Tarentum,

In the sections below I have covered news about new Star Wars developments, Club wide information, and specific news to our clan. Additionally, you will find an update on myself and an explanation on the delay on Reanimation and when it will be released, a section covering news of our removal from probation, and finally an announcement for everyone who once called Tarentum home.

Before I begin, I would like to start by thanking a number of people. It’s been a bit over 3 months since Tarentum found itself without a Consul and on probation status, soon after this we had a complete summit overhaul and we were given strict instructions from the Grand Master that if we didn’t evolve, if we didn’t change, and if we didn’t work together as a team - then Tarentum would close by June. Three weeks ago we got the news that we had succeeded, we were going to stay open, and better than that we have been outperforming the other units of the club in a number of areas. This was because of each of you*

In the past three weeks I’ve been told that people are so excited to see how Tarentum has reacted to my leadership. I’ve been told how great of a job I’ve done. And I’m had enough backslapping it’s started to hurt. And it pains me each time now, because I know it’s not Raiju Kang that turned this clan around. It was Korras would helped provide stable and logical advice on the direction we needed to take. It was Farrin who has down wonderfully stepping in for the past summit and continuing this Rollmaster duties for Korras and I. It was Bloodfyre and Caesar who went out recruiting or starting dialogue on the clan channels to spark conversations and activity. It was Egregious, Samael, Meleu and Etah who pushed forward projects that have changed the direction we will be seeing Tarentum take in the future. Pel, Zekk, Dox, Saronyx and Telona came back from the rogues to participate or provide assistance in what they could joining members like Havok, Frosty, Anshar, Lev, and many others. And even our Journeymen have came to the plate swinging, with 2 Knightings and many more JM promotions and activities a result of their efforts. There is literally too many people involved to name drop them all and while I’m sorry for those I missed; we’ve all made contributions to Tarentum’s growth and it is OUR success that should be celebrated. And that is what I’m so proud to see so many people awarded and recognized in the past week and I’m looking forward to those promotions and awards still making their way through the administrative process.

Excellent work, Tarentum. I’m proud to serve you.

In Darkness We Trust

SBL Raiju Kang
Consul of Tarentum

Star Wars News

• Mobile Gaming in the DB is about to get more interesting with a new Star Wars Mobile Game . It looks like it will be a RPG game, based around the end of the RoTJ movie. Pre-register for it now! :D

• Also announced recently were several POV books coming out about the original trilogy . Already my girlfriend is complaining about the space my SW books take up but I definitely am going to be adding these to my collection. Watch for a Tarentum hosted review comp coming soon.

Club Wide News

• Evant Taelyan was recently named as Voice, while Selika Roh was named as Wiki Tribune

• Clan Scholae Palatinae is looking for PCON applications to replaced the vacant spot left by Evant’s rise to the Dark Council

• For those that would’ve received ribbons from their Dark Crusades participation, you can now submit to a form found in this news post to have it displayed on your wiki. If you want to have it displayed on your dossier, I encourage you to submit to the form. If you aren’t displaying it don’t worry about it - the Herald staff will do up ribbons for everyone would participate. For additional Herald details you can check out the latest HRLD report here

• Arcona is looking for applications for Aedile.

• Selika put out her first Wiki Tribune report outlining some policy changes on trivia sections, listing positions, and out of character information. Additionally, she is accepting application for Wiki Staff positions while also outlining several projects she plans on working on.

• The latest Headmaster Report brought a change to the SA society structure. Several Tarenti recieved boosts in their SA rank because of this and I was very happy to see where many of our members now sit. Additionally, we’ve had a number of Tarenti do a lot of SA courses lately - including Itshim who was named as the top course taker for last month. Well done!

• Jam3z, as always, is killing it with his Seneshal duties. He’s latest report lists the changes his office has performed to the site, while also outlining the future project we can see out soon. Something that was emailed out today - if you are playing in your admin settings you may notice in the change the path option you can now request to be the opposite path of your unit so long as you provide a fictional reason for it. This is coded for the upcoming Paths changes - however, at this moment it is not to be used and any request to the MAA office will be remanded . Patience grasshoppers. (Also, congrats to Jam3z - hope the celebration was good :D )

• Evant was quick to get his first Voice report out where he covers his priorities (including the fiction society, character and DJB plot development, and getting things sorted out for competitions). A reminder: If you are hosting fiction competitions, upon the competitions conclusion make sure to email the Voice staff PINs and word counts for Cluster of Ices can be properly awarded

Tarentum News

• I will speak in a moment about the specifics that led to this decision however like I announced 3 weeks ago, DJM Darth Aeternus has stepped down as Proconsul. I want to once again publicly thank him for his work. While largely behind the scenes, Korras was a huge help in starting our momentum forward three months ago. It’s been his patient and sound advice that has helped me in the more troubling responsibilities that is Consul and I’m thankful for him staying on as an adviser to the clan summit. Once again, thanks man.

