Sapphire Blade events for Mandalorian Darcy Avarik

Sapphire Blade events
Event ID
135237
Award
Sapphire Blade
Quantity
1
Requested by
Seer A'lora Kituri
Primary reason

Eighteen months of continuous service in a term lasting between five positions is no small thing. Adjusting to each of these positions of leadership is something this is by tradition a gruelling experience that requires someone to sit down and get to work on introducing their ideas outlined in the applications before being chosen for the position. Maintaining oversight for longer than I can remember in Odan-Urr, I have seen Nathan overcome this obstacle times beyond measure and without breaking a sweat. Rather, he has been able to have his ideas readied before tackling the challenge of settling into a new position with a focus on different members than before. This is an invaluable skill, and one that makes him suited towards whatever position we toss at him whether as a Battle Team Leader, Quaestor, Rollmaster or Proconsul.

Divided from this continuous term, we also seen another three months of leadership from him as the Battle Team Leader of Strike Team Ooroo. Most in our Clan haven’t been around long enough with the oversight to have witnessed all that he done for the team, but those who have are well aware of the task we set for him—to breathe life into a declining Battle Team that was on the verge of closure. Nathan, of course, managed to see the team’s numbers swell to rival that of our other Battle Team, the Knights of Allusis with the activity to call his term a success.

It wasn’t long before Nathan found the time once more to lead our then-House as one of the best Rollmasters to manage an otherwise overwhelming number of recruits. As I have so often stressed, Odan-Urr is one of the few units to have placed a massive workload on the Rollmaster position, until it was re-imagined under Nathan’s guidance in his next term in that same position. We once held the most members in one unit—double that of most Clans and far surpassing Arcona’s roster. Most of these were recruits seeking guidance and without the leadership numbers to manage, the task fell as a burden on the Rollmaster’s shoulders. Nathan bore this well, establishing a working record of not just the recruits, but the entire membership’s achievements that included a full list of awards, time since last merit medal and time since their last promotions in what I still view as the best record-keeping in the Brotherhood. Although it wasn’t in his list of duties, Nathan also hosted two competitions during this time.

More notable was his concurrent term as the Battle Team Leader of the Disciples of Baas, a new Battle Team that was then geared towards our Consulars. Although the model has fallen out of favour in recent times, he introduced this as a conceptual model that worked in alignment with the Guardian-centered Knights of Allusis and the Sentinel-aligned Strike Team Ooroo. Working alongside the Battle Team Leaders of both other subunits, a wiki was drafted for each that outlined their fictional roles and the roster was filled with active members to compete with the Knights of Allusis and Strike Team Ooroo. Eleven events were hosted for the Battle Team for three events that were written in the same manner as our current Clan-wide events, which include a fictional narrative to guide the event. One other competition was hosted as a clan-wide filler to grant members with some opportunities to gain crescents.

Knowing his success and long career working with our recruits and Battle Teams, we wanted to see if Nathan’s drive would hold under the strain of the Aedile position, acting as second to Liam Torun during the Dark Crusades. Though the Vendetta-scale event hadn’t allowed him to run more than two competitions, Nathan focused his energies towards bolstering a dwindling unit that was then burning out from endless phases of the Dark Crusade while suffering from a loss of House events. As our later numbers in the Crusades can attest to, we recovered despite facing the threat of closure at the time as Nathan ushered in a new drive with his Summit to see our participation numbers rise.

As greater evidence to attest to our improvement, our elevation to Clan was a strong one that brought with it a foundation rivalling Arcona’s, even though we lacked the experience of being an older unit. Nathan was one of those that had a hand in the two-week transition where we were able to establish a foothold with our doubled resources in record time. His involvement included having authored a number of documents in a project known as “Transcendance,” which was a roadmap we would follow on attaining Clan status with a working method to see our duties become defined in less than a week. Although we haven’t been notified of the possibilities of adding additional planets to our domain, Nathan still had worked on the redundancies that would have brought with it two wiki pages of existing planets in our solar system and a fictional backstory revolving around what was to be the Kit-Kunis Corporation.

