First of all,

An apology. I've been seated in my position for just over two months and I have been somewhat remiss in my duties. With the exception of Badge of Honor event and taking the pulse of the direction in which to take the Unit, I haven't established the amount of content for the Marshals I had hoped to, as of yet and with War looming, it will be a while longer until those of you in my care really feel the changes I hope to bring to this Battle Team. I ask that you please bear with me as I continue to flesh out the design and lore of the Dajorran Marshals and look forward to the Post-War events I have begun to plan.

Please join me in congratulating Kris and Zuji for their winning designs in the Badge of Honor competition! Their designs as well as all of your work and discussions in Discord are helping to form the basis for who and what the unit are as we move forward. Your group input, discussions, as well as the nature of the Clan have helped form the Marshals from something akin to "Just another group of bounty hunters" into our current Legitimate system-wide emergency response and enforcement unit who handle everything from cataclysmic localized events to hunting escaped Dajorran criminals. They've also helped to garner a sense of what kinds of events to lead the Battle Team through in the coming future, from gaming to roleplay-driven narratives.

Where I have applied myself, however, has been to the background work. With recent construction begun on the Dajorran Marshals Wiki, Battle Team focused Roleplay Narratives on the burner, and gaming events designed for the post-war landscape. With life on the mend, I hope to see myself in a more active role in the community again, and I apologize again for not being as active as I had hoped but pledge to make things up in the coming year.

The Upcoming War:

It's an exciting time, there's a lot of buzz and energy around the upcoming events, and there are some new faces in our midst, so I'm definitely going to reiterate and discuss things other members of our Summit have gone over, just to nail down the basics, and point you in the direction of their updates.

For those of you unsure of the storyline and looking for a good TL;DR of the events, I'm going to recommend you give the STC: 2nd Transmission a quick read, wherein Zuza compiled a quick rundown of The Five Ws surrounding the situation. And for those of you looking for a low-frills, all-bills, bullet-by-bullet rundown of details from the last month, including some upcoming details on the war ahead, I'm going to point you to the August Galeres Report

Ahead of the War, we are now under the effects of a Transfer Ban, to prevent abuses and problems arising from people moving into more active or event-focused clans for the purpose of participating in singular large events.

Participation is paramount in the upcoming war, if possible. Do your best to join us, but do not feel ashamed if you are burnt out. Scoring will be evenly weighted between placements and participation this year, meaning that even if we do not take the top positions in every bin, putting ourselves in every bin for the competition will showcase activity and help boost our overall scores.

Timeframe:

The WAHR itself will last approximately five weeks, with a pair of two-week Competition Phases broken up by a five-day rest period. As with any major event, there will be the standard Event Long material as well. This should, time and energy willing, give each of our members the ability to participate in each phase's three competition bins, with the increased importance of participation this year, this is a factor we should take advantage of. I look forward to seeing the Marshals in action, and to seeing all of Arcona in action. Below you'll find the Official Schedule from the GJW Introduction Announcement.

Phase 1: Aug 26 - Sep 10 (15 days)
"Rest": Sep 11 - Sep 15 (5 days)
Phase 2: Sep 16 - Oct 1st (15 days)

Run-Ons!:

This year, The Brotherhood will be running small group run-ons, hosted on Discord (like roleplays) which will consist of groups of 3-5 members. These teams will be responsible for starting up and managing their own run-ons in the #rp-lobby channel.

For those Marshalls/Arconans who have not yet done a run-on, as Discord-based Roleplay has become more popular front and run-ons less used since the death of Discourse (a convention not lost on me), a run-on is basically a larger scale co-op fiction done on a post-by-post basis in a forum or in Discord. This means that there is a posting order– who replies when.

You can find more info about Run-Ons and other roleplay activities here: Roleplay SA Course

It might also be helpful to read the Vendettas SA Course and take the requisite quiz. Our generous Proconsul has even offered potential incentives for those who have not taken the course, and even extended it to those who have but haven’t scored 100% as long as you also show you learned something from the DGM's War Announcement! (Check your emails!)

Rewards:

This year the rewards for the GJW have changed just a little. Like years prior the three seated at the head of this war will be granted Hero Titles, and like in previous years, the first three placements for competitions will award their respective Novae, but now the following seven placements also offer crescents! From Crescents with a Diamond Star for fourth place down to Crescents with a Quartz Star for tenth, expanding the award range.

Seals of Transcendence will be awarded for each competition participated in, throughout.

There are also goodies for the Clan on the Line, as per the Herald Vendetta Dossier Skin Guidelines, granting Robes and Weapons for the First Clan, Robes for the Second, and a Weapon for the Third. BUT we're also up to help the clan's overall firepower. There's a pool of Fleet Upgrades being divvied up on a first-come, first-served basis decided by Clan Score.

Final Notes and Takeaways:

As I said before, this is an exciting time for all of us. Do not over-extend yourselves. Do not be afraid to ask for assistance and proofing with anything you're about to submit. Check the details of any prompt twice over. And please, if you have any questions or need assistance feel free to poke any members of the Summit, myself included.

The Deputy Grandmaster will be taking vacation starting 8/23 through early September and requests that any Competition Questions that may be directed to them be instead directed to Evant, Atra, or the Competition Organizers.

The next several weeks will be busy, stressful, and fun for all of us, and in the spirit of competitiveness I want to see the Marshals and Arcona take charge of the War, but, as always, we are One Brotherhood. Don't let competitive natures take over and spoil the fun for yourselves or others. Enjoy the competitions you find the most suitable to yourselves, or go for broke and take them all in if you have the spoons for them.

Let's stand out