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The Front Lines

Florrum

Flames of war overtook the desert sands, leaving it stained crimson in the blood of both sides—the light, and the dark. The battle was grim, Jedi and Sith alike at the forefront of the battlefield, the ancient enemies drawn to each other like flies under the scorching sun. Strafing overhead, X-wings and TIE fighters engaged in dogfights between bombardments of the surface.

Edgar Drachen felt the burst of air as the explosion shook the ground beneath his feet. Dust, sand and debris clouded the barrier between the opposing forces of Plagueis and Odan-Urr. Billowing out around him, the cloak around his shoulders absorbed the gust of wind after the dune in front of him turned to a smoking, blackened crater. Behind the obfuscating fog, blaster fire bounced off the floating particles to show their motions.

One of those motions reflected differently between the the covers of dust, trailing impossible arcs of light in wide patterns. In the glow of it, the unmistakable hue of a cerulean Togruta registered in Edgar’s mind like a switch. Without a clear view of the skies, she couldn’t have seen the TIE fighters breaking off their engagement with the X-wings in the formation of an arrowhead.

“Aaleeshah!” He tried to shout, but it was lost amidst the roar of turbolasers blazing a straight and narrow trail in the sand. He saw the glow of her shock-whip vanish beneath the emerald lances. His need for vengeance dissolved in that instant, overwhelmed with a mixture of grief and self-doubt.

He wanted nothing more than to run into the fog, and avenge the death his home, comrades and innocents; Instead, he clung to disbelief. Some false sense of hopefulness froze his gaze over that area. After several minutes, the obscuring cover began to settle around the silhouette of a different figure.

Egar swore that he could see the dust settling on an invisible barrier extending over the furred hand connected to a similarly feline figure; beneath it, Aaleeshah, alive and well. He knew this creature as Tonraq, an undesirable pledged to lend assistance against the Inquisitorius as one of the last remaining Obelisks. “Jedi,” the Cathar grunted, “leave this battle to me. I’m going to remind them all that this Obelisk still draws breath.”

Plagueis Forward Base

Florrum

Crandl Lorne, as his dossier called the man, found himself both the target of scrutiny and public disgust; who was this mundane to influence the ebb of Plagueis’ battles?

Over the last weeks, he had been sent to Plagueis as the Grand Master’s ‘gift,’ as much there to ensure the Sith fell in line under Darth Pravus as to lend his intelligence. Even if the Sith wouldn’t admit it, the agent was indispensable and as ruthless as the rest of them. Assigned as a deterrent to ‘accidents,’ the Duros marauder, Brin Khufus, maintained regular contact with the Human from the forefront of the war.

Flickering above Lorne’s station, the Duros inquisitorius agent’s thin head concocted the next phase of his attack, “We’ll have our forces make a withdraw ahead of the Weequay miscreants. I can have us press the advance from another angle while the Jedi are suppressed.”

“Assaulted from both sides will press them into fortified positions, are we prepared for that, Khufus?”

“We have additional armaments incoming. As your intelligence suggested, the Weequay gangs will be moving in with enough firepower to level the fortifications. Those will serve our ends.”

“Excellent. I will await the success of your command, Khufus.”

Fewer things could have angered Kelly Mendes than listening to the Duros take advice from someone so beneath the Sith. The worm belonged under her heel, at the beck and call of Plagueis. Instead, Khufus seemed little more than a public face to Lorne’s schemes.

“What games are you playing at, worm?” She chided, resting a finger on the activation stud of her lightsaber, “I should have your carcass tossed to the pirates’ hounds before our Consul hears of this insolence.”

Crandl Lorne straightened his posture, rising from the holographic console, “I am doing as I was assigned, Mendes. Rest assured that Ramar has signed off on my involvement with this theatre, and I am here in an advisory role—Brin Khufus is here to ensure our intelligence is put to use.”

“That is what worries me, insect. I will be listening, and like you, Plagueis has eyes everywhere.” Her threat lingered in the room as she stormed out, Brin’s face raising a brow above the console.

“Is this something Darth Pravus needs to hear about?”

“Negative, Khufus. Continue the assault. Crandl Lorne out.”

The Battle Continues

Gentlemen, ladies, Jedi and Sith,

The final phase of the feud is begun. This will be the last chance to win, and influence the final outcome. All events will be graded after the conclusion of the feud, and the winners will be named.

As a reminder, we have some NPCs that can be used for context, and included in some member’s fiction. Do note that the winner of the overall event will be allotted one of these to keep post-feud, so killing off the winning Clan’s selections will be non-canon.

Clan Odan-Urr NPCs

• Tonraq - Character Sheet

• Vorust Traund - Character Sheet

Clan Plagueis NPCs

• Brin Khufus - Character Sheet

• Crandl Lorne - Character Sheet

Comprised of three phases, this event has a Prologue phase and two regular phases of competitions, with two competitions running the length of the event from the second phase to the end of the third phase. The Prologue itself will be run for one week while the two “main” phases will be run for two weeks each, with a week-long break between them. An introduction, this prologue will introduce you to the start of the conflict between our Clans—with a catch. A single competition will determine which of the Clans arrive first to the field of battle. Win, and determine the route that this event will take (of two possible fictions!)

Our timeline is as follows:

• Prologue: 29 February to 6 March

• Phase I: 7 March to 20 March

• Break: 21 to 27 March

• Phase II: 28 March to 10 April

Competitions

The next round of competitions is live! This is comprised of four that will run through this phase, and two that run through to the end of the feud. In order to participate in the group events, please use the provided form below.

Group Event Signup Form

Also, a Telegram channel is available to use for gaming. Please refer to the competition rules for more information.

