Wally is one of the most productive members in the history of this club. In the six years since his promotion to EL2, he has served two years as Voice, a year as Exarch, and over a year as a Battleteam Leader and Magistrate to the Grand Master along with stints in the Shadow Academy and as one of the original Exarch staff members helping to get the RP project off the ground. He has been award a Diamond Sword, two Ruby Scepters, and an Amethyst Kukri, and earned dozens of crescents and hundreds of clusters. And he's never really slowed down.

He played a leading role in the DB Story Group through multiple vendettas (not to mention the many vendetta fiction comps we co-organized), dramatically improved the club's character sheet documentation and training, and most recently has helped drive widespread adoption of RPing in the club and led the launch of the brand new Envoy Society. He also played a major role in revising the Consul Handbook for the modern era.

He is always eager to help and willing to put in work that most people simply aren't. For all of this, I am very happy to make Wally the seventh EL3 in club history. Congratulations!

Lord Dacien Victae, 2023-10-14 20:43:59 UTC

Wally's dedication to this club, especially in the context of its fictional development (aka Krathy things) is at times absurd.

He's busted his ass and made this place better.

Well done. Congratulations!

Howlader Taldrya, 2023-10-12 19:05:04 UTC

Marick, aka Wally, aka Wallaby, might just be one of the most dedicated members this club has ever seen. From his insane work ethic to his drive to improve the member experience, Wally has never accepted that things are “good enough”.

His time as Voice was spent solidifying and our fictional systems into a well oiled machine. He pushed for a constant improvement to our fictional universe, while also documenting everything possible to make life so much easier for members new and old to jump into our little sandbox of insanity. Even since stepping down as Voice, he has always been available to help members, and more personally, help me be it with advice, insight, or just an understanding ear of what is going on in the club.

In the time since then not only has he demonstrated exactly how to be an insanely active member, he has rested on his laurels, being one of the major reasons that roleplaying is happening at all in this club, never mind the massive structure he has overseen as Exarch. The same level of attention and drive he had as Voice has continued pedal to the metal as Exarch, turning RP from a fringe activity to a fully supported, developed, and successful one within the club.

Much love Wally, thank you for all you do.

Idris

Lord Idris Adenn, 2023-10-12 19:27:33 UTC

Marick Tyris, aka Wally, is by and far one of the hardest working members of this club, with a drive that outmatches pretty well any other member I've come across since I joined. He and I initially bonded over our love for Android (and custom ROMs), spending hours talking over IRC every time a new update or Google Nexus phone launched. We haven't always gotten along at times, that's no secret, but I have and will always respect his dedication to the Brotherhood and the sheer amount of work he puts in. That is not and should never be in question. Years as Voice of the Brotherhood, Exarch, etc are just some of the contributions he's made. It would be absurd to try and list everything he's done - there's just too much. So much so, that he was one of the fastest rising members through the ranks, and now joins the upper half of the Elder ranks.

Most recently, Wally oversaw the fictional development of our roleplaying supplemental society, the Envoy Corps. This was a massive undertaking, required a lot of data and informed decisions, but it seemed like just another walk in the park with his pup for this man. We worked extensively on the rewards side of that supplemental society, with Wally having pretty well a fully presented award track for possessions and credits ready to rock before I even looked at it. He made whatever adjustments I asked for promptly, accepted the few limitations like the amount of society reward credits that were forced on him in stride, and continues to look for new ways to incentivize activity in the society using our existing systems. He's constantly providing aid to that community, pushing for people to share their resources, and never has any problem assisting someone having issues. Not long after the launch of the Envoy Corps, he came to me with new ideas for additional rewards to keep our roleplaying community hungry for more. That's what we should be expecting from every leader in this club.

To Wally: Our relationship may have been rocky these last couple years, but I have deep respect for the work you done and continue to do. You are and will always be in the top 0.5% of the hardest working members this club has ever seen. You deserve this promotion, and I've been incredibly proud to write this supporting recommendation. I have no doubt that you'll keep on trucking, working hard and always striving to do more.

Congratulations on Elder 3. Now go spend those credits!

Zxyl Besu'liik
Regent of the Brotherhood

General Zxyl Bes'uliik, 2023-10-12 23:55:27 UTC

It's likely I've said it before, but I will say it again: Wally deserves so much. He has done so much, has shown up, every day, every single day, for the last fifteen years. Non-stop.

Battleteam Leader of Oblivion Brigade. Quaestor of Qel-Droma. Proconsul and then Consul of Arcona. Magistrate, Judge, and Professor. Combat Master. Voice of the Brotherhood. Docent. Magistrate to yet more offices. Battleteam Leader of Voidbreaker. Exarch. Di Tenebrous Arconae.

ID lines might be gone, but all those titles listed out like that, all those names, still have power. They span fifteen years of unrelenting, back-breaking, blood sweat and tears dedication given to this club, this Brotherhood, not just one person or a few or a Clan, but the whole. Over multiple generations. Every day. If it's in his power, and let's be honest, also every time it's not, he tries to help anyone with anything. He will listen, advise, start up a chat, game, RP, explain, encourage, teach, anything. Everything. He does it. Because he can't not care about this Club. And that's a strength, not a weakness.

I do not know where I personally would be without Wally's influence, nor where the Brotherhood would be without him, but I do know that neither of those answers would be as good as they are for having him. Not as well loved or believed in time and time again. Not so defended and cared for. Our community, stories, infrastructures, and operations have all been built better, stronger, and beyond previous limits thanks to Wally's work. It doesn't always feel like enough thanks is given for that. So let this be a small chance.

