For the first time in a significant while, the entirety of not just the Taldryan Senate was present in the senate chambers, but also the leaders of each of the Taldryan provinces in addition to the allied members.

Graham Derai, Governor of the frozen world of Elysia, sat with his representatives with his arms crossed and expression ever judging. Alaisy Tir’eivra, Governor of Kasiya and Republic Magistrate, entered and took her own place with the Kasiyan representatives, her large, lanky frame towering, terrifying, and eye-catching. At the front, in a chair to the right of the main podium, sat Vice-Chancellor Anderson.

Among the allied members were the royal family of the Saijo Kingdom, the Prime Minister of the Seitia Federation, and various leaders of the systems within those respective sectors. The noise levels within the room were fairly high until the lights had begun to dim except for the central podium at the front of the room, at which point the entire room fell into a deep silence. Four large viewing screens around the room’s perimeter shifted from the image of a spinning golden-colored Taldryan Republic crest to a live view of the podium.

From a section behind it came the Supreme Chancellor, Cassandra Oriana Taldrya, who had recently been inducted as a part of the proud Taldrya line. All of the senators and representatives rose as she stepped up onto the podium and slowly walked to the center. Once there, she motioned for everyone to take their seats.

“Good morning,” she started as she glanced around the chambers, “Esteemed members of the senate, and our dearest friends, I would like to thank everyone for attending today. As many of you are already aware, the situation in the Dalicron Sector to our east has been growing more volatile by the day. A formal motion has been submitted by the Saijo delegation to formally intervene on behalf of the civilians and other non-combatants which have been facing enormous strife and injustice.”

The Story Continues...

Good morning everyone, and welcome to my fifth report! In this, we will be going over a decent amount; so buckle yourselves in as we start straight in. Firstly, we will be going over details of our upcoming campaign; Sins of an Empire, set to begin at the start of the month. We will then look at a year in review from my first full year as your Consul (Chancellor) along with areas of focus for the upcoming year where we want to improve things, followed by details over the last quarter including the impressive numbers that everyone as a clan was able to contribute together. Lastly, we will go over some awards and special thank yous as we wrap up and look toward the rest of the exciting year ahead!

Sins of an Empire: Episode 1 Prelude

Sins of an Empire: Prelude Crawl
Sins of an Empire: Prelude Crawl Text-Only Version

Previously Released Prelude Teaser

Sins of an Empire: Prelude Competition Container

As mentioned in the fiction blurb above, and recently alluding from previous reports and both in our fictional and RP lines, our next area of focus is going to be Dalicron to our east. Quite a few have been itching to get more information on this, and we held off in anticipation of announcements regarding club-wide events; but since it has been quiet on those fronts, we feel it's solid to move forward with the beginnings of the campaign.

The prelude will be centered in the Frelos System, primarily on and around the world of Trexxa. For more fictional information, including on the Human League and the system, please review the Taldryan Republic Campaigns Page; Sins of an Empire: Episode 1.

Based on its popularity, we will be returning to how we operated the Saijo Superweapon event with choices and participation being a key factor in the outcome of each stage. This will be especially important for Sins of an Empire, as what occurs in the Prelude event WILL have a direct correlation and effect on Episodes I through III. Unlike Saijo however, for the Prelude only we will not be revealing what occurs at what participation thresholds; just know that the more that participate will have a greater influence on the setting of Episode I.

The Prelude itself will be running from June 3rd until July 1st and will feature a mix of competitions based on member requests and reflections on our recap metrics mentioned below. Regarding Episode I, we are looking at this fall shortly after the Pro Bowl. I have personally spent many MANY hours weaving all of this (as nuts as it probably drove Anubis for a bit since I'm also one of his magistrates) with the helping hand of the summit as well, and hope everyone enjoys what is to come over these next campaigns!

bows

Year 1 Leadership Recap - State of the Republic

A year. It's already been a freaking year, can you believe it? This time last year, I took over from Appius (Anders) as Consul and the time under my leadership has been with its ups and downs. Overall, however, it has been an incredibly successful year even with the shifts in the summit that occurred during it and me being thrown into the fire a couple of times being completely new to the role. That said, I absolutely did not stand alone and want to personally thank:

• Erinyes for her invaluable assistance as my Proconsul for a term and helping to guide me as a fledgeling Consul.

