Introduction

Hello there, all you lovely people. There’s a lot to go over in this edition of the Monthly Qel-Droma news (including a fiction), so we’re jumping right into it!

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Fiction
3. News
   
4. Competitions
   
5. Awards
   
6. Promotions
7. GMRG
8. Shadow Academy
9. Transfers
10. TL;DR
11. Aedile Alley
12. Closing Words

Fiction

Phantom Complex
Port Ol’val, Dajorra System
Summer 39 ABY
1340 Hours

K’tana skipped cheerfully through the halls of the rival gang that the 27’s had just eliminated, seemingly unaffected by the gore that painted the walls or the spray of blood across her top. Rubble littered the ground as smoke continued to rise from the debris of the explosion her gang had used to take out the fortified rooms.

Suddenly, she stopped and used a boot to turn the head of a body towards her. The Twi’lek tsked. “Such a pity. She was a pretty one... Oh well!” The Battleteam Sergeant continued skipping her way through until she found a large room.

Frowning, the Shadow suddenly called out. “Koek! Didn’t you say there was someone still alive in here?!”

“Aye, Koekie! You want me to bring him in?”

“Yes! And quickly, now! We’re going to be late for drinks otherwise.”

K’tana giggled as she watched the petite Zeltron drag in a filthy humanoid by his hair. He seemed to have somehow survived the blast. I’ll have to remember to have Falion increase the amount of explosives next time, she thought, watching in an amused manner as Koek, the female Zeltron, somehow shoved the larger humanoid into a chair.

The Twi’lek slid onto his lap in a sensual manner, smiling happily, emerald eyes twinkling as the male was tied up. “Nice day, isn’t it? Now... I have some questions. And I’m hoping you have some answers for me.”

The male retorted in an unfamiliar language and spat at the ground. It sounded quite rude to the Twi’lek. She frowned and placed a hand on his shoulder, though her eyes continued to dance with merriment.

“That wasn’t very nice.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, K’tana channeled her hatred through the Force and sent lightning ripping from her hand into his body. As his screams subsided, his limbs twitching from the after-shocks, the Shadow crooned in his ear. “Are you more willing to talk now?”

A loud beeping sound echoed through the room, causing the Krath adherent to release a mournful sigh as she slid off of her victim’s lap. “Looks like our discussion will have to wait. Koek, take him back to base and have the boys soften him up for me.”

As Koek followed her orders, K’tana turned away to answer the call. “Yello?”

“Need to speak to you in my office as soon as possible. Sorry to interrupt your fun.”

K’tana gave a put-upon sigh, pouting even though the Assassin couldn’t see her. “Fiiiinnnee. I’ll be there in a few... I’m not in trouble, am I?”

“Not at all, Kat. It’s... good news.”

“Okie-dokie, Cel! See you in a few!” The Twi’lek chirped as she ended the call.

“Frak.. I need a clean shirt... People will ask annoying questions if I have all of this mess on me.” Glancing around, K’tana began wandering the location in search of more suitable attire.

---

Tertiary Drydock
Selen, Dajorra System
Late Summer, 39ABY
15:40 Hours

Two figures walked towards the massive, twin-hulled starship known as the Broken Blade. Swathed in black robes trimmed with teal, they seemed to be a rather diametric opposite - one tall, lean, idly toying with a datapad, the other short, stocky, arms folded and brooding. They looked utterly mismatched as they traversed the expanse that was the starship dock. All around them, the hustle and bustle of people loading the ship for refit and resupply could be seen and guards were posted every here and there to defend the ship.

All of it was about to be thrown into disarray.

The taller cast an askew glance down to the shorter. "You did remember to send Atyiru the note, yes?" she asked, her lilting contralto voice a melodic purr in his ears. "We would not want to be expelled for this little act."

The shorter stopped and thought for a moment, actually requiring a moment of clarity to recall the situation as he reached for the small datapad custom-built for him to be more accessible for his... ineptitude to double-check he had indeed sent it. "Yes, love. Of course."

A click of her tongue followed and a disapproving sigh. Always had to check, always the uncertainty. "My backwards tribal, you are my sun and stars, but you are occasionally insufferable."

Mirus Hi'ija replaced his datapad on his belt, then rested his hand on the hilt of his mighty Sith sword, fresh from his own smithy. It was going to be the blade that cut through the heart of Arcona. "I love you too, Rhiann."

For now, they had one mission. The warship that belonged to their beloved Clan would soon belong to them...

Curious to see how this works out for the daring duo? Read the rest here!

News

Brotherhood

• The GM released his 41st and 42nd reports as Grand Master, where he points out that the new ranks are available and implemented with the site. (Anyone that was in a Dark Side Clan will have noticed that they suddenly became Sith overnight.)
  
• The DGM (AKA Mav) gives us first teasers, then updated information on the Gray Path before we could change to the Gray Path... Seriously, why don’t you number these? :/
  
• Our Justicar is still hard at work with his puns, speaking of ReadJSTments and announcing the new Appeals Panel.
  
