Introduction

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. News
3. Clan News
4. Competitions
5. Ask Atty
6. In Closing...

News

Brotherhood Quick Hits

We've had a couple big things around the club in the March-April window, including some small but significant administration decisions and changes, and some updates to the Covenant to keep evolving our club into wiser, better times.

Firstly, Paths were finally removed completely from the site coding. While this change had been long done in theory, and Paths were no longer something being selected, the code remained, and tied up Dossiers and Character Sheets. James finished removing them, which meant that all current Character Sheets were made Invalid. But fear not! To update yours, simply make a copy of the current one, open it, select the Save option, and then reactivate/submit it. This should trigger the update.

Of significant note to some of you, the Discourse forums are being retired. Some of you may not even know what these are, but for those that use it — including we the Clan summit to host our fiction updates — that means that we'll need to make sure we get all our files and writing off of there if we want to keep them (and don't have them anywhere else) by the 1st of May. Suggested alternatives for Discourse's retirement are currently centered around using Google Docs and Google Drive folder links turned to Public/Anyone with the link can View to share things, and linking to archives of such on wiki pages or the like. The summit is gonna be working on that on our end, but if you need any assistance personally, let one of us know.

Note that you can find this particular option under the Administration > Edit Dossier tab if you wish to use it.

Also under that tab, you may edit your Dossier's display gender so that it is not tied to your Main Character's displayed gender, but can select your own if you so choose from multiple LGBT+ inclusive options. This was a greatly appreciated change made by James, so please give him all the appreciation for hearing us on a simple but significant request.

Speaking of gender, there were two amendments brought before the Electroate and voted into ratification these last two weeks. The first updates our Plagarism policy to include AI-generated content while the second, much larger overhaul has made all pronouns in the Covenant gender neutral. That was over 2,200+ male pronouns replaced by the Justice staff. Please take the time to thank them all and our leaders for the consideration and work. This is a good day.

Meanwhile, dear Atra also released the newest round of Clan News Aggregator PulseFeed Updates, aka what each Clan and the DC is up to, fictionally, in brief summary. These are a good way to stay vaguely aware of what is going on around the club story-wise, so give it a peek.

There were a few adjustments, additionally, to Competition types and Society functions. Poetry competitions will no longer be their own Fiction Competition type, and will no longer receive Clusters of Ice or have to be approved by the Voice Staff, as they never really matched the Fiction Rubric in the first place. The Herald office will no longer be accepted creating meme competitions for Graphic Society progression or Clusters of Graphite, as these were abused to exploit the system in ranking up (don't exploit, kids). Draccles over in the FIST office has continued to overhaul gaming into its new casual format by retiring Pendants of Blood and would like to remind us in Arcona in particular that he just added an “Other Apex Activities” option for Apex: Legends, which means that means you no longer need to use casual gaming for Apex legends.

Finally, a few hiring opportunities still open. You can apply both to be a Magistrate to the Regent, closes April 10th, and also to Consul of Clan Arcona, oh hey, closes April 8th. Additionally, House Galeres is looking for an Aedile until April 12th. I encourage anyone even remotely interested to give it a shot.

Clan News

I want to take a moment to give some thanks and shout-outs, both to our veteran leaders, and to our newest Knights. This is our family, and we are all so proud and thankful for all of you, every day, so please join me in thanking Qyreia and Rhylance for their service in Arconan leadership these last several years as Q moves up and Rhy retires, as well as welcoming both Mex and Druzk to Knighthood and Luka to Equitehood! These promotions are big milestones, and service to the Clan is always precious. Well done, all of you…and thank you, all of you, for joining our family, for being our family, whether or not you're here or away, you'll always have this place to come back to and always be welcome. That goes for all of you. You're loved and you're enough.

Now! On to more business. We had another year of VD, better known as Arcona Presents: Valentine's Day. While turn out was a bit low (probably due to coming right off the Clan event, it happens), it was still fun, and I want to thank Kord, Wally, and Socks for running it!

Both our lovely Houses have released reports, so be sure to read them. You can find Qel-Droma's LekDrama and gang warfare I mean happy fun times here, and Galeres' blood and doom I mean totally fine not soon to be civil war things on Eldar here.

