---

Assorted Plottings

I honestly just noticed it's February. There was this moment of "Wait. Today's the 2nd? And Thursday? ...oh —". So here we are again, in the middle of a wiki report. I know it's everyone's favourite part of the month, so I won't let you down at least not too much.

News news news. Fistandantilusi (yeah, I have to copy/paste that) had asked me a question about making articles for some NPCs in his character's history, and one thing that came out of the emails was naming the article in such a way that everyone can see at a glance which real character (for generous values of real) they belong to. So, for example, say I want to write an article about my character's mother she's a classy lady. I'd name the article something like "Benevolent Taldrya Whiner/Jane Whiner". Obviously, this wouldn't be for all NPCs, just ones that are primarily for filling out a single character's background. I like this, especially because if you look at the URL it looks like the article is in a directory of all my stuff. Fistandantilusi is trying it out with his page. How do you, the awesome person that you are, feel about it? Should it become a policy and a subsequent project to rename existing articles, or am I completely out to lunch?

If there's something else I should've brought up, I'm sorry. I've got no idea what it is.

X of the Y

• DJBWikipedian of the Month for January 2012 - None


• Featured Article of the Month for February 2012 - Jeric Cyrin

Featured article for this month is Jeric Cyrin. His character article will be on the main wiki page glaring at us all with his arms crossed and looking angry for a whole month. It's going to give me the chills. No DJBWikipedian of the Month this month, there wasn't anything that sticks out as wanting recognition. Lots of people worked on their own articles, which is great, but not something I'm looking for here.

Conclusion

I don't pay attention to the calendar, NPC article naming, Jeric is watching you wiki

---

-Ben

Now for that internal report...

Hello, Dark Jedi Brotherhood! Live from the Middle East, I am here to release a report to you all with some goodies to show and some announcements I hope you all have been looking forward to. First and foremost even though I have released this report, I am still on a Leave of Absence. Being on a ship out in the middle of the ocean, I can't use IRC and I can't check my personal email. The only exception is when I can finally find some wi-fi when we pull in to port and even then, there are some things I want to do and see, aside from you guys. So please, make sure you all are emailing Ekeia for all HRLD issues.

Secondly, I would like to thank everyone for the Emerald Dagger, especially those who wrote recommendations for it. Just knowing that people appreciate the work that is done for them and that they notice a progression in the quality of the work really means a lot to me. As soon as I saw it on my dossier, I had to work on a new rendition for my Wiki. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Now, I have an announcement regarding the Face Selector. I have gone back, cleaned up some of the images for the site, re-sized them, and even worked on a couple of new options. Here's some of the new options we will have coming for you:



So far, I know we have images for the following species:

Males: Twi'lek, Mon Calamari, Trandoshian, Wookie
Females: Cathar, Falleen, Twi'lek

Muz has been working on the more human/near-human images and once I have an update from him, I will be sure to pass the information on to you all. Next, even though we finished Herald Style Hanukkah a month or so ago, the sexiness is on the production line and there's some good stuff already produced. No teasers, everyone. I'm not allowed to open until X-mas.

However while researching some new saber ideas from former Jedi and Sith, I remembered a conversation Muz and myself had about more "legendary" lightsabers. This brought about why we didn't have replicas of Revan's or Exar Kun's lightsabers when we had Vader, Maul, and Sidious available. Well, the ancient Sith Lords are much more badass and deserve one-of-a-kind weapons. That being said, I have started work on a group of sabers that are considered "legendary sabers". They will be one of a kind and be available for Possessions. However, that does not stop me from being a tease.



Depending on the orientation of the member, Light or Dark, they can receive either Darth Revan's lightsaber or Jedi Master Revan's lightsaber. No, both sabers will not be issued out. Currently, I have templates for Darth Malak, Darth Bane, Darth Nihilus, Exar Kun, and Ulic Qel-Droma. Once I have more available to you, the teasers will return.

Lastly, I am approaching my 1,000th lightsaber created since taking over as Herald, with 770 of those lightsabers designed by myself. This being said, there will be two special rewards for the member who gets the 1,000 request processed in the Herald Office and another for whoever becomes my 1,000th lightsaber personally made. I will let the member decide what they are receiving. The only thing that I ask that it stays reasonable, (i.e. no lightsaber blasters, Howie. :P)

Now, let's move on to the sexiness!



Completed by Ekeia:

Laigerick Ryokou-Amor
Raiju Kang
Shadow Nighthunter
Kalon
Tiamath



Shikyo Sasuke Keibatsu
Tra'an Reith

Completed by Ekeia:

Anubis Annedu



Drodik asks: "If a member makes their own lightsaber/warbanner, does it count against them in regards to the Rule of Three?"

Long answer: If a member makes their own warbanner, I will deny it automatically, unless I know they are former Staff. The reason being is because there are some requirements that I instruct the Staff on that the general population does not know. For example, images have to be rendered in a specific way to maintain a nice look on the warbanner without reducing the integrity of the warbanner image.

As for a lightsaber, I have to review the image of the saber before I decide whether or not it is approved for upload. Again, there are certain criteria that have to be taken under consideration before I can give it the thumbs up.

