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September 2018
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Questing Clan of RuneScape
Guild Council
Shanes Promotion 001.jpg
Guild Councilors gathered for a promotion ceremony.
Council Information
Head of Guild Council Earth
Number of Councilors 28
Guild Page Questing Clan of RuneScape

The Questing Clan of RuneScape Guild Council, previously known as the Questing Clan of RuneScape Low Council, or simply just the "RS Guild Council", is the governing body that oversees the entirety of the Questing Clan of RuneScape. They are its leaders, its moderators, its decision makers, its recruiters, and its role models, as defined by the Constitution. They, along with the Honor Council, ensure that the Guild runs smoothly and without incident. The RS Guild Council is notable as it is the original Guild Council; it was the first formed and it was a direct successor to the Low Council, which served a similar function for the RuneScape Guild before changes made by the 2018 Constitution were implemented. Read on to learn more about one of the oldest and most recognizeable organizations in Clan Quest history!

Structure

General Councilors

The vast majority of all Guild Councilors are considered to be "General Councilors", and hold no more power than any other member. There is no probationary period, no rank structure, and no favoritism; every member of the Guild Council is equal in rank, and vote to give additional powers to the Head of Guild Council. All general members of the Guild Council are expected to serve as "Joy spreaders" in the Guild, and have equal say over recruitment, event funds, day to day moderation, and so on. However, typically members of the Guild Council will "delegate" each of these roles and allow those handling recruitment to do so without challenge, while another group handles funds, others record keeping, and so on.

Head of Guild Council

The Head of Guild Council is a member of the Guild Council who has been elected by other members of the Guild Council to serve as their leader, their speaker, and their conflict mediator. The Head of Guild Council is effectively the leader of the Guild as they oversee the Guild Council, which itself oversees the overall management of the Guild, but is still expected to serve in equal capacity as any other member of the Council. The Head of Guild Council will usually steer the direction the Guild Council, and the Guild itself, take, while also setting the official "Guild Council policy". The Head of Guild Council is elected on a yearly basis.

Emeritus Councilors

Some Guild Councilors who, either through inactivity or by choice, no longer partake in the general management of the Guild are often moved to the "Emeritus" group, which is an unofficial group unique to the Questing Clan of RuneScape designed to "retire" Guild Councilors without demoting them. Members of the Emeritus Council do not have the same privileges as general members of the Guild Council, but should they prove that they understand the current Guild policies and procedures, and have demonstrated an acceptable level of activity, they can freely rejoin the general Guild Council membership.

Membership

History

The Captains era

(November 9th, 2009 - October 1st, 2010)
When Clan Quest was initially founded on November 9th, 2009, it was led exclusively by its founders: Draziw, Kappathegray, and Sethron 666. The Guild was originally hosted in Draziw's own personal friends chat, making him the de facto leader of the Guild as a whole. When Draziw's ability to be an active leader in the Guild waned, the Clan Quest RuneScape Account was created, and the Guild was moved into that friends chat, so that Kappathegray and Sethron 666 could have more leadership capability in Draziw's absence. It was this idea, that the founders of the Guild could not always be active, that inspired the notion that more people needed to be given moderator powers.

In the Guild's rank structure, any member who had earned a Quest Cape, the ingame trophy for completing every Quest the game has to offer, was given the rank of "Captain". When the decision was made that a "Lower Council" needed to be formed, the founders(known as "Generals" at the time) decided to give limited moderation powers to everyone with the Captain rank. This change was made official when on January 15th, 2010, the first ever Clan Quest Constitution was ratified, making the "Lower Council" Captains an official part of the Guild. Among the most notable original "Captains" were ChaDMcBaDD, GL im Kody, HeyBullFrog, Kontingency and Wsx. ChaDMcBaDD, due to his popularity in the Guild at that time, effectively became the first ever leader of the "Lower Council".

This system was changed up slightly when, on February 12th, 2010, the first ever amendment to the Constitution was ratified in a public vote. The changes would not go into effect until April 10th that year, but they changed the requirements for becoming a Captain. Now one could become a Captain by holding the rank of Lieutenant, which signified owning a Quest Cape, for more than six months, or by receiving a sponsorship from four active Captains or two active Generals while holding the rank of Lieutenant. This letter method of promotion would become the basis for the nomination system that is prevalent to this day.

