Cabal discussion

[Nurahk]

Re: http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=28550.msg328714#msg328714

The spamming and the insulting took attention away from what little undercover actions we did (due to the lack of undercover actions available).  The community, for instance, was completely under the control of the Cabal (I think my net died before I could make much of that guild).

All in all though, it was mostly annoying people and having fun.  Most of the Cabal realized that nothing really interesting could happen for a while.

I was actualy recruited into the Cabal when they were looking into hiring the mercenaries for something.

This was post Seperot, of course.  Post-Auran aswell.  Best forum setup ever, though.  The IIA is heavily based on the better parts of the Cabal.

[Draklar]

The community, for instance, was completely under the control of the Cabal

(Instead of "The community" put "Part of forum community", instead of "completely" put "partially" and instead of "the Cabal" put "Auran". Then it will be actual truth.
Once you get straight the entire history of the war and learn of Auran's (not Cabal's - there was an important distinction between the two) moves, feel free to argue with me over this matter :P

And there was much room for undercover actions. If it wasn't for those, I don't think Seperot would earn as much power as he did in the past. He began his political presence from it actually. After I left Legendary Warriors, Sep used the opportunity to plot against the only remaining leader and took over the guild, then changing to Rangers. Later with Rangers he joined the Citadel of Light alliance, which he then turned into cover for his Underground. Eventually his actions thwarted the cover, but all the same those actions gave him monopoly over the underground. Though at that time we thought Seperot's actions were oriented mainly towards Cabal, so he got away with it without any blame (also thanks to staying silent afterwards) :P At that time he had enough recognition around shady characters to go all direct and form IT.

He didn't actually need to spam and insult to achieve all that.
Cabal's actions were much more random. Actually, if it wasn't for Cabal, Dark Empire would be dead by now. Consider the irony - Dark Empire was Cabal's main enemy.)

[zanzibar]

As much as I've been involved with secret PS societies, I know nothing about the Cabal and what you guys are talking about.  Are there any unexplained events that I should think back on, or perhaps explanations I should second guess?  Or was this all before my time?

[hitancrias]

As much as I've been involved with secret PS societies, I know nothing about the Cabal and what you guys are talking about.  Are there any unexplained events that I should think back on, or perhaps explanations I should second guess?  Or was this all before my time?

It was before your time. I arrived here about a year before you, and most of it was already before my time. I don't think much has changed since then. People have always been intrigued with secret societies, for some reason.

[Nurahk]

The community, for instance, was completely under the control of the Cabal

(Instead of "The community" put "Part of forum community", instead of "completely" put "partially" and instead of "the Cabal" put "Auran". Then it will be actual truth.
Once you get straight the entire history of the war and learn of Auran's (not Cabal's - there was an important distinction between the two) moves, feel free to argue with me over this matter

The Community was a guild.  And instead of "The Cabal" Put "Xordan and Nostra".  Once you get your history straight, feel free to argue with me over this matter
(Simple miscommunication, my fault really, sorry about that.

And there was much room for undercover actions. If it wasn't for those, I don't think Seperot would earn as much power as he did in the past. He began his political presence from it actually. After I left Legendary Warriors, Sep used the opportunity to plot against the only remaining leader and took over the guild, then changing to Rangers. Later with Rangers he joined the Citadel of Light alliance, which he then turned into cover for his Underground. Eventually his actions thwarted the cover, but all the same those actions gave him monopoly over the underground. Though at that time we thought Seperot's actions were oriented mainly towards Cabal, so he got away with it without any blame (also thanks to staying silent afterwards) At that time he had enough recognition around shady characters to go all direct and form IT.

He didn't actually need to spam and insult to achieve all that.

Never said he needed to.  And undercover actions were very limited.  As you can see by the strategy employed, to do too many undercover actions may begin to attract attention.  Instead we did a few but, mainly waited until they could have more affect.

Cabal's actions were much more random. Actually, if it wasn't for Cabal, Dark Empire would be dead by now. Consider the irony - Dark Empire was Cabal's main enemy.)

I agree completely.  If it weren't for the Cabal disbanding, and me joining the Dark Empire, the DE would be dead .

[zanzibar]

Sounds unimportant.

[Nurahk]

Sounds off-topic to be honest.

The Cabal did still destroy guilds from time to time.  If we thought that they were going to attack us (Most were).

I joined The Cabal shortly before people started playing less and preparing for CB more.

And, of course, a lot of us were often absent.  After Auran left it was an uphill battle to remain active.
The Cabal wasn't awesome by any means.  It was unique at the time, though.  And there still isn't an evil guild out there that was less Hack n' Slash and more cunning...at least...past a certain rank.

Now, that's enough of the Cabal.

[Draklar]

Sounds unimportant.

Well then stop listening to Nurahk :P
By the time he made some serious appearance in Cabal, the war was already over (due to Auran's departure and what follows, everyone being bored with Cabal) so nothing important happened afterwards.
But before that, Cabal made a huge impact on the community. At that time the secret societies included Shadowhand, Seperot with his merry bunch and Cabal, which actually wasn't a secret society. For example consider the following: Before Cabal came, espionage was hardly (or non) existant in Planeshift. After it made its appearance, this field of player activity went to its peak. It's fairly safe to assume about half of Cabal members were actually spies from other guilds. Through espionage Shadowhand met its demise. Even today you have to be careful about spies. This part of Planeshift "culture" didn't come out of nowhere. It came from war with Cabal.
You cannot really say it wasn't important. I dare to say Cabal (or more correctly Auran) was a much stronger force than whatever secret societies you came across ingame.