[Gaming Telegram Channel - Log in to view join link]

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Fiction: Holding the Line

The battle between Odan-Urr and Plagueis continues....

Entries must use one of the prompts contained in the subscriber details

Rules:

• Only members of Clans Odan-Urr or Plagueis are eligible to participate.

• Entries will be graded using the Voice fiction rubric.

• Entries must be at least 500 words

• Entries will be accepted in any standard word processing format (.doc, .pdf, etc.) Please no googledoc links.

Puzzle: Stitchings of Reality

Your Clan has intercepted a holo transmission that has been forwarded to your intelligence operations, which must be reconstructed to determine if it holds valuable information.

Reconstruct the information in record time to complete the objective.

Do NOT share this puzzle with anyone else in either Plagueis or Odan Urr to give them an advantage. All suspected violations will be referred to the Chamber of Justice.

Rules:

• Only members of Clans Odan-Urr and Plagueis are eligible to participate. Entries from all other Clans will be disqualified.

• Entries will place by time taken to complete the puzzle. Ties broken by date/time of first submission.

• Puzzles must be solved using a difficulty of 150 pieces and without rotation. Entries using higher or lower than 150 pieces will be disqualified.

• Entries must be submitted through attaching a screenshot of the final time taken to complete the puzzle, with the number of pieces visible in the screenshot.

Graphics: Forged Alliances

Create a graphics piece (traditional or digital) based on the prompt contained in the subscriber details.

Rules:

• Only members of Clans Odan-Urr and Plagueis are eligible to participate. Entries from all other Clans will be disqualified.

• Submit the image in a standard image format (PNG, JPG, JPEG or GIF).

• Stock images are permitted, so long as a link is provided to the stock image(s) used in the submission form.

• Scoring will be based on creativity, effort, and artistic skill.

Gaming: The All-Consuming Fire

This is weighted PVP score competition. All Tier 1 PVP platforms are allowed for this competition. The players with the highest weighted PVP score based off valid matches submitted during the competition period will win.

• Only matches played against members of the opposite clan in a 1v1 format (COU vs PLA) will count for this competition. Only members of Odan-Urr and Plagueis are eligible to participate.

• FFA matches or team matches also will not count for this competition.

• The full Rites of Combat are in effect for this competition.

• IMPORTANT CHANGE FROM PHASE I GAMING - For the purposes of this competition matches can be arranged in the Feud telegram channel, played and manually reported through the site.

  • Members who arrange matches in this channel do not have to go into #dbgaming on IRC.
  • Competition organizers and members of the Fist staff will monitor the channel to ensure the Rites of Combat are followed. Failure to heed warnings from any of these personnel may result in disqualification. Play fair, demonstrate good sportsmanship.
  • Because of the always on nature of Telegram, members should announce in channel when they are available to accept matches and announce when they are no longer available.

• Matches arranged through Telegram and manually submitted through the site will be excluded from the weekly PVP score Pendant of Blood calculation.

• Use of the FIST-O-Matic bot in #dbgaming for match making is not required for this competition but is allowed. However, if you use the Fist-O-Matic you must play all matches assigned to you by the Fist-O-Matic in accordance with the Rites of Combat. You may not refuse any match on account of this competition.

Multimedia: Transmissions From the Surface

Create some form of multimedia content (e.g., video, recorded song, extended GIF, interactive website, game, etc.) lasting at least 30 seconds from one of the following prompts:

• Battle journal - Create a multimedia log from your character’s point of view as the battle unfolds.

• Propaganda - Create a propaganda piece either to bolster your own side’s morale or make the enemy question theirs

• A different point of view - Create a multimedia piece from either the Weequay gang’s, the undesirable’s or another third party to the conflict that is not affiliated with Plagueis or Odan-Urr such as the Inquisitorius. How do they view both sides? What are their goals? Who are they making the transmission/log for?

Rules:

• This event may be entered by teams of up to three people or by individuals.

• Scoring will be based on creativity, effort, and artistic skill.

• For team submissions, please provide a statement detailing the contribution of each member

• Only one team member needs to submit the entry through the site, we will manually adjust participation records

Battle Plan: Drawing the Line

Even the greatest armies can be routed against the better planning of a decorated commander. Plagueis’ bloodthirst has brought them to Florrum to counter the Odan-Urr rescue effort. While their fleets are locked in a battle for Florrum’s skies, a similar struggle has each side fighting amid desert canyons and sulfuric geysers. Central to the conflict are a half-buried ion cannon emplacement and a geothermal powered planetary shield—relics of a bygone age, but still quite functional.

In the right hands—your Clan’s—these can be used to wreak devastation on the enemy’s fleet and prevent enemy fleet support to the ground battle. To Odan-Urr, these would serve against Plagueis’ blockade, punching a hole large enough for several shuttles to pass through unmolested. But were these to fall to Plagueis, the emplacements would be turned on the Odan-Urr fleet. Alternatively, it can be eradicated to prevent the other side from gaining an advantage, if the location is deemed impossible to hold.

• The full mission briefing is located at https://goo.gl/igfDng and contains all the neccessary details for this battle plan.

• The blank map image is available for your use.

Rules:

• Teams will consist of 4 to 6 members from one clan. Signups and team assignments will be facilitated by the leaders of each clan.

• Scoring will be based on Creativity (25%), Level of Detail (25%), Presentation/Aesthetics (50%). You will not be graded on tactics or any real world military knowledge (formatting of operation orders, etc.), the presence of these in your plan will neither help nor hurt.

• For team submissions, a valid entry must include a statement detailing the contribution of each member.

• Only one team member needs to submit the entry through the site, we will manually adjust participation records.

• Any questions regarding this event can be addressed via email to all the competition organizers