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Circa (aka Valen, Calamiir, Arken, Brad) is best known as the administrator of [[JKHub|JKHub]]. He started playing and modding [[Jedi Academy|Jedi Academy]] in 2005, mostly focused on the singleplayer side of the game, learning to create simple mods and the ins and outs of the game. Over those years he released a handful of mods on JK3Files. He did not have internet on his own computer for the first few years of playing, so he had to find mods and learn modding on his parent's computer, download them, write them to CD-Rs, and transfer to his computer. Eventually he took a break from Jedi Academy in 2010.

When he heard about JKHub in 2012 he returned with as much passion as he had before, becoming one of the most active members on the JKHub forum, and offered to help out with moderation duties as a staff member, eventually becoming the lead administrator and owner of the site. Around the time of joining JKHub, Circa also started playing multiplayer again as well, finding a digital home among the [[Dark Empire of the Sith]] clan, joining their ranks, and began helping create them a new website and help run the clan by eventually rising the ranks to Dark Council. After leaving the clan in 2016, he created his own clan called [[Shadow Order]] later that year. Shadow Order grew fast for 2 years, but in 2018 Circa disbanded it due to stress, lack of member interest, and blowback tension from dramatic events that occurred months prior. In 2022, he decided to rejoin -[DE]- in a council position, while also bringing back the Shadow Order server, providing it as a safe place for anyone to use. Now Shadow Order operates outside of just [[Jedi Academy]], branching into other games, with a sub-clan called RAVEN III.

== JKHub Staff ==
Circa joined the JKHub staff team in 2013 after being noticed for being active, levelheaded, and genuinely helpful to everyone. This was at a time after JKHub's founder, Caelum, had left the site's administrator duties to Fighter. Circa quickly learned how a forum community is run and began to dabble in how the web hosting and design side of it worked as well. Throughout that first year he became one of the only staff members around to take care of things as other members became inactive. Eventually, Fighter decided to officially leave his post as staff, which meant all of the technical administration duties were suddenly put in Circa's lap. He quickly recruited some more knowledgeable help like eezstreet and mrwonko, who helped in areas that needed it.

Since joining as staff, Circa guided JKHub through many staff turnovers, many major member drama outbreaks, 2 server migrations and a few handfuls of upgrades, all without prior experience. He learned as he went and got it done. He did his best to keep the free web hosting service alive, but ultimately shut it down due to cost and lack of vital knowledge on how to run it, and lack of overall interest from the community.

After a couple years since joining, in 2015 Circa decided to leave JKHub staff after getting frustrated that he was the only one doing anything, while also not being able to implement features and policies that he wanted. He left the site to eezstreet who ran it in his absence.<ref>[https://jkhub.org/forums/topic/6184-staff-changes-and-now-hiring/ Circa leaves JKHub]</ref>

Not too long after retiring, in February 2016 he returned to JKHub staff after noticing a lack of moderation and general administration, while also having some more free time in his life.<ref>[https://jkhub.org/forums/topic/7134-good-bad-and-ugly/ Circa returns]</ref> Returning he began to take on the role of administrator and planned some exciting future features and projects for the site.

Around 2017, the original founder of JKHub, Caelum, returned as an administrator after leaving in 2013 to focus on his web hosting business. Circa's role as lead admin was passed back to Caelum as plans for a big software upgrade and redesign were underway, dubbed "JKHub 2.0" by staff. After 2 years of very slow progress, JKHub was upgraded to Invision Community 4.0 and a new theme in 2019, that Caelum attempted to have resemble the old theme as much as possible until the actual new theme was ready to go. It felt slightly more modern but still quite dated by modern standards.

In 2021, Caelum suddenly decided to completely disappear from the internet, leaving plans of a redesign and much of the JKHub structure with him. Circa had to quickly take back over, lead another server migration, get everything moved back into his name and control. During this time, Circa decided to take on the redesign task himself and get it done. He decided to purchase and existing theme to keep things simple and save lots of time rather than making one from scratch. Lots of edits were still made to ensure JKHub had a unique identity rather than a stock theme feel. In August 2021, "JKHub 2.0" was finally launched with a brand new theme and feel, breathing some much needed life into the site.<ref>[https://jkhub.org/forums/topic/12229-jkhub-turns-9-with-a-new-theme-contest-more/ JKHub turns 9 with a new theme]</ref>

In March 2022, Circa was able to get in contact with a few of the original developer of [[Jedi Outcast]] and [https://jkhub.org/news/interviews/jedi-outcast-20th-anniversary-developer-retrospective-r169/ interview them over a Zoom call] for a full 3 hours talking about their experience developing the game, their favorite memories, and reasons they did certain things. He considers it a highlight of his life being able to talk to the creators of his favorite games of all time.<ref>[https://jkhub.org/news/interviews/jedi-outcast-20th-anniversary-developer-retrospective-r169/ Jedi Outcast 20th Anniversary Developer Retrospective]</ref> Plans for another interview talking about Jedi Academy is planned for August/September 2023.

