I hate to break such news in such a public way, but it is with a heavy heart that I announce that Lethys, also known as Secrettom, has been deemed no longer worthy to be a Trial GM. It is with great sadness that I see him leave the rank. I expect everyone to offer their condolences in this tragic time.

...

Oh, why is he not a Trial GM anymore? 'cause he's now a Content GM.

When Kretol released CotH to the public and set our sights as being a haven for WoW RP, we had several goals in mind at the time. However, when it comes down to it, I think our goals can be described in three parts:

1. To create a haven for RPers who can get away from the Live-level of hostility and immersion-breaking.
2. To create a world as faithful as possible to WoW's lore.
3. To take that a step further, and allow players and GMs to take that lore to the next level and do things they could not do on Live.

I know that in our past of trying to fulfill these goals, we've not always hit the mark. I'm saying this as a personal message, as I've had little to do with the ideas for the following changes you'll see below, beyond I'm now implementing them, but they're ideas I agree with. I say this because I've seen the problems myself even in my inactivity. I know we've been called too harsh. I know the server is filled with elitism, not just for the server as a whole to those outside, but tiers of elitism *within* the server as well. Keep this in mind as you read below.

The GMs have been talking for a while, so a number of changes are coming in. Alongside the Tides of Change which Mikain has been working on for the RP-side of the server, we'll also be working on how things work here behind the scenes on the forums. The first will be changes to our Hero and Grunt systems.

First, Heroes. The Hero group is no longer going to exist, at all. Unfortunately, the Hero system didn't work to our expectations. It led to more elitism and resentment within the server, and that's pretty much the last thing we needed. At the same time, there really wasn't much point to the rank beyond the cyan name, so we'll be eliminating the group completely.

Now for Grunts. The vouch system is going to get annihilated completely as well. Vouching as a system worked at first, but ended up not working out as we had hoped. Grunts, however, will still exist...at the moment, we are going to continue working out the details of the new Grunt system, but the idea for now is that most likely it will be time-locked. When you've been on the server long enough, probably around two months, you'll be able to fill out a little questionnaire and become a Grunt that way.

I'll be announcing more changes, as well as the finalized ideas for how obtaining the Grunt title will be determined, as more information comes in.

The server will be coming down within an hour or so to upgrade to and test patch 3.2 functionality.

For those with a 3.2 installation, please feel free to log in when I call for it. All others, with only a 3.1.3 installation, DO NOT PATCH UP YET.

EDIT: It's a bit late, and I've decided that, with having almost no time before I head out of town on Wednesday, I will wait until I get back home the following week before upgrading the server and testing it out. That should also give a bit more time for bugs to be hashed out and whatnot.

The server will be going offline in -about- an hour (around 2pm PST) so I can perform a hardware upgrade, in addition to an OS reinstall.

I'm not certain how long it will take, but I will estimate a couple hours (and I hope I'll be done by the time I have to head into work. )


Edit: As a reminder, this was warned ahead of time in this news post. Please make any comments there.

Please welcome timmyd123 as our newest Trial GM. I trust he shall make me proud!

To those who may be the pessimistic type, my decision has come after a few weeks of consideration, and not made on a whim due to any recent events. Rest assured!