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Chad and Kody's promotion ceremony

Clan Quest's whole world changed when, on March 8th, 2010, the first ever Clan Quest website was launched, an effort lead by Early Hope, who earned a promotion to the Captain rank for her role in setting it up. The forums of ClanQuest.darkbb.com served as an official means of communication for the Guild, and allowed for easier and more long term event planning and communication. This ability to communicate to more people at once was tested for the first time only a few weeks later, on March 19th, when the Generals(Draziw, Kappa, and Sethron) posted the "Big Announcement", which was very relevant to the Captains. Most notable among them were that two of the most popular and active Captains in the Guild, ChaDMcBaDD and GL im Kody, were being promoted to the General rank, the first members to ever receive this honor. The Generals then also announced that Bigg Doggg had been chosen to replace ChaDMcBaDD as the leader of the Captains.

And so business went on as usual. The Captains chief responsibility in the Guild at this time was to moderate the ingame clan chat, and to actively post on the official recruitment thread so that it could be seen by new prospective members. Little changed in the status quo of the Captains until May 1st, 2010, when Wsx and Kontingency, two of the first ever Captains, were demoted due to inactivity within the Guild. This is the first ever recorded instance of Captains being demoted. The Guild continued to expand during this time, and it even began to develop more of an identity of its own. On May 26th the first major Clan Quest logo was created by Anamona, a member who had not yet earned a Quest Cape. As thanks for her contribution, which was used for several years after its creation, Anamona was promised an immediate promotion to the Captains the moment she completed her final Quest, which she finally did on August 12th that year.

Earlier that month, on May 3rd, the second ever amendment to the Clan Quest Constitution was implemented, changing the way Clan Quest accepted new members into the Guild. As per this amendment, the Generals were still chiefly responsible for accepting membership applications and giving out recruit ranks to new members, but it gave the Captains more of a say. After a 7-day probationary period all Captains were expected to vote on whether or not the prospective member could remain in the Guild. If three Captains voted positively, then the prospective member was made a full, permanent member of the Guild. This change was short lived, on on June 9th, 2010, a third amendment was passed that gave Captains the same level of authority as Generals to accept a new members application to join the Guild. The Generals were still responsible for ranking the new member, but this was the first time Captains were given any amount of power in accepting new members into the Guild.

The Captain rank continued on without much incident for the next few months, their numbers continuing to grow. The requirements to join were still the same as those listed in the first amendment, so there were a number of members who were being added automatically due to their possession of a Quest Cape and longevity in the Guild. Notable among those promoted between January and September 2010 were Artson, Sinistral, 82ndAirborne, Tohtli, and, as previously mentioned, Anamona. The second ever promotion of a Captain to a General occurred on September 26th, when Artson became the Guild's latest High Councilor.

The "Lower Council" had its next major evolution on October 1st, 2010. Four new amendments were ratified to the Clan Quest Constitution on that date, most dealing with the Guild rules and the implementation of the Honor Council. However, the fourth amendment to this Constitution specifically changed the requirements and processes to become a Captain. No longer could one become a Captain merely by owning a Quest Cape for six months; from October 1st on, the only people promoted to Captain were those chosen to be promoted by either the current Captains or the Generals. While this constitution would eventually be replaced, the system this amendment put in place is still used to this days, with only some adjustments made to the amount of people required to approve a new Councilor.

Creating a more formal Council

(October 1st, 2010 - May 10th, 2011)
With the requirements to become a Captain changed, and the birth of the Honor Council, a new, more "official", era began for the "Lower Council". On October 30th, 2010, a new forum on the ClanQuest.darkbb website was created to serve as an official means of communication for all Captains, and the very next day yet another Captain, 82ndAirborne, was promoted to the General rank. During this time several members also started receiving promotions to the "Forum Moderator" role, which while not part of the Lower Council, would become important at a later date. Among those promoted around this time were Rerecros and Vodka B. The most notable promotion of this period occurred on March 18th, 2011, when Earth was given the Captain rank.

On November 6th, Clan Quest banned its first and only Captain: HeyBullFrog. While former members of the Lower Council found themselves in trouble with the Guild in the future, HeyBullFrog is the only member to have ever been banned from the Guild while still holding the rank of Captain. His removal from the Guild made a case for tightening the scope of who was considered an appropriate fit for the Captains rols. This incident is one of the worst recorded incidents of drama effecting the Guild as a whole committed by a Captain. On January 4th, 2011, the Tears of Guthix Event began, hosted by one of the Guild's Captains: Ragulu. This was arugably the most successful recurring event in the Guild history, lasting well into 2014 and resurfacing several times since then. Ragulu went on to resign from the Guild Council shortly thereafter, but his event was maintained for years by other enthusiastic Captains and Joy Spreaders.

