Conference Room Ascendency Aliso System — Plagueis Territory 41 ABY

"Two other worlds have already agreed to membership," Selika explained. "With both the Republic and First Order having torn one another apart, we must form alliances of our own for mutual protection and benefit. All those of us that lived on the edge of the Unknown Regions ever saw from the seat of galactic power was corruption and taxation, not a credit of which ever benefited us."

The Chancellor nodded. "And what little protection these galactic powers offered simply by existing, patrolling our space or not, has vanished along with them. Raiders know there is no one there to stop them."

"Unless we work together, Chancellor," Selika implored him.

"As I said, your offer is enticing, Consul," Chancellor Telus cautiously answered. "I think our Assembly could be convinced that it was the right path for Haruna."

"You seem to think that you know what it might be that could convince them, Chancellor," Selika observed.

The Chancellor took a moment before replying, steepling his fingers on the table in front of him before doing so. "Our surveillance service has captured one of these pirates and managed to extract information about their base before he expired. But our forces do not have the strength to strike at them, nevermind when they are spread across half the sector chasing down raider attacks on our shipping."

"And you think that if we were able to remove this particular irritant," Selika surmised, "that would be enough to change their minds."

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Ascending Confederacy has begun, and with it comes the first fiction update for the event. This is kicking off a bit of a new chapter in the Clan's lore development as a whole, so I encourage everyone to give it a read.

Read the first chapter of Ascending Confederacy here.

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Competitions

Week one is officially under way! Check out the events at the following links:

• Ascending Confederacy competitions (The event long fiction event can also be found here, don't miss it!)
• Ascending Confederacy Week One

Week one will run until end of day on February 12th site time, so that's site reset Sunday night for folks in North America.

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Schedule:

• Week One: February 6th - February 12th
• Week Two: February 13th - February 19th

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Scoring

Each individual will earn five points per event they participate in. Participation is defined as a valid submission for an event. Simply signing up for an event or uploading an unqualified submission will not count. You have to put in the effort in order to receive the reward. Participation will earn 5 points.

In addition to participation points, the top three individuals in each competition will earn placement modifier points. First place will earn 4 points, second place will earn 3 points, and third place will earn 2 points, and all other entries will earn 1 point. Events themselves will have placement point modifiers based on their perceived difficulty/level of effort required. For example: the modifier for fiction will be a factor of 3, the modifier for gaming/graphics/poetry will be a factor of 2, and the modifier for puzzle/trivia/flash events will be a factor of 1.

Grading formula: (Placement Score * Event Modifier) + Participation = Event Score

At the end of the competition, the individual scores for all three weeks will be added up, and the top three individuals will earn crescents for the overall competition. Ties on individual placement will be broken on total number of placements, followed by total firsts, total seconds, total thirds, and then total entries. Total scores for both teams will determine the victorious team.