fire,” Jorm interrupted the Neti’s thoughts.

The Consul untangled his fingers, carefully stretching and resting them on the table. “Remind me Jorm, do you share in the gift of your people?”

“The rakish good looks? Come on, that’s obvious.”

“No, not that,” Ood rasped, “the talent for Psychometry. Can you tap into an object’s... memories?”

Jorm scoffed. “Fourty-ish minutes ago, Commodore Faerin sat in this chair, reported about the state of the fighter wings and asked for more carriers. Ton Falks. Don’t think he likes his fighter jocks subordinate to big gun capitals.”

Ood nodded silently. I cannot afford to wait. The Republic cannot afford to wait for the return.

“This,” he forged onward, “was recovered from the wreckage of the Senate, not far from where Lady Second Oriana was found.” He opened the lock on the evidence box and turned the container towards Jorm, who flipped the lid open and whistled. “Hello there, old friend!”

On a cushion within the box, a battered flask emblazoned with a wide-eyed laughing skull laid smeared with a streak of reddish brown. Jorm grinned down on his possession. “I gave that to Cass before she went into the Senate.”

The Kiffar raised his citrine gaze to meet and drill into Ood’s bottomless black orbs, his smile a wide challenge. “Say it, Ood. Say out loud what you want me to do.”

Ood’s hands balled into gnarled fists as he carefully articulated his desire. “Jorm. I want you to use your talents to find out who she faced that day. I want you to find that person. And I want you to disappear them.”

“What, no capture and due process,” Jorm teased, “is that the Republic way?”

“We both know your testimony would not hold up in court, let alone be sufficient to convict someone absent of crushing evidence. It is not an option,” Ood sighed, “hence I’m giving you carte blanche.”

“Now that sounds like fun,“Jorm purred and picked up the flask which he gave a whirl. “Look at that. Big girl took a good swig.” He looked back at the Consul. “Last chance, Ood.”

“Cry havoc, Jorm.”

The Kiffar tilted his head sideways and focused on the vessel in his hand. The present world lost focus and definition as flashes of the past.

Brilliant blades. Whirling cloaks. Piercing eyes atop stalks flanked by long, flappy ears.

Then the present reasserted itself, enriched by dangerous knowledge. Jorm smiled viciously. “Ood, in a little while I will give you a name. You will give me everything on that name. Addresses, accounts, registrations, schedules. And you will make thrice damned sure you’re not linked to what’s coming after.”

The Neti nodded solemnly while Jorm got up and pocketed the flask. The die is cast. “I will. Good hunting.”

---

The room was darkened as a complex hologram displayed the entire Dalicron Sector and various republican military movements were being shown in real time. Around the projection table sat the Supreme Chancellor, military high command, and other stakeholders. The newly appointed Vice-Chancellor, Nobilus had just finished remarking that while the fleet was ready to execute its planned operations, it would cause various issues as the upcoming blockade of an entire Galactic Sector would have far reaching consequences if not done right.

The representative of Military Intelligence remarked that the situation in the region was rapidly spiraling out of control. Words like camps, atrocities, refugee streams hung in the air as the ancient Neti listened intently.

“The blockade will go into effect, cut off the hyperspace routes going into and out of the area until further notice, Admiral. As for the refugees, we’ll help as many as we can get out of the region as we can. For the Intelligence community, get me more information, we’re going to be interdicting an entire Sector. I don’t want Coruscant to focus on us too much at this time. Any information you can provide so we can limit our operation to smaller areas will be incredibly helpful.”

As the meeting broke up, the holo of the Dalicron Sector remained hanging above the table. The tiny holographic markers indicating vast military movements as the entirety of the Taldryan Fleet moved into strategic positions.

The military leaders leaving the chamber noticed a figure standing in the hallway, awaiting being called into the room. One of them, an older general having recognised the being, quickly addressed him, “Congratulations on your appointment young Narman, you’ll do wonderful things as Governor of Kasiya, I have no doubt!”

---

The Universe was grey. He floated in a dark cold void. Who was “he” again? Nothingness, an absence of everything.

The sun shone down harshly upon his skin, heating it and the subdermal layers. He was going to have to get treated for sunburns again once he was done working. As he carried his side of a massive beam, his gaze scanned across the clearing. Several buildings had already been erected and more were being constructed everywhere. In the distance, machines were uprooting decade old trees to expand the clearing and make place for even more construction. Across the river, a basic spaceport had been erected, little more than a flattened field with landing lights and fuel canisters. A non-stop queue of ships set down, unloading either cargo or even more refugees, before alighting once more to make room for the next vessel. It filled him with a form of reluctant pride. His people were already bouncing back from the horrors they had escaped.

