Welcome to the Taldryan Consul Report for August 2020 (since I missed July, oops). There's a lot to cover, so let's get started.

GJW XIV: The Results

I'm sure it won't come as a surprise to anyone reading this that the GJW results are out. Congratulations to Arcona, Vizsla, and Odan-Urr on First, Second and Third Clan, and to V'yr Vorsa, our very own Bale Andros, and Qyreia Arronen on First, Second, and Third Hero. Your accolades are well-earned. Equally importantly, thanks to the DC for putting the whole thing together and grading all the events. It's a tough job, and they did it well.

Taldryan came in fourth place overall, and we were far closer to third than fifth. We also took home far more Novae in this GJW, including second place in the run-on. That's a massive step up over our performance last year; as Arch kindly pointed out on Telegram, we more than doubled our score compared to GJW XIII, only nine months previous. Even accounting for differences in the scoring scheme, our growth has been nothing short of explosive.

Let's get away from all that for a few minutes, though, and talk about something even more important.

GJW XIV: Our Takeaways

Most of the post-GJW analysis is staying internal, but there's one thing I'd like to share with the rest of the DB, which I hope will give everyone some food for thought. Last week, I asked Taldryan's members to list what they were proud of having accomplished this GJW, without seeing the results. Here are some of the answers we got:

• Participating in the GJW at all despite real-life circumstances, ranging from being in a quarantine camp, to being aboard a ship in the middle of the ocean, to having a newborn baby, to working fourteen-hour days and taking care of family. The members who gave these answers each completed all the bins in at least one phase, if not across the entire GJW.

• Overcoming hesitation and nerves to try new formats and activities for the first time, including the comic and audiobook events.

• Realising that, after writing tens of thousands of words in a few weeks, the dream of finishing a novel wasn't as far-fetched as it had previously appeared.

• Exploring characters' stories in ways that the writer previously hadn't, including at least one character's death.

• Setting a new personal best for the number of events completed during a Vendetta.

• Appearing in an official Brotherhood event fiction for the first time.

The goal was to encourage people to see their efforts as a success on their own terms, and to prevent them from making the mistake of thinking that they only deserve to be proud of something if someone else gave them an internet medal for it. At the end of the day, we're all here to have fun. If you're doing that, you're winning, no matter what the placements are.

Again, thanks to the DC for all their hard work in running GJW XIV, and congratulations to the top finishers.

The Pro Bowl

The Pro Bowl Prologue event kicked off last Friday for Clans Naga Sadow, Plagueis, and Taldryan. After the prologue finishes on Friday, the Pro Bowl team rosters will be finalised, and three weeks of fun and games will begin on August 10. The events will mostly be light fare like Flash games and puzzles, with each of the three weeks being hosted by an organiser from one of the three participating Clans. Keep an eye on the Pro Bowl event page for more info.

New Clan Story Arc and Events

With the GJW wrapping up, Taldryan's getting ready to continue Aggressive Expansion, the story arc we teased back in the spring. You can find the latest fiction updates in this Discourse thread, which will be updated with new chapters in the next day or so. Later this week, I'll be kicking off a fiction event that'll run for the rest of August so that Taldryan's members can get involved in the story. That'll be followed by a larger event series closer to the end of the year, like last year's Unsteady Ground.

Other Activities

With life returning to somewhat-normal now that the GJW is finished, the Taldryan Summit is turning our attention back to projects like Wiki updates and the Clan fiction anthology. We've also started our rewards review for Q2 2020 and the GJW. I'm looking forward to announcing what sorts of shinies our members get.

Last but not least, let's give a hearty welcome to the newest members of Taldryan: Wagglehorn, Baron, Rakhai, and Xolarin!

Closing

Finally, we have the most important lesson of the Great Jedi War:

Thanks to Lhandry for the original quip, Ben for the meme, and Idris and Bubba for putting up with Taldryan being a solid 5/7 of the 10,000+-word fiction entries in Phase II of the GJW.

That's it for this edition of the Taldryan Consul Report. Thanks for reading, and we'll see you next time!