Feed the Machine

It all began in silence. First one system, which no one deemed worthy of concern, political upheaval and terse alliances with the Vatali Empire and the Jedi were bound to cause friction with one, perhaps two, of Kiast’s neighbors through Nilgaard. Then communications and traffic from other systems came to a crawl. This garnered worry throughout the pillars of Kiast. Strategists and various saber rattlers from the Royal Houses began routine arguments, a day no longer passed where there wasn’t at least one argument about the state of their sector and the silence of their neighbors. The Temple, still recovering from the corruption, and subsequent recovery, of Revak, began to swirl with rumors as the Masters convened multiple closed-door Councils. The sight of any number of red-faced Jedi storming from the meetings, occasionally including High Councilor Sol, became all too common as the worries spread. The pervasive concern spread even throughout the joint chiefs of the O.U.S.C., the common rank-and-file were just as concerned about a potential deployment into a system spanning conflict so soon after the Second Fleet had been involved in a planetary conflict to aid the people of Selen.

Silence, rather, the unease it caused, was the biggest threat to an already fragile peace. It filled the gaps in tenuous relationships and alliances like gasoline, caustic, swirling, primed to detonate on the faintest whim.

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The Western Marches of Clan Odan-Urr:

As Gui mentioned in his Second Consul's Report I've launched a grand undertaking, designed alongside our own Tisto Kingang who I'm sure needs very little, if any, introduction assuming you're any level of active on our Discord. The Western Marches Campaign is the first in what will hopefully be a series of long-form campaigns, potentially driven as the Clan's primary storyline, with the effects and disasters therein ultimately guided by just how much effort into the various activities you, our the members of Odan-Urr, put into them. How content works for the Western Marches will adjust over time as we monitor the competitions, take feedback from our members, etc.

Odan-Urr is a Clan with a deep and vibrant mix of historical factions, teams, organizations, and teams. The Western Marches intends to capitalize on this by first, expanding some of the more obscure, broad, or numerous organizations, letting you have a personal stake within them, while also exploring their activities in our Sector of The Galaxy Far Far Away. We've reflected this in Phase 1: Restructure where we've picked six particular groups from across Odan-Urr, our Sentinel Network, Consular Conclave, and the Guardian Corps from the Jedi Temple, as well as the O.U.S.C. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. Within each of these individual groups, we chose an organizational chain to design, where applicable, as well as giving you the offer to design their Unit Sigils. The chosen groups reflected the current campaign's nature, and the potential for other groups to appear is always on the table, whether in this campaign or the next.

The ultimate driving idea behind the project is that it is a metrics-driven system. Each Phase, and the individual sub-phases following, Phase 1 will ultimately build on the amount of influence from your activities. The Number of Subscriptions, Entries, Gaming Activities, Word Counts (in fiction and Roleplay), and more, will all count and adjust the battle map in the upcoming Phases and have already started measuring with the current phase. Each individual unit will have its own trials and tribulations reflected on the battlemap, detailed throughout the Event/Clan fictions, and you may find that pushing some of our units towards objectives on the battlemap will lead to unique benefits, or detriments, to The Clan, at large.

The first wave of Character Creation competitions ends on the 22nd of this month, so if you haven't already checked them out, please, tune in and do so. We intend to take various winning characters and get them written into the various first Phase 1 Fictions at the end of the month/beginning of next month.

Much ado about... something?

That said, the Western Marches is NOT the only major project I have in the works, but, until the time is right, I cannot divulge too much about the secondary project, other than it is another metrics-based program. Unlike the Western Marches or even our Scimitar of Lord Hoth, this one is designed to reward you and credit the activity of our members on a monthly basis, and not just the most active of our members, more of a group effort. Some of the groundwork has already been laid, and I think may be visible if you know where to look, but, I'll leave that for the sleuths among us. All I know is the background work for it, between the typing and graphing is making my hands hurt, so I hope it pays off in the end.

The Monthly Mailer:

Some of you may have seen that I have been attempting to keep a monthly circular containing current Clan-Level Competitions, Competitions Hosted by Clanmates, as well as a general breakdown of events, discussion, and just vibe-check for those of us who aren't really active on Discord. I missed sending out last month's, but, I do intend to keep these rolling around the 15th-20th of each month, just prior to my normal Report release date. If there is anything you'd like to see in the monthly mailer or my reports that isn't normally included in either the PCON or CON reports, please, feel free to hit either of us up about them.

The Playback:

We've had a lot going on this last quarter and I can't believe it's already coming to a close, from Balance Patches, to Bears making Reports, something in here about FIST actions, so, I'm just gonna link it all in and let you sort out it out if you don't want to just peruse the front page, because I'm boring like that.

• FIST Supplemental - Star Wars Hunters
  • The FIST supports us hunting one another in a Galaxy Far Far Away!
• Master at Arms Report: 16
  • Wherein Howie Reminds us all to do better.
• Emissary Staff Openings
  • It's time we start advertising The Brotherhood: and Erinyes needs help to do so!
• May the Forth Results
  • Socks showcases the May 4th events!
• ACC Supplemental Judging Society
  • Go forth and Be Judgy!
• DGM News: XP Policy Update
  • Atra introduces us to the shift in XP Policy, Cluster Values, and the loss of diminishing returns!
• Regent Report #28
  • A slew of system and purchase updates, starting with some changes based around the XP system.
• XPtravaganzza!
  • A Breakdown of the XP System Changes, further updates, and expectations to promote.
• Fist Supplemental Report - Changing of the (Praetor) Guard
  • As one door closes, another one opens, congratulations to Ikarri, and thank you to Justinios for their hard work.
• ACC Championship Tourney Sign-Ups - Singularity
  • Go Sign Up before 17JUN2024! Give the people something to judge, get unique swag!

Stay the ride:

It has been an excellent month, so far, COU, and I'm looking forward to the things ahead, all-in-all in terms of our ongoing projects and the various things each of you are doing. Watching the Clan activity levels grow and stay generally consistent since coming back has been one of the brightest points through the year, and it's a trend I'm aiming to keep going, with all of your help.