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My fellow Scholars,

It is with great happiness I announce to you, the opening of The Scholarly Pursuit, a competition for scholars of the combine with a Grand Prize of 40m Credits. I believe that this is truly an opportunity for you all to show how well your work should be received amongst your peers and being rewarded for it. I will outline the Pursuits rules:


- Choose a topic from the following: Philosophy, Religion, Culture, Military Tactics, Zoology, Hunting or Geology
- Write a 2000 word minimum white paper around a specific study of your choice.
- Do not submit an instruction manual, this should be opinion, personal experience or argument based.
- Start date Year 14 Day 285
- You have 60 days to submit the piece.
- Submit in the forum
- The winning white paper will be chosen by a Scholars guild panel based on content, originality and interest in the scholarly community.

Any questions, please DM me or drop by on IRC at #scholarsguild

Balance guide you all,

Rennek

I will enter into this competition. My subject will be culture. Interestingly enough, this contest coincides with the first ever Galactic Jawa Swap Meet. I will be writing a paper about Jawa history and culture, including many first-hand accounts from jawa individuals.

I'll throw my hat in the ring as well.

I'm considering a few things, mostly pertaining to the recent conflict on Jandur.

Sign me up I am pretty sure mine will be culture based.

I will be submitting a paper on the subject of hunting.

I guess I'll take a crack at Culture/Philosophy. I'm thinking of one subject that might go either way.

I'll be submitting a piece as well. I expect to include a touch of culture and philosophy, and a little theoretical astrophysics.

I'll be posting my report on zoology.

I sign up and will be writing on Military Tactics.

Excellent, with 8 Participants I imagine the quality here will be fantastic and well worth the prize!

Balance guide you all.

Doe to the sensitive nature of my topic, and the on going negotiations, I am holding off publication. In its stead, I am editing and translating selections of a Jawese epic by use of recently acquired inscriptions and Durese copies I recovered from the library at Ranadaast. There will also be a short commentary.

Is this okay?


It will be presented in Jawese, basic, and Durese, the parts of the texts which I could recover, anyway.


((OCC: im working with Jawese and Durese dictionaries, and others, and adapting words from the earth languages these were drawn from, so the langues are a little fuller))

I'd like to post a paper that covers a bit of mandalorian history and analysis of why the crusaders and neo-crusaders failed to accomplish anything of significance.

I originally wrote this for my clan, but I think you all will enjoy reading it. It -IS- rather long though.

I'm in

My entry will be based on culture but no doubt some philosophy maybe over spill into it somewhat. Primarily based on Twi`lek and Ryloth and hoping that at the very least will be enteraining

I see nobody is interested in Geology. I'll give a shot at it  .

OOC: My sincerest apologies to all for the delay in this. Just an update from me IRL I have recently started a new job and the wife is now pregnant, so Ive been very very busy. I will read the submissions made by the end of the week and give prizes accordingly.

With that in mind, anybody not submitted so far or who needs to edit bits and pieces, please do so and submit by thursday PM latest.

OOC: Its all good, gotta focus on RL first, always. Take as long as you need to read the papers, and I look forward to hearing your responses to each of them. Congrats on the kid, by the way.

A new job and an expectant wife? Your life is indeed full (and that's from someone who has been "blessed" with an expectant wife three times).

I am glad for your good fortune, as it also allows me to belatedly sign up for the Scholarly Pursuit. My subject is one that's been weighing heavily on my mind for almost a full galactic year: why do some Force users choose to follow one path, while others follow another?

Like all good researchers, I have more information than I need. The trick is to edit it down to a reasonable, coherent length. I'll try and do that over the next few days.

Good luck, Rennek!

Belloq wrote:

My subject is one that's been weighing heavily on my mind for almost a full galactic year: why do some Force users choose to follow one path, while others follow another?

Is that what I said was my topic? Man, was I wrong!

I got into a discussion with some friends over whether the new Togorian race was going to attract a lot of new members to its ranks, when I realized there was a powerful race of intelligent, oversized predators who had somehow escaped the entire galaxy's notice. So I decided that now was the time to research them.

I'll have my summation on this new race today. I'll just have to submit the Force user alignment paper at a later date.

Expectant wife, new job AND buying a house. RL has been hectic folks and I whole heartedly apologise.

You may notice, those who actually submitted a piece have been given both accommodation at the Guild, as well as a datapad.

I will finally get around to awarding the 40m, Sith fighter and Diplomas today, so stay tuned!

Balance guide you all

I just wanted to say thanks to the Guild for the new accommodations, as well as the datapad.

It's good to see that the 'pads are preloaded with all of the research articles submitted in the Scholarly Pursuit challenge. It'll give me something to read on those long hyper trips around the galaxy.

