Greetings to all Odanites, our allies, and our enemies.

There’s a lot of good news this month: fiction, events, promotions, appointments, and so on. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of bad news as well. Of course, nobody wants to read a long preamble for a report when they could be reading gratuitous character wank COU’s first post-war clan fiction.

Fiction: Resolution

“Any day now, kid,” Darro grunted into the comlink at his wrist as he tried to keep his massive frame behind the wreckage of a downed fighter. It wasn’t easy to keep two meters of broad-shouldered Mandalorian covered; the Technocratic Guild hostage pinned under his hand wasn’t making the task any easier. Two turrets and at least a score of individual soldiers.

“Just a sec,” Alifal’s voice responded as a cacophony of alarms bleeped in the background. “I’m a little busy.”

“We don’t have a second, shabla adiik!” Darro roared, shouting as much to be heard over the din of battle as to vent his frustration. “Get over here and take out those—”

The scream of a TIE fighter cut him off, engines roaring as it chased down a Collective fighter. The TIE’s lasers flashed green and found their mark, and the onlookers below shuddered at the X-Wing’s deathrattle. Small bits of debris rained down on the Odanites, but the bulk of the craft crashed directly into the Collective’s position. The flaming cone of durasteel skipped across Nancora’s dusty surface, ripping apart the dirt and the Technocratic soldiers with equal ferocity until it finally came to a stop, slamming into one of the turrets.

“Huh. Thanks, kid.”

“Anytime, you big lug. Steal me something cool.”

Read the rest here!

Rollmaster Open to Applications

Unfortunately, neither I nor anyone I’ve reached out to has heard from Ranarr at all in the last week. We hope that he and his family are safe and healthy and that we’ll hear from him soon. However, I will unfortunately need to replace him as Rollmaster. The RM’s duties, listed below, are important and they require a quick response on the part of the RM.

• First contact and orientation for new joins by email(s) and Telegram
• Taking point on Novitiate and Journeyman promotions with a 12-hour turnaround for ranks up to JM3 and a 24-hour turnaround for knightings.
• Reaching out to members we haven't seen in a while, when and before they received the automated AWOL emails
• Community development through competitions and fictional development questions so members could get to know each other's characters better
• Lore development, specifically the new Jedi Praxeum
• Advising the CON and PCON
• Maintaining a high level of activity and visibility

Rollmaster is a crucial position within Odan-Urr’s clan summit and provides great leadership development opportunities at the clan level that can be used to help serve the clan and build a case for future career progression. The successful candidate will be given broad leeway to make their mark on all aspects of lore and unit development. If you are interested in helping build our clan’s future and fostering our great community, send us an application!

Requirements

• Applications are due to me and Aura Ta’var no later than 8PM EST on 4 March.
• Applications should address:
  • DB experience (projects, positions, etc)
  • Any relevant real life skills (no full resume please)
  • Leadership philosophy
  • Your assessment of the current state of COU
  • Ideas for the future of COU, its community development, and its lore. Specifically address the recruitment of new members, retention of current members, and especially how you might foster the growth of Odan-Urr’s community of both old and new members.
• There is no minimum rank or DB experience requirement.
• Be prepared to answer follow-on questions via email.

Tips

• This is a Clan Summit position, so put some thought and effort into this. Get it proofed. Sloppy or incoherent applications reflect poorly on the applicant. It doesn’t hurt to make it easy to read.
• Know the difference between a goal and a plan. "I want to increase run on activity" is a goal. "I will host a tri-annual run on event" is a plan. Tell us how you will achieve your goals.
• Do your homework! Show the hiring officials you understand the strengths and weaknesses of the unit. Haven’t been around for that long? Ask questions. Do some research. (For those that know the SWOT format, it will not give you extra points)
• Be professional! This position fulfills an important job. Treat it as such.
• Be honest! If you have rough spots in your history or community reputation, you should probably address those. Moreover, lessons learned are great ways to show your growth as a leader. Don’t be afraid to own up to your past faults. The best leaders learn from their mistakes and move forward.

