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

There’s been a lot of newsworthy items since my last report; since yesterday there have been something like five new reports. With that said, let’s get to it.

Art by Ozosi Vym

The Consul Bride and the State of Odan-Urr

I think it’s safe to say that our co-op event with Arcona was a success. In total, 30 odanites submitted 140 entries across all of the child competitions. I was especially happy to see a crop of especially good co-op fiction entries, and good participation across all three art comps. Congratulations to Mauro, Turel, Sariel, Ozosi, Celevon, Blade, Janus, and Zax for their crescents! There’s a closing fiction in the works, but unfortunately we don’t have it ready for release just yet. I think this is where Sarin laughs at me.

Please take a moment to give us some feedback on the event here.

On the heels of our first event of 2018, I want to share a bit of information about how we’re doing as a clan. As most of you know, 2017 was a very good year for us. We grew to become the largest clan by a pretty large margin, to the point that our houses are the size of small clans, and these days we hover around 70 members. Our activity has slumped a bit since the War, which is unsurprising. Am I worried about that? Not especially, and here’s why.

This is week 18 of the year. I keep a close eye on our numbers, and especially how they compare to previous years. At this point in 2017, Odanites had submitted 1014 competitions to entries. This year that’s up to 1032. Fiction and graphics are also booming: we’re at a total of 339 CIs (compared to 225 last year and 224 in 2016), and 158 CGs (compared to 152 last year). Our gaming totals are lower, but still healthy. We’re at a combined total of 6146 CFs and CEs so far this year. That’s below where we were last year (8215) but higher than this point in 2016 (6089). For those of you who are more visual, here are some charts. The important thing to look at is where the gold line is relative to the other(s).

To put it simply: you guys rock. Keep being you.

Walking in a Wiki Wonderland

Your lazy consul finally got off his lazy butt and finished revising the wiki editing policy. So what does that mean for you? The project I wrote about in my last report is getting underway. I have a binder full of wikis a list of every clan page we have, plus a few that we’re going to need to create. Mord and I will be going through these and tweaking them to conform with the new policy. If we see something that needs substantive updates, we’ll pass it on to…

A group of volunteers will be generating new content. Turel will be managing this group, which mostly amounts to keeping tabs on what people are doing and have finished so we can get them proper credit. If you read the policy (it’s ok, I know you didn’t), you know that new content for clan and house articles needs to get approved by the relevant summit member. Turel will also be helping authors get that squared away. Contact me or Turel if you’re interested in participating.

But Arch! you say, I like worldbuilding but I hate all that weird punctuation crap in the wiki code.

That’s ok, little one. Focus on building content, getting pictures together, and presenting it all in a way that’s effective. The weird punctuation crap will come later.

Well that’s just great, but I hate writing things and I’m gaga for wiki markup.

I don’t believe you exist, duckling, but if you do you should definitely contact me and we’ll put you to work putting out garbage fires updating old articles to conform to policy and wikifying new articles.

Art by Janus Stormwind

Odanite News

Hey Now People Now —There’s been a pretty massive change of faces lately, both in terms of leadership and a big influx of new members. So first I’d like to give a quick welcome to the following people: Gen Solari (formerly Aul Celsus), Jo braph, Garen Malik, Kayno, Brenn Thaonlin, Kkyrria, Karis, Rayth, and Anshar Kahn Tarentae.

Deytookerjerbs — Additionally, we’ve see Odanites moving into and out of positions. Maximus Alviniuswas appointed the DB’s first ever Social Media Tribune. Feeling that he couldn’t give Satele Shan the attention it deserves while serving at the club level (remember, he’s still M:HRLD as well), Max stepped down as QUA. Mauro picked up where Max left off, and Talis has recently moved up to Mauro’s vacated spot as AED. Two other members were appointed to new jobs: Blade to Mav’s magistrate, and Moro to M:HRLD.

Ladder to Heaven — Lastly, we’ve seen a spate of promotions to go along with the new members. Bon Riverio, Rayth, and Brenn have been ripping their way through the novitiate and journeyman ranks. On the other end of the spectrum, Tisto was promoted to EQ3. Junazee also earned her first sacramental award. Congratulations to all of you!