Blood on the Ice Results

So at the start of the event, Atty declared this:

Here's how it's gonna go. The gods, they want a thing. If we get 15 unique participants overall, meaning any fifteen of you participating in any single event, the gods will not get what they want. If we reach 20 unique participants, we'll in fact get something they have. But if we don't hit the fifteen mark, they're gonna get the thing. And we don't like it when they get things. They called us vermin. I call that STEP UP SCHUTTA.

High expectations, right?

Atty now:

So, basically, y'all crushed it. Wally was kind enough to make me some pretty infographics to convey this information, so I'm going to let them speak for themselves, but yeah. You guys? Are. Frakking. Rockstars.

Life has been a bit busy for me lately, so I am still working on the closing fiction, but will have that posted (to Google Drive, brave new world) as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you missed it, you can still read the initial event story by viewiing the PDF here.

Timeline and Event Calendar

Qyreia has a work in progress sheet for this that will be more of a visual calendar for everyone to consult while timing events are RPs. Be on the look out for that in the following weeks as our Summit settles and we get everything in line. In the meantime, know that the soft projected time for the next Vendetta is this summer, and expect another poll in Clan Chat on Discord soon about Crystal Research!

If you don't have Discord yet, you can get it here. It'll work on browser, desktop, and mobile apps.

This is the join link for the DB server.

Competitions

In which people are insane, there are puzzles, and I have witnessed Howie call someone "mean" because Zuza has redefined the definition of evil from those pansy Sith.

• Best Buds - Objective torture via 300 piece puzzle with rotation on.
• The Minor Leagues - Trivia competition by our own Socks!
• Stick Figures Fight Too - Get your stick drawings on.
• More Than Words - Recite some dialogue in an audio recording! (Hey, Hey Sent. I dare you to read this as Stor and/or Morrowwind Dunmer).
• [Your Unit] Forever! - Write a fiction for the Regent about testing and proving loyalty.
• Bonds - Write a fiction about a meaningful relationship in your character's life and how it affects them, from their perspective.
• Mysteries Explained: The Twins - Another in the Shadow Academy's Star Wars Mysteries series. And possibly my thing? No, wait.
• On Life Support - HQD's competition series for their current event! Cartels vs Paladins, oh my!

Ask Atty

Zuji asks, #AskAtty

• How much looting and such was done in Estle City? I know it was established as an expected massive problem for Korda. Curious though for the place that may have disrest in the people from past events.
  • If our participation had been lower, I might have made this more of a thing, but with 31 unique freakin' participants I'm inclined towards best case scenarios and successes. Perhaps, despite previous distrust, the Selenians that once wanted to take up against the Citadel to help their home still chiefly want to help their home, and so Arconans and cityworks found the citizenry of Estle working diligently to help their neighbors and stay calm and organized/vigilant against looters. It's almost as if they've faced crisis before. :P That's not to say there was ZERO, because it's not a perfect world, but I will go with "low." Sheltering together in community centers. Encouraging families and children to have sleep overs or spend their night catching fireflies in groups in the parks. Tending to neighbors, and helping with medical necessities where power was unavailable. Checking in on those in remote villages outside the city. Things would have been worse in Korda, obviously, and also particularly difficult in Celeste due to the hydrostatic bubble risking failure. Zainab wasn't great either. Narubu lost money, but not lives.
• What's some of the events on the horizon we can look forward to? House/clan/club?
  • I'll let the Houses speak for themselves there, but we should have a Vendetta featuring our previously newly introduced factions within the Children of Mortis coming up for the club in the summer. For the Clan, I would love to continue the Gods plot, but only if a) you all want to and b) that is a direction the incoming summit wants to take.
• Wanna watch Arcane with me? XD I'll steam it on discord.
  • I'd love to.
• The Goatal lives yes?
  • Spoilers, love. But yes.
• What pattern is on Ruka's pajamas?
  • 

