“A warning, to the people,
The Good and, the evil,
This. Is. War

A warning,
To the prophet,
The liar,
The honest
This. Is. War.

Oh, to the leader, The pariah
The victor, the messiah
This. Is. War...”

-“This Is War” By 30 Seconds to Corellia

A Few Words

This is it, guys. I’ve mentioned it in my reports over the past few months. In reality, it’s been in the back of our minds for the last three years. In subtle ways. From the very moment we emerged victorious from Great Jedi War X, the Arconae set into motion plans for the future of Arcona, and the next inevitable war. On fateful day, over three years ago, I was given the opportunity and privilege to step up as Proconsul to the new Consul, Wuntila. Together, we would spend two years building on our success and shaping Arcona into what you see today. Over the past year, I’ve had the honor of taking that mantle and carrying it to this point.

So, here we are.

Great Jedi Wars are unique in the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. You’ve all become familiar with ongoing Vendettas. Some of you are conditioned to it, some are tired by it, and some of you have only seen the frayed edges of it in passing.

This is different, though.

The stakes, for one, are higher. There is no “next round.” This is all or nothing. Win or go home. Losing is not an option.

We managed to rally at the end of the Fading Light. Not bad, really, but it wasn’t good enough. We still lost.

We lost the Dark Crusade. We lost the Fading Light.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m really tired of losing. Sick of it, actually. Something has been burning inside of me the past few weeks, a boiling sensation in my veins. I’m sure some of you have felt it too. It’s only natural, after all. Tigerblood flows through every Arconan. We put it in the food at the mess hall when you’re a Journeyman, so that after your first night with us, you begin to understand what it truly means to be Arconan.

What does it mean to be Arconan? It means that we will fight, no matter the call, no matter the challenge, and no matter the odds. We are bred for conflict and for competition, and for those there is no greater stage than a Great Jedi War. We are a family. We find strength in each other, and together, through two unique houses, we form One family. One Clan. We rise together, or fall as individuals.

So wake up, Clan Arcona. We cannot rest on our laurels. No one is going to hand us anything. We are not the underdogs, and nobody wants us to win. The time has come for us to remind the Brotherhood who the true First Clan is. That title belongs to another, currently, but we will strip that banner free with our bare hands. Because there is not a single unit in the Brotherhood that has what we have, that can maintain what we maintain on a daily basis. And what is it that we have? We’ve called it Tigerblood, but it stems from something more primal.

Heart.

There is no statistic for heart, for it is the culmination of spiritual fire and the strength of will. So here we stand, yet again, throwing ourselves into the fray with chants for the blood god and cries for the skull throne.

In the past we’ve been all about duh, winning. Day in and day out we say: Arcona Invicta. But today, I give you a new phrase to carry into battle:

I am War.

You, Arconan, are War.

We are Arcona, and we are the goddamn War.

So when I ask you: “Are you a war? Is this is a war?”

The only response I want to hear is, “I am War!”

Arcona goddamn Invicta.

Great Jedi War XI

Now that you’re all hyped up from my empowering, brilliant speech, let’s get down to business.

[Here is Sarin's post introducing the War].(https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/news/djb-news-the-great-jedi-war-civil-war)

Scoring

The scoring system for GJWXI was proposed by the Dark Council and voted on by the collective Unit Leaders.

For Placement, members will be able to finish from 1st place to 10th place in each event. 1st-2nd-3rd will still earn Gold, Silver, and Bronze novae, respectively, but there is added incentive for those finishing from 4th-10th! Unlike in the past, where only 1-2-3 earned points for your team, all placements from 1st-10th will receive points for your unit!

The breakdown is as follows:

1st Place - 30.9% of total event points
2nd Place - 21.6%
3rd Place - 15.1%
4th Place - 10.6%
5th Place - 7.4%
6th Place - 5.2%
7th Place - 3.6%
8th Place - 2.5%
9th Place - 1.8%
10th Place - 1.2%

---

Each event will have a value. For example, the Fiction event has a value of 300 points.

