Welcome to another Consul Report. The clock has struck Midnight. At the clan’s darkest hour, it is up to you and your clanmates to reclaim the Empire. This is going to be a big one guys, so go kick some ass!

Click the image to see the video!

Midnight Part One

Market District Ohmen
Judecca

The New Dawn’s master of intelligence, one of the twelve great disciples of Darth Fallax stood awkwardly outside the cafe sipping her drink. She pulled her coat tighter with her free hand, hoping to fend off the cold end of year winds that had been growing the last few days. A winter storm was incoming. Luckily her cup of coffee was still steaming hot. She took another long sip and tried her best to ignore the sideways glances from the civilians walking by.

Rylla Varga was a Falleen, one species that wasn’t frequently seen in the Cocytus system. They were no strangers to Duros or Rodians, but the rigidity of Rylla stuck out like a sore thumb. What the civilians didn’t realize with their sideways glances and quiet whispers about the out of place Falleen, was just how much Rylla had played a hand in the events of the last few years. Fias Zhan would never have unleashed his wave of terror if she hadn’t provided him the information he needed. And that was just from hacking her way in. Now with full access to the Empire’s intelligence networks, there was little she didn’t see or know about the Cocytus system and its inhabitants.

Yet, for everything she saw and heard, she had missed something, something big. At least one of those damned Palatinaeans had not only survived the events on Aesirus but had also managed to find their way back into the Cocytus system, right under her nose. And if one had made it, others were sure to be following. And despite the days of interrogation that their new guest had endured at the hand of fellow disciple Watop Retwin, and the entirety of the ISI resources, they were none the closer to finding their guest’s friends.

It was now a personal issue for Rylla. She knew their guest had come with others, but she couldn’t find them. Her honor demanded that she find them. And if she wanted to remain breathing, she needed to accomplish the mission established by her master, Darth Fallax. And since the fiasco with the scientist, she was on a short leash. She had no idea the Togruta scientist was actually a Twi’lek Dark Jedi, nothing in the dossiers or histories had indicated that was a possibility.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” a passerby said, bumping into her.

“It's fine,” Rylla responded, her free hand shooting to her pocket. It tightly gripped around the datastick the passerby had just slipped into it. Rylla reached out with the Force, probing the mind of the agent walking away from her. She wanted to know what kind information they had recovered for her. More Palatinaeans had been spotted, but the agent’s efforts to follow them had failed. They had disappeared back into whatever rat holes they were now calling home.

Rylla smiled. A spotting and photos were a start, something tangible she could work with. Once she identified the Palatinaeans, she would be able to run some of her analysis software to get a list of possible locations. She tossed her now empty cup of coffee in the trash, hand still tightly gripping the datastick, and walked casually down the street, disappearing into the throng of people.

Interrogation Chamber
Sublevels
The Imperial Palace

“Remarkable. Watop spent half a lifetime perfecting his craft. Not once has he been unsuccessful in breaking a man,” The modulated voice of the Emperor said. His boots stuck and squelched in the drying blood on the floor. The man suspended from the ceiling moaned, unable to raise his head.

Darth Fallax laughed and poked at several of the exposed wounds on his guest’s body. The man twitched and groaned, throat too coarse to scream anymore.

“And then, you manage to stay silent under my own efforts. In my original reign, I tortured thousands. My power comes from pain, and I had to understand it. You must be a true-blooded Imperial, through and through,” Fallax continued. The normally pristine robes of the Emperor tugged at his body as he continued to circle around the man, sweat and blood clinging to his cracking and corrupted flesh.

The man stirred again and struggled against his restraints. His right hand tightly gripped the chain that shackled him to the ceiling. His robotic left arm lay discarded in the corner. The New Dawn had crafted a special chain, connecting it directly to the man’s left shoulder, helping to support his weight and to provide electric shocks to resuscitate him when his body failed under questioning, as it had half a dozen times since he had been captured. The man was kept several inches from the ground, his tiptoes slipping in his own blood.

