Life is just a matter of time.

I don't know where I got that, but it's been running around in my head lately. Six years ago, I took the job that I swore I never wanted. I still stand by that, and it's become a bit of a joke between Sarin, Jac and I...that if you want to be Grand Master, you're really not the person for the job.

It's a lot of work. You find yourself on the computer past 3 in the morning on a work night, calculating how little sleep you're going to get before you have to wake up to go back to work, but realizing that this project needs you. Your coworkers get texts from their girlfriends and boyfriends, and you're answering whatsapps from Consuls and Councilors. You find yourself looking at something and weighing if it would be more work to find someone to do a task or to just do it yourself. You try to give advice and laugh when people don't take it, then blame you when things don't go as planned. You try to walk that narrow line just between chaos and order, and just when it looks like things are settling in, you get a PM and another can of worms is opened... And when you finally get to bed, you stare at the ceiling and try to figure out how to deal with things.

Anyone who says it's just a hobby doesn't understand.

This is a Labor of Love.

Back when I joined, I was in a dark place. Depression runs pretty deep in my family, and my living situation was...we'll call it 'less than healthy'. I clicked the join link because I was super interested in lightsabers, and I was bored. I imagine it's much the same for a few of you. I ignored the automatic emails like all too many people do, but then I got one from a battleteam leader who seemed genuinely interested in seeing who I was before my pin fell off into the abyss of the rogues. It had been a pretty bad day before that, not going to lie, and it turned it into a good one.

This world that we have all created, this shard realm of hypernerdery that we collectively imagined is immersive. It drew me in, made me forget about the crap that I had to do for the rest of the hours of the day. It helped get me through some pretty terrible rough spots.

I know that I'm not the only one.

I eventually got out of that situation. Things got better. A lot better. But rather than bail and forget, I felt like I had to pay it back. I stayed, doing more things with my time to help build up what all of our older members started. I did it because I knew that there are other folks out there that need this Brotherhood just as much now as I did for those dark times of my own. I found time to do things to help people. To talk them through things. To be there. To try and make things for other people to get sucked into and enjoy so that maybe they can have fun for a bit. Yes, it's work.

That is what leadership is about. You give of yourself, so others can have.

They tell you it's got wide reaching responsibilities. They tell you that you will be a leader, that you'll have to hold competitions, grade things, do projects, and maintain order (or a semblance thereof). They don't tell you that you'll have to act as a therapist, as a priest, a brother, a father. They don't tell you that you'll spend a vast majority of your time at your computer, developing serious multi-tasking skills as you monitor fifteen IRC channels, an email account, the website, and whatever open projects there are. They don't tell you that you'll grow to love the club so much that you get ridiculously passionate over trifling details, get worked up and argue with similarly passionate people who have different ideas. They don't tell you that no matter how much that you think you care, you'll care even more.

We're all brought here for different reasons. Some of us were just bored. Some are looking for an outlet for their creative juices, some are looking for someone to play games against. What we find here are people, we find friendship. I've watched Mark grow from a twitchy and annoying kid into a family man. I've talked to Korras as he was stressing out in college and then years later as he was hunting for jobs. I've seen Sarin's kids grow up into little star wars fans (that ATAT in the snow pic made my day). I've talked Taigi through some pretty tough RL decisions. I've been there to see Shikyo grow through high school, a tour in the navy and now onto college. We give each other grief. We give each other support. We fight, we bicker, but we stand together against anything that comes against us.

Brotherhood is not just another word.

It is the people that you meet here that you become invested in. The people who make you want to check up on, to make sure they are doing all right. To enjoy time playing games, or writing stories, or just chatting about stupid stuff way into the late hours. To show off your accomplishments, to get impressed with theirs, to encourage each other. To brainstorm and work together with really talented people and get better at things with them. Those people, those experiences mean more than any titles, any ranks, any medals that get put up on your dossier. Those things are just markers to show the work you have put in to keep this going, the time you spent.

And life is just a matter of time.

After nine years on the council, and six as Grand Master, it's time for me to retire. There's a great and talented Council in place, a new and shiny site that is capable of handling all of the sweet new enhancements that are planned or in various states of completion, and all manner of hypernerdery material out there to get lost in. Ultimately, it's time for someone else to bring their vision and use it to improve the club.