• As many already know, Farrin Xies has stepped up to the Proconsul position. Once again, congrats Farrin and thank you for all your work as Rollmaster and the work you are doing already as Proconsul

• Along with the succession path, Frosty Romanae Tarentae was selected as Rollmaster. Already he has been bringing in great changes to the position and a huge amount of drive and dedication. Wouldn’t expect any less from the Voivode of Tarentum.

• In terms of Battleteam news; Inmortuae has its first report out here. Additionally, Itshim has been selected as their Sergeant.

• On the Battleteam Mortis side, they are looking for a Battleteam Sergeant to help them out as well. Interested individuals should apply to Meleu.

• My own apprentice Garloaf has risen to Dark Jedi Knight. Congratulations, enjoy the new saber selections ;D

• Additionally, Caesar has been promoted to the rank of Obelisk Prelate for his many efforts in bettering Tarentum - specifically in his areas of social media and recruiting

Raiju’s Update

This will be a personal bit of news. Many have become aware that I have been struggling with medical concerns for the past month and a half. Personally, I am not one for disclosing this kind of information however because of the impact it has had on the clan (delaying Reanimated, many awards and promotions, and wrecking havoc on my schedule to date) - it’s only fair that share with you my struggle.

For the past several months I have been have seizures for an unknown reason. These had started last year, where the first case happened after a particularly bad day in the sun. With the sunburn and dehydration I had, it was thought then that I had heart stroke and that is what caused me to faint. I had two more of these episodes (a weird sense of deja vu, followed by a bad taste in my mouth, then fainting - which I recover from moments later with no further symptoms) over the course of the fall but nothing through winter. Unfortunately, in March they started coming back and have been increasing in frequency since.

I have been to the doctor for these episodes, as of last Monday I’m at 10 episodes, and we’ve been doing exploratory tests. My heart has been ruled out as being well. Most recently, I had a CT scan that resulted in a low density spot being found. I had an MRI last Friday to check this spot out and it has been discovered to be a cyst that is supposedly harmless, but requiring check up in a few months. These latest bunch of tests suggest that I may have a late presentation of epilepsy, and the episodes I am having are partial complex seizures. I have several tests scheduled for the end of the month to try to confirm this and I meet with a neurologist immediately afterwards to review the tests.

The consequence of these events have been trying. Initially with the news of the CT scan I had to go into succession planning mode for the clan - which I will expand upon in a moment. While these episodes don’t leave any damage so long as I am aware of the warning signs and find a good place to lie down, I do find myself exhausted afterwards and then the time spent in the hospital has been time consuming. Additionally, I have had my driver’s license revoked until we have a diagnosis and I am treated. To get my license back, I need to be medically cleared. Those aware of my personal situation know how much I relied on my license for work and personal life - I’m from a rural area in Southwest Ontario. So these events have been life changing. In the last 3 weeks, I have to both change my job and move to another city to accommodate this situation.

Thankfully, a bit of good news for me. I have been able to transition into a role at work that I can do from home. Additionally, I have moved in 2 months ahead of schedule with my wonderful, supporting girlfriend. This has set me up in a position that I don’t need to travel as much, and what travel I need to do can be done through public transit. I will be moving again (we take possession of our new place August 1st, have some painting to do before we move in August 10th/11th) however this move should be quite simple as we can move things slowly over the course of about 2 weeks and we’ve already downsized and boxed up both of our stuff to get me into our current place.

All of the main meat I just shared has happened over the course of the last 3-4 weeks. I do sincerely apologize for the lack of public presence and the delayed launch for Reanimated but I hope with the explanation above you can understand why. When I initially had word of the CT scan I had spoke to Sarin and Mav about resigning, and we discussed some succession planning and this is why Korras resigned. While either Korras or myself could have lead us forward, it is clear neither of us would be in the summit for long - a new, fresh face needs to take over and rather than deal with the vacuum of removing a CON and then training someone else to also take over, we will go straight to training someone to take over. I was asked if I could at least do 2 months and I believe I can, now with the changes in my life I should be more settled to perhaps go further but all of this is relevant to what the other tests of mine reveal. I hope this all makes sense, I hope people understand that Korras wasn’t fired but we came to a decision together this was best, and I sincerely apologize for the lack of public presence and activity from myself these past few weeks.

