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June 2018
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The Clan Council in RuneScape, Circa April 2016, by Tyco elf

The "Clan Council", formerly known as the "High Council", is the top administrative level of Clan Quest that oversees all website management, official branding and media creation, Guild application processing, social media, and finances. They are, in effect, the "leaders" of the Clan as a whole, but as of the implementation of the Constitution do not hold explicit power within any individual Guild that they themselves are not personally a part of.

A member of the Clan Council is referred to as a "Clan Councilor", and collectively as "Clan Councilors".

Who is the Clan Council

As said before, the Clan Council are the leaders of the Clan as a whole. They are comprised of the Clan's founders and those that they have chosen to join them since the clan's formation in November, 2009. Every member of the Clan Council holds equal power, there is no one member that holds more influence or sway than any of the others. The group does, however, internally elect a "Head of Clan Council", but they do not hold any real additional power over other members of the Clan Council. On all official Clan platforms, including Discord and the Clan Website, members of the Clan Council are represented by a yellow username.

Head of Clan Council

As per the Constitution of Clan Quest, the Head of Clan Council is defined as:

"Article VI, Section III" wrote:

The Head of Clan Council shall serve as the group's official communicator with the Membership-At-Large, and as a mediator between disputes within the Clan Council. While a “Head of Clan Council” shall be elected from amongst themselves, the Head will be equal in power to the other Clan Councilors. The Head of Clan Council shall be elected on a schedule as determined by the Clan Council, or as a vacancy occurs. The policies of and for that election shall be maintained by the Clan Council.

As stated, the Head of Clan Council does not actually hold any additional influence or power over Clan matters than any other member of the Clan Council. Additionally, unlike other elected positions in the Clan, the election schedule for Head of Clan Council is entirely left up to the Clan Council themselves. They are not required to rotate an election cycle, and a single Head of Clan Council may serve for multiple years without issue. The current Head of Clan Council is Hemsky.

Membership

   Main Article: High Council/Members
   Main Article: Clan Council/Members
There are presently seven active members of the Clan Council, and four additional members who are officially considered to be Emeritus. Those active members are: Choto 3000, Cireon, Draziw, Earth, Hemsky, Shane, and Sirapyro. These seven are actively involved in leading the clan on recruitment, website management, and general community involvement, and have maintained a fairly consistent level of presence within the Clan. All members of the Clan Council are listed below. For more information on the members of the Clan Council, visit the Clan Council Members page.


Joining the Clan Council

In order to join the Clan Council, you must be chosen to join the Clan Council by the Clan Council. There are a number of requirements to join, outlined in the Constitution, but the most important quality the Clan Council looks for in a new member is exemplary loyalty, dedication, and commitment to the Clan as a whole. As per the Constitution, the official requirements to join the Clan Council are:

  1. At the ratification of this Constitution, the Clan Council shall be composed of those individual members who currently hold such position. Those Clan Councilors holding current retired status, shall be further carried into retired status.
  2. Promotion of a member to Clan Councilor requires that member maintain active participation in the clan for at least ninety days, and as judged by the existing Clan Councilors demonstrate exemplary loyalty to the clan and the clan interests, and act as an example to all fellow members.
  3. Promotion to Clan Councilor may only be given to members holding a rank in a Guild Council or Honor Council at the time of promotion.
  4. Promotion to Clan Councilor requires that promotee obtain a two-thirds agreement vote of all currently active Clan Councilors.


As this says, the Clan Council's membership was originally comprised of every member who had held the rank of High Councilor before this version of the Constitution was implemented. For a new member to be promoted, they must be serving on one of the other two official Councils within the Clan structure(Honor and/or Guild) and prove themselves as fully committed to the clan and its survival. Additionally, a member must have been in a Guild for a minimum of ninety days before being elidgible for a position on the Clan Council, but for someone to be promoted any sooner than a year after joining is rare.

Subgroups

Like Guild Councils, the Clan Council is able to create subgroups that can serve additional functions not officially described anywhere else. Clan Council subgroups do not apply to individual Guilds, and instead are held as a clan-wide position. Members of these groups are not actually a part of the Clan Council itself, rather they were created by the Clan Council, who also directly oversees them.

