I understand that this is a long message, but if you're confused about how the Admins gained their positions, I suggest you read this all the way through. I don't have a solution to a "TL;DR" for this because a shortened version would be long as well. Sorry.

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There is something that needs to be addressed to all the members of EBC, be it that you are a new member, an old member, or somebody just watching the group. This journal is a long journal that explains how most of us admins got the position that we now have. I hope this helps explain something that has been unknown for awhile.

   Honestly, I don't know where to start. To be completely frank, I don't know how many of you are going to want to read through everything every admin since Kasa's rise to "founder" has done to contribute to the group, but I am asking you to please bare with me.

   The admins of EBC have become admins because of circumstance. I, the one that has been here the longest on the team, got the position as Ice Empire's leader simply because I posted to a journal saying I was willing to help out and had a cat in Ice that could lead it if it was needed.

   I did not earn the spot when I first got it. I did nothing of the sort. I simply rose my hand up and got chosen to fill the task needed, much like Happy, Jaggedy, Ducks, and Hawk did. We were there at the right place at the right time.

   I also don't know how many members are here that have been here since my rise. I can name a few, but honestly, there are so many members that I personally know I would not be able to recall two years ago if I roleplayed with you or not. Two years is a long time, and a lot has happened in those two years.

   Now, for those of you that may remember, Ducks, Jaggedy, and Happy became inactive with the group. Sometime in this timeframe, Jaggedy had her character, Cossette, disappear and join Ice Empire and a new leader, Phebus (roleplayed by Jaggedy), entered the hunters' ranks. Ducks was both Leader of Shadow Empire and Silver of the hunters and did not have issue with the change (or just didn't mention it). Abiola went on a journey because the great "Star Empire" told him he needed to leave. This was used to explain Happy's absence by happy herself.

Kasa, myself, and Hawk were the only three that were around to do much of anything and we were all busy spouting out ideas that could help make this group great. We had many ideas, and obviously, not all of them were executed (if any at all). I can't remember half of what was talked about at the time, I just remember there were a lot of ideas and we wanted to do what we felt would help the group grow.

   Then hawk's computer started having issues and Kas got busy with school because she was in her Senior Year of college. During that time (September - November of 2012) I was the only admin taking care of the group. I was by myself and I had to take care of not one, not two, not three, but all six of the groups in EBC.

   To put it simply, I knew I couldn't do it by myself.

   Now, this is not me telling you this because I'm the kind of person that wants to put the spotlight on me. I'm trying my best to explain what happened and why the admins that are in their positions currently have the positions they have. Please, bare with me.

   This is when Justice (Scarflash) came into the equation. I needed help and I needed it badly. EP counts weren't correct from when Ducks and Happy left and Hawk couldn't double check my counts like she had prior to her issues. It was at this time that I realized that we had the tools to calculate EP without actually scrambling on a random dA page trying to make sure we added things up correctly...

   I realized that Google Documents had an excel program on it and, because I knew how to properly use functions in Excel. I had a solution! The problem? I'm only one person and I was going through my freshman year of college. So I asked Scar to help me out while the document itself was still in the beta testing stages. I knew she'd understand the document, being she was the one that made me realize that this was an option I had.

   She went through and calculated EVERYTHING for Shadow, Lightning, and the Hunters for me. She reviewed all of the pictures and learned how the EP system worked while I worked on Fire, Air, and Ice. Whenever we mention the "EP Doc" this is the document we are telling you about. This brilliant thing that not only tells us how much EP each empire has, but also is our master list of names and our statistics telling us how many lions vs. tigers are in the group... It even has the exact percentages to give us a demographic of species in the group... It helps us figure out if we need to close species for openings or open them back up because their numbers are back to normal, a process Scar set up that has done nothing but make things easier on all of us.

   It wasn't long after this that Hawk and Kasa both returned and we were able to start sorting things back out. Kasa was still spotty in her activity, but would listen to our ideas and agree to them when she had the time. Justice started helping out with Shadow and Lightning while I took care of the Hunters and Ice... and on occasion Fire when Hawk's computer started acting up again.

