Event History

Since his appointment to Praetor to the Fist in December of 2016, Edgar Drachen has spent the past nine months working extremely hard as the administrative arm of the Fist office. As Praetor, I tasked Edgar with multiple projects, specifically the testing of new gaming platforms, competition creation and management, and the close monitoring of activity approval timelines. In all areas, Edgar has performed admirably.

One of Edgar’s greatest accomplishments was his efforts in helping to add platforms to the DB’s library of supported games. When testing began for adding Heroes of the Storm as a supported platform, Edgar led the charge on this event, pushing for activity across all clans, leading to one of the single-most successful gaming tests since I joined the Fist staff as a Magistrate. Well over 400 individual matches were played by 30 unique participants during the test, with Edgar taking part in nearly 100 of them. After completion of the test, Edgar drafted a clear and concise proposal drafting out multiple modes and associated cluster values, of which two made it through to actual support. Heroes of the Storm has gone on to become one of the DB’s most popular games, and it is Edgar’s efforts in pushing members to take part in the test that made it possible.

Additionally, Edgar took the reigns of testing the DB’s first supported mobile game: Star Wars: Force Arena. This test was just as impressive, with 22 unique participants submitting well over 200 screenshots, and providing me with the average match times to determine Cluster values. Star Wars: Force Arena is the only mobile game that has full site support, and it is Edgar’s efforts in running the test event that made its addition possible.

Edgar is without a doubt a powerhouse of activity when creating competition content for our gamers. When I assumed office, the standard activities were limited to cluster races and mobile games, which after a few years of constant use had become stale and unpopular with our gamers. I gave Ed some very clear guidance: I want something unique that will help to reinvigorate interest with the club’s gamers. Once again, Ed exceeded my expectations. He immediately provided suggestions on three annual container competitions for Gaming, Mobile, and Flash games, and helped to create unique events that moved away from the standard trope of cluster races and screenshots. Edgar’s most successful event came in the form of the Heroes of the Storm 1v1 Bracket Competition. Fourteen of the DB’s HotS players took part in a four-round bracket competition designed to test players abilities in managing a team of AI against other DJB members. This competition was notable for having a 100% participation rate across all rounds. Edgar provided new challenges each week, and the members provided a great deal of feedback about what they liked and didn’t like (which was minimal) about the event.

Edgar’s primary role as Praetor is the management of the Magistrates as they review and approve gaming activities, while occasionally taking on the responsibility of approving activities himself. The numbers speak for themselves. In the past 9 months, Edgar has managed the timely approval of over 1352 PvE/PvO activities, of which he personally reviewed and approved 540, and 718 PvP activities, of which he has personally reviewed and approved 319.

Edgar’s most endearing qualities are not limited to his activity or work. Edgar is an exceptionally active and positive voice in DB Gaming, taking the time to discuss issues with members when I am unavailable and voicing their concerns and comments in the Fist Staff chat.

Edgar Drachen is one of the hardest working members of the DB that I have known in my short time in the club. He easily accomplishes any task I set before him, no matter how large or small. It is my honor and privilege to award him with this Sapphire Blade.

Thank you for all you do, Edgar. Congratulations!

Dracaryis

Fist of the Brotherhood

Darth Dracaryis, 2017-09-06 23:35:01 UTC

I must have done something right in a past life to deserve a deputy like Alethia, aka Arch. His diligence, attention to detail and initiative are the stuff of legend. To say I rely on him as my Proconsul to help keep the Clan moving forward is an understatement. There is so much to a leadership position that doesn't readily jump off a dossier: the constant summit coordination, engaging with members, mediating conflict, hours spent bouncing ideas, late nights spent drafting member awards or event fictions and keeping the Consul focused and on schedule. Arch does all these things and more; he has been an essential part of the COU team both as Quaestor and Proconsul.

In addition to all the intangibles that are hard to quantify but make Arch an exceptional leader there is a body of project work he has completed during this time period which have provided cornerstones for the Clan's functioning. First, Arch prepared and regularly updates a Member guide for COU lore. This document has proven an invaluable resource for both new and returning COU members to get up to speed on everything that is happening in both COU and the larger brotherhood.

