I remember the first time that I saw him. Or, rather, the first time I recall specifically seeing him. It was at the funeral services for Rekio Corsair. Before then, I don't really recall much about him. I know he was the Rollmaster of Tarentum for at least a time, but Farrin has always seemed… like a rat. Not in a bad way, mind you. In the darkness, rats live freely. In the shadows, rodents come and go and their leisure. When the lights come on, they scurry to and fro, not wishing to be seen.

This is kind of like Farrin.

Rats hide in the darkness and thrive in secret. Their strength is in their teeth. They can chew holes through cement and steel, and multiply endlessly out of man’s sight. One rodent may be a simple creature to crush under your boot, but you have to find him, first. You rarely just find the one rat, though. They roam in packs. There is certainly strength in numbers.

This is Farrin.

He may whittle away at things bit by tiny bit, eventually working his way into everything through his maze of sewers. He is not the battlefield general, but he is certainly a master of secrets. I could see it in his eyes, as I said, when I first recall clearly seeing the man at Rekio’s services. Up, on the dais, he looked like a learned man, one who was raised among the treasures of past lore, as opposed to being brought forth in his own glory. If ever a mystic or soothsayer existed, it is he.

In some respects, he can be likened to Palpatine. When the man we knew as Emperor was Darth Sidious, he was said to have been a powerful warrior, wielding the lightsaber in a manner to make most Marauders jealous. He was cunning, he was lethal, made all the more intriguing because you might underestimate him because of age, yet he was deadly. When Palpatine grew even older, he hid himself in the robes of librarian or wizard, but was still powerful beyond recognition. He used his enemies willingness to see him as decrepit to his advantage. He was ever deadly.

This is Farrin Xies, Consul of Tarentum.

Read more of Tarentum's new fiction, written by our own incredible Proconsul Bloodfyre, here!

Before you read any further, scroll up just a couple of lines, click the link, and go read Beef's fiction first. Seriously, I love it and I sincerely hope you do too. The best part? That's only the first entry of many...

Alright ladies and gents, this is my sixth report as your Consul and this evening actually marks my six month anniversary of being placed in that position. It somehow feels like it's been much longer and yet also feels like it was just yesterday... or maybe I'm just in an existential mood, I'm not sure. What I do know is that I haven't been this excited to be in Tarentum in my entire career... the things we have coming down the pipe are going to be LEGEN - wait for it...

DJB-Wide News

• Our dear friends and allies in Arcona are looking for a new Proconsul due to Esca stepping down. If you want to serve as Atty's right hand (wo)man, you need to take a look at her post and get your application in soon.

• The Voice pulled his best Oprah impression in his latest report and gave EVERYONE A LIGHTSABER! The rank and path/order requirements to carry and wield a lightsaber are no more, so even you NFU types can sling around an angry blade of plasma death. You probably can't do it well, but hey, at least it's an option. Evant also went into quite a bit of depth on some tips and tricks he wants people to utilize when creating/editing their Character Sheets... there have been a lot of remands for what boils down to small things, and so if you're now or in the future going to be working on your CS, you really should read his full report.

• Valhavoc, who has served as an excellent Fist, has announced his retirement and Sarin is looking for a replacement for him. If you think you've got what it takes - and, giving the excellent gamers we have, you just might - you should take a look at that announcement.

Tarentum News

• One of my goals whenever I first became Consul six months ago was to begin revamping our Wiki and flesh out our fiction. With the changes that are coming to the DJB's canon, however, we've used this as an opportunity to instead do a full revamp and reevaluation of our own story and setting. As I've mentioned, Beef's excellent fiction is just the beginning of an effort not only at the Clan level but also at the House and individual Battleteam level as well to really solidify who we are and what in the hell we're doing. Our goal is to create a place for all Tarenti where, if they want, they can place their character and enjoy interacting within what we've created. It's going to be a wild ride, but I know that it's something that will make us all proud.

• Speaking of wild rides that make us proud... Caesar, Lev, and the rest of the Grey Wolves continue to showcase that even in a Clan as dark as the Clan of Life and Death, a little bit of grey can be a fun addition. We've had our Grey Path BT, the Grey Wolves, for some time now, and we have no plans of ending that anytime soon. However, they're soon to get some company... Caesar and Lev have submitted to the Clan Summit a proposal for the creation of House Corsair. Beef, Frosty, and I are reviewing it and discussing it before sending it on to the correct people on the Dark Council. This is something that Caesar and Lev have worked hard - all the members of the BT have - and I can wait to see what new opportunities having a full-fledged Grey Path House will afford us fictionally.

• The DGM has completed his quarterly unit reviews and after two quarters of solid and sustained growth, our unit review this term was... a bit off from what we have been seeing. Our roster has exploded in the year since we became a Clan, especially over the last couple of months. However, some of the metrics that are utilized to track activity have not. Things such as competitions run/participated in, Clusters, and others are much lower than the percentages of our fellow Clans. I've already spoken with the Summit and the Extended Summit about this issue and we're working hard to correct that issue, but in the name of transparency I wanted to bring it up to the rest of the Clan (and you non-Tarenti that snoop on our reports :P ). There are some great competitions always being run both at the sub-unit, unit, and DJB-wide level and I encourage you to enter as many as you can as often as you can. Don't like what's on offer? Run your own competitions... it's not difficult, and your Tarenti leadership are here to help you if you need it. As for Clusters... many of us are big gamers, so ensure you're never missing an opportunity to submit for Clusters. Not only do these things add the oh-so-important shinies to your dossier, but it shows the rest of the club how incredible Tarentum truly is. We talk about Tarentum Momentum and the like all the time; these metrics allow us to show we're not all talk.

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...DARY! LEGENDARY!

Sorry, I've been on a How I Met Your Mother kick recently. This brings me to the conclusion of my sixth report as your Consul. It continues to be an honor and a privilege to serve you and even just to be able to call myself a Tarenti. Thank you all for continuing to rock the free world.

-In Darkness,
Farrin Xies