No fiction this month, but lots of changes! If you haven't read it yet, please check out the most recent fiction by Grand Master Pravus. The Plagueis section of the fiction is the precursor to the A Call to Arms opener. It essentially established that which we (Plagueis) could not see: how and why the Ascendant Fleet was destroyed. After our dealings with the "Order of Vader" during A Call to Arms it became apparent that something was afoot, and Clan Plagueis is now suspicious as all get out.

Recruitment

Speaking of challenges, I want to get right off the bat with one of them that is a challenge for many of us in the Brotherhood: recruitment. At the beginning of the year Plagueis was hovering around 60 members. Today it is hovering around 40, and we have a few members who are about to AWOL out which will drop us below 40. To be frank, a lot of this ebb and flow has been seen across the entire Brotherhood of late. A lot of this can be attributed to many of the people who joined during the Force Awakens boom and failed to engage, we failed to engage them, or they just sign up on the website and forget we exist (we do!). It just happens and isn't anything to beat ourselves up over; we engage as best we can and hope that people who join Plagueis find it a fun, cool place to be!

As Mav can vouch for, I've had many passionate conversations with him about this particular topic of concern for me. Each quarter Plagueis has consistently pumped out awesome participation numbers both in general and proportionally. But we've also been hemorrhaging people at an alarming (to me) rate. Right now we have a great core of people who are fun, engaging, friendly, and enjoy each others company but one of the things that drives the Brotherhood and competition in general is fresh, new faces.

It is my opinion that the best way to do this is to get your friends, family, whomever to join. People who already know people in a club like this are more likely to stick around. I can rattle off a list of people in Plagueis who are prime examples of this, myself included. People also tend to stick around if we reach out to them in the depths of the internet (scary place!) instead of them just stumbling onto us. That is why I'm asking all of you to help me in a recruitment campaign for Clan Plagueis. I think it's time we share how awesome we've been for this past year with other Star Wars fans out there. Talk with your friends, post some recruitment ads with friends on forums you frequent, turn over rocks to see if a Star Wars fan might be hiding under it! If each person in Plagueis was able to recruit even 1 person who sticks around we'd double how many people we'd have. This would bring in new faces for our events, and bring amazing competition to our events. I can't stress enough how awesome of an idea this is to keep things fresh for you guys.

Anniversary

I should mention that the end of August marked a full year for my tenure of Plagueis consul. During that time it has seen some of its most active times, but hasn't come without challenges. I've been having a lot of fun with you guys, leading the pack, and also tackling those challenges head on both with all of you and with the rest of the summit. I couldn't do it without any of you and I am personally looking forward to the next year serving as Plagueis consul!

Part of this anniversary will also be a reinvention of sorts for Clan Plagueis. Like any good TV show, I feel that we should reinvent our canon every once in awhile to stay new and relevant. For a long time we had the nomadic Battlestar Galactica-esque fleet that was our home. Now that we've moved to a planetary home I'd like to change a bit more of our canon. We're already bouncing ideas off each other and I'd look forward to next month’s report which should have a more complete idea to provide to you guys.

Revisiting An Ally

I've alluded to this in both previous reports and Telegram, but the time has come to revisit an ally. A few weeks ago I was approached by the Clan Tarentum leadership about doing another cooperative event. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we had a great time with the last event. So it was a no-brainer when Beef approached me with the idea to do another one.

I don't want to give away too much in spoilers, but it will likely incorporate other units, have a Brotherhood-wide storyline of massive ramifications, and be of a format similar to what you guys in Plagueis have seen a lot of recently. Right now the start date will be sometime in October. For one I want to continue to give you guys a good stretch of rest from big events since you've been pounding away for months, but also we want to make sure we get this right on all levels.

Structural Changes

And finally, a change for the structure of Plagueis. For a long time the battleteams in Plagueis have served as the go-to spot for new journeymen. They're put in the battleteams and then directly overseen in this little camaraderie group of other journeymen where they all learn the ropes of the Brotherhood and Plagueis together. It has been a huge success for us in knightings and really helps people slowly get acclimated with the system rather than bull-rushed when grouped up with other people like those pesky equites.

However nothing is perfect or incapable of improvement. For a while now it's been apparent that a change was needed. There has been a lot of confusion about who the BTLs report to, who is in charge of directing them, and a general "meh" feeling from the BTLs over poking the same people over and over. I feel the best way to improve is to close both current battleteams as sub-units of the houses (sub-units in themselves). In return I'm opening a brand spankin' new (it even has that smell) battleteam as a sub-unit of Clan Plagueis directly (so in conjunction with the 2 current houses) which will be named "The Circle" (this name will make sense later, I promise!). It will have the same function but this time will fall under the jurisdiction of just one BTL, with a BTXO assisting in the administration of the battleteam. After all, it's a lot different when you have upwards of 20 journeymen instead of just a handful! This BTL will also report directly to the Rollmaster, Drac. So, uh, good luck. ;)

So who is going to be taking charge of this new endeavour? I've asked that to be none other than Taranae Rhode, who will be shifting from Karness Muur QUA to The Circle BTL. In all honesty she's without a doubt the most qualified person in Plagueis to do this as someone who has already served as rollmaster, aedile, and quaestor before. But make no mistake, Taranae is still going to be a sub-unit CO of Clan Plagueis and just as important, if not even more so, than before. The battleteam~(s)~ is the gateway to Plagueis, the first people that journeymen engage with, and a breeding ground for our future knights and leaders! Joining Tarane as her XO will be Kul'tak Drol who will be using his experience he's gained in recent months to assist in the implementation of this new battleteam and engagement of its journeymen!

With Taranae vacating her position as Karness Muur QUA, I've decided to give a friend his old stomping grounds back for the sake of nostalgia. When I got my first real chomp at leadership as Ajunta Pall QUA the person who was right next to me the entire time as Karness Muur QUA was Arden Karn. It feels only right that he take back the house he led for so long and put on the map.

As Arden slides over laterally to Karness Muur QUA that leaves the Ajunta Pall QUA spot vacant. I think it'll come to no one's surprise that I've decided to give the spot to Laren Uscot, the AED of Karness Muur. Anyone who is anyone in Clan Plagueis these past few months has watched as Laren has skyrocketed to stardom in Plagueis. He's active, engaging, friendly, and loves getting his hands into everything. I have no doubt that he'll continue that trend as he continues to be as awesome of a quaestor as he was as an aedile.

Lastly, the Karness Muur AED spot vacated by Laren will be filled by the only remaining current staff member: Abadeer Taasii. In the end all the summit members are still there, just in different spots to better serve the clan with their strengths. So you can still pester all of us, no change there. This will be an evolving process as we see what works and what doesn't with the new battleteam set up, so of course any and all constructive feedback is welcome. :)

Other Important Links

• Wiki Report
• Annual Pazaak Tournament
• M:FIST Applications
• House Satele Shan Aedile Applications
• Combat Master Report