24 May 2009

Headmaster Report #25

27 ABY: After the 8th Great Jedi War - Lyspair

The Jeedai Academy on Lyspair was a despicable, sacrilegious establishment and an insult to the gods. While the focus of the Great War was the Yuuzhan Vong’s capture of Antei, the small contingent of Yuuzhan Vong forces - a group of warriors and two slayers - on the planet’s only moon saw the centre of Jeedai learning and knowledge an equally wretched act of blasphemy. The Jeedai would come in time. Day by day, the warriors stood at their post, awaiting that which had been promised to them. The day that the Jeedai returned; the day they would claim their honour in battle with the heretics.

30 ABY: Before the 9th Great Jedi War – Lyspair

While the moon was largely spared from the effects of Crask’s plague, the forces on Lyspair had been struck by poison of a different sort; desperation and redundance. They had stayed far too long at their posts, alone amongst themselves and the blasphemous structures they waited in. They thirsted for Jeedai blood, but it never came.

Slowly, their numbers had began to dwindle from both hunger and suicide in self-sacrifice to Yun-Yammka. For the weaker willed, it was the only means by which they could serve the gods. Death in battle was not a possibility, there had been no sign of combat with the Jeedai arising. Despite the Jeedai’s conquering of Antei, they had avoided Lyspair completely. Only when the heretics they had ousted from Antei had returned to reclaim what was once theirs did hope of a truly glorious death on the battlefield began to surface, although only for one, fleeting moment.

Three weeks later

The destructive blade of the Amphistaff carved effortlessly through the academy’s walls, the raw power of the arms of a Yuuzhan Vong Slayer, one of the few Yuuzhan Vong remaining on the moon, drove his weapon through everything he could find. The war had not reached Lyspair. The Jeedai were killing each other, and it was all centred on Antei. The only thing left for the warriors of the Yuuzhan Vong to let loose their rage upon was the equipment and foundations of the Shadow Academy itself.

Apart from the two slayers, whose resolve had held firm over the years since the conquering of the system, only three warriors remained on Lyspair, one by one embracing death in servitude to the gods. Between them, they had torn apart the academy, every item of blasphemous origin destroyed by the fearsome blades of the Amphistaves.

Once the Academy was reduced to ruins, the slayers waited for the return of its owners, for the return of the Dark Jeedai, for the glory of giving their lives in nothing so trivial as suicide, but in battle against the face of heresy itself; against the Force, and the Jeedai.

They stood and waited. Their time would come.

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News

--Come Wednesday, I will have been in the Dark Brotherhood for four years. I remember four years ago... ah, the good times. It's fun, though, and I plan on staying.

--The SA site is now fully PHP and free of any bugs we can find, hope you enjoy it, there's more tricks and treats coming soon. As always, if you come across something weird, screenshot it and let Taig/Arion/me know. Oh, and we're still working on relinking course images, so that's normal. Capital Starship Studies, which was missing its superweapons notes, has also been fixed. We're also still working on fixing all the course passing mix ups that happened during the GJW. That'll be handled this coming week.

--After much discussion, it has been decided that two poetry courses is too much, and so we present to your Poetry Studies 2.0. A revised and revamped course, it takes the best and most important information from Poetry Basics and Poetry Advanced and places them in one course. Links below. Oh, Krath Grammar has been renamed Grammar Studies, to match.

--After equally interesting discussion, the same conclusion has been reached about the Test of Wisdoms, and so we have merged them into a single Test of Wisdom. This new version is much more intense, and requires a lot of development of your story, so it takes a little longer to pass, but it's a good lead-in to Oberst's Dark Sage - Writing course, which is open for applications, by the way. Send an email to Oberst if you're interested. The course is intense, but really good, and makes your writing much better. Ask Taig, he is one of the few to pass it.

--The ACC Initiates course has been outdated for a while, especially with the new character sheets, so the new Combat Master Erinyes quickly got to it, and a new, revamped ACC Basics course has taken the place of Initiates. Links are all the same, but the course is much better. Except more SA ACC goodness in the coming months.

