Dear Shadow Council

Posted by thideras | Filed under General Information

As some of you may have noticed, I retired from Exodus and the Shadow Council server in general.  There was nothing in real life that made me do this, it was purely one person.  You know him as Cathulu, self proclaimed “leader of Exodus”.  I’ll attempt to explain my reasons for leaving in a civil manner and hopefully keep it well organized.

When we joined

Sckep, Prithivi and myself all came from the server Dalaran.  We did come as a “package” deal as we knew each other outside of the game and were rejected from guilds for that very reason.  Guilds don’t like “package deals” and I understand why.  I believe a lot of the drama did start with this.  I can only speak for myself, but I’m a trusting person unless given reason to not be, this also bit me later.

Before Icecrown

During Ulduar and Trial of the Grand Crusader, we made some amazing kills and eventually moved to the top of the server, everyone was proud of the guild and had good reason to do so.  We went from server 4th or 5th on the server to 1st very quickly and I’m proud of the progress that we made.

Progression during Icecrown

I’ve noticed that our progression has become stagnant.  I don’t mean in the sense that we weren’t progressing, because we were doing fairly well.  The problem is Exodus has become a literal “Zerg” guild.  Why properly theorycraft a fight when you can just do as many attempts as you want in a night?  People get tired of failing an entire night without knowing what is really going on.

What Cathulu says, goes

Exodus had always been a Council run guild, but Cathulu strong-armed the guild into a monarchy.  Instead of giving his officers the power they needed to run the guild, he attempted to completely run it himself.  I’ve talked to past officers and I’ve even seen it myself as the healing lead; we had no say on who gets in.  If he wanted “x” sat, they were sat; absolutely no arguing even if you had the logs and logic to prove they were doing substantially better than “y”.  So, now we are sitting people based on what one person wants and have to somehow explain this to the raid members.  How do you even do that?  Tell them, “I’m sorry, but even though I’m healing officer, I have no say on what healers actually stay in.  I’m being forced to sit you because the GM says.”?  I’m not sure about other officers, but I was 100% honest with the healers, so I actually did let them know.

Being honest with players, how not to do it

Shortly after Archtype X broke up and joined Exodus, we found a few players that were sitting a majority of the time.  The one that I noticed was Prithivi.  She was frequently promised to be brought in for fights, but those promises were quickly broken.  After a few weeks of this, she finally stepped down from raiding.  During this time, Cathulu was attempting to “soften the blow” for me by attempting to change what I think about Sckep/Prithivi.  According to when I started, “All drama related issues are to go to Cathulu”.  Why?  He isn’t the guild therapist and certainly doesn’t have a degree for it.  He wants to learn about the bonds between people and then manipulate them.  He attempted to do that with me and partially succeeded, but we caught it before it got serious and talked things through.  An old officer stepped up and told us what Cathulu was trying to do.  He didn’t like Prithivi and wanted her to stop raiding, but didn’t want to lose Sckep or myself.  Why he couldn’t just come out and tell us this?  I would have probably been upset that he wanted to do it, but at least I wouldn’t be as furious as I was after learning what he tried to do.  What makes even more interesting is that he did this with multiple people.   He attempted to make them look bad so they would step down, sit them all the time and then lie to their face about what was going on.  There are MANY good raiders that were lied to, saying they were better than their replacement and that they would eventually get in.  All he did was tell people what they wanted to hear, they weren’t being replaced.

Incomplete list of players that were put through this
Prithivi
Kanaus
Yssis
Elyndria
Opollo
Putrid
Jhone
Theeslan
Jaieden
Jaconso
Theylon
Velinaras

Even this short list speaks volumes.  All were told they were good and were never told that they had been replaced.  This list does not include officers, but there has been 6 officers that have left during the time that I’ve been here.  I’ve talked to a few of them, but it isn’t my place to openly discuss why they left.  I also only included previous members that I knew went through this, so I’m sure this a long list before this and eventually a long list after.