Second, he led and assembled the work product for our Armed Forces project which laid out the structure and initial purchase order for COU's armed forces following the release of possessions. Arch prepared two fully fleshed out courses of action for COU's armed forces with reasoning and tactics for each which gave me as the Consul options to choose or modify when plotting out the future of the Clan's military. The amount of research and care that went into this project is evident in the final product which became the core of the Odanite Expeditionary Force.

Most recently Arch worked with myself and the Clan Taldryan summit on the Desperate Measures coop event. Arch helped develop the plot and all 16 comps and graded four of the more labor intensive ones (poetry, coop fiction, run-on and solo fiction). He has proven himself more than capable of functioning at the Clan level and organizing multi-Clan events. I sleep well at night knowing if I got hit by a bus, Arch could keep COU moving forward without missing a beat.

In addition to his exceptional leadership record, Arch has a strong record as an individual member. He has organized 20 competitions and co-organized another 3. He has participated in 139 competitions (with an additional 14 container competitions) bringing home an impressive 70 Crescents. He was selected twice for the prestigious Seal of Loyalty. In that same period he has also collected 30 Clusters of Fire, 19 Clusters of Ice, 25 Clusters of Earth, 14 Clusters of Graphite.

Please accept this small token of our gratitude on behalf of Clan Odan-Urr and the entire brotherhood for everything you do.

Turel Sorenn
Consul, Clan Odan-Urr

High Councillor Turel Sorenn, 2017-06-23 03:06:13 UTC

Armad is a dark horse. He's quiet, unassuming and doesn't feel the need to be the centre of attention.

Yet, he is tenacious, full of love for the Club and is always eager to volunteer to help me in any way possible.

Since his last recognition, Armad has participated in 162 competitions, placing in 56 of them! In addition, Armad has earned 127 Clusters of Fire, 320 Clusters of Earth and 28 Clusters of Ice for his troubles.

Add to this, the 10,000 words he's written for ROs and ACCs and the 10 SA courses he's completed and Armad shows just how hard he works. Each time a competition ends, I expect to see Armad's name in the top 5.

This isn't all Armad does. He works on our Wiki pages, updating and editing them without being asked to. He helps after events, working out word counts & post counts for ROs, making it easier for us to reward the members. He encourages others to participate and compete, despite not being summit.

Armad is an example of what I expect from a veteran Equite. Armad is loyal to his Clan, his Club and is someone I admire.

For his hard work, I'd like to reward Armad with this Sapphire Blade.

Congratulations!

Consul of Naga Sadow

Professor Sanguinius Tsucyra Entar, 2017-06-14 18:02:36 UTC

Braecen has continued his long streak of insane activity and effort over these last several months. Since the end of January he had moved over to Scholae Palatinae, taking up the position of Quaestor, and has proceeded to melt faces with a relentless onslaught of leadership and general member activity.

Immediately after being appointed Quaestor, Braecen was in contact with all of his house, introducing himself and his long term plans to make Excidium a rock solid unit. He has been continually incredibly transparent with his house in regular email updates about everything going on and the reasons for his actions.

Alongside this, he managed to pull in multiple former CSPers to return to active duty in the clan. Not only bringing the back into the fold, but helping utilize their long history of experiences in the club to give educational feedback both on gaming and fiction writing. He himself has gone out of his way to find out what systems and games everyone in the clan plays on, and has offered to help members learn to play these games in regularly scheduled gaming sessions for the whole clan. These growing bonds between members have incredibly strengthened our abilities as a clan. Braecen has even been working toward having regular “CSP Movie Nights” where the clan can stream watch a movie together.

As part of the general summit for the clan, Braecen has been responsible for a lot of things less easily seen by the members. He has gone to great lengths to help strengthen Lexiconus and Alara’s abilities as leaders. With his long history of club leadership, he has helped show them how to better review members activity, and gauge when they should be awarded and for what level. He has also helped to train on how to write stronger recommendations in the first place. He has shown how to maintain a easy system of contact with his unit to showcase all manner of club activities, far beyond just a regular monthly report.