Moderators

   Main Article: Moderators
The term "Moderators" refers to the group of people that the Clan Council has assigned additional permissions to so that they can assist with the moderation of non-Guild Clan platforms, such as clanquest.org, its Wiki, or the Clan Discord. Members of Moderator groups are always given a cyan name to indicate their role, across all platforms.

Content Coordinators

   Main Article: Content Coordinators
The "Content Coordinators" is a group that was created to replace the now disbanded Content Editors. The main difference between those groups is the management of the Clan's magazine, Questaholic, which has since been replaced by the Monthly Digest. Members of the Content Coordinators team are entrusted with the handling of social media, editing on the Wiki, assisting in the creation of branding, creating video content, and so on. They generally serve the purpose of creating things for the clan, whatever form that may come in.

History of the Clan Council

Generals Era

The original Clan Council was vastly different than the one that exists now. As the clan was originally founded on November 9th, 2009 on RuneScape, there was much less in the way of formal organization. The Clan's founders, "Draziw", "Sethron", and "Kappathegray", served as the Clan's "Generals", which was the name of the official top level rank in Clan Chat's at that time. For a time the Clan was hosted within Draziw's own personal Clan Chat, but this highly limited Sethron and Kappa's abilities to moderate and manage the Clan, and so soon after the Clan was relocated to a Clan Chat under the name "Clan Quest", where all three could moderate equally.

On January 15, 2010 the first Clan Quest Constitution was ratified, and in it the "Captains" were made an official arm of the Clan. These were members of the Clan that had completed every quest in RuneScape and achived the coveted "Quest Cape", around which the Clan was based, and the "Captain" rank was given to them to signify this achievement. However, with the ratification of the original Constitution these Captains were also given moderator priviledges within the Clan, in order to help ease the burden on the increasingly inactive Generals, who could not always be there to rectify any given situation. By February Draziw, who had been acting as the head General at the time, realized he was becoming increasingly less active and passed on his position to Kappathegray, who assumed primary leadership status over the Clan.

On March 8, 2010 the first ever Clan Quest website was launched by Early Hope, giving members of the Clan the means to communicate with each other outside of RuneScape. This meant that those who were inactive in the game could still actively interact with other Clan members. It also gave members a more permenant forum on which they could make announcements, and on March 19, 2010 the Generals did just that. For the first time since the Clan's inception, two new members were added to the General's team: ChaDMcBaDD and GL im Kody. This was a monumentous day for Clan Quest, though one that wouldn't be formally celebrated in RuneScape until a few weeks later, on April 10.

On July 14, 2010 the first major fight of Clan Quest history occurred between the new General ChaDMcBaDD and Captain CupOfChips, resulting in the former temporarily removing the latter from the Clan. While the fight was silly in retrospect, it raised a few concerns. With arguments generally on the rise, the Clan realized that while it had Captains and Generals to remove troulemakers, it really had no system in place to mediate disputes without bias. To answer this, the Generals devised the "Honor Council", which was implemented on August 1, 2010 under the leadership of Hemsky. This further seperated power among Clan Members, though the Generals still maintained a prominent leadership role.

September saw the return of Draziw to RuneScape activity, and with Kappa's activity in decline, he resumed his duties as head General in the clan, a position he would hold for the next few years. Soon after, on the 26th, Artson was promoted to the Generals group. The next month, October, would prove to be an interesting one though, as on the 1st of that month changes were officialized in the Constitution that legitimized the Honor Council and strengthened the Captains. On the 17th, though, the Generals were forced to remove one of their own when GL im Kody was discovered to have been cheating in RuneScape. "Botting", as it was called, was perhaps the worst sin in the game at that time, and still is, and as a violation of both Clan and game rules, Kody was promptly removed. This would be the only incident of a Clan Councilor actively being removed from the Clan or Council. However, a few weeks later, on the 31st, 82ndAirborne was promoted to General, once again bringing the groups numbers to six.

