Part 1: “No Return”

Arx
Arx Fleet Systems
34 ABY

The large hangar bay buzzed with activity. Maintenance droids whirred as their torches and arc welders hissed against metal plating and exposed wiring. Teams of independent contractors oversaw the droids, chatting and hollering at one another regardless of how close or far apart they were standing. Arx Fleet Systems was just one of many new enterprises the Brotherhood had created, and one man had been chosen to oversee it all.

Evant Taelyan’s emerald eyes flitted from task to task, his datapad flashing with various charts, graphs, and spreadsheets. Occasionally he would exchange words with a contractor, but the Regent's attention remained always in motion, his tousled white hair a stark contrast against his dark robes.

“Congratulations on the new position, Evant,” came a mellow voice from off to his side. A tall and lean man with dark eyes and simple robes moved to join the Regent. The Senechal seemed to be in good spirits as he looked at the new construction. His fingers idly swiped and tapped away at his performance datapad, even as he seemed to be taking in all the machines and people around the hangar bay.

“Thank you, James,” Evant replied, looking up from his pad to offer a small nod of acknowledgement. “Everything is coming along, but I fear there is still more to be done.”

The two Dark Councilors watched the fruits of their labor enter the final stages, the grand vision materializing right before their eyes.

“I heard Pravus will be selecting a new Fist to shake things up,” James added casually after a few moments. He kept his face even but his eyes danced with mirth.

“Should definitely be interesting,” Evant agreed, trying not to crack a grin. “Any idea when he will make the call?”

“Soon,” James replied with the slight quirk of the lip. “Soon.”

---

Dantooine Savannah
Abandoned Rebel Base
34 ABY

The pair of moons floating over the sky cast a soft glow across the lavender and yellow grasses of the quiet savannah. While remote and distant from the rest of the galaxy, Dantooine’s olive, blue, and brown colored palette had a certain appeal to it. The air was crisp and clean, carrying a sense of serenity.

Zakath took it all in as he folded his arms across his chest. He wore no shirt, having removed it while working on fortifying the cottages all day long. Scaled, corded muscles tightened at the simple motion, giving the Barabel an added layer of intimidation when combined with his significant height compared to the average sized Rattataki. For all of that, his violet eyes were calm and cool. He spoke amiably with the Undesirable refugees and was confident that this would be a good place for them to lay low for the time being. Indeed, this location could also grow into a full settlement to help keep Undesirables safe from Pravus’ Inquisition.

A slender Rattataki tapped him on the shoulder. Zakath turned to regard the woman, her chalk-white skin stark against bright green eyes. “Yez, Mirada?”

“You should take a break. You’ve been at it all day. Come have dinner with us.”

Zakath shook his head. “No. Work still to be done. If I stop, there’z a chance—”

The Barabel froze in place, going still as stone.

“What is it...?”

The Battlemaster felt it through the Force before his predatory senses picked up on the distant sound of landing gears groaning before touching down against the earth. Shuttles of some kind. Only a select few knew about the outpost on Dantooine. Something, or someone, had been compromised.

“Gather the refugeezzz. Get them to the emergency ezcape craft.”

“But we just—”

“Go, now!” the Barabel snarled, tail cracking against the air.

The Rattataki woman’s eyes widened as she turned frantically to run back towards the cottages. She called out to the other refugees and scooped up a small child that had been playing with a pile of twigs and sticks in the dirt.

Zakath turned his back to the cottages and pulled a lightsaber free from his belt. He had no idea how the Inquisitors had found this location, but that no longer mattered. He needed to buy the Rattataki time. Besides, it had been almost too long since he spilled Inquisitor blood.

Click here to read the full fiction update.

Well, that got dark pretty quickly.

Hello, and welcome to my first report as Voice of the Brotherhood. I’m going to be covering a lot, so I promise to keep the gif usage to a minimum and to focus on fiction, policy changes, and the future.

