The Pantheon of Arcona Consuls is filled with some of the greatest members and biggest personalities in the history of the Dark Brotherhood. Nighthawk, Priyum Patel, Tarkin, James, and Mejas Dota all served as bastions of Arcona's strength within the Dark Brotherhood. We can add a new name to that list and it is the current Consul, Seer Atyiru Caesura Entar.
Atyiru has become an institution within the Dark Brotherhood. She is a poised and talented leader that is universally loved by our club membership, respected by her peers, and identified as a key future leader within our club by the Dark Council. Atty handles the daily rigors of leadership within Clan Arcona with a measure of adult supervision, inspiration, and encouragement that very few leaders of our club have ever been able to match.
Many look at Clan Arcona and see it as the most active and most dominating Clan we have had since the 2004-2009 run of Clan Taldyran as the dominate force in our club. Many say that it must be easy to run such a Clan that that Atty's work is truly that of a caretaker assigned with the task of simply not messing things up. As your Grand Master, I can dispel any such notion.
Atty is an expert manager of intra-clan politics and personalities. It is not an easy task to lead a group of successful Elders and Equites (especially when so many of them are former Consuls) and steer them towards a common goal. Opinions differ, in character development of the Clan story differs, and selecting new leaders from among such a talented pool leads to differing opinions. Atty has handled all of these things with an expertise that is uncommon within the DJB.
Outside of managing the most active Clan in our club, Atty remains one of our most versatile members contributing heavily to our DB Art team/club/group and remaining one of our key fiction writers (and sometimes proof reader of DJB fiction). She is also one of our most trusted members when it comes to handing out both DJB and real world advice/counsel.
Below you will see a host of detailed reason on why Atty is overly deserving of an AK, but as a GM within this club I know that Atty simply deserves the award for both her dedication to Clan and Club.
Congrats.
GM Pravus
Over the last nine months, Atyiru has shown herself a gifted leader and an active member. As Consul of Arcona, Atyiru has one of the most difficult jobs in our Brotherhood: She has to manage the personalities and activity of our largest unit, which is no small task. As Uji describes below, she manages her unit masterfully; we see this not just in the words of her subordinates, but in the very activity the unit generates. Arcona our most active unit in terms of raw competition submissions and clusters. They have the most unique participants by far, the most unique individuals earning every type of cluster, and they participate in more competitions than any other unit. Atyiru maintains high standards and her unit is incredibly consistent because of it, consistently motivating nearly two thirds of her members - if not more - to participate in competitions every quarter. Indeed, Arcona's performance these last few months is no anomaly. Arcona is at or near the top of every category we track since we started tracking unit performance beyond the number of Knights - a metric where Arcona also excells, often with the second or top number of Knights in a given set of months. We have always held that a unit leader deserves the accolades for their unit's success, and Arcona is an excellent example of a unit succeeding.
But beyond her work for Arcona, Atyiru continues to excel as a general member and leader, and as a larger contributor to the Brotherhood as a whole. On a personal level, Atyiru leads by example, and has participated in more than sixty different competitions over the last nine months, placing in more than half of them. She has participated in every facet of Brotherhood life, earning Clusters of Fire and Clusters of Ice for her efforts.
Atyiru is one of our most recognizable members; it is no surprise, then, that she has been a major driving force outside of her unit, as well. She has had a major hand in building a substantial art club, as V'yr describes below. She is consistently helpful and weighs in on every major issue put forth to the Dark Summit, and her attitude of helping wherever she can means that few months go by where Atyiru isn't involved in some facet of a society or some project on the summits.
Atyiru's steady hand atop Arcona has lead to an incredible amount of success for the unit. Her personal activity and leadership are undeniable, and her commitment to the Brotherhood as a whole is clear. For these reasons, Atyiru more than deserves this Amethyst Kukri.
Congratulations, Atyiru! You deserve it!
Telaris "Mav" Cantor
Deputy Grand Master
Firstly, I should state that at the time when I was considering starting some sort of chat channel or mail group about art — or graphics, as they are more commonly called — Atyiru had already created one such group for Arcona. When I became Herald, she invited me into the Arconan art group as a guest, to see what they had to share and whether I could help them with advice. Immediately, we started talking about creating a DB-wide group, not just one for Arcona. And that’s how the DB Art Club channel was born.
Saying that Atty had a major influence on the current state of the Art Club is an understatement. With what little time she has between classes, exams, papers and being a Consul in the First Clan, she has still managed not only to put out a fairly large ensemble of images she drew herself, but has improved her skills while doing so. You may think that personal improvenet isn’t really a factor, but consider this: How we improve ourselves influences how we help others improve. Atty has been a constant positive force in the Art Club, helping aspiring artists like herself with critiques and advice at every point.
She has posted an impressive amount of drawings, each successively better than the last, in the Art Club. A total of 44 images, some of which were drawn for other members of the Club, such as Zujenia, Uji, Teu, Turel and others, myself included. The total number of images created for the DB itself is far greater, numbering close to 100 pictures at this point. She does all of this to improve herself and those around her which, in and of itself, is the spirit the Art Club was founded on.
I’m am nothing but grateful to Atty for her continued support of my endeavor to make the DB Art Club a more permanent place for every aspiring artist in the DB to join and, without fear of ridicule, present their skills for everyone’s benefit, including theirs. I truly believe that Atty deserves a form of recognition for her efforts, and I am glad the GM and DGM have seen fit to award her.
