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AldroWiki2
Aldro Koon
Rank Leader, Weaponmaster
Species Kel'Dor
Gender Male
Master Vrook
Teacher None
Padawans Yukki, Arcane, Ben
Students Yukki, Arcane, Anubis, Eragorn, Mátt, Jam, Vehn
Joined 1 November 2006 (Founder)
Jedi Path Sentinel

Aldro Koon is one of the leaders and founders of Jedi of Freedom, along with his brother Shree Koon.

Biography

Pre Jedi of Freedom Era

"I see great things in our future brother, great things."
Shree Koon, following the knight ritual in the Dai Old Bendu clan.

2004 - 2005

The Old Bendu

During the early days, two brothers known as Aldro Koon and Shree Koon were both members of a clan known as the Dai Old Bendu. Aldro Koon was being tutored under Master Vrook Lamar. Similarly, Shree Koon was being tutored under Master Olin Garn. The both of them were introduced to the ways of the force through jedi rituals and trials along with the concept of the seven lightsaber forms. However, the clan was in great turmoil at the time.

Shot0065

Aldro Koon in the Bendu clan temple.

Bendu employed a very serious policy where challenging or accepting a duel challenge from a member of an opposing Sith Faction led to severe consequences. Losing a battle led to termination from the clan in what the masters called "duel of the fates".

A very strange policy that led to the clans demise as one by one, every member would eventually get into a battle and lose. Everyone including the masters of the clan would lose and then vanish. Everyone, except for four. Aldro Koon, his brother: Shree Koon, fellow Knights: Ikrith Grey and Nezu Ashla were the only four members from a thirty player clan that still were alive as members. Naturally being given the rank of Master by having had multiple battles and successfully coming out on top, they were looking to rebuild the clan and rid themselves from this policy that hindered the growth of the clan.

The New Bendu

Story of Shree and Aldro Poster

Following the departure, Aldro Koon never saw Ikrith and Nezu again.

And so, the Dai Old Bendu clan was revived as the Dai New Bendu clan. Being under the leadership of Shree Koon and Ikrith, Aldro Koon was a valuable asset to this clan. He would eventually convince his best friend Yukki, to join up with them as he took him on as his first padawan learner. However there were several conflicts that would go on to neglect the growth of the newly formed clan. There was one notorious Sith Faction that would simply not accept the new policy of the New Bendu clan. This Sith Faction or group, was known as The Revelation of the Sith...

This led to conflicts between Shree and Ikrith over how to best deal with this situation which eventually led to the New Bendu clan being disbanded as Shree, Aldro and Yukki parted ways with Ikrith and Nezu.

The Jedi of Freedom Era

JoF2ndBanner

The first banner in the history of the clan.

It was then that Shree proposed the idea of an order. An order that would represent freedom. One that would not be bound to the past but rather one that would have a future. An order where they could bring players together as opposed to repel them. A chance to begin over again and to redefine the concepts that they learned, among these: the seven lightsaber forms.

It was Shree Koon that convinced a reluctant Aldro to aid in the creation of the Jedi of Freedom order on the 1st of November 2006.

2006 - 2007

Prologue

Shree&AldroWiki

Two leaders, one goal.

Aldro Koon began leading the clan alongside Shree Koon. Shree entrusted him with the task of setting up the first website the order ever had along with the forums. Naturally alongside the two of them were also Yukki who despite being offered to go up to a master role by Shree, still decided that he wanted to remain as a padawan and student under Aldro.

The three of them worked closely together to add value to the order by refining the trials of The Bendu clan, marketing the order to various friends who'm they had fallen out of touch with. All of this along with the first draft of the seven lightsaber forms. However it was Shree that was responsible for truly starting the clan. In the very first day of the clans creation, Shree Koon was able to recruit over twenty members on his own. Even as early as then, people who knew him were drawn to him, his abilities with the lightsaber and his ambition with the order.

First home of the Order

GCX HC Empty Seats

The jedi council chambers (gcx).

For the entire first six months, Jedi of Freedom had no temple. There was no place to call home. No server if you will. We did not have the funds nor the knowledge to run or set such things into motion. It is here that Shree managed to find a server that the order could use. Having monitored it for a month prior to the creation of JoF, he concluded that the server was barren and simply there with no one using it. He knew this because he used this same server to train alongside other Bendu members.

RPG HC Empty Seats

The jedi temple council chambers (pyramid).

The server was called JoA but the trio (Shree, Aldro and Yukki) were quick to claim it as their own. They recruited members to the order on that server as if it truly was their home. No one ever came to take that away either. It ran JediCouncilGCX nonstop. The trials, meetings, duels... everything was tailored to work with that map in mind.

That is until halfway into 2007 when Shree managed to host his own home hosted server. The server was using JediPyramid as the orders home map. It was concluded to be the temple of the order with JediCouncilGCX acting as an extension of that temple purely used for trials and such. "The Council building" it was called after all.

Despite being unable to have the server up at all times, Yukki would aid in hosting it sometimes on his machine and in the time that neither could, the JoA server was still an alternative.

The Secret Academy

Secret Academy Poster

The first incident that brought real concern.

During all of this, there had been a few incidents which had led to certain members leaving the Jedi of Freedom order as they desired to make their own attempt at creating and leading an order. This order was called the Secret Academy and its founder was the former Jedi of Freedom member, Gonzo (also known as Mental). Aldro Koon was motivated to try and stop this from happening and so he created a secret JoF Mission Center. The goal of this center was to include very trusted members who would then infiltrate the clan and monitor it from the inside.