A personal note on “No Going Back”

The fictional update above is the first part of an Anthology series of stories I will be writing for the main Brotherhood storyline. The Anthology will cover changes in personnel (in character) across the Brotherhood, the dynamics of the growing Resistance, and lead towards the large, impactful catalyst of Fiction 3.0.

TL;DR

• The Regent’s role is highlighted.
• Senechal James Entar is punny.
• Soon™ has been canonized.
• An Undesirable safehouse becomes compromised when Grand Inquisitors show up
• Zakath goes HAM on some Inquisitors.
• Marick Arconae confronts and kills Zakath to show is dedication and loyalty to Grand Master Pravus.
• Marick Arconae becomes Marick Tyris.

Thank you to everyone who helped proofread this fiction before publication: Atra, Kordath, and of course Atty, . I had a few members cold-read the story to test reception as well. Thank you Blade, Alaris, and Adem. I appreciate it.

I wanted to also thank Ninj (creator of Zakath) for volunteering the use of his character for this fiction. I was looking to briefly cover the topic of Marick separating himself from Arcona, and Ninj was already planning to kill off his character already. This clicked for me as a writer when I thought about the relationship that our two characters had.

Zakath was one of the first people in the Brotherhood to meet young Marick. I felt this worked well as a parallel for Marick’s character journey, and am happy with how it came out, but also feel pangs of sorrow for the characters. This is a huge catalyst for Marick’s character. Arcona was literally everything to him, and after having spent so much time fighting to protect them, taking the life of a single Arconan in cold blood will change everything for him.

Moving Forward

On that same topic, some of you have noticed that I’ve changed my dossier name to Marick Tyris. This was done, simply, to show solidarity with the rest of the Dark Council. We work to serve you, the membership, even though more than a few of us are Clan title holders. While dropping the name only really applied to my dossier, I went with my usual character development strategy and integrated my out of character changes into Marick’s in character changes. We’ll see how this affects him going forward, but rest assured that the change was not forced on me and was done of my own desire to grow my character.

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to read this. This is probably the most you’ll have to hear or deal with me talking about Marick. He will be taking a backseat going forward as we look to focus on an initiative that will see us focus on prominent members from around the Brotherhood. The next Chapter will feature the Resistance striking back against the Inquisition.

Clan Canon Fictions

I’ve contacted the Consul and Proconsul of each Clan to discuss the fictional state and direction of their respective units. All seven units will be able to write 2-3 pages of Clan fiction that will be canonized and published by the Voice as part of the official Brotherhood storyline. Our hope is for this to get the Clans to feel more involved in the narrative.

If you have questions about this, please communicate or check with your Consul and Proconsul.

Member Focus

While contacting your respective Summits, I’ve also shared and asked for updates to my “Voice's Notebook”. This notebook is a Google Document I keep for myself that highlights and tracks the prominent members of each Clan. When I see members actively participating in regular fiction, run-on, and ACC competitions they make a strong case to become featured, or additional characters, that can make appearances in Brotherhood story updates. My hope is that this will also trickle down to how individual Clans treat their own fictions, and ultimately leads to the members of the DB feeling like they are part of and invested in the overarching narrative.

As a general reminder, no characters will ever be killed off or removed without the author's explicit consent. If anyone tells you otherwise, you can come speak to me directly and I will address/clarify this.

Feedback

As with any service we provide as leaders in the Brotherhood, we can only infer and draw conclusions from what we see. If something is bothering you, you’re curious about a decision or why something was done a certain way, you can always ask me. I’m happy to share my process with anyone, but just know that there are layers that go into this. Research is important, as well as creative vision that is shared between my own ideas, and those of the Grand Master and Deputy Grand Master. Together, we will present you with the final narrative, and in the end, the Grand Master’s direction is what we will adhere to.

Any questions, concerns, you know where to reach me: [Log in to view e-mail addresses]

News

Okay, with that out of the way, let’s talk about some news around the Brotherhood.

