Darim Pelegro

Long and Checkered, Yup.
If you take a gander at his Who's Who page, you might notice a few things about Darim. One, he's been hanging around since 2002. Two, during that time he's held down quite a few jobs, from small to large: Art Museum Curator, Chat Operator, Moderator, Warder Councillor, Honor Guard, Captain of Recruits, Director of Community Development. (Going to apply for CC sometime, Darim? I don't think you've done enough yet!)

I asked Darim what has really stood out, in his memory, about all the ways that he has served TarValon.Net, and this is what he had to say:

"Looking back, I think perhaps the greatest accomplishment of my time in service to this community, was the destruction of the White Tower during the (spoiler alert) Black Tower takeover. This was just after I had stepped down as Director of Community Development (now Community Outreach) and literally within like a week, I had redesigned the site graphics, coordinated events between members of several Companies and Ajahs, infiltrated the deepest ranks of the Aes Sedai, coordinated an alliance with the Seanchan, and seized Tar Valon in a bloody and a'dam filled coup d'tat. Ultimately, I think I was assassinated by the very men and women I had hoped to help, but you know, that's what evil dictatorships are like. And people had a lot of fun.

I would want people to look back and say 'that guy tried to help people make friends.' That was always my goal as Director, coordinating events and developing discussion groups, and as a Captain where I enhanced and expanded our mentorship program within the male side of the Tower. My hope was always that whatever I did, it would incite at least two people, hopefully more, from whatever rank, Ajah/Company, or time spent within the community, to come together and develop meaningful relationships. I know from personal experience how powerful those relationships are and how impactful they can be on the quality of life for many of our members."

Darim + MDD = Awesome
As one of the last founding members of Mahdi'in d'ma Dieb still shuffling around, Darim played a very active role in shaping what MDD was then and is today. But he doesn't share the glory alone. "We all shape and alter what being a member of our company means each time we accept a new member, or one of us has a life-changing epiphany/event, or discovers a new awesome club drug/micro-brew." For Darim, MDD is a place he can go to get a laugh, or give one in turn. "They make me feel good about myself and I think together we make each other feel special. I've met some of my best friends through the company, lived with a few, gone out with a ton of them and played video games with even more. I like to say MDD is one giant mental masturbation ring. We can be pretty aggressive in defense of that, but its worth it."

Whil, Darim, Sunri and D'ran show us all how it's done.

So what is he doing now?
Aside from serving as a self-styled Horror Guard of MDD, Darim has recently joined the Graphics Development Team where he is taking an active lead in designing Merit Badges. "I am a graphic designer by education, with an emphasis in tackling complex communication problems for a large audience. The merit badges seemed like what was a complex issue that could be made fairly simple and it fell within the expertise that I already had."

Thank you, Darim, for being awesome!