This turned out to be successful as two of the Jedi of Freedom members were able to get into the clan, reach a high position only to turn on the leader and shut it all down.

The secret JoF Mission Center idea was then considered to have fullfilled its goal.

The Destiny Incident

The One Poster

The Destiny incident was seen as proof that a safety net for the order needed to be established.

Shortly thereafter, a friend by the name of Louis offered the Koon brothers a dedicated server which was still something that the order still lacked. The Koon brothers accepted and all of their members started playing there. However this turned out to be a manipulative move on Louis' behalf. Louis was attempting to start his own clan called Destiny and he wanted a popular server. Staying consistent and being popular tends to attract guests to your server on a frequent basis as they add the server to their favourites.

This was especially true back then and it still is today to some degree. And so Louis took back the server merely a month after having given it to the brothers and then went on to use it for his own purposes. Appaled by this, Aldro would once again reform the secret JoF Mission Center with the purpose of infiltrating and sabotaging Destiny. A task that once again ended up being a success. However Shree concluded that the usage of their own members neglected the activity of the order itself by having them put their efforts and time into the center and thus he shut it down, permanently.

The Seven Lightsaber Forms

JGJSJW

Three jedi paths: Sentinel, Guardian and Weaver.

Meanwhile the first draft of the seven lightsaber forms had already been completed as Shree and Aldro had both attempted to train a handful of students in the order to no avail. Together they already concluded that they needed to find students who have the same level of commitment as themselves. This proved to be easier said than done. Fortunately they met Zachriel, a former clan leader himself who had abandoned his clan in the hopes of learning under Shree. However competition was still hard in terms of recruits. There were so many clans fighting over the recruitment of members that Shree felt it was necessary to branch outwards and gain intel on what other successful clans are doing. The question was how would they do this, and how far would they take it.

Familiar Faces

Shot0068

Aldro Koon in the Council Building (GCX).

As the months went by, some familiar faces ended up joining. This included Aldro's former master, Vrook Lamar. While Shree Koon had been the face of the order outwards, Aldro Koon was the one who organized everything inwards. While the two of them worked well together, Aldro was growing frustrated over just how much the members saw Shree as the "definitive" leader. During this frustration, Vrook planted a seed of doubt that nearly persuaded Aldro to leave the order. Fortunately, Vrooks efforts to split the leadership were stopped by Shree Koon. This led to several unanswered questions for Shree and Aldro who started to realize that something was not quite right with Vrook.

Shortly after the Vrook incident, Shree's former master, Olin Garn also turned up and ended up joining the order. Previously Vrook had told both the Koon brothers that Olin had lost a challenge duel to a Darth Revious of a Sith Faction and thus "died". Shree who had started to suspect that something was not quite right had began to monitor and store IPs. It was revealed that Olin Garn was infact the same person as Vrook Lamar. This led to a confrontation that ended in Olin/Vrook being exiled from the order. Just as the confrontation was ending, Olin/Vrook revealed to also be Darth Revious.

However this only led to more confusion. Why would someone create and lead a clan (The Bendu clan) only to sabotage it himself?

2008 - 2009

Shree's Mission Center (SMC)

Shot0012

A secret base in Hoth was the concept for the Secret Mission Center map, a project started in 2008 by Exonimus.

Shree Koon wanted answers and so he created a system to get just that. He created Shree's Mission Center. With combining the desire to find answers of his past, finding committed duelists, training them and gathering intel from other clans -- all of this was done, so that the order can stand on a stronger foundation. These were all the key principles of Shree's Mission Center. Zachriel was the first member of the center and he was given the task of finding more. The main rule of the center being that recruitment is invitation only to players who you already know and who are not already in the Jedi of Freedom order. The main reason for this was to ensure that the center did not harm the order in any way. This was often referred to as "the rule of no harm".

Logosss

The original Mission Center logo.

Shree also believed in the concept of Aldro's original secret JoF Mission Center and now with a group seperated from the order, he was able to reinstate that program. To act as a safety net in the case of it being deemed necessary. Due to the fact that Shree was infact the leader of the order, him leading another group seperately could have potentially led to backlash from the members of the order and this was something that the Koon brothers felt could be fatal, at the time. This, along with the effectivity of this Center being stronger if kept a secret, is the reason it was kept hidden for nearly four long years. This is also why sometimes Shree's Mission Center is called the Secret Mission Center.

The Golden Wing (G-Wing)

G-Wing Logo

The Golden Wing logo.

Meanwhile, Aldro Koon was inspired to focus on adding value to the order by offering more unique ideas. Going as far as to creating a squad of members who would focus on aerial flight combat, Aldro created The Golden Wing. Its purpose was to simply offer training within the flight mechanics of the game along with inspire every member to pick out a starfighter of their own choice. He would go on to host several events and at one point even have a seperate forum altogether. Unfortunately, as time was invested into this, it was ultimately concluded that the games engine was not meant for space combat and the lack of good proper maps and deep gameplay mechanics led to The Golden Wing being closed down. In it's memory, a map was created by fellow member Exonimus and later finished and released by Aldro Koon.

The Jedi Order (TJO) and Athena

There were several proclaimed orders back then and one of the more prominent ones was The Jedi Order clan led by the rodian, Beepo Meetab. Prior to his time in the Bendu clan, Aldro had once been a part of The Jedi Order where he reached the title of Jedi Knight before leaving for the Bendu clan due to his brother being there. Being a master and leading his own order now, Aldro was quick to reconnect with Beepo and form the first alliance in the history of the order.