== Clans ==
Circa didn't start playing multiplayer until around 2013 when he got back into the game after a long break. This was due to his parents not allowing internet on his personal computer in his bedroom, they only allowed it on their computer. So online play was just not an option until he got much older, at which point he was fully into playing other games like Call of Duty on the Xbox 360 online. In 2013 though, he had a MacBook Pro that he used for college, and he figured out how to get Jedi Academy to work well on Mac, and started dabbling in playing online.
=== Dark Empire of the Sith ===
Circa didn't prefer to go to the servers that ran [[JAPlus|JA+]] so he typically tried to find normal base servers. There were only a few and only one was actually unpassworded, so he joined Dark Empire of the Sith and had a blast with only two members that were active at the time: Darth Martyr and Sidarious. Circa would get back on the server with them every few nights, added them on Xfire, and they convinced him to join their clan.<ref>[https://darkempireofthesith.forumotion.com/t655-circa Circa joins DE]</ref> After a year of minimal activity, the leader of the clan Darth Apocalpyse decided to become active in Jedi Academy again, so it naturally drew us members back as well. Circa discussed with Darth Apocalypse the need for a new website if the clan was going to grow, as the one at the time was very old. They came up with a plan to create a new website using a newer software, using the limited knowledge Circa had learned from JKHub.

In 2014, Dark Empire of the Sith went through a soft relaunch with this new website and a new clan map made by Darth Martyr (Sith Sanctuary), attracting many new members. It grew fast throughout 2014-2015, with activity and membership getting towards the 30-35 numbers on average. Circa was still only a normal member at the time of creating the new website and this relaunch, but with the website success, activity and dedication, he slowly moved up to Sith Knight and eventually Sith Lord ranks. In July 2015, Circa was promoted to Dark Council due to dedication, work, and activity, with expectations that he will continue. At this time he changed his clan name to Darth Calamiir.<ref>[https://darkempireofthesith.com/forum/d/332-a-new-addition-to-the-dark-council-of-de Circa joins the Dark Council]</ref>

In 2016, the leader Darth Apocalypse made the tough decision to leave the clan, putting his long partner Darth Martyr in his place as Dark Lord.<ref>[https://darkempireofthesith.com/forum/d/472-the-first-dark-lord-travels-to-unknown-space Apocalypse leaves DE]</ref> Due to some disagreements with how Martyr was doing things as leader, Circa decided to also leave the clan.<ref>[https://darkempireofthesith.com/forum/d/509-a-sad-farewell Circa leaves DE]</ref>
=== Shadow Order ===
Later in 2016, Circa created his own clan called [[Shadow Order]]. The goal was to essentially take the best of what he liked about -[DE]- and implement his own new ideas into this new clan. It grew very fast, spreading word to the JKHub community, his friends in other JA+ clans, and the overall base community.

Within the first year the clan peaked at around 35 members, with the help of many members keeping activity strong and the vibe friendly and welcoming. Many aspects changed, like the ranking system, after feedback from members and increase in numbers.

During this time, Circa decided to finally learn how to make maps in Radiant, in order to make a clan map with areas needed for certain events like Shadow Cup, Tag Team, and Medic. The first map was called Shadow Fortress and its tagline was "function over fashion" due to it's unfinished state. The second map was the first trial map, used as a sort of obstacle course for new members to go through as end of their trial period and celebrate their new membership.

With the many ranks added and the success of the trial map, Circa then began to make trial maps for all ranks, enlisting help from Artemis and Blackout to help with creating more elaborate maps for the trials that focus on more than just NPCs but also combat and movement.

As successful as the clan was, it wasn't without its drama, and some situations left the clan split in two in 2018, and nothing was ever quite the same. Activity plummeted and desire to participate in events was low. In mid-2018 Circa decided to officially disband the clan.

In 2022, Circa had begun plans to bring back Shadow Order in a much more casual capacity. Rather than strict activity requirements and tons of ranks, it would just serve as a very casual community that occasionally plays together. Due to lack of interest in past members, he decided not to pursue the idea much further, as starting from scratch wasn't going to be worth it.
=== Return to the Dark Empire ====
Later that same month in 2022, the old leader of -[DE]- Darth Apocalypse had suddenly decided to return to the clan and begin working on his giant clan map, Shola Sith Temple once again.<ref>[https://darkempireofthesith.com/forum/d/2499-we-have-returned-de/2 Apocalypse returns]</ref> This piqued Circa's interest, of course, since he had already planned the same for Shadow Order but ultimately decided not to. Apocalypse and Martyr both attempted to convince Circa to return to -[DE]- but he hesitated for weeks because he did not want to count out the possibility of bringing Shadow Order back if his clan mates changed their mind.

As a compromise, he offered to have Dark Empire & Shadow Order do a sort of "merge" to be two clans in one, a concept that had been done many times in the Jedi Academy community. It was a way for both sides to be run as the leaders wanted but they'd share a server, activity, some events, and resources. Apocalypse considered the offer but ultimately declined.

About a month later in 2022, Circa officially decided to join -[DE]- once again, but keeping the Shadow Order server up and alive for anyone else to use. Circa joined back at the Dark Council rank, and changed his clan name to Darth Arken.<ref>[https://darkempireofthesith.com/forum/d/2499-we-have-returned-de/2 Circa returns to DE]</ref>
=== RAVEN III ===
With Shadow Order not officially returning in Jedi Academy, Circa reformed it to be more of a casual gaming group for his friends in all Star Wars and fantasy-based games, including Jedi Academy, The Old Republic, and Elder Scrolls Online.<ref>[https://shadoworder.com/#about New Shadow Order]</ref>

He also branched off a sub-group for all other non-Star Wars or fantasy games called RAVEN III, the same name he uses for all of his digital projects (web design, graphic design, audio, music, etc.). This group tends to mostly play shooter based games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, Ghost Recon, Halo, etc.<ref>[https://raven.li RAVEN III]</ref>

== Links ==
* [https://jkhub.org/profile/122-circa/ Circa on JKHub]
* [https://circa.im Personal website]
* [https://darkempireofthesith.com Dark Empire of the Sith]
* [https://shadoworder.com Shadow Order]

== References ==
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