Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more beard.

The Bearded Tome: Chapter 13, Verse 56

Just one announcement before we get started on this report... have you seen Rax's latest report yet? Because it is amazing. Just amazing. Now, if you can tear your eyes away from the Great Green Hope of the Gray Paladins... We'll move onto the main event...

Headlines that you need to know

• Taldryan wins Fading Light Round 2
• New Leaders in Taldryan
• New Shadow Academy Stuff
• SWTOR Expansion Announced
• Gryff's Comic Corner
• Fading Light Round 3: Nicht Ka
• Rollmaster's Corner

Taldryan Wins Fading Light Round 2

Well, as Rian mentioned a lil bit earlier, the never ending quagmire of an ACC Tournament that was Fading Light Round 2 has come to a close. Now, we knew from the semifinals onward that Taldryan would "win" the planet due to having 3 people in the quarter finals, as well as a superior participation ratio, but a win by tie break isn't what we aim for here in Taldryan. To that end, Shad stepped up and took the Gold home for Taldryan.

Thanks to Shad's efforts, and the efforts of everyone in Taldryan, we now have a commanding lead going into the third and final round of Fading Light. Don't let our lead make you complacent though folks. We've won both planets outright so far in this competition, and I intend to make it a third running. With your help, we can.

New Leaders in Taldryan

This past weekend, Rian Halc and I had the unfortunate duty to accept Dru's resignation as Aedile in House Ektrosis. Obviously we hate seeing any of our members step down from leadership positions due to personal time constraints, but at least we know we're not losing Dru totally, he'll still be sticking around and annoying us all.. and we might even be able to convince him to keep making those fun puzzles for us to do.

Along with Dru's resignation though, came the need to find his replacement. You will all have noted the lack of applications, and really, any significant amount of turnover time in the appointment of his replacement... there's a simple reason for this: Zoron. Zoron's been a force since returning to the DB, and when we were faced with Dru's resignation, there was literally only one name on the list. Congrats Zoron, we're sure you'll do us proud.

To add to the fresh blood within the Summit, we also are able to announce two new Battleteam Leaders for the Wardens and Harbingers: Raistline Majere and Omega Kira respectively. Raist has been serving as Zoron's right hand man in the Wardens for some time now, and is as staunch and loyal a servant of Taldryan as we have. Omega Kira is the other side of that coin... only recently returned to the DB, Kira has been a whirlwind of activity since he joined up, and we're all looking forward to see what he can do with the Harbingers in the near future!

New Shadow Academy Stuff

Bubba recently graced us with another report where he talks about the various goings on in the Shadow Academy. Continuing on in the recent swath of edits are courses found in the "leadership" department. The most recent offering is the Leadership Competitions Course. To inaugurate the release of the new course, the HM held a mini competition that awarded the first three people to score perfect on the course. I'm happy to report that out of the top 5 recorded, 3 of the members were from Taldryan: well done Omega and Zoron!

Other news covered are the expected requirements for new leadership degrees, some stats on the most prolific course takers (woo, go Gryff/Serenla!), and a long overdue change to the Test of Wisdom course. Make sure you read Bubba's report and thank him and his staff for their hard work.

SWTOR Expansion Announced

So, probably the most exciting news in the Star Wars Gaming world lately has been announcement of the new expansion in SWTOR. Despite my personal dislike for the last expansion, and for me being slightly angry at Bioware for pandering to us by bringing Revan back... well, they're bringing Revan back and that is freaking awesome. They're also adding a bunch of changes to the game play, including abandoning skill trees for "disciplines". You can read some notes Dulfy made during the livestream event here.

Something to note as well, especially for our folks who have ever played TOR.. with the announcement of this new expansion, the grind to 55 has been made substantially easier. If you resub and pre-order the Expansion you'll get a 12x Class Experience boost, allowing you to level doing only the class storylines (arguably the best parts of TOR).

They've also released a trailer for the new expansion, which can be viewed here:

Gryff's Comic Corner

One of the biggest gaps in my own relatively massive nerd existence is the fact that I'm not really a huge comic book geek. I love the stories, and I know an above average amount about most comic book characters and my favourite stories... I just don't geek out over the artwork. I really want to, but I just don't get it.

Don't be like me though. Recently our very own Gryff put together an amazing review of some of the recent offerings of Dark Horse. We know that Dark Horse will be losing the publishing rights to another Disney property (Marvel) in the coming years, but Dark Horse has kept the torch alive for a long time, so if you are a comic guy, make sure you go give them a chance.

Also, make sure you congratulate Gryff on his awesome review!

Fading Light Round 3: Nicht Ka

Recently, the Pravus teased us with a bit more information concerning the third and final round of the Fading Light Rite of Supremacy. While we've known for some time that the target will be the planet Nicht Ka, we now have confirmation concerning the events we'll be seeing in the near future. I know I can count on everyone in Taldryan to do their utmost to continue our current winning streak, and I look forward to sharing the experience with you all.

Rollmaster’s Corner

Hello all! I have returned from my glorious London and Brussels vacation! Beer was had, many delicious meals were had – and an all-around good time was had by all. Now that I’m back to the Brotherhood, and I would like to congratulate a few of our clan mates.

First, I’d like to welcome Ayulis to Taldryan, and congratulate him on his promotion to Novice! Second, my own apprentice, Omega Kira and Shadow Corran were both promoted to Guardian! Finally, Serenla joined us, and was promoted to Novice, Acolyte, Protector, and Guardian! Congratulations to you all!

Journeymen Activities

Below are the highlights of our journeymen (and women!) in the past few weeks!

• Guardian Omega Kira earned a Crescent with Emerald, Ruby and Amethyst Star, a Pendant of Blood, Scroll of Indoctrination, 35 Clusters of Fire, earned Sophomore (III) in the Shadow Academy Society, GMRG Rank II, and completed the following Shadow Academy courses: Leadership Rewards, Leadership Reports, Leadership Competitions, GMRG History, and Markdown 101 Shadow Academy courses.

• Guardian Shadow Corran earned a Crescent with Emerald Star and 6 Clusters of Ice.

• Guardian Serenla earned a Crescent with Topaz Star, two Pendants of Blood, 100 Clusters of Fire, earned the Essentials and Vendetta Pundit degrees, completed all the journeymen hall courses, and completed the following regular Shadow Academy courses: Cryptography 101, Debate I: Argumentation, and Brotherhood Basics.

• Jedi Hunter Catmatui earned a Dark Cross and 22 Clusters of Fire

Competition round up

Taldryan Hosted Competitions

• When Penguins Attack – Raist is hosting a tower defense game!
• Burrito Bison Revenge! – A weird flash competition run by Proconsul Yacko!
• Speed Sporcle Challenge #5 – Hosted by our very own Zoron! Answer trivia questions on sporcle!

Brotherhood Wide Competitions

• Monthly Mobile Gaming: Spider-Man Unlimited! – Another Fist mobile competition!
• Monthly Mobile Gaming: Ninjump – Another Fist mobile competition!
• General Gaming: Loot Cave Simulator! – A quick online game from the Fist office!
• Star Wars Rebels Caption Contest – A caption competition based around the new show Rebels!
• Reach Level 20! It is... your Destiny – A new Fist competition, console gaming for the new game Destiny
• Destiny – Earn the most Clusters of Fire playing Destiny!

That's it for this week folks. Keep kicking ass.