Good evening everyone, and welcome to the third edition of the Taldryan Republic reports!

We have a decent amount to cover today, so I will go ahead and dive straight in:
1. Taldryan Survey Information
2. Fictional Update - [Title Redacted]: Episode 1 Prelude - Rise of the Traditionalists
3. Great Jedi War XVI - Transcendence Information
4. Conclusion

Taldryan Survey Information

First, a special thank you to Nobilus for the survey that was sent out late last month; we gained quite a bit of valuable information and insights into how people feel about both our storylines, the direction of Taldryan, and what you would love to see in the future among other details that were also shared in confidence (that will not be said here).

Once we compiled the surveys and went over the core information, there was one particular trend that we noticed was being voiced more than once and was a leading factor in our decision for our next storyline which will come up following the conclusion of the upcoming Great Jedi War. What will it be? Well, you'll have to wait and find out what is to come; but the fictional update below might shine a little light on it...

Fictional Update - [Title Redacted]: Episode 1 Prelude - Rise of the Traditionalists

Unrest has risen within the Republic. Following the devastation during the final battle of the Great Mock War that resulted in the death of dozens of soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic, Lady Second Cassandra Oriana Tyris, the Supreme Chancellor of the Taldryan Republic, secretly dispatched a small team to infiltrate a base deep underneath the city of Caleria in an effort to apprehend the individuals responsible. She herself would travel to the city with the Summit Guard and meet with the Board of Governors, a group of district leaders who had usurped control of the city from the Taldryan Republic Naval Fleet Admiralty Board and blockaded the Naval District.

Suspicions began to mount when it was learned that the Governors were answering to one of their own, Regis Delgar, who had been identified as their 'Proconsul'. During their meeting, he revealed that Caleria and Ostara intended to go their own way and declare independence from the Republic, having gone so far as to rename the city's administration building to the Second Citadel in honor of their abandoned and storm-ravaged home. They had also named their cause as well: the Traditionalists.

In a desire to avert a potential crisis, Cassandra managed to negotiate a temporary delay of the secession announcement — at least, until after the upcoming Great Jedi War. While the Republic Senate sought to distance itself from the Brotherhood and overwhelmingly wanted Taldryan to ignore the call to arms, one thing that both Regis and Cassandra agreed on, was that Taldryan needed to answer its call, lest a far darker future would befall the entirety of the Caelus system should that call be ignored. The honor of Taldryan forbids them from doing otherwise.

During the mission into the base, General Erinyes Ténama began to have suspicions regarding the layout and design of the base when she realized they were very familiar to an iconic Taldryan location. Those suspicions quickly became evolved when she also realized that the Regent himself, Zxyl Bes'uliik, was present in the city after he opened contact with her regarding the death of Caleria Security Officers on the surface. Deaths that, while avoidable, had occurred at the hands of the team during their initial infiltration.

Despite opposition from Anders, Erinyes chose to take an unconventional path and instead of the team continuing covertly, they changed tactics and revealed themselves to the members of the base; using her title and rank within the Taldrya to her advantage. This made movement through the base far easier and allowed for simpler apprehension of the saboteur. It also confirmed a dark truth: by acknowledging her, it proved they were answering to the Taldrya. With Zxyl’s presence, and one of the officers identifying the Regent as someone they answered to, the team learned that he was the leader of the Traditionalists.

Meanwhile, final preparations within the base had been completed and under the direction of the Regent, the base broke free of its underground shackles and shook the entirety of the city and the surrounding region. Under the assumption of a massive earthquake, the Bastion Battle Group raced toward Caleria to assist. The Axios, undergoing repairs, separated from the Allegiance Battle Group and moved back towards Kasiya to assist in the efforts itself. However, during its journey between the volcanic worlds of Huracan and Grannus where contact had been lost due to the intense magnetic fields given off, it disappeared.

Sensors revealed, however, that the epicenter of the earthquake was not from within Kasiya however...but from the rise of an Imperial Star Destroyer from underneath the ruins of the Caleria Naval Shipyards. It's identifier...the Axios. Cassandra ordered the Bastion Battle Group to fall back, wanting to avoid any conflicts, but was taken aback when her orders were ignored and the battle group instead took position with the Axios at the lead.

The Republic Senate has convened an emergency session to discuss these developments, and how the Republic should respond in kind...

