The Ruby Scepter is awarded to individuals who provide a high level of consistent and meritorious mentorship throughout the Dark Brotherhood. Mentorship can take the form of improving a House by motivating members to become a competitive unit. Mentorship can take the form of developing proposals and documents in an effort to re-Clan. Mentorship can take the form of creating systems, Shadow Academy Courses, and guides for the creation of a new ACC.
Dark Prophet Halcyon has served a distinguished and nearly unequaled Dark Brotherhood career. Throughout his time in our club he has always provided insight to our members and our club wide projects resulting in the overall betterment of the DJB. Halc’s recent activity serves as another reminder of his dedication and commitment to our club. Halc has served at the House, Clan, and DJB level in various positions, but all with the same endstate in mind. Improve our people and improve our club.
Personally, I have worked with Halc for several years and his consistent commitment has been amazing to watch. He has always taken the time to improve upon DJB level ideas and work towards helping our members enjoy their DJB experience. This has recently manifested in his work with the ACC where he developed a new way for our members to Qualify for the ACC. This new system of Shadow Academy Tests affords Halc the opportunity to directly converse with our members and help them improve upon their writing and their ability to successfully complete in the ACC. Halc furthered these efforts by participating in the editing and creation of multiple ACC documents that have resulted in an overall better experience for our writers.
The Ruby Scepter is awarded for mentorship to members of the Dark Brotherhood. It is a seldom awarded honor and one that is befitting Dark Prophet Halcyon. Thanks for all you do and congratulations! ~GM Pravus
Well, uhm where shall I start with this? From all people invited to contribute to Halcyon's Ruby Sceptre, I am the one with the shortest time within Taldryan or the Brotherhood and thus time I have spent knowing Halc. Still for all the time he has been one of the few members always influencing myself and others by helping and mentoring them and myself how the club works and what they can do to contribute their own to make their Clan, House and the Brotherhood a better and, more importantly, more interesting place.
We all know without doubt that Halcon Rokir Taldrya has been such a member, always there, always approachable and always full of advices for those starving for it. But that's long not with it, there are few people in this club who know it better than Halcyon, members who have nearly built up this club to what it is today. Still he doesn't cease at that. Whenever an innovation hits the club, Halcyon is one of the first to adapt to it so he can mentor other members on how to adapt to these innovations as well.
Halcyon did this in the past and continues to do so willingly and all while serving the Brotherhood in varying official leadership positions like for the last six month as Quaestor of Ektrosis of Taldryan and while being one of the most active members of Taldryan at the same time, earning medal after medal and grading numerous Shadow Academy ACC Exams while mentoring his personal Apprentice beyond his Dark Jedi Knight trials to become the next generation of Taldryan's leadership. He does this out of love to this club and more importantly for its members.
Sure, you can say that these traits are something you can expect to see from someone like Halc, but we need to be remanded to never take members like him for granted. Members like Halc are the most important and rarest that we have and we must recognize their dedication and love to the Club in an appropriate manner, and as such I am hereby telling you that Halcyon Rokir Taldrya has proven his capabilities as an Instructor, Inventor and Mentor over and over again and thus earned to be rewarded with a Ruby Sceptre for his service to the members of Taldryan and the Brotherhood.
Halc, for all your mentoring within Clan Taldryan and the Brotherhood, congratulations on this Ruby Sceptre. ~Rian
It is hard to discuss the past ten years of the Dark Brotherhood without at some point mentioning Dark Prophet Halcyon Rokir Taldrya. This is a man, who has had his fingerprints on every aspect of Dark Brotherhood life in some way or another. He’s a twice serving Deputy Grand Master, a twice serving Master at Arms, and yet he still seems utterly incapable of riding off into the sunset to hang up his spurs. He is ultimately, a custodian of the Brotherhood’s future, and has proven his commitment to that role time and time again.
Most recently, Halcyon has proven this once more by doing exactly what those of us who know him would expect him to do: stepping up. Six months ago, Taldryan finished the long uphill climb, and returned to Clan status, but despite that triumph, Taldryan still had need of Halcyon and his talents, and Halcyon answered the call.
Since the reclanning, Halcyon has been the face and voice of Ektrosis. His hard work and dedication have ensured that from within it’s ranks, more active and contributing members have risen up and stepped into greater roles. His first official apprentice in years, Aiden Dru, has already risen to the position of Aedile within Ektrosis. Under Halcyon’s steady guiding hand, the next generation of Taldryan’s leadership is starting to emerge, and for this Taldryan is forever grateful.
Despite all of the responsibility and work that comes with the position of being a Quaestor, Halcyon’s own personal contributions to Taldryan and the Dark Brotherhood have not lessened at all. Since his last merit award, Halcyon has participated in over 60 Taldryan and DB wide competitions, placing in nearly one third of those competitions. He’s been an active participant in gaming nights, and trivia nights, and any other number of competition type you can throw at him. Not only is he an active participant in the Brotherhood, he’s also been responsible for creating and hosting over 15 events for other members of the Brotherhood.
Halcyon quite simply put should be used as an example to every member of the Brotherhood, from Grand Master down to Apprentice, on how one can be an active, and contributing member of this club.