The High Council

The Clan continued to grow for the next several months, and during this time the Captain Tohtli led an effort to upgrade the Clan's website, resulting in the creation of clanquest.org on February 5, 2011. This would ultimately play a large part in the decision for Tohtli's eventual promotion to the General's on November 27th of that same year. Before that, though, RuneScape Clans experienced a major update: the Clan Camp. This implemented a far more official version of Clans complete with additional tools for recruitment and member management. There update came in a few waves: the base update on April 16th and a Clan "Citadel" on July 26th. On May 10th, though, the new Clan structures were given significantly more physical ranks to work with, and the "General" rank was no longer the top level. As a result of this, the ranking within Clan Quest shifted. "Captains" became the new "Generals", and the "Generals" became "Administrators", but it was at this point that the term "High Council" began being used more commonly to describe the group.

With the newly provided Clan tools, Membership on the rise, and a growing body of "Generals", or Low Councilors as they were sometimes being called, the High Council slowly became more of an administrative force rather than a day to day one. They still served as active leaders and role models in the community, without a doubt, and they alone determined most of the important clan policies, such as those on recruitment. Still, the High Council continued to grow in numbers: On April 16, 2011 both Anamona and Bigg Doggg were promoted to the group, and then Tohtli on November 27th of the same year.

As time went on the High Council's role as an administrative force increased, with the Low Council taking on more of the day to day activities. The Clan Council, while many of whom were still active, became more and more involved behind the scenes, and its growth slowed significantly. After Tohtli's promotion in November no one was offered the position until nearly a year later. On October 21, 2012 a clan meeting was held where the leaders of the Low and Honor Councils, MsKonnan10 and Skills2Quest, were offered positions within the Council. Both accepted, breathing a new life into the High Council. MsKonnan, for her part, would go on to replace Draz as the Head of High Council in October 2013, nearly a full year later.

Unfortunately, not long after Artson voluntarily left the Clan, and therefore the High Council, in January 2013. This marked the first time that a member of the High Council actively resigned by their own choice. On December 29th, after a relatively quiet year from the High Council, Skills2Quest also resigned. And then, in February 2014, not two months later, both Anamona and Bigg Doggg resigned from the Clan and High Council in the same week. Despite losing four of its members in little more than a year, the High Council still had enough active members to properly perform its duties. The rest of the Clan, unfortunately, was largely uncertain on the reason for the departure of so many high ranking, well liked members of the Clan, and it effected general clan morale and their opinion of the High Council, with conspiracy theories flying wild.

In response to the general clans concerns that the High Council was understaffed, and realizing that it may be time to promote some new members after nearly a year and a half without doing so, the High Council announced on April 21, 2014 that Cireon, LizBeth, Hemsky, and Earth were to be promoted. The promotions were not effective immediately, though. At the time all High Council promotions were required to be celebrated ingame, and so the High Council and promotees went to work on organizing a proper time to do this. However, On May 7, 2010 the High Council announced that it would be closing the Clan to any and all guests ingame, a decision the High Council itself was near unanimous on but the general clan largely opposed. At the time, this further divided the two groups, and the debate on what to do about this issue lasted well over a week. In response to it, the four promotees were officially added to the High Council earlier than planned, and they were able to help diffuse the situation. On September 21, 2014 the ingame event to officially welcome them into the High Council was finally held.

With all the losses and drama of the last two years behind them, the High Council moved on to take a more active role in clan management once again, largely led by its incredibly active newer members. On November 10th, 2014 Cireon took over the position of Head of High Council from MsKonnan. Still, as time went on the High Council once again became more of an behind the scenes entity. This is not to say they were never heard from, many were still active members of the community. But at this point the day to day management of the clan was managed almost entirely by the Low and Honor Councils. And for a couple years, there was absolutely no change in the High Council's roster. This would remain true until February 26, 2016 when LizBeth voluntarily left the Clan and High Council. Liz had long been a staple in the Clan community, and so this one hit many people harder than others. Before 2016 ended, the majority of the clan learnt that long-time member Sinistral had fallen ill, and over the course of the next few weeks, regular updates on his health situation were maintained by Kitty. News of his death finally struck when Draziw wrote a post honoring his memory, and made a public proposal to his fellow High Councilors to promote Sinistral to said body as a way to immortalize him, specially given how much he had meant to the community. With every single High Councilor voting 'AYE', Sinistral was promoted posthumosly.