Jazzy asks, #AskAtty

• How are you doing for real?
  • Trying to "do the work" more. This is from a therapy perspective and also a just…being present in my own life actively trying not to be lazy and work on myself and my shared life in small steps (eg, I have several large major goals but need to pick one at a time and actually break it down as a goal, with plans to accomplish it). Mind my own thought patterns, and correct the negative ones whose sole job is to be cruel to me (we're very good at being habitually crap to ourselves). Doing that is often hard and tiring, just being present, and so I always feel tired alongside physical work/bodily conditions. But at the same time, I think I've been happier for a few months after a bad swing. In More News, my mommy just visited and I love her, I'm playing and really enjoying some DnD in which another version of Ruka is Even More Tragic, and I've been accordingly on a drawing binge. I'm a little short on brain space for DB stuff, so I've been quieter, but I'm still looking in here every day. In short? Keeping on keeping on.
• What's the record for how many times Atty has married someone more than once? Has there ever been a triple marriage? And is anyone safe?
  • Technically speaking, Satsi and Uji have probably been married x4 now, if you assume she did one this year (you should assume this). No one is safe. No one and no thing (since things are people too).
• What's Jax up to these days?
  • He's been spending a lot of time with his current assignment on the Voidbreaker, but recently is "takinig some time off" to be with his mate boyfriend in a "difficult time."
• How's Coruka? The kids? Avery still cherishes the moment Leda gave him a pep talk and made him a bracelet.
  • Cora and Ruka are dealing with the responsibilities of leadership and the friction thereof (such as Q not really respecting Cora…at all, where others work well with them, and the summit debates in general things like evil crystals). They are trying very hard to be safe though and bear their family in mind. Leda and Noga are in the midst of the Selenian school year (idk) and trying in turn not to stress too much over their parents' responsibilities or recklessness (it isn't working). They have their troubles, but they also have each other. And Leda would still make Avery another bracelet, and help babysit if he needed. The Tenbriss family is A+ kid handling from Ruka on down.
• How much does Satsi despise Avery?
  • He owes her kid a sparring match, so she won't feed him his own face as bacon strips, yet.
• Not a question, but i love u. UwU
  • ilu2

Rei Rei asks, #AskAtty Since Jazzy asked how you are already, have you eaten yet? Getting enough water?

• I have eaten, thank you, Reilet. I had a cinnamon raisin bagel with what some would call an excess amount of cream cheese, and they would be wrong. I am never getting enough water because I'm awful at hydrating and water is boring and I don't like flavoring it, but I am on my normal daily intake of chocolate milk.

Ori asks,

1. hug hug hug
   • hugs
2. How’s clean-up going? Any cultists or Caxquettes that need to be purged from the icy wastes?
   • There are definitely still caxxies out there, and the tribes probably intend to hunt them, as they have the rare one or two over generations that emerge from thawed glacial run off or a collapsed ice cave. The cultists…well, what they didn't already take care of, or Arcona didn't capture/rescue under Ruka and Cora's orders, the locals will leave to the storms. The cold will catch them.
3. What are the major tribes that we were working with, up on Tunca? In need of a friendly tribal cough to establish cough relations?
   • I haven't named a bunch of major tribes, but definitely want to include some of the ones used in y'all's fictions and the more fleshed out create a village entires. You will see more of Inpa's tribe, I can say for certain. I'm sure they'd find Sera interesting, if still treat her mostly like every other outsider.
4. What does Ruka think of the leadership transitions going on? In Gal, in the Clan, and elsewhere?
   • He is proud of and believes in Sera, and hopes her recklessness can be tempered by wisdom. I wouldn't say he's fussed about Rhylance retiring to devout fully to the research of the crystals that they did agree to allow on the orbital station. As for the rest…if he was gonna serve anyone as a leader, he's made clear before that it would be Qyreia, so she has his "vote," but he does not like how she treats Cora when they agreed to do this Proconsul thing only if together in it. He probably still thinks he's the last man for the job, even if Cora, in his opinion, is as much born for it as the best for it, if Cora wanted to lead. Isn't jazzed about the Clan itself though, or the DB as a concept, and that's part of why they've been pushing changes.
5. Would Ruka ever consider revealing Arcona to the Selenian public?
   • He'd have done it YESTERDAY if not advised that a slower approach would be better to prevent upheaval. He's very very very against the autocracy and secrecy, having grown up under a borderline oppressive empire (the Vatali are…decent, but their class structures are woof). I don't know if he believes in like, elected leaders, per say, because he's not one for politics, but I think if he sat down and studied, which he would for this, he might argue about how the Selenian Commonwealth shoulder consider something other than a timocracy and about how Arcona ought to be completely exposed.
6. Would he be willing to help out Gal with some Kicky-fighty-goodwill missions, if he got a chance?
   • Ask him and he'll answer in a heartbeat. Not just for Serami, but because it's right. He's also formed a lot of connections with the Kaedeans on Eldar, from the ground up with their kids and families, and he wants to see them safe.