Card by Tisto Kingang, art by Ka Rolding

Odanite News

Chaos is a Ladder — For those of you looking to begin your ruthless climb to the top get your feet wet in clan leadership, here’s your shot. The BTL slot for the Wildcards is open, and you’ve got until February 28 to get your applications in to Ed and Cel. Ed’s laid out all the details here. The Wildcards have a ton of potential, so this is a great opportunity to take charge of an important part of our future.

You Can Take Our Kesaret — Satele Shan is proud to present their first house event of 2018, Shadow of the Kesaret. The competitions are live now, so don’t delay! The Kesaret event picks up on some plot seed planted by the recent Tython Squadron events, and no doubt the ramifications will echo throughout the coming months.

But You Can Never Take Our Freedom! — Meanwhile, Hoth is also in the midst of a major house event, The Price of Freedom. This is Hoth’s chance to shine as they take the momentum from GJW XII and bring it forward into the new year.

Saddle Up — Equite promotions require a pretty huge investment of time and energy into the club, so they’re a big deal. Two of our outstanding leaders reached Equite 3 since my last report. I strongly encourage everyone to read the recs for Blade and Max to see what we look for in leaders. And, of course, congratulations to both of them!

Slightly Less Useless Title Holders — Two of our very special Lazy Title Holders have found gainful employment this month. First, Turel/Luna returned to the ACC staff, where he’ll pick up right where he left off as a kickass judge. More recently, Seraphol moved up to Praetor to the Headmaster. Sera’s got a very long history with the Shadow Academy and I look forward to seeing what he does with the position. Congratulations to them both!

I Dub Thee Awesome — The Knight train keeps on plugging along, and Nijalah has joined the ranks of the fully knighted. Congratulations! I’m sure we’ll be welcoming you to the ranks of the Equites in no time at all.

Breaking News — Our very own Mauro Wynter was given the new duty of Magistrate to the Voice. Congratulations to Mauro. We all look forward to seeing what you can bring to the job.

Card by Edgar Drachen

Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom

I, For One, Welcome Our Insect Overlords — Per the term limit specified in the Covenant, GM Pravus has resigned. Mav, our current DGM, was nominated to become our next leader. The Electorate confirmed him unanimously and the Star Chamber ratified that, so he will be taking office on Friday. During the confirmation process, Mav provided both a statement of his goals and written answers to questions posed by club members. I encourage you to check out both.

Shadow Lady Dies in Duel with Aaron Burr — Ok, not really. But Atty has stepped down after three years as Arcona’s Consul. She’s largely responsible for our close relationship with Arcona and keeping what could have become a very bitter rivalry friendly and cordial. All hail Arcona’s new Shadow Kord.

Card and art by your fearless leader

Ask Arch

Lennywinks asks: #AskArch what would you like to see the Clan do fictionally in the next few months and also do in reality?

So far I think we’re off to a strong start. I wanted to get back into the swing of doing house and clan events, and right now we’re got two fantastic house events running with a clan event due to launch in mid March. The other big thing I want to see is for us to keep upholding the Odanite Code. When Ed brought up the idea of writing a code back in the lead up to GJW XII, to be honest I thought it was unnecessary. Whether it’s necessary, I don’t know, but it’s definitely been valuable to have our core values written out in a place we can point to when others question what we’re about. We’ve also had, on occasion, to remind each other what our focus should be, and it’s come in handy for that as well.

Fictionally, I’d like to explore the FU/NFU tension the Collective introduced, develop the relationships between OU, the Vatali, the Quorahi, the Vauzem Dominion, and all those other factions in the Kiast system.

The one thing that I’d really like to see happen that hasn’t been happening is that I’d really love it if more members added their work to the Holocron. If it doesn’t take off, then oh well, but I’ve wanted something like this for a long time now and I’d love to see it succeed as a concept.

The Adversry asks: How do you feel about a second DJB lightside Clan? Concerns or would you embrace the idea?

Both.

Mav and I have talked a bit about his vision to make the DB universe feel like a big, dynamic place. The last few years have fit the Star Wars film mold of an overwhelming evil empire vs. scrappy resistance, which has been really good to us, but I can see the appeal of giving the clans more leeway in how their interact with the Iron Throne and each other. We've also got the Collective to play with now, and hopefully another faction or two down the road. So I think that's one argument for us to not have a monopoly on being the good guys. Right now we're at war with everybody except Arcona, and that could possibly change if they embrace their history as the Shadow Clan. So it would be cool if we could have some more people who don't want to kill us.