The man’s vision was blurred, but he was able to make out the dark robes of his captor move before him. Behind Fallax, the man was able to make out the table where the wide array of interrogation instruments lay haphazardly. There was a thud that jolted the man back into awareness. Fallax had placed the ornate mask that Xen’Mordin so frequently used for all Brotherhood dealings on the table.

Click here to read the full opening fiction for Midnight

The fiction is also available on the forums

Intel: The Order of the New Dawn

Darth Fallax: Darth Fallax is an ancient Sith Lord and the head of the Order of the New Dawn. He is currently in control of Xen’Mordin’s body, using it as a host for his spirit. This has trapped Xen inside his own mind in a state of perpetual agony.

Sadon Teraah: Sadon Teraah is Darth Fallax’s right hand man and most loyal disciple. He is never far from his master’s beck and call.

Aeshi Yamamura: Aeshi Yamamura is a Twi’lek who has been trained from infancy to be a skilled warrior and assassin.

Zidane Thorne: Zidane Thorne is a Zabrak with a lifetime of tinkering experience, and is the New Dawn’s current head of technological warfare.

Danni Spar: Danni Spar is a Zeltron who was captured by the New Dawn. Having grown up on Corellia, and with a natural Force connection, she was inducted into the Order and now oversees their entire mechanical operations.

Desric Teroler: Desric Teroler is a Duros and the head of indoctrination for the New Dawn. His methods have been questioned by the other Disciples, but they do not argue about his effective results.

Kadryn Teroler: Kadryn Teroler is the lead recruiter for the New Dawn. She works closely with her mentally unstable husband, Desric, to bring in new members to the order and keep them loyal.

Watop Retwin: Watop Retwin is the Order’s accountant, responsible for maintaining the substantial wealth the New Dawn have accrued over the centuries.

Rylla Varga: Rylla Varga is a Falleen and the Order’s head of intelligence. She keeps a watchful eye on the Cocytus system using the Empire’s resources for any possible threats.

Merkak Quintrel: Merkak Quintrel is a Sullustan and combat trainer for the New Dawn. He is responsible for all new recruits reaching the required expectations of combat readiness.

Haera Jakil: Haera Jakil is the New Dawn’s Kaleesh head of medicine. The extensive and brutal training New Order recruits receive have left her and her medical team highly efficient in triage and emergency treatment.

Groznik Sudime: Groznik Sudime is the New Dawn’s top pilot and space combat tactician. A Lasat, many expect him to be brute strength, but his large frame hides a sharp and quick mind.

Erin Telana: Erin Telana is the oldest of the Disciples. She has dedicated her life to the study and recording of Fallax’s reign.

Status Board:

This will be updated several times over the course of the event as different phase competitions close out.

Intel: The Operations

For your enjoyment, I have put together a Spotify Playlist with a wide mix of theme associated music.

Midnight is the parent competition for this event. Points will be awarded for participation, placement, and a factor of difficulty of the competition itself will be applied. All currently running competitions for Midnight will be accessible through this link.

For the specific prompts please subscribe to the competition. Remember some competitions are timed based and will be noted in the competition details in bold. You can expect several most sets of competitions to open up as we go along this month, and some more epic fiction to accompany them!

Event Long (Ends Midnight January 2nd)

Epic Fiction: The epic fiction competition is a level 3 competition.

Run-on: The run-on is a level 3 competition. There are two different run-on threads, and you may participate in one of them. Please read the opening prompt for both before making your choice of which one you would like to participate in. These can be found in these threads:

• Trial of the Body
  
• Trial of the Soul
  

Battle Plan: The battle blan competition is a level 3 competition. This competition can be done individually or on teams of up to 4 people. There are two possible scenarios that you may pick from.

Multimedia: The multimedia competition is a level 3 competition. This can be done individually or on teams of up to 4 people.

Phase One (Ends Midnight December 19th)

Fiction: The phase one fiction is a level 2 event.