And good luck to all the participants!

I would like to echo Belloq's thanks! I now have a place to escape work and study!

I hate to seem like I'm joining in because its the popular option, but i appreciate it, now I have a datapad to actually use instead of these karking sheets of flimsi!

OK, ive delayed this far too long now. Today I will post full feedback on my thoughts and post the winner. I will then head over to the guild and drop a data pad in to each of your accommodation for pick up. Thank you for your patience and Balance guide you all.

Scholarly Pursuit

Firstly I want to start by saying thank you to those who took the time to write entries for the pursuit. I have been inexcusably absent for far too long on this, but following a third read through, I finally have my thoughts and also my results.

I have always had a passion for the scholarly life. The answer to life's "whys" have always intrigued me to the point of distraction. What I look for in scholarly works is something that not only shares another's thoughts, speculations and conclusions, but prompts me to make my own without directly requesting it. I will approach each of the 6 submissions in turn.

Welcome to the Wild - Belloq Tull

A sentient with an obvious flair in writing style which shone throughout this enjoyable read. Using your firm grasp of Basic to punch home the delivery of descriptions and contemplations really made reading the report very enjoyable. I would particularly like to highlight the use of both juxtaposition and alliteration to deliver the line "furnace of frigid temperatures". I would probably liked to have seen a little more speculation around how and why the healing trance came about, but otherwise I have no more constructive feedback on the piece. Thank you.

The Bene Allisimama - Paul Luz

I have come to admire the work you present Paul, it is always well structured, insightful and the language is delivered without pomp or gilding the lily. I thoroughly enjoyed this unique piece of work, which cleverly cross referenced other scholarly pieces of work you have undertaken in the past to draw conclusions, raise further questions and intrigue the scholarly reader. It is a shame that some questions are left open however without perhaps opinion interjected, but as a culturally scientific history paper as I see this, I understand the reluctance to do so. Thank you.

File 0978B - Srota Ron

A fascinating historical tale of historical fact and fable which will prove to be incredibly popular with both non and current Mandalorians alike. The language used, structure of this story and level of detail were incredibly enjoyable to read. I would have liked to have seen more personal question behind decisions made by former leaders perhaps, as there was a lot of what and just not enough why for me at times. I thank you very much.

Ryloth - Thali'a N'ightshade

Gifted as a story teller and poet I can imagine from the beautifully delivered recount of a time on a culturally significant planet. For those reading, it is fantastic to be afforded a chance to perhaps consider a trip to Ryloth as it seems steeped in historical, cultural and beautiful attractions. I would have perhaps enjoyed a more detailed description of those sights and was rather disappointed when you didn't further explore your feelings about the slavery sanctuary, as the emotional attachment, or detachment as it may be, would be fascinating to civilians and scholars alike. Thank you.

The Source of Raw Materials - Ashura Harma

A subject I had never even considered exploring before this paper but which had me in constant questioning right until the very last word. The exploration of different reasonings, exploring their validity and drawing your own conclusions was a joy to read. I have to say, I do not agree with your somewhat flagrant disregard of the beliefs of what you refer to as the "retarded" communities across the galaxy, but can also understand a scholars frustration at the logically inept. That said, I would have liked to see more of your own conclusion on what you thought was the strongest case for being correct and why at the end. Thank you.

Military Tactics - Torc Tarmin

As a former military man myself I was interested to read your report on the correct use of military tactics as any commander will always have his own choice of preferential advance. This would explain why a lot of the tactics I found myself questioning deeper and deeper the benefits and set backs of each, which situations I would use them in. This shows great writing in bringing to the fore those options. What I would have liked to see however, was more of your own conclusions on these, as at times, the paragraphs became descriptions and not discussions. I thank you however, for opening my mind once again to the ever changing world of war as we know it.

Conclusions and results

Having read the six entries, I was struck at just how different each was in its approach, some delivered scientifically, some with more of a minstrel flair, but all interesting and allows the mind to think further than it did prior to reading them, which here at the guild is our goal.

As for prizes, as already explained, you have each been awarded Guild Accreditation, a datapad and Guild Accommodation for life. Further to this though are the top three prizes, splitting the top prize of 40m to a 30m first prize and 10m second prize.

In third place and winning the Sith fighter was Ashura Harma's report on raw materials. Congratulations Ashura, enjoy it.

In second, with the fascinating and full of flair report on the Whiphid species, Belloq Tull is awarded 10 million credits.

In first however and I think we can all agree, thoroughly deserving the 30 million credit prize, Paul Luz with the Jawa translations report. Congratulations Paul.

Congrats Paul, your paper would have been my choice too. And thanks Rennek for this contest. I think it could become something of a yearly event.