Returning to the oversight of new members in the position of Rollmaster, Nathan was effective in training our Quaestors to take over the former Rollmaster duties in favour of transitioning the Rollmaster into an auxiliary position that worked in tandem with the Consul and Proconsul as a third voice and contributor to events. 42 individual competitions that included his involvement in running our Clan-wide events Tales of New Tython: Lost Civilization, Sentinel Network: Sanctuary and Rise of the Force Ascendant have made this his crowning achievement. Moreover, turned the Rollmaster position into something more than the usual mentorship program, creating far more oversight into individual members than all other clans—that is nothing to scoff at, being that this man has single-handedly tracked over 70 members while the remainder of the Summit focused on content creation. His work ensured that Odan-Urr, as a house and now as a clan, is able to produce awards without someone falling through the ice. Without these records in the form of multi-page excel documents and constant calls for recommendations (to which he already has the relevant information, well in advance of a member being prepared for an award,) we would have fallen short on awarding our members. Throughout his service (in this position and others,) he has provided me with regular internal reports on all the issues he sees, tracking reminders, and suggestions. In addition to this, he created the core guidelines for our refurbished position inside of a multi-page document for future Rollmasters.

More than often, we have asked ourselves—how does Nathan do it? To which, he introduced to us a network of spreadsheets, graphs and google documents that now form the foundations of our Clan—that is, how we have been able to ensure that our members are cared for without falling through the cracks. With one of the largest rosters in the Brotherhood, the importance of having such a net should be obvious in the interest of keeping a large portion of our active membership satisfied. Even though these members are here for fun, retention rates can often be linked to how members are being awarded; it is in our club’s nature to follow a model that awards for participation in activities.

Over 34 competitions Nathan has participated in since his last award for service to his Clan, he has amassed a Crescent with Ruby Star, two Crescents with Amethyst Stars, a Crescent with Emerald Star, three Crescents with Topaz Stars and three Crescents with Quartz Stars. He’s also earned 7 Clusters of Fire and 24 Clusters of Earth for gaming activities, with 9 Clusters of Ice for fictional contributions. For Vendetta-level events, Nathan has gained six Seals of the Crusader and two Seals of Revelation. His crowing award, however, is the Scroll of the Master earned for training Edgar Drachen to Jedi Knight—one of our most active members that has a reputation of being a top gamer for the Brotherhood.

I can’t begin to fathom the number and quality of his recommendations for our members for awards ranging from Dark Crosses to promotions, totalling 69 distinct recommendations. Most would see this as a meaningless task that is expected of all of our leaders and members; however, the extent to which he is involved in collecting records of each member in advance of an award being considered and the fact that his name is on a long list of award recommendations both inside and outside of his expected domain is nothing to scoff at. Other units restrict their recommendations to direct leadership, whereas Nathan has awarded members from all across the club.

Most recent, and sending his efforts over the edge for a Sacramental was his assistance in running our latest (and largest) event as a Clan, being the Rise of the Force Ascendant. He was crucial to developing thirteen events were co-organized between himself and the Summit, having graded 138 submissions and 23,503 words of fiction from 30 unique participants. The event fiction—a collaboration between the organizers—consisted of 6948 words of fiction that he was a massive boon to editing, planning and drafting for final release. This, however, does not include his own efforts in boosting our fiction with his own series “Sins of the Father” consisting of 5606 words of fiction.

His track record speaks for itself, and I could not think of a better way to thank him than giving him the sacramental that he deserves. Congratulations!

Seer A'lora Kituri, 2015-11-16 09:32:32 UTC
Additional reasons

I’ve known or worked with Nathan in the roughly 18 months I’ve been in Odan-Urr continuously. When I was appointed as BTL for KoA back in Sept of last year I was introduced to a world of graphs, gdocs, and other documents that have made record keeping within Odan-Urr much easier than it was the last time I held a leadership position. The names on 80% of them? Nathan Deciarus. These documents have ranged from generalized information on each member of the Clouse and the last reward they received, to things more complex as a calendar of things that needed to be done or competitions to be ran for the Clouse along with a priority scale for each one.