Braecen has continued to push for development of his house in great detail, helping to truely reform how the house functions. Over the last three months Braecen has gone on to strengthen Excidium to an incredible level of activity, beyond which had ever been seen in the house before. He has taken his leadership philosophies to constantly give input and feedback on how everyone on the CSP leadership team can do better at what we do. While I know its been frustrating at times, and that he and I don’t necessarily agree on every decision made in the clan, there is no doubting his intense passion, and that his methods are what works best for how he leads. The results have been fantastic.

Braecen has been the driving force in giving Excidium a real identity again. He has also been a great sounding board for parts of our on going project to work on the new CSP system, including the name of the main planet in the system, Seraph.

Braecen doesn’t slouch on the membership front either. He takes the concept of leading from the front extremely literal. Since January 22nd Braecen has gone on to participate in a whopping 86 different competitions including a second place finish in our recently finished Excursions event. He has been an organizer on 14 further competitions, and has pushed to ensure there is always a wide array of summit and member run competitions for the clan and for Excidium. He has also passed 2 SA games, and been part of 21 PvE events.

This activity has earned him 1 Ruby Star, 3 Amethyst Stars, 3 Sapphire Stars, 2 Topaz Stars, 1 Quartz Stars, 430 Clusters of Fire, 16 Clusters of Ice, 2 Clusters of Earth, 22 Clusters of Graphite.

Braecen has hit out more over the last few months then many long time members can do over a year. Both his activity levels, and leadership impact on Scholae Palatinae have been monumental. For this I recommend he be awarded this Sapphire Blade. Congratulations Braecen! Drinks are on you!

Xen’Mordin Palpatine
Consul of Scholae Palatinae

Lord Idris Adenn, 2017-05-14 19:19:28 UTC

Since being appointed Praetor to the Voice back in October of 2016, Kasula (Also known as A'lora or simply "Moro"), Moro has spent the last 7 months diligently operating as my head administrative aide. In this capacity alone, Moro has lead the charge on staff with 111 Character Sheet approvals, my prime metric that I track. This does not include the countless time spent working with members one on one on their sheets, whether that is through repeated remand comments or personal follow ups with the members. He has been instrumental in educating and guiding the newer Magistrate's, and works with them to stay on top of the competition queue. Moro is so on top of the CS and Competition queue (the two primary administrative duties of a Voice Staff member), that I honestly haven't had to do any administrative work save for larger events like Co-Ops. It is a pleasure to come home from work, work on the larger projects that occupy my awareness, and then know that the queue will be handled without me having to do anything.

Beyond this, Moro proof reads any documentation I come up with and weighs in. He has been a contributor to the Fiction Center, Loadouts, NPCs, DB Canon and many other Voice Staff wikipedia articles and pages. He also handles a lot of small but important niche tasks such as handling the image assets/formatting for new Species headshots as well as Venues.

Moro's true masterpiece, however, lies in the Arx system document. Moro took the project that had been partially finished, took Sarin and I's direction/guidelines and created a brand new world that will soon serve as the new center of power and home of the Brotherhood. Moro helped write up, name, and invent the various continents, structures, venues, and places of interest that for the planet, as well as climate and other logistics. While this article is not published for variables outside of Moro's control, the completed project has been approved by the Grand Master.

Most importantly for me, Moro is an active voice in the Voice Staff chat and tackles any random task that I come up with and never complains. This level of dedication allows me to my job better, and his loyalty to the Brotherhood over this time period is unquestionable. For this reason, I am pleased to award this Sapphire Blade. Congratulations, Moro. Thank you for putting up with me and rocking whatever tasks I throw your way. I appreciate it.

Voice of the Brotherhood

Legend Wally, 2017-05-10 01:31:22 UTC

Drawing graphics for the Dark Brotherhood in any official capacity can be, at the least, a very stressful job, but at best it is entirely fulfilling for the people who do it for the sake of others. Zehsaa is one of those people. Even before she was my magistrate, I knew Zehsaa had the will and wish to complete breathtaking artwork for others. Those qualities followed her through our Art chat and her own Clan as well. She has drawn many cute, serious, silly, funny, and endearing drawings for many people around the Club, including myself, and she has only transferred that determination into her job as Magistrate.

