The header was my idea :p

You're welcome. :>

So the Herald is an assassin now instead of an emmisary/ambassador?

Meh, I've decided the Recruitment Tribune is the new master of whispers type dude, because an unholy amount of our new members choose the "And a shadowy person approached them about the db's existence and then became a superduperdarkjedi!" route. Thus, I am now the guy who listens to all the rumours and sends people to fetch people in my own mind... so Herald can be an assassin now too :P

Both, Mal. Sarin established the Herald as an assassin when he sent Orv to go fight Morotheri (and then get rekt by Esoteric). But that doesn't change the fact that the Herald is the logistics person.

Addendum - the rest will be explained in due time. :) Again, when the rest of the fiction is released, it will all be explained.

Whoop! Awesome report, also I agree with being the shadowy type figure.

Few things:

1) Why doesn't the Herald do her own reports? Seems odd...

2) Did you guys run this fictional background for the Herald by the Voice? It seems to infringe on a lot of major plans for the Voice office and beyond...

3) You brought up the trailer lightsaber and mentioned how important it was to the Herald's office, but you didn't state whether it would be incorporated into selector or custom lightsabers. Are we adding the "broadsword saber" or no?

I also noted that you chose not to answer the question I asked for the report so I'll ask again.

What's the reason for this unprecedented deal with the Herald office stopping completely to do their actual jobs for an annual gimmick? An annual gimmick that as the name implies they have had an entire year to prepare for?

Shad-
1) Similarly to last year, Socks handled reports at this time of year in place of Orv - I have a lot more free time on my hands than a working mother with young children, so I took care of this for Socks during an exceptionally busy life period.

2) We haven't made any changes whatsoever - all apparent 'changes' were established in Sarin's fiction last year when he sent the Herald as an assassin. It stands to reason that this needs not change. The rest is exactly as specified by the Wiki or by Muz, who did serve as Herald himself.

3) That particular question was answered by Muz in his last report - there's no need to re-hash his answer.

Malik-
As I stated the first time you asked in IRC, this is not unprecedented; Shikyo closed the office as well for whatever reason. We chose to make the same decision.

It's not like they have lives or anything :P

I'm greatly appreciative of the Herald staff and the effort they put in. As far as I know, they do this stuff for free and we're lucky to have them. Great report, looking forward to seeing what y'all have in store.

Shikyo only halted custom lightsabers and that was because he had a backlog and as far as I recall he was the only one making them at the time so it's not at all the same case as now.

1) Real life always come first. If Socorra doesn't have time to put out a report in almost 3 months, she should step aside and let someone else take the reigns.

2) It is spelled out by the wiki - as the Emissary of the Dark Council. Also? Sarin sent Orv to kill somebody. Not the office. Not the position.

3) Muz's answer in that report was a non-answer. I think Shad was asking if people can request custom lightsabers in a style similar to the one in the trailer. Can we get an answer on that?

4) To Malik's point? Answer the question. The Herald office has one herald, two praetors, three two magistrates right now.

...and three magistrates.

So in any case, more people on staff than pretty much any HRLD in the past as far as I can remember.

Here's something interesting

http://www.starwarsunderworld.com/2014/12/original-lightsaber-creator-comments-on.html?m=1

From the maker of the.new lightsaber.

Howie-

1) I'm here to deliver the report I wrote. That's a Dark Council issue, way beyond my paygrade. Don't shoot the messenger.

2) We made the extrapolation based on what we had and the very simple logic presented with it - that will then be dealt with by appropriate parties in their time.

3) If there is a new development, we will keep the membership apprised of it immediately given the popularity of the idea. Right now the only answer beyond this I'm able to give is Muz's answer.

4) Not all Herald staff members are able to make sabers. It's not something we immediately teach. It took me 6-ish months on staff before I started working lightsabers, and only recently on robes. Some people are attached to the staff for other reasons, such as doing lineart and colouring for other projects, or just to handle the warbanner queue. Staff size is not an indication; is every Professor or Docent knowledgeable in all aspects of the Shadow Academy? Do they grade all the exams? No. We do have specific people tasked with specific things, just like every other office. Furios is M:FIST to run the TOR guild. It's not unheard of.

Furthermore, I didn't make the decision; I'm also not about to revoke it. I'll also say this - Shikyo might have been doing it on his own, sure, but he's also made over one thousand lightsabers. Muz has a shitload of real-world graphics design experience. So far in the DB, I've made five lightsabers. Do the math, guys - it takes any of us longer than it does either of them to create things. They have prefab bits and pieces, more ideas, more practise putting things together. I don't know if you have a real appreciation for how hard the work involved is, but that's just how it is.

Overall?

Ladies and gents, it's pretty simple - take the report at face value because that's exactly as it is. I don't make all the decisions around here. I'm just here to deliver you the news, and get back to work. I'm sorry I'm not some magical all-knowing person, but frankly you're taking all this crap out on a report that is written precisely as intended. I'm sorry not everything's the way you'd like it to be, but them's the breaks. I'm sure you have better things to do.