However this friendship would not go on to last. Beepo sent one of his council members, Militus to infiltrate the Jedi of Freedom order in order to keep tabs on the Koon brothers and their plans for their clan. Having been taken aback by the success of the order, he was intruiged as his own order was struggling in comparison. This came as a shock once Shree discovered that the IP of a fellow Jedi Guardian was that of Militus.

Athena Signature

Her mission went on to give us activity at a cruical time along with a dedicated server.

Having established his mission center with a few members already, Shree was quick to create a plan that he set into motion in order to retaliate back. To do this, he used a twi'lek of the JoF order who went by the name of Athena. Athena was at the time one of the orders strongest duelists and she was also the student of Shree. It was due to this that she was an exception to the "rule of no harm" as she went by the name of Melena in the SMC.

Aldro Koon helped stage a fake argument between Athena and himself which led to Athena leaving the order. Eventually she would naturally find her way to The Jedi Order and become close friends with Beepo. Beepo took a severe liking to the twi'lek and granted her all sorts of things in order to show his affection. The plan was working.

However Shree's goal at the time was simply to have someone in the order, waiting for an opportunity that he would deem useful. And sure enough, this came. Void Meetab who was a councilar of TJO and had taken on the same surname as that of Beepo in an effort to act as brothers, had now turned on Beepo. He had split the clan up in members who followed him versus members who stayed loyal to Beepo. Void was the more active member of the two and this had consequences for TJO as Void went off to make a Sith Order. This was later revealed to have been the work of the Revelation of the Sith, yet again.

Sachef

There was a heavy emphasis on retexturing JediCouncilGCX, during this time.

Seizing this golden opportunity, Shree was quick to order Athena to also split the clan. Providing a third choice. Where one was remain in TJO which was considered a sinking ship and the other was join a Sith Order, the third choice was rebuild a Jedi Order from the ground up. Athena who also was very active at the time and had formed friendships with so many members, was able to successfully draw most of the active members with her. She had the advantage of being one of the members rather than a high authority figure. This helped the members relate to her. Aldro Koon played a pivotal role in supplying this new order with help in an effort to befriend these members.

And so Athena finalized her mission by proposing to everyone that they should simply move to JoF instead. This led to one of the greatest mass recruitment efforts in the clans history where around almost twenty applications were made to JoF and it was all due to one person, Athena/Melena.

Second home of the Order

JH2 LC Empty Seats

Considered the primary base of the order. Jedi's Home JL2 ran daily for years with occasional switches to JediCouncilGCX during trials mostly.

The mass recruitment effort of Athena had led to the order gaining new life when it so desperately needed it. Times were difficult but this had helped immensely. Among the mass recruitment batch of the fallen TJO members was a member who went by the name of Hawk. Hawk turned out to be the dedicated server provider of TJO and just like that, the Jedi of Freedom order had a dedicated server that had been purchased by Hawk for two whole years. This time while rotating between GCX and Pyramid, most of the playtime was held on JedisHome 2.

Mission for Conquest

JoF Mission for Conquest poster

The search for answers had finally begun.

Having finally settled into their new home, the Jedi of Freedom order was approached by Pra Viilon, a council member of the Dark Angels academy. Pra came to the order seeking information following some unfortunate events at the Dark Angels academy. Among these events was the complete wipeout of their six year old forum due to their council account being compromised. A meeting was set up with the Koon brothers as Viilon shared details about problems that they had been facing due to none other than the Revelation of the Sith. It turned out that the Revelation were notorious for causing trouble across plenty of communities. Bothered by this along with the previous events of their history in The Bendu Order: Shree Koon decided to send their best agent, Zachriel of Shree's Mission Center to infiltrate the Revelation. This was done with the sole purpose of finally recieving answers to their past along with aiding the Dark Angels with the intel they were seeking. And so began the most ambitious mission, ever. A mission that took years and would go on to alter the state of the the SMC and with it, The Jedi of Freedom order as well.

Security Concerns

Unrelated to the affairs of Shree's Mission Center: During this time nonetheless, there were multiple issues with the security of the temple which had Aldro Koon turn to his closest advisors. Times were difficult as there were frequent attacks from extremist crowds who condemned the ways of the force. The situation was considered dire by Shree who was considering alternatives in terms of relocating the temple. However the order preserved through Aldro Koon and his determination. Aldro refused to give up and was eventually able to implement enough changes to prevent these attacks, permanently.

The Demise of a Jedi

TDOAJ Poster

Zachriel setting the standard for all agents of Shree's Mission Center to follow.

As Zachriel continued his mission, a former Jedi by the name of Avarion who is not granted the rank of Jedi Master ends up turning on the order and tries to gain sympathy from a couple of members. His attempts to sabotage the temple and then decieve others in a effort to damage the order are to no avail. This is due to Aldro Koon and Shree Koon being quick to foil his plans. This however took a toll on Aldro who withdrew himself slightly from the order. Fortunately, former SMC member and an exception to the rule of no harm: Arcane, had noticed this clearly. Arcane who was the second padawan of Aldro, had already climbed his way up to a High Councilar position. He alerted his fellow council members which led to Median taking charge. Median was the master of Avarion and he took it upon himself to end Avarion's time as a Jedi in the order. Troubled by these event, Aldro Koon began to consider an alternative option to the recruitment of Jedi into the order. An alternative that would later go on to become: The Jedi of Freedom Academy.

2010 - 2011

The Jedi of Freedom Academy

Instructors

Four of the early Low Council members who ran the Academy as Instructors. From left: Darren, Abdel, Kordor and Mar.