I have already nominated Pravus as my obvious successor, and per the Covenant, the ratification process and vote will proceed. He's chomping at the bit to get back into the throne, and I am confident that he will do an excellent job driving the Brotherhood onward to greater things.

I'll be returning home to Naga Sadow, where I will no doubt harass the poor people on the summit with stories about how I used to run the whole club when all they wanted was me to do a simple competition. I'll be around, helping out on a few key projects as they get coded in (Waiting on Possessions will be the death of me, I swear) and doing the downwind lurk in shadowy chambers that may or may not have stars in them. :P

From the rockstars who have helped run the club, hosting the nightmares called vendettas all the way down to the guys who just started and are just now finding their way in the strange and convoluted organization, Thank you. It's been a priviledge and an honor working with all of you. Thank you all for everything that you've done, everything you've shared, or just being around to talk at. It means a lot to people. More than you might know.

To commemorate my sixth year as GM, I've loaded in a new set of goodies. You should be able to log in and see the 'King' and 'Queen' Robes, as well as the female version of last year's 'Pride' robes. Also, the 'Roar' Saber available at DJK ranks, with some atypical blade colors available there.

I have a LOT of awesome people that I have worked with over this past year, and on days like this I look back and try to remember all of them and award them for the work they have done. So here goes:

Dacien has been one of those people who always seem to get overlooked because of their nature. He's not the type to grandstand, not the type to call attention to his work, so it largely gets taken for granted. It's been six years since he got promoted, and since then he has served in myriad clan and house positions, backed up almost everyone on the Dark Council at one point or project, and been the Headmaster for almost two years. Headmaster is one of those critical positions on the Dark Council that doesn't get enough respect by the older generation, since it's been a decade or more since they had to interface with it. But there is a lot of work involved. Repetitive, boring work. Yet, Dacien pushes through on the daily, wrangling staff, trying to improve the new member experience and help capture the imaginations of more and more of those people who hit that join button. That kind of work is critical to the long term success of our club, and setting those habits now helps to ensure that the work will be carried on long after we're all retired. After some discussions between Pravus and I, we've decided that it is time for him to step up and be recognized as a Dark Side Adept.

Herald is a tricky position. It is one of two hard-skill positions in the club. You have to know how to make graphics in order to handle the workload. Socks came into herald after serving as the chief admin person for Orv's short term as herald. Her skills in organization have helped bring the Herald office up from a one or two man operation to a large art department, and one that the Brotherhood readily could use. What most people didn't know is that Socks has been a professional graphic artist for some time now. She's more than capable on her own, and those things that she is not comfortable with yet, she goes after like a bulldog to learn more about. The sea change in how the Herald office operates, it's efficiency, and it's ability to bring more and more people in, train them, and use that newly honed talent for the club has been wonderful, and that transformative work has more than proven that she is ready for promotion to Sith Warlord.

Valhavoc is one of my favorite people. He is level headed, calm, mature, but passionate and aggressive in his protection of our club. Most of us who have been around for a while know that the gaming side of the Brotherhood has a reputation for people trying to sneak things past the rules, for trying to game the systems and wreck competitions. While I think this is not a broadly correct picture of our gamers, there is no denying that there are some who deserve that reputation. Valhavoc has been the vigilant watchman over this aspect of our club. That is, in itself, a full time job, aside from keeping on top of necessary rewards scale changes and exploring new games for our members to enjoy. It's a lot of work, especially during a season of vendettas and a Great Jedi War. As such, I would like to present him with a token of our esteem, the sacramental weapon known as the Amethyst Kurki. Thank you for all that you have done, and all that I know you will continue to do.

Something that I have repeated so many times that it is almost nauseating is that 'Leadership is action, not position.' We've come to expect more out of our Dark Council than the narrow scope of work that their job descriptions describe, but still among these rockstars, Mav stepped up the game. With this last Great Jedi War, Mav led the charge on working to come up with scoring schemes, event coordination, and then grading and score/participation compilation. It's no small task, and it's not sexy or even fun, but it is necessary work to keep up with the breakneck pace that we have all grown accustomed to. While relatively new to the position, Mav has taken initiative and ran with it, and it's that work ethic and attitude that is beyond commendable. As a token of my thanks, I am reccomending him for a Sapphire Blade to add to his collection. Thanks again, Mav. It means a lot.

