Spiritus intus alit. It's been a pretty busy month, so this could turn into a fairly lengthy report... because I know everybody loves them, eh? :P

First up, some fairly significant Brotherhood news to report. In his newest Grand Master report, Muz announced a couple of changes to the way we do things in the DB; first up, he and some other DC members have begun work on something they're calling 'the Grind Path', a new entrance method to the club which will allow members to rank up on their own terms and get to the rank of Protector/Guardian (or around there) in a much shorter time, on their own initiative. I'm very much in favour of the idea- anything that makes it easier for people to progress in the DB is a good thing in my book.

Next, there's a new document out detailing the standards of professional behaviour that we as a club should be endeavouring to stick to- I encourage everybody to read it (at this link: http://coj.darkjedibrotherhood.com/ProfessionalBehavior.doc) and to make sure they take it on board. End of the day, everybody who is in the DB is here because they've chosen to give up their leisure time to take part, and who really wants to spend their leisure time being insulted, even if it's in a supposedly tongue-in-cheek way? It's usually quite difficult to tell whether someone's being sarcastic on the internet. On the day they give the internet a sarcasm detector, that kind of thing will be fine, but until then... :P

Finally in the DB news section, the Fiction and Gaming Tribune positions are now gone, and have been replaced by two new positions called <a href="&#194;&#157;http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/wiki/index.php?title=Voice_of_the_Brotherhood"&#194;&#157;>Voice of the Brotherhood and <a href="&#194;&#157;http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/wiki/index.php?title=Fist_of_the_Brotherhood"&#194;&#157;>Fist of the Brotherhood. Basically, these positions are intended to oversee the fiction and gaming aspects of the Brotherhood respectively, freeing the Dark Council members up to run more competitions for the membership. That then frees our House leaders up to spend more time just getting to know their members and forging the friendships that are so important in making people feel welcome in the DB.

There's still some more information in Muz's report that I haven't covered: go <a href="&#194;&#157;http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/reports.php?report=13569#comments"&#194;&#157;>here to check it out!

-I've been taking a bit of a break from the Website project this month in favour of getting some other administrative things sorted, but I intend to commence work on that as soon as I've finished writing this report. It will be completed, trust me on that :P -The Fleet Reset is still in discussion amongst the higher-ups, so no news or progress on that this month. -I'd like everybody to join me in welcoming some newcomers to our Clan this month; say hello to Devin Haruko (who joins us from House Ektrosis), Roxas, Kaloran and Locke Sonje (who joins us from the Rogues). Also, further kudos goes out to all the Journeymen who've been keeping my inbox very busy: Quo Wing-Tzun, Araxis "Stormreaver" Farron, Roxas, Devin Haruko and Marcus Kiriyu. Congrats to all of you- keep up the great work!

Now, onto CNS news. The House Marka Ragnos Mini-Feud that's been going on for the past two weeks is due to draw to a close today, and we've seen some good participation in that; congratulations to whoever takes the win, and well done to everybody who took part.

Furthermore, as that Mini-Feud comes to an end, I have a couple of announcements to make regarding the HMR Summit. First up, I'd like everybody to join me in congratulating Methyas Arcturi L'eonheart on being chosen as the new Aedile of HMR! We had some great applications, but Methyas' just topped the pile. With his ascension to Aedile, that leaves the position of BTL of the Night Raptors vacant, and we've decided to fill that position with one of the other applicants for the position of Aedile; Kano Verda. Cast your eyes to this link for the official scroll of appointment: Click here! And congrats to both of you, we expect good things.

Moving on- next week or so, we've got a big, sexy Clan run-on starting up, masterminded by the dream team of Darth Vexatus, Tsainetomo Keibatsu Sadow and Malisane Sadow; they're trying a different approach to a run-on, which will allow people to be much more independent than in previous run-ons. In terms of story, there's civil unrest in Seng Karash, and it's time for us as Dark Jedi to swoop down and crush it like the hard-asses that we are. Look out for a fictional update from Sai fairly soon, and get ready to unleash several cans of whoop-ass!

And last but by no means least, there's a whole slew of competitions for you all to take part in at the moment; cast your eyes downwards for a comprehensive list.

St. Herald's Day (Graphics): http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/competition.php?id=4856 Tombs of Wisdom (Shadow Academy Fiction): http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/competition.php?id=4857 Levia-what? (Graphics, run by our very own Marcus Kiriyu!): http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/competition.php?id=4860 April Fool's Day (Graphics/Fiction, run by our own Mei Ryoko!): http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/competition.php?id=4867 My Honour is Loyalty (Graphics; design a Black Guard crest): http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/competition.php?id=4885 ACC Journeymen Ladder (those of you who're DJK or lower, sign up to kick some butt in the ACC!): http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/competition.php?id=4862 Sadow Training (pass lots of SA courses!): http://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/dbjedi/competition.php?id=4884

You guys are just spoilt for choice. And on top of that, Bob's planning another ACC ladder in just over a month which will find out who is CNS' ACC champion, the 'Supreme Primus' of the Black Guard. It's a pretty cool-looking role, so I'm sure there'll be plenty of competition for that!

The best kind of holiday is a holiday that you don't expect. I'd completely forgotten that I'd get a three-week Easter holiday in the middle of my Spring semester, so when I realised, it was a rather excellent surprise! And then I promptly got a massively unpleasant cold and flu about two days ago, which left me feeling terrible. Woo. Despite that, though, I've managed to get a lot of music recorded; myself and a friend from college are making a push to actually finish a death metal album that we've had in the works for well over a year and which has been sitting dormant for a while. I've spent my week going back to each of the songs, tweaking and re-mixing the drums, finally recording the bass parts, and recording all the guitar parts (re-recording the guitars for some of the songs, which had rough guitar tracks in place already). I'm pretty happy with all of the songs (there are 19 on the album in total); there's only one which I'm a little annoyed with, and that was because it decided to fight me when I was recording it and kept going wrong. :D Only two more songs to record and then we can sort out vocals and it'll be done.

If anyone's interested in hearing it once it's completed, let me know- but be warned, the subject matter is rather... explicit. :P

That's all for this month- keep up the great work!

KPN Manji Keibatsu Sadow (Krath)/CON-PROF/Naga Sadow Consul of Clan Naga Sadow