Reporting In — For the latest news, see the following reports: Rollmaster, Shan QUA, Hoth QUA

Who Are You People and Where Are My Pants? — The COU Lore Guide is back and ready for action. For those of you unfamiliar with it, this is written to be a pamphlet-length tl;dr version of recent clan lore that we can easily distribute to people new to the clan, and especially to those new to the club. My hope is that it helps people dive in without have to wrap their head around a dozen wiki pages and fic updates first.

A Productive Member of Society — Speaking of Turel, per the new(ish) Letter of Reprimand policy, he has had his LoR expunged. This is something that I take somewhat personally, as Turel is someone I respect immensely and view as a paragon of everything Odan-Urr has come to stand for. That includes second chances. He screwed up. That’s something he’s never hidden. But instead of moping or skulking off to the Rogues, Turel took that as a challenge to overcome and a lesson to pass on: “If it feels wrong, it probably is.” He’s not the last person COU has given a second chance to, and in my experience we’ve rarely been disappointed by it.

Generalissimo Francisco Franco is Still Dead — The Holocron is still there and still hungry for content. Feed it your fiction, your graphics, and whatever else you want to share. If you can’t find a folder with your name on it, hit me up and I’ll take care of it.

Art by Celevon Edraven Erinos

Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom

End of an Era — Jac announced his resignation. Jac’s been a fixture in club leadership for over 20 years now (I was 10 years old during his first term as GM), but I’ve only known him as the Justicar. In that role he’s been one of the most impressively professional people I’ve ever met in the online club world. I don’t envy the person who’ll have to try to fill his shoes.

Vox Clamantis in Deserto — Wally brings you a hodgepodge of updates, including Atra’s Emerald Dagger for being awesome.

Dig, If You Will, a Picture of You and I Engaged in a Match — The latest new feature to hit the ACC is the Scenario Hall. This is a nice change for those of you who hate coming up with reasons why your character’s in the venue, but it’s also an interesting way to change the pacing from the typical match.

That’s Quite a Nice Little Nothing You’re Almost Wearing — Slagar released his first report as Herald. There’s a lot in there about his plans for the art community and where he intends to lead it, so instead of summarizing I’ll just refer you there directly. This is important for everyone involved in the Brotherhood community, not just artsy fartsy types.

Consumerism Run Rampant — Evant released a report... but let’s be honest, we mostly just care about the new stuff he and Halc released.

Kids These Days with Their Facebox — As I mentioned above, our very own Maximus Alvinius has taken over management of the DB’s social media presence. Those of you who know Max probably agree with me that this is the job he was born to do, and he’s already cranked up our random join rate immensely. Please take a gander at his first report and, if you use Facebook, be sure to rate and review the DB’s page.

Wikiworld — Bentre has taken on the mantle of Wiki Tribune. You can find his general plans for the position here and his selection of staffers here. As we embark on our own wiki revitalization, I suspect I’ll have Benny on speed dial. There’s one particularly relevant tidbit in that second report: Mauro’s page is this month’s featured article.

Epilogue — The Great Jedi War plotline has finally come to a close in the epilogue fiction.

But Wait, There’s More — Keep an eye on the news page.

Art by Ozosi Vym

Ask Arch

Turel asks: #AskArch what's one lesson you've learned so far as CON?

That I can resize images in Imgur instead of Gimp. No, seriously.

Ok, fine, better answer: it took about two months to really internalize that I’m effectively a monarch now. I’m bound by the Covenant and the (very long) leash that Mav and Vyr have me on, and that’s it. What I’m not bound by is what somebody else thought was a good idea, even if it was a good idea at the time. I’ve got a summit, I’ve got title holders puttering around, and so on, but ultimately if I don’t make the decisions and provide the vision, it’s not on the rest of the clan to do it for me.

Art by Celevon Edraven Erinos

In the Next Report

• My spoiler-free opinions about Solo (because someone should acknowledge that it exists)
• A picture of my bird
• Hopefully a Knighting or two
• Hopefully a clan fiction update? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
• Probably some typos

Alethia Archenksova
High Councillor, Odan-Urr