It is impossible to capture the full scope of Blade's contributions in a few hundred words and some numbers, but her activity as a member is a decent enough start. Since her last recognition, Blade has participated in 129 competitions and organized or co-organized an additional 17. That's earned her 15 Crescents—including 4 diamond ones—and 4 Gold Novae during the last Rite of Supremacy, as well as 23 Seals of Fury for her participation in the Meridian event. Her regular activity makes her one of the most well-rounded members in Odan-Urr, as she's earned 432 Clusters of Fire and 6 Pendants of Blood for gaming, 31 Clusters of Ice for fiction, and 60 Clusters of Graphite for her submissions to graphics competitions. Her gaming activity during the Rite of Supremacy earned her a 6th place finish for the GMRG quarterly ladder, and more recently she was declared the Frosty Romanae Memorial BGL Champion for Jedi Academy. Additionally, she passed 7 Shadow Academy exams and earned 4 degrees, including 2 Dark Sages in Tactics and History and Lore.

That activity did not arise in a vacuum. Blade knows in her bones that effective leadership in this club comes down first and foremost to modeling the kind of member you want to work with. She wants her members to do competitions, so she plugs them aggressively—but first she does them herself. Those 60 CGs don't represent an attempt to pick up a new hobby. They represent a leader setting a positive example for her members by being one of the fist to engage with an activity or prompt and demonstrate that you don't have to have 1,000 hours invested in an activity to just toss in an entry and have fun with it. Likewise, she has been one of the most visible and active members on every communication platform we have: clan and house Telegram channels, mailing lists, report comments (36 of them!), voice chat, and the forums. Much of that communication has centered around activities meant to build up the Odanite community into something to transcends competitions and clusters. This includes the many, many hours of Cards Against Humanity that she's hosted on Discord, or her lessons for would-be Jedi Academy champions.

Blade also supported me in every facet of clan leadership during my tenure as CON, substantially increasing my effectiveness as well as keeping me sane. This began almost immediately, as she applied her experience as Rollmaster to help hire two RMs in quick succession and help me navigate substantial intra-summit conflict. Once the GJW XII epilogue was released, Blade immediately contributed half of the first COU fiction update of my tenure, ensuring that high-performing members were featured in official fiction. Blade was also very much an equal partner in our first major event, the Consul Bride cooperative event with Arcona. Her role included competition planning—which helped lead to 140 competition entries from COU alone—and taking point on the COU side of the event fiction.

One of Blade's less public tasks was helping me with long-term planning and proposals. Once Mav and Vyr were formally recognized as GM and DGM, we were able to present our plans for fictional and event development to them almost immediately. The work on implementing those plans included the Station to Station lore development comps and the Tipping Point clan event, which between them saw 113 entries.

During the Rite of Supremacy, she not only did the usual leaderly hyping and motivation, but she set a perfect example for our members by exceeding full participation, and walked away as the highest-scoring Odanite and a key component of our victory in that vendetta. Simultaneously, she was engaged at the Dark Summit level, ensuring that member concerns were presented to the Dark Council in a straightforward and professional manner and resolved. Since the end of the RoS, Blade has taken point on managing the house summits.

Throughout all of this, Blade has also played a critical role in day-to-day management, including moderating sometimes-heated chat discussions, addressing concerns of and with particular members, facilitating the award and promotion process, and odd tasks like writing the clan's first PulseFeed update.

In the two years that I have worked with her, I have never once found my trust or confidence in her to be misplaced. I take Odan-Urr's future very seriously, but I rest easy at night knowing that everything we built will continue to grow under her leadership.

Alethia Archenksova
Consul Emeritus, Odan-Urr

There are members in this Club whom you can barely keep satiated with activity. However, when those members become leaders, this need for consumption becomes a passion for giving their membership the best DB experience possible. This was the type of Consul Blade was.

From running trivia to running our Peacekeeper events to drive our Clan story or keeping our chats alive with pictures of the doge, Blade has and continues to encourage open communication in a fun and lively atmosphere.

One of her most successful passion projects has been our Community Events. These events, often consisting of a gaming and roleplay day, pull together both Odanites and our friends from across the Club. Using these to foster a friendly and tight-knit community, they also allow those who wish to host a day the chance to learn what it takes to lead a small event. Each one often takes some prep work and can last upwards of three hours, so it is a decent commitment. That being said, Blade has hosted 21 of these events since her last recognition and has supported other hosters by attending an additional 35. Blade doesn't just start something; she supports it and sees it through, all for a commitment to make Odan-Urr a home.