Cliches

Anyone that is in the guild, or was in the guild, please check your chat history logs.  You will see that he attempts to gain your trust through (what seems like) pre-calculated phrases.  “Your a good friend, who, strangely, i’d do anything for”.  I mentioned this to a friend after looking over my logs with him for the past 6 months and he found the exact same quote.  Repeat this for other phrases, ad nauseam.  After this discovery, I find this much more disturbing than I originally thought.  Why would someone think out phrases to gain trust and use them on multiple people?  I just don’t get it.  Please, keep an eye out of these; don’t fall into the same trap that I did.  Cathulu also keeps using the “I’ll just give you GM” phrase a lot when confronted with raid members leaving.  It is purely a defense mechanism used to defer raiders from leaving.  I believe that I’ve heard it around 6 times so far in the past few weeks; he will never follow through.  He will also use promotions in the guild to convince members to stay.

Dear current and future raid members

Don’t let Cathulu lie to you about us.  We were good players that caught on to the games he played.  He claims that only reason we left is that we were “bad”, which is quite the opposite.  I know, for a fact, that he is bribing people to stay in the guild by promoting them.  I also know that certain people in the guild (you and I know who you are) that are attempting to drag our names through the dirt.  Feel free to say whatever you want, the people who knew me won’t believe a word you have to say.  The final thing I learned is that when leaving a guild, you learn who your real friends are.  I was duped into believing that most of the guild liked me, when exactly the reverse was true.  I’m sorry for trying to be funny and a good raider.  Both those traits come naturally to me and it is extremely difficult to try and be “bad” and “unfunny”.

Dear Cathulu

I know that you “never wanted to talk to me again” and you sure do a lot of talking to me after saying that, but I would like to dedicate a full section to you.  How mushy!  I know that I originally said that I was “branching out” when questioned as to why we left, but I believe you deserve to be told what I really think.  You are responsible for the downfall of this guild.  You are the one that switched it from a council to a monarchy.  You are responsible for good players leaving the guild.  The only thing I will apologize for is seeing through your guise and letting others know.  I’m fine with Exodus continuing on in the future, but you shouldn’t be leading it; you don’t deserve as good a guild as this.  I honestly can’t believe there are people out there willingly taking advantage of someone that is trusting. You are the literal definition of scum.

The “After Exodus” story

I won’t discuss who is involved with the new guild, but we are starting one.  The keen-eyed may have noticed that the page title at the top of the website has changed.  We will run Unchained like Exodus should have been run, a council of good, honest raiders.  No one “owns” or “runs” the guild by themselves.

All this discussion of the guild is making me sappy!  Ha, tree joke.  I can hear the “/facepalm” emotes from way over here on Borean Tundra.  Anyways, if you made it this far, thank you for hearing another side of the story and I hope it clears things up.  As always, I loved Shadow Council and a lot of the players there, but it is time for me to leave.

Any of my friends are welcome to talk to me.

After speaking with a lot of our former members, I’ve noticed that a lot are reporting that Cathulu told them “they were the best x in the guild”.  If this happened to you, sign up on the site and leave a comment!

Permalink | March 13th, 2010

9 Responses to “Dear Shadow Council”

  1. Simonna Says:
    March 13th, 2010 at 3:52 pm

    I’m sorry to hear things took a tumble with Exodus. I know you have been a dedicated member and, of course, you are a clever, knowledgeable and helpful young man.

    I believe that a raiding guild is most like an oligarchy. My more handsome half would rather say a benevolent dictatorship, although he would disagree in likening it to a political system at all. Limited authority gives raiding guilds focus and, in most cases that I have seen, promotes longevity.

    Regardless, you will be fine wherever you go – and I doubt that anyone would question your skill as a player. I would wish you luck but you don’t need it. Now clean your room and eat your greens.

  2. thideras Says:
    March 13th, 2010 at 4:51 pm

    What is extremely sad is he is trying to drag my name through the dirt. /shrug

    Thank you for responding though, it really does mean a lot <3

  3. Simonna Says:
    March 13th, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    A little dirt helps a tree grow tall, strong and with a nice handlebar mustache.

    Also I forgot a word after ‘Limited authority’ above, should be ‘figures’, or maybe ‘tall shadowy types with an Irish brogue’ or ‘pumpkins on green baize card tables’. Or maybe I meant authoritarians, if that is even a word. Man, this tiara is too tight for my head.

  4. Jaieden Says:
    March 14th, 2010 at 4:59 pm

    All I can say is that I said many of the same things when I left. How I was constantly told that “Thideras” kept me from getting loot or how “Thideras” was leaving due to drama he was causing and Audio was there to replace him not me.