• Bubba for his open-door policy and answering the most oddball of questions I had at the strangest of times, always encouraging me to ask if I ever needed anything. (I always tried to ask you last if I ever could, I hated bugging you even as DGM.)

• Anubis with his stubborn-headedness to ensure I had the right mindset for the job and knew 'exactly' what I was getting into and being there anytime I needed. I owe you a beer someday.

• Anders for helping me catch up older information he had that inadvertently went with him for a while after he resigned and of course returning to serve as my Proconsul (oh how the tables have turned).

• And lastly, the Taldrya at large. (Vodo, Ben, Rian, Sithspawn, etc.)

All of you together have been the rock that helped ensure the success Taldryan has had this past year, because out of the gate I didn't have a lick of an idea what the heck I was doing other than suddenly taking over and running the Taldryan/Plagueis feud with Slagar while being a womprat looking into a speeder's headlights. To you all, I thank!

Now, lets get into some numbers! Compared to a year ago when I started, here is where things stand with some of our core statistics that stand out, both positive and negative:

• Clan Size (Q1 2023: 30 -- Q1 2024: 35)
  
• Competition Entries (Q1 2023: 334 -- Q1 2024: 406)
  
• Unique Participants (Q1 2023: 23 -- Q1 2024: 26)
  
• Total Clusters (Q1 2023: 1026 -- Q1 2024: 592)
  
• Cluster Earners (Q1 2023: 18 -- Q1 2024: 20)
  
• Total Clusters of Ice (Q1 2023: 174 -- Q1 2024: 290)
  
• Writers: (Q1 2023: 13 -- Q1 2024: 15)
  
• Fiction Comp Entries (Q1 2023: 13 -- Q1 2024: 8)
  
• RP Participation (Q1 2023: 24 -- Q1 2024: 35)
  
• ACC Participation (Q1 2023: 4, Q1 2024: 4)
  

Overall, we have more members compared to a year ago along with more entries as well as participants. Across all platforms, including Roleplaying, as mentioned by Bubba earlier this year; we hit an amazing 96% participation rate which is a feat all of its own. As you might notice however, when it comes to clusters, we took a significant hit.

With one of our heavy hitters moving up to the Dark Council, myself focusing heavily on our upcoming campaign series, and others doing different things, we aren’t overly surprised by this lower number especially with Helldivers taking the forefront and quite a few of our own members not playing it. We had 12 members this time last year earning CEs and CFs, while at the moment we are currently at 7. This is something I would like to turn around, either through the hosting of Taldryan Gaming Nights where we play multiplayer games/activities that are on Discord, various browser games such as skribbl.io, jackbox, or more; giving a focus on games where anyone can join in and play and earn clusters at the same time. So keep an eye out in #taldryan for more information regarding this in the weeks to come.

Our core area of shining, as expected, is around roleplaying as usual. Compared to last year, there were 290 CIs earned compared to 174 this time last year, with 15 writers; up from 13. With RP Participation, we were almost at our member count which was especially impressive, up from 24 last year. ACC, stayed the same. Fiction has declined a small bit, but with the heavy presence of other competition archetypes that members have been focusing on in addition to roleplaying, this was also expected but is something we want to work on going forward to try and improve.

Outside of overall clusters and gaming, it has been a solid year of growth for Taldryan and from what we are able to tell, everyone is happy and has been pleased with everything we have accomplished and gotten together for you. Recapping some of those going backwards from now, reception to the Fortress Cloudhaven was overwhelmingly positive, with the only criticisms being more storyline focus outside of the RP itself and better pacing of said RP.

The Port Kasiya Blizzard hosted cooperatively together with Clan Arcona and the Dark Council similarly was overwhelmingly positive, with the only core unique criticism mentioned by multiple people is to work on better ways of splitting groups without letting stuff get buried by walls of text in sessions when one group is more active than the other. This is still something we are looking at, but do not have a resolution to at this point outside of hosting separate sessions when groups split and then ending them and reconverging back in the main RP session when they come back together; but that is a discussion that would need to occur with the Exarch staff given how marks/credits are awarded per session. Ideas on how to resolve this otherwise are still being accepted and more than welcomed should you have an idea!

Figuring out that core detail has been one of the more difficult ones, as when a group of members have time to sit and churn things out, there’s always one or two who can not; and a wall of text can easily occur. We fully recognize that, and intend to work on resolving it to the benefit of all parties.