Time was meaningless, the void could span seconds or millennia, there was no way to distinguish.

The moon, stars, and sun danced an elaborate dance across the sky, the settlement continued to expand and grow. As the dance sped up, so too did the rate of construction. As he watched months pass as if in seconds, the feelings of hope and light kept increasing.

Grey clouds surrounded him on all sides, obscuring any landmarks he could potentially use to direct his focus upon.

The settlement had grown, the spaceport had become an actual structure. Hundreds of homes were organised around paths, parks, and other structures. Various municipal buildings were in the process of being built. In the distance, above the forest or maybe it could be considered a jungle, a vast mountain range with snowy peaks peered down upon the blossoming refugee stronghold.

There is no hope, in the vastness, the limitless dark was all encompassing. Interspersed by tiny dots of light.

As a group of children shrieked as they ran past, playing some sort of game in the square before the newly built town hall, the feeling of lightness and hope increased exponentially. Joy and peace hung in the air, clinging to the buildings as if to protect those within from further harm.

Across the square, the doors of the town hall opened and a group of people wandered out. It seemed the assembly meeting had ended. As the town leader departed at the back of the group, the wind blew off their hood. As Cassandra moved to put the hood back on, the grey shadows once again moved to cover the scene. As the town fell away, the planet came into view and a vast scene covered him on all sides.

In his private meditation quarters on Kasiya, Ood Bnar ended his meditation and slowly got up. “So that’s what you’ve been up to.”

---

“Sir, we cannot keep up this level of operations!” one of the Fleet Admirals stated, “You have us interdicting an entire Sector. Almost 1/1000th of the Galaxy is a vast place to properly restrict. The only reason we’ve been somewhat successfully is that the Dalicron Sector is mostly unexplored and has few hyperspace lanes leading in and out of it.”

One of the Intelligence Officers added, “We’ve been intercepting communications as well sir, the regional governments are petitioning Coruscant to investigate several shipments that were intercepted. It won’t be long before someone discovers that an unknown power is actively holding the Sector hostage as it were. I do not believe you want to draw the attention of the Core in such a way.”

“Did we at least map out more specific areas our opponents operate in?” the elderly Neti asked.

The Officer looked at the Admiral and both turned to nod at the Jedi, “Yes sir, as far as we can tell, they’re limited to the immediate space surrounding the system containing Frelos. Estimates indicate we could decrease our operations to cover said starsystem and about 40 surrounding systems with less than a 10th of the current fleet assets in use.”

As he looked back at the projector, the Supreme Chancellor seemed deep in thought. “Make it so, Admiral.”

---

“Heyyy big man? Tree man? What’s happening?” Sofila asked as she squinted at the onyx eyes of the Neti. Then a wave of recognition washed over to her face. She remembered him!

“Wait a minute! Where are my handcuffs!?”

“Ms. Armis-”

“Sofila-”

“Sofila, I would appreciate the report of-”

“Oh right! Okay, so get this, we landed where you sent us and we ya know, kicked some names, took some ass. Wait- I meant kicked some ass, took some names. We got some injuries err-” She paused. She wasn’t being professional to her karking Supreme Chancellor. Dammit, Cole would be better at this than her!

“Erm! we sustained some injuries, nothing severe- sir? Ma’am? Wait- Are Netis asexual? Oh, right, the report.” Sofila shifted her body weight to one of her feet as the smile disappeared. The air hung heavy.

“The prisoners however- yea. The usual. Needs aid of all kinds. Wouldn’t blame them if they don’t like us either.” Quick as it arrived, Sofila never liked to dwell on something so dark or sad-

“So! Where are the handcuffs!?”

Ood sighed.

---

Ood Bnar still was not happy. He knew he’d had little meaningful choice when he made the call, and he was more than content with bending rules in his favor, but now he hoped he’d made the right decision.

A soft chime announced the arrival of his guest once again, and he echoed his own past words. “Come in, please.”

Jorm Na’trej entered looking rather satisfied with himself. “Good morning, Supreme Chancellor. Such a beautiful day, for such grim news.”

“Grim news indeed,Chancellor Na’trej,” Ood agreed and offered Jorm a seat with a silent gesture, “which one in particular would you mean though?”

Jorm slouched down. A lazy smile and half-closed eyes made him look feline. “The regrettable death of Senator Frei-Jar Binks of course.”