--The Sith, Krath, Jedi, and Obelisk are not the only Force using groups in the Galaxy. What are the others? Check out the brand new Shadow Academy course, Force Cults, to find out! Written by Kalak, this information new course gives us an insight into the smaller, often less known Force-users spread through the Galaxy. Stay cautious, though, as while they may be small in numbers, their power is great. Links below.

--Law is complex, far too complex to fit into one course, and it is because of this that I am proud to announce the release of Chamber of Justice II, the "sequel" to Kir's intense Chamber of Justice course, and it is equally intense. Covering more specific information about the judicial branch of Dark Brotherhood politics, it goes into detail about how the trial process works, as well as the importance of some of the past cases. This course and its prequel are two of the most informative courses offered at the Academy, and are required for a new degree, as well as Chamber of Justice positions, which are always fun to hold. Links below.

--To go along with the release of Chamber of Justice II, and the fact that many of you earned every possible degree in the Great Jedi War event, which was a huge success, we hereby release a brand new Dark Side Degree, the Dark Sage - Law degree! The highest level of degrees offered, Dark Sage - Law requires the passage of both Chamber of Justice courses as well as the Dark Savant - Leadership and Communication degree, plus ACC and Wiki Basics. Finally, the practical requirement of a full term on the Chamber of Justice staff finishes up the bill. It's a tough degree to earn, but once you do, you'll be well versed in Brotherhood law, and, on a smaller note, if you're going to break the law, you should always know what you're breaking first. Links below.

--Journeymen Competitions have returned! The Shadow Academy Journeymen Competition for the month of May opens up Wednesday, but feel free to go ahead and start sending in your submissions now! As always, this competition is opened only to those ranked Apprentice through Jedi Hunter, making it a great way to get some early participation and recognition in the Brotherhood, as well as crescents that are always a good addition to promotion requests. This competitions, as well as the fictional updates that you should always read, will in the future lead to larger DB-wide SA competitions, so start competing now! Remember to send your submissions to sacompetitions[at]gmail[dot]com , details can be found here!

--For his amazing work as my Praetor, especially all of his help doing the Great Jedi War, as well as his superb participation in the war, Taigikori has been promoted to Sith Battlemaster. And for his amazing coding work in the site conversion to PHP, plus all of the sweet additions he made and those still to come, Arion was awarded a Sapphire Blade. Both Taig and Arion absolutely rock, and I am very honored to get to work with them.

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Projects

--I promised to release a lot of new stuff in this report, my fourth year anniversary report, and I think we followed through on that. Two new courses were released, three courses were revamped, and a new Dark Sage degree was released. Needless to say, there's plenty to do in the Shadow Academy as summertime approaches. What's to come? More courses, more degrees, a major restructuring of the Academy as a whole, along with the revamping of Ground Weapons, which is temporarily offline. Also look for continued fictional updates, which will be leading up to a huge SA competition, as well as journeymen comps and more coding improvements. It's the Summer of 2009, and the Shadow Academy is ready to pump it up!

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Important Links

--SA Website

--SA Degree Requirements

--SA Forums

--Poetry Basics 2.0 notes

--Test of Wisdom 2.0 requirements

--ACC Basics 2.0 notes

--Force Cults notes

--Chamber of Justice II notes

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Summary

• I've been in the DJB for four years...

• SA site is now full PHP!

• Poetry Basics/Advanced = Poetry Basics

• Test of Wisdom x2 = Test of Wisdom

• ACC Basics revamped

• Force Cults course released!

• Chamber of Justice II course released! It's a big one!

• Dark Sage Law degree is now available!

• May Journeymen Competition now running, compete for easy medals!

• Taig promoted/Arion awarded Sapphire Blade for their SA work

Dark Side Adept Aabsdu di Plagia Dupar

Headmaster of the Brotherhood