As far as concerns, there are several. Plot-wise, they'd need to be distinctive. We're not realistically going to run all the NFUs out of COU or tell the hypothetical other lighties they can't have Jedi, so they'd need to find some way of not repeating our schtick. Second, it would have to be done in a way that doesn't gut us.

The bigger issue is creating it. Waving a wand and having a functional clan appear would be great, but I think the bulk of a second lightie clan would have to come from COU. That would be a minimum of four summit positions assuming they only have one house and no RM, but most likely more. We've got a bit of spare manpower at the moment, but realistically I think a second clan would seriously deplete that pool.

So it's not a hard yes or no if I get to choose, but I would be bugging Mav about it constantly if he brought the subject up.

Bladey asks: What advice would you give anyone thinking of applying for the open Wildcards BTL?

Think about what you would want the next BTL to be like if you were in their team, then become that person. That’s the first step and it won’t lead you wrong. However, you should also have or start to develop a vision for where you want the team to bit. You can’t control exactly what members or characters you’ll have, so don’t try to force them to all be medics or spies, but it’s still possible to build a theme and fictional track that speaks to a wider breadth of people. Wildcards has this but these things always need attention and development to keep them going.

The Artist Formerly Known As Turel asks: How do you view COU's role in the club both IC and OOC? Sole bastions of the light in a dark club or heralds of a new age of grayness

The Collective and the Iron Throne/Inquisitorius are both trying to completely exterminate us, though it looks like the latter is backing off a bit. So in character, we’re mostly fighting for survival. We’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of that, but I think it would be nice to pull back from those slightly (slightly, not entirely) over the next few months and add more focus on actually being the good guys.

OOC, we’re a big and active clan. I’d like us to keep being both, but if we’re going to be a role model to the other clans, I would rather it be because of how we treat people. In terms of size and activity, nobody stays on top forever. Whether we lose our first clan title in GJW XIII or keep it locked down for the next five wars, I want us to always be the people that the other clans respect and admire.

Attycakes asks: so about that social caste stratification in an authoritarian empire...I imagine Alethia might have some feelings on Kiast's government. What are they? And do you plan to explore that dynamic set next to what is supposedly a democratic Jedi council?

Alethia spent two or three months under the last days of New Tython’s government, but otherwise hasn’t really lived under a system that wasn’t authoritarian or stratified since she was a little girl. Even Alderaan had a hereditary monarch and was filthy rich and (at least in EU continuity) disproportionately well-represented in the Senate by virtue of being one of the oldest members of the Republic. So to her, the Vatali system is pretty standard, albeit fairly relaxed compared to the Empire. From her end, Odan-Urr is a weirder situation, but even that is a heavily militarized wartime government.

The differences between the Space Elves and the Space Wizards will probably pop up here and there, but I don’t know that it’ll be a priority. We’ll see.

Tarvitzkreig asks: May I ask how far do you feel you can take the "Ends justifies the means" or moral ambiguity angle in a character before they turn from Grey to Dark Side aligned? Is there any distinct line in the sand which comes to mind?

For Force-users, I think that question varies a lot depending on your views on the Force and whether the Light and Dark are discrete things, whether the Force has a will, whether the dark side actually pulls you deeper in or if it’s just your own actions, etc.

Personally, intent matters a great deal based on how our system defines the paths. The dark path involves a disregard or active contempt for people other than yourself; if you do care about them, you care about what they can do for you or how they make you feel. Alethia’s done some ethically gross things, for example, but she makes her judgements based around a singular goal of building a galaxy where things make sense and people can life secure, prosperous lives, so it’s hard for me to call her a dark path character even when she’s doing dark things.

Of course, your mileage may vary and certain things (e.g. everything Pravus does) can be a moral event horizon for you.

Card and art by Ozosi Vym

In the Next Report

• Our super secret co-op event, coming the second half of March

• A long-overdue update to COU’s Lore Guide.

• I dunno, probably some bird gifs or something.

Alethia Archenksova
High Councillor, Odan-Urr