Ood sat up straighter. “I have not yet heard anything about it.”

Jorm raised an eyebrow and straightened up his posture, attempting a somber face. “In that case I regret to inform you that the wreck of his yacht will be discovered in about twenty minutes by an... independent logistics contractor, who of course will report it to the local authorities in Saijo. Apparently the ship was attacked with overwhelming force and suffered a total hull breach, suffocating everyone inside.”

“Oh,” Ood replied.

“Oh indeed, and not the end of it. Apparently, an improperly secured plasma torch misfired and bounced into contact with Senator Binks’ head, depriving the beloved and valuable Senator of a dignified burial. Such a tragic turn of events.”

“A truly shocking development, Chancellor Na’trej.” Ood agreed, wearing his own solemn face with greater success than Jorm, “but who would commit such a crime?”

“To the best of my knowledge, there are surviving cells of the Saijo-based pirate coalition which attacked Chyron and Kasiya a few years ago. I suspect some have radicalized. The ship has been stripped and scorched, it certainly fits certain operations’ preferences.”

“Pirates,” Ood mulled the word over, “damnable people. We'll have to see about getting more resources allocated to the navy to hunt them down.”

The Neti rose from his seat followed by his guest. “Thank you for the news, Chancellor, however terrible they may be. Will you be attending the funeral?”

Jorm barked out a laugh. “You kidding? I can barely keep a straight face this long; don’t threaten me with an hour of speeches.”

“Very well. Thank you for your visit,” Ood acknowledged and shook Jorm’s hand.

As the Kiffar left, the Supreme Chancellor opened an intercom link to his aide. “Winston? Please bring me Commodore Faerin’s Carrier Force Expansion Proposal.”

PCON Corner

Introduction

Hello everyone! The last time we spoke I was introducing myself as a Magistrate, and now I’m thrilled to be the Proconsul of this glorious and storied Clan. My main goal and focus as PCon is to increase the overall enjoyment of the members, by both providing methods for you to directly influence the Clan story and world outside of the traditional event format, and by creating more varied competitions that appeal to a wider audience.

I’ve already begun to implement that ideology with the new style of #TalQuestions, which you can see pinned in the Taldryan chat. Instead of general character development questions, each week I ask a world building question about Kasiya. You reply with your answers and I compile them over the course of the month. At the beginning of the following month, we vote to decide which responses become canon and are added to the wiki.

Prior to becoming PCon, I ran my first Discord Roleplay and also my first Clan Roleplay. Thanks again to my wonderful players who put up with my first-time shenanigans! I plan to continue to run the Clan Roleplays, and am already working on my next one, though scheduling it is proving difficult with the many upcoming events.

We also ran an anonymous survey with a few simple questions and got back a lot of great responses, thank you to everyone who participated in that. Ood and I have been evaluating the information to adapt our efforts going forward.

I’m truly honored to be serving as the Proconsul of Clan Taldryan and excited to help steward it into the future!

Information

Parabellum Cycle 3 is well underway and the first week of Pro Bowl IX: Reliquary begins in a few days on 9/29! I won’t tell you to do all the things because, frankly, there are too many things to do. I will say check out the competitions and do what you can; remember that Seasons is not designed to require 100% participation, check the ‘impact’ level of each competition(listed in the competition details) when determining which ones are worth it to complete. There are also 2 different group competitions, one Roleplay and one Graphics. If you are in need of a partner or group post here in Senate chat and we will get you matched up!

For Pro Bowl IX: Reliquary, you’ve already been divided into two teams; the amazing, all-powerful, and awesome Frogdogs, and the weak, dumb, loser Rotworms(boooooo). Over the next 3 weeks, there will be a new set of competitions available each week that pit the two teams against each other. It's all in good fun though!

Pro Bowl IX: Reliquary Week One is upon us! There's a whole variety of competitions to peruse. Frogdogs, you know what to do: complete domination! Rotworms, why don’t you just sit this one out

Remember, because of the overlap between the Pro Bowl and Cycle 3, participation in the individual pillars of Cycle 3 will grant you bonus Pro Bowl points! It's a win-win!
https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/competitions/24122

Projects and Plans

Let’s take a look at three things that are being worked on these days.

Fiction Updates Going Forward

We’ve had a bit of a drought of fiction. Hoping to fix this going forward, I’m considering altering how we do these. Instead of the summit throwing out big scale fiction updates, I’d like to have more vignettes going as well.

