The curious case of Octavia Morgan Obrie was something I didn’t fully comprehend until I sat down and really started looking at her dossier. Octavia is one of those people that’s just basically been in Plagueis off and on for as long as I can remember. She never really jumped out from the team, it always seemed like she was there doing her thing. It’s the kind of activity that we often take for granted, and the sort that often leads to people ending up stuck where they are because we tend to notice those that burn bright and fast (but maybe not for long) over those that might instead have a dimmer, yet steady and constant, flame. Looking over her history, it seems like a repeated tale of being overlooked when she’s earned enough to justify her elevation time and again. This has happened not only in the distant past, but it continued to happen even earlier this year.
Octavia was initially promoted to the rank of Dark Jedi Knight in 2009 while serving as a BTL in Plagueis. She would hold that position for almost a month following her elevation before ascending to the position of Aedile of House Exar Kun. She would hold that Aedile for seven months before she accepted a lateral transfer to the position of Aedile of House Satal Keto where she would serve for another three months. During the nearly 11 consecutive months she served in those positions Octavia was an active member, organized fifteen competitions, and composed 9 leadership reports. In essence, she was everything we ask of a new, journeyman leader. Octavia’s time in leadership would, however, come to an end in in July of 2010 through no fault of her own. Because of the declanning of the units of the Brotherhood, Tavi’s Aedile post ceased to exist. A journeyman who served with such competence and for such a length of time would normally be recognized at the end of their tenure, even back then. Unfortunately, lost in the general chaos and panic induced by the reduction from Clans to Houses, Tavi was overlooked for the first time.
Over much of the next few years, Tavi hung around here and there, participating or not as life and family took more of her attention. She really began to once again make her presence felt starting with the Sphere of Influence Clan feud that she participated in two events of. She was there again during Fading Light, participating in half the events for Fading Light 3. Following that, she took over stewardship of House Karness Muur’s Battleteam Apostles of Syn and held down that post for the next six months. It was during the next Clan wide event, our Anchorage feud, that Octavia really stepped up once again to shine. During the Anchorage event, Octavia was one of our most active members as she participated in all 8 competitions over the three week duration of the event. Her performance not only earned her 8th place out of the entire Clan, it significantly helped her smaller four person team come in first overall in the competition. Once again Octavia was an active and contributing member of Plagueis and she was only piling up more on top of what she had already done, but again she missed out on the promotion front and earned instead was awarded an Anteian Cross for her efforts.
If her failure to be promoted following the Anchorage event was simply a missed opportunity, what happened following the Great Jedi War was a major failure. It was no secret that the performance of Plagueis in Fading Light III was problematic to say the least. As a unit, we were looking for people to really step up in a big way to prevent the sort of stumble we had experienced during Fading Light. Octavia was one of those people who really made a difference. She participated in nine of the eleven total events from fiction to graphics to gaming, even cranking up the activity meter to get in some Run On posts. Her nine entry performance was more activity than more than 75% of the other participants across the Brotherhood, and she was right there as one of the most active journeyman in Plagueis. (Heck, one of the most active of our members period, journeyman or not!) Octavia was one of those members who, as she had done before, stepped up when we really needed her and helped Plagueis get out of the cellar once again. She had just been awarded an Antiean Cross at the end of 2014 before the start of the Great Jedi War, so she seemed primed for her ascension beyond Dark Jedi Knight at last. Sadly for Octavia, her efforts rewarded her with yet another AC. At least three times now the opportunity for Tavi to be promoted had presented itself, and three times it had been missed.
That was basically the situation I found when Tavi joined House Ajunta Pall shortly after I assumed the post of Quaestor. Like many others, I hadn’t really looked closely at Octavia’s history since I had only been one of the leaders who served her for a few short months in 2013. From day one of her time in my unit, however, Octavia was always there looking to help. She’s always looking for projects to work on, fellow members to help, and is the first out of the gate to cheer her fellow members on when the call to action sounds (as it just did for the beginning of our most recent Clan feud). Even when she doesn’t have the free time to get in an entry, she’s always a making a positive impact on the House and Clan. And even when she doesn’t have a lot of free time to get in entries, she often gets them in anyway as she did in the second round of the Restoration event when she submitted to half the events and only missed out on fiction because she ran out of time.
Looking at my experience as her leader, I wondered how in the holy heck was she still a Dark Jedi Knight? That was the moment where I started to look, and I saw what Tavi had done over the years. She’d been a leader and a fiery competitor. She didn’t always “win”, but her activity and spirit was a victory of a different sort. I looked back at her history and saw a active and dedicated member on the fast track to advancement after her last elevation in 2009. Then, I saw a person that drifted away from that path after her hard work and efforts had gone unrecognized. I saw her stick it out at the rank of Dark Jedi Knight for longer than most of our current active members have been in the Dark Brotherhood at all, doing what she could and still acting as a positive influence on the membership.
In the end, I saw a member that we, the Brotherhood as a whole, had failed over and over again. Seeing this, I made sure that I would make sure that we would not fail her again.
When we look at the straight numbers, we see a member who has been active, but not an easily quantifiable whirlwind. Since her last promotion she has earned two Anteian Crosses, five crescents (1 sapphire, 2 emerald, and 2 quartz), 2 CF’s, and 4 CI’s. She has served as Aedile for 10 months and Battleteam leader for 7 and organized 15 competitions. She has participated in 47 competitions, nine of them in the most recent Great Jedi War.
I think those numbers, especially given her service in leadership, are enough to warrant her elevation all by themselves. I know, however, that Tavi is more than just those numbers. She is the kind of member that our organization as a whole is absolutely dependent on. The person who remains a constructive, positive addition to our Club no matter what she gets in return. That is why this is probably the longest EQ1 promotion recommendation I’ve ever seen. It’s not about padding the stats, it’s about really showing that the organization has seen everything that Octavia has done over the years that go beyond the pure numbers. It’s about saying thank you to Octavia for waiting for her elevation to the Equites for so long and with so much patience. And, finally, it’s about telling her that I hope she doesn’t have to wait quite so long for her next one.
Congratulations, Octavia Morgan Obrie. This one has been a long time coming!
Master Selika Roh di Plagia, 2015-07-04 23:01:07 UTC