We often talk of the qualities necessary for one to reach the Elder tier. Prized among them is a selfless service to the greater benefit of the Brotherhood as a whole. We look for members who have in many and major ways left the club better than when they found it. Arion Aquillarum Sunrider has always possessed these sought-after and rare traits. He, like many of us, has not always possessed all the time to he would like to employ them here for our benefit. Despite this, Arion has used what time he has had available to help not himself, but all of us. Over the last nine months he has recoded the entire Shadow Academy website from the ground up, converting the codebase to PHP and allowing its administrators and users greater access and utility to this club-wide tool. During this upgrade Arion also fixed numerous errors in the code that were not necessarily critical to his conversion task. He also corrected several issues with the main Brotherhood site. Dedication like this shows us that he is not interested in taking, but giving.
While Arion benefits the entire club with his professional skill, he also manages to benefit whatever unit of the Brotherhood he finds himself in. During the Ninth Great Jedi War Arion finished 7th overall greatly benefitting his clan and its members in their collective placement. While in Revan, Arion has particpated in numerous events of the Rite of Supremacy including Round 1's Poetry and Round 2's Fiction event. He also achieved a critical victory in the Antei Combat Center that lifted his unit, once again, to a placing higher than otherwise would have been possible without him. If recoding websites and leading clans to victory were not enough to warrant Elder status, Arion has also found time to serve as the Magistrate to the Grand Master as well as having recently completed a term as the Left Hand of Justice. So thorough has Arion's service to the club been he was recently awarded a Seal of Loyalty this past Brotherhood holiday. While balancing his duties and efforts to aid the club, Arion made the time and effort to help establish Independent House Revanâthe first Independent House established in the Brotherhood in a decadeâas well as create and manage its website. His efforts over the last nine months have garnered him 19 Clusters of Fire, 14 Seals of Unity, 3 Gold Novas, 2 Sapphire Blades, 2 Steel Crosses, 1 Dark Cross, and a Seal of Loyalty with more to come from the recent Rite of Supremacy. We of Revan know where we would be without Arion. It is time the Brotherhood knew it as well. ~ Raken, Independent House Revan
Arion Sunrider is an ex-Headmaster who came to Taigikori and I wanting to know how he could help. He was a coder, so we knew there was plenty for him to do, and put him straight to work. Needless to say, Arion surpasses our expectations on every project we give him, making sure they look great and work great.
One of Arion's first projects when he started working with us was to head the complete recode of the Shadow Academy website from ASP to PHP, which he did not only quickly and efficiently, but amazingly. He rebuilt all of the existing functionality of the website, not only the public site, but also the entire admin site, reworking it to make it easier to navigate and understand by implementing a Course Group function that organizes everything by Departments, and even included a very cool drag and drop feature when moving courses from all Department to another. He did all of this coding in the middle of the Ninth Great Jedi War, which he still managed to place Seventh overall in. Thanks to the changes Arion made, updating and expanding the Shadow Academy in the future is much easier.
A lot of the changes Arion has made to the SA are noticeable mainly to those who regularly deal with the admin site, but he also does work on the public side of things. On the main Brotherhood website, Arion completely reorganized dossier training tabs to list courses by Department instead of alphabetically, and continues to work on revamps to the member histories on dossiers. All of these coding improvements are followed up with constant updates and bug fixes. In one case, Arion was made aware of a glitch concerning new member activations by Muz, and he identified and fixed the problem within twenty minutes. In the Shadow Academy, Taig and I are always emailing him about glitches, and he always looks into them and fixes them.
Outside of actual programming, Arion has also been working with us to revamp the Department of Coding Practices. He assisted in the total rewrites of HTML 1 and 2, and is currently working on a completely new PHP course. I do not hesitate to say that Arion is one of the most invaluable members I have ever worked with. Without him the Shadow Academy would be nowhere near where it is today, both in the functionality of its programming as well as its quality and ease. Taigikori and I have always enjoyed rewarding Arion for his hard work and dedication, including a Sapphire Blade, so I am overjoyed to be able to assist him in his elevation to the ranks of the Elders, an honor he more than deserves. ~ Dark Side Adept Aabsdu di Plagia Dupar; Headmaster of the Shadow Academy
The Shadow Academy as a whole has not seen such dramatic changes since the arrival of Arion Sunrider. In the wake of all of the massive amounts of problems that the Shadow Academy has faced over the last year with bugs and SQL attacks, one person has been there to forever change the face of how the SA deals goes about its day to day operations. The person who re-coded the Shadow Academy over to PHP, without any help what so over. The person who has been there day in and day out without hiccup. The man Iâm referring to is none other than Arion.
In the days where you could find a hundred dollar bill on the street easier than finding an ACTIVE coder in the Dark Brotherhood, Arion has set a new standard of all of the DBâs code monkeys. Heâs been in the brotherhood for longer than he probably will want to admit, but he doesnât just sit content with living the life of a rogue. No, he goes over and beyond to make the entire Brotherhood community a little bit of a better place every day. Not a single day has passed when Iâve regretted working with Arion, and I doubt one of those days will ever come to pass. Below youâll find a short but astonishing brief of the works of Arion over the last year alone.