Arch asks, What do you want from the next ARC CON?

• Care, presence, belief. A Consul must be HERE, but an Arconan leader must care about this Clan as a family first and anything else second, in my opinion. You can be any type of leader, with any type of working or people skills, but you should want to be around these folks and advocate for them and meet them where they stand, even if what that looks like is hiring the people who are better at doing that than maybe you are. I think that's what has been our strength all these years, our family, and extending it as openly and as kindly as possible.

Zuji asks ten more because I jinxed myself <3, #AskAtty

• What's next on the horizon? Are we going to see the gods and Caxquettes once more? Or are they, like the collective, running off to lick their wounded pride and reorganize for a later assault?
  • If we get to continue the Gods storyline, there will definitely be more caxxies, and they definitely need to lick their wounds this time. I would love to do a chapter of this where Arc goes on the offensive/is a step ahead of them in this case after crushing them on Tunca, maybe lore dive into what y'all are creating and have them be the first to another "God's" site that the Gods have to scramble to siege.
• The Selen Environmental & Wildlife Protection Association has requested an eradication of the Caxquettes in order to preserve the wildlife and biomes unique to Selen. Would you accept a meeting with their representative? Consider their petition? Work out a relocation plan to preserve a small number of the species?
  • looks at Atty and Kaled totally haven't already relocated some of the species, totally. Cough. Ruka/Cora would hear this petition, yes, and Cora, being an advocate of wildlife too, would probably agree with the premise while also debating if some of the species couldn't be saved somewhere else and sort of make that planetoid into a No Go Zone. He'd hate the idea of hunting down any species to extinction. Flipside, this is also the semi sentient hivemind eatbreedkill species that nearly killed his husband the second time. Soooooooooo. Issues. Ruka would probably recuse himself because he doesn't want to scream. Maybe go shoot some targets with Q while not talking about the horror of it all. He wouldn't want to trample Cora's better senses, though.
• Did I ask the rioting question? I can't remember if I asked questions before, but...how did the blackout and power shortage of Selen affect the disrest that may linger in some of the citizens from past times? Should we expect to see an upswing in meetings of disgruntled citizens, of street criers spreading the failure of the government and the Citadel? Why do I picture Legend of Korra for street protests now? :P
  • I do like the LoK protests. I'd be interested in more protests and meetings vs outright rioting, and in really once and for all moving into Arcona's reveal and the resettling of the government.
• Thoughts on the red crystals? Should we throw them in the sun? Would that make the sun evil?
  • You're right. Too risky. We're gonna throw them into the Maw. Thousands of black holes ought to do it.
• Pet a cat for me. Not a question, a command.
  • Yes, ma'amsir.
• Hypothetically, what would happen to someone who committed treason? Not saying anyone did nor that there's a body defrosting in the morgue, but if they did?
  • Probably an interview with the DIA or some military tribunal, if not going before the summit itself, all depending on who did what where. At least this day and age has more a sense of justice and process than the previous generation of execution on a whim.
• Any tips for the wiki procrastinators out there?
  • stares into the blank white void I am not the person to ask, haha.
• As a member with a heavy and lengthy history of leadership and administrative positions, what advice can you offer those looking to take a stab at it? What do you think has been your greatest success? Biggest learning moment?
