Greetings Folks,

Well, we're basically at the middle of December, and what that means is quite simple… Holiday Bash! Oh, and vacations and stuff. Anyways, read on, and let the news of Taldryan and the DB delight!

Headlines that you need to know

• Taldryan Holiday Bash 2013 is Upon Us
• News from the Wardens
• The Headmaster (and SCL) Have been Busy
• Any Taldryanites who like Tabletop Gaming?
• The ACC likes long walks on the beach..
• Orv is a delicious graphics monkey
• RTFR Results
• Get to Know a Tally Vote
• There are Competitions to Do!

The Taldryan Holiday Bash has Returned!

So, for anyone who's been around for a little while, you know that Rian has a soft spot for the Holiday season, and for running Holiday themed competitions around this time of year, and has hosted his trademark Taldryan Holiday Bash each year to celebrate it. The Holiday bash is a good chance for everyone to let loose, and have some fun with the various competitions that Rian puts up to offer, as well as just keep the creative juices flowing in the season. Besides, after a few wobbly dogs (spiced rum, baileys, egg nog and espresso… you're welcome) ranting and raving to your family members that you have to pretend to be a Dark Jedi online might actually be slightly more acceptable!

Head on over to the competition hub here and sign up for your favourite Holiday comps!

News from the Wardens

I've been seeing a lot of activity boiling up in the Warden's mailing list lately, and it's fantastic to see them livening up under Quejo's new leadership. To help him with the task of transforming the Wardens into an elite unit, Quejo has recently appointed former Taldryan QUA/AED/Underage Drinker/RM Shaz'air Taldrya to serve as the Battle Team Sergeant.

Congrats Sid!

The Headmaster (and Seneschal) have been busy little bees

This past week saw some awesome innovations come out of the Shadow Academy, thanks to the hard work of Solari and James, with the implementation of a bunch of new features. First and foremost in my mind is the execution of the save exam feature. Now, if you're in the middle of writing an exam, the site is able to save a copy of your progress, so if you have to take off, you can easily come back and finish it off. This is really cool, and will give people the opportunity to hopefully take more exams, even if they have a hectic schedule. When you submit you'll also be told of the average wait time, and be able to check how long your exams have been in queue.

But maybe the best thing, especially for those who are chasing after advancements in the new Shadow Academy Society is the specialized functionality of retaking exams. Sleuths from around the DB have discovered that your grades do matter in some of the higher ranks. The reason I'm pointing this out, is that if you've taken a course since the new website went live, and you didn't get perfect, you can now go back to re-sit the exam, and you'll only have to answer the questions you got wrong, which is fantastic on so many levels.

Much thanks to Solari and James for all their hard work on these improvements!

Hey, so I heard you like table top gaming?

For many people around the DB, and the world, playing in table top roleplaying games is an exciting, and engaging past time. Over the years, bringing this form of interaction to the DB has been a large problem due to the limitations of our time. With the ease of access to Google+ Hangouts, Skype, and Voice chat software, I'm happy to see that someone is taking a stab at bringing it to life again.

Now, despite the staggering (and somewhat disturbing) depths of my nerddom, table top gaming is something I've never gotten into, so I'm not going to make an ass of myself and try to pretend like I know anything. But, if you're unlike me, and have a passion/flare for the table top genre, I urge you strongly to head over to the forums and jump in on the discussion to ask any questions, or just sign up, I'm sure they'll be really happy to hear from you.

The ACC likes Long Walks on the Beach...

And puppies, and kittens, and curling up by the fire with a good book. Seriously, the ACC is pretty kinky, in a girl next door sort of way. Rumour has it though, that the team who is working on the ACC Beta right now has a fire the size of an exploding Alderaan under it, and is churning through an impressive amount of work to get it ready for public consumption.

With all the work they're doing, I expect we'll be hearing from Sarin/Mav that an open beta test of the ACC will be coming our way very, very soon. So in order to make sure you're ready to jump in on the beta, make sure you have a valid character sheet up and ready to go on the website ASAP. If you have any questions/need any help getting one set up/submitted, just email your summit and ask, and we'll do our best to help you out.

Orv, the Herald, is a delicious mountain of graphics monkey goodness

However, for some reason he hates mangos, and I'm not entirely sure that I can trust a man who hates mangos. Anyways, in case you hadn't noticed, Orv's taking a stab at doing a webcomic for the DB. So far they've both been hilarious and silly, and I want everyone to make sure they show their appreciation for the mango hater's efforts. Head on over to check out his most recent comic

RTFR2.0: Episode 7 Results

First off, a disclaimer: there won't be any more RTFRs while the Holiday Bash is running. So focus your efforts over there. Now, onto the results! In case you've forgotten, your job was to provide a caption for the Darth Vader Selfie that had appeared on the Star Wars Instagram again.. and here is your winner.

Congrats to Kaz for that amazing Skyrim Meme nod :D

Great turnout for the RTFR this time around, with a couple non-tally foreigners from the Dark Summit weighing in too.. thanks for showing up guys.. even though you're not allowed to win :)

Get to Know a Tally Voting!

The nominations have been set, and the voting is now open for December's Edition of Get to Know a Tally! Head on over to the forums to vote on which lovely members of Taldryan will be joining the dubious ranks of other Tally Interviewees (a list that includes Rian, myself, Tarax and Tally so far... eep)

Please Sir, may I have some more... competitions?

Yes. Yes you may.

• Miscellaneous: Taldryan Holiday Bash!, Ends 2013-12-25 (Ho Ho Ho!)
• Miscellaneous: IRC Roast of Vodo Biask Taldrya, Ends 2013-12-26
• Miscellaneous: Ugly Christmas Sweater Part II, Ends 2013-12-14
• SWTOR: Do you Feel Lucky?, Ends 2013-12-31
• SWTOR PVP: PvP Domination, Ends 2013-12-31
• Mobile Gaming: Hungry Santa, Ends 2013-12-31
• Mobile Gaming: Racing Santa, Ends 2013-12-31
• Tier 1 Duels: Ghost of Christmas Present, Ends 2013-12-31
• Tier 2 Duels: Ghost of Christmas Past, Ends 2013-12-31
• Writing: Create a Venue, Ends 2013-12-31

Do all the things!

Words from the Dark Council

Only one official report from the DC since our last Aedile report, though there has been a lot of movement on the news page that you should be reading as well. So because of that, I'm just going to say that there's a report from our Voice, Darth Pravus, and in his report he talks about the following things. You should go read the report.

• ACC SA Exam
• Fiction: Shared Universe Concept
• Fiction: Archive Updated
• Dark Council Leadership Poll
• Competition: Ugly Sweater
• Competition: ACC Venue
• The Voice's Word (Stolen from Jac)

Go read the report. NOW

So... last week I talked about trying to keep a loose word limit to my reports. Apparently the dbnewsverse just blew the hell up in order to make me into a liar. DB world problems, right? Anyways guys, I know we're approaching the Holiday season and everyone's going to be getting pulled every which way for family gatherings, or covering shifts at work for other poor bastards who are doing family gatherings and what not, so I just wanted to get out ahead of the crowd and say a few things.

First and foremost, Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays.

Secondly, be nice to people who work in retail. They're people too, and they're busy working while you're shopping/thinking about your family. Be kind, even if you're frustrated.

Finally, I hope everyone has a safe, and fulfilling time, however you celebrate the season, with family, friends or solo... Sláinte!