Raistline Taldrya Majere is one of my oldest friends in the Brotherhood, and perhaps the second most important member of Taldryan’s summit currently. It’s hard to quantify the value of having someone like Raist on your team, he brings so much to the table while being relatively unassuming doing it. In retrospect, I feel like much of Raist’s career in the DB has been like that, and I for one am going to try my damnedest to stop taking him for granted. Howie will, as is tradition, go into greater detail about all of the specifics of Raist’s constant activity in the year since he was last recognized, but I want to talk about just a couple things.

Raist is always there for Taldryan. He’s always around to pick up the slack, and to go that little extra mile. Just recently, when both Howie and myself were completely tapped out in real life and with work, and didn’t have time to get some stuff going, Raist stepped up with his Gods amongst us competition. He organized with his fellow Quaestor Omega a series of 9 competitions, to give the Clan something to do in the month leading up to the new movie. Even the topic choice for those competitions was inspired. His constant presence within our chat channels led him to notice there’d been a lot of talk about comics, and how much our members enjoyed them, so he decided to use that and run a series of competitions based off the expressed interests of our membership. It’s the kind of thing only the best leaders in the DB are capable of… and Raist does it without thinking.

Raist’s abilities and desire to be a leader for the Clan are special. He’s a man who values absolute substance over meaningless style, and it’s a virtue I think we could all benefit from emulating. He’s always willing to do what is necessary and whatever is asked of him, without any complaint. He goes about his business without the fanfare and egos that have become part and parcel of most of the leaders in this club, and quietly works to better his House and his Clan and perhaps most importantly, himself in any way he can. I remember that at one point, Raist was unhappy with the quality of his own reports. He thought he could do better, so he went out and sought the help of Halc in order to be able to write reports he felt he could be proud of. He also is a man who understands that some of the most important work a leader in this club is preparing the future. Since his elevation to Quaestor, Raist has been a constant mentor to his Aedile Bobecc, and his battleteam leader Seyda Norith, and even his colleagues in Dinaari. I’ve personally seen him working hand in hand with every member of Taldryan’s summit to make sure they know that they always have his support and guidance.

But it’s not just those under him that he lends his support to, even while he was a Battleteam Leader Raist has been supporting me in my position as Consul. He’s a trusted advisor who benefits from both being an old school tally as well as being fresh enough to have a hint of new car smell. His insights and opinions have led me to make numerous policy changes and try different projects out in Taldryan, not the least of which was implementing a gaming and fiction related House within the Clan. Perhaps more importantly, Raist was one of the first to point out to me that the experiment had failed. Being able to come up with good ideas is one thing, it takes a rare person to be able to move effortlessly past a failed idea without becoming overly sentimental and attached, and just keep moving forward.

These are just a few examples of all the help Raist has given Howie and I over the last year as first a Battleteam Leader, then Aedile and finally Quaestor in House Ektrosis. Raist has been a true constant, and a very able assistant to us, and he’s done it all while continuing to be personally active and balancing a terribly busy real life schedule. I’m thankful that I have Raist in Taldryan, and I am extremely grateful that I can call on him to help me carry the burden of leadership.

For all of your hard work, and dedication over the past year Raistline, I am pleased to present you your very first Sacramental award: the Sapphire Blade. Congratulations bud.

Keirdagh Taldrya Cantor,

Consul of Clan Taldryan

Keirdagh Taldrya Cantor, 2016-02-04 04:03:20 UTC