Gaming: The phase one gaming is a level 2 event.

Graphics: The phase one graphics is a level 2 event.

Poetry: The phase one poetry is a level 2 event.

Trivia: The phase one trivia is a level 1 event.

Word Search: The phase one word search is a level 1 event.

Intel: Brotherhood Wide - Rogue One

Obviously we are now just a couple of weeks away from the release of Rogue One! I know everyone is pretty excited for it. I’ve already snagged my owning night tickets!

As like last year there are a few things to note as we move into the new movie release season. First off, Spoilers. Last year for the release of Episode VII, Sarin put in a month or so long spoiler hold. I expect this will be the same this year as well. I myself will be policing the CSP telegram chat and mailing groups and if you do spoil the movie for others in that lockdown time, there will be consequences. Basically don’t be a dick and let people get a chance to go see it. I imagine there will be a Rogue One Spoilers Chat group around with the movie release that you can join to talk about the movie after seeing it.

New movie time also brings with it another year of Celebration competitions. Organized by the DC, you can check out those competitions here.

Intel: Brotherhood Wide - General Changes

There have been some important changes made this last month in the club to be aware of.

Firstly, several Shadow Academy exams have been retired. These would be the old IRC communication exams, and the old Chamber of Justice exams. While the IRC ones are a more permanent closure, following the release of the new Covenant, you can expect the CoJ to be working on some new exams to replace the two that were closed. There has also been the addition of a new Ranged Weapon Studies course.

Our wonderful Voice Team also has a Magistrate position open, with applications closing in just few days, Sunday Dec 4th. Check out Wally’s news post about it for more specifics.

Wally has also completed an update to the fiction grading rubric, which is the main way people will grade and judge fiction competitions. This is the system I use for literally every fiction comp I run, so it is important to note. I very much recommend checking it out and remembering it has been changed should you decide to run a fiction comp. He has also put in a new fiction competition guideline of no fully open-ended competitions aren’t going to be allowed. Basically, there has to be some kind of prompt for the participants to get a base from in writing their fictions.

Finally, the Grand Master Royal Guard rank requirements have changed. Drac has an excellent breakdown of the changes in his news post about it, but the basics are you can now permenantly earn the top ranks of the GMRG Society, instead of losing the top ranks based on quarterly totals. Quarterly totals will still be used to determine who gets to “serve” as the DC Guards and receive access to the DC GMRG accessories.

Intel: Brotherhood Wide - Possessions

Yes, another section just about possessions related news. Per the Regent the current opening date for full launch is next week, December 6th. What this means for you the members.

If you have been checking out the stores and buying things during the open beta, those items will be reset and removed from your account. Salaries and Credit accounts will be reset back, plus any other numbers tweaking the possessions team feel is needed following the beta. However, the custom aspects you might have written for items you bought should still be available for use on whatever you choose to purchase now.

Because this will be the full launch that means no more coming reset once it happens. You are granted a short window after purchasing an item to sell it back in case you change your mind, for a full refund. After that the item depreciates, much like a car does when you drive it off the lot. But that also means you don’t have to worry about losing all the cool stuff you buy, and then customize and make your own. Also remember this is possessions 1.0. The position of Regent means possessions will never not be worked on, for new items and even entire new categories of items to become available for purchase. Possessions is big, huge, and so many hours of work from a lot of people have gone into it. So go enjoy it when that reset happens!

Alongside possessions, some of you at JM4 and higher might have noticed a big new box on your dossiers stating the Trial of Acquisition is available to take. JM4 is “Knighthood” for all the older folks, and is the big first goal for pretty much all new members. Upon reaching JM4 everyone is given access to a weapon, and a small ship to call their own. So go take it, there is an option to cash out on the ship (free credits yo) should you not wish the options. Yeah thats right, they give you stuff at reaching JM4! Anyone already beyond it is also eligible for those free items as well.

