I wanted to get some updates out, mainly as I’ve had a new staff in place for a week now as we put some finishing touches on the big data upload for possessions and I start to line up the next set of projects. So I’ll go over some updates from the past month mainly.

Voice Staff Updates

I want to reiterate again how smoothly things ran with Arden and Xen on the staff as Magistrates and thank them again for all their hard work this past year. That said, I have moved forward and extended offers to join the staff to Aiden Lee Deshra and Kordath Bleu d’Tana and both have accepted and already joined the team as Magistrates. They’re already getting well up to speed and I expect that they will be processing things within the month and everything will be moving along. I look forward to working with both of them throughout the rest of this year and into next as we see some possessions all dialed in as well as a host of currently ambiguous or not so well defined policies.

Quick Updates

• Species: The Muun species is available now in the selector and can be found here on the wiki. This was actually added a while ago as the Dark Council worked with Arcona to get an NPC created for a competition, but documentation is now complete. Aside from this, we currently have open requests to review adding Devaronian and Thissipasian but are considering this along with a comprehensive policy update as brought about by confusion the last time we approved a species. We are monitoring demand for these species and hope that we can get this along soon. This is in addition to a wider sweep of species by A’lora that we’re taking a look at to help speed up future decision making.

• Default Lore Topics: These have been updated on the site, and everyone’s Character Sheets. For reference, this is under the Lore for topics your character knows just by default for being part of the galactic community. Outside your character, it helps you not need to think about what you might know that your character doesn’t when considering the events of the films. So now New Jedi Order isn’t a topic your character knows anything about, instead your character will have 2 topics: ‘The history of the modern era including the New Republic and post-Galactic Concordance conflicts.’ and ‘The history of the Galactic Civil War including the Alliance to Restore the Republic and the Galactic Empire.’

• Artifact Review: Over the past month lists from the Consuls of the artifacts their Clans recognized came trickling in and I have a complete list now. Along with a new policy that will cover the creation of, the maintenence of, use of, and disposition of artifacts, it will seek to fold these items into the new possessions system so they officially exist. The Grand Master is looking at how he wants to approach this and will likely make a decision during beta sometime before launch on what to do. Once I have a peer reviewed artifact policy done, I’ll extend to the Dark Summit for comment before moving forward with anything officially.

• INQ I Have a List of People: I continue to enjoy reading all the entries that members submit to this competition, as the second of this series. It’s obvious many characters don’t take kindly to Darth Pravus’ actions and there are about twice as many spies in the Inquisitorius ranks than loyal Inquisitors coming from the ranks of the Clans. Either way, I think it’s a great way for characters to get engaged in the plot and themes in these fictions help set the tone for future fiction updates and events so I really appreciate everyone who takes the effort to submit. For reference there is a 3rd running now titled INQ - Imagine Me And You.

• Iconic Character Sheets - Emperor Palpatine: Atra is running a competition here, to create a Character Sheet for Emperor Palpatine. It runs up through the end of July and gives you a chance to think about the behavior and traits of a well known Star Wars character.

• Possessions: Thank you to everyone who I approached over the past few months with questions, comments, ideas, thoughts, or concerns to help pull together a massive powerpoint documentation on the design of possessions and an extensive google doc list of items and experience review. We are about to take the second huge step forward in possessions and start to really build up the structure in the coming months and start testing. Personally, my next steps focus around Aspects and Feats for items going into this first beta while James does his coding stuff, Vyr does his graphics stuff and Mav helps put a team together to make some official decisions on the member experience. Then the second beta will start and include everyone in the Brotherhood. The reasons for the limits early are frankly just time and energy and documentation and need to stay focused. By second beta the entire possessions system should be well documented on the wiki with policies and everything in place to lift the veil on the whole thing but doing all that work with so many pieces undefined would be a waste of energy at this point. If you have any specific questions feel free to find me on telegram.

• Telegram DJB Fiction Chat: I have created a DJB Fiction Chat. It came up a while ago and I hesitated but as we discuss policies and member experience and try and make things transparent I think a channel makes sense at this point to at least try out since supergroups are a thing. The main goal of this chat is to discuss realism as it relates to the DJB and what is Canon since it doesn’t entirely line up with Star Wars Canon, as well a story and character development and the ongoing plot. Also, a more straightforward place to ask the Voice questions since I don’t host anything similar to that on Telegram although I’m always approachable. Atra and the staff will help moderate this and keep it on topic so it's valuable to members seeking answers, and we will see how it goes. I'll add a link in the comments.

Voice Staff Links

• Antei Combat Center
• Character Sheet Approval Guidelines
• Weapon Selection Guide
• Voice Competition Approval Guidelines
• Cluster of Ice
• Standard Fiction Grading Rubric

Conclusion

I’ve really been head down on getting possessions to a point where many more people can start working on it to clear some of the major bottlenecks. With that done, and a new staff in place, I hope to see some focus on the fiction writing community, tools, visibility, and policies, and start to define some things. As always I’m always open to comments or suggestions and look forward to a lot of enjoyable storytelling the second half of this year.

In darkness,

Evant Taelyan
Voice of the Brotherhood