Short answer: Yes and yes.

Halcyon asks: "Who is your most favoritest green-haired person in the DB?"

Hands down, without a shadow of a doubt, it would have to be Halc. The guy signs my paychecks. :p

A couple of members ask: "Why are some members' lightsabers disappearing from their options once they choose a standard saber then try to return to their custom options?"

Well, there are three reasons for that. 1.) an accident on our end when we name a lightsaber, 2.) an accident when we implement new coding on something that affects the dossiers, but the biggest reason has been that Orv has found a tool for the HRLD Staff to use to help cut down on the size of our lightsabers and robes while retaining their quality. Some of the images we render that do not make their way through this process can be deleted once a member changes their image. Hopefully, this will not be as big an issue as it has been of recent.



If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to send me an email or find me in #HRLD_Office you can also ask a question here.

Robes: 186
Lightsabers: 963
Warbanners: 471
Miscellaneous: 128

-DA Shikyo Sasuke Keibatsu
Herald of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood
Daimyo of the Keibatsu Bloodline

Report #15

Its report time.

It's been one month since ToR released, and our guild grows larger and larger. In the last month we've seen additions to the ToR staff, in terms of Raid Leaders and community helpers because our guild is over 300 members alone on the Sith Empire side. Here's to growing and becoming the utter champions of Keller's Void.

For the last several weeks Varoth has been leading groups into Eternity Vault and Karagaa's Palace, and each time we've come out victorious as you guys have seen, as well as running through both Operations on Hard mode and part of Nightmare mode. Valdrane has stepped up as well, in the recent week to help run another 8 man group through Eternity Vault. As of this week, we are slimming our raiding schedule down to Tuesday nights at 9pm EST will be HARD MODE Eternity Vault/Karagaa's Palace while 9pm EST on Fridays will be 16 man NORMAL MODE Eternity Vault/Karagaa's Palace to help newer level 50's get their gear to go on Hard Mode ops.

For those of you that want to get your gear without doing the Operations, you can get Tionese and Columi gear by defeating the final bosses in Hard Mode flashpoints. Although the Columi gear is randomly for one of the four classes, you would have a one in four chance in getting a Columi armor piece.

Last night I actually went with Varoth and a few others and was able to score my Rakata Offhand shield Generator and my Columi main hand lightsaber. VERY happy to finally have both of those.

Continuing with some more ToR staff additions, Kalia and Eiko have stepped up to be Community Helpers, while Scottx, aka Scotty, has become our PvP leader since his wonderful personality sparked our feud with the GAF Empire. :P

Our ToR wiki page houses a lot of information pertaining to Operations, PvP, how to get your CF's, and rules. This page does get updated often, so be sure to regularly check it so you don't miss something.

Moving onto some more serious business, Dante recently had to step down as a bout of real life ripped his soul away from the Dark Jeid Brotherhood. To replace Dante, I have recruited Tiamath to assist as M:FIST.

And now, a day out destroying the Republic on Tatooine with the Dark Jedi Brotherhood.









Competitions for this month:

Lost in Space
Against the odds 2
[ToR] Emerging Conflicts Race
[ToR] Hard Mode Race

Some fun ToR comps out this month. ;)




GMRG Breakdown
Total Members: 121
Rank 1: 93
Rank 2: 14
Rank 3: 2
Rank 4: 8
Rank 5: 1
Rank 6: 0
Rank 7: 2
Rank 8: 1

Honorable Mention: Jac and Sarin both took the GMRG Exam. Welcome back gents!

For full stats go here.



For a list of the commands in #dbgaming either do !help, or click here.




TL:DR
-Our ToR Guild is teh awesome
-Dante resigns, Tiamath replaces
-Kalia and Eiko Community Helpers
-Scotty rages against GAF Empire
-Varoth and Valdrane are Raid leaders
-ToR Comps!
-Jac and Sarin GMRG members. The end is nigh?
-Be sure to read over the ToR Guild Wiki page regularly as new things can be added

Like always, hit me up in an email (djb.fremoc@gmail.com), here, or on IRC for any questions, comments or concerns.

-Primarch Fremoc Pepoi Sadow
Fist of the Brotherhood
Son of Sadow

Report #5 - January 30, 2012




Droplets of water fell into the basin below as he held his own gaze. His breathing was hurried, his chest heaving in exertion. Sweat kept his hair matted to the sides of his face, his hair in disarray. Managing to finally calm his body down he closed his emerald eyes for a second...



"Going down with the ship?"



The Sith's eyes shot open, confusion marring his face before remembering where he was. The sound of escaping atmosphere whistled in his ear, the forcefields flickering in and out of operation. The Cotelin had managed to fight it's way through the initial barrage, but eventually had succumbed to the enemies might. Yet just as her namesake held back the force on the planet below, the powerful vessel fought to keep herself together.



"I'm surprised you came with the assault yourself, Admiral", the Sith Lord responded as he turned to face their ultimate aggressor.



"If this were to end, I think my father would very much appreciate if I saw it to the end personally".

"He wasn't your father".

"Semantics, Hal..."