• The Ent that has taken over the Herald position is on top of all of the artsy things with a full staff. Check out #2: Progress and #3: Six Shooter - I still love all of the Classic Rock references I’m seeing.
  
• Our Prime Codemonkey has released The New Site Layout and an actual report.
  
• Valhavoc details all the updates in the gaming word in updates #40 and #41.
  
• Selika is showing the wiki staff hard at work with Report #3 and the Wiki Update, where the character templates have changed with the removal of Orders.
  
• And last, but not least, Evant released his Sixth Report. Wally, as a member of his staff & Combat Master of the ACC, has released his Third and Fourth reports, along with these quick updates, where CS 2.0 and the relaunch of the ACC are highlighted. (‘these’, ‘quick’ and ‘updates’ are three separate links)

Clan

• Our lovely Consul & Proconsul (Also known as the ‘A-Team’) released a report where they discussed the future of the Clan... and hit us with feels through Lilo & Stitch quotes.

House

• K’tana has taken over Shadow Gate and released her own solo report.
  
• A New Battleteam has opened in Qel-Droma, run by our very own Mirus Hi’ija. This band of Pirates is formally known by the name of Tyrant Sword. TS is looking for members, should anyone be interested in joining. We’ll have more news for you as the wiki page is fleshed out and put live.

Competitions

Battleteam

• Shadow Gate - Super Happy Fun Game Time!
• Shadow Gate - The Caped Crusader

Clan

• Caption That Phase One
• Sentence Run-On III
• Arconan Gaming Dominance - August
• Arconan Tales of the Table

Brotherhood

• DJB Fantasy Football
• Antei Contract Bureau: Live! [2015]
• Pazaak Tournament
• ComPUNction for Puns
• A Tourist's Guide To The Galaxy
• Road to Damascus
• All the Rage!!!!
• Star Conflict PvP

Additional competitions can be found in the Competition Center.

Awards

Strategos Thanatos Entar Arconae

• Crescent with Ruby Star (x2)
• Crescent with Amethyst Star (x2)
• Crescent with Topaz Star (x2)
• Crescent with Quartz Star (x2)
• Clusters of Fire (x125)

Marick Arconae

• Crescent with Amethyst Star
• Crescent with Sapphire Star
• Pendant of Blood (x3)
• Cluster of Fire (x6)
• Cluster of Ice (x4)
• Cluster of Earth (x6)

Legorii Arconae

• Anteian Cross

Socorra

• Crescent with Quartz Star

Terran Koul

• Crescent with Amethyst Star
• Cluster of Earth (x14)

Mirus Hi’ija

• Grand Cross of the Dark Side
• Crescent with Emerald Star
• Crescent with Topaz Star
• Crescent with Quartz Star
• Cluster of Ice (x5)

Celevon Edraven

• Crescent with Sapphire Star (x2)
• Cluster of Ice (x13)
• Cluster of Earth (x22)

Rrogon Skar

• Crescent with Emerald Star
• Crescent with Topaz Star
• Crescent with Quartz Star
• Cluster of Earth (x17)

Rhiann Hi’ija

• Crescent with Amethyst Star
• Cluster of Ice (x5)

Kanis Da’uul

• Cluster of Ice

Mks Ehn

• Crescent with Emerald Star (x2)
• Pendant of Blood (x2)
• Cluster of Fire (x152)
• Cluster of Earth (x96)

K’tana

• Crescent with Amethyst Star
• Crescent with Sapphire Star
• Crescent with Emerald Star (x2)
• Cluster of Ice (x9)

Adam Bolera

• Cluster of Fire (x14)

Promotions

... I almost wrote that someone had been promoted. Then I realized that I was just confused over the new ranks. Move along!

Shadow Academy

Yuh’orah

• Poetry
• Krath Core
• Graphics
• Grammar
• Obelisk Core
• Sith Core
• Runon
• Writing
• Philosophy I: Views
• Philosophy II: Cults
• Combat Tactics I
• Combat Tactics II
• ACC Fundamentals
• Consular Core
• Lightsaber Studies
• In addition to these courses, Yuh’orah earned a Dark Maven in Writing and a Dark Maven in Philosophy!

K’tana

• Writing
• K’tana was a slacker this month. Tease her mercilessly until her SA quotient improves.

Mks Ehn

• Essentials 1: History
• Essentials 2: Departments
• Essentials 3: Paths & Orders
• Essentials 4: Ranks
• Essentials 5: Organization
• Essentials 6: Medals
• Comms 1: Discourse
• DJBWiki: An Introduction
• Gaming 101: Setting Up & Finding Matches
• Gaming 103: Submitting Gaming Activity
• Gaming 201: Pazaak
• Graphics in the Brotherhood
• Vendetta 1: Foundation
• Vendetta 2: Submission
• Vendetta 3: Fiction and Graphics Tips
• ACC Qualification
• Dark Brotherhood Basics
• GMRG History
• In addition to these courses, Mks Ehn earned a Dark Pundit - Essentials and a Dark Pundit - Vendetta!

