I'm not going to beat around the bush. Here's another Quaestor report, and the stuff you're going to read is pretty serious.

Operation Plain Sight Results

Remember when I said in my last report that I was looking forward to seeing how many Tarenti participated in OPS? Maybe I spoke too soon.

Taigikori recently graded and awarded winning members for both Week One and Two events. Tarentum only placed in one (me, taking first place for Week One fiction). Besides me, only one Tarenti participated in the entire event. ...Yes, you read that exactly right. One person from Tarentum besides your Quaestor participated in a quick, two-week event with our alliance.

I'm speechless.

I conceived this competition with Zandro because I thought it would a simple, fun event that was hardly demanding in the slightest - two weeks of competitions, three competitions per week. And only one person bothered to try it out? I e-mailed you guys at the beginning and end of every week reminding you of events. Arcona was great when it came to participation, so either you guys really didn't like the story, or we have a serious activity problem in Tarentum. And I'm going to go with the latter. I am going to be biting the bullet, taking responsibility, and stepping up my game to revive Tarentum, because this is unacceptable. And the first thing I'm going to do is find a new Aedile.

Aedile Applications: DB-WIDE

No, I'm not "booting" Scion. Scion and I have mutually agreed that he is just too busy to be Aedile, and it's about time he took a break. Scion Altera has consistently served in leadership positions for over two years, and now he gets to kick back after a lot of amazing work. Thank you, Scion, for all you've done as summit for Gladius, Quaestor for Kaerner, and Rollmaster and Aedile for Tarentum as a house. I owe you one, buddy.

So I am going to find another Aedile, and I won't just be looking in Tarentum. We need a strong, enthusiastic, present second-in-command so I'm not doing too much work as Quaestor. We need someone who can help boost Tarentum up and, subsequently, replace me as Quaestor in the future. I will be putting up a news post after this report with all the requirements I'm looking for in my Aedile, so if you feel like you can prove to me that you are a worthy second-in-command, stay tuned for the news post and an e-mail.

What Tarentum needs now is stability, and that means the entire summit must be present and active. Scion will be interim Aedile until the application process is over and the new Aedile has been chosen. We will be starting again from the ground up, so this is going to be one Hell of a job.

Burden, Distrust, and Loathing

If you read Tsainetomo's Naga Sadow Quaestor report, you probably saw the chapter he wrote for the Tal-NS-Tar feud. Now it has a name and a starting date: the feud will begin on January 13th and continue until February 10th. You will have two events to do per week, and I sincerely hope some of you will actually make the effort to participate. I will be doing some of the judging, so I cannot participate in any event.

On the 13th, I will e-mail you with a detailed list of events and with a link to the forums for fictional chapters. If you'd like to catch up on the recently posted fiction, that will be up there, too. This is supposed to be an awesome event, and I expect you all to step up to the plate and get involved.

There's not much else I can say. I'm disappointed, partially in myself as well. But this is going to be less of an admonishing and more, I think, of a viewing of this situation as critical. So I will be working hard to bring this house back up to speed - we had a great burst of activity last year, and I won't let you guys putter out now. Let's see what you can do, and let's see if you can prove to me that Tarentum will prevail.