House Palpatine Report # 4

STINGRAY BATTLETEAM REPORT #4

January 11, 2023

ST Locke Setzer

Dark Greetings, Member of Battleteam Stingray! A new year is upon us! Whispers fill the Dark Hall of Eos on changes soon arriving! In the meantime, we have some news and a new battleteam-wide competition upon us to announce! So, without further ado...

BATTLETEAM NEWS

Competition Results: Cauldron of Fire

Congratulations to all our participants for this competition! Ultimately, JUG Brutalist earned the most CoFs overall (with 128 CoFs earned!), followed by MRD Habu (with 105 CoFs earned!), then by MRD Maston Dane (with 33 CoFs earned!)

But wait! We were also tracking different platforms for CoFs! For that contest, the top award went to NOV KEBLAOMEGA, with CoFs earned across an impressive 7 (!) different platforms! Second and third place for this category went to JUG Brutalist and MRD Maston Dane respectively (with two platforms each), after tiebreaker rules were applied.

Thanks again to everyone who participated! CoFs are earnable at all times - please feel free to review the Guidance and Expectations section of this report if you need a refresher on the submission process - or just reach out via email or Discord with any questions you may have!

New Competition Alert: Stingray vs. DB Mission Compendium's Finest (?) Offerings

For the next month, I'd like to take some time to put a spotlight on the Dark Brotherhood missions for the original flight sim platforms, with a competition that promotes flying the very best DB battle for the three traditional platforms (well, based on review score anyways...).

From January 12th, 2024 until the end of February 11th, 2024, members of Stingray are invited to compete over the best (?) Dark Brotherhood battles the Mission Compendium has to offer (based on review scores at the start of the competition. They may not be after the competition is over...).

Specifically, members of Stingray are invited to fly the following battles:

A Crescent with Emerald Star, Crescent with Topaz Star, and Crescent with Quartz Star will be awarded to the top three scorers for each platform respectively. Additionally, a Crescent with Emerald Star, Crescent with Topaz Star, and Crescent with Quartz Star will also be awarded to the top three performers across all platforms based on combined positioning.

Additional details can be found here. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out and ask me directly via email or Discord.

New Arrivals to Stingray

Since my last report, we've seen two new arrivals to Stingray! Let me again welcome NOV KEBLAOMEGA, who arrived in December, and APP Miguel Garcia, who just arrived to Stingray this January, to our battleteam and the Dark Brotherhood as a whole!

DARK BROTHERHOOD NEWS

Competition Reminder: The Dark Council's Great Hunt!

Friendly reminder that the The Dark Council's Great Hunt continues on through February 17, 2024! The goal is to hunt specific creatures chosen by the Dark Council themselves in either Monster Hunter: World/Iceborne or Monster Hunter: Rise/Sunbreak!

Our own MRG Legion Ordo is running this competition, so please reach out to him for any questions about the competition or the game platforms in general.

More competition details can be found here!

Competition Reminder: Galaxy of Heroes Territory Wars

Friendly reminder that the Dark Brotherhood is regularly running competitions for Territory Wars in Galaxy of Heroes! If you're interested in participating (or just want to know more about Galaxy of Heroes), I highly recommend jumping into the #galaxy-of-heroes channel on the Discord and asking for help where needed!

Current and upcoming Territory War competitions include:

Reminder: Dark Council Meeting Minutes

The Dark Council has regularly been posting their weekly meeting minutes online. While there are plans to compile all of these together in a central spot, for now I encourage you to review the latest and greatest, located here.

There are many significant changes coming in the days ahead. I intend to do my best to keep everyone apprised and up-to-speed as things become official, but I highly recommend reviewing these meeting minutes to give you an idea of some of the things on the horizon, before they arrive.

After all, Knowledge is a pathway to Power...

GUIDANCE AND EXPECTATIONS

With so many ongoing changes in the Dark Brotherhood as a whole, I like to maintain this regular section with useful information about Dark Brotherhood activities and expectations for membership which I believe may prove valuable.

EXPECTATIONS

The expectations here are pretty simple: participate with the Dark Brotherhood! That sounds obvious, but it's worth stating. Participation comes in many forms of course - whether it's participating in a Dark Brotherhood competition, playing one of our many supported platforms, creating fiction or art, or simply hanging out in the Discord channel, the base expectation is that you're here to engage with the Dark Brotherhood. There's a lot of different avenues to participate in, and sometimes that can be overwhelming. But if you're having trouble finding something to do, please reach out to me directly and we'll work something out.