Celevon Edraven

• Comms 1: Discourse
• DJBWiki: An Introduction
• Gaming 101: Setting Up & Finding Matches
• Gaming 103: Submitting Gaming Activity
• Gaming 201: Pazaak
• Graphics in the Brotherhood

Terran Koul

• DJBWiki: An Introduction

Mirus Hi'ija

Most of all, I want to give a shout out to Mirus who earned a Dark Savant in Tactics and the Society Rank of SA12! If any of you don't know, this is a big frakkin' deal. Very few people have reached SA12, and Mirus has been working towards this for a long, long time. Congratulations, Mirus!

Transfers

• Mks Ehn - Clan membership to Qel-Droma (Shadow Gate)
  
• Rhiann Hi’ija - stepped down from Shadow Gate BTL to become BTS of Tyrant Sword
  
• Mirus Hi’ija - transferred from Shadow Gate to Tyrant Sword (BTL)
  
• Fet’ai’narun - transferred from Rogues to Shadow Gate
  
• Adam Bolera - tranferred from Qel-Droma to Tyrant Sword
  
• Daska Dak’min - transferred from Shadow Academy
  
• Slea Lyssk - transferred from Shadow Academy

TL;DR

• All the News!
  
• Paths Implemented - Arcona goes Gray/Dark!
  
• All the shinies, transfers and awesomeness
  
• New Battleteam for HQD
  

Aedile Alley

As Celevon mentioned earlier, we’ve opened a second Battleteam in House Qel-Droma. For those of you who are new to the House or the Brotherhood, this is a pretty big deal. It’s a sign of innovation and growth, and a show of confidence in every single one of you that there will be enough active members to justify Tyrant Sword’s existence. In other words, go sign up! If you don’t, we look like assholes. Don’t make us look like assholes. Besides, the Battleteam actually sounds pretty amazing. Is there a single one of you who didn’t imagine, at one point or another, being a pirate? Now, you can be Space Pirates! That’s at least fifty times cooler than Will Turner could ever be.

No, seriously. This is badass. Just look at their Jolly Roger!

On the broader Brotherhood stage, we have a lot of new things going on. This month saw the release of CS 2.0, which has been in the works for months. A team of hugely talented people have brought the revamped Character Sheet system to us, and they truly did a splendid job. We’ve also had a lot of terrific questions on the Discourse thread, so make sure you hit it up if you have any questions of your own. On top of that, there’s now a shiny, new FAQ on the wiki to answer all of the common CS 2.0 questions. A number of Character Sheets were invalidated by these changes, so go make sure that yours is valid.

If CS2.0 wasn’t a big enough deal, this past week saw the reveal of the new Paths and Ranks. There were a ton of details in the GM and DGM reports, so go read them if you haven’t. I’m not going to summarize them here - not because I can’t, but because I believe every one of you ought to go read all the details for yourself. Seriously, it’s that important.

And biggest of all - yes, bigger than the Paths and Ranks - is the DB-wide release of the Antei Contract Bureau! (Okay, fine, it’s probably not as big - but Celevon is my boss and he runs the damned thing, so do me a favor and go request a contract. It keeps him happy, which gets him off my back. Maybe.) This is really huge, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. If you want to see what all the hype is about, click the link above and request a contract. It’s insanely fun!

TL;DR

• Tyrant’s Sword is awesome. You should join it.
• CS 2.0 has launched. Go make sure your character sheet is updated.
• Paths. ‘Nuff said.
• ACB is now DB-wide and Live. Go participate.
• Celevon won’t stop riding me.

Closing Words

Excellent work, everyone. August looks to have been a great month in terms of both activity and our increased membership (Look at the shiny new Battelteam!). I’ll not bore you with any more details, since I’m sure some of you would fall asleep at your keyboards otherwise.

As you all know, last month we started a competition to see which Arconan was the Shiniest. A lot of Crescents were awarded this month but, as with last month, there was one clear leader. As you can see in the table below, Strategos was way ahead of the pack with 28 Crescents earned. Sadly, Strategos is a dick and still hasn’t made a Character Sheet. As a result of this, you’ll have to hear about K’tana again in the next report fiction. Everyone, punch Strat the next time you’re in the Netherlands for making you suffer through yet more K’tana fanfic.

Member	Points
Strategos	28
Katana	15
Marick	9
Celevon	8
Mirus	6
Mks	6
Skar	6
Rhiann	5
Terran	5
Socorra	1

Seriously though, Kat, great job continuing to compete fiercely despite your new responsibilities as BTL. We’re all really proud of you. You are shiny and chrome!

Celevon and Terran start plotting before realizing people are still reading.

Keep up the good work! We’ll see you next month!

Your Friendly Neighborhood Qel-Droman Summit,
OP Celevon Edraven
Quaestor, House Qel-Droma

SBL Terran Koul
Aedile, House Qel-Droma