Over the years, the concept of an academy with a handpicked selection of members serving it as Instructors had already seen several revisions. The goal was to filter out potential members of the order who were deemed to not have the personality or dedication to serve the order as an asset. Originally the academy started far earlier with High Council members Melena and Sway working alongside master Duke Rakarth as Instructors of the academy. This early academy would however not last and it was not until after the events of The Demise of a Jedi that it would return, permanently. Upon its successful inception, the first official Instructors were master Lucien Draay and Duke Rakarth. Shortly thereafter, they were replaced by Low Council members Abdel and Diego. Eventually even Zree would join the duo and make the team into a trio. After some successful months, Diego and Zree would both step down from their positions as the Koon brothers began to replace them and allocate more manpower from the order. This resulted in the assistance of more future Low Council members serving as Instructors alongside Abdel, namely: Darren, Kordor and Mar.

Trouble in Paradise

Vergil

Vergil of Shree's Mission Center who was completely anonymous at the time joined JoF by request from Shree.

Aldro Koon had began to suspect trouble on the horizon within the order itself. Groupations had started to take shape in the form of a very active group freezing out the less active members of the order. Having learned from the situation with Avarion, Shree was quick to act as he sent for a capable SMC agent: Vergil, to join the order and start an investigation by becoming closer with the active group. At the time, Shree's Mission Center was still hidden which enabled this mission to go largely unnoticed.

Vergil was able to successfully compromise the plans of the group who was led by a member known as Kaela. While Kaela denied any actual plans, it was made very clear that she had already rented a server after sharing that she despised the leadership of the order. This was a problematic discovery which led to her being exiled from the order along with her followers. This would include active members like Zree and Diego leaving the order after feeling the events that transpired were morally unjustified thus sending the clan into a state of concern in regards to activity. Kaela would later go on to admit to Aldro Koon that she was wrong about him and that he had proven to be a strong and good leader for being there to stop her. Both Zree and Diego would eventually find their way back to the order, several years later.

Rising from the Ashes

With the clan having lost a group of several active members, the Koon brothers were more motivated than ever to not only reclaim the activity they once had but to surpass it and cement the Jedi of Freedom order as the largest community in Jedi Academy...

2012 - 2013

Pursuit of Happiness

SMC

Shree Koon and his many SMC disciples.

Working towards one unified goal, Aldro and Shree had a discussion on how to best recover from the recent events. It was decided that Shree would change roles with Aldro and become the less prominent leader of the two. This was primarily because of two reasons. First and foremost, Shree had less time on his hands and he believed that his presence being given entirely to Shree's Mission Center would greatly benefit the group. This in turn would directly help the order as that was the main ideology of the group. Secondly, it was also agreed that the members needed a leader who was closer to the people and could relate to them.

This, along with the creation of the Jedi of Freedom Academy would prevent any large conflicts from happening. Shree felt that Aldro was perfect for this and he entrusted him with being the more prominent leader of the two. This enabled Shree to fall into the background and truly grow Shree's Mission Center until it finally became so successful that its secret status no longer was necessary or even an option. This would also allow Shree to go public with the group without any fear of members feeling like his attention is being split between the center and the order. The group by this time had grown and consisted of the strongest duelists in the mod of Japlus Multiplayer. They used this to their advantage by seeking out more quality members for the order, usually by marketing through heavy usage of the seven lightsaber forms. Subsequently, Aldro Koon was providing an environment in the order that truly defined itself as free, living up to the name: Jedi of Freedom.

The Revelation of the Sith

Zarath

"The Koon brothers send their regards" - Zaráth's final words to Verion Mortis.

Zachriel's mission had finally shed some light to the origins of the original Bendu order. It was believed to have been an order that was created merely for manipulation purposes. To offer false promises to naive individuals and harm other Jedi communities by preventing them from recruiting these members. Later known aliases for Olin/Vrook/Revious (the man who was the creator behind Bendu and the one to introduce the Koon brothers to the jedi rituals and the seven lightsaber forms): Ended up being Ganner Rhysode when posing as a jedi and Verion Mortis when posing as a sith of the Revelation. These names were believed to have been his true identity. Furthermore, Zachriel had discovered that the purpose of the Revelation was "to correct what they believe, needed to be corrected". Condemning the ways of what they called elite:ism. Their interpretation of this was players who put themselves above others in terms of hierarchy, using rules to control others and sometimes, naturally forcing authority upon them. In short, communities with a structure, ranks, rules and admins were likely to fall into this category at some point. Fortunately, Zachriel had already became a Lord of the Revelation and a member of the Sith Circle. His alias of Zaráth became notorious for his strength, leadership and many achievements within the group. An alias that eventually became a part of him. Certain deeds were made toward other clans in order to achieve this success. It was deemed a necessary evil. At times, he even began to struggle leaving it all behind as he had made some strong ties to certain members such as Lord Mortimus and Lord Delengtha. However, Zachriel ended up remaining loyal to Shree and eventually started the events that led to the fall of the Revelation. He took it upon himself to throw Verion Mortis out of the group as he had the authority to do so. Several members including Mortimus, left the group shortly after Zaráth himself left and at last, the Revelation was no more.

Emerging from the Shadows

Zachriel

Zachriel became a vice leader of Shree's Mission Center following his successful infiltration mission which ultimately led to the eradication of the Revelation of the Sith. This along with answers to all the questions that Shree had regarding his past in The Old Bendu clan.

As the months went by, the core structure for the center was being revised. Zachriel was granted the role of vice leader, acting as a right hand to Shree following his successful mission. In order to bring the clan back to popularity, the teachers of Shree's Mission Center were often told to visit the public server and demonstrate the quality of the forms in an effort to recruit as many members as possible. The SMC would now be able to teach JoF members through the teacher and student system. The secrecy of the Center was thus no longer deemed necessary. Through this, it did not take long until the order had reached its highest activity peak and member count, ever.

