Good evening...or good morning...or whatever the case may be! (Man being in a different country is throwing me off...)

Welcome to my special report, tailored just for you guys ahead of the Great Jedi War. In this report, I will be breaking down details of how things will progress and how different these events are compared to other events you may have ran in the past, and how the Clan can assist you in these matters. There are, by the way, things we can not do for you...which will also be covered. So lets get to it!

• What is a Great Jedi War?
  
• How do these events differ from events in the past?
  
• You mentioned the Clan can help...how?
  
• What can't the Clan do for me?
  
• What happens if someone asks me to help them in ways I shouldn't, or if I am tempted to taste the forbidden waters?
  

What is a Great Jedi War?

Each year the Dark Council hosts a special event in which every clan participates, and regular competitions are suspended during that duration. Sometimes it's based around Clan v Clan, or Clans v Clans in the case of a vendetta event feud, and sometimes we work together (or against each other covertly) in the cases of the Great Jedi Wars. As was noted, this is our fifteenth (...has it REALLY been going on that long already? I feel so old.) so far.

James has already made a post about the war overall, so if you want to know more details go check out his recent report!

How do these events differ from events in the past?

Great question! So with events in the Great Jedi War, everyone irregardless of placement is counted towards clan participation so long as your submission meets the minimum requirements. The more members that participate, the greater of a clan standing we will have. So even if you aren't good at drawing or graphics, or horrible with poems, just do your best! Even if it's a stick figure, or a badly shaved Ewok, every activity counts.

That's not to say placements don't matter! Placements definitely affect our overall ranking, as well as individual performers in terms of Clan Placements and Member Placements. But with greater participation numbers, a placement can be negated in terms of earned points. (Say Arcona places first in an event and had 11 participants, but we had a 2nd place and 24 participants...we would technically be ahead overall in the Clan standings.)

So it's absolutely in both your interest, as well as the success of the Clan, to participate in as much as you are able to; even if you know you won't place. Participation is a major factor; don't worry about quality. Point is...have fun while doing it!

You mentioned the Clan can help...how?

There are a variety of services that we are allowed to provide, these ranging from opinions and thoughts on any/all submissions, proofreading, structure and flow analysis, and more. For the most part, this is rather limitless so if you would want our opinion on how your submission is going feel free to ask!

What can't the Clan do for me?

The part where I said it was rather limitless in how we could help you? It's true. But, there are specific areas where we are actively restricted from helping you. While we will gladly proofread a submission, we will do so only through Google Docs with comments; we will NOT edit the actual submission. (This gives us an active paper trail in case a submission is ever questioned, and has an active edit log as well.) It is on you to either accept our recommendations, or deny them.

While we will gladly look at the structure and flow of a submission, we will only point out areas of improvement that we see; we won't alter it for you. Such as if we feel a section has a weak background, we'll note that and give basic advice. But we will not actively help you get around it. In the end, it must be your ideas and your concepts that get you across the finish line. Aside from advice and opinions, that's as much as you get!

Why can't we help with those things? Well...very specific reasons. In the past, there were cases where leaders were getting too involved with member's submissions to the point of doing edits themselves, and adding/removing sections to make them stronger just to win events and surpass other Clans. Because of this, submissions are carefully scrutinized. And the last thing we want is for your submission to be disqualified, or greater. So don't do it!

But if you are ever unsure if something is out of bounds, or ask us and we notice it's something we can't do, we'll let you know. A question unasked is an answer unknown! So use our knowledge, we beg of you!

What happens if someone asks me to help them in ways I shouldn't, or if I am tempted to taste the forbidden waters?

Integrity is huge in these massive events, especially for fairness given the number of people involved. If someone asks you to edit or alter their submission in ways that do not fit the criteria above; and they are persistent, let us know. We'll keep an eye on things, and if its repetitive with others, we'll step in and remind them of the rules. We'll also keep it documented and to ourselves so long as it does not advance further.

Now...if you are tempted to taste the forbidden waters, and we find out about it; we'll remind you of what can happen. If you do taste them, well...we are obligated to report that to the Justicar; and we will do so with full transparency. It doesn't matter if you are a 15 year veteran, or a new member with less than 3 months under your belt, any/all forms of cheating or suspected cheating will be reported for investigation.

So...don't do it. And remember how I said submissions are carefully scrutinized? Even if we don't catch it on our end, the Dark Council analyzes every submission with a fine tooth comb; and they are very accurate in detecting it; even utilizing past submissions to do so, from writing styles to images used before for a competition. It just isn't worth it.

With that...any questions, feel free to tag myself, Appius, or either of your summit members in discord! If you need fiction advice, Zentru'la is also a phenomenal resource as well in addition!

Good luck everyone, and let's win this war!

Grand Admiral Teebu Nyrrire

Proconsul of Clan Taldryan
Admiral of the Fleet