"You do not get to call me that", he nearly spat, hate pounding behind the emerald eyes.



"My apologies, Darth Vires. Now, does the Brotherhood offer their unconditional surrender or must Antei finally be ground to dust?"



Halcyon's eyes shot open and faced the haunted stare that looked back at him.









It's been awhile since I've done a report, and like many others the insidious monster that is TOR has taken hold of much of my free time. My "free" time is fairly limited, and so I have been choosing to play The Old Republic rather than focusing on pushing the various projects on my plate. While I do apologise for not doing nearly as much as I should be, it has also been nice to focus on doing something truly for myself and having a blast. I'm slowing getting a hang of splitting my time, so I should be able to get some traction on these projects in the next week or two. As such, most of this report will be various other updates and general SW news. Yay? Yay!




As for that fiction up there...yeah, I've finally decided on a "Darth" name, while seeding some future ideas running in my head. I don't plan on changing my actual DB name to Darth Vires, but it's something that can be used in fiction and what not. I've been Sith Lord for awhile now, so I guess it's about time I chose a name as well. As for this "vision"? Who knows if it will come to pass :)









First up...more talking about The Old Republic! (stop your moaning! :P).



Just want to briefly discuss the integration of our Guilds and the rest of the Brotherhood. What everyone must realize is that you cannot fully integrate a MMO into the rest of the DB as we can with other games like Jedi Academy or Battlefront. The focus of the Houses and the Clans is not to find ways to use TOR, but instead to offer an experience that is different from the game. It is to get members to want to participate in activities that does not involve The Old Republic, but instead focuses on the fictional aspects of the club as well as the other activities that we offer. It is more about finding a balance between the Guild and the Dark Brotherhood proper. We also have a number of people who are not in TOR and as such require us to continue offering them the level of focus that they require so that they too may have fun.








Next up, a little update on the fiction side of the rest of the Star Wars universe.




I have just finished reading this novel, and I enjoyed it much more than the Revan novel. However, I also know that this probably isn't for a lot of people. There is not a ton of action, but instead much of the focus is on the history of both Plagueis and Palpatine. It really delves into their backgrounds and explains everything about them leading up to The Phantom Menace. There is a lot of subterfuge and politics being played, and it really did give me a better idea of just who Palpatine is. Also, there was a number of little details thrown in about past Sith Lords that hopefully are expanded on in future novels.









These are a few books coming down the line in the next few months. The Millennium Falcon Manual will be interesting to anyone who is a fan of that famous vessel and wants to know basically everything there is to know about it. I own a copy of the Enterprise Manual by the same makers and I quite enjoyed it.



Apocalypse is the final book in the "Fate of the Jedi" series. This series has been pretty hit-and-miss. Some cool ideas, but they basically made it this maxi-series rather than just focusing on the key points and making it a trilogy. Going forward they have said they are moving away from these massive multi-part novels and instead doing more duologies and trilogies. As for this series, it will be interesting to see how things end and if they status quo does change in any way. I'm hoping for something unexpected.



Last, the Essential Guide to Warfare. I've generally been a sucker for these Essential Guides. They do offer a good deal of information in an attractive package. The Warfare topic is new for the Essential Guides. I suggest having a quick look over in an actual book store before making a purchase on these guides, just to see if the quality is there.








Star Wars Live Action: Earlier this month Rick McCallum, Star Wars producer, was talking about the long-in-the-making Live action Star Wars show. Click on that link in the beginning to get a quick breakdown of what he was talking about, or you can just watch the actual interview where he talks about the show. For a hint of what th



Micro USB Readers





The Lando Effect: How to defeat a Force User










Rant time! Yay! Had a few topics in mind, but thought I would go with one that I continuously hard about. I have been seeing a large number of competitions being run within Clans and Houses when the ideas and topics would work so much better for the rest of the DB. The idea of keeping everything contained within your own unit is outdated, and while there are a number of competitions that can be run within a House/Clan, many of those currently being run are not specific to the unit. For example, seeing competitions based around The Old Republic being contained to just one unit. Why? Why not run it for everyone? We have always offered a number of avenues to get those competitions out to the masses.



Once that competition is released to the entire DB, units seem obliged to forget they were ever released. I see so many updates and reports that focus only on unit-specific competitions. People seem to forget there is a world outside of their House or Clan? I'm not entirely sure. DB-wide competitions will generally offer better rewards as well as enabling members to really be noticed by the Dark Council. Seeing that talent for ourselves helps us tremendously. One of the qualities we look to in leaders is to think not just about their own area of the DB, but instead to think about the rest of the club as a whole. The very act of reaching out and running a competition for everyone speaks volumes about that leader, as does actually updating their members to competitions being run by others not in their House or Clan.



There is only a limited amount of time and energy each person in the club can dedicate. As such it is our responsibility to ensure we give everyone quality activities to participate in. By working together we can actually achieve that goal.



That's the end of the report. As always, please feel free to poke me or e-mail me if you have any questions or comments.





Report Lyrics: "The good guys dress in black, remember that"






In Darkness,



Dark Prophet Halcyon Taldrya

Deputy Grand Master

Sith Lord