Since the start, Zehsaa has been working on member requests, for weapons and robes alike, as well as bi-monthly releases. In her, nearly 11-month-long stay in the Herald’s office, Zehsaa has completed a multitude of projects and graphics which include ten custom weapons and three custom robes done personally for our members, six beautiful robes, one weapon, and one accessory for the selector and two logos for the major position logo project we have released a few months ago. All in all, Zehsaa has completed 125 images just for the Heralds office.

Zehsaa’s influence, goodwill, and expertise didn’t stop there, as she has been very active in developing our Art community through the DB Art chat. She is regularly seen posting new and exciting artwork for every challenge issued by our staff and she is a regular participant in all graphics comps, Clan or Club-wide. Her knowledge of art has been beneficial to many members, actively or passively teaching them how to become better artists.

I am proud to have had Zehsaa as my Magistrate, I am sad that she is leaving the office, but I am also humbled by her spirit and her generosity, so with a level head and utmost gratitude I give this small token of appreciation to Zehsaa Hysh. Thank you for your outstanding work.

• Vyr (Morgan)
• Herald of the Brotherhood

Captain Morgan Sorenn, 2017-05-06 22:38:51 UTC

Ronovi Tavisaen is a member that has recently made her presence known in Plagueis once again, having returned to full activity levels for the first time in a few years. On either side of that gap, however, Ronovi has put up the sort of activity numbers and leadership work that many who were active for the entire intervening time have not matched. Now that she's made a more permanent return, it is my duty to put her name forward for the awarding of a Sapphire Blade.

In all, since her last recognition, Ronovi has been put together enviable levels of activity. She has participated in 136 competitions (a number I know that does not count some of her early Crusade entries that never made it onto the website) and placed in 28 of them. Those placements have earned her 6 Gold Novae, 4 Bronze Novae, 2 Diamond Crescents, 5 Ruby Crescents, 6 Amethyst Crescents, 3 Sapphire Crescents, 2 Emerald Crescents, and 3 Legions of the Scholar. She has 5 fiction activities for a total of 10,689 words (numbers I know are both under reporting her true total as much of her activity was not tracked by the site at the time), and 27 Clusters of Ice. She has also earned 3 Clusters of Fire and 5 Clusters of Earth as she begins to bring gaming activity into her repertoire and 6 of the new Clusters of Graphite for her graphics. As for Seals, she has earned 1 of Loyalty, 23 of the Crusader, and 7 of Reminisce. She received a rare non-mastor mentoring related Scroll of the Master, for helping Brimstone grow as a member of the Brotherhood beyond simply reaching the rank of Knight. And, as befiting a former Headmaster who is always looking to expand her education, she passed 11 SA courses and earned 2 of the then-new Dark Pundit degrees. Finally, as a leader she filed all 7 of her monthly reports during her tenure as Aedile and Quaestor, and ran a fiction event for the 2013 Independence Games.

Moreso than the raw numbers, however, is what those numbers mean in context. Ronovi wasn't just stacking up random mobile gaming or Trivia competitions, she was really showing up when it mattered. Throughout the third, fourth, and fifth rounds of the Dark Crusade, Ronovi entered 14 of the available 16 events (some of which aren't even tracked on the website), placing 1st in round 3 wiki, 1st in round 4 fiction, poetry, and RO, and 3rd in round 5 fiction, multimedia, and battleplan. Additionally, intervening between the rounds of the Crusade Ronovi entered seven events during the Independence Games and helped get out the entries for House Plagueis during that time. In addition to her own individual placements, she served as either Plagueis Aedile or Quaestor for that time, helping Plagueis continue to win rounds that would eventually lead to our House's victory in the Dark Crusade. The individually-focused member engagement she helped foster both through her own actions and through the guidance she provided to her fellow leaders was invaluable to creating the mindset in the House that everyone needed to compete to their fullest, and that victory was a very real possibility. Ensuring that the Plagueis leadership used one on one engagement and a personalized approach to their members made sure that people were not disengaged as mass-email messages would often do. As a leader in one of the top two summit positions in Plagueis for longer than any other person, her contributions cannot be understated. Following her most recent return back to Plagueis, Ronovi hit the competitive ground running and got back to where she had been during the Dark Crusade. In our just completed The Enemy Below event, Ronovi participated in 23 of the 24 possible events. Competitively, she earned 1st place finishes in all three Fiction events, Poetry, Logic Puzzle, and week 2 Cryptogram, 2nd place finishes in week 1 Cryptogram and Crawl Creator, and 3rd place in week 2 Flash Gaming 1. All told, Ronovi scored 202 total points and finished in first place for the event.