Hello yes, this is Wally (again)

I’m going to keep my introduction short, as there are more important things in this report. Most of you know me, or at least know of me my now. Some may have even heard of me. My name is Wally, but I play the Gray Jedi assassin known as Marick Arconae in the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. I’ve been a member for over 6 years, and have spent most of my time in some form of leadership. For the last year and a half I served as Combat Master, but I’ve been working for the Sarin and the Voice Staff since 2013 when I joined as a situational magistrate. I stuck around, became Combat Master for a while, and now here I am. Bam.

You can find me on Telegram with the handle Wally (VOICE), or my email at [Log in to view e-mail addresses].

Grand Master Report #47

Grand Master Pravus put out his latest report, and detailed some exciting new things for the Brotherhood! Most notably, he covered the new personal and staff changes across the Brotherhood, but more importantly an update on where Possessions is at! Possessions is getting more exciting every day as James and Evant keep adding new things. Vyr has done an amazing job with the graphic design for the entire possessions system, and the rest of the DC and Beta testers have been giving great feedback!

You can read the report here.

Regent Report #2

Speaking of Possessions, Evant leaked one of my favorite new features members will get to see: paper dolls. This really makes the whole project come together, and I have had a lot of fun equipping my various knives and gadgets to my Loud Out! Slotting and Load Outs will be integral in your fictions, run-ons, and ACC matches. Keep your eyes peeled for more updates and information!

You can check out the news post here.

A New Wombat Combat Master!

I already announced this in my first update, but I’ll talk about it once again. One of my first actions as Voice was to fill my previous position of Combat Master. This was a no brainer, really, and came as little surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention to the DJB over the past year. Since returning from leave, Atra has been one of the most active members of the Brotherhood. Beyond this, he has been one of its most active leaders. His work with the Voice staff was phenomenal, and his work as an ACC Judge set the bar at a high level.

Atra speaks with my authority. If you have questions about the Character Sheets, mechanics, or the ACC in general, he is your go-to. I trust him implicitly, so treat him with the same respect you showed me over the past year and half as CM.

You can view Atra’s first report here. I highly recommend it.

Voice Staff

I’m going to be keeping my current staff on for the time being. Kordath and Aiden have been excellent magistrates, and I am happy to see them continue to contribute to the Voice Staff. Joining us as Praetor to fill the hole left by Atra, A’lora has joined the staff and will be helping me handle the day-to-day activity of the Voice office. I’m very excited to have him as part of our team.

A New Fist!

My good friend Dracaryis has been made the next Fist of the Brotherhood. If you somehow haven't had the pleasure of chatting with Drac, he is one of the coolest people in the DB. He lives and breaths video games, and has a unique penchant for wanting to help others. He’s already making moves, and I’m excited to see how DB Gaming grows and evolves under him.

You can check out his first report here

Policy Updates, Changes

Now, I guess I should talk about the administrative part of my job. More than a few needed changes and updates fell on the back burners as a result of Evant’s focus shifting to the work that would ultimately lead him to taking on Regent. I’ve spent time looking over pending proposals and documents, and received some very good ideas from other members that applied for Voice or decided to reach out to me. I’ve replied to each in kind, and will keep everything in mind as I move forward. I am always open minded to hearing new ideas. That said, I’m not a big fan of reinventing wheels when the wheel is working, and will be the one that ultimately decides what gets brought to Mav and Sarin for approval.

Species Approval Policy

Atra, A’lora, and I worked together to create a Species Approval Policy. I even had our resident lawyer, Turel, look over the fine print as well. The article is pretty straightforward, and should give members a firm idea of what is required to get a new species added, and how members can go about submitting them.

Grandfathered Species

The other thing I wanted to talk about was how we go about removing the Grandfather tag. If a Species that is already in our system (and marked as Grandfathered) becomes Canon, we will make note of it in our tracking spreadsheet. When a member expresses interest in playing that Species, we will remove the tag and activate the Species without issue. This ensures that new Species are actually being used by members, and not just taking up extra space or acting as dead-weight on the Species selector list.

