The throne room was rife with light and color.

The flames, everburning, danced behind the Serpentine Throne, its towering dark stone and coiling snakes casting a long, singular shadow down from the tall dias upon which it sat. The eyes of the serpents caught the flames and glowed with omnipresence, an echo of the star-spanning power contained in its every curve and carving. The ageless artifact promised power and knowing beyond common comprehension, and had stood as a symbol of the Shadow Clan for decades longer than many of its servants had been alive.

So of course, Frond sat in its square seat like it was a box. He was running tooka software on cythraul hardware, as Zig liked to say, whatever that meant. Zuza didn't tend to think about it too hard.

The crowd bustled, still filling in, everyone in the Clan, it seemed, and she watched them from where she peered out of a hidden, secret passageway. For the Consul. That only special people knew about. Because it was a Consular secret.

And that was her now.

The Human bounced on her feet, unable to hold still with all her energy, at once nervous and excited. She might throw up but that would be…fine. She smoothed a hand down her shirt again. While not dressed fancily or overtly, her clothes were nice and tidy, and she wore a shoulder cape with a little mantle piece that felt incredibly fancy, as did the tiny sparkling circlet with twisting vines and silver moths and sparrows that Cora had given her— along with these clothes, and the cape, and just a bit of hair styling and foundation. She trusted him about these kinds of things, and as he'd advised, this was a formal presentation.

So of course her puppy was sitting in the important chair, barking, "Borf."

A soft knock sounded from some other secret entrance, making her jump and reach for the sword at her side, but it was just the Pantoran peeking in.

"Are you ready, Pippa?" Corazon asked, smiling at her. His smiles actually seemed real again, now that Ruka was awake, thank kark. She'd been so worried, just…it had been rough for her coming down too, and then it had seemed way too late to check in, and…

"Uh," Zuza stammered, and then shook herself and let go of the weapon, straightening back up from her crouch. "Yeah! Yeah, course, you bet."

Being her best friend, he gave her a knowing look, a little hum and sniff that said he knew she was on edge, but he didn't say anything. Instead he just beckoned her over.

"This way, then. We're ready for you, Shadow Lord."

Read more here

The (Not) Final Farewell

This fiction covers Ruka’s fate from the ending of Kaisya Blizzard Taldryan hosted some months ago, and Cora's struggle managing without him, to the fictional firing of Qyreia and Ruka, their decisions in lieu of it, all the way to Zuza’s rise to the Serpentine Throne. I’d like to thank Qy and Atty for writing this up and highly recommend the read.

I doubt I’ll ever be able to top this, but it inspires me to try and who can ask for more?

Clan News

PCON

First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who applied both seriously and to just communicate ideas they had. All the applications I got were great and there’s a reason this report is occurring a few days after the closing date. It was a bloody hard decision.

However, I have come to that decision now and I’d like everyone to give Zuji a huge congratulations and warm welcome into the summit. For those unfamiliar with them, they’re Diyrian “Diy” Grivna on the website but otherwise, I shall let them do their introduction…

Hello everyone! Zuji/Cake or Diy here. First thing foremost, I'd like to thank Zuza again for this opportunity. I look forward to working beside her and all of the summit, and with you all! This isn't my first rodeo with leadership and with that experience and a willingness to learn new tricks, I hope I can fill the shoes of this role well. My primary focus will be assisting Zuza with the projects listed in her own consul plans, communicating and organizing the summit, acknowledging members and helping run events. I also wish to tackle the monster called Wiki and hope to start hosting at least semi-regularly Arc hangouts.

As for about me, I have four adorable furbabies. I like goats, rocks, and a new unhealthy Omwati obsession. I work as a Direct Support Professional with people with developmental disabilities, a rewarding job that teaches me a plenty. I do work midnights, so during the week I am more active at night and late morning compared to many of you. However, my door is always open and I encourage you all to DM or tag me if needed anytime and I will be sure to answer when I can. <3

Stickers

We all love stickers and that love has not gone unheard. The Herald has reached out and offered each clan 7 (Seven) sticker slots. Myself and the Summit have decided to make this a voting type event with rounds to rifle out the best ones for us.

So what do we need now? Any entry for a sticker that you feel fits Arcona. It can be a running joke, a call to past events or just a (fancier?) cucumber to mess with Atty and Kamjin. The primary rule is to obviously keep it appropriate and within the bounds of the covenant, anything above our typical Pg-13 rating or otherwise offensive will not make it to the voting rounds. Other than that, keep it relevant and have fun!

Send any entries to me and Zuji at [Log in to view e-mail addresses] and [Log in to view e-mail addresses].

The ARC Announcements Channel

At the end of last August me and Zuji worked together to rehash one of our outdated channels into a clan specific announcements channel. This was meant to give a centralised place to look that had all of the new announcements relevant to Arcona, including hiring posts, general DB news like war updates and the recent Emisarry changes up to our own Clan Announcements.

Well, it's been around 8 months now and while I’m sure there’s survey a-plenty for you all to dive into, I would like as many as who can to take this one as well. It’s short and sweet and will grab us some data.

Clan Event

The False Gods can only run from us for so long and that time has finally come. Beginning somewhere around March and including multiple phases, the final battle to rid Selen of them, their cultists and the Caxquettes. Hopefully after this, there’ll just be some final roots to pull out before we can finally relax…. Well. Relax as much as someone in Arcona can.

This will be a pretty major event so don’t worry, there’ll be plenty of reminders around once details are fleshed out for you all, SoonTM.

The Selen Training Corps

Keep an eye out over the next few days for a new job posting. This will be for the BTL position over the Selen Training Corps, our NV to JM3 BT. This is a great post for being on the ground helping our newest recruits get situated, and have the best masters for their DB experience. This, while also getting eyes in on the top-level summit work and being a voice among us.

Thank you all again for your patience and support. It means a lot and hopefully I can live up to the expectations.

As always, if you have an issue please contact myself, Zuji, or anyone on the summit. If you feel you have something to say, positive or negative, in leadership and are unsure who to tell, we do also have the Emissary’s Brotherhood Leadership Feedback Form for you to use.

Either way, I’m excited to get into everything. I’ll talk to you all soon. Probably in the chat in a few minutes.

Zuza, signing off!