Prior to that we had the GJW and the Pro Bowl, both of which saw amazing levels of participation from all of you and positive remarks, and then our first feud in a long while; Plagueis v. Taldryan: Raiders of the Lost Ark. While we did lose the feud to Plagueis, our participation levels were very very high. General reception was overall positive as well, the only criticisms of note being around more of a diverse competition focus compared to a heavy fictional focus on them. Given the theme of the event, and being clan vs. clan however, the overwhelming majority were perfectly fine with it and even enjoyed that fictional focus; but we still acknowledge this.

In closing of our recap, given the positive growth and forward movement of Taldryan, I will be continuing as your Consul for at least another year or until someone else comes along who can do the job better, and serve you better. I am immensely proud to continue as such, and I am amazingly proud of what everyone together has accomplished over this last year. There is a lot we have in the wings, and I personally am very excited for what is to come.

Awards & Recognition

To open this section, I would like to recognize our three quarterly earners of the Taldryan Artifacts! Those that have earned these have demonstrated constant activity that puts them above their peers, through competitions, gaming, and overall participation. These items have been given to them on the 11th and lasting until the end of this current quarter, through August 11th when they will be given to the next three that stand above the rest,

For Quarter 1, we have the following earners:

• Alaisy, with the Cylinder of Taldrae
  
• Zentru’la with the Elite Taldryanite Battle Armor
  
• Raiheaux with the Scion Bryar Lightsword
  

Congratulations to you three, and may you enjoy the spoils! We look forward to the competition of this next quarter, and seeing who is persistent enough to earn these valued items.

Next up, we have had 8 promotions since our last quarterly update! Celebrate with me in congratulating all of them yet again!

• Rian Taldrya - Elder 2
  
• Cassandra Oriana Taldrya - Elder 1
  
• Alaisy “Aphotis” Tir’eivra - Warlord
  
• Meleu Karthdo - Battlelord
  
• Armags C’Hiesa - Raider
  
• Omnora Mayday - Acolyte
  
• Saul Slade - Novice
  
• Fiddlemetimbers - Novice
  

We have also had 40 awards given out as well, to 26 distinct members:

• Aay’han Agrona Beviin - Sapphire Blade, Steel Cross
  
• Aeson Rhys - Steel Cross
  
• Alaisy “Aphotis” Tir’eivra - Ruby Scepter, Seal of Loyalty, Dark Cross
  
• Alexander Anderson - Steel Cross, Dark Cross
  
• Anderson - Amethyst Kukri
  
• Aticus Jade - Anteian Cross
  
• Aylin Sajark - Sapphire Blade, Seal of Loyalty
  
• Benevolent Taldrya Whiner - Sapphire Blade
  
• Cassandra Oriana Taldrya - Amethyst Kukri, Seal of Loyalty, Dark Side Scroll
  
• Celevon Werd’a - Steel Cross
  
• Centam Javik - Steel Cross
  
• Corax “Baron” Zarjin - Steel Cross
  
• Crysenia Orainn - Steel Cross
  
• Dasha Talus - Steel Cross
  
• Guyana Jurro - Grand Cross
  
• Greenfire Solaris - Dark Cross
  
• Horus Blackheart - Steel Cross
  
• Jade Hext - Grand Cross
  
• Jorm ‘The Jester’ Na’trej - Amethyst Kukri, Steel Cross
  
• Koda Kendis - Grand Cross
  
• Meleu Karthdo - Amethyst Kukri, Steel Cross
  
• Raiheaux - Steel Cross
  
• Rian Taldrya - Grand Cross
  
• Shanree Argentin - Grand Cross, Steel Cross
  
• Sithspawn Taldrya - Dark Cross
  
• Tracinya Beviin Entar - Anteian Cross, Dark Cross
  
• Zentru’la - Amethyst Kukri x2, Scroll of Foundation, Seal of Loyalty
  

A special congratulations to all of you, and an amazing performance well done! I personally thank each and every one of you for everything.

With that completed, I will now close this long report out!

It has truly been an honor and a privilege to serve as Consul this past year, and I am looking forward to the upcoming year to come. As always, my door is always open and if you ever have questions, need an ear to listen to things, or anything at all, feel free to reach out.

Thank you again everyone! See you on Discord!