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A Clan Quester at the new Citadel.

On December 18th, 2010, a new project began that saught to revolutionize Clan Quest yet again: The creation of a brand new website, one without the restrictions and associations with the "Darkbb" brand of "Free Forums" websites. This project was led by one of the Guild's Captains, Tohtli, who completed and implemented the new website on February 5th, 2011. That website, clanquest.org, is the website used by Clan Quest to this day, and until recent years, was hosted exclusively by Tohtli. With their own website, complete with its own uniquely Clan Quest look and feel, the Guild as a whole made a reinvigorated push to attract more members, an effort where the Captains now served on the front lines.

That April, merely a few months later, Clan Quest faced its greatest change to date: The RuneScape Clan Camp Update, which was released on April 12th, 2011. Up until this point anyone could be in as many "Clans" as they wanted, and hop between the different chats. That old system still existed after this update, but a new, much more formal and organized "Clan" system was implemented that only allowed members to be part of one, single, Clan. Because of this forced choice, the Guild lost many of its members, but by the time everyone settled in there were still over a hundred dedicated members.

Shortly after the Clan Camp was launched, the Generals held a Clan Meeting, on April 16th. This was, in part, to discuss all of the changes the Clan Camp update brought, but also to drop a few important announcements. For the Captains, it was announced that Bigg Doggg and Anamona were being promoted to the rank of General, and that Sinistral would be taking over for Bigg Doggg as the leader of the Captains. Mere days after that announcement, on the 18th, the Guild began work on replacing its Constitution, proposing a brand new Clan Charter, making this period one of the busiest in terms of the Guild's evolution.

The Generals Era

(May 10th, 2011 - August 18th, 2011)
On May 10th, 2011, the rank structure of the Guild experienced a shakeup. Due to a brand new "Administrator" rank included with the Clan Camp, "Generals" were no longer the highest possible administrative rank. Because of this, all ranks were "bumped up" by one. This meant that the High Council, who held the General rank, now held the Administrator rank. The Captains, meanwhile, now held the "Generals" rank, putting a permanent end to the term "Captain" in reference to the Lower Council. With more Clan ranks on the way, though, this change was bound to be short lived.

On May 14th, 2011, it was decided that all of the members who were actively contributing to the Guild but were not members of the Lower Council should be given the appropriate promotion, and so all of the Joy Spreaders and Forum Moderators became new Generals. Notable among this group were Vodka B, Rerecros, and MsKonnan10. Furthering the shakeup in the Council's membership, Sinistral resigned from the Guild, and thus his position as the Council's leader, on July 28th, 2011. The position remained empty for several weeks until Earth was chosen to fill it on August 16th, by Sinistral's recommendation.

Only July 18th, 2011 recruitment was closed in the first major instance of the Guild restructing how it allowed new members in. Both the High Council and the Lower Council worked together to determine how best to change the system, which had been allowing too many troublemakers in recent weeks. Ultimately it was decided that all new members would require a "Sponsor" from the Guild's membership, a system which the Lower Council would oversee, while the Guardians determined whether or not the prospective member was a good fit for the Guild. On the 29th of July the new Charter was finally accepted, after many weeks of drafting and debate. This updated the terminology used to describe the Lower Council, and solidified their role in the Guild without the use of amendments.

The Low Council

(August 18th, 2011 - September 20th, 2013)

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Tohtli's High Council promotion ceremony.

On August 18th, 2011, after a brief conversation in the Low Council's forum it was decided that using the term "Generals" to describe the Lower Council was no longer appropriate, especially considering upcoming expansions to the Clan ranking system. As such, the term was dropped, and the name "Low Council" became the groups sole, official, identifier. While this was really just a minor change in vocabulary, it certainly marked the beginning of a new "era" for the group, as its most well known identity came into popular use. This name would go on to be used for more than seven years, until it was replaced by the "Guild Council" in 2018.

As time went on, the Low Council fell more and more into an administrative role that did not involve as much drastic, Guild-changing events. On October 11th the groups first ever official "policy" was drafted by Draziw, and a few days later LizBeth was promoted to the group. Recruitment reopened on the 15th after being closed on July 18th, which meant that the Low Council now had an increased job in managing probationary members and their sponsors, determining whether or not they were legitimate. Only one other major event occurred throughout the rest of the year: On November 27th, 2011, Tohtli was promoted from the Low Council to the High Council, due in large part to his role with the Clan Quest website.

