Addendum: Congratulations also go to Jenna al'Chan Sedai, who this autumn was raised to the Keeper of the Chronicles, the 17th to don the stole!  She has stepped up to take the place of Illyria Corinye and has quickly made a great impact on the Tower by coordinating the awards.

It's been a while since our last announcement, but a lot of interesting things have been happening under the hood!

Fanfic Competition Winner

We asked our members the tantalizing question, "what if?" what if your character at a pivotal moment had made a different choice, how would they be affected? How would the Tower be affected? We've recived some truly impressive contributions but the winner and runner up is as follows:

Winner of the Fanfic competition: Maria Norakovni meets a hard choice in her fanfic, Take what you want and pay for it.

Runner up: Damien al'Donai shows us the meaning of fate, and that we are meant to end up in certain places no matter how long it takes us in his fanfic, Forks in the road.

The Hall of Sitters

The Grey Tower 3.0

For a very long time various admin and members have been thinking about updating our website to a new system. We've recived some interesting proposal from very talented individuals. After an intense discussion weighing the merits of both proposals we are moving forward with the plan to upgrade the Grey Tower Drupal. This will make the running of the site smoother and more effective on both ends and allow the admin team to focus more on engendering more interesting roleplay opportunities for our members.

New Master of Arms

Earlier in the fall Dwillion left his two weeks notice. He was talented and hard-working. In his place comes none other than yours truly, Caithlan Damodred Gaidin. As the new Master of Arms I can only hope to fill his shoes! Nevertheless I am very excited to be here and look forward to working with the admin team and all of our wonderful members.

The Fall/Winter Awards

The Fall/Winter Awards have been annonced on the Main Message Board, you can find them here. I recommend you check them out as they come with a couple of examples of some very well-written roleplays and interesting characters, not to mention the hard-working and creative members behind the awards!

New and Returning Members

Finally I would like to extend our warmest welcome to new learning ranks and returning characters!

New learning ranks:

Bryn Riverstone Walker, Novice

Jaryd Kosari, Soldier

Returns:

Ayden Tyre, soldier

Nia'ahn'tullah, Ji'alantin (return)

Daric Asha'man of the Yellow Ajah

Asheen Al'Glann Asha'man of the Yellow Ajah

Shivan, Dedicated

Remember to check us out on Facebook!

In the light,

Caithlan Damodred Gaidin
Master of Arms

There has been a lot happening in our little Tower!  Our site is on the verge of some pretty exciting changes, some of which we have to keep under wraps for now, others we can share immediately.

On to the news...

Hall of Sitters

Most importantly, our wonderful Keeper of the Chronicles, Illyria/Becky has decided to give her three weeks notice.  She will be sorely missed on the team, but continue to be a member of the GT.  Now we turn our attention to nominating a new Keeper, candidates are welcome to step forward and members of the Hall of Sitters are welcome to nominate their chosen candidates.

We also have a very important discussion just opened on the Hall of Sitters concerning upgrading the GT with newer, more comprehensive code, which would add a lot of features and change the experience of its members and administration.  There is not just one, but two bids, on the table.  All members of the Tower are encouraged to participate and share their thoughts!  If you are not a member of the Hall of Sitters, please contact a member of it or the admin team, and ask that your views and questions be quoted on your behalf.

On a related note, the Hall of Sitters has raised a few possibilities for the goals of Tower-wide fundraising, including: 

• Advertising the GT on Facebook, with Google Adwords,
• A paid-for chatroom program, etc. Some members have coupons they would like to offer.
• Upgrading the website to 3.0, perhaps with paid-for software, or paying a professional to make the design and/or transfer for us (saving us time and reducing errors).

Ajah Interviews

Daivon Sydias Asha'man is coordinating interviews with various members of the Tower concerning the Ajahs as the basis for a future Ajah class.  If you are interested in getting involved in this ambitious project, details can be found here and an update found here.

Fanfic Competition

The deadline for the Fanfic Competition has been extended!  The writing prompt is "What If?"- these will be off-cannon stories concerning what would happen to our characters, and the Tower, if they had taken a different path?  For details click here.

Membership

Congratulations to Daivon Sydias Caspian, who has joined the Hall of Sitters as the White Ajah's First Sitter, and Jerid Walker Asha'man who has joined as the Indigo Ajah's Third Sitter!

Plots and Rumors

 The Once and Future Amyrlin Big RP is is still open and the Tower community is invited to join in and participate in the open threads, particularly the Feast of Lights.  To follow the plot, start here!

The Learning Ranks Luncheon also continues to be open to participation on behalf of the leanring ranks here!

Rumor has it that an assasination plot is in the works.  Keep your eyes open and be on your guard!

If you would like your plot featured here in the future, please contact the admin. ;)

Other WoT News

An early review of A Memory of Light has been published on Dragonmount here!  Jason 's review and tribute to Jordan and Sanderson is deeply moving, yet lacks spoilers, so check it out!

Greetings all you beautiful members of the Tower, not to mention all those prospective members who might just be wandering by!  We welcome you all and hope you can share your own creative talents with our community.  

Traditionally special announcements are reserved for the beginning of Grey Tower blog posts and nothing could be more special than welcoming my friend Amora en'Damier back to the position of Amyrlin Seat.  The foundations of our group rest upon the passion of our members and none could be more passionate or committed than Amora.  She was a part of the Tower from the beginning and has remained loyal to us through thick and thin.  Even after more than a decade's membership, she took a short break and simply could not stay away!  She will be an unrivalled asset during the exciting time ahead of us.  You are cordially invited to congratulate the returned Amyrlin http://www.grey-tower.net/boards/mainooc/index.php?msg=22639 and to join the celebration roleplay http://www.grey-tower.net/boards/d2d/index.php?msg=10499   Please await instructions from the Mother before joining.  

We welcome Deek back from Shara, no doubt he will have all sorts of interesting tales to impart about those distant lands beyond the Aiel Waste!  We also welcome Cor Ragam to the Tower, a Drin'far'ji with attitude from Shienar!  He should fit right in.  

Our studious and hard-working Keeper's Riven and Illyria have begun a competition for those of us who enjoy writing fan fictions.  Those of you who have read my biography will know that I personally enjoy doing so and will likely be submitting a piece of work for our Keepers' review - I hope all the rest of you will do so as well.  Find out more information http://www.grey-tower.net/boards/mainooc/index.php?msg=22659

There's really not much else to be said except to inform you that your own M'hael will be leading a Major Roleplay within the next couple of months, involving Shadowspawn, Bubbles of Evil, and the possibility of redemption.  All I can suggest is that you watch this space and that we might be seeing a preview in the form of a Big Roleplay at some unspecified time in the future. 

Oh and it's my mum's birthday so I wanted to give her a shameless plug on the front page - happy birthday to my mother Janet.  Love you always!

Damien/Jasrin, M'hael of the Grey Tower