Great Jedi War XVI - Transcendence Information

We have just under a week until the beginning of Great Jedi War XVI - Transcendence! It will run from August 26th until October 1st with the 1st phase going from the 26th until September 10th, followed by a break period until September 15th, after which the 2nd phase will run until October 1st.

As mentioned in Bubba's report, which can be found here, this war will be a little different in that it will be much more relaxed compared to the typical GJW in terms of points being awarded.

Participation = Placement

Instead of placements winning the day as the normal war goes and overwhelmingly being the key factor in determining the winner, participation will have considerably more weight in that decision with points now being awarded at an equal level.

Following normal tradition, the structure of the vendetta will remain the same. There are 3 bins per phase, including an Event-Long phase, giving a total of nine bins that members will be able to participate in.

In order to reach full participation points, all that has to be accomplished is a singular event in each of the bins. By doing that minimum of 9 events, you will have earned full participation points for the entirety of the GJW. So if there are bins where there is just little interest, or have no desire to really push them, just focus on the minimums.

Small-Team Discord Run-On & Team Event Recruitment

For the run-on this year, there will be groups of 3 to 5 members all from the same clans participating together to create their own RO on Discord using the #rp-lobby roleplaying system. This is a little different from the standard clan-wide, and it is my hope that through a smaller team members will be able to focus a bit more and interact with others in a tight-knit group.

While we do not yet know the prompts, quite a bit can be gleaned from the Prologue and Location Wiki announcement from Idris. I strongly encourage everyone to give this a read-over as well as the wiki page. Quite a bit of this new realm is rather exciting to me, especially its effects on the Force.

As has been the tradition, we will be creating a separate channel where members will be able to seek others out to participate in team events where more than just one is required for completion. You are also welcome to message any member of the Summit as well and we will help place you in a group if you need, as we will be keeping an active track of teams and any open positions that are available as designated by the team leaders.

Character Assistance / Submission Proofing

Ahead of the vendetta, we will be offering assistance to anyone who would like to update or redo their characters and feel that they would like a hand in doing so. Be it discussing potential skills or force powers, feats to pair with them, character backgrounds, physical descriptions, or anything at all, just let us know. Some of us spend a lot of time working with Character Sheets, so it's kind of a hobby now.

Once everything begins, we will also be offering proofreading services that will be able to be used prior to any submissions for those who wish it, however, the following must be made clear: we will not write or re-write it for you. The most we will offer are suggestions, to which it falls to the respective member to decide if they wish to follow those suggestions or recommended changes.

Pazaak Tournament Sign-ups Closing Soon

I also wanted to make a brief remark on this, as each year we have a few who expressed a desire to participate in the vendetta’s gaming tournament but did not realize either that:

A) You need to sign-up before the vendetta starts, as post-start registration is not allowed

B) Sign-ups close ahead of the vendetta’s start by several days to allow for bracket construction and seeding of members into those brackets.

If you want to take part in this year's gaming tournament, which is an old classic of ours: Pazaak, you can find the sign-up information in Turel’s report. This report will walk you through the process to sign up and gives you the link to Pazaak where you will be able to play and practice as much as you want. Feel free to ask in any of the Brotherhood’s discord channels should you want to play others in friendly matches, or even ask one of the Summit and we would gladly play with you.

Be aware that registration closes at 11:59PM GMT / 7:59PM EDT on the 24th of August, just one minute before the site reset time. Once this time frame passes, you will be unable to register for the tournament. You have just over four days remaining at this point, so don’t delay or wait until the last minute!

Conclusion

I hope everyone is excited and ready for what the Dark Council has created for us this year, and I myself absolutely am looking forward to it.

While our focus will be on winning the Great Jedi War or securing a high placement, which I myself will be doing all the things to the best of my ability (even if I do so horribly), I want to remind everyone that having fun has the most paramount of importance. Even if we don't ultimately win, as long as everyone has fun during the vendetta, then we have already won as a clan.

Once the GJW has concluded, we will be taking an official break of one month from all major storylines and major events, focusing on lighter open events and open storylines including a casual roleplay to allow members to either unwind if they so choose, or just take a break altogether while not worrying about missing anything in doing so.

At the beginning of November, we will continue the prelude that we have set up and reflect any ramifications that come from the events of the Great Jedi War itself.

If you have any questions or need to know anything more regarding the Great Jedi War, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!