Anders has been a cornerstone of Taldryan for a very long time, and one of our most valued assets. He has proven this time and time again, through his various stints on the summit of Taldryan. And while he has chosen to step down to focus on family and just be a regular member for a while, I can not let his efforts these past months go unrecognized.
His participation numbers are at the very top of the Clan. Since his last medal (5 months ago!), he’s organized 89 competitions and co-organised a further 11. He’s participated in 258 competitions, earning himself 134 Crescents (2 Diamond, 105 Ruby, 12 Amethyst, 7 Sapphire, 6 Emerald, & 2 Topaz). He earned himself a further 5 Clusters of Fire and 155 Clusters of Graphite. In fiction, he earned himself an impressive 234 Clusters of Ice. He wrote over 50.952 words across 33 fiction events, participated in a further 14 RP Sessions for an additional 38.194 words, and organized a further 4 RP Sessions for another 21.583 words. He also participated in 2 ACC matches (for another 5.590 words and served as judge for two other matches. He passed an SA Course, earning himself an SA Degree. On the side of Societies, he’s elevated his rank 6 times across the various societies. In the last 5 months, he’s earned the clan 1.884.410 credits. He is a consistently active member with a vast amount of reliably constant activities. For this alone we would be recognising him via a medal.
The paragraph above describes what Anders has done inside the XP System. What the XP system doesn’t show is everything else he’s been getting up to in the last 5 months as Proconsul of Taldryan. He has been an integral part of every aspect of the Clan in that time, imparting knowledge, calling out errors, offering up ideas and the like.
He has been an integral part of planning out storylines and setting up future plot points. Through long hours of discussion and debate, decisions were made and put to the membership in polls to determine what would be the optimal way to move forward in regards to bolstering activity and keeping everyone happy through utilization of those ideas. As such, he has been a constant thorn in my side, and the reason for my resolve when it comes to the good and bad parts of ideas, fleshing out details in regards to the finer details of various plot points and progression related decisions. He reviews events, helps prepare and perform setup for future events,
He was an integral part in setting up the Sins of an Empire event series story line, of which the prelude has recently finished. His efforts in this case will be felt for several years to come as we roll out the other events of this series. Specifically, Anders worked to flesh out several factions and organizations to be used in the Sins of an Empire. He co-created them with Alaisy and myself. While he did not create the specific wiki articles, he was instrumental in the creation of their content. Specifically, he assisted in the creation and fleshing out of six major factions: 1) The Anti-Human League, 2) the A.F.A. (Aliens for Acceptance), 3) various Weapons manufacturers spread out across the Dalicron System, 4) A representation of the Banking Clan, 5) the Ithorian Animal Group, and 6) the DEC (Dalicron Excavation Conglomerate) under the leadership of Stevenson Bozos. During the setup of this event, we kept a similar routine as the one we had when I was his Proconsul and he was Consul. After I draft and give the narrative and roleplaying framework to him and the team; he dives headfirst into them. He took on the task of proofreading the event fictions, which came to a total of over 2.000 words. He then also takes on an active part in setting up and running the events around the storylines that were set up. Taking on Co-DM status in our last two major RPs with Alaisy, creating spreadsheets or documents to organize competitions for our events; such as both Fortress Cloudhaven and Sins of an Empire Prelude, and including the Magistrates in the planning of those competitions after refining the framework structure. During the setup of the Sins of an Empire Prelude, Anders joined in on setting up and running the event. Together with the rest of the summit, he created 13 pages worth of competitions that were then run over the course of the event. During the event, the task of managing the competitions was divided evenly between the summit. When Alaisy resigned as M:CON near the end of the event, he stepped in and took on the burden of overseeing her slice of the event. In refining it, he looks at what the members have been enjoying in terms of competitions based on what was learned from polling the members through various methods, and focuses on drafting competitions around those particular types. Because of his efforts in focusing on that particular aspect, we saw roughly 38% and 53% participation between Sins of an Empire and Fortress Cloudhaven respectively; those particular events being a large portion of that percentage.
In regards to member engagement, he has not been idle. Due to his early morning routines, he has become an integral part in engaging our European and early morning crowds with announcements, updates, check-ins, and so on. With a large number of our members being European, this has been absolutely invaluable and has even reminded a number of members about participating in those competitions, having either forgotten or had been unaware. This engagement is by all accounts a large part of our increasingly positive participation levels. Additionally, he presents on a nearly daily basis the “Taldryan Questions of the Day.” This is generally character focused, but sometimes it interweaves real life and DB life, which results in a fair amount of discussion and interaction from the members; creating activity on a social level, and encouraging comradery and engagement. Sometimes these questions can even be geared towards that to solicit thoughts; if members are enjoying it, have issues with it, or have things they dislike about it. Overall, his high visibility with the countless messages tossed into the various discord channels each day. He had a tremendous impact on how a vast majority of our members experience the Clan on a day to day level.
In addition, he has been helping in maintaining various pages on the DJBWiki, proofreading fictions and aspects, reviewing Character Sheets and offering input for anyone who asks. Assisting where possible in RP Sessions, dragging people into cooperative competitions.
He has also been active in overhauling various landmarks and locations within the Taldryan Dominion, from major cities to smaller sites. He modernized some, added onto descriptions of others, and prepared text descriptions for insertion into the relevant articles when they were updated later on. This work has proven invaluable in ensuring swift updating and publication of various wiki articles.
Zappy is not only a great influence on the Clan, he is an integral part of why we are where we are now. Our achievements in recent years are inescapably linked to his guidance and leadership. Taldryan would not be the same without him in it. It is because of this, and his consistent effort and dedication, that I am proud to recommend him for the Emerald Dagger. Thank you for everything, and while I'm going to miss you being on the summit, I look forward to everything you have yet to bring to both Taldryan and the club at large.
Sage Cassandra Oriana Taldrya, 2024-07-26 18:15:16 UTC