When I first returned to Odan-Urr things took... acclimation, for lack of better phrasing. I had spent 9 months in Arcona, preparing for and in the aftermath of War, in a sea of voices where often I would find myself lost in discussions if I looked away from my screen for more than a few moments. My first few weeks back home in COU were quiet, comparatively, but one of the first members to reach out to me personally and who has been a regular in my daily conversations has been Yuki. Whether it's making time to answer questions, reaching out to check about what's going on, general banter, or just a daily vibe check, he's been quick to make a joke, report back the situations around The Clan, or just showcase something new going down.

As a long-term member of The Brotherhood, with 24 years under his belt and a forward-thinking mentality, Yuki quickly became an advisor for me, and when we reformed the Knights of Allusis battle team, his experience with people and his forward outlook were defining elements in the decision for me.

In the time since then, as he's been a member of our Summit, Yuki has helped develop some of the new projects we've been slowly working into existence, served time and again to remind me to get my various projects out on time, and on a handful of occasions shouldered the burden of things I did not have the mindfulness at the time to handle, and helped our Proving Grounds BTL with the gaggle of new recruits COU has had, bringing them in line and working with them, at their pace, and helping them find their way in The Brotherhood a step at a time.

Drinks on you, tonight, Jack. Ever Onwards!

There's a lot to say about Jack, some of which definitely isn't general public appropriate. While he might come off as the grumpy old man, he really does care about the member of COU and will actively go out of his way to help members if they need it. While he isn't, on paper, the most active of members he's always around in the discord talking in the channel. Before coming back to COU, I was close to just quitting the DB again as a whole and he was one of the main people to keep me here. I'm not the best at writing recommendations, but I had to chime in for Jack because this award is honestly a long time coming and he's a solid rock for the clan.

Ryuu Suoh, or as most of us know him, Nero, has been a part of my Brotherhood experience since the beginning, casually dragging me from another community to The Brotherhood into Clan Odan-Urr seven years ago, telling me about a good fiction writing community and gaming haven, failing to tell me about the (at the time) lack of standardized Roleplay (despite bringing me from a roleplay community) and throwing me into the maw of the Gaming Centric COU, where I was handily beaten in Jedi Academy by Blade, every available weekend until life pulled me from The Brotherhood.

Over the next few years, Nero would occasionally reach out to me and try and bring me back to the Brotherhood, occasionally I would pop in, and check the community out for a few weeks without rejoining a Clan because nowhere felt as homey as before. When I did finally alight, Nero was the one who set my feet on the ground and reintroduced me to The Brotherhood at large again, helped me regain my bearings, and got me settled with our friends back in Arcona.

Now, a year and a half later, he serves as our Magistrate in charge of COU's Gaming run, full circle with the ultimate reason he brought me to COU nearly a decade ago, bring friends, game with friends, get more people in the Clan Gaming. Something he has been proficient at.

Since he came to us as Magistrate he spun up competition after competition, following gaming trends, and keeping our boards loaded with activities for our members to partake of. The response was nearly immediate, faces we hadn't seen in some time began to stir, others began to add gaming to their regular activity log the program established has been widely successful.

Nero has proven to us that if you provide activities, members will join them, and routinely performed outreach within the Clan to stir those who had been quiet, to make sure they knew that the activities were there.

You've definitely earned this, Ever Onwards, Nero!