For this, Cassie is going to be doing small updates every now and then about the settling of Interitus Cairn but I’d like to take this further. Since Taldryan is set up to support our members and their stories, I’d like to throw this open further and give everyone this chance. So every so often, we’d have a fiction update on what one of you is doing. Or a story related to your character. I’m thinking of Zen throwing out short stories related to the merc side. From Jorm, stories about Chyron and what’s happening there. From Zuza, stories about Cole and his adventures as leader of our intelligence service. The idea is to be able to publish a story (minimum of 500 words) each weekend (you’ll get CIs for it don’t worry) that spotlights what your character is up to and to allow you to do fictional development of your character and their story arcs in a way that integrates into the whole. This will be interspersed with Clan story updates.

This is still in the early stages, so if you like the idea and want to help working out how we’ll do this, let me know.

Additionally, we want to allow usage of Clan resources (think fleet and dominion) in supporting these stories as well. To fully integrate this into resource management and to support realism, please make sure you let us know and work with us on how to best use these. An example, you want to avenge the death of your character’s uncle’s grandson’s college roommate’s nephew who got killed by pirates. We get you a small taskforce of a frigate and two corvettes and you get to write an epic space-battle but one of the corvettes bravely sacrifices itself and is destroyed. I’ll then go and remove that ship by placing it into a hidden container, the ship is after all gone, the fleet will have to replace it, so there’ll be potentially a story beat sometime about how a new hull was laid down in a shipyard and the new vessel is being constructed.

Fleet Purchase incoming

This got teased at the start of the year but hasn’t occurred yet. Be on the lookout, I’ll try to have the announcement out in the next month or so…

The purchase at this time consists of a set of 3 carriers with supporting starfighter squadrons, shuttles, and added functionalities. These are being set up to be support vessels for whatever operation or fleet they get attached to. We earmarked 34,000,000 for this purchase but may consider expanding on this with some of the credits earned from the Seasons Cycle bonuses.

Work To Improve The Clan & Ways To Farm Non-site XP (potentially)

I’ll be concise on this last one. We’re working on setting up an accessible trello board. This board will contain tickets (writing, GFX, wiki coding, even some potentially to set up systems in the future) that can be taken up by Taldryan members and completed. This will be a way to gather non-site XP and for the Summit to list up what needs to be done and in what priority it needs doing. Nobilus is currently mapping our DBWiki to create a list of what needs to be done per page to get it all up to date. I’m expecting to have this up sometime this year still and have it filled with quite a few DBWiki related tickets to betatest if this is a good system and a good fit for the clan. Expect more as we get closer to implementation of this.

The Year So Far

I’d like to simply show you all what we achieved together so far this year (2025):

Together, we’ve earned 8,879,130 for the clan in the past year (ontop of this are 40,000,000 from the first two cycles of Parabellum (with potentially another 20,000,000 coming in from the current one)). We experienced 17 promotions (these break up along the various tiers as: 4 Elder, 1 Equite, 2 Journeyman, & 10 Novitiate). We also gathered up 35 Seals of Loyalty.

Additionally, we received 36 Sacramental and Merit medals:

• 2 Emerald Daggers
  
• 3 Ruby Scepters
  
• 6 Amethyst Kukris
  
• 3 Sapphire Blades
  
• 1 Grand Crosses
  
• 3 Steel Crosses
  
• 2 Anteian Crosses
  
• 16 Dark Crosses
  

We participated in 1778 competitions and were involved in the organizing of 165 competitions. Over the course of these, we gathered up 730 Crescents and 4 Novae:

• 2 Gold Novae
  
• 2 Bronze Novae
  
• 100 Diamond Crescents
  
• 182 Ruby Crescents
  
• 198 Amethyst Crescents
  
• 129 Sapphire Crescents
  
• 67 Emerald Crescents
  
• 37 Topaz Crescents
  
• 17 Quartz Crescents
  

In fiction, we collected 728 Clusters of Ice and produced an impressive 535,797 words already in 2025. We participated 111 times in Roleplaying Sessions and acted as organizer 14 times. In the Antei Combat Center, we completed 11 matches and judged matches 21 times. We also earned 2 Dark Side Scrolls for DJBWiki activities.

In gaming, we gathered up 4129 Clusters of Fire.

In GFX, we earned 856 Clusters of Graphite.

In the Shadow Academy, we passed 109 courses and earned 27 degrees. Additionally, we gained 12 Scrolls of Foundation and 3 Scrolls of the Master for mentoring.

As you can see, we’ve been quite active already this year.