Between January 2012 and June 2012, the Low Council turned to day to day operators. The single most important event that occurred during this period was on May 6th, when, during a public meeting, it was declared by the High Council that Earth was too inactive to continue performing his duties as the Head of Low Council, and the MsKonnan10 would replace him effective immediately. During this only a handful of members were promoted to the Low Council, but most notable among them were Karen Angel, on January 4th, and Ytse, on January 29th. These were ultimately the two most significant promotions of that entire year, as everyone else promoted in 2012 either rarely contributed or left the group long ago.

On July 23rd recruitment was closed yet again, this time so it could be reworked so that new members would need three sponsors from within the Guild in order to gain membership. Several prospective members of the Guild were quickly added, with the need for sponsors waived, and recruitment remained closed until September that year. Along with the changes to how new members were accepted, the ingame rank structure was also overhauled, largely to incorporate new ranks added to the Clan System by a recent game update, which had been anticipated for some time. This new recruitment system would remain in place until early 2014.

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Sirapyro's promotion ceremony.

On October 21st, 2012, a Clan Meeting was held ingame where a single major announcement was made: MsKonnan10 and Skills2Quest, then the Head of the Honor Council, were being promoted to the High Council. Because she was being promoted out of the role, Ytse was chosen by the High Council to replace her. He would go on to put a heavy focus on event hosting, especially inter-clan events. The "Ambassadors of Awesome" and the "Fellowship of Clans" were both efforts he created in an attempt to increase the Guild's event activity and socialization with other Clans. By the end of 2013 both groups had fallen apart.

2013, as a whole, saw a sharp increase in the amount of people promoted to the Low Council, at least compared to the previous two years. Several of these members went on to be important contributors to the group for several years, and were even eventually promoted to the High Council. The most notable of the promotions during this year were Miss Alaska(January 23rd), Cireon(March 27th), Hemsky(August 13th), and Sirapyro(October 1st). Other notable names promoted during 2013 were Gardenchick, AlphaLeo, and Wolfie. Also during this period, on March 3rd, the Charter was amended, changing the way new members could be promoted to the Low Council. These changes mostly included modifying the percentage of Low Councilors required to confirm a new member. The second Low Council Policy was created on the 17th of that month to reflect the new changes.

Increasing Power

(September 20th, 2013 - March 27th, 2015)
On September 20th, 2013, Ytse resigned from Clan Quest, and thus, his position as the Head of Low Council. Up until this point, every single Head of Low Council had been chosen by the High Council, Ytse included. This time things worked out a little differently, in that the High Council did not select a new Head. Instead, the Low Council was left to select their own Head through an election process, the first ever in Low Council history. Ultimately Cireon won out in a race between himself, Earth, and Hemsky, becoming the first ever popularly elected Head of Low Council, setting the precedent for every single new Head of Low Council after him. On January 1st, 2014, Cireon implemented a new Low Council policy that reflected this change.

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Protoman's promotion ceremony.

Throughout October, debates were held among members of the Low Council as to whether or not members of the Honor Council should also be allowed to serve on the Low Council. This came after the promotion of Infinity4, an Honor Council assistant, and the nomination of then Head of Honor Council AlphaLeo. Ultimately, by the end of the month, it had been determined, in the Low Council's first official stance on the matter, that Honor Councilors could serve on both Councils at once without incident. Shortly after this decision, AlphaLeo's nomination was approved, marking the first time a current Head of Honor Council served on the Low Council.

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ILikeSlayer's promotion ceremony.

Throughout February 2014, discussions were held on the recruitment system and the possibility of reworking it, after a post by Sirapyro on the subject was made public. The argument was made that the current recruitment procedures were too complicated, and it was effecting the Guild's ability to bring in new members. The Guild was struggling to maintain its Citadel, and it was losing members almost as fast as it was gaining them. It was finally decided that recruitment would be overhauled, and the need for sponsors would be removed, as would the use of the Guardians. Prospective members merely had to show an interest in joining, and they could be invited. Enough people were in the Low Council by this point to effectively moderate the chat, so the fears that open recruitment would bring drama were drastically reduced.

2014, much like the year before it, saw many new members join the Low Council, the most notable among them being SantaEnds(March 5th), Iskh(June 19th), ILikeSlayer(August 9th), Seb(August 17th), Sinistral(September 17th), and Protoman807(December 14th). Even more notable during this year, a grand total of four Low Councilors were promoted to the High Council, all at once: Cireon, LizBeth, Hemsky, and Earth. Their promotion was originally announced on April 21st, 2014, but they were not formally added right away, as the High Council wanted to wait until an appropriate date to celebrate their promotion ingame.