So the breakdown would look something like this:

---

1st Place - 92.7 pts
2nd Place - 64 pts
3rd Place - 45 pts
4th Place - 31.8 pts
5th Place - 22 pts
6th Place - 15.6 pts
7th Place - 10.8 pts
8th Place - 7.5 pts
9th Place - 5.4 pts
10th Place - 3.6 pts

---

The rest of the events are as follows: (Clicking the hyperlink of each event will take you to the competition page)

Team Events: Running January 9th-February 9th

Run-on (400 points)
Battleplan (300 points)
Multimedia (300 points)

Round One will last from January 9th to January 23rd.

It will include:
Fiction (300 points)
Gaming (200 points)
Graphics (200 points)
Puzzle (100 points)

Round Two will run from January 26th to February 9th.

It will include:
Fiction (300 points)
Gaming (200 points)
Graphics (200 points)
Puzzle (100 points)

Participation

Legz stepping in with some participation info here.

Participation matters, of course, and I’ll tell you why. For both rounds, every unit can earn up to a maximum of 23 points for participation (per round), and 29 points for the team events (overall). To earn the maximum, a unit must put in submissions equal to their total membership. For example, a 40 member unit must put in 40 entries to individual events in round 1 to get 23 points. The same holds true for round 2 and for team events. If the unit does not reach that threshold, the points they achieve are equal to the maximum value times the percentage that they actually got.

So effectively, if your unit gets 100% participation effort in each round and in the team events, your unit gets up to an additional 75 points! The Dark Crusade came down to a single entry, and Great Jedi Wars of the past have been decided by a single point, so every point makes a difference!

So, here is the deal, troops. This is where that Tigerblood really comes in.

For Arcona, we have 66 members reported on roster at the start of the War. So that is the number we will be working with. In Round 1, we need to combine for 66 total entries throughout four total events. In Round 2, we need to do the same. In the team round, we also need 66 total entries, but they’re spaced out through only three events, so we really need to make sure we’re competing in the team events -- especially multimedia, where our subscription numbers are low.

This is eminently do-able. For comparison, Arcona managed 120 total entries in the third chapter of Fading Light most recently, and averaged 124+ over six Dark Crusade rounds. Let’s get our 66, Arcona.

Round 1 (Fight!)

We need to squeeze 66 entries in Round 1 out of the 4 total Solo Events (Fiction, Graphics, Puzzle, Gaming).

Phase 2

Same deal. We need to squeeze 66 entries in Round 1 out of the 4 total Solo Events (Fiction, Graphics, Puzzle, Gaming).

Team Events

For the team round, it’s a bit trickier. We need 22 members doing every single event out of the 3 team events (Run-On, Multimedia, Battle Plan).

Currently, we break down as such:

33 Arconans are engaged in the Run-On, alone, with a potential 4 more if we can get 2 more late-comers to join Legz and Strat’s team!

28 Arconans are signed up in teams for the Battleplan. Keep in mind teams can be formed and completed at any time before the conclusion of the war. (If you need help getting a team, contact us immediately)

23 Arconans are listed as engaging in the Multimedia. Keep in mind this is actually an event you can do solo if you wanted to. I will release a follow up at the end of Round 1

What does this mean? If we really want to show why Arcona is the best, we have to prove that maintaining the largest roster in the Brotherhood on a daily basis is not just an illusion! This means that every entry helps the team. Even if you do one event, you still have an impact on the rest of your team.

GJW XI: Competition

I just wanted to use this section to highlight a few rules and notes that have been mentioned elsewhere.

Here you can find the fictional plot updates by Sarin that lead us to the crucible of Great Jedi War XI.

Here you can see the trio of intercepted messages from the three faction heads: Esoteric, Muz, and Jac

You can also check out Sarin’s free-chicken (that means just for fun) competition on guessing who is behind Esoterics mask!?

Run-On

A quick reminder of the how the rules work:

• Each member of a team must make a minimum of 3 posts.
• Posts must be a minimum of 250 words, maximum of 2000 words.
• You cannot edit a post after someone else has gone next in the thread. This is why proofing with your teammates is very important
• If you have any questions about technical difficulties with Discourse, posting, or anything like that, please email Mav ([Log in to view e-mail addresses]) directly. He is more than happy to help you with anything, and make sure to CC your Consul/friendly neighborhood M:Voice!
• I can’t stress enough how much of a team effort this is. Please work together and respect your teammates. They put a lot of work in, and have a right to feel their characters are being accurately portrayed. The best way to do this is proofing, and communication. Don’t just post something without checking with your teammates. It will make everyone happier and your product (story) will come out better :).