    Whenever I expressed confusion, concern, or plain out belief that I was being lied to, more manipulations occurred. I never tried to bad mouth Exodus or Cathulu, but I’ve always said that he says whatever someone wants to hear and often lies. I can’t begin to tell you all the things I was told which was intended to show that you solely had a problem with me and were a cause for problems.

    Honestly it’s behind me and I’m not upset about it but I’m sorry this happened to you and your friends. It definitely happened to me and my friends.

  5. thideras Says:
    March 14th, 2010 at 6:06 pm

    Wow, I seriously didn’t think it had happened to you. We were told that you wanted to go back to “Archtype X” (basically). :-/

    Thank you for understanding and I do apologize for anything that happened in the guild.

  6. Ghostscript Says:
    March 15th, 2010 at 12:40 pm

    Thideras, I don’t think you know me, but I was in Exodus for about 2 years during the BC expansion and briefly during Wrath (as a tank). I think you joined Exodus right about the time I left

    I created an account just so I could reply to this post. A few things (Im sure you’ve probably heard this from other ex-Exodus guildies, but I just HAVE to comment):

    1. Cathulu has been a pathological liar since he joined the guild during BT/Sunwell progression. At the time Kalamity and Shawen (The former GM’s) didnt pay much attention to it. When they quit, I’m sure Cathulu sweet talked them into giving the leadership to him. The whole “handover” of the guild was a bit shady.

    2. The list of people he’s screwed is too long to post (though you are aware of this by now). Its hard for me to believe he fooled so many people for so long. His manipulative powers amaze me. Never have I known someone with his ability. Very scary.

    Anyhow… I’m really just rambling and restating things you’ve probably heard from other ex-members. I HAD to post though. Was killing me not to. Just wanted to say, even though I never had a chance to play with you, everything I’ve heard about you has been good.

    Good luck with your new guild. I hope y’all get back in ICC soon.

    TL;DR

    Cathulu is an manipulative ass, he doesn’t deserve to raid with such good honestly players. And good luck with your future ventures.

  7. lifedrainage Says:
    March 18th, 2010 at 12:05 pm

    Hey thid,

    long time no chat, For those who don’t know me just know i raided with thideras on the server dalaran for a good year or so and i have never met someone i respect more in game then thideras. Thid im srry to read what happened with Exodous. I know for fact u loved it there for a long while and i figured if anything went down the crapper ud be the one the figure it out and inform others of it. After reading all of this i was right and i’m sad to hear it. You guys are transfering to my realm just horde not alliance. I will straight up that the server society as a whole is really good alot of nice folks. Just the only issue is its a new server so alot of new people are on it. I don’t know much about the horde on the server considering i play alliance but i wish u best of luck. Im on the alliance with the name dotzors 80 warlock. Hit me up somtime we will chat.

  8. CD Says:
    March 18th, 2010 at 2:32 pm

    I am very sorry this has happened to you Thid and to be honest I can relate just a little bit on the manipulative ways of Cathulu. In one instance he seems to be really cool and sometimes a little bit “too” helpful and friendly. He says things like “I would do anything to help out a friend” even though he doesn’t know anything about said person and me being the one that knows the certain person personally I can sure as hell say that he don’t need any help from Cathulu and the person is most definantly not a friend of Cathulu’s. And just one other thing I wanted to point out is the people that you listed in your post for instance Jaconso and Jaiden; I’ve heard and it’s not from personal experience, but from people I trust and respect not including Cathulu, is that they were not the most exceptional players and were to be replaced for a while now. Not bashing anyone who reads this and it is not everyone you listed but most of them were not “good” players or never “tried” playing the game to progress or just didn’t feel like they needed to be in the guild and wanted to leave. Nevertheless no one deserves to be sitting out of raid all the time or to be told lies that they will get into raid becuase ultimately when they find a replacement they will be booted. Simply if the person is not performing just tell them and boot them or make them into friend status or something like that. Don’t just keep lying to their face. Either way I hope everything works out for Thid and GL in your future endeavors.

  9. gliphid Says:
    March 21st, 2010 at 7:30 pm

    aw dude that sucks im sorry to hear about that i hope you have fun on your new server and….i would have more but after reading all that im speechless

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.