As weapons are a big part of possessions, there is also a very important note from the Herald staff. Custom weapon requests are currently closed. Anyone EQ2 and above will have to wait for possessions to go fully live and for them to update their systems and forms to handle it. I imagine there will be several updates and changes in regards to how the amazing custom work they put out will interact with the possessions system.

Finally, our lovely wiki team have also added some news regarding possessions and wiki related articles. Because items you own are given specific IDs you can link to them. They have also created some new template infoboxes for some of the various item types that are included in the possessions system. All very handy in keeping things detailed and organized!

Intel: The Imperial News Net - Ask the Xen!

Dek asks: Is the outcome set for the story or does certain levels of participation/stories change the outcome?

• Overall outcome is always "set" but participation always factors into things. Example would be during the LHC, We failed to kill/capture all the Glyph Priests, they came back and were a major factor in unleashing the monsters in Monstrosity etc.

Alara asks: How will Xen's being possessed affect his relationship with the other consuls of DJB?

• Fallax doesn’t play well with anyone in the DJB.

Lexic asks: Did Xen ever?

• Reasonably I would say.

Alara asks: Deal or no Deal?

• Uhhhh Seven?

Drake asks: Will we see Drake pull off a cartwheel in the upcoming storyline?

• Participate and maybe he will.

Jorm asks: did you factor in severe mutilation as a possible consequence for Xen when you wrote up this storyline?

• Spoilers

Lexic asks: when can we punish Xen for being a derp and accepting untested power? :D

• Spoilers

Evant asks: are you still doing the dark paladins?

• FML. Yes >.>

Blade asks: When the rest of the clan saves you, can Blade stab Fallax?

• SPOILERS. I’m not giving away what happens in Midnight.

KyleX asks: Waffles or Pancakes?

• Yes please.

KyleX asks: why is Fallax such a douche?

• Something Something Evil Sith Lord?

Delak asks: on a scale of 1-10 how epic do you think this event is compared to others

• 12. Go big or go home

Archangel asks: What does the Emperor have for breakfast?

• Food usually. Usually.

Jorm asks: open or closed coffin?

• That would depend on what is left of the body.

Xantros asks: A vampire-Xen or a zombie-Xen?

• Ehhhhh. Vampire I guess. Mindless Zombie Xen isn’t all that interesting.

Lexiconus asks: If the Disciples are loyal followers of Darth Fallax, and Darth Fallax has been locked away within a holocron for the past 30 years, what have his Disciples been doing? Where have they been? Who has been training them for this day?

• No one said he has been locked away for 30 years. The holocron that he used to possess Xen was only placed on Antenora after the Wrath of Zhan. He has been training his disciples for years prior to that.

Lexiconus asks: Are all the Disciples some buff meat-head Elder 1 Sith? Or is there some progressional enemies for us scrub-lord folk? :P

• Disciples are all in the Equite rank range for comparison sake. They are skilled but not super OP like Fallax is.

Xantros asks: What do you do to be such an excellent leader?

• Try my hardest each and every day to give a kick ass experience for everyone.

Atra asks: When will you join me and rule the galaxy?

• Get this creeper out of me and I'm yours bae.

Archangel asks: Do you use the Oxford comma? If so, why? If not, why do you suck?

• Oxford comma for life man.

Sticking this way down here so it doesn’t spoil the fiction for you guys. Delak had offered some time ago to kill off his character and transition to a new one (Jurdan). Given its not so common for people to want to kill off their characters I promised to make it a big and epic moment in one of our clan events. This of course gave him time to illustrate his death, which I wanted to include here for you all.

And there you have it. Midnight has arrived. Go and save your home CSP!

tl;dr

• Midnight has come!
• The New Dawn learns some intel about CSP returning home.
• Fallax kills a man.
• Elincia meets a new friend.
• Fallax tortures Xen.
• The Clan grieves and plans to attack.
• Rogue One is almost here! Go enjoy the Celebration competitions as well!
• Possessions goes fully live soon!

For the Empire!

Follow me on Twitter
Message me on Telegram
Submit Clan Feedback