Pravus is one of those people who legitimately has everything. It makes it difficult to award him for his work. In the five months since he took up the mantle of DGM again, he's been a constant help, a voice of reason, and a second set of eyes on everything that's been going through on the Dark Council. On top of that, he wrote the GJW story (Much of it from a hotel in Germany, too) and has been absolutely critical to the grading process. Everyone reading this knows how good he is, so I'm not going to waste all of our time with finding platitudes to spout off. Matt, you kick ass. Have something no one else has: a Third Amethyst Kukri, for being a hitter at the time I needed you most, the Great Jedi War. Thanks again for all of your time and effort.

Affable and yet occasionally frustrating, Marick - known better to most as Wally - has been a brilliant Consul in Arcona for going on two years, with another three years on the summit before that. He's been their cheerleader, their advocate, their teacher, their disciplinarian, their leader, and probably most importantly, their friend. Giving of himself almost to a fault, I have seen Marick online working into the wee hours when almost everyone else has faded off to slumber, to work, to other interests. He refuses to give in, refuses to stop, and no doubt that has caused some arguments between him and I, or between him and the Master at Arms. But it's easy to forgive him, because we can see in every action that he is doing it for the members. Never for himself, always for the members. Most recently, We've all seen him rallying the troops, bringing Arcona again to the podium for their work in the Great Jedi War. As he is right now probably trying to sort through exactly what can be awarded to his people, I feel the need to award him with an Emerald dagger for his efforts. Thank you, Wally.

It's not always the people who agree with you the most that are your friends. Malik and I have had more than our fair share of ...we'll say 'lively discussions.' We sometimes get heated. It's a difference of perspective, honestly, and I have always tried to use those discussions to discover the reasons why something is the way it is, to help me not only better understand his position, but also mine. It can be quite frustrating at times, but one has to recognize that people who care deeply about the brotherhood may have differences over policy, but not about how we all want the brotherhood to succeed. It's an important distinction to keep in mind. He's been a steadying factor in CNS for a long time, now, and though he is recently retired from Consul, his calming influence can still be felt. That calm demeanor has cost him some positions, in times when we were looking for aggressive, excited, and revolutionaries. It's kinda fitting that he plays the character that he does, honestly. Unfortunately, it does result in a lot of missed opportunities, and a lot of missed attention. People miss the forest for the trees, focusing on the rising stars, the hyperactive members that are making big waves instead of the guy who is trying to make it so that those young members can be seen. There's a laundry list of people who have come out of Sadow that benefited from his work. I'm one of them, as he was Consul when I first joined. He's done it for more than ten years, at the end of the equite scale. It's time he is recognized for the Elder that he truly is. Thank you, Malik. I look forward to arguing with you later. ;)

Four Years is a long time. It's a bachelor's degree. It's the length of a job for some people. It's a presidential term. The last four years, Xen'Mordin has put his nose to the grindstone, working on the Empire of Scholae Palatinae, working to get things moving again, to bring them to new glory and higher plateaus than ever before. The recent Great Jedi War shows that. Xen led from the trenches, driving the House to a third place win, edging out established clans and proving that they are indeed a force to be reckoned with. He's been driving at all of the points to get Scholae Palatinae clanned, by slowly growing the house, by building activity, by showing his members how things work in the club. It's a long path, but the only one that builds lasting results, the kind that doesn't vanish when you step away. In a way, it's a big project, wrenching on the House. As such, I would like to recognize Xen'Mordin with an Amethyst Kukri. Thanks, Xen. Your work is appreciated.

There's a few other sacramentals that I'd like to hand out to the Clan and House chiefs. It takes a lot of work to rally people to partake in a war. It's easy to get lost in the little details, or get stuck on your own submissions and forget that you have those folks relying on you to pump them up, get them excited, let alone they myriad proofing, suggesting, and other help that leaders give our members. On the other side of that, it takes a deft hand to sooth hurt feelings, when someone puts a lot of work into a submission, only to have it not place. It stings when that happens, and it takes a strong leader to help that member dust themselves off and learn from the experience rather than wallow in it. Vivackus in Plagueis and Rian in Taldryan both found themselves doing just that over the course of this last war and during Fading Light. For their efforts, I am awarding them both Sapphire Blades.

And that's the last report.

Thanks, everyone. It's been a pleasure.

Have fun!

--Muz