As it stands, Arcona currently has 5 teams in contention for placement, and 1 team competing solely for participation. Again, there is still time to join in on a late team with Legorii and Strat, but the first two people who step up will be put into the team and launched! Just email myself ([Log in to view e-mail addresses]) or Legz ([Log in to view e-mail addresses])!

Gaming

Val put out an update of which servers can be used for JA in the GJW. If you have any questions, just let us know.

”BOOM HEADSHOT! DID YOU SEE THAT? NOSCOPE111!!!! OMG SWAYING HAX!”

Quick note on PVP gaming. Competition can be fun. The only time you will ever see me angry or yelling is in video games (I can get loud, and say very very not nice things about the other team). While that’s great for anonymous noobs on Xbox Live that can’t hear me, we’re ultimately a gaming community here. So, even if they are your opponent, that all changes at the end of the match. Shake hands, good hustle, good games, and all of that. A little bit of sportsmanship goes a long way.

Also, if you’re curious about anything, rules or otherwise, please just come right to us (the Summit). If you see something suspicious, come to us first and we can look into things for you. The new P:Fist is our very own Ernordeth and a lot of Arconans have experience with the Fist Office. It’s safer to ask if you’re unsure of something! That’s what we are here for.

And of course, remember Wally’s cardinal rule: Don’t be a jerk. We’re all here to have fun ;).

Proofing

Quick note on proofing. I want to make sure everyone understands that there is never a reason not to have something proofed. We have too many Summit members and active members for something to slip through. If you can’t absolutely find anyone else, email me directly: [Log in to view e-mail addresses] and I will proof as soon as I get a free moment at work or home. This is how we do during a War. No one is above anyone else.

Team work.

With that in mind, make sure that you are sharing things in “Suggestion” mode, which allows others to make suggestions and not actually make edits on your actual writing. As a proofer, you are free to offer suggestions of making something easier to read or choosing a different/varying word, but remember that ultimately they are simply suggestions, not the law. Grammar suggestions, well, those you should count as law, especially if it’s Atty proofing, since she’s a #GrammarNazi.

Multimedia

I just wanted to say that I’ve already seen some really amazing entries and ideas being thrown around. This is arguably my favorite event the Brotherhood runs. How much? Well, here is what Talos and I managed to throw together in GJWX. It’s more embarrassing than Arcona style, but I post this so all of you know that anything is possible, and ANYONE can do Multimedia. If you have questions, let me know, I work in media for a living and can probably answer any type of question you have.

Note: It was actually a audio-video attachment to a Poetry competition, but it still counts as MM in my book

Recognition

I know the focus of this has been primarily the War, but I don’t want to undershow the accomplishments of some of our members, especially our Journeyman!

Revs became the first Dark Jedi Knight for Arcona of 2015

Rod also made Jedi Hunter, and I know we have a few more in the hunt for DJK now! Very proud of our recent Journeyman crop, and look forward to seeing you continue to kick ass.

Speaking of Journeyman, I can’t express how great of an opportunity the War is for you. In a major event like a Great Jedi War, the Summit has opportunities where we can push for things called “Field Promotions”, which allow us to use exceptional levels of activity to help you advance through your Knight trials faster.

For veterans, take a look at the rewards given out at the end of the last few Vendettas. Those who put the time and effort in have seen some pretty awesome shineys. This has been a recurring theme I’ve preached and delivered on every day since being selected to help lead Arcona: hard work pays off and always shines the brightest. At the end of the day, that is the only thing I can promise you guys. Hard work does not go unnoticed.

Last Words

Words are wind. I can sit here on my podium beating my chest and shouting into a mic, but ultimately, this War and it’s outcome is entirely up to you. I will be there with you every step, but there is only so much I alone can do. Great Jedi Wars are biggest collaborative competition the Brotherhood has. There is simply nothing like them. You know what needs to be done.

Now do it.

Do or die, you'll never make me
Because the world will never take my heart
Go and try, you'll never break me
We want it all, we wanna play this part (We'll carry on)

-Sith Alchemy Romance

Never stop fighting, Arconans. Not until the last second of the last day of this competition ends. That’s all I ask of any of you.

Arcona Invicta.

Twitter: @MarickArconae
Email/GChat: [Log in to view e-mail addresses]