  • Saved this one for last because thinking hardest, haha. I would advise you two things: give lots of grace, to yourself and to those around you, and be communicative. The first part includes a lot of things: knowing your limits, respecting your limits, knowing others' skills and limits, respecting them, and D E L E G A T I N G accordingly. You do not have to do everything. You are not a one man show. You are not perfect. That is okay. Identify your needs as a leadership team, find the people who can do what you can't or who can do it BETTER, hire them, encourage, train, be patient, be open, be honest, be respectful. The second part is what it says on the tin, but is a constant struggle for we as humans. No one is a mind reader, whatever your CS says. You have to tell others what you're thinking and feeling, and you need to be communicative AS A GROUP, not only in PMs one on one, not only in sub-groups, not only in teams etc. As a whole. Work stuff out as a whole. Do you need to know everything everyone is doing? No. But information doesn't always need to be relevant or new to you for you to still be apprised of it or have it available. Silence is a death sentence in leadership and in relationships. We have to talk. Find out how to talk to people and meet them there. Generate discussion. I'm not saying it's gotta be quality, here. Hell, throw a BuzzFeed quiz in chat, resurrect a what is a sandwich debate, I don't care, just talk about you, and ask about them. People need connection, attention. ASK IF SOMEONE HAS THE MENTAL SPACE TO LISTEN before venting to them. Ask if you can poke them. Permission and consent are SO IMPORTANT. And just, be kind.
  • Biggest learning moment/greatest success…uuuhm. I have learned A LOT and been humbled and failed plenty and figured out how to navigate better next time. I am not keen on my successes or particularly practiced at evaluating them for myself. But I know Arcona is a kinder place, and the DB a more open one, to women, women leaders, LGBT, writers of various topics, and a selfish part of me hopes that I contributed to that when I showed up and went on a "rainbow offensive". I'm not saying I did that. But I am saying I showed up, and if that did anything? Then being kinder is definitely what I'd call the most important success.
• Be honest with me. Do you think my plots are pretty? pleading_face
  • I think your plots and your mind are both beautiful.
• Would the summit accept random local/NPC/group submissions for wiki to flush out our playground, even without a comp or call for it?
  • Absolutely! Submission isn't a guarantee of inclusion, but you wanna write stuff? Send it to us! We love wiki work and worldbuilding, and all the better if it's you guys getting directly involved. People care about what they create more than what's handed to them.
• The brotherhood has collided and interacted with three unique fractions in the last few years. Which one has been your favorite? Why?
  • I liked the Collective the most. Their basis in a "righteous" cause and having actual real, worthy grievances was interesting as heck, and I liked to think about what the people in that mindset were like, their motivations, and how those could be twisted up into zeal. I wanted to use it a lot more, to incorporate on the ground level in a reflection of our own unrestful citizens under our semi benevolent thumb. The entire organization being radicalized to genocide was both something I liked and something I didn't always; it made them our Bad Guys, but it also made them harder to sympathize with. I love antagonists you can feel for. It's part of why I fell so in love with designing Avitus, and wanted to play on his love for his cousin/brother being so tantamount while also showing how Rath was abusive to him by leading an entire crusade against everything Avitus was while still treating him like an exception to that. Those aren't ideas I got to dictate, of course, but happy little headcanons. Among those headcanons were also Satsi doing her thing and double agenting in the Collective ranks for info like she did in the original secret police death squad Inquisitorious, and some other stuff you know very well involving a certain someone of yours :P

Song asks, Where's Doon?

• Wherever you want him to be. Wink.

Kris asks, A heterological word is one that does not describe itself. Does "heterological" describe itself?

• The suffix -ic or -ical usually means "pertaining to". One jaunt to the dictionary later, "heterology" in the medical definition means, "a lack of correspondence of apparently similar bodily parts due to differences in fundamental makeup or origin" (the root "heter" meaning "other" or "different" and "-ology" being either "the study of" or "doctrine/theory".) So heterological as a word is one of those that can basically be broken down to match its meaning, and yes, describes itself. The word heterological is not heterological.

In Closing…

As always, if you have concerns, ideas, recommendations or a general need to chat, we are always here for you. If you need to get a hold of either of us, we are on Telegram @RainbowPhoenixDJB, Discord (Atty#3546 or by email at [Log in to view e-mail addresses]