Additionally Cabal induced many power shifts within Yliakum. Those include:
- Case-fire between Dark Empire and Defenders, due to having common enemy.
- Dark Empire growing in power after Aelya took advantage of the case-fire.
- Defenders (although one of the strongest guilds before the war) slowly turning unimportant after I switched sides to the DE (see point two).
- Alliance between myself and Seperot broken.
- Rise of espionage: Destruction of Shadowhand.
- Seperot's rise to power.
- Fall of Mirth (community's disgrace).

All the forces mentioned above had a strong political presence within Yliakum.
Notice how those which I said to grow strong are still around, while those which turned weak are no longer part of Planeshift.

[Xordan]

Most of Cabal's political activity such as the demise of Shadowhand was masterminded by me Auran was just our excellent PR guy. The guy (Spehk) who originally (before shadowmancer) infiltrated Shadowhand is a RL friend of mine who stopped playing when CB was released. That was the most awesome thing although. The 'pretend to be a hawt gal to get privileges' trick works every time. Once we had the members list it was a piece of cake for shadowmancer to infiltrate for us (for the second time xD) and finish off the job. We were much more spread and advanced than nearly anyone who's still around realises. Most important things I only discussed with Auran, simply because we didn't trust anyone else. My political deals had quite a big effect indeed. You're right to say that half our members were actually spies. Some of them we let advance very high to try and use (successfully, even though they gained a lot from it anyway so fair deal. Isn't that right Frostmorn? ).

There's two other incidents that come to mind that were great... managing to get a spy as the leader as mirth (Not something I can take much credit for I'm afraid, it wasn't planned too much, rather sprung upon us suddenly to great delight. Davis did a great job anyway).. and that guy Evanchild being branded a traitor and Cabali spy and getting flamed and bashed so much that he left the community. The latter because he was actually totally innocent and wasn't a spy for us at all. Hilarious

I think that there were three big changes that meant the end of Cabal, in order of greatest effect... 1) CB came, which meant lots of new small guilds, lots of chaos, etc. We thrived on ordered communities, the beginning of CB was a huge change from MB. I had a person in every big guild before CB... then everything became too hard to cope with. 2) Auran getting a new job and having no time. We basically lost our PR guy who made great speeches. Although I had him on msn for a while, it wasn't enough to keep the external spirit going. 3) Me becoming a dev. Made things too difficult to continue properly, even though we were at an all time low anyway.

[seperot]

Oh please a Spy that can be manipulated is one that doesn't tell auran "By the way I'm seperot, I'm hanging out, don't tell xordan directly he's lame and no one likes him"

Also is shadowhand the guild with errion in it?

if so...

oh wait...


Yes it was your fault. Not mine at all for being absentminded, all yours.

yep


all you


tra la la


Also to put my bit in...

the main players back in the day.

Cabal

Me

Draklar

and i say this for a few reasons...


Cabal is still being talked about a few years after it died... clearly a problem

As for draklar and me... we always seemed to be wrapped in controversy. From Me and Draklar flaming each other on the forums, to flaming the cabal on the forums, to silly relationship drama to god knows what else.

Plus i Belive that back then a guild was not yet a guild until i flamed it >.>


If i seem fragmented its because i still enjoy holding some cards of history close to me... helps people hate me less xD

[Draklar]

Though can you really say you "masterminded" it, when destruction of Shadowhand damaged Cabal? I mean losing support from such people as Moogie and so on ;)

And who was then Davis/Shadowmancer finally working for? I though he was sort of a double agent :P

[Xordan]

Though can you really say you "masterminded" it, when destruction of Shadowhand damaged Cabal? I mean losing support from such people as Moogie and so on

And who was then Davis/Shadowmancer finally working for? I though he was sort of a double agent

It didn't really damage us. After all, we didn't really care too much if everyone hated us As for who he was working for... the same that everyone was working for, themselves. Ones own entertainment was the most important thing.

Seperot: Auran told me who you were when you joined, and thought you might be useful to us useful doesn't have to mean manipulated.

[seperot]

Much to my displeasure i know... im just saying its not a great footing to get someone to do something

Still I did like the way you played with annah

[Draklar]

It didn't really damage us. After all, we didn't really care too much if everyone hated us :)

But Moogie was your member :P
Plus it's always risky to have the main moderator turn against you when you are a controversial guild ;)
What did you plan to gain by destroying Shadowhand then? Surely not recognition of power, since all the "credit" went to Mirth.

I cannot say the cards you played didn't work well for me. Considering ingame I was considered the main enemy of Cabal;
The more people hated it, the more popularity I gained. It went into irony when despite being second in command of the Dark Empire, people have seen me as the defender anyway. Everyone's attention was completely turned away from the fact DE was striving to conquer the land :P

Today when you look back to the war, it seems interesting and actually constitutes good story material.
But back then you had to put up with some Cabali going into insult spree ingame, while some regulars were simply turning inactive, annoyed by what's going on. Plus the annoyance caused by the fact you had to be careful about who you recruit. Considering at that time I was the only one who dealt with Dark Empire recruitment, it was very tiring. I remember I never fully trusted Xanaroth guy.
This change seems amusing.

[Xordan]

It didn't really damage us. After all, we didn't really care too much if everyone hated us

But Moogie was your member
Plus it's always risky to have the main moderator turn against you when you are a controversial guild
What did you plan to gain by destroying Shadowhand then? Surely not recognition of power, since all the "credit" went to Mirth.

Gain? Fun, plus if it made Mirth look a bit bad in the process then that's even more amusing. All members were disposable, including Moogie So it didn't bother me. As long we had a good time, not much bothered.