One complication from this situation was that players from all across Jedi Academy started to note the quality of opposition that suddenly was emerging from the order. In an attempt to retain the social aspect of the clan and not simply recruit members for the wrong reasons: The academy needed to be extremely careful in regards to its evaluations for future members. Shree's idea had been a huge success and the clan entered a stage where new structural ideas were being actively implemented across both the center and the order. Things were better than ever and the order was beginning to dominate in popularity of new recruits when compared to the other communities in the game.

The rise of the Low Council

HC Leader pose

The Leaders and High Council in 2017, from left: Shen, Mathayus, Arcane, Yukki.

LC Pose

The Low Council in 2017, from left: Darren, Jelly, Sly, Kordor, Fuzzy, HaVoC.

It was during this time period that the council had began to finally function as a unit within the order. Prior to the creation of the academy, there was only a High Council consisting of members who were deemed exceptionally loyal and had been members from the very early inception of the order. The High Council was a great safety net and a last resort kind of system that consisted for the longest time of: Yukki, Arcane, Shen, Mathayus, Median and Melena. It had proven its usefulness most recently through the Demise of a Jedi incident.

However following the Trouble in Paradise incident, a decision was made to create a secondary council called the Low Council. The concept behind the rank was to offer more responsibility to members that are active, committed and have them represent the order and its members. There were a few Low Council members initially who simply did not last very long. This included members such as: Diego, Zree, Exonimus, Skaylon and Vul. However it was not until the magic trio of Darren, Kordor and Abdel that the Low Council finally began to function as intended. Abdel was the definition of a member who represented the people. He was loved by virtually everyone and loved hosting events. Kordor was a determined member who was able to recruit visitors with great ease through his loyality and skill. Skill that was explained by the fact that he had mastered Soresu under the teachings of none other than Arcane himself. And last but not least, Darren embodied a function that was never before seen in the history of the order. A member with unprecedented diplomatic skills, coding abilities and relentless dedication. The three of them truly represented the clan in a time of growth. It was for that reason that both the Koon brothers were very careful of not electing future Low Council members without consulting the current council. Eventually Mar, Zeus and Foongus would also join the Low Council but they served rather briefly compared to the trio that kept going strong for years.

Building the Temple and the Center

JoFs-SMCV2

The Secret Mission Center map took 5 years, 7 months and 25 days to finish.

JoFTemple

The JoF Temple map only took around a year to finish.

As Shree was focused on the center and Aldro on the order with the Low Council to oversee it: Aldro began to take on map projects as a project leader as well. As time passed, more and more members would end up applying for the academy. Among these were members who would go on to impact the clan greatly. Most notably in this time are the two mappers who would be responsible for the creation of the JoF Temple map and also the Secret Mission Center (SMC) map. These two went by the name of Fifthforge and Ez. The SMC map had began production as early as 2008 by the hands of Exonimus with support from Zefilus, Dalendrion and Milamber. However progress had reached a standstill for quite some time. It was Ez who entered the clan in 2013 and joined the project. Ez inspired Aldro to also learn mapping. They reinvigorated the project by working together as the Secret Mission Center map was then compiled by Aldro and released in 2014. It was Ez that did the massive work of combining every single area that they had all created seperately (mostly Exonimus).

As the project finished and everyone rested: The next project was decided by Aldro to be the JoF Temple map. Dreading the workload due to the previous project taking so many years, Aldro was concerned that this map would take equally long to finish. That is until Fifthforge who had also entered the clan in 2013 and recently learned mapping, essentially worked on the project from start to finish within just a year. The JoF Temple map had areas created by Fifthforge, Zefilus, Ez and Aldro with support from Milamber, Fuzzy and Exonimus. But it was Fifthforge that truly finished it by combining all of the created areas. The JoF Temple map was then compiled by Aldro and released in 2016.

Both the SMC map and the JoF Temple map would serve the community for years to follow, becoming iconic maps that were rated very highly on websites such as JKHub.

2014 - 2015

Meeting in Amsterdam

Jofmeetinghouse

For an entire week, members all across the world came and stayed at this villa.

In February of 2014, for the first time in clan history: A real life vacation was being discussed, initially started by Foongus. Foongus had planned to rent a cottage for a week. It took some time to set up and in July of 2015, a week long vacation was held in the Netherlands. The members who attended this meetup were High Council member Mathayus along with Low Council members Darren, Abdel, Fuzzy with masters: Mar, jjuliet, Hipzie and Foongus. Prior to the trip, Fuzzy had mastered Soresu under the training of Kordor. He had also been made into a Low Council member. A position that he filled like no one before him as he took on several art requests within the many council and leadership projects. This was something that he continued to do for years onwards. The vacation itself was considered a success and quite the experience. Fuzzy would even propose to jjuliet during this trip and the two of them would return home as an engaged couple.

The Lugormod universe

Lugormod

Aldro Koon roleplaying outside the Bespin bar in the Lugormod server as Jedi Master Kahn Koon.