   Then Jaggedy officially stepped down and a new leader was needed to be put in her leader's place. Pallis stepped forward because the admins needed to discuss who was going to be put into this now open position. Kasa didn't want to make the same mistake twice, considering asking members to just volunteered had put us in the situation that we were in to begin with...

   This was when Stone was decided to become the leader of the hunters. I had been busy coming up with ideas for the hunters themselves to better explain the ranks and the reasons, and when Stone became admin, I threw them at her.

   Many of the ideas that are seen in the hunters today are because of the combined efforts of her, myself, Hawk, and Arte.

   So Stone joined the admin team unofficially alongside Justice. We trained her in the use of the doc and explained how everything worked and she set to work as leader of the hunters. Scaeden had to have a good reason to suddenly be promoted up to the rank, so we decided after the Air/Hunter/Fire conflict that he, Juno, and Furie managed to capture a small band of cats and bring them in to the hunters ranks.

   Those cats were roleplayed by Hawk, Kasa, and myself, since we knew we couldn't just pluck random members' characters and say "Hey! You're captured now!"

   It was in this time frame that we realized we needed an admin to stand in for Ducks and Happy because of how long their inactivity had occurred, and because of it, we started prepping Scar for the transition into the position.

   Sullas was the cat that everybody thought would be placed into the position of leader, but because Justice was helping out with Lightning Empire, we needed her to have a character that could actually speak up at gatherings... this is how she came into the possession of Viatrix... besides the fact that she was the only one to try out for the character. She was asked to try out for Viatrix by myself because her other character in Lightning, Naram, was too small of a cat and wouldn't make sense as a leader... or something like that. I honestly don't remember the conversation nor do I really want to point fingers. I just remember that Naram wasn't a good choice and Viatrix was the better choice.

   Funnily enough, shortly after Justice was announced as the winner of Via, Happy stepped down. Justice didn't become leader of Lightning with Viatrix until nearly 4 months later after the Lightning / Bounty Hunter raid. Now, to many members, it probably felt as if she was placed into power quite abruptly, but behind the scenes, she had been helping out in the group for about 5-6 months. She was even beginning to explain to me information about the Roman Empire/Republic that helped us shape EBC into what it is today.

   This is when the admin team actually got it's groove, but is also when things got really hard on all of us. Kasa disappeared and we had very little power in doing much of anything for the group. That is why we were in a hiatus for over a year. We couldn't get everything that we wanted to get done, done. We had to ask Kasa permission for changing EVERYTHING and when she wasn't around... well, we couldn't really do squat.

   But we sure did try. This is when we figured out that we weren't in Rome (Being as Rome is not close to ocean) and that the city we were going to take place in was Massilia, located in modern day Southern France. We then started working on a new map (which was only recently submitted as an official map a month ago... mostly because mountains are a pain to draw at an arial view). At this time, Sky was brought into the group to help out with Shadow because things were getting a little hard for all of us to juggle empires. I was taking care of both Ice and Air at this point on top of Shadow... needless to say I needed help once again.

   Sky has contributed a lot to EBC when it comes to the lore that we now have. The Empire's "Gods" came into being after ages of discussion when she took on the project and started to work on the ideas we had given her. It's because of her that the cats even have Sator, Glacio, Adraksh, Aurelia, Ignis, and Aether. The other admins had always spouted out the idea, but she was the one to actually put it down on a sheet.

   Now, her character Evander didn't rise to his position suddenly, but unfortunately, due to our year in hiatus, his position also wasn't explained in roleplay like Viatrix was... but due to lost time and the amount of character deaths that occurred, it would have only taken longer to get him into the position and would have made the time jump even more convoluted and confusing than it already was.

   You see, when a person becomes a mod or an admin, their character gains the position pertaining to the job. Moderators are Silvers (though recently most of our mods are admins due to the fact that dA is a pain in the behind and won't let mods edit the journals) and Admins are leaders. Our leaders represent us and are our connection to the empire. We can't just remove one from the other, since the gatherings would be hard to get across to everybody. We would have one person who is leader writing one thing and not having access to the tools they need to do it and the other trying to give them the information in order for them to get things done... not exactly the best process I can come up with.

