Sapphire Blade events for Adept Farrin Xies Tarentae

Sapphire Blade events
Event ID
114751
Award
Sapphire Blade
Quantity
1
Non-site XP
1249 XP
Requested by
Lord Dacien Victae
Primary reason

Farrin is one of the most prolific members in the history of the Shadow Academy staff. In his six months as a Magistrate, he has written -- from blank page to live course -- ten courses and exams totaling more than 20,000 words. On top of that, he is an exceptional editor with an eye for fine detail and a drive to keep correcting, revising, reworking until the finished product meets his own high standards. He is also a valuable adviser, not afraid to tell me when I am pushing a project along too quickly or wandering down the wrong path. In short, Farrin is impressive.

His first and largest assignment was to aid Aabsdu in a total rewrite of the Department of History Studies. Aabs got the ball rolling, but the project really picked up momentum when Farrin got involved. He jumped right in and largely took the reins of the project, spending days pouring over source material on Wookieepedia, the Brotherhood Wiki, and the original course notes. He crafted outlines for each course, ensuring that all key points in Star Wars history would be addressed, and then spent weeks synthesizing, analyzing, and writing. He took feedback eagerly and incorporated comments into his work, never allowing pride of authorship to interfere with crafting the best possible courses. Moreover, he finished the entire project four months ahead of schedule -- it launched in August rather than the originally-planned December. The total History rewrite was a project unlike anything the Shadow Academy has ever undertaken and it could not have succeeded like it did without Farrin’s hard work and dedication.

Farrin then turned his attention to the oldest courses in our catalog: he rewrote the Sith and Krath COREs from scratch. As a result, two of our most convoluted, patchwork courses (sources of common complaint) have become excellent examples of high quality writing and organization. He also spent hours revising the Light Side CORE courses and Dark Brotherhood Basics, fixing difficult-to-read notes and glaring content errors. More recently, he has edited the Leadership Reports, Leadership Rewards, and Leadership Management courses. The last of those, Management, has been transformed. I supplied Farrin a rough outline of changes to make, and he rewrote the course notes almost entirely from scratch (which seems to be his specialty) in an afternoon. Thanks to his quick turnaround and precise style, the Management course is a completely different, significantly more useful course than it was before. Once again, Farrin created a high quality course from little more than loose direction and source notes.

Finally, I have to thank Farrin for being a steady hand and a dedicated staffer. When I ask him for thoughts on a course, he does not hesitate to tell me if it needs work. When I want to push something out before it’s ready, he pumps the brakes. Most of all, when something needs to be done, I know I can trust Farrin to tackle it and succeed. He is my secret weapon. Thank you, Farrin, and congratulations!

Lord Dacien Victae, 2014-12-01 14:28:01 UTC
Additional reasons

I came across Farrin around the time Aabsdu returned to the staff as a Professor. The History Department was an outdated disaster in desperate need of a full overhaul. Considering the amount of work involved, Farrin was brought in to assist Aabsdu in his efforts and he truly impressed us all. Instead of patching up the existing courses, this duo started from zero and built a series of 8 courses that are completely separate from what we had before. This included research as well as writing a massive mountain of text. This project has become one of those milestones for the Academy. It has completely altered the way we look at creating courses as well as updating them. Where in the past, we remained within the structure of an existing course and just reworded or alter segments. This project has started a trend where we start from 0 and build a new replacement course to take the place of the outdated one. It also revolutionized the concept of future updates as it is written in such a way that we can easily insert segments as canon demands. An example would be the ease in which we will be able to insert content that will arrive with the “Revan” expansion of SWToR.

Based on his superb performance in this project, Farrin became a Magistrate to the Headmaster and he has yet to slow down in his assault on the outdated segments of the SA. I am not going to repeat everything the Headmaster has already mentioned, I am merely going to ask that anyone reading this goes to look at the History Department and the Core Department and look at the results of his work. Then realise that you can only “see” about 35% of everything he has done for the Shadow Academy. You will come to the same conclusion we have when we set out to award him this sacramental award.

General Ood Bnar, 2014-12-01 14:27:40 UTC
Event ID
211119
Award
Sapphire Blade
Quantity
1
Non-site XP
1249 XP
Requested by
General Zxyl Bes'uliik
Primary reason

Farrin has been a constant on the Regent Staff for over a year now. Since joining us in May 2020, he's been one of the hardest working Magistrates on the staff. Dependable, reliable, honest, and above all-else consistent with his quality of work, Farrin has taken part in discussions of topics with the staff behind the scenes that have had a club-wide impact. Usually the first go-to for peer reviews of our content releases, this Tarentae isn't afraid to question something if he thinks it's off, or bring his own ideas to the table in our discussions.

Farrin has, since joining the Regent Staff, reviewed hundreds of pieces of new content for the members. He proofed a total of 85 different droid upgrades that made it into the system, taking the lead on implementing them all into the system - by himself, which can end up being tedious, dealing with several slots on 79 different prototypes - with only a little guidance from me and Atra. For our 21-01 release, Farrin participated once more, proofing another 51 item prototypes for grammar, spelling, and pricing fixes -deploying a total of 22 of those prototypes and setting correct stock rules on 28 of them.

For upcoming content, Farrin has reviewed an additional set of starship upgrades, and nearly 300 weapon upgrades - starting within an hour of being asked to. It's not a lie to say that this content would not be the quality it is, reducing later edits and corrections and speeding along the process, if Farrin hadn't been involved with us. He's poured hours and hours into our team, and I don't expect he'll stop being the big help he is.

Farrin continues to be an active contributor of this club, and I believe he should be adequately awarded for his continued service. I am proud to append this recommendation for Farrin, and hope I get the opportunity to again.

Thanks for everything, Farrin.

General Zxyl Bes'uliik, 2021-07-28 21:28:40 UTC
Additional reasons

I would like to add to the recommendation of Farrin for a Sapphire Blade to recognize his activity level as well as his continued service, both as a M:RGT for the club and as a house leader in Wren.

On an individual level, Farrin has participated in 28 competitions, earning placements in 6 of those. He has regularly engaged in gaming activities with other club members, with 53 such activities earning him 350 clusters. Additionally, he completed an ACC battle and also wrote just over 750 words of fiction in other writing activities. Finally, he has also completed 1 Shadow Academy course in that time frame.

But it is not just his individual activity that we are acknowledging. Farrin has contributed to the club as a whole by his work on the Regent’s staff - as is greatly detailed and explained by Anubis as part of this recommendation.

As a leader in Vizsla, he has served as both Aedile and Quaestor in house Wren for a year, and has led from the front. The expectation on the leaders in the clan is that they participate and help others do the same. In that regard, he participated in all but one bin in the recent Rite of Supremacy and assisted the clan’s prep by sending out a participation guide for all the event-long competitions. Further to that, he has been active in the wave of recommendations for member awards, submitting four award/promotion requests for member recognition.

I am pleased to recommend this award for Farrin and expect I’ll be doing the same again soon!

General Kenath Zoron Ad Vizsla, 2021-07-28 21:24:11 UTC