As summer was concluding, Aldro proposed and started a Lugormod project in the clan. Lugormod is a mod that allows the players to register accounts. Players may then choose a profession, obtain credits that are then stored on the account, upgrade their skills to unlock more weapons/force and level up. Ontop of this, Lugormod also allows you to build entities ingame. Day/night cycling was manually possible. Players were able to own houses, have droids follow you as companions, gamble credits and go on quests. This made Lugormod for the best mod in terms of roleplaying elements. Aldro and Fuzzy began learning how to build by using guides all over the internet. Together they launched the first ever version of Lugormod for the order, calling it the {JoF}Roleplaying Universe. Once every two weeks, the members would gather on the server and roleplay. It ran the The-Council-RPG map which offered a nice variation between two areas connected by a shuttle. There was the more civilized Bespin in contrast to the more criminal Tatooine. An entire story background was written for this. Eventually, Flanagon who was a master of the order would also join the project as a builder. This was cruical as Flanagon had some prior building experience. He would create several interesting systems, quests and bug fix the many issues the map had received due to poor building experience prior. However the future of Lugormod came to an abrupt halt when the engines limitations began to show in regards to entity limit. This combined with the unfortunate events of losing the most recent save file with much of Flanagons work, led to future Lugormod events being cancelled. Many discussions have been held since then to revive the project but no official decision has yet been made. Occasional events still take place once or twice per year in order to allow for new members to experience this universe.

The Academy webapp

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Darren became the first member to obtain the Medal of Honor.

In October of 2014, Low Council member Darren would come to revolutionize the order as he introduced a fully realized webapp that was coded by him. While in the beta stage at the time, it has seen several updates over time. The webapp, known as Jedi of Freedom Academy would allow players to register on the website. Visitors would be able to create applications which would then be stored in the form of a database. The database would constantly evolve, including things such as the applicants activity, days on trial, evaluations from other members and more. This would be the first major advancement in the filtering process that was originally envisioned back in The Demise of a Jedi incident. Darren changed the future of the order by introducing this webapp which made recruitment management much, much easier. Both the Koon brothers would end up eternally thanking him for his work, giving him the highest of merits and even creating a medal specifically for him (Medal of Honor).

Third home of the Order

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Two new server hosts running at once would pave the way for all the future good things to come.

Following the Academy webapp, there were certain DDOS attacks made on the server for long periods of time. The order had grown and became quite the large community which posed a threat to other communities. This would cause problems for the community leading to days of downtime and serious concerns. Aldro Koon would research the topic at hand and eventually develop a solution. For the first time in the orders history, the order had two servers running daily. This was accomplished by setting up a virtual machine from the host known as NFOServers. This was where the backup temple server would be hosted, only allowing entrance for members. Ontop of this, it would allow for additional servers to be added whenever deemed necessary. As for the public server, a seperate order was placed for a DDOS protected server from Caelum at JKAServers. The combination of these two services would serve as the foundation of the order for years to follow and finally eradicate all concerns of incoming cyber attacks. The order was now a community that was widely recognized by mostly everyone as number one. However, there was still some room for improvement to be made...

Attack on the Temple

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Did Shree know?

Unfortunately, there was one area of the community that was still lacking in overall defense and security. On May of 2015, the unthinkable happened. Just shy of ten years from being on the Invisionfree forums, the official clan forums were hacked. This was a forum that costed nothing and was thus limited in terms of functionality and security. Due to a terrible oversight, a user was able to inject HTML code through a signature and redirect members to a fake mirror login website. The user would gain entry to multiple accounts including Aldro himself. The attack would wipe out every account on the forums, leaving the forums dysfunctional and only serving as an archive for just the Koon brothers. Originally this sent Aldro Koon into a state of serious depression. Fortunately, for reasons unknown to this day: Shree Koon had already placed Zachriel in the clan under an alias. Zachriel was quick to reveal his identity and suggest a new forum host known as Invisionpower which had far greater functionality, security and came with a monthly price. He would work together with the Low Council as they together gathered the members, amassed the needed funds and moved over to the new forums. One of the worst incidents in the history of the community would also result in producing the best outlook for the future. To this day, little is known regarding the attack. Conspiracy theorists like to claim that Shree Koon himself staged the entire incident despite Shree actively denying those claims.

Jedi of Freedom - A New Era

2015 - 2018

Hope in the Dark

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The annual awards along with many other new achievements served as a fresh way to motivate members into contributing.

The new forums would launch on May 25 of 2015 and it allowed for far more customization which paved the way for a wide addition of new features. This further motivated the leadership to actually review and revise everything else as well. The result ended up being the creation of the annual {JoF}Awards with the introduction of titles, medals, new master ranks and new field ranks. Over the following years, new additions were actively made along with balance updates. The goal was to allow each member to be unique in terms of achievements and specialization while motivating members to contribute more. Ontop of this, in an attempt to make the community more modern and offer better quality of life systems: The trials ended up being completely overhauled and trial missions were also introduced for the first time ever. Eventually, co-op missions would also be added as a new activity. This would permanently change the way masters and padawans interacted with each other and other members, for the better.

Chief Instructors

Hunter and Rotkind

Rotkind and Hunter would go on to serve as Low Councilars following their successful runs as Chief Instructors.

With the many fresh systems in place, the next step was to focus on invigorating new life into the community. The role of the Chief Instructor was introduced, with the Chief Instructor being able to recruit three fellow members as Co Instructors. There was a distinct difference between this new instructor system and the old one. Most notably, the Chief was responsible for ensuring that the team performs as expected on a monthly basis. The goal of these people being to recruit thirty adepts per month into the academy. Successful months would grant rewards for the entire team and failed months would eventually lead to a new Chief being elected to replace the old one. And so on the September of 2015, Sanjisan became the first Chief Instructor as he lead his team for 12 successful months. Furthermore on January of 2016, with the drop of the humble-bundle deal on Jedi Academy: Sanjisan and his team of Antinomy, Diego and DarkSith were able to recruit over 100 Adepts during that month alone. A feat so impressive that most clans combined could not measure up to it. Such an accomplishment called for an annual memorial day called the Instructor Appreciation Day. Sanjisan would then be invited into the Low Council the following month and serve for a brief period until he eventually stepped down from the position due to real life duties. Future successful Chiefs that would continue the effort would be Rotkind and Hunter, both of which served for a successful 12 months and a whooping 24 months, respectively. Both were also eventually invited into the Low Council in 2018.

