The only incentive you should need to do your best and work your hardest is integrity. Anything less, and you're not working for beard, you're just whoring yourself out for profit.

The Bearded Tome: Chapter 13, Verse 56

Headlines that you need to know

• Gathering Darkness: Epilogue
• Gathering Darkness: Results & Thanks
• Recruitment Tribune Open for Applications
• Competition Roundup

Gathering Darkness: Epilogue

Read the Whole Story Here

The procession that returned to Taldryan's Great Hall was a strange collection of people. Mixed together were a group of some of the most dangerous dark Jedi in the universe, walking next to and chatting amicably with members of a group of people who prior to the last few months would have been generously called their enemies. Keirdagh watched as the group wandered in to the Great Hall, where he would join them all shortly, and mused over the implications of all that had happened recently.

The One Sith had lost countless footholds throughout old Sith space. The maddeningly familiar allies that had appeared above the skies of Bosthirda had not yet made reappearance in the conflict. A group of gray Jedi had resisted the One Sith and were now being harboured by Clan Taldryan. The mastermind behind the attacks on the Brotherhood and the Gray Paladins had yet to be captured, even though he had only narrowly escaped Halcyon's wrath. That confrontation, Keirdagh was sure, was still on the horizon, but approaching fast.

Wars tended to push people to their breaking points: to break down alliances and build up new friendships forged in war. War was a cleansing fire that would change everything, leaving nothing and no one it touched unchanged. It had already brought one new ally to the fold: the Gray Paladins had requested permanent asylum and shelter from Taldryan on the flight back from Hallion, and Rian had agreed in principle.

The storm was brewing. The tension gathering throughout the Brotherhood was starting to gain an electric property. Having only recently returned from the battles on Begeren, Keirdagh knew that ultimately he had many more questions than he had answers… but he knew one thing for certain.

Change was on the air.

Gathering Darkness: Results & Thanks

I just wanted to start off this section with my most sincere thanks. When you go through all the work to get an event of this size off the ground, there's always a fear that it won't be picked up by the people you're running it for.. sort of like that fear of throwing a birthday party and nobody showing up.

Thankfully, you guys didn't leave me hanging. Seeing more than half the membership turn out for the competition, and earning nearly 100 total entries in an event that wasn't a Great Jedi War or a Crusade thingy was really, really encouraging for me, and the quality of everyone's work was fantastic... so thank you to everyone who participated, and who helped run events.

Now, we'll celebrate the winners of the final competitions, and move onward to the Epilogue!

• Zoron won the final fiction round, and thus wrote the closing chapter of the event itself. You can view his submission on the forums (linked above).
• Halcyon Rokir Taldrya has won the ACC Event, and will be appointed as one of the two Gatekeepers for the month of October.
• Raistline Majere stepped up late in the game to overcome all the early front runners, and won the PVP Event. As such, Raistline will also be added to the Roll of Gatekeepers, congrats Raist.

Finally, for all of their work throughout the course of the event, I would like to congratulate the following members of Taldryan for placing in the Top Three of the whole event:

• For embodying the spirit of his catch phrase "do all the things!" Howlader has stepped up, and shown once again that being active and just participating is extremely important. Though Howie didn't win many of the events, he showed up, and as such came third overall in Gathering Darkness!
• Proving just how worthy he is of his recent promotion, Zoron stepped up and out on a show throughout Gathering Darkness. Saving his best for last, Zoron essentially wrote the final chapter of the story. He may be new compared to some of us, but Zoron is truly a new pillar of Taldryan, congrats on second place Zoron!
• Finally, there comes Halcyon Rokir Taldrya. We all know that Halc's the best. But I'll mention it again anyways. Participating in every event that he wasn't personally helping to run, Halc's dedication and activity in Taldryan is second to none. Congrats Halc on your victory, you truly are the all-star we need :D

Congratulations to everyone who participated, and everyone who placed. Thank you all for making the event such a success.

Recruitment Tribune Open for Applications

As announced yesterday, the position of Recruitment Tribune has been opened for applications by the GM/DGM. Recruitment Tribune is, and will continue to be an extremely important position in the coming months and years, as the DB ramps up to what is hopefully one of it's most active recruitment cycles in over a decade.

Check out the post above, and if you're interested, send your applications to the GM and DGM by October 10th.

Competition Roundup

Taldryan Hosted Competitions

• Triva: The Return of the Return of the Taldryan Trivia #2
• Misc: Speed Sporcle Challenge #4
• Misc: Speed Sporcle Challenge #5
• Misc: Cap This
• Misc: Ektrosis Puzzle #4

DB Wide Competitions

• Fiction: As Begeren Turns
• Fiction: Blood and Glory, Round 3
• Gaming: Star Wars Commander: Escalation on Dandoran
• Gaming: Destiny
• Gaming: Spider-Man Unlimited
• Gaming: Reach Level 20! It is... your Destiny.

OK guys, I'm super tired so I'm just going to end it there. Just as a reminder, we're still (I think) on par for the opening of the final round of Fading Light on the 10th of October. Hopefully we'll go into it seeing a victory by Shad in his acc match.

As always, if you ever have need of me (or just need to remind me about something I forgot..) my inbox is always open.

Take it easy folks!