Ronovi Tavisaen is the last of the major contributors to Clan Plagueis's victory in the Dark Crusade that, due to her absence, has not received their due recognition for their contributions. Montressor, Tra'an Reith, Brimstone, Teylas, Eiko, Furios Morega, Arden Karn, and even myself have already taken home the spoils of that Vendetta, either in the form of Sacramental awards or Equite promotions. It gives me great joy to spend the time writing this recommendation and to be the one who finally submits it for consideration, one last piece of unfinished business from nearly three and a half years gone. You fought well for this back during the Crusade, and you have fought well for it in the several months before now. I, and Clan Plagueis, thank you for your contributions, may they continue making a lasting contribution to your adopted home.

Master Selika Roh di Plagia, 2017-04-17 02:57:16 UTC

Battlemaster Dracaryis had the unenviable role of assuming the position of Fist following a tumultuous turnover in the administration sections of the Fist Office. Drac was being considered for multiple positions across the DJB at the time, but his ability to communicate in clear terms made him an exceptionally appealing candidate to lead our club's gaming into the future.

Drac has accomplished nearly every small goal task we set out for him upon assuming the role of Fist. He has reviewed CF balancing, he has conducted new game testing, and he has streamlined the communication between our members and the DC (19 News Updates and over 57 news comments). He has also accomplished the primary task we expect from our Fist: He runs competitions. Between his previous roles and his current, Drac has organized over 45 competitions and has co-organized over 100. These competitions have varied and run the full spectrum of our club's gaming activities.

Drac's work on the DC has been phenomenal thus far and we look forward to his future work. Please accept this SB from Deputy Grand Master Mav and I.

GM Pravus

Grand Master Declan Roark, 2017-03-17 15:10:33 UTC

Vanguard Turel Sorenn is one of the best members and leaders within the Dark Brotherhood. His activity is second to none and his achievements on the Odan Urr leadership team have been outstanding. Beyond the statistics of organizing of organizing 29 competitions, co-organizing 4 competitions, running a Clan Feud, and participating in over 96 competitions; Turel has created an environment within COU that has fostered friendship and a desire to improve the Dark Brotherhood. The truly successful leadership teams in the DJB unite their members and build a sense of community/family that drives our club towards the future and keeps our members returning. The secret to the DJB's success is not bringing members back to earn crescents, but rather bringing members back to hang out with their friends. Turel has fostered this within his Clan and it has been a pleasure to watch COU grow from the little house that could to one of our powerhouse Clans.

It is a true oversight on my part that Turel has yet to earn a Sacramental award in his career and I am honored to finally be the one to ensure he has received his first.

Congrats on your SB!

Grand Master Declan Roark, 2017-01-24 16:30:33 UTC

Warlord Teylas Ramar di Plagia performed brilliantly as the Clan Plagueis Consul. During our recent discussions on his pending retirement Teylas made an offhanded comment that highlights this performance as a Consul. "Plagueis is a machine right now and is capable of operating on its own and succeeding." This statement; although designed to highlight the Clan's success, is a testament to the job that Teylas has done as the leader of Plagueis.

It has been five months since we last awarded Teylas an AK for his activity as Consul and Magistrate, but it is only fitting that we award him for his work since then. Teylas has maintained a steady pace of running competitions, feuds, and keeping his Clan running in the right direction. All of this work is worthy of praise as well as worthy of an award.

Teylas, thank you for your service to the DJB and congratulations on your SB!

Grand Master Declan Roark, 2017-01-24 16:35:11 UTC