On May 7th, 2014, the High Council made the decision to "lock" the ingame Clan Chat so that new and former members could not "hang out" in it, and would be required to instead use the old friends chat if they wanted to have any part of the Guild prior to admittance. This proved to be a highly unpopular move among members of the general clan and the Low Council, who strongly pushed back against the idea. Low Councilors such as Sirapyro and Viperxk were the most vocal about the issue, which lasted until the 15th. On the 10th of May, in response to the backlash, the High Council made the decision to fast track the promotion of Cireon, LizBeth, Hemsky, and Earth, and all were immediately promoted, with an ingame ceremony to occur at a later date.

Additionally, up until this point all former members of the Low Council who still had ties with the Guild were given the "Emeritus" role, and still had a limited amount of influence in the Guild. The High Council had been discussing this for a while and had determined to revoke that privilege, but chose to do it immediately after closing the Clan Chat, and so it came off to the general, unaware, members of the Clan that the High Council was attempting to "shut out" those former councilors. In reality it was just a case of poor timing and communication. This debate finally ended on the 15th of May after a public vote was held to determine what to do: leave the chat open, or lock it. Ultimately it was decided that the ingame Clan chat would remain open to guests, and it has been that way ever since.

Seeing as how Cireon was promoted to the High Council on May 10th, he could no longer serve as the Head of Low Council, and so a new election was held. On May 12th Miss Alaska was voted into the position with absolutely no competition. While not technically an election, since no one else ran, she was still nominated and chosen by members of the Low Council, furthering the trend of Low Council-selected leaders. On November 21st she implemented the fourth iteration of the Low Council policy. The long promised ceremony to swear in the four new High Councilors eventually occurred on September 21st, 2014, several months later, during a general Clan meeting.

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Quest Kitty's promotion ceremony.

Everything was business as usual throughout the rest of the year, and into 2015. With most of the major issues of 2014 behind them, the Guild looked forward with renewed vigot, and brought a fresh new group of Councilors into their ranks. Between January and March 2015 six new members were promoted to the Low Council, the most in such a short amount of time since the Captains era. Of those promoted during this period, the most notable was Quest Kitty, on February 22nd. Throughout February discussions were held on the Low Council's internal policy for voting for new members, and it was ultimately changed so that "No" votes had more weight, and all nomination threads were to be hidden by the High Council before the promotion took place, so that a level of anonymity could be maintained by voters. Additionally, the voting thresholds were redefined and more more clear.

Becoming the Leaders

(March 27th, 2015 - March 12th, 2018)
On March 14th, 2015, Miss Alaska resigned from her position as the Head of Low Council. She did not resign from the Guild or even the Low Council, but due to activity concerns she no longer felt fit to hold the position. The election to replace her lasted the rest of the month in a close race between Sirapyro and Quest Kitty that the former ultimately won. On March 31st, 2015, Sirapyro became the Head of Low Council. The next day it was announced that he had retired and had been replaced by Draziw. The next day was, of course, April Fools, so none of the actually happened. On April 28th Sirapyro posted the fifth iteration of the Low Council policy, written from scratch, in an effort to clean up the document, which had been amended and added onto for the last several years.

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Clan meeting on November 9th, 2015.

Very few promotions to the Low Council occurred throughout the rest of the year, and until November 9th, only two people had been promoted, the most notable of which was Irene Angel. On November 9th a meeting was held in honor of the Guild's birthday, where the High Council announced that they were promoting five new members to the Low Council: Mell, Stick Man H, Saiyan Eric, Mizu Katana, and Linkvi. While there was some controversy that stemmed from the fact that the High Council superceded the Low Council and promoted new members without even bringing it up with them, these five ultimately fit right into the group. Ultimately none of them lasted in activity, though, and by the time the Low Council was replaced, they had all retired or been retired.

2016 proved to be a slow year in terms of promoting new members to the Low Council, but there were four notable ones: Thaxy(March 13th), Tyco Elf(August 7th), Choto 3000(November 16th), and Xenon Ray(November 26th). The latter two promotions were originally intended to be done at the same time, but due to scheduling conflicts on everyone's account, this became impossible, and so their promotions were done more than a week apart. Several members also resigned from the Low Council throughout this year, tightening the groups numbers, but the Low Council experienced a level of activity from its current roster much stronger than it had been in years past.

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Choto's promotion ceremony.