Over the course of the next year the High Council continued to grow more inactive, at one point having only three members who were considered "active", though to varying degrees. Some, such as 82ndAirborne, had maintained an active presence in the community through the years but his activity in the High Council diminished. Others, such as ChaDMcBaDD, had left the game entirely, though never actually left the Clan or High Council. Still others, such as Sethron, Kappa, and Hemsky, were always reachable by the High Council, but their activity ingame and within the community was slowly diminishing. On May 4, 2017, in an effort to bring another active member into its ranks, the High Council promoted long time Head of Low Council Sirapyro.

The Clan Council

Following Sirapyro's promotion to the High Council, work began on setting up the Clan to function in other games, besides just RuneScape. The single most important part of this was the drafting of a brand new Constitution, which had not been updated since the Clan Charter was drafted in 2011. The Constitution aimed to restructure the clan so that multiple different games could have Clan Quest "Guilds", and that the High Council, now referred to as the "Clan Council", would not be required for each individual game's Guild to function. Instead, the Clan Council would oversee the Clan as a whole, managing the website, branding, and other external communication platforms, among other things.

To go along with this dramatic change in policy, the Clan Council always worked to further upgrade the website, along with the help of the Honor Councilor Shane. Between him, Cireon, and Earth the website was upgraded to a newer format, redesigned with a more modern look, and the MediaWiki framework was implemented so that users could have more free reign over creating content on the website. Much of February 2018 was spent preparing the MediaWiki portion of the site before its eventual launch coinciding with the March issue of the Questaholic Magazine.

On March 11th of that year, considering his monumental effort in upgrading and maintaining the website, Shane was promoted to the High Council. He was the last member to be promoted to that body, given that on the very next day the Clan's new Constitution went into effect, officially renaming the High Council to the "Clan Council".

On February 2019 it was announced that Cireon was stepping down as Head of Council, a position that was given to Sirapyro. Sirapyro's election coincided with the elections of Karen Angel as Head of the Questing Clan of RuneScape Guild Council, Wolffi as Head of the Questing Clan of RuneScape Honor Council, IiDefend as Head of the Old School Clan Quest Guild Council, and Prinessi as Head of the Old School Clan Quest Honor Council. It was the only time in history where every major government positions were available.

Sirapyro would continue to lead the Clan Council until the last days of August 2021, when he was replaced by the current Head, Lord Earth.

On February 13, 2022, in recognition of his efforts at maintaining the clan wiki, Questaholic, and other initatives, Choto 3000 was promoted to Clan Council. He would be the first member promoted to that body since the enactment of the Constitution.

Trivia

  • There are 19 known individuals to have held the position of High Councilor.
    • There were 8 active members of the High Council when it was converted to the Clan Council
    • Likewise, only 8 members had either resigned or lost their positions by that point.
    • 4 members were considered to be Emeritus when the 2018 Constitution came into effect.
    • GL im Kody is the only sitting High Councilor to ever be banned from the Clan.
    • ChaDMcBaDD is the only member to have been retired due to prolonged inactivity.
  • Cireon was the longest serving Head of High Council with 3 years, 4 Months, 2 Days. The second longest tenure belongs to Draziw, with 3 years and 12 days.
  • Draziw is the only member to have held the position of Head twice.
  • Shane was the last member to be promoted to the High Council.
  • Sinistral is the only member to have been granted the High Councilor position post-mortem.
  • Only three members of the current Clan Council have never been promoted to the office. Those individuals are the Clan founders: Draziw, Kappathegray and Sethron 666.
  • Having been promoted on May 10, 2014, Cireon, Earth and Hemsky are the longest serving, non-founding active members of the combined High and Clan Councils.
  • Cireon is the only member to have held the positions of Head of High and Clan Councils.
  • Choto 3000 is the first and, to date, only member of the Clan to be promoted to the Clan Council
  • 82ndAirborne was the last non-founding member to have been promoted to the Clan Council in 2010. He held the role for 12 years, 10 months and 7 days.