Fortunately things are working out and we are ready to move into launching several big projects, including:

Reanimated

Chapter One

This will be launching tomorrow (Sunday, June 14th) . We will have five competitions available for 2 and a half weeks to allow more time for participation. For this time period there will be 3 fiction prompts in total, only the first prompt will be necessary for the competitions. The other two will be to advance the plot of the story, and wrap up the promises of the Larazus Reflex competitions.

Edit: Earlier version of this incorrectly stated Reanimation would be out on Saturday, I apologize - It is coming out at 7pm on Sunday, June 14th

Last Three Month Review

I recently received a report from Mav about the activity in Tarentum. The stats in this report are directly related to the removal of our probation status. Therefore, you should know there is a lot of good news in the report; we had the fastest membership growth, by membership ratio we have the most unique membership participation, we also had nearly everyone participate in SOMETHING, we covered a wide breath of competition platforms, and for most of the rest of the stats we sat well in the middle of the pack. Compared to where we were after the GJW, this is “incredible” - as the DGM said.

Each of you deserves a pat on the back.

However, we aren’t out of the woods yet and we won’t claim first clan with middle of the pack stats. Recruitment has been heavily focused on getting old members back, we need to push forward into getting new, fresh recruits. Already we have Caesar and his crew developing a new plan to tackle this - I would appreciate those willing and able to give them a hand. Aside from this, we also need to work on participation averages. While everyone did something, there was no concentration and there weren’t many doing most or all things, just something. A participation here and there helps, but to change things around we need a solid core of membership we can always count on. That leads us to the most concerning part of the report:

It’s no secret that Tarentum has been in crisis mode and fighting for survival. And while these numbers are good, they haven’t shown that we have the lasting power. For Tarentum to survive, we need people doing things not just because we face closure - but because they are active, engaged, and interested in participating. The summit and I will be breaking this report down over the course of the next few weeks and brainstorming how we as a clan want to handle it - please note though this is a discussion for everyone. The summit will take turns delivering a topic each for conversation so everyone can give their opinion and brainstorm. I look forward to these discussions with you all so we can tackle these concerns together as the family we are and as we already have to date.

Revenite Domum

As of today, I am declaring Revenite Domum in Tarentum.

For those who are actually skilled in Latin, I apologize if that was a bad translation however the phrase I'm going for is "come back home". Again, it's no secret that Tarentum has had a rocky past - sometimes things happen that are beyond our control; however sometimes we need to man up and take accountability.

When I took Consul there was a flood of support from former Tarenti who shared stories of the hardship, bullying, mistakes, and other unfortunate events that had led to them leaving the clan. I can't undo those times, nor can I make up for them. I can however strive to make Tarentum a better place to be in the future, and we have already started to do this - the message has been clear since I have been Consul and everyone who remains here is on board - these horror stories of the past will not return to Tarentum. I can assure you that any report of similar incidents will be met strongly from every member of the summit and if not, it will be immediately corrected when brought to my attention. Tarentum will be returning to principle that this is a home for all, all are welcome, and there is a place for everyone in our special little family of necromancy and SW nerds.

So this is Tarentum apologizing, making right the events to the best of our abilities, and asking for a second chance.

Along with this, it is only fair that anyone will similarly receive a second chance from Tarentum if they wish for it, especially to come back home. You will not be met with resistance, but with open arms.

In no way is this meant to rob the other clans members. Our aim is from feedback in the Rogues, and if you are currently active in another clan, I highly encourage you to speak to your leadership about any feelings you have about transferring well before submitting a transfer request to any other unit. There's not a single unit leader currently in position that I can say is unapproachable. And while I understand if anyone is offended by this event, I am not offering anything over the other units of this club. I'm merely offering an open, blank slate to anyone who would want to return to Tarentum, who has the desire to return home - but for whatever reason they felt they could not return.

Tarentum is open to offering second chances, just as we are hoping the rest of the club is willing to give us a second chance.

In Darkness We Trust
RK