On January 20th, 2016, recruitment was yet again overhauled so that the requirement for a single sponsor could be reimplemented. The rationale behind this was the Guild was filling too quickly, and with people who weren't a great fit with the community. So the need for a sponsor was brought back, as were the Guardians. These changes officially went into effect on March 13th, 2016, when the tenth official recruitment thread was launched. In addition to these changes, on January 25th the ingame ranks were modified to both given acknowledgement to those who had achieved the "Master Quest Cape", and to allow general members to apply for an administrator rank so that they could take out the Clan Avatar, which the Low Council was given the ability to help manage.

On November 2nd, after discussions on the complexity of the Low Council's systems and policy, Sirapyro implemented a new form of the policy, dubbed the "Low Council Handbook" that was designed to serve as a simple overview of the Low Council's procedures, and also act as a resource for members of the Low Council, guiding them on how to perform the various duties their rank entailed. Along with this came simplifications to the way Low Councilors were promoted, requiring a simple majority of participating Low Councilors, as well as removing the need for hiding nomination threads. Finally, a "sweep" of the Low Council's roster was called for, so that the long inactive, non-contributing members of the Council could be removed and allow the Council to be made up exclusively of its active members. A fresh start, so to speak. This sweep would eventually happen on January 4th, 2017, which saw 14 inactive Low Councilors officially retired. The rest of the changes all went into effect immediately.

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Tyco's promotion ceremony.

The Council's "major event" activity slowed all throughout 2016 and into the beginning of 2017, due in large part to the declining activity of the High Council, who had lost LizBeth early on in 2016. As such, the High Council took on a "behind the scenes" role even moreso than they had in the past, leaving the Low Council to manage the Guild on a day to day basis. To some the Low Council were "effectively" the leaders of the Guild, and managed almost every aspect other than higher level maintenance. This was largely true up until, and even after, May 4th, 2017, when Sirapyro was promoted to the High Council in an effort to bolster its ranks. While this signalled a renewed level of activity for the High Council, the Low Council continued on as the day to day managers and leaders of the Guild.

Sirapyro had held his position as the Head of Low Council for more than two years, longer than any other Head before him. With his promotion to the High Council, it was finally time for a new election to be held. Much like with the election that saw Miss Alaska take over as the Head, this election had only one nominee: Tyco Elf, who became the unchallenged Head of Low Council and, though no one knew it yet, the final Head of Low Council, as he would hold the role when the Guild Council was implemented to replace the Low Council.

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Shane's promotion ceremony.

There were a small handful more promotions through the rest of 2017, including Shane(May 15th, 2017), Questcaping and i Herblaw(September 23rd), and Alex 43(October 1st). Questcaping and i Herblaw were the first two members to ever be promoted to the Low Council in a ceremony that took place in real life, at RuneFest 2017. Aside from these promotions, business kept on as usual throughout the rest of the year and into 2018. On January 24th Toragrai was promoted to the Low Council, the last person to ever be promoted into the group. It was not the last major promotion of a Low Councilor, though, as on March 11th, 2018, Shane was promoted to the High Council for the role he played in setting up the revamped Clan Quest website, and his continued management of it.

The Guild Council

(March 12th, 2018 - Present)
On March 12th, 2018, a brand new Clan Quest Constitution was ratified, replacing the old Charter. This Constitution completely rewrote the Clan's entire structure, with the primary intent of opening Clan Quest up to expansion to other games. The Questing Clan of RuneScape still existed as it had before, but the "Low Council" and "High Council" were abolished. The former High Council was now the "Clan Council", and had no direct say over anything RuneScape. In place of these two groups was the Guild Council, a new organization made up of former Low Councilors and High Councilors, who would all serve together as the managers of the Questing Clan of RuneScape. For the first time in years, members who were once considered "High Council" served on an equal playing field as those who were once considered "Low Council".

Because the Guild Council is not just a renamed Low Council, and is in fact a new group, a new election was held to determine who would fill the role of Head of Guild Council. Once again, Tyco Elf ran unopposed and became the groups first ever leader. On the 22nd of March he and Draziw led an effort to close recruitment so that the games rank structure and recruitment procedures could once again be reworked. The Gurdians were once more disbanded, but the sponsor requirement remained intact. The Low Council, who now had jurisdiction over all of the unofficial subgroups of the Guild, made the tough decision to disband the long inactive Event Thugs and Razzers groups, leaving the Low Council as the sole body responsible for event fund management and recruitment.

On June 1st, 2018, one of the largest changes was made to what it means to be a member of the Questing Clan of RuneScape. Inspired by the question of whether or not guests should be allowed access to the official Clan Quest Discord server, the Guild Council deliberated for weeks to come up with a system to allow just that. Eventually, on the 1st, the new policy was implemented: new members could join the Questing Clan of RuneScape without being invited ingame so long as they followed all the same procedures. This allowed people in other Clans access to the Questing Clan of RuneScape's forums and Discord server, despite not being a member of the Questing Clan of RuneScape on RuneScape.