As he was elevated to AED of Odan Urr (when we were a House) Nathan assisted Liam as he needed to take leaves of absence without anything even resembling a hiccup. When we were clanned he decided to take a “side step” to Roll Master. He did this because he realized that he was needed in a much more demanding, but more underappreciated position, he did this for the betterment of Odan Urr. Let me say this again. He took a harder job, with less recognition for the betterment of our unit. People don't do this unless their heart and soul are in their unit.

During his tenure as Rollmaster Nathan has ensured that each House has remained about equal in new members. He introduces them to their new QUA and remains in the loop until they are ready to be taken in by a Master. If he sees that one of our units has more members, but less active Journeyman he has helped to keep the active numbers close. A feat in itself as some leaders wonder why their unit is getting more or less numbers than the other. On that note, Nathan also acts as a mediator for the members of the Clan. Often acting as a level head on the CLan Summit bringing things to CON/PCON and QUA/AED’s attention that they need to work on.

Lastly since our inception as a Clan he has helped the House leadership in the awarding of merit awards and promotions as needed. If you look at it from a purely numbers game, yes we are behind on this compared to other units. However this is because Nathan tries to ensure that a member gets what is coming to them, even if that means they are skipped during an award cycle. However he makes his decision known with the House Leadership and works with them on ways to remedy the member feeling neglected.

Nathan has long been worthy of a Sacramental. His work as RM also fulfilled the majority of the reasons why he did not receive a Clan Title. He has shown his loyalty and his continued dedication to Odan Urr as well as assuring us, through his actions, that he is here for the long haul to make Odan Urr one of the best Clans in the Brotherhood.

General Daniel Stephens, 2015-11-14 01:07:13 UTC

Seventeen months of continuous leadership to one’s Clan or House is not something that’s easy to pull off. Most people burn out after half a year or so. If they ever reach twelve months, it’s considered commendable and praiseworthy. So when I say Nathan’s service to Clan Odan-Urr (and prior to that, House Odan-Urr) is not only commendable but worthy of the highest possible reward, I mean it.

Five months service as a Battleteam leader of the Disciples of Baas — a project from the very start that was supposed to give our more passive members a cause to get behind — which is to this day a successful Battleteam, on par with both Ooroo and Knights of Allusis. Nathan was the founder, and so the one who lay down the foundations that today’s BTL’s of Baas adhere to.

His service as Aedile lasted five months as well, effectively preparing the, then Independent House Odan-urr, for the eventual Clanning that took place in February 2015. During the Clanning, he and I changed places (he becoming Rollmaster and I becoming Proconsul) because most of his duties revolved around member retention, awarding and generally keeping track of activity and working with the Summit (as a whole) on how to better improve the Clan. It is my belief that Nathan’s strong presence behind the scenes was a big part of the reason why Odan-Urr has such a strong participation in events and competitions.

Forty-two competitions organized and thirty-two participated in. Multiple awards, multiple crescents, Clusters of Ice, Clusters of Fire, Custers of Earth, six Crusader Seals, two Seals of Revelation and, most importantly, a Scroll of the Master. Clearly activity has never been an issue with Nathan. He leads from the front as much as his work allows and he leads by example wherever he can, even starting his own personal storyline which will, eventually, become a major plot in the Clan itself.

By far Nathan’s greatest achievement in the past seventeen months are the sixty-nine unique recommendations he wrote for promotions and awards for members of the Clan. Without his organization skills, his willingness to push himself for the greater good of the members, we would not have as many satisfied members as we do today.

For these achievements, for his unwavering loyalty to the Clan even while his own much deserved recognition was forgotten somewhere in the cracks. For his constant dedication to our Clan and to its members, i would humbly like to award Nathan Deciarus his first Sacramental Award.

Congratulations!