Thank you, Wally, for all you've done. May you stand tall knowing you really did earn this, time and time again, and that it's seen.

Attifer, Clan Arcona

Master Ruka Tenbriss Ya-ir, 2023-10-13 00:20:42 UTC

Wally's contributions to this club's systems are numerous and well-detailed by others. His work ethic is legendary and seemingly endless. That alone would be worth of recognition to the higher echelons of elder. But one thing about Wally throughout his career is his very evident care and advocacy for the club as a community. Whether a battleteam leader, clan leader or architect of our fiction/roleplay systems Wally has always put members first. In everything he does in the club, Wally pumps you up to create your best, have fun and form connections with your other members. The people he's helped feel welcome, the young leaders he's mentored (of which I am one), the communities he helped build. That will be his true legacy long after the systems on the site he helped author are replaced or superceded. I can think of few more worthy of elevation to the penultimate elder rank.

Councillor Turel Sorenn, 2023-10-13 01:29:41 UTC

Looking at what Wally's accomplished as Exarch gives me no small amount of selfish relief, in addition to its obvious benefits to the club. Because I knew going into Exarch that I could manage the project and design the systems but I was never going to build a community around roleplaying. Knowing it was going to be a two-Exarch job didn't make me feel any less like I'd half-assed it, because that community was the whole point of supporting RP in the first place.

Because the point was growth. We did gaming, fiction, and art. Our recruitment and retention rates for gamers, writers, and artists did and do suck. But you know who was easy to recruit? Roleplayers. The problem was, unless they were also a gamer, writer, or artist, there was nothing for them to do once they got here. We needed official RP.

Well, two clans were already doing unofficial RP and Wally pushed the proposal that made that activity eligible for CIs. Wally got official RP done while I was still hammering away at a proposal. But I said "No, that's not good enough."

The first thing we needed was to make it easy to RP for credit, because if you want to recruit off an activity, it can't be some weird, arcane side process. So we built a system that made it easy to run or join RP for credit. But a simple workflow for an established member is still not good enough.

If you want to recruit off of an activity, the burden for creating a participation opportunity can't be on the new recruit. They have to be able to show up and walk or be dropped right into an RP session, no matter what clan they landed in or what their RP style is. And that's the part that I couldn't deliver on. Building community is hard. You can dispassionately design a system or a tool as you have time. You can't build a cohesive social network of over a hundred people that way. You have to live and breath that job. You have to simultaneously believe with your whole heart that this thing is awesome, and neurotically obsess over eliminating every possible pathway to failure. Anything less than that is relying on luck. And must people genuinely do not understand that kind of work or even recognize it as work when it's right in front of them.

Wally was not the obvious choice for that task to a lot of people. He was the obvious choice to me. He was one of the agonizingly few people who understood both the goal and what it would take to achieve it. One of even fewer who had even tried to run mixed-clan, clubwide sessions. The only one who'd done it successfully. The tools to do that had been in place for nine months or longer, and Wally was the guy who picked them up and got to work.

So I am relieved but not surprised that, barely a year into his term, the Brotherhood RP community consistently includes over a hundred unique participants and more concurrent sessions than even Zuza can keep up with. I see the Essentials 101 and Advancement Survey responses from our new joins and they are joining for RP and walking right into sessions and sticking around. Not just new dossiers, but also members who joined years ago and drifted away in the JM ranks, who we have regained by providing them a better experience. I used to talk about this and people thought I was crazy but it's real now, somehow the mad lad actually did it, and I can finally say it's good enough. Wally didn't just add some trinkets for you to unlock or another status bar to give your lizard brain some dopamine. The club experience is different now, in a way that sets us up for success for years to come. That is EL3 work.

Alethia Archenksova
Headmistress and Exarchissa Emerita

Moff Alethia Archenksova, 2023-10-13 03:16:46 UTC

Wally, thank you for your tireless work and endless dedication to our club and above all its membership, congratulations on this much deserved promotion.

Ascendant James Lucius Entar, 2023-10-13 09:27:36 UTC

Wally and I have butted heads almost since the day I joined Arcona. But through it all, we both had the same intentions: make things better for the people around us. Whether it was fighting for member recognition, improving quality of life, or tackling the very real balancing act that is leading a bunch of Star Wars nerds from an unpaid volunteer position (or positions in his case), it was the glue that stuck us together even when we were most at each other's throats.

And that's what I appreciates about Monsieur le Wall-E. That and his catgirl character. He always seeks betterment for those around him. He took the RP concept we had in Arcona and made it a club-wide phenomenon that is now starting to eclipse standard fiction writing. He's tackled position after position, project after project, and hurdle after hurdle with unwavering loyalty to not just Arcona, but the Brotherhood. His personable nature toward cooperative outreach has made the RP society what it is today, and is the example of the "One Brotherhood" tagline that gets so often touted but so rarely realized in practice.

Congratulations Wally. You've more than earned this promotion, and I'm glad you're finally getting the recognition you so readily deserved. Thank you for all that you do. It's what I appreciates about you.

Qyreia Arronen, 2023-10-14 15:16:43 UTC

Wally has done incredible work on behalf of this great community and continues to do so. Congratulations my friend and looking forward to what you accomplish next.

Lord Nevan Taelyan, 2023-10-12 20:56:42 UTC

• Acquire 3500 GMRG Points

dbb0t, 2023-09-08 23:30:19 UTC