I'm pretty sure Socorra is still recuperating from her traumatic time with Raken's 50 Shades of Red routine, which is why she has been unable to post her own reports.

You say it's not unheard of that specific staffers are tasked with specific things, but as was pointed out, the current HRLD staff is bigger than any past one ever was and judging from the report at least two know how to make lightsabers which is the same, or more than in the past as well.

So, I'm honestly curious, why don't you just release the template for the Warbanners, give out a list of rules that people have to follow to get them approved, then have people submit their own warbanners with the staff double checking them to make sure they're all correct. It'll save the staff time, make it quicker to get warbanner requests through (Because if someone REALLY wants that warbanner they'll do it themselves relatively quick-like) and reduce the chance of the Herald staff not understanding what the person is looking for.

1.) I would expect a report from Socorra shortly.

2.) The fictional role of the Herald has been somewhat in flux, as has many of the Various Dark Councilor's fictional roles. They haven't been focused on very much since the advent of the Voice and Fist, as we've all been working on the actual jobs more than what the fictionality of it was. That said, from the traditional role of emissary to assassin is a pretty simple gear-change. They're already in the field, have a working knowledge of the enemy, et cetera.

3.) The question posed to me was whether or not that saber would be in the selector. Different question entirely, so... You may not request lightsabers made in the trailer style. I hope that is definitive enough for you.

4.) I think that you forget that this is a volunteer club. Everyone here has real-world obligations, be it family, work, or whatever else competes for their time. Add to that a difference of skill levels, training levels, and a desire (some might say a 'need') to keep up with the specter of holidays past, and the picture becomes more clear. As it sits, the saber queue was at one request (and that was already assigned) before requests were paused, so it is not as though there is a dozen people waiting for work to get accomplished. The decision was made to pause requests (which are awesome for one person each) in favor of selector goodies (which are awesome for a much larger selection of the population) as a matter of cost/benefit. It won't be long, as it is only for thirty days (maybe even less), so I'm unsure why you are raising so much of a fuss. Are you worried that you can't slave-drive those staffers for those thirty days? Are you so desperate for graphics that you feel the irrascible need to terrorize a praetor and berate him on a news post? Did you forget that he's here trying to provide good work for the rest of us, and free of charge? At the end of the day, there is work getting done, a large amount of it, and of rather high quality. I fail to see why there is so much consternation involved.

Malik: Herald Kaine had two praetors and three Magistrates. I had one praetor and three magistrates (at one point, i had four) when i was herald as well. Shikyo had the same, although i think he had two praetors at one point as well. So, whoever told you that this was an unusual staff size was misinformed. I also fail to see why this is a concern for you. So long as the work gets done, and it is of sufficient quality/quantity, everything is fine. That said, I am not sure why you have elected yourself the police on this sort of scenario, but hope that you use the same zeal when attending to your Consul duties.

Tarax: LOL

@ Decimo

That would require everyone that wants a warbanner to have some sort of photo manipulation program (such as Photoshop), and that's just not very realistic. It's easier if we just handle them all. That's my take on it, anyway.

I thought this was a pretty awesome report. Love and skittles, HRLD bebes.

Socks! The Herald Jedi sing glory to force sensitive beings?

From experience, I could totally pull off my own warbanner, but I liked being able to have people who do it regularly handle it for me. The request form is pretty open and the staff is friendly and easy to talk to if you have questions for how to make your banner special, imo.

I do believe that Decimo meant it as an option for the people who has the tools and skills, not for everyone

Some example reasons we will continue to keep warbanners to the Herald staff:

• We keep the crests we've done on hand. In the past six months I've had five people ask for the same crest as someone else; identical crests are a thing we try and avoid. We don't get this stockpile if we let everyone do their own banners.
• Most people just don't know about the minor tweaks we have to make to most banners every time we get certain combinations of colours/rails, and teaching them is a long process - but it's easier to teach one person than it is a whole club.
• Quality purposes. Some people might be happy with the crest they find, but if it's an artifacted paint piece of crap, then we may just say no - and it's harder for people to accept the no when they've put effort into the project, so to speak. There's also copyrighted imagery, things we won't allow, what have you.

Honestly, there's a lot of stuff, mostly on our end - it's 10x easier for us to keep it in-house, to do it to our level of standard.

Also, one fairly important reason I forgot: the base warbanner file is 11 MB. A number of email services do not permit attachments over 10 MB - it's also a logistics thing.

Hmm. Just to clear something up. I/We were not establishing the Herald as an Assassin when Orv was sent to kill Morotheri. Orv volunteered to die and it was a way to make it happen. Later on, we will see that someone is knocking off Dark Councilors for a reasons, maybe even orchestrating it. Any speculation that I was establishing the Herald Office as Assassins is pure conjecture/speculation. The Voice has been working on a Fiction Society since I held the job and a large part of that is very Assassin related. Herald's herald.

:p

I'll herald you! * shakes fist menacingly *

Hmmm... I came here just to comment that I love Mark's warbanner with the kill silhouettes! 5 minutes later and I nearly forgot that after reading through the posts!