In my next report or update, I’ll share some statistics that will help show a breakdown of what Species are being used/not used so you have a better idea of where we’re coming from.

To help with awareness of new Species, every report or so, I will also add a section where we will highlight a few Species that have been made Canon that the staff finds cool. Just keep in mind that even when highlighted, however, members still need to express interest in playing that character for us to take action.

You can view the article here on the Wiki.

This has been approved by the Grand Master and will be our live policy going forward.

Hybrid Species

You should also notice some additional changes to Hybrid Species with better examples and confirmation that reptile Species can’t, indeed, breed with mammal species. Sorry, kids (literally). Special thanks to Atra and A’lora for helping with these changes.

Cluster of Ice Update

For some time, Fiction Competitions have been able to award Clusters of Ice automatically. Thanks to more awesome automagic, James has made the entire process easier from an administration standpoint. The wiki has been updated to reflect these changes.

Voice Competition Approval Guidelines

We’ve made a few tweaks in line with the Cluster of Ice updates. Most importantly is the process outlining and detailing how and when to go about submitting Official Clan Fiction or Event Fictions, which can be found here.

You can view the rest of these updates on the Wiki, here

Voice Staff Resource Hub

With all these changes, I realized there wasn’t really a centralized location for all of this information. To that end, I’ve created what I’m calling the Voice Staff Resource Hub. Similar to the ACC landing page, the Resource Hub contains links and explanations to all relevent documentaiton, policies, and guides that the Voice Staff uses to oversee writing and development in the DJB.

Beyond this, you will also see a listing of the Brotherhood Canon Fiction updates that have followed Great Jedi War XI.

Check it out, bookmark it, and make sure to share it with others! Knowledge is power.

DB Fiction Chat

For those of you that haven’t heard, we have a DB Fiction Chat on Telegram. You can find the join link here on the Brotherhoods chat page.

Other than regular fiction talk, we’ve begun to feature a question each day that is aimed at fleshing out and learning more about the plethora of characters created and played by the members of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood.

You can view all of this information here on the Resource Hub in terms of how to submit questions and view previous ones!

Keep in mind that like most chats, be respectful of your fellow members and try to stay on topic.

Fiction Round Up

I wanted to include these in my reports going forward. Here is an overview of the current DB-wide comps that are running.

Brotherhood Wide Competitions

• Containment Breach

• What Would You Do For A Klondike Bar

• The Thirteen Stories

• Haiku’s Of Home

• Spooktober Special 2016 (More on this below)

Brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Magistrate, Ryhlance (also known as Aiden).

Spooktober!

Vyr wanted to run some fun events that were Halloween themed, and he was nice enough to bring me in as a co-organizer. We have a little bit of everything for you guys with a Graphics, Multimedia, and new fiction competition!

Check out Vyr’s news post here for more information.

As some added incentive to the Multimedia competition: if we get at least 10 submissions, I will record myself “running around with a Lightsaber shouting Fus Ro Dah, or other words of power”.

You can thank Seraphol for this #challengeaccepted

That’s all for now. Expect monthly reports from me going forward, with incremental updates in between as needed. Thank you for bearing with me on this longer-than-average report. I had a lot to cover, and purposely kept the gif usage low as possible to focus on content.

That said...

That’s my only one. Honest.

On a serious note, thank you everyone, and I look forward to more reports as Voice of the Brotherhood. Also be sure to check out the latest Discipline Focus article for The Scoundrel!

Sarin is currently looking over my proposal for Dark Councilor fictional roles, as well as an updated rubric. I will let you guys know as soon as I have more information for you.

I’d also like to thank Cyris for the rush commission of the scene between Marick and Zakath. I’d love to feature more artwork with future fiction updates, so keep an eye out for those and make sure to hit Cyris up if you’re looking for work. I’m serious, I’m a huge fan of his work and you should check him out if you have not already!

Thanks again. (And thank you, Vyr, for all the cool report graphics <3!)