Governor Tierra Suha'sen, 2015-11-14 01:07:38 UTC

As others have covered in detail, Nathan Decarius is a rock, a leader and pillar member of Clan Odan-Urr. His recent elevation as a Councilor of Urr and this sacramental are both, to me, no brainers. I have known and worked alongside Nathan almost since day one of my career in the Brotherhood. His dependability is only surpassed by his professionalism, he is calm, collected and has a laser focus on completing the task at hand and taking care of the members under his care. Just as an example he reached out to me right after the Force Ascendant event with a very detailed set of after-action review questions and points to think about to help develop me as a top level unit leader.

I’ve known him as as peer, a leader, a subordinate and most recently someone I turn to for advice and mentorship. In all those roles he has been both someone I can rely on without a second thought and someone I admire. The hard facts of how Nathan has earned this award has been covered by others in great detail, and I add my voice in support without any reservation.

Congratulations Nathan, it has been an honor serving with you and you are a pillar of Clan Odan-Urr

  • Proconsul, Clan Odan-Urr

Champion Rajhin Cindertail, 2015-11-14 02:07:23 UTC
Event ID
211090
Award
Sapphire Blade
Quantity
1
Requested by
Hand of the Emperor Korvyn
Primary reason

I am more than happy to second Farrin's recommendation of Darcy. It is often a difficult thing for members in other timezones to remain in contact and work with their clan mates. Darcy has not let that hinder him or his activity. I will let Farrin's Reccomendation do the heavily lifting here. Congrats on a well deserved award.

Hand of the Emperor Korvyn, 2021-07-27 13:12:54 UTC
Additional reasons

It has been almost six years since Darcy Avarik has received any sort of recognition for his work in the Dark Brotherhood, and that is far too long for the level of consistent activity that he has put forth in that time period. His activity hits practically every facet of our club: he's participated in 92 total competitions since his last recognition, earning four Crescents, 39 Seals, and most importantly a Silver Nova in GJW XIV; he's written over 9,000 words of fiction and over 2,000 words in Runons; and he's earned multiple Clusters and Pendants of Blood. He's also served capably in leadership as a Battleteam Leader in Vizsla for nine months and a Quaestor in Odan Urr for six months, filing unit reports and even more importantly organizing/co-organizing 20 competitions. I'm proud to recognize Darcy for all of his efforts, and want to be the first to congratulate him on this deserved, if somewhat tardy, Sapphire Blade. Congrats!

Adept Farrin Xies Tarentae, 2021-07-27 05:08:58 UTC
Event ID
229424
Award
Sapphire Blade
Quantity
1
Requested by
Hand of the Emperor Korvyn
Primary reason

Our most active Aussie, Darcy (Denath) is a prime example that being on the opposite schedule as most of the Brotherhood is no real obstacle. He gets on Discord and chats with us most days despite the time difference. He has served as Aedile for 9 months now and has never skipped a beat. I will go over his participation numbers below and outline the work he has done for Vizsla.

Since his last recognition, Darcy has competed in 65 competitions (76 including containers). During the latest GJW, he was the highest scoring member of the Clan and earned a Silver Nova. Aside from that he has earned 7 Crescents, 14 Clusters of Ice, and 6 Clusters of Graphite. And just because we are all about the credits here in Vizsla he has earned the clan 219800 credits during that time. Last is the 6 Shadow Academy courses he passed.

Aside from his stellar activity in participation in Competitions, he completed a huge project for Clan Vizsla in the development, writing, and implementation of the Kandosii Casino It’s level of quality is outstanding even down to fine details. It was a large undertaking and he executed it flawlessly.

Last but not least is the work he does as Aedile of House Deathwatch. He works hand in hand with his Quaestor to ensure the needs of his membership and really the entire clan is met. From writing recommendations to award members, to proofreading, not just Deathwatch’s recommendations but for the other leaders as well. He is engaged with the membership ever encouraging them to reach new heights and do new things.

Thank you Denath for all you do in Clan Vizsla, House Deathwatch, and the Brotherhood.

Hand of the Emperor Korvyn, 2022-07-24 21:45:27 UTC