For our TC-dedicated members, there is an expectation that you do more than simply sign up for the Dark Brotherhood and forget about it. Yes, much of your TC activity will count here as well, but for rewards and progress, we'd still like to see some DB-specific participation - whether that be with the type of activities (CoFs, DB-centric SP missions, Shadow Academy, etc.), DB-specific platforms (GoH, STO, JA), or simply engaging in the Dark Brotherhood Discord channel with your fellow Stingray battleteam members. Please reach out if you have any questions!

CLUSTER OF FIRE

Clusters of Fire (CoFs), the DB medal for victory in PvP matches, are still submitted via a manual process. You must e-mail the screenshot of your MP winning match to our Master-At-Arms INQ Taurus (themadbull99@gmail.com) and (usually optional, but this month will be MANDATORY for the Cauldron of Fire competition) to myself, JUG Locke Setzer (locke.f.setzer@gmail.com).

As a quick refresher, CoFs are earned not just by winning a PvP match, but by placing above over half of your team members. For example:

In matches with 3 or less players on each team, only the 1st place player (according to score/kills/efficiency) would be eligible.
In matches with 4-5 players on each team, only the 1st or 2nd place player (according to score/kills/efficiency) would be eligible.
In matches with 6+ players on each team, only the 1st, 2nd or 3rd place player (according to score/kills/efficiency) would be eligible.

And so on. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to myself or INQ Taurus. Approved platforms are listed here. Note that there's a number that aren't included in the TC! So if someone wants to break out Jedi Academy, this is the place to do it...

RANKS

Promotions are granted to individuals who have engaged in Dark Brotherhood related activities for the minimum specified time period for their current rank (at least). There are, however, three ranks that require an additional action to achieve.

Acolyte - In order for a Novice to be promoted to Acolyte, they must complete the DB:CORE exam, located here.
Stalker - In order for a Juggernaut to be promoted to Stalker, they must complete a creative work demonstrating how their character acquired the parts to make a lightsaber. Fiction is the common route, but there are many other options available. Please consult with the Herald (along with your Battleteam Leader) to identify if your desired creative work will be accepted before proceeding.
Knight - In order for a Stalker to be promoted to Knight (and be granted the ability to wear a lightsaber openly, including on their TIE Corps uniform), they must complete all Shadow Academy courses regarding lightsaber construction, as well as a creative work demonstrating how their character assembled their lightsaber. Fiction is the common route, but there are many other options available. Please consult with the Herald (along with your Battleteam Leader) to identify if your desired creative work will be accepted before proceeding.

For more information about ranks of the Dark Brotherhood, please review the relevant Dark Side Compendium page on the Emperor's Hammer Wiki.

FICTION / ART

We have a number of writers and artists in this battleteam, which I love! The arts are, to me, one of the fundamental pillars that the Dark Brotherhood was founded on. I highly encourage you to share your creations on the Discord channel (especially in #artworks-and-writing). I also highly encourage you to consider uploading your fiction creations to your profile in the EH page (after logging in, under Management, choose "Manage fiction submissions"). This makes it easier for me to keep track of what you've created (and when you've done it), and it also gives others a one-stop-location for your creations. That being said, this is recommended, but not required - all I do ask is that, if you don't upload them to the main EH/DB site, please forward me a copy for my records.

For art, we don't yet have a go-to stop on your profile for uploading things... yet. So in the meantime, please just make sure I'm aware of any creation you produce. And keep your eyes towards the horizon for future options...

ROSTER

STINGRAY BATTLETEAM
Motto: Intercepting the past, changing the future.
Nickname: The Flying Sith
Unit Reports

Battleteam Leader: BTL ST Locke Setzer
Battleteam Members:

Thus concludes this month's report for Stingray! If you have any questions about things going on in Stingray, the Dark Brotherhood, or anything else, please feel free to reach out! My email is locke.f.setzer@gmail.com and my Discord name is LockeSetzer. Please use whichever is most convenient for you. My door is always open!

In Service,

BTL/ST Locke Setzer/Stingray Battleteam/Clan Drakonan
MoT-7rh-10gh-16bh/MoI/MoS/MoC-poc-goc-soc-8boc/RS/GC/SC-SoA/Cr-Ax3-S/CoS/Cr-Ex2/CoLx2/Cr-Qx8/CF/CoB/LoAx4/LS-G/SI

Palpatine Report # 4 (2024-01-11)