Re-haul of the SA site to PHP. This not only took place during the Ninth Great Jedi War, but it took place without incident. The SA was the home of one of the largest SA competitions in recent memory, with nearly over 500 exams passed, and over 200 degrees awarded. The sheer volume of coding Arion put forth into the SA PHP re-haul was astounding. I for one have little more than general HTML knowledge, but having full SA FTP access, and the updates via the dev site, I was privy to see Arionâs work first hand before it went live. The entire site went live brilliantly, and I donât think a single person could have done it better, or quicker.
Other projects consist of regular (and by regular, I mean we completely bypassed the SCL and went straight to Arion) SA bug fixes, in which Arion was directed by both Aabs and myself, and Muz to fix everything from dossier issues, to complete SA crashes. Most of which, the problems were fixed within the hour. This coming from the guy who checks his email during church. You canât get anything past him.
In closing, Arion is nothing short of a damn genious. You canât stop him, even when heâs a rolling boulder going downhill. When you read this Arion, know how grateful I am for everything youâve done for us here at the Shadow Academy. Youâre a great asset, but beyond that youâre an even greater friend. Thanks for everything, and I hope this promotion finds its way into your inbox with a large smile. ~Praetor to the Headmaster Taigikori Aybara Dupar
The Elder Class. Reserved for those members who have dedicated time and energy to the Dark Brotherhood in a meaningful manner. Arion has met this lofty expectation and service through years of mentoring members, time spent serving in leadership positions, and volunteering to improve the Dark Brotherhood.
All those updates to the Shadow Academy's coding over the past years? That was Arion. The House Revan website. The was Arion too. All of Arion's coding has been the result of him contacting people and volunteering time. He was never asked to help, but took the initiative to improve those areas he believed he could provide a benefit.
I think the others on this request go into detail about Arion's activity over the years, but I will sum up his worth as an Elder with the comment that I have never heard him ask for a promotion or a reward, but I always see him ask if he can provide help. If that is not an Elder, I don't know what is. Its time to forget about some young guy who decided being DGM was a bit more than he wanted all those years ago and time to reward a guy who has done just about as much as anyone in the club. ~ Sarin, Sith Lord
If an Elder is supposed to be wise and learned, then Arion Sunrider fits the bill perfectly. His brief stint as my first Proconsul proved that all the more. While my computer was dead and my access to the internet was limited to the college, Arion essentially acted as Consul of Clan Plagueis. Covering competitions, taking care of the day-to-day, and essentially running the Clan. He played a big part in developing the House Feud: Insurrection, taking up direction while I was on hiatus. In addition, during his time in Clan Plagueis, he received two Quartz Crescents, three Gold Novae, a Dark Cross, 14 Seals of Unity, 19 Clusters of Fire, and TWO Sapphire Blades. His work has always been exceptional, and alongside these other recommendations, you will see why Arion has earned his promotion to Dark Side Adept. Many congratulations, Arion. This is well deserved. ~ Alaris Jinn di Plagia, CON of PLA
Elevation in the rank of Elders is oft reserved for those members whom have made a lasting impact on the club. Be it through the relationships they formed, the aspiring leaders and members they coached or the blood, sweat and tears devoted to their duties. An Elder remains an icon of what every Brotherhood member should strive to achieve.
Arion has my full confidence in elevation to the rank of Dark Adept, because he has done all of these things and asked for very, very little in return. Over the years, we have given him our respect and praise - today we give him the rank for all of his hard work. For me, for several years, Arion has been worked along my side on several Clans and the Brotherhood. A "labor of love" we often called it.
In that time, Arion has helped with revisions to Clan Plagueis, Clan Scholae Palatinae and, once more, Clan Plagueis. Each time, he has been a catalyst in both large projects (Planet Resets, Fleet Resets, Fictional Direction, Vendetta Participation/Mentorship/Leadership, etc) and the small projects (coding the merit system, creating new banners for web sites, adding fictional elements for both his character and the benefit of others). Honestly, the list has become so long on the tasks I have handed Arion... I doubt I could ever recall them all. I only know that Arion remains as invaluable to me as a Phoenix or Alaris. And I hold him in the same regard as several Elders and high profile members of our club.
Welcome to the Circle of Elders, Arion. And thank you for assistance on a myriad of large projects and a billion small ones. The club has become a better place with your help. You have left your mark and I thank you for that. ~ Braecen Kaeth
There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, and done by people that are not showboating or gunning for glory themselves. Arion is one such member. With his tireless hours working on code and helping to advance things in the Shadow Academy in addition to his work to make the new Independent House Revan work, he has made an indelible mark on the Brotherhood. It is easy to see where his hand has touched, and it is for that, and for the many fine words his friends have said about him in his reccommendation that we recognize him as an Elder of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. ~ Muz Ashen, Dark Lord of the Sith
Lord Muz Ashen Keibatsu, 2010-02-22 14:06:16 UTC