Welcome to the Taldryan Consul Report for June 2020, and what a report it is! Here's your inside look at how Taldryan's been handling the Great Jedi War, to both reassure members of the Clan and provide other Clans with juicy intel. :P

Clan News

• If you somehow haven't already heard, Great Jedi War XIV: Homefront is LIVE! We're about halfway through Phase I, and the Clan's efforts have started off with a bang. More on that later in the report.

• Even with the GJW dominating everyone's attention, the Taldryan Summit has been laying the fictional groundwork for our next major story arc. You can read the most recent developments in this Discourse thread.

Member News

• As mentioned in Ciara's news post, two Taldryan members were selected to join the Shadow Academy staff. Erinyes is the new Praetor to the Headmistress, and Crysenia is the new Professor of Gaming and Combat.

• Returning from his abrupt absence, Appius has taken over the position of Ektrosis AED. Welcome back, Appius—and Appi birthday!

• Also returning to the Clan just in time for the GJW are former Wiki Tribune and Taldryan institution Benevolent Taldrya Whiner, and former Justicar Driftan Balephor (or as you knew him at the time, Taigikori Ayabara Dupar). I'm always thrilled to see more oldies around—it means people might get my references. :P

• In other happy news, Dasha "Jala" Talus has checked off all the boxes to earn herself a promotion to Captain. Congratulations, Jala!

Clan Activities

Like every other Clan, Taldryan has dropped everything to focus our efforts on the Great Jedi War. I'm very impressed with the effort our members have put in so far, in both the quality of their submissions and their determination to check off as many bins as possible for those sweet, sweet participation bonuses. Everyone's doing their part, even in spite of RL commitments ranging from being slammed at their day job or swamped with exams, to looking after their families (including a brand-new baby!), to flying halfway around the world for work.

In fact, here's some info for those of you who like numbers:

• Seventeen of our 32 members—just over 50% of the Clan—have submitted to at least one bin so far, and at least one other member has committed to participating.

• As of today, four Taldryanites have already participated in every Event-Long and Phase I bin. That may jump to as many as six, if schedules allow.

• Besides the three members who already have all the Event-Long and Phase I bins checked off, eight more have either participated in or are expecting to participate in every Phase I bin.

I've also been consistently impressed with how Taldryan's members have been stepping up to help each other. Our super-secret GJW chat is abuzz with people sharing ideas and feedback.

From what I've seen so far, I think Taldryan's performance in this GJW will be leaps and bounds above recent years. However the scores turn out, though, I'm thrilled to see such an incredible amount of enthusiasm and dedication from my fellow Taldryanites. You guys are doing a great job, and you should be proud of yourselves. I'm certainly proud of you all.

#AskErin

Since I hadn't done one of these before, I figured I'd inaugurate #AskErin in this report. Here are the questions you submitted!

• Appius asks: What is it they say of the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is?

(minutes of sputtering, flubbing lines, tears of embarrassment, and needling from the panel) … that there are no straight lines!

• Appius also asks: Why was the march hare so important to the Aztecs?

Did they worship it? (klaxon)

• Arvalis asks: Since Yacko isn't here, will you be the flower girl at my wedding?

Of course! Although, didn't you already have a wedding? Which wedding are we on? And even if Yacko were here, wouldn't it be kinda weird to have your dad as your flower girl?

• Arvalis also asks: Who's your favourite Pope, and why is it Sixtus V?

If Sixtus V were Sixtus VI, it would be Sixtus VI. As it stands, it's Pope Hilarius, because his name will never stop being funny.

• Arvalis asks again: How do I keep Morpheus style sunglasses from falling off my face?

Superglue and/or a bigger nose.

• Arvalis additionally asks: Do you lift?

Yes. Bottles.

• Bale asks: How do you feel about your Clan’s performance, 9 days into the Great Jedi War, and is there anything you would like to see improve?

Like I said earlier, Taldryan's doing a fantastic job. I don't think we can improve on everyone's willingness to put in that extra little bit of effort, whether to squeeze out one more event or make their submissions that much better. We just have to keep doing what we're doing.

• Kris asks: Blue/Black or White/Gold?

Weirdly, both. It was blue/black the first few times, then it switched to white/gold and has been that way ever since.

• Liandry asks: When is the answer a blue whale?

Whenever Alan doesn't think of it.

• Ronovi asks: Spill the beans! Does Erinyes have a cruuuush? ;)

Erinyes has many simultaneous crushes. She's not big on limiting herself.

• Ronovi also asks: Could it be gayer?

It could always be gayer. Except John Barrowman.

• Vodo asks: What's your favorite color?

Hmm… Depends on the outfit, really.

• Wirsk'rismar'kastra asks: Can you finish the 250 word summary I have to do for my uni exam?

I strongly condemn academic dishonesty of any kind. I'm also a freelance writer. Besides, it'd probably take 250 words to bring me up to speed on what you're writing, and at that point it's just a waste.

• Wirsk'rismar'kastra also asks: Who are you rooting for on RPDR All Stars 5?

I'm sadly out of the loop on RPDR, so I can't give you a name.

• Zentru'la asks: Which would you rather fight: one horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses?

One horse-sized duck, definitely. Fighting a hundred of anything is just begging to get swarmed.

• Zxyl asks: What plans do you have for Taldryan post-GJW?

If I have my way, the first job will be to recover from the victory party. :P After that, the priorities are to move the Clan storyline forward and double down on world-building as we continue to work on the Wiki. The Pro Bowl that Ronovi announced a little while back should also be coming up in late summer or early fall; more details on that as they come out.

Closing

That's it for this edition of the Taldryan Consul Report. Thanks for reading, and we'll see you next time!