Tali Sroka has been a constant presence, contributor, and competitor in the Brotherhood since he joined the club over six years ago. After burning through the early ranks through Knighthood in the course of about three months (and some change), he skipped the usual step as BTL and took the Aedile mantle of House Qel-Droma. Within six months of that, he was made Quaestor, and he has rocked the position ever since, leading his House through 6 Vendettas, and multiple Clan and House-internal events while always maintaining a strong presence as a competitor across the club as a whole.

Since his promotion in April '21, he organized 10 competitions and co-organized another 3, while participating in 146 individual competitions; 166 if one includes brackets and container competitions. Compare that to his career-long record of 55 organized, 14 co-organized, and 548 participations up to 617 with containers/brackets — nearly 100 competitions per year. His work since his last promotion earned him two Sapphire Blades as much for his competitive participation as his skills as a House leader. That quality competition led to 37 placements — a roughly 25% placement rate — including 11 from the Brotherhood-wide Vendettas (4 Gold Novae, 4 Silver, and 3 Bronze out of 55 participations; 100% in each Vendetta). While not the most prolific gamer, pulling in 42 Clusters of Fire and 10 Clusters of Earth, he is a steamroller of fiction: 239 Clusters of Ice from a cumulative 100,243 words of fiction; more than the word count of The Hobbit! Tali rounds that out with a respectable 55 Clusters of Graphite for his graphical efforts. He was awarded a Scroll of Indoctrination for bringing Nicfer Luthol into our ranks, and a Scroll of Foundation for his Shadow Academy efforts in March '21, not only tearing through the coursework, but also providing feedback and corrections on coursework which led to updates to those courses.

While Tali competes at a Brotherhood level and contributes at a Brotherhood level, his longtime love has been his House of Qel-Droma. Even when the job of Consul of Arcona came open, Tali opted to stick with his House and continue its development. Even a cursory look at his Sapphire Blade citations offers an idea of the myriad things he does in the background that is not so easily captured by the site: wiki updates, member motivation, fictional development, and leader development. Save for a few, the majority of Arcona's current leadership found their footing under Tali. It is a phenomenal example that one need not be in the highest leadership levels to have some of the best impact on those around them.

In an administrative capacity, he maintains a running activity spreadsheet which he and his team audit monthly. This not only serves to keep them up to date on awards (prior to XP stealing much of that thunder) and develops leaders by maintaining predictability and accountability, but also facilitates control of the coveted Blind Key of Qel-Droma, which goes to the highest participating members of the House, offering in-character opportunity for shenanigans and out-of-character motivation to be the holder. Similarly, he also assisted in the creation of Arcona's reward for GJW XV, the Crystal Baffler Array, by providing functional concepts and the base image that would later form the actual item image. At the Clan level, he took on the project of revamping the Arconan Expeditionary Forces (AEF), creating both a cost-analysis spreadsheet and organizational proposal from scratch that, after only minor refinement, became the current AEF Ground Forces. He has also more recently made initial proposals for the Dajorran Defense Forces' reorganization that will be an even larger project to add to his resume.

For being in one of the most awkward time zones to be a leader for a primarily American audience and group of counterparts, Tali does a phenomenal job at coordinating and motivating those around him. He is often the calm voice of reason when emotions heat up. If he should ever aim for something outside his powerhouse position as Quaestor, his potential for greatness is unquestioned. Such is my assessment. So to Tali, thank you for all of your hard work; your years of service to Qel-Droma, Arcona, and the Brotherhood; and for always being there when called upon.

Qyreia Arronen
Consul, Clan Arcona

Qyreia Arronen, 2023-02-01 21:15:57 UTC