Behind the scenes, Blade shows just as much dedication to this community. She's always trying to develop new ways to enhance the member's experience, digging through each member's activity page regularly, looking for what she can award, providing feedback on leadership performance, and offering ways to improve. She teaches that it's not only what you provide the members but also how you recognize their achievements that make for a successful unit. But, unless you've had the privilege of working closely with Blade, you miss the attentiveness she gives these tasks and how she is willing to fight for every member on her roster.

Above I briefly mention her activity. Here is the breakdown since her last recognition one year ago. She has earned 1 Gold Nova, 1 Silver Nova, 3 Crescents with Diamond Stars, 5 Crescents with Ruby Stars, 10 Crescents with Amethyst Stars, 12 Crescents with Sapphire Stars, 5 Crescents with Emerald Stars, 1 Crescent with Topaz Star, 1 Crescent with Quartz Star, 242 Clusters of Fire, 57 Clusters of Ice, 428 Clusters of Earth, 76 Clusters of Graphite, 1 Dark Side Scroll, 1 Scroll of the Master, 7 Legion of the Scholar, and for her outstanding contributions during RoS Escalation she earned 25 Seals of Enmity. In addition to this, she's written 24,693 words of fiction, passed 8 Shadow Academy courses, and has earned 2 degrees. She's even managed to post 9 reports, mostly on time.

Now it's unfortunate that I cannot put all of her contributions to this Clan into some easy-to-read chart or spreadsheet, so she'll just have to deal with it.

Ever since she ripped me out of hiding and CONned me into leadership, I can say that I've never worked with someone more dedicated or passionate. She was a great Consul, and continues to be an outstanding member, one truly deserving of this Amethyst Kukri. Thank you, Blade, for everything you've given us and for your continued support.

Revak Kur
Consul, Odan-Urr

Sometimes I like to flatter myself by thinking I'm Blade's mentor—but the reality is that all the qualities that made her a great Consul were evident well before she worked for me. Odan-Urr was my baby and I don't know that there's anyone else I would have entrusted it to. And while Blade had some serious rough patches during her first year on the job that would have driven many people to give up, she powered through and rebuilt COU into a more stable unit that nonetheless maintains one of the best activity ratios in the club.

In fact, based on how smoothly COU runs today, you might assume that Blade has spent the last nine months coasting along. I don't think Blade is even capable of coasting. Most people don't see the discussions at 3am about important electorate votes, or notice that COU has never missed a community event because Blade has always been there to save the day if nobody else would step up or if the original host flaked on us. Most people don't see that she participated in every house or BT event to set an example even though she got effectively nothing out of it. Or how she's one of the few people who is consistently active across Telegram, Discord text, and Discord voice, because that's what she has to do to reach everyone. Or her apparently inexhaustible ability to pitch in to any project or initiative seamlessly, whether it's taking a de facto summit/master role herding newer members through their first vendetta or instantly stepping in to cheerlead for anything another Odanite is trying to get started. She's really become the backbone of the clan, a role that I have no doubt she will continue to fulfill whether she's stuck with another summit role or not.

COU is not the only clan in the club to focus on recruitment, host roleplaying sessions, or schedule community gaming night (though we might be the only one with quarterly goals-based summit performance reviews), but Blade's relentless focus on community development truly is unique and has made this an exceptional clan to be a member of. She's amazing and we've been damned lucky to have her.

Alethia Archenksova
Consul Emeritus, Odan-Urr

Aura - or Blade as many of us know her - has been at the forefront of just about every major Odan-Urr event, decision, and effort to shape our culture since I have been a member. With stints in any leadership role extending for years at a time, it's difficult to pin down a month where she has been even remotely inactive. While having many, many awards to her name from no end of competitions, a better indicator of Blade's devotion is the sheer volume of community activities she has pushed. Many of Odan-Urr's fiction based roleplays, TOR runs, and some of the best Cards Against Humanity sessions the Brotherhood has ever seen were all run under her name. It's no exaggeration to say that there are none who have done more to help Odan-Urr remain active and entertaining for our members.

Blade has earned this award many times over. Because of all she has done, I happily second the nomination that she be granted a third Amethyst Kukri for her collection of serrated awards. Enjoy it and the credits that come with it, Aura. One more and you'll have one for each of your characters.

Essik Lyccane Quaestor of the Guardian Corps