The Industrial Revolution

Codingteam

Without a doubt, the single most important department in this category started with Darren and Milamber who would both go on to create projects that would improve the overall quality of life within the community.

On February of 2016, the research and development department was created. Darren was tasked as the director of it and Aldro Koon would actively search for members both inside and outside of the community that would end up joining and being assigned to different departments. The idea was to have a clear list of members who are able to lead various projects with the main goal being to allow these people to work together in order to improve the community. In order to be a part of a department, the only requirement was to submit something that the community could use and showcase. Coding, mapping, skinning, hilt, art, video, instructor roles, co-op hosts and in-game acting were all departments that members could and still to this day, can sign up for. Exciting times were on the horizon as every department was more or less developing projects with the purpose of improving the community. These times were often referred to as the industrial revolution.

European Domain

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Leaked footage of Shree observing others.

There had been quite a few free domains over the years, but following all of the recent improvements to the community, Shree Koon would surprise everyone as he purchased the "www.jedioffreedom.eu" domain. While Aldro Koon had very much grown into the role of the active leader in terms of his presence, Shree Koon was still very much around, keeping an eye on things and ensuring that the forms would see constant improvement over at the SMC.

The Launcher

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An early concept image made by PreFX for a future potential JoF Launcher version.

Darren's next coding project would end up producing the JoF Launcher. This was a program that would be able to download Jedi Academy files in bulk with a simple click as opposed to having to navigate through websites to find everything individually. The program saw its first release date in December of 2016. Numerous updates were made over the years to improve its functionality, even including features such as a server tracker within the program. This would also allow the leadership to add and remove files on demand, a task that was then managed for years by Rotkind as the Cloud Caretaker. The reception was more than stellar as everyone loved the way this simplified downloadable files.

The Legacy

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Fuzzy's legacy. Click here to see the full master tree

Aldro had always desired the idea of a graphical tree that would consist of all members with the minimum rank of jedi master. It would highlight information and achievements about each member while clearly displaying the relations between that member and past masters as well as future padawans. Essentially serving as a graphical representation of the orders entire history. Darren would go on to code a rather simplified tree which was released in December of 2016. It would remain in its early version until October of 2017 where Fuzzy would aid in the project by finishing art for it. This would mark a fully fledged legacy tree that would match the original vision of the project. Both of the Koon brothers would be eternally grateful for this particular project as it was truly a dream come true for them. Similarly to the launcher, the role of updating this tree would fall on the Cloud Caretaker which for the first initial years was Rotkind.

Financial Support

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The forum widget for selecting donation options.

In January of 2017, the {JoF}Support system was announced as a way to aid the community in terms of donations. As the community had upgraded in terms of infrastructure through the website, forums, new domains and servers: The monthly expenses were nearly doubled as a result. And so the {JoF}Support system was a way to encourage members to contribute more through donations by using Paypal. Special items were listed in the form of a community shop where members could see what rewards were granted depending on what amount someone donates. Higher donations would grant more special rewards. This concept ended up becoming absolute vital as it paved the way for one of the key systems of the community: Jedi Holocrons.

HaVoC Productions

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HaVoC, one of the most well regarded members of the community.

HaVoC had joined the community in 2016 and took the community with storm. His dedication knew no bounds and he continuously used his talents for the benefit of everyone. Most nostably, HaVoC restarted the trend for Jedi Academy videos within the community as he revived a fallen project known as {JoF}A New Era. Together with Diego who wrote the script, HaVoC would film and edit footage in an episodic format. This project was thus a mini-series featuring our own members based on a loosely accurate yet fictional storyline. HaVoC also did tremendous work in the Art Team, mastered a form, passed it on and was also the first member to ever host the anniversary event in the unplanned absence of Aldro. He was given the Medal of Honor among many other accolades. HaVoC also served as a Low Council member for a certain time until he eventually stepped down. To date, HaVoC is often times considered one of, if not the most accomplished member of the community.

Jedi Holocrons

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An ancient holocron which has access to the legendary drop table of unique items.

Aldro Koon had long started thinking about a system for the community that was akin to lootboxes in recent modern games. The goal of this however being to reward members for individual achievements as opposed to generate an income of money. Darren shared this vision and so the two of them began to discuss ways to best implement this new system. They eventually branded this as Jedi Holocrons. A topic was created where council members and weavers could aid during the development process. Fuzzy was tasked as the graphical artist and front-end coder with Darren acting as the back-end coder. On the 21st of May 2018, the Jedi Holocrons were released with four rarities with each having access to their own unique drop table of items. These four rarities were Ancient (legendary), Rare (rare), Ordinary (uncommon) and Salvaged (common). It was considered a huge success as it made for a much deeper reward system. Holocrons were given as rewards for attending special events, winning scavenger hunts, gambling on the outcome of certain activites and much more. It was such a substantial success that Aldro eventually claimed that it single-handedly won Darren the award for Member of the Year in 2018.

Modified Maps

Atlas

Atlas would even go on to modify maps for future Scavenger Hunts as well as aid in the development of the JoF Awards map.

