The Cluster of Ice (CI) is awarded for works of fiction, telling stories and describing imaginary events and people. These can be found as part of: Competitions, Unit Fiction Updates, ACC Matches, and Roleplaying. The requirements detailed below outline the policies in practice regarding awarding these medals.
The Cluster of Ice medal is a ditanium disk treated by a special process that gives it a frosty coat, with rings embossed to support a stylized symbol of ice, and powdered sapphires to give a glistening appearance to the highlights.
Requirements
All Cluster of Ice activities are required to have an obvious and valid connection to the Club’s universe and characters or the greater Star Wars universe.
This means that if you want CI to be awarded for a fiction/battle/roleplaying session in an alternative universe you still need to make sure that all participants write as their DJB Characters. This is both to ensure the activity is still relevant to the club and that a realism factor can be consistently applied for all participants by adhering to their Character Sheets. Story and Realism are important factors in all activities that award CI.
Additionally, all CI awarding activities must take the form of one of the types listed below:
- Fiction Archetype Competition
- Clan/Club Fiction Update
- Antei Combat Center Matches
- Roleplaying Sessions
Clusters of Ice are awarded at a consistent One per 500 words of written fiction. Words that are not consumed by a Cluster of Ice are automatically saved and banked for each member, to be utilized on the next fiction activity by that member.
Bonus CIusters of Ice
When running fiction competitions, Council members and their designated representatives have the option to award Bonus Clusters to participants. The Bonus is calculated as follows: 1 additional Cluster for every 500 words of fiction, up to a maximum of 2000 words.
Fiction Archetype
Competitions that are created under the Fiction Archetype can be standard fiction, or what we call a run-on, a format that utilizes the club’s roleplaying systems on Discord. Both types have specific requirements for approval and the awarding of Clusters of Ice. Additionally, these will need to adhere to the Voice Competition Policies.
All fiction archetype competitions must have the competition runner review the submitted word count totals for accurate awarding of Clusters of Ice. The Voice Staff reviews all finished fiction competitions to ensure accurate word count totals and will remand if there are issues with the word count totals. Typically the major issues in this are including the prompt in the submitted fiction document, or having sections written by other individuals (For Example: A co-op fiction where two members contributed to the total work count, or including a poem that thematically fits the overall narrative.)
Additional notes:
- Bonus Clusters of Ice: Occasionally, the Voice may offer additional Clusters of Ice for participation in specific Fiction Archetype competitions as noted in the competition details.
- Word Count Reviews: Competition organizers should review the word counts of each entry for accuracy and remove words automatically counted by the site, that aren’t part of the entry itself such as Dossier ID lines, prompt repetition, or explanatory notes and information left by the author that are not part of the entry. This should be done before submitting to the Voice Staff for review. The Voice Staff cannot edit the word count totals for you, and it will be remanded until the corrections are made, meaning it will not be closed until this process is complete.
- Competition Approval: Competitions must also pass the Voice Competition Policy before being considered for Clusters of Ice.
- Organizer Submissions: Competition organizers are allowed to submit to their own competition, but cannot place.
- Self-Submissions: Competition organizers must make their self-entered entries public/viewable for transparency to the other participants. Failure to do so will result in remands, and any attempt to game this system is subject to intervention from the Voice and possible CoJ action.
- Submitting Word Counts: Word counts are typically automated and handled through the competition admin panel. In the event of club/clan fiction or issues with that system, they should be provided as a comma-separated list of data. These take the following form:
- Fiction/RP: PIN#WordCount (e.g. 1294#900,8#1000,50#850,1400#600)
- Run-On: PIN#WordCount#NumPosts (e.g. 1294#900#2,8#1000#3,50#850#2,1400#6000#4)
Fiction
One Cluster of Ice is awarded for every 500 words written in a valid submission to a competition. Unconsumed words in a submission are tracked automatically by the site, so there is typically no maximum word count required for fiction competitions to award Clusters of Ice. All fiction competitions should award at least one Cluster of Ice, and as such should include a minimum requirement of at least 500 words.
Example: Member X submitted a fiction of 750 words. Once the competition is closed, that member would earn 1 Cluster of Ice and have the remaining 250 words linked to their account to be used on their next fiction activity.
