Please forgive me for not being as active this week. It is a very busy time of the year for me at both work and school. I've been almost too tired to socialize much. Well on to news.

Promotions/Medals

The House competition has finally been judged and people rewarded. Jason took first place in both events! Demerzel got second place in the trivia and Rage got third. Special thanks to Valpurguis for submitting a story for the competition.

Activity

I've been doing a lot of thinking on this one. I have decided to ask everyone to make an activity report on the first of every month about the month before. So the by the first of January I would like everyone to turn in a small report on what you've done in December. Call it, a self evaluation of your activity.

I decided to make this monthly because weekly reports work good for the other orders but not for the Krath. Our work takes more time than theirs :)

Competitions

The Dark Jedi Games are still going on at http://www22.brinkster.com/saitou/darkjedigames/

Make sure you participate!

If you have more time, the monthly competition is always around for people to participate in.

Poem:  Your Homeworld

Story: The Krath in Combat

And here is a recap of the Christmas competition that's going on within the Clan!

Starting Date: December 1st/2nd, 2002

Ending Date: December 31st, 2002

Tarentum Christmas Competition

I tried to get ideas from the Sith and Obelisk for their specific order events that could have a Christmas twist on them, but I didn't get any suggestions, but I figure any order can do most of these events, as they're designed to be short and fun. =)

Any order can obviously participate in any of the events and as many as the like.

Each event will have a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place place winner that can receive medals, and the person at the end of the competition with the largest number of points will also receive a medal.

Members may participate in any event as many times as they like. Every member may participate, and all entries are to be sent to me ([Log in to view e-mail addresses]) and Proconsul Proton ([Log in to view e-mail addresses]), and CCed to your respective House Summits.

Medals and Points:

1st - Crescent with an Amethyst Star (15 points)

2nd - Crescent with a Sapphire Star (10 points)

3rd - Crescent with an Emerald Star (5 points)

• Participation (3 points)
  

Largest Scorer - Crescent with an Amethyst Star

Events:

Christmas Story: A story of "Christmas" in Clan Tarentum. People in the "real world" celebrate Christmas with Santa and Christmas trees and, of course, food. But how do people in the Star Wars universe, or in the Brotherhood and Clan Tarentum celebrate? Is there Vader with a santa costume? Do we gather in the cantina and sing Christmas songs? Or is it Christmas at all? Perhaps its just a winter festival. Your job is to write whatever rituals and traditions you believe your DB persona would celebrate. You may use our usual Christmas traditions or create an entirely different holiday, it's up to you, have fun with it and be creative. =)

Christmas Poem: Write a Christmas poem. . .about the general feelings generated by this holiday, or whatever other holiday you created. Think. -- Twas Night Before Christmas. . .and all through Tarentum's hallowed halls. . . >:P There is no minimum number of lines, but try and make it something of a little substance. ;)

Christmas Songs: Our favorite song parodies! Grab your favorite Christmas song or two, or three and turn it into an all-new exciting Christmas in Tarentum.. or winter festival in Tarentum -- whatever the song writer within you demands! =)

Christmas Theme Searching: A simpler event in which you get to use your favorite search engine to shoot around the web and find Star Wars related websites that hold Christmas themes, acceptable entries would be things such as music, backgrounds, interesting pictures, etc.

Christmas Graphic Event: Your turn to create the graphics. . .decorate Castle Tarentum with tinsel and Christmas lights, dress up Vader in red and white, maybe light him up, too. :) Whatever you please as long as its nice, clean, Star Wars and Christmas related. If you created another tradition for your own Christmas rituals, you may include those in the graphics as well as long as you remind me what they stand for. :)

Don't forget this one!!!!!!

Because we always have a competition this time of year. This competition will last up until midnight New Year's Eve, and the awards for each category will be:

1st: Crescent with Diamond

2nd: Crescent with Ruby

3rd: Crescent with Amethyst

So without further ado, here's the stuff to do!

CAROL SINGING

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Otherwise known as the "Butcher the Song" event! This year, you'll need to think up alternate Dark Jedi words to one of the following Tunes:

• O Come All Ye Faithful

• Once in Royal David's City

• O Little Town of Bethlehem

PRESENTS

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Otherwise known as the Top Ten! What are the top ten gifts you would give to Darth Vader for Christmas?

SANTA'S LITTLE HELPER

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Otherwise known as the funny story! "Santa's Dark Jedi Elf" is the title you'll need to write about!

CHRISTMAS CARDS

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Otherwise known as Graphics! Design a Christmas Card for the DGM to send out.

FIGGY PUDDING

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Christmas just isn't Christmas without the pudding! Find a recipe for Figgy Pudding online and replace the ingredients with Star Wars Food and Drink! The most original (and tasty sounding) will win!

CHRISTMAS KITSCH

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And it certainly isn't Christmas without the kitsch! Rewrite "Twas the night before Christmas" to a Dark Jedi theme.

Send all your submissions to [Log in to view e-mail addresses] before the closing date to be considered. Please make sure your email subject is: "DGM Christmas Bonanza: Event Title" (without the " in the actual subject).

Above all things, have fun!

Lots of competitions for the holidays!!!!!

DB NEWS

If you are interested in being a Battle Team leader, House Acclivis Draco requires a new Tetrarch. The following criteria should be analysed before applications are made:

Must be the rank of GRD or above.

Must have access to IRC or AIM or MSN for real time communications.

Must be dedicated, uber-active and well-motivated.

Must provide a background CV of your Brotherhood career.

Must have no prior HCI convictions.

Must provide a development plan for the Phyle - competitions etc...

Must provide 2 references from other Brotherhood members.

Must have completed(/be willing to sit within the first week) the the DB Leadership SA course.

I am looking for an exciting application which will make me want you as my newest Tetrarch. Remember - you have to be in it to win it, so I expect lot's of prospective Tetrarch's, perhaps looking to start a DB leadership career, to take a chance and go for this spot.

Please apply to QUA Mejas Doto with the subject title: "DF TET APP".

And that's just a teaser of what is on the news page so get on over there and take a look for yourself!

OTHER NEWS

A few people are on leave for a few days, that includes Hades so if you need anything, come to me. I encourage everyone to hop on IRC and chat with the people in the Tarentum channel. If IRC isn't your thing, our message board has a fun little topic for everyone to post to. Don't like that message board, the big EH message board has lots of topics to catch your interest. If you want, send everyone an email, talk to people and get to know them. The better we know each other, the better we are as a group.

That's all for this week, everyone have a safe and productive holiday!