Atty covers the greatest breadth of Ood in her piece, so much that I cannot compete with in statistics or even base knowledge of our resident Neti. As a member that has been in the Brotherhood just shy of twenty years, my experience with Ood has been enigmatic but altogether positive. I heard about him before I ever met him, given he has a cameo feature in the Arcona Citadel wiki article, and I have yet to get clarification on this feature of our fictional headquarters even as Consul. That's how memorable he is even when I didn't know him: I still remember that bit of an article that I first read over five years ago.

Since then, though, I have actually managed to meet and talk to Ood. He, like his plant-based character, is something of a mad scientist; a font of ideas and secret works that may or may not see the light of day. Those projects of his that do come to fruition then might not come into being with his name attributed to the work. His work in wikis and with the Headmaster's office as Docent, Professor, Praetor, and Magistrate have come with such difficulties. And with his recent return to the club and Arcona as an active personality, one of his first acts was to bring me and Atty a project he's been quietly working on for the last year and a half; a thing I would go into more detail on if not for the immense amount of spoilers for Arcona at large. Like Ood though, it reaches back into the Clan's history and brings it to the forefront in a flash of unruly shenanigans and gusto — the perfect environment for any Arconan.

This has all been fluff on my part to go with the real recommendations attached to this. But that said, like anyone, Ood deserves the good things said about him, and a longstanding feature such as him sticks with you even after he leaves. So to Ood, I hope this in some way conveys our thanks for your prior years of service to Arcona and to the Brotherhood, and how we look forward to your continued mad scientist ways.

Qyreia Arronen
Consul, Clan Arcona

Qyreia Arronen, 2023-02-27 15:26:21 UTC

Just recently, Ood happened to say to us that his goal for the DB these days was, "going to be giving back to clan anyway I can, supporting people, maybe get back into mentoring people and so on." This from a man whose Brotherhood career has encompassed years and YEARS of giving back, supporting, and mentoring on not only the Clan level, but also to the entire Brotherhood, as the present day Shadow Academy simply doesn't exist without Ood as its backbone. When we think of members who have done so much, he is one to think of. I have been a member of this club for a decade now, and always known Ood to be a model to aspire to, and others have certainly known him the same for even longer.

Since his last promotion in 2014, Ood has organized 5 competitions and participated in 316, including 17 PvP matches, 3 gaming activities, and 19 fiction activities. These entries have earned him 1 Gold Nova, 2 Silver Novae, 1 Bronze Nova, and a regular Crescent dragon hoard, clocking in at a total of 139 placements, included in: 6 Crescents with Diamond Stars, 16 Crescents with Ruby Stars, 22 Crescents with Amethyst Stars, 35 Crescents with Sapphire Stars, 30 Crescents with Emerald Stars, 23 Crescents with Topaz Stars, 7 Crescents with Quartz Stars. He has also accumulated 3 Pendants of Blood, 79 Clusters of Fire, 45 Clusters of Ice, 3 Clusters of Earth, 28 Clusters of Graphite, 38 Scrolls of Foundation, a Legion of the Scholar, and across seven different vendettas, 2 Seals of Loyalty, 5 Seals of the Crusader, a Seal of Revelation, a Seal of Wrath, 4 Seals of Visions, 17 Seals of Enmity, and 12 Seals of Ascension.Additionally, Ood has passed 53 Shadow Accademy courses, gained 9 Degrees, and graded 85 courses, and made 8 newsposts for the Shadow Academy during the time in which he was a Shadow Academy Docent for 7 months, Professor for 2 days, Praetor to the Headmaster under Ciara for over 1 year, and Special Magistrate to the Headmaster for the last 5 years, of which he is still active.

Also in the last several years, Ood has been awarded 2 Anteian Crosses, a Steel Cross, and Grand Cross, as well as 2 Sapphire Blades and 1 Amethyst Kukri. These awards specifically included his amazing amounts of activity as well as over two and a half years as Praetor to the Headmaster in which he continued "to play a role in nearly everything that happens in the Shadow Academy" under then-Headmaster Dacien and his duties continuing his Special Magistrate role under Headmasters and Headmistress Solari, Dacien, Farrin, Seraphol, and Ciara (and all this not long after having been awarded for grading his then-1000th exam, which is really just worth mentioning even if it was before his last promotion, because holy trees). Altogether, all this activity has earned 33923 XP since his last promotion to Equite IV alone, with a lifetime total of XP 60838.

