December 2015

• Beginning
• Spoilers are bad
• House events are good
• Think of us often
• And you’ll get wood
• Sins of the Father
• Competitions

Beginning

New Tython

Standing in front of a mirror, Nathan Deciarus regarded his naked body carefully, as if facing something completely alien. As a clone of another person, the young man often felt like he was stealing his appearance, and as his eyes slowly took in his packed abdomen, his sleek chest and his sharp, nearly chiseled face, the boy knew deep down, that his responsibilities were beyond him. As the recently appointed Quaestor of House Hoth, it was his duty to uphold Fort Pernicar and ensure that the Jedi within could respond to any threat; he was, however, more of a diplomat, and while he wished that every conflict could be resolved peacefully, the teenager could not help but feel enthusiastic about bending the rules.

This opportunity was perfect; he had the freedom to make his own decisions without being beholden to the upper reaches of the Clan Summit. He would still have to answer to them, but he could finally find his feet as a young man, striving to make his own path; the feeling was tantalizing, like the first kiss of dew on a moisture farm in a desert far, far away.

His attention was drawn to a flashing light on his datapad. There was always an electronic message to respond to, and the sixteen-year-old young man had a terrible habit of ignoring those notifications. With a guilty and almost regretful expression, he ignored the message and slipped into a pair of trunks. His chosen Aedile, Edgar Drachen, entered his quarters soon after.

“Quaestor,” Edgar nodded, acknowledging his master’s position over their personal relationship. “Whenua and his son have arrived.” The young man nodded to his apprentice and turned to his wardrobe. Whenua was an exemplary Harakoan, a leader in the political minefield that defined right and wrong on New Tython, and Nathan was eager to introduce himself properly and discuss the future of House Hoth. He hadn’t met Whenua’s son before, and his imagination teased him with ideas of how this encounter would transpire. Donning a simple vest and some pants, the boy eagerly followed his former apprentice.

Spoilers are bad

An incident occurred a few days ago, where a new member posted a major spoiler for Episode 7. Not just a major spoiler, but THE spoiler. Even though I had already seen the movie, I was very, very dismayed and upset by this. We are all here to share our appreciation of the Star Wars universe and play our part in it, but it is crucial that we all experience this universe for ourselves. Please do not talk about any of the new movies unless you are in a spoiler-friendly environment.

If you are unsure if your environment is or is not spoiler-friendly, please err on the side of caution and assume it is not. The new movie is really awesome, and spoilers definitely ruin the fun and joy, the emotional impact, the feeling of discovery that we all want to experience as part of the Star Wars universe. DO NOT be the one that ruins it for anyone else.

Amongst my Clan responsibilities, I am the current owner of our mailing list, which requires a certain level of responsibility to what happens on our list. As a Clan and House, Ji and Liam have raised us to be open and welcoming of everything, and that is an attitude that I love and admire and respect. However, spoilers are off limits. I very sincerely regret that details were spoiled over the mailer. I cannot apologize enough to Liam and to anyone else that was impacted by this incident, and I am very inclined to abuse my power over the mailing list and turn it off for the next movie. THE CLAN MAILING LIST IS STRICTLY A SPOILER-FREE ZONE UNTIL 2016.

If you are concerned about spoilers, you can go to https://groups.google.com and login, then select My Groups, then toggle the drop down box on the right hand side. Setting this to No Email still allows you to login to the website and view all the message threads by Email Title and Author and honestly, all the important stuff is covered in Clan and House reports anyway.

I have reviewed the actions taken by our Proconsul, Turel Sorenn, in response to our spoiler incident and he has my FULL support. I feel his response was reasonable, transparent and in line with my expectations. Having said that, we are a very democratic and welcoming Clan, and if anyone has an issue with moderation or the spoiler itself or any other aspect of the mailing list, I would love to hear from you. I took on this responsibility out of love for our House and Clan, and my loyalty is to ensure that the mailing list meets your needs, whatever they may be. I gratefully welcome and acknowledge all feedback.

House events are good

...but we don’t have them. Rest assured, I am working religiously on my personal storyline, Sins of the Father, and I am really enthusiastic about transforming it from a personal “I want to do this for myself” thing into a “this is a storyline that deserves to be shared”. This is causing delays as I am often questioning whether it is multiplayer enough, whether it lends itself well enough to House competitions, and I obsess over how it will be received. Are the plot twists awesome? Am I doing enough? Is it on a big enough scale, that my House can get involved? These questions haunt me daily.

At this stage, the first part of the first chapter is standing at eleven pages, and needs a bit of revision before I am comfortable releasing it. I am seriously considering chopping it up into smaller pieces so I can feed the masses more regularly.

Think of us often

As a House, we stand on our own feet, and rightly so. We have progressed through the Hoth Legends storyline, and we face a bright future in front of us; however, this future is full of intrigue and exploration.

The Knights of Allusis event, Knights Errant, is going well and I am looking forward to it. If you want to be part of our battleteam, please let me and Tisto know! The battleteams are our most active, most valued and most awesome members, so if you want to be involved with a variety of storylines and an atmosphere of awesomeness, shoot myself, Edgar or Tisto an email and we will happily add you to the short list of fun zone!

And you’ll get wood

...to be clear and specific, you will get wood around the 25th of December when our very own lovely Herald, V’yr Vorsa, submits his December report :) Please make sure you catch up on his daily postings of the Herald’s Holiday Special. They are packed full of the amazing work that he and his staff accomplish, and the pictures are fitting ornaments to hang on any tree. I cannot recommend highly enough that you take the time to show our fantastic Herald and his staff your appreciation - V’yr is an exemplary and terrific human being, and his staff is the awesome sauce that awesome beef is extremely jealous of. Expect a Herald report in the next couple of days, and if you have some graphical ability or interest, make sure you read the part about joining the club's artist cliche.

Sins of the Father

The Sins of the Father storyline originally began as a way to explore my own character development for my own sake, simply because I wanted to achieve something amazing and share it with my House and Clan. Being Quaestor has given me the opportunity to take this sentiment and spread and share it on the next level, and I want to make the most of this opportunity.

I have spent God only knows how many hours toiling away over the first chapter of Sins, and I still need to adjust some of the language used; the first part is coming very soon and I look forward to incorporating our House and our Clan in the horrors, politics, turmoils, defeats and victories that are in store for Hoth over the next year.

Competitions

The primary competitions page, https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/competitions is your one-stop shop for anything that you can be active with. Absolutely everything, including Clan and House Vendettas and anything from a washing machine disaster to an epic battle between good and evil will show up on this page.

Worthy of particular note are the Clan Odan-Urr Life Games Clan event: https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/competitions/9568

And the Knights of Allusis Crime Wave event: https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/competitions/9544

Darker things are on the horizon, however, as Nathan’s former Master, the Krath Assassin D’hak, closes in on New Tython and prepares to make his first move in a war of cat and mouse. There is no victory without sacrifice.

Expect the first part of Chapter One to be released as soon as I have finished proofing and touching it up.