A New Conseal!

Let’s be honest, you’d all worry about me if I didn’t have a seal for this particular occasion. Isn’t he the most regal aquatic mammal you’ve ever seen? Ok, enough with the seal discussion for now, time to get down to business. As you might have heard, Mav has decided that I would be the one to take over for the recently promoted Selika. As such, I thought this was a good time to both introduce myself to our newer members as well as detail the plans I have for the future in the clan. So first off, about me. I’ve been a part of the DB for just over five and a half years and joined after some Slagar person told me this club was cool or something. Pretty much from the start I’ve been a part of the leadership of Plagueis and have held quite literally every position in it possible (yes, Consul completed my “bingo card:, so Bingo!). I’ve also done an 18 month stint in the Voice office where I was also hired by that Mav guy (I’m sensing a theme here :) ). I’ve been a part of more than a few projects, highlighted by the revamping of the character sheet system as well as work on the Inquisitorious. Now I have a new project, making Plagueis the best unit it can be.

A Richer Environment

To start off my discussion of the plans I have, the biggest thing I want to do is to help create a richer and deeper fictional environment in the clan. While we’ve got a pretty good foundation now with a rich lore and plenty of opportunities for development, it’s now time to dig in and start working with it. I’ve always been interested and inspired by the rich fictional environments in other clans (Odan Urr and Arcona stand out) and I’ve always wondered why we aren’t doing that in Plagueis. Part of that is creating the right vehicles to do that, and that’s something I’m going to be looking to do as soon as possible. The most immediate change I’m going to announce is that in the near future (once we get a new summit settled), is relaunching the Clan Run-On in a slightly modified form. The main difference is that I want to use the RO not just to develop relationships between characters, but also to forward the overall clan plotline. On that end, my goal is to make the official plotline more accessible to all characters, from the summit on down to journeymen, and make it relevant to everyone. I’ve always been big on involving as many characters as possible in the larger story (I think I’ve given several Voices/GMs and earful on this one :) ), so I’m definitely going to work do to that in Plagueis. That said, I’m not looking to totally tear down what we’ve done to date, we’re going to stay just as dark and evil as ever despite Arden not being as Dark a leader as some of our past ones. I got some ideas to make him evolve.

This gets me to the first ask I have of people in Plagueis which ,in this case also, includes myself. To create the kind of environment that leads to rich story telling that showcases a great many characters, other writers need something to work from. The first step in that process is keeping your character’s wiki article up to date. I’m not going to lie, Arden’s is lacking right now, so it’s not a great example. However if you want to know what a good wiki page for a character looks like, I’ll be happy to point to some examples. Or just ask that Slagar guy who hangs out around our Telegram from time to time, he might know something about wiki articles. As part of updating your wiki pages, it’s probably not a bad idea to create an OOC guide to writing your character. That helps both other people in a run-on environment, those you’re in an ACC match with, as well as those crafting official fiction updates (which could even include that Wally guy) depict your character more accurately. When it comes to this sort of thing, I always like to point to Atty/Satsi’s pages as an example. While that level of detail might not be necessary, anything you can give other writers will be helpful in the long run.

Ask the Conseal

I was planning to do one of these in my RM report anyway, but I think it’s more interesting doing it now.

Kelly asks: How will Arden attempt to shape Plagueis' relationship with the Iron Throne in light of the Dracaryis ex-machina we received from them?

I’m still digesting that one, though I prefer to call it deus ex Dracina. Comes off the tongue better. Arden doesn’t have much fictional history with Drac, or many of the other DCers with the exception of Selika. However, there might be a certain insectoid that does....

TuQ asks: How does Arden feel about NFUs?

So interesting bit about Arden for those who haven’t been around the character much,despite being a Sith, he’s not super into the Force. He sees it as one more tool in his arsenal and doesn’t feel the need to use it in super flashy ways. He doesn’t use his lightsaber much, he’s still very much into guns. Thus, he’s not a big “F/Us are gods” person, so NFUs shouldn’t worry too much, as long as they’re an asset to him.

Mav asks: Favorite seal and why?

This is hard because they’re all so awesome and memeable. For shear adorabilty I have to go with the harp seal, as many of my favorite pictures are harp seals. One of my classic seal memes is base on a harp seal. Remember this guy:

Dacien/Bubba asks: Seals or Battleships?

Both? So I’m sure you all know by now I’m into some game called World of Warships. I do the seal thing there too, because it’s even more relevant there. See, in WoWS, when a high level/competitive player drops into a lower tier match (which are home mainly to less experienced players) they are said to be “seal clubbing”. Thus, there’s an alternate meaning there and, well, my sub-clan’s channel on discord isn’t called “Trying for more seals” for no reason. You don’t believe me, check my WoWS Forums Profile , you might notice another fella that pops up in our TG there...

Kelly also asks: What type of a leader will Arden be? Will he be willing to let the houses do their things or will he be heavily involved in their affairs?

Arden is a businessman through and through, therefore he understands the importance of letting subordinates doing their thing as long as they are meeting the overall goal. That also means a lot of 0800 meetings with pastries and PowerPoint (I’m sure there’s something like it in Star Wars, right?). On that note...

TuQ also asks: Will Arden's position as Consul impact his business dealings.

Definitely, but that’s a fictional surprise I want to save for down the road.

Abadeer Asks: As the new consul, what have you liked about Plagueis’ last fictional direction and where would you like to see it flow to in the future as you take the head?

As I said before, I’ve been a fan of most of what’s gone on fiction wise, so I wouldn’t expect a vastly different track. Arden, however, isn’t nearly as dark as some of the prior Dread Lords and has a businessy background which I want to bring into play. Don’t want to get into specific thoughts...yet.

Ronovi asks: How is Arden going to change the interior design of the Dread Lord's quarters in the Pinnacle? Will there be a fancy bar for brandy built in?

I kinda like the aesthetics of some of the apartments in Mass Effect when I think about how Arden would decorate. Anderson/Shepard’s apartment in Mass Effect 3 would be a good example I think. Leather sofas, simple color palette, and yes, definitely a well stocked bar.

And lastly:

Julius Ceaser asks: Who is your favorite Beatle?

Easy, Ringo. Drummers are awesome.

Closing Thoughts and MoZ

So, there’s one bit I didn’t get in above that I want to end with. My leadership style might be different from others in that I don’t like a top-down dictatorial approach. I’m very big on sourcing ideas from all over and crafting the best ones into stories or projects. Don’t be afraid to approach me with a suggestion, be it for a competition you want to run or a plot point to pursue. I also want to know what I’m doing right or wrong. Come to me, tell me what’s up, and don’t be afraid to be blunt about it. On that note, I think this Moment of Zen is a pretty good example of how I look at this sort of thing.

Keep it evil mes amis.

Arden