Greetings everyone, and welcome to my first report as Proconsul of Taldryan! I'll start off by giving a big thank-you to Rian, Mav, and Evant for giving me this opportunity. I look forward to doing my part to give Taldryan a boost. Now, without further ado, on to the news!
A bunch of people got awards! Congrats to Vodo, Nero, Catmatui, Purren, Fiveten, Arvalis, Cymbre, Raistline, Greenfire, and Rian on their new shinies. Deets in the Taldryan Consul Report.
We've had several new or returning members join Taldryan in September and early October. Shout-out to Bale, Justinios, Nihlus, Drago, and Vicandria.
Me! :P
When I returned to the DB in August, it quickly became clear to me that Taldryan needed some drastic changes. Rather than try to pile even more events on top of the Vendetta that had just finished, I reached out to a handful of members to ask for their suggestions, and decided to focus my efforts on reshaping the Clan's fictional backdrop. My goal was to create an environment where members could take a character of any background and feel like there was somewhere they fit in, and where their contributions would be valued. The first iteration of that environment is what I've started calling Taldryan's fictional divisions. At the moment, there are seven different divisions, each with a unique fictional "flavour". Members will have the opportunity to fill a huge variety of roles: community-service workers, students of lore, spies, soldiers, scientists, pilots, even soulless corporate drones. If they're so inclined, members will even have the opportunity to take on leadership roles in these fictional organisations as they climb the ranks of the Brotherhood.
The fictional divisions don't stop at background scenery, though. The extra step we're taking in Taldryan is to make those divisions a central part of our regular activities. Our fiction prompts will include missions from various divisions within Taldryan, and sometimes even pit divisions against each other, giving the members a chance to decide which divisions rise or fall. All of these division-based activities will tie into and influence the Clan storyline as a whole, and we will actively look for ways that DB members outside Taldryan can participate. For more information on the new divisions, check out the Taldryan Fictional Divisions page on the Wiki.
Speaking of the Clan storyline...
Earlier this year, Taldryan ran the the first chapter of the Caelus Chronicles, a multi-stage competition in which the Clan evicted the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad Caelus Cartel from our adopted home system and took all their stuff (or most of it, anyway). Now the Caelus Cartel is back, and this time, they have a friend: one who, after being rebuffed by the Severian Principate and smacked around by the whole of the Brotherhood during GJW XIII, is looking for an easy target for revenge. Unfortunately, Taldryan fits that description better now than they have at any time during their history. The "brotherhood within a Brotherhood" can't stand alone against the power of even a single Collective battle group... and it's there that the next chapter of the Caelus Chronicles, Unsteady Ground, begins.
As Rian teased and linked in his report, you can read the fictional prelude to Unsteady Ground on Discourse—and those who are willing to fight for Taldryan's survival can sign up for the Unsteady Ground: Prelude fiction competition, which will run from October 11th through the end of the month. As the name suggests, this competition will be a, well, prelude to a much larger competition that will take place closer to the end of the year. That one will have a wider range of both gaming and fiction events, including team fiction, so keep your eyes peeled for that if this one isn't your thing.
Thanks again to everyone who's contributed to the new fictional divisions and Unsteady Ground, and especially to Rian for letting me showcase all this in my own report instead of hijacking it for his. :P See you all again soon!
-E (who really needs a fancy signature graphic)
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Awesome report Eri. Exciting things happening in Tal, which sounds like it could be of huge benefit to the club as a whole. Looking forward to seeing the competitions come out soon.
Great report. May I suggest trying to acquire that fancy signature graphic through a comp?