The next few months were largely marked by preparation for RuneFest 2018, which saw another great turnout by the Guild's membership. Shortly before RuneFest the Guild Council promoted Wolffi to its ranks, and then Derparnieux and Shiro Shana in person at RuneFest, much like Questcaping and i Herblaw had been the previous year. Many of the more inactive members of the Council, including former High Councilors and others who had rarely participated in the group, were retired across two dates: October 27, 2018, and November 23, 2018.

And so came 2019, the first month of which would end up being fairly eventful for Clan Quest as a whole. Every single elected position in the Clan was vacant - across both Guilds and the Clan Council. This, of course, included the position of Head of Guild Council, which Tyco Elf resigned on January 17, 2019. He spearheaded the following election, where only two candidates accepted their nominations: Xenon Ray and Karen Angel. Karen Angel ultimately went on to win that election the 26th, and spent much of her tenure focusing on spreading positivity between members of the Guild Council, after several of its members had a falling out. Unfortunately, as time went on disagreements about how the Guild Council should be managed formed between Karen and other members of the Council, leading to some tension that ultimately resulted in Karen's resignation from the role - and the Guild entirely - on April 27th, 2019.

Four candidates accepted their nominations in the ensuing election, spearheaded by Shane and Cireon: Choto 3000, Shiro Shana, Wolffi, and Draziw. Wolffi, who was then serving as the Head of Honor Council, received 0 votes, Shiro Shana 4, and both Draziw and Choto received 6 - the first time a Head of Council election has ever resulted in a tie. A runoff election was held, in which Draziw won 10 and Choto 6. Draziw promptly took on the mantle as the Head of Guild Council, but with a caveat: He specifically stated during his campaign that his time as the Head would end on July 15th, 2019, due to real life obligations beginning on that date. He immediately set out to build on a few key ideas he had campaigned for: simplifying the structure and helping new members of the Council learn what to do, and to make it easier for deserving members of the Guild to be promoted. Within just a few weeks the Guild Council's numbers grew by six, and even more came after that. Clan members Omega, Diana, Cyan R, Kebabthief, Tosols798 and Pop o were promoted to the Guild Council during Draziw's tenure, and each one of them was appointed a tutor to learn the ropes.

Draziw resigned his position on the intended date, and so a new election was hosted. Shane was elected as Head of Council, whose objectives were to provide stability, build leaders, and finally make the transition from Low to Guild Council, all of which were effectively accomplished. Shane went on to win yet another election for a second term, and he became the longest ever serving Head of the RuneScape Guild Council, only surpassed by Sirapyro's Low Council tenure of 2 years, 1 month and 3 days. During Shane's tenure, newcomers Darkestnight and Xurdones were promoted to the Council, and Derparnieux, Ytse and Lady Klaw were reinstated to it.

On July 14, 2021, Miss Alaska was announced as the new leader of the Council, having surpassed the other two nominees, Questcaping and Xurdones. With her election, and along with Tyco Elf, she became the only member to have served as both Head of Guild and Low Councils. During the course of the first half of Alaska's tenure, a couple members were promoted to the Council for the first time, namely Denniz, ZodiacHide and Uptheirons05, while Quest Kitty and Choto 3000 weere reinstated to said body.

Earth was elected on July 14, 2022, and became the third Head of Guild Council to have previously served as Head of Low Council, as well as the first who also served as Head of Clan Council.

Promotions

History

In the history of both the Low and Guild Councils, the "Promotion" from general member to Councilor has always come with some level of ceremony. Early on newly promoted Low Councilors, then known as "Captains", were announced publicly at Guild gatherings or other events. As time went on the ceremony took a turn, and more often than not a new Councilor was promoted in a private "ceremony" led by a member of the High Council, and with several other members of the Low Council in attendance. The promotee was summoned to a special location, whether it was the Clan Citadel, the Max Guild, or just somewhere that looked nice, without letting them know what was happening. The idea is that they would then be surprised by all of the Councilors in attendance, only to be offered a position themselves. If they accepted the position they were then sworn in with a "Speech", and given all the appropriate tools to join the Council.

Kfoster3s Promotion 001.png
The very bronze promotion of Kfoster3.