We are not the only group to do this, since it is easier to hold both the figurative and literal position than it is to only have one.

   Shortly after everything happened with Kasa, Hawk and Stone stepped down (though not at the same time) and One alongside Arte were promoted up because they were the silvers at the time. Aglaia was chosen because, at the time, Tiki was active in the group and Aglaia had already held the position prior when Andromeda had been gone. Andro also expected Aglaia to agree that hunters were nothing but scum that needed to be killed for what they did, considering they killed Koda and Soren.

   Stray was not the first member to asked for the Silver position for the Hunters, but she was the only one out of the four or so that actually accepted it. Thanatos felt that a younger mind would help come up with ideas that he may have missed.

The Moderator position was only recently established, used to show that Sky was helping us with EBC and then later used to give our silvers the needed rank to their position. This was done in order to STOP us from promoting people that happened to be at the right place at the right time and to START promoting members that deserved the position because of their activity.

Fengs gained the position because of the way she handled herself in roleplay and because she is an extremely active member. Dehlia, the silver gladiator before her, was my character and was chosen because of her intuition in the battle against the hunters... When she and Viatrix both disappeared after the Lightning Empire raid, Tempestas was the one put in charge... it was only recently that in character, he promoted Euminide up to Silver... because of how she acted in the Shadow/Lightning Raid that was done in the assignments prior to the character udpate.

The same goes for Em, Asante, and Pedro.

These four members are the recent silvers because they earned the position. Not to mention Asante helps us understand people who speak portuguese as their native language and english as their second. Zireena proved her worth for the position by saving a group of felines from a hunter attack and, although awkward in personality, was Ceres' apprentice... and since Ceres is dealing with trust issues due to her falling out with both Cal and Nedria, it made perfect sense that she would trust somebody she trained.

Em was chosen because she has always been an active member and Theo was the next best choice for Andromeda in character after what happened with Tiki/Aglaia. He had been friends to Soren prior to the empire and was a hardened coliseum fighter.

When kasa stepped down officially as admin of EBC, I stepped up into Air's place, since I had been the only one to keep track of the Empire and keep tabs on it while she was gone. Notadonkey was asked if it was okay and obviously was approved.

Pedro was suggested as the position for Silver in Shadow because of her activity and participation since the beginning. Also, Hades seemed to be a good choice due to his reputation with the rest of the empire. Evander made a smart political move in promoting up with those that weren't comfortable with his position.

Now, on to the recent confusion with Viatrix/Tempestas. I already explained that the Admin in charge of their Empire needs to also lead it, but I'm going to put it straight. If Dehlia hadn't been captured during the Raid on the City, she would have been leader. I'm not going to sit down and lead two empires when I know I personally can't put that amount of work on my plate. It was easier to remove Dehlia from the equation all together, have Temp be the one to gain the position in canon because Viatrix put him in charge before she disappeared and because a council of Senior Gladiators agreed he would be the better choice. That is how Tempestas got his position. Viatrix, on the other hand, is a long story that was done through RP... and to put it simply, she lost everything she had and was told lies by a hunter... the only feline that actually cared to "pay attention to her" in her mind.

We are working to stop the fact that we have been in our "close circle" when in fact, most of us wouldn't even be as close as we are if it wasn't for our position. I didn't know Donkey before I jumped into Air's place, but she has helped me in so many ways it isn't funny. I knew these people because we are all a part of the same group; EBC. I didn't talk to them on a daily basis and there are still some of the mods that I don't know as well as I'd like.

Please, understand that we are not trying to choose people that are in our friend group. We are now assessing possible silver candidates by looking at the following:

A) Their ability to stay active in Roleplays
B) Communication between other members
C) Their activity in EBC as a whole
D) Would their character make sense having the position? Would our leader choose them based on their actions?

Many members have been put up for review by the admins without telling them. We don't want everybody to suddenly take interest in the group just because they might get a position. That's not what EBC is about and I will stand firmly behind that belief. We want members to be active and enjoy the group because they care about the group. This group is a community of people that enjoy roleplaying big felines in the time of the Roman Republic/Empire.

I hope that explains some things.