Greetings,

The holidays are now behind us and we get into the long stretch between holidays...well...at least for around here in North America. Good times. There are a few things to comment on, but nothing earth-shattering. Most of the systems used seem to be working a bit smoother now, but there will always be some fine-tuning to ensure it works as well as it can. Read down for the recent changes as well as the soon-to-be released new Scroll.

Journeyman Promotions:

This should be one of the last times I comment on this. Most Clans have updated their Promotional Guidelines. Taldryan is currently working on integrating there's across all their Houses, and I haven't seen anything from Tarentum, but there hasn't been any real "issues" either concerning these types of promotions there, meaning things are at least working on their end. I'm also quite happy with a few of the Guidelines as well, but I won't name names so people don't feel left out :P I'm hoping by my next report that everything will be completely finished and I won't ever have to bring this up again.

Medal Upgrades/ID-Lines:

The competition for Upgrade Names ended at the beginning of the week. Congratulations go out to RevengeX for having the best Grand Cross upgrades; Impetus had the best Dark Cross upgrades and Sephiroth Storm finished in third with his ideas for the Upgrades. I would also like to thank the following people for their submissions: Raken, Ood, Electra, Malidir, Michael and Sai.

The database has been updated to reflect these changes, as well as all of the other changes I had previously mentioned. As such, if you happened to notice a change in your ID-line this week, it would be because of this. All upgrade names are now updated, and the ID-lines themselves are not much more streamlined (Sorry CF people, no more gigantic ID-lines :P). Jac also quickly updated the Codex (yay Jac!) to reflect these changes as well. If you happen to find anything wrong with either the Codex or the ID-line section, just shot me a mail and I"ll look into it.

Scroll of ???

A new "medal" has been decided on, this one a Scroll that will be taking over a portion of the activity previously covered in the Scroll of Indoctrination. Below is what this Scroll can be used for:

• A Master helping their Student to DJK (Awarded by Consul)

• An Envoy doing their job well for an extended period of time (Awarded by HM/KCB)

• An Eclectic Pedagogue doing their job well for an extended period of time

• ACC Trainers doing their job well for an extended period of time (Awarded by CM)

• A member going "above and beyond" in helping another member (awarded by Consul on behalf of person who was helped).

As you can see, the activities are all geared towards "helping" other members learn the various aspects of the DB, or to learn in general. I will say this right now but this Scroll does not take away from any of the Merit Medals nor promotions. It is just an added "extra" for those who do their job well for long-periods of time. However, a name is needed for this Scroll and I have put up a poll with a few choices which can be found here (log in first).

There are a few small things we are continuing to work on, mainly focusing on the medals themselves. These include:

• Re-writing the fictional aspects of each medal so that they aren't as bland (Currently being worked on by someone with better writing skills than me :P)

• Putting together a few good recommendations for each medal with reasons why they are good (Need to comment on them, but examples have been chosen)

• Bug the Codemonkey and CodeGorilla (Sil and Jac) about some MAA-related fun stuff, once their schedules open up a bit more

It isn't a very big list as these are the more immediate concerns. There are some long-range ideas and plans, but they would involve parties outside of the MAA office, meaning a lot more planning and discussion is needed. However, if there are things in the MAA office that you think should be added or changed, let us know.

Congratulations go out to Sil and Anshar once again on their recently well-deserved elevations. I would also just like to thank Jac for all of the updates he's made on my behalf. He updated the Codex very quickly, as well as made adjustments to it as needed. He has also been fixing any small problems myself or others may have found when poking around various things. Just a really quick turnaround on all of that, so just wanted to acknowledge it.

As always, the best place to get in contact with me is through e-mail. If you have a question or comment, please shoot me a mail.

In Darkness,

Dark Jedi Master Halcyon Rokir

Master at Arms