After some time of performing promotions this way, the High Council attempted to shake things up and make the promotion even more memorable. The "Bronze Quest" was developed, where the promotee would have to travel from location to location where a Low Councilor would be waiting for them with a certain amount of bronze ingots. They would trade them to the promotee, who was then expected to craft a full set of bronze armor that they were to wear as they were approached by the High Councilor managing the promotion, as well as all the available Low Councilors. They would then proceed with the ceremony and "Speech" as normal. Unfortunately the logistics of this were complicated enough that it was effectively only used once, and the older "Surprise" ceremony was maintained until the Low Council was replaced, and on into the Guild Council. On one special occasion, at RuneFest 2017, two members were promoted to the Low Council in a real life ceremony lead by Draziw and the Head of Low Council Tyco Elf. Those promoted were Questcaping and i Herblaw. Another set of real life promotions occurred the following year as well: Derparnieux and Shiro Shana. The "Bronze Quest" promotion was used once again for UpTheIrons' promotion, on the last days of December 2021.

Requirements

The Low Council had set a few requirements that had to be met before anyone would be considered for a position in the Low Council, and those requirements have largely carried over into the Guild Council. Ultimately there are only three major requirements that the Guild Council looks for in a prospective member:
  1. They are active and helpful not only ingame, but on Discord and on the Offsite as well.
  2. They have been a member of the Questing Cape of RuneScape for more than three months.
  3. They are a current owner of a Quest Cape.

In the past there have been some exceptions made to these requirements, most notable the third, and members were given "Non-voting" roles in the Council, where they were able to see all official Council business and contribute to it, but were not given a formal vote where one was relevant. The most recent exception to be given to these requirement was with Questcaping, who had not achieved her Quest Cape at the time of her promotion, but due to time sensitivity(since she was to be promoted at RuneFest) and the few amount of quests she had left, the Low Council agreed to overlook it.

Trivia

  • There are over 100 known individuals to have held a position in the Guild/Low Council.
    • There were only 18 "active" members of the Low Council when it was replaced.
    • Likewise, only 18 members had ever willingly resigned from the Low Council by that point.
    • Breaking the trend, 19 members were listed as "Emeritus" when the Low Council was replaced.
    • HeyBullFrog is the only member to have ever been banned while still holding a position in the Low Council.
    • 27 members were removed from the Council due to prolonged inactivity.
    • It is unknown exactly how many people have ever held the title due to poor record keeping before October 30th, 2010.
  • Sirapyro was the longest serving Head of Low Council at 2 years, 1 month, and 3 days. The second longest was Bigg Doggg, who served for 1 year and 28 days, followed by Ytse at 10 months and 30 days.
  • 14 members of the Low Council were promoted to the Clan Council(then the "High Council") over the course of eight years.
    • Only 8 of those promoted still hold positions in the Clan Council.
    • Shane was promoted to the Clan Council the night before the 2018 Constitution was ratified, making him the final Low Councilor to ever be promoted.
  • Of the nine former Heads of Low Council, five were promoted out of the office, two resigned the position due to inactivity, and two resigned when they left the Guild entirely.
    • Both former Heads who resigned from the Guild eventually returned to it.
  • 53 individuals have held a position in the Guild Council.
    • As of August 2018, every member of the Guild Council at one point held a position in the Low Council except for Draziw, Sethron 666, and Kappathegray.
    • 14 current Guild Councilors were promoted to the original Low Council: Iskh, Ilikeslayer, Protoman807, Xenon Ray, N ub Cake, Miss Alaska, Cireon, Earth, Shane, Hemsky, Lady Klaw, Ytse, Quest Kitty and Questcaping.
  • Having been promoted on June 19th, 2014, Iskh is the longest consecutive serving member of both the combined Low and Guild Councils, followed by Slayer (August 9th, 2014).
  • Miss Alaska, Derparnieux and Quest Kitty have been reinstated to the Council once, while Choto 3000 has been reinstated twice.
  • The first three heads of the Guild Council, Tyco Elf, Karen Angel and Draziw resigned before their first year in that position.
    • Tyco Elf served for 10 months and 4 days. He had already served as Head of Low Council for 10 months and 2 days.
    • Karen Angel resigned the council and the guild entirely after 3 months and 1 day.
    • Draziw's tenure is the shortest one yet, at 2 months and 4 days.
  • Shane is, to date, the longest ever serving Head of the Guild Council, with exactly 2 years.
  • Only three members have held both the position of Head of Low Council and Head of Guild Council: Tyco Elf, Miss Alaska, and Earth
  • Earth is the only member to have held the position of Head of the Guild Council while being Head of the Clan Council.