Grand Master Report

2011/02/24, 3:47 PM, Grand Master - The Council

Omnia mutantor.

The oddly named Shaevalian slid the familiar chair out slowly, quietly admiring the interwoven strans of Tarentum's seal that was pressed into the wood. He had used this chair before, under Dantes and Cotelin. And from the discussions over whisky with his old ally from Corellia, Ashen was a very different sort of creature.

The discussion had gone quiet, conspiratorial tones tinging the Oracle as he abruptly continued. He would brook no dissent, no distractions would be tolerated in his drive, his pursuit of his goals for the Brotherhood unfettered by political concerns. Caerick thought it was a liability, but Bloodfyre knew better. There was an economy of action behind the Lion's methods, not unlike his namesake. He knew precisely what he was doing.

Bloodfyre settled into the seat, leveling his eyes across the table at the young Quaestor of Revan. Youth and energy guided the masked human to lead a house where he was possibly the least senior member aside from the new recruits. He pushed aside the rumors, relaxing as he leaned back into the chair, his head sweeping across Quaestors and Councilors alike as the door opened.

Dark hair topped the human's head. He was largely non-descript, but the emblem of the Cocytus Empire adorned his robes. Several sets of eyes shifted to him as he found his way to one of the few empty seats around the Council table. The chair pulled back, scraping against the stone of the floor before the newly appointed Emperor slipped into the seat. The other houses would sneer at the titles, feeling smug about their hidden rule, hiding behind shell corporations to hold power in their home systems. Scholae ruled in the open, even if their true powers were kept quiet.

Two seats remained open, and the big doors at the end of the chamber opened, all getting to their feet as their Lord entered, unaccompanied. The silent question had been in the air for months now, unspoken concerns about the lines of succession peppering the minds of many. Muz sat down, the rest returning to their seats as was custom for decades, predating the Brotherhood's move to Antei.

"The time has come..." The Dark Lord started.

It's report time

for the last year, Sarin has served as Deputy Grand Master, much of his term being served from his base in Afghanistan, even getting decorated personally by Gen. Petraeus. However, his schedule in keeping his troops safe and fighting insurgents has reduced his ability to administer to Brotherhood duties. To that end, I am hereby opening up the post of Deputy Grand Master for applications. I will not list required qualifications for this post. If you are up to snuff, you will know it, and get me what I expect out of an application for this post within the next few days. The final deadline will be a week from today. Good luck.

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of information gathered about activity and so forth in this club. We have measured activity on mail lists, on the forums, in gaming, in vendettas, pretty much across all avenues of the Brotherhood. I am pleased to say that we have improved very nicely across the board. Of course, we can always get better, but I am so far very pleased with what we have accomplished thus far. One of the biggest talking points in this fashion was how many knights are made over the course of a year. The last few years, we have had one knighthood per clan per year average. Since last July's housing, that number is more than 200% better on average already. Thank you all for your efforts to that end.

There's been some discussion about 'being forced to train journeymen' as a requirement for Equite 3 ranks. Just to clarify, the requirement is that you must train one person through knighthood (from GRD at least) at some point in your career in order to qualify for that rank. You do not have to do this after you've attained the rank of EQ2. You can start this requirementas soon as you are a knight, and in fact, I encourage you to do so. There are still a few who are a bit angry about the requirement because they on't like dealing with new members. To those people, I apologize. It changes little, however. New members are terribly important to the long-term sustainability of this club, and is one of the easiest ways to help the Brotherhood. If you can't be bothered to work for the Brotherhood on sucha n easy scale, it is my opinion, and the opinion of verymany elders across the DB that you don't warrant the higher rank. I hate to be brutal like that, but it's true.

About two weeks ago, I set up an anonymous question asking site that I check on the regular. You can find it here: http://www.formspring.me/MuzAshen.

Independence Games are still scheduled for April, and will start on Exodus day. After that, it will be a Great Jedi War in late summer. For those new members wh haven't been around to play in a war or Independence Games, they are two very different kinds of events. You can earn the rare Seals that are unique for each event by simply participating in the event, much like a campaign ribbon. But that's where the similarities end. Independence Games are fought for your own personal glory. The competitions are generally fun and held by many different members of the Dark COuncil, and you may earn high-level crescents and the glory that comes with being the best in the entire brotherhood at that event. There is not really any storyline behind the Independence games, aside from being a sort of 'Dark Jedi Olympics'. Houses' totals are not totalled, there is no way for any house to win an Independence Games. Great Jedi Wars are hugely storied parts of Brotherhood History. Instead of crescents, members have the chance to win Novae, awards only given out for coming in first, second or third in Vendettas. Houses compete with each other to see who is the best unit in the Brotherhood, and every submission can help your house win.

This month has been a pretty active one for staff changes. Ronovi has resigned the position of Tarentum Quaestor due to real life issues and to concentrate more on her qork in the Shadow Academy. In her place, Sith Bloodfyre has taken up the command seat of Tarentum. In scholae, Ood has had to retire to better take care of his schooling, leaving Xen'Mordin in state as Quaestor. Both bring unique skillsets and perspective to the table, and I am confident that they will work hard to keep their houses running well and growing.

Ask the GM Time! Raiju asks: "While I know you guys already have someone handling the planning of the next GJW, I was wondering for future events if the membership is allowed to pitch ideas for the storyarc or is that someone specifically reserved for the DC members?" Well, the planning for the GJW is pretty much in the bag already, and the vendetta after that is well on it's way to being wrapped up as well. I plan things long in advance, due to how much goes into these things. But that said, you absolutely do not have to be on the DC to suggest ideas or work on future events. What you do have to have is a willingness to work your idea through to the end and patience to wait for a good long time for the event to roll around. The next event that will need planning will be scheduled for mid to late 2012, so that is some time away. Fremoc asks: "Are we just waiting on the code for the possession system?" Kal asks: "Muz, you mentioned the Possession System making Houses buy their units. Will Houses get separate points to do so, or will members have to contribute their own?" Good questions. We have a working plan and just about everything drawn up, from the items themselves to th point values and so forth. The coding, which is a HUGE deal and a LOT of work (and not something I have the ability to do myself) has been keeping us back. Orv is doing a great job, but he is essentially coding us a video game for free and on his spare time, since he has a family and a full time gig. Because much of the Possessions system is up in the air and reliant on coding, we can't say for sure how everything will work out... but the original plan is that units will have their own point pools to buy their fleets and other materiel.