Hello Scholae Palatinae! July is coming to a close. I hope everyone is having an awesome summer. We still have a lot of plans left for the rest of the year. Let’s keep up the momentum of HSP Awesomeness!

Intel: Brotherhood Wide

The biggest piece of DJB News is that Aabsdu has been named as the new Master at Arms! MAA is a big job and he is implementing a new rotating Praetor and Magistrate system to help learn the ins and outs of the job. Aabs is a totally awesome dude to work with, so if you are interesting in trying to go for either P:MAA or M:MAA send applications to him by August 6th.

The second biggest piece of DJB News, is the new AWOL format is officially live. It was brought up a few times earlier in the year, but here is the basic break down of how it works. It use to be we would have periodic AWOL checks run by the MAA, where every member had to reply or log on to the site to be counted as still present. That means a handful of times a year, we would lose large chunks of members to the Rogues. This new system runs constantly. The site automatically tracks when you are logged in, and if it hasn’t seen you in over 2 months, you will get an automatic email. if at that point you go another 7 days without logging in you will be transferred to rogues. Going rogues is something that happens, and we all totally understand when it happens. I’ve been there a few times myself over the last years here in the club. Real life can take a toll and time for things like the DJB just go away. If you are ever sent rogues, do know you can return whenever you have the time and the desire to do so, just by requesting a unit transfer request from your admin menu. All your character information is still saved to the site so you don’t need to worry about losing any of it.

Basically, now you all just need to aware that if you hit two months without logging into the site, you will get an AWOL email. No more bulk checks at random points in the year.

The FIST has released an update to how Clusters of Fire are awarded for playing Diablo 3. I know Diablo 3 is still a pretty big game for a lot of the gamers out there, so if you have a copy and want to earn some CFs while playing with fellow DJBers, please check out Val’s report.

Also in a bit of DJB Wide competition news, Liam (aka Kal, aka Boss HOUer) has set up a new fiction system called “Tales of the Jedi”. Every two weeks there will be a new fiction prompt about a Jedi that you can write about. This is to help get people use to the idea of Jedi around and I think will be a pretty awesome system. Every winning fiction will be put into a pool that will be graded in December, and the winners of that pool get even more crescents. So go crazy with it. The current running one is Heart of the Forest. Check it out if you want a break from being a much more awesome Dark Jedi.

Finally, there has been some shuffling and new Shadow Academy Courses added. General Studies are gone, and broken up into different sections. The old DB Basics exam has been revamped into the new totally awesome DB Core Exam. There are also several new Leadership Courses to check out! I urge you all to keep checking out the DJB news page for new announcements of more awesome courses being added as well as just going directly to the Shadow Academy and seeing what courses you have already passed!

Intel: The Imperial News Net - New Dark Paladin

Several months ago, I reintroduced the Dark Paladins with the hope of using it approximately every quarter to highlight kick ass members. This quarter there was one very obvious choice to give this to, Xantros, whose tireless efforts as our former Aedile continue to have a last impact on the house. Anyone who has worked with Xantros, knows this club is much better off for having him around.

Intel: The Imperial News Net - Looking Home Campaign: Caina

Because I just haven’t sent enough emails about this yet already, The Looking Home Campaign: Caina Event is in its final week. If you are playing catch up on whats going on with it, the opening fiction is on our forum section, along with the related fictions for Ptolomea and Antenora. Coming up after Caina, is the final round of the LHC, focused on Judecca, where the villainous Fias Zhan will finally make his move against the Empire. We are very excited with the level of activity we’ve had throughout the LHC, and hope to keep pushing it all the way past the finish line. Also as a reminder, like the previous round, this round does have a parent competition where the points you earn from participating in the other competitions of the LHC and placing in them can earn you bonus prizes. As well, many of the competitions here will have direct impact on the final round. So take a chance to carve out your own influence in the coming days of the Empire!

A Lab Built of Ice is the fiction event. Deep in the icy north of Caina, a secret lab has been built. Alone you must enter to discover what Zhan’s loyal scientist, Vim, has been working on. Capture or Kill Vim, and bring back whatever data you can find. When Zhan finally makes his move we want to know everything he might try to throw at us, and whatever is brewing in the frozen north, will certainly be apart of his plan. 1000 word minimum.

The Sword is the poetry event. Dorimad Sol, the legendary saberist, is the name sake of Team Dorimad Sol. Caina has long been their home in the Cocytus system. Write a poem about the famed swordsman.

Symbol of Devotion is the graphics event. Zhan Loyalists are cropping up all over the system. They have begun using cult like insignia to help identify each other. Create one of these insignia so that we may better identify and target the Zhan Loyalists.

Race to Calynos is our fun flash game competition. You are to race to Calynos in an attempt to apprehend Zhan before he makes his way off Caina. Play this flash game and submit a screenshot of your high score.

The Loyal Lieutenants is an NPC creation event. Zhan has several Dark Jedi that are helping lead his military force. Create a intel dossier of one of these Dark Jedi. First place’s lieutenant will appear again on Judecca. Make sure to include basic information as well as a short back story. Pictures are not required, but can earn you extra points if it comes down to a tie between submissions. Any other particularly well done NPCs might also be used on Judecca.

Caina Trivia is a trivia event. All the trivia is based on information about the planet Caina and from the opening fiction to this part of the LHC. Top 2 participants with the most correct answers out of 20 will win. Time taken will be used as a tie breaker. The site automatically starts timing you once you hit subscribe, so only subscribe when you are ready to answer the questions.

Of course no House event would be complete without a run-on. The assigned teams are still working hard in their assigned gdocs, but if you are interested in seeing what is happening for them, check out the discourse threads. Team One is making an assault on Kas’im Citadel, while Team Two strikes deep into the mines of Daemon City.

All these competitions will be ending on August 4th, so don’t forget to submit them on the site before then. There are a lot of lovely awards up for grabs here so don’t miss out.

Something we would like to attempt on Judecca is to have a ACC portion. Before working out the details with Mav and Sarin about it however, I want to make sure there are enough people in the house to even merit working on it. At the moment we have 10 ACC Qualified individuals. This is including Evant and Myself who will not be participating for obvious reasons. So if you haven’t done so already, please take a look at the ACC and get qualified for it. It is a ton of fun and I honestly can’t recommend it enough. It know it can look big and scary but it really isn’t. All you have to do is have an approved Character Sheet and pass the two Combat Writing Courses. And when you do, and are looking for some friendly practice, Kor Vaal has opened this handy HSP Challenge thread on the forums. So try it out! I would love to be able to utilize it in House events!

In other news, I spent a good portion of the weekend playing the Destiny Beta. It was pretty awesome, not going to lie. That’s it for this month’s report. Stay awesome HSP.

For the Empire!
Xen'Mordin Vismorsus
Quaestor of Scholae Palatinae