Co-Op Fiction
Per the Voice Competition Policy: Co-op fiction events should have a five hundred (500) word per participant minimum and incorporate some method by which the word count for each participant can be measured. When a word maximum is used in a co-op fiction, it can only be an overall one, not per participant. This typically means either utilizing a dual submission of a “clean” fiction and a link to an annotated file that shows who did what, or, using our Discord’s roleplaying system to track word totals.
Run-on
Run-on type competitions involve multiple members contributing sections of a story to create an overall narrative. Clusters of Ice are awarded at one (1) Cluster of Ice per 500 words of fiction for each participating member. Each participant should expect to contribute at least 500 words to qualify for participation credit in the Run-on.
Text Roleplaying Sessions
A text-based roleplaying session is conducted on the club’s Discord server. Utilizing the bot and policies set by the Exarch, Clusters of Ice are awarded for every 500 words contributed to a text-based roleplaying session. These sessions must still utilize the member’s character sheets, and stay relevant to the DB universe, as well as comply with the policies established by the Exarch. Clusters of Ice are awarded after the Exarch Staff reviews the closed and completed session.
Poetry
Poetry no longer awards Clusters of Ice. To run a poetry competition please use the "Regular Competition" option and select poetry from the competition types. Poetry should still have a topic or theme in addition to the format/style of the poem.
Special Note: So-called 'Epic Poetry' that are long form and narrative in structure can be approved for Clusters of Ice utilizing the standard Fiction option. The rules should include information about the structure, making it no different than when Fiction requires to be written in first person or be only dialogue.
Fiction Updates
Fiction Updates made by members of their respective units and validated and approved by that unit’s leadership will be awarded Clusters of Ice at a rate of one (1) cluster for every 500 words written. Because partial Clusters of Ice are tracked and awarded when a whole Cluster of Ice is earned, there are no word count requirements for Fiction Updates.
Brotherhood Fiction Updates
All "official" Brotherhood fiction updates, such as Brotherhood Plot updates and Vendetta fiction as approved by either the Voice of the Brotherhood, the Deputy Grand Master, or the Grand Master. These are typically published as a .pdf file that is hosted on the club’s fiction archive GDrive and included as special news posts on the site.
Councilor Fiction Updates
All “official” Council office fiction updates, as submitted by the appropriate Councilor to the Voice for approval. These must be published in a news report, with the URL and dossier # of the author with word counts to the Voice's office. Fiction must be relevant to the Council office and advance the fictional story forward in some manner.
Clan Fiction Updates
All "official" Clan fiction updates, as submitted by the appropriate Consul to the Voice for approval. These must be applicable for the entire clan and hosted somewhere accessible for the general membership (report or GDrive link). Fiction must be relevant to the Clan, advance the Clan's fictional story forward in some manner, and incorporate more than one member to qualify. All authors and word count totals should be submitted in the PIN#WordCount (e.g. 1294#900,8#1000,50#850,1400#600) format to the Voice Staff.
Fiction Archive
For a list of fiction updates, please reference the Inquisitorius Fiction Archives.
Submissions to the Fiction Archives must be published in PDF format. Each unit leader and councilor is responsible for their respective folder with oversight from the Voice.
Antei Combat Center
Clusters of Ice are awarded for every 500 words written in ACC matches and are awarded at the close of a match. Should the 500-word minimum not be reached due to timeouts or other issues, those totals are banked to a member's account like the other fiction activities.
Former Upgrades
These medal upgrades are no longer in use but are preserved here for posterity.
| Upgrades
|
| Quantity
|
Description
|
ID Display
|
| 1
|
Cluster of Ice
|
CI
|
| 2
|
Cluster of Ice w/ Blue Flame
|
CI-BlF
|
| 3
|
Cluster of Ice w/ Red Flame
|
CI-RF
|
| 5
|
Cluster of Ice w/ Green Flame
|
CI-GF
|
| 10
|
Cluster of Ice w/ Purple Flame
|
CI-PF
|
| 25
|
Cluster of Ice w/ Silver Flame
|
CI-SF
|
| 50
|
Cluster of Ice w/ Gold Flame
|
CI-GoF
|
| 75
|
Cluster of Ice w/ Platinum Flame
|
CI-PlF
|
| 100
|
Cluster of Ice w/ White Flame
|
CI-WF
|
| 125
|
Cluster of Ice w/ Black Flame
|
CI-BF
|
| 150
|
Cluster of Ice w/ Sapphire Flame
|
CI-SpF
|
| 200
|
Cluster of Ice w/ Amethyst Flame
|
CI-AF
|