The Dark Council is seen mostly as the ruling body of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. A lot of times we forget, however, that the work these people do everyday is not done for their personal gain or interest. No position is more selfless, however, than Herald. A Herald's sole purpose is to create. To bring ideas to life in a way that only certain people with certain gifts can. Creations for the benefit of others. And in truth, that was something the Brotherhood missed during the course of a year long competition, with our former Heralds time being absorbed by real life. Enter Orv, or Baxir as we now know him (curse you, Esoteric!). Orv had already served a long stint as a Dark Councilor. and we always enjoyed his art work, whether it was character commissions or an entire RoS comic.We took it for granted that he ALSO was our head coder, which is how many people remembered him before he had to step down. It was refreshing, then, to see not only a new style of art introduced into the Brotherhood (in the form of lightsabers and robes), but how he didn't even flinch with getting right back and involved in projects that will go on to change the look and feel of our club for years to come. The weekly comics he started doing where not a requirement, but something that brought joy to the entire brotherhood. He revitalized the entire Herald staff, set them up in a position where they could better address and meet the members needs, while diving headlong into the plethora of projects that needed to be done for the sake of the club.
The join form is where new members will get their first taste of Orv, as he created a Light Side and Dark Side character to help make the choice of selecting your path more organic. They will then see it in subtle ways as they move throughout the site in the small Clan Logo's on the side bar, or access the Wikipedia color scheme (which, finally looks like it matches our Site theme, no more ugly yellow links yay!). When they go through the selectors to pick their robes and sabers, they will also see a series of creations that came out of Herald Style Hanuka creations. They will also benefit from the Avatar submission guidelines he created, which shows that he wasn't just an artist, but someone who worked on a technical level to ensure everything worked. Always willing to compromise, I never saw Orv raise his "voice" or get flustered in a conversation about policy. His level headed approach to everything is inspiring to all, and it shows with how well received the changes he's made have held.
He even went so far as to join us in Hangouts on Google Plus; allowing members to watch his process as he drew while offering tips to artists interested in learning more about the craft. That apparently extended to, on New Years, drawing a representation of my likeliness in a sea-shell bikini. Complete with plenty of phallic additions, of course. Thanks...buddy. (But srysly, you might want to get that subconscious habbit checked out :P)
When I was just starting out in Arcona, Orv was an example I tried to strive for.That sentiment still stands to this day, exemplified by his passion, ability to work with anyone (regardless of their background), and easy smile. In my humble opinion, Orv embodies what you expect out of a Dark Councilor: passion, dedication, and a selfless desire to improve the club and help as many people as he can. And not just for leaders, but any member of this club can only hope to one day be as universally loved as Orv.
Thank you, Orv, for your long-term dedication, vision, and commitment to the brotherhood. Thank you for inspiring those around you to be better, and of course thank you for everything you have done for us since stepping in as Herald for the past 5 months. ~ Marick Arconae, Consul
If Orvles isn’t blushing by the time I’m done writing this recommendation, then I didn’t do my job. He was nothing short of inspiring as Herald. I worked for him as his Praetor for four months, and it was four months of hard work and fun. Orv worked hard on many projects at once amid the various tasks that had to be done day to day. I’m sure this isn’t even a full list, but he did things such as the twitter and facebook covers and join images, his own rotating banner image, the DJB Icon font/clan images and credit symbol, 404 and 500 error page images, Avatar policy wiki article, numerous sabers and robes for Herald Style Hanukkah, logo for HOU military force, several Herald reports, and of course the hilarious and thoughtful weekly webcomics that the membership loved.
It certainly doesn’t stop there. Much of it was behind the scenes, the things that I was privy to see, that made up a good bulk of the work. Orvles compressed the core site images, updated the HRLD lightsaber wiki to add the request table, made a lightsaber request wiki hilt image, cleaned up and organized the DB DeviantArt page, cleaned up and updated the Warbanner Photoshop file to make it even easier and faster for the staff to create them, added the SA logo to the icon font, designed and styled the news waterfall post layout, added meta description & keywords to site (extremely important for SEO), made CSS tweaks to the website, Wiki CSS tweaks, Test of Lore tweaks, new Join form, and even brought back the Wiki navbar. I could be wrong, but I think he brought back the forum navbar too, which had been broken for quite some time. There are some other projects that Orv was working on that are secret squirrel, probably some that I don’t know about myself, but I’m sure Muz can attest to the work he’s done on those fronts.
As a leader he was a lot of fun. I watched him create his images a few times and early on he would critique my own and offer suggestions, and then later do the same for the new Magistrates that came aboard. He let me run with my ideas and supported them. We usually agreed on everything, and those we didn’t he would always offer supportive evidence that pretty much turned my opinion around. Orv was really good at that. :P
Orv didn’t just make pretty pixels. He made the club better in a short amount of time, and it wasn’t for reward, he did it because he was passionate about the work and the club itself. I think the biggest evidence was in the webcomics that he just decided to do. Everyone can see that passion in his art, the cleverness, and the care to actually depict real characters from DB. That right there is Orvles in a nutshell. I absolutely enjoyed working with him as he was fun, and he inspired me greatly to improve myself and have fun in the Herald office as well. If I had an Ellie Badge I’d pin it on him, but I suppose this sacramental award will have to do. Thank you!
~Socks, Praetor to the Herald
Today, I have talked to Baxir. Recently, he's been finding that his real-life work has been taking him more and more time. Sadly, that means that he has had less time to do his work as Herald. I have asked him to stay on and continue his awesome webcomics for us as magistrate to the Herald.
Now, recently, he's been busy, but before that, he was most prolific. The activity tracker for the HRLD office has a lot of entries for the man, as it should...but they aren't as readily visible as just showing great big piles of lightsabers and robes. He's done graphical work, yes. He manhandled Herald Style Hannukhah, he's done up new navbars for the wiki, join characters for the new join form and the social media accounts and the aforementioned webcomics that help keep us all laughing. But he's done a lot more than that. He's pushed forward the concept of a Graphics society, to help grow our artists into something better, a resource for those of us learning and looking to do more. He's also worked diligently to codify and document the unwritten (or horribly out of date) policies that guide the Herald's office. It's been a lot of work, and it's worth our praise and thanks. To that end, I am very pleased to award Baxir an Emerald Dagger as a token of our thanks. Your time with us is always appreciated. ~Muz Ashen, Dark Lord of the Sith
Grand Master Muz Ashen Keibatsu, 2014-03-20 18:59:02 UTC