Congrats, Atty, and thank you for your support.
- Vyr (Morgan)
- Herald of the Brotherhood
___________
There was a period of time that Atyiru was known as the Mountain of Arcona. This title was given to her offhandedly years ago for her efforts during during the Dark Crusade when she an Aedile in House Galeres. She was - and has remained - a steadfast icon of Arcona. She has become how the Clan identifies themselves: unbreakable, unbending and always present at the forefront of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood.
A constant source of inspiration, Atyiru is connected to her members like a heartbeat - without interruption. There is truly no single individual who can match her presence. She consistently works to maintain less than a 24 hour turnaround on email, devotes time to develop relationships with other Clan Leaders, and a regular in other groups and Brotherhood-wide Societies - Antei Combat Center, Art Club, etc. Atyiru has set the standard for Arcona as a whole. Our Clan has a history of being insular and standoffish, but with her example, and delicate touch, you now see members of Arcona working to advance relationships with other Clans, filling vital roles as Magistrates or Praetors, and working to advance the participation in club-wide events. She pushes members to contribute as either consumers or producers; thus, increasing Arcona’s acceptance of the Brotherhood and shifting the paradigm of how the Brotherhood perceives Arcona. This is done through careful planning and organization of her leadership team’s agenda, a careful nudge or redirect via e-mail or Telegram to a member.
Atyiru’s personality - her grace - simply draws people together. She has established herself as a positive influence and a valued partner with her fellow Clan Leaders since her appointment; inviting many of them to join Arcona chat groups, Google hangouts, and what-used-to-be Arcona-only events. Furthermore, she has pressed people to expand their presence into other channels (such as Odan-Urr) to harmonize Arcona’s presence within the club. This is a boon for Arcona as it introduces new ideas, removes us from our own echo chamber, and allows younger units to ask questions, and received feedback or direction. Under her direction, you cannot help but be drawn into the web of friendships she weaves and all of the positive things that bloom from it.
She has true strength as a leader. When you shine the light on her role as mediator, you can see why it is so impressive. Atyiru manages one of the most cantankerous, opinionated, and obstinate groups within the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. The Elders and Summit of Arcona are known for their willingness to say what needs to be said and rarely (read: never) hold back when they have an opinion to share. She willingly accepts this advice, or a dissenting view, with a calm temperament from each of them. Yet, when the conversation veers away from productivity, and sometimes niceties, she slams her foot down hard and squashes the vitriol. Over this year, her bend-don’t-break mentality has seen Elders with strong opinions - Wally, Braecen, Sashar, Timeros - bend their visions to align with hers. This required a radical paradigm shift in the production and consumption of content, how members were recognized and rewarded, and, finally, how we communicate with one another.
She has also charmed, cajoled, and kidnapped veteran members and Arconae from their hibernations to participate in her Summit. She has the largest collective of opinions in her “small” group, but knows when to use the right tool for the right job: to get discussion moving, to complete tasks stuck in a mire, to enhance productivity, to mentor others, etc etc et al. Rather than ignore the contributions of her members and make decisions for all of Arcona, she solicits feedback regularly via e-mail, chats, hangouts and shared documents. This includes multiple rounds of feedback from the initial project design group to an eventual invitation to every member from Apprentice to Adept to provide their insight. The woman never sleeps, because she is instantly accessible for every member. She slaves away to ensure that communication is at the forefront of what she does; her role is to reveal to the membership what others are doing, how they can progress or participate, and finds a way to make it unique, engaging, and fun! Probably why she has won the best Consul reporting regularly since her induction into the role.
To understand the amount of effort she puts into her role first requires understanding how Arcona operates. Atyiru has built a culture around members - not leaders - driving the participation and content within the Clan. That does not mean, however, she is not involved in every piece of content being produced. With the MAA restricting co-organizers it is impossible to credit her for her work on the site, but not impossible to account for it. She has been an invaluable partner in the creation, proofing, set-up and approval for numerous competitions: Fall of SCEPTER, Fall of Perdition, Arcona Halloween Horror Nights, An Arconan Holiday, Captain Arcona: Civil War, Arcona Stimulation Package (Bladeborn, Curator, Chronicler), First Encounters, Back To School, Strands of Fate, and the list goes on and on. The truth is, Arcona produces more content than any two Clans combined. They also have participation numbers only surpassed by three Clans combined. It only highlights what she has built; that clans driven by members - not leaders - are more invested in creating, participating, and supporting for their fellow members. It is such a selfless thing, but for those of us who know Atyiru… it is a perfect way to honor her as a leader and person.
To say it’s an honor to serve as Atyiru’s Proconsul would be a vast understatement. I have had the pleasure of working alongside her since my beginnings within Arcona when she and I raced to reach Dark Jedi Knight. She and I served together within Galeres until her eventual placement as Consul. I have never met Atyiru’s equal in patience, in her talent, and her love for her Membership. Hopefully this award will show her that all of the of the sleepless nights she has spent working for the betterment of Arcona and the Dark Jedi Brotherhood has not gone unnoticed.
Congratulations Abbey! Thank you for everything you do.
Uji Tameike
Shadow Scion of Arcona
Mandalorian Declan Roark, 2016-04-23 01:52:40 UTC