Ood, you may play a mad scientist, but it often seems like you must be the mad one, for the sheer volume of work and detail you're capable of handling. That you've spent so very long putting that towards the larger DB and every consecutive generation of members that joins and comes to learn is even more significant. If anyone is deserving of being hailed an Elder, it's you, my friend.

Proconsul of Clan Arcona

Master Ruka Tenbriss Ya-ir, 2023-02-26 08:19:21 UTC

I've known Ood for the better part of a decade. During my term as Headmaster, he served as my first Praetor and, after stepping down, agreed to take on the new role of Special Magistrate to help maintain the SA's institutional knowledge. He performed that role long after I left the SA, assisting three of my successors.

He's always been easy to work with, reliable, and brings enthusiasm to tasks that many view as tedious no matter how important. His impact on this club, especially the SA, has been significant, and I'm happy to lend my recommendation for this well-earned promotion to the ranks of the elders!

Lord Dacien Victae, 2023-02-27 15:11:01 UTC

During the time Qyreia and Atty were putting together their recommendations for this promotion, something extraordinary happened. The Consul of another clan, which Ood has never been a member of and who I don’t think even knows him, reached out to me. They’d recently promoted one of their own members to EL1, and did a lot of research into that member’s SA career in the process. “Everywhere I looked in the Shadow Academy seemed to have Ood’s name all over it,” they told me. “Then I realized he wasn't even Elder. Which quite honestly floored me."

I can’t really think of a better testimony to Ood’s influence on the Shadow Academy across decades than that, but I’ll do my best. Unfortunately, as a side effect of working for so many HMs across so many versions of both club and SA websites, the full breadth of Ood’s work is tricky to piece together. But here are some things we know.

He was an Eclectic Pedagogue (and still is, according to his activity assessment) for three years. He was the first Professor appointed in the SA, and has served as Professor of Philosophy and CORE Studies for a total of four years, Praetor to the Headmaster for over two years, and then Special Magistrate to the Headmaster for another five years. That is nearly fifteen years on staff. He worked for at least five of my immediate predecessors, probably closer to nine.

My exam metrics tool shows that he’s graded 263 exams, though this certainly lowballs him. I’m not sure when that tool started counting, but it’s documented that Ood graded a thousand exams under a previous version of the site.

By 2016, he had completely redeveloped the SA’s sprawling Google Drive into the system we still use today, a project that itself spanned two HMs. Last month, Ood and I spoke about this at length and he was able to walk me through not only the staff-visible portions of the GDrive, which are pretty self-explanatory, but the HM’s secret archives that include unrealized plans and ideas going back to 2012, some of which have informed my own projects. That he was able to do this from memory, years after the fact, would be surprising from anyone who isn’t Ood.

I don’t know how many courses he’s written, revised, edited, or encoded, but in an award recommendation then-HM Bubba said: “Every single course released during my tenure has been either edited or coded for markdown by Ood.” Bubba listed 32 different courses, most of which are still in service. This rec covered only two years of Ood’s staff time, albeit probably the busiest two as it covered his P:HM term.

A review of his awards shows several more such stories at smaller scale. Ood comes in with, as Aabs put it, “infinite ideas and plans for what he'd like to do to make things better.” Or, as Farrin put it, “like so many other things Ood has touched in the SA, his project went above and beyond its original remit.” Most of these projects are unglamorous, behind-the-scenes work that is only truly seen or appreciated by the SA staff even as they impact hundreds of Brotherhood members by improving the SA’s ability to serve them.

One of the best examples of the Ood way is actually from outside the SA: an SC for his work as a possessions system beta tester. I was also a beta tester, and the job was small in scope: I looked at a store, looked at the items in a store, and told Evant they were cool. Ood, however, expanded that to proofreading the entire system, providing Evant with corrections to over 100 item prototypes.

While we have not worked together officially (yet), Ood has nevertheless spent hours of his time giving me advice, historical context, and serving as a sounding board for my problems and ideas. He volunteered to work without a position or compensation, because with Ood it is never about the glory and always about the job and improving things for his fellow members.

To quote Solari: “Ood, you're a great asset to the Shadow Academy and I truly believe that it wouldn't be what it is today, and what it will be tomorrow, without you.”

Promote the damn tree already.

Alethia Archenksova
Headmistress

Headmistress Alethia Archenksova, 2023-02-27 15:22:41 UTC