Now, the definition of the ruby sceptre states that it is awarded to members of the Brotherhood whose work have touched a wide range of members across all the clans, and they will have contributed significantly in the areas of instruction, invention and mentorship. I can confidently state that Halcyon Taldrya fits into all of those categories. My colleagues will attach their own recommendations that espouse the efforts Halcyon has gone to within the Antei Combat Centre’s rebuild, ensuring that everyone understands and learns about the vast changes within that institution he has helped to rebuild.
But in my opinion, it is his ability to be a leader who has been so instrumental in the maintenance and creation of the Brotherhood we know today, and yet still be one who is constantly pushing the bounds of new competition, and activity design in the Brotherhood that set him apart. Since the adoption of the new forums systems, Halcyon has been one of the most active members on there, being one of a handful to earn a promotion to the second level. Halcyon was also an early adopter and promoted of twitter for the Dark Brotherhood. He’s always been a supporter of the Dark Brotherhood’s facebook page, and will surely be one of the most ardent supporters of every other institution the Brotherhood adopts.
More recently, Halcyon has been working side by side with me in the creation and execution of the Taldryan competition Gathering Darkness. This competition has been designed to test out many new types of competitions, including new forms of co-op fiction and a fully adaptive plot storyline. In the end, it’s just a simple fact that if the Brotherhood offers something? Halcyon goes out of his way to learn it, so he can help others participate in it. That is being a mentor. Halcyon is always looking for the chance to make the Brotherhood, and thankfully Taldryan, a better place for not just himself, but every member in the club.
It is my great honour therefore, to recommend that Halcyon be awarded a Ruby Sceptre for all of his hard work.
Sincerely,
Dark Jedi Master Keirdagh Taldrya Cantor, Proconsul & Proud Son of Clan Taldryan
Halc has been an excellent mentor and teacher in the ACC since he joined our staff in beta. As one of the initial supporters of an exam-based take on qualification, it should come as no surprise that Halc’s efforts have been exemplary when it comes to exam grading. Halc has covered more than a quarter of all ACC Fundamental exams graded, helping keep the turnaround time on those exams extremely low. More than that, though, Halc has been one the most active ACC Judges in one of our most important areas: Grading qualification exams. This exam, with shared judging by all ACC Judges, is one of our primary points of really providing detailed feedback to members on their writing, and it is here that Halc exceeds. Halc has graded more than twenty percent of all ACC qualification exams, with more than thirty exams graded. Halc’s feedback is also superb here, where he highlights the issues members have excellently. Together, his performance as a grader on these two exams makes him the only member of the staff to grade more than twenty percent of both exams.
Beyond that, Halc has been an excellent resource and mentor for me in many ways. His past experiences as Combat Master have been invaluable in our reconstruction of the ACC, and it is this experience on which I have leaned many times for advice on directions to take the ACC and how best to engage and maintain membership activity.
Halc’s work in Taldryan, as detailed by others, along with his excellent record as a mentor in the ACC, make him more than qualified to receive a Ruby Scepter. Congratulations, Halc!
Telaris “Mav” Taldrya Cantor, Combat Master & Aedile of House Dinaari
The RS has a focus on honouring those in the Brotherhood who are involved in: “areas of instruction, invention and mentorship,” and Halc is one of those leaders that has fulfilled those criteria in spades. As a leader of Taldryan, Halcydoodle helps develop all of her members, not just those under his command in Ektrosis, this ranges the full gamut - from offering guidance to (and directly training) our newest members, to helping out his ancient clanmates with their latest hair brained schemes. My colleagues have already discussed some of Halc’s leadership statistics, his competitions run and participated in, but not Halc’s personal accomplishments.
Since his last Grand Cross of the Dark Side, Halcycon has earned himself 19 crescents for competition placement (1 Ruby, 4 Amethyst, 6 Sapphire, 3 Emerald, 5 Topaz), 4 Pendants of Blood, 1 Gold Nova, a Seal of Loyalty, of the Master, 12 Scrolls of Indoctrination, and 3 Dark Side Scrolls. To put it bluntly, Halc is active as hell. From my perspective, Halc’s own activities do not solely demonstrate his own activity - but rather, they are examples of his greater leadership and instructional actions. He is the type of leader that mentors and instructs not just through his words, but through his actions - he doesn’t just say “go be active” - he shows his members throughout Taldryan what it means to be active.
Halc’s mentorship of Taldryan’s members also extends to me personally. When I first came to Taldryan, I knew how the DB worked, I knew what it meant to be an administrator, but I did not have a damn clue how to be a member of a Clan - or how to lead people (hell, I probably still don’t). I have seen Halc work on proposals and policy documents from all aspects of the DB (including Taldryan’s own clanning document) - always there to offer a cogent point or a new perspective. I have watched Halc put extraordinary efforts into designing and implementing Taldryan events, such as Gathering Darkness, and I have seen him give a damn about the DB when lesser men would have thrown up their hands in frustration and just said “to hell with it.”
Watching Halcyon as a member and leader Taldryan and the Brotherhood for the past few years has given me a new perspective on what a member and a leader can and should accomplish in this club, and I strive to be more and more like him (except for the green parts) every day. I have learned much from the actions and attitude of Halcydoodle, and I believe if more members of our club attempted to do the same? We would be much better off.
For his mentorship, instruction, and leadership of Taldryan’s members new and old (and the Brotherhood at large), Dark Prophet Halcyon Taldrya must be awarded a Ruby Sceptre.
Signed, the fat Panda
Grand Master Declan Roark, 2014-08-23 02:46:06 UTC