For more than three and a half months, I have served as Tarentum's Consul; Sith Bloodfyre - Beef - has been my Proconsul for almost that entire time. Selecting him for that position is something I pat myself on the back for on a daily basis, because I simply could not serve effectively without his incredible counsel, wisdom, and competence working alongside me. It goes without saying he's done the minimum of what you'd expect in his position - three reports since becoming PCON, co-organizer on twenty-five competitions, welcoming new and returning members, etc. - but the reason he's so deserving of this award is because of all the additional, more nebulous duties of a Proconsul that he's done. He's been the de facto Tarentum cheerleader since coming back to activity at the beginning of the year, and he's done nothing but redouble his efforts on that front since becoming PCON; promotions, new joins, babies IRL... all get a shout-out from Beef on the Clan mailing list. He's also a constant voice of reason and wisdom for our newer and more inexperienced leaders (including myself), putting his fifteen years of experience in the Brotherhood to good use.

The help he's provided me is simply incalculable, but for the sake of perpetuity (and the reviewers) I'll provide a few examples. I quickly learned how incredible of a writer Beef is very early on, and while the nine Clusters of Ice (for almost 5000 words of fiction) since the end of August should provide ready evidence of that fact, the context makes them even more important. Almost (if not all) of them came from his efforts to craft the fiction for our Clan vendetta, Reanimated. He was able to take a couple of half-coherent bullet points as to where I saw the story in my head and turn it into high quality fiction - it felt like every bullet point I gave him turned into a thousand words of fantastic story. As we seek to reinvent Tarentum's fictional place in the world - to make it coherent, new, and exciting - it's ironic that I'd turn to such a long-time veteran to assist in its creation. However, if the past 5000 words of fiction are any indication of the next 5000, Beef is more than up to the task.

The most recent and best example of Beef's capabilities came in the form of our joint event with Clan Plagueis, Forged Alliances. The execution of this event happened to fall into one of the busiest periods of time I have in the "Real World," so Beef has truly been the voice of Tarentum in carrying out the event. He was tapped twice at the last minute during it to write its fictional updates and he successfully did so both times with his usual quality; for both, this consisted of me poking him on Telegram saying, "Hey, Beef, we need a fiction done for the thing" and not much else as far as plot, then followed a few hours later with an excellent piece of writing ready to go. One of the few consistent job requirements for a Proconsul is to be able to fill in for the Consul when needed, and Beef proved during Forged Alliances he was effortlessly able to do that and then some.

I'm lucky to have Beef serving as my right hand man, and I know that I couldn't hope to accomplish half what I want to during my tenure as Consul without his assistance. Hopefully this Grand Cross adequately conveys my gratitude for all he's done. Tarentum is a better place because of his leadership thus far, and I'm excited to see what we can accomplish together moving forward.

Adept Farrin Xies Tarentae, 2015-11-25 15:06:31 UTC