It was often considered a dream to have a member with the skill set of modifying current existing maps which require no downloading. This was something that the community had lacked for years. Aldro had even gone as far as to manually search for individuals who could cover this. One individual that he found, was known as Maui. Maui had previously had experience with entity modding default maps within Jedi Academy and Aldro was quick to recruit him from the JKHub forums. Maui eventually went on to modify nearly every single map in the public server rotation. Adding custom features and cosmetic changes which would enhance the experience of players and make the server more unique. Sadly, Maui then fell inactive. Fortunatently, Atlas had picked up the same skill set. It did not take long until he started modifying other maps, offering unique ideas and even a christmas themed default map. Ontop of this, Atlas had been hosting multiple events and being one of the first members to really emphasize the importance of custom VSTR commands for member hosted events.

Scavenger Hunts

Phantom-0

Not only did Phantom win the first Scavenger Hunt but he also won multiple others that followed.

Launching alongside the Jedi Holocrons were seasonal Scavenger Hunts. These were based on retelling stories throughout the communitys history by entity modding current maps to include cryptic messages and clues. Members would be told where to find the first clue. Then they would have to try and piece together where the next clue may be located. The winner would be rewarded with the first Ancient Holocron. After extensively searching around the temple and secret mission center map, Phantom was able to solve the hunt and write history as the first recipient of the very first Ancient Holocron. Future Scavenger Hunts that followed were all very varied depending on whoever decided to host them, at the time. The first two hunts were hosted by Aldro with the ones that followed being done by Low Council members.

2019

Building the Awards

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The {JoF}Awards 2018 Ceremony in all its glory.

In the beginning of 2019, Zefilus had roughly finished his next grand project: The JoF Awards map. PreFX had also assisted with the art within the map. However the development had came to a halt and Zefilus was unsure if he would finish the project in time for the upcoming ceremony. As it was time for the {JoF}Awards 2018 ceremony, Aldro took it upon himself to really push for its finalizing stages of development. He would go on to debug the entire map and add details while working closely with Atlas to even include fireworks.

Lux

Lux Aurumque went from recruit to Low Council member in less then a year.

The {JoF}Awards map was released in January of 2019 and the entire event itself was recorded and beautifully edited by Atlas. Members described the event as truly memorable and Aldro himself stated that it was one of the most unique and best events in the history of the entire community. Lux ended up grabbing the award for both Recruit of the Year and Member of the Year. Not only did he join within that year, but he went from Chief Instructor to a Low Council member shortly afterwards, right alongside Atlas.

Project Heimdall

Heimdall

Milamber's iconic project known as Heimdall was an Anti-VPN Detection system for the public server.

History was made in April 2019 when Milamber finished coding a project for the public server. This project, was an anti-VPN detector which would go on to make it more difficult for people to bypass actual bans. Up until this point, bans had little effect as anyone could simply find a VPN and bypass them. While handling and detecting VPNs is a difficult task and can never be expected to work perfectly: Heimdall showed a significant improvement and effectivity in regards to bans in general. The entire community was and still is eternally grateful to Milamber for the creation of Heimdall. Alongside Milamber, it was also Darren who coded and directly managed Heimdall, creating rule tables and whitelisting/blacklisting people where necessary.

Academy V3 webapp

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JoFA V3 in all its glory, made possibly by Darren with Fuzzy.

Darren had been coding away at an improvement to the former Academy webapp. Fuzzy had also been assisting with the front end art and design. In July of 2019, Darren launched the long awaited JoF Academy Version 3 webapp. A complete overhaul of the original webapp which showed far superior performance, design and overall functionality. Some of these functions were: Masters would now be able to directly decide if they were willing to take on an Adept. The Chief Instructor would now be able to create a manifest of what Adepts were to be discussed at the upcoming meeting. Member ratings for Adepts were now more in-depth, allowing people to score Adepts across multiple categories, and more.

Patreon

Shree

A pleased Shree Koon gazing upon the bright future of the Jedi of Freedom community.

As the community continued to grow and the cost of maintenance grew with it. Patreon was introduced as a way to combat this and to ensure that a monthly revenue stream would be established. It was made abundantly clear that the Patreon subscribers would not recieve any pay to win benefits. The only thing one obtains is a cosmetic emblem on the forums, designed by Fuzzy. The emblem that one recieves is directly dependant on which subscription tier is chosen. Briefly after its announcement, the community was able to gather 10 patreons. The monthly income ended up being nearly twice of the monthly charges. While the support donation system still exists, Patreon would effectively eliminate any need for additional funds and the leadership could finally rest knowing that the community is fully taken care of, in terms of finances. Perhaps the future will even allow for additional features to be added to the community.

Time will tell...

Jofconnectingpeople

Form Learning and Mastery

Aldro Koon is the co-founder of the seven lightsaber forms.

Regarded as one of the best players in JA+ MP by various Form Teachers, he is often times considered only second to Shree Koon himself. While having personally studied and developed the following forms below, he essentially has had a part in the creation of every single form.

Active forms that still exist in the order:

  • Form: Jar'Kai
  • Form III: Soresu
  • Form: Shien
  • Form V: Djem-So

Inactive forms that have been merged with other forms/been discontinued:

  • Ataru (Now in Form I: Shii-Cho)
  • Sokan (Discontinued)
  • Trákata (Discontinued)

Ranking Progress

  • The Leader of the Order (2006 - Current)
  • Sagemaster (2007 - 2009)
  • Weaponmaster (2009 - Current)
  • Chancellor of The Sith Empire (2016 - Current)

Awards and Achievements

Titles

  • Swordmaster
  • Forcemaster
  • Seer
  • Scout
  • Organizer
  • Archivist
  • Watchman
  • Evaluator

Medals

  • Creator of the Clan

Quotes

"l0l" - Aldro Koon

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