#aedwen

Hello, this is the leadership of Gold and Glory. We wanted to take a moment to provide a public statement regarding a former member of ours, Ryanti. As of last night, a very informative post https://dice-domino.tumblr.com/post/185025005485/ffxiv-known-abuser-ryanti-veanysus was made, detailing confessions from women that Ryanti has emotionally manipulated, and proof of an anti-LGBT stance from him. Our first action, is to say that we want to thank these women for coming forward, and greenlighting their stories to be shared. Within hours of the post, Ryanti was removed from our FC group, all of our Linkshells, and associated Discords.

We did not make a statement at the time, as we needed a moment to think over what had happened, look over the stories, and reflect on our actions. We understand, there has been harsh criticism of our leadership for this incident, and the past incident involving Kale. We are not here to absolve ourselves of fault, or to claim perfection.

IN JANUARY, THE LEADER OF NOX CAME TO US WITH CONCERNS IN REGARD TO RYANTI. They provided us with a log between them and Ryanti, where they believe it showed Ryanti attempting to manipulate the relationship between our two FCs. They told us of rants Ryanti would have regarding G&G but unfortunately, did not have any logged copies for us to review them. We thanked them for their information, and informed them that the mods would be informed, and Ryanti watched for signs of him doing it again.

As the leadership of G&G, since no one had been sexually harassed, or assaulted, we chose to adopt a waiting stance. Further on, it was brought to our attention that a number of female members, had an issue regarding Ryanti. Once we were made aware of this situation, our moderator group at the time, had heavily debated what to do. Eventually, it was determined, that we would look into the claims made against him, and one of our moderators at the time, Bragi, had interviewed the women in question, and others who had began to warn us of him. Unfortunately, at the end of the investigation, we had not been provided solid logs against him, but individuals expressing that they have seen patterns

Furthermore, Ryanti's largest vocal critic Nox, had been repeatedly told to us by Ryanti, and others including her own past FC leader, the current NOX FC leader, that she had a history of lying which included, making claims against Ryanti that Lio, the FC leader, claimed were false. With this, and our own issues from having interacted with her, it was decided that we did not have enough information or damning evidence, to kick Ryanti from the FC. Instead, we decided that he would hold no officer position, and would remain under watch.

This decision was made in the September time frame. Two months roughly after we had been warned about Nox by Lio. No further information, or proof of wrongdoing had been presented to us, so we could not act. Following this, in January the incident regarding Kale occured, and during which Lio then contacted us with warnings about Ryanti trying to spread animosity between G&G and NOX. These logs were previously shown in the above portion.

We did not believe that we had enough evidence, to cause for us to remove him on the grounds of him in our eyes 'venting' to NOX leadership about us.

Further on, we noticed a post from Lio, stating that he had discovered something about someone he knew, but did not have permission to share it. This was a public tumblr post, and once brought to our attention, our leadership again reached out to let them know, that if anything was wrong to please let them know that they could come to our leadership.

Due to the vague nature of the post we could not guarantee it was Ryanti who was the subject of it. However, as of yesterday, 5/20/2019 it has been made clear that Ryanti was indeed the individual in question, as Lio went public with all of his information. https://dice-domino.tumblr.com/post/185025005485/ffxiv-known-abuser-ryanti-veanysus

What we saw on there, disgusted us. Shortly after it was posted, Ryanti was removed from our FC, Linkshells, and Discord. His emotional manipulation was made clear to us, and his Anti-trans stance was something we in no way support, or condone.

As FC leadership, we had tried to make calls based on the information we were given. Unfortunately, in this situation, we had made the wrong calls.

@Nox We are beyond sorry, that the character assassination presented to us, caused us to dismiss you. We were in the wrong, and while we know it may not mean much, we are deeply sorry for what it has done to our relationships.

To the other women that Ryanti had harassed, we are sorry as well. As Leadership, the choice we made had failed to keep a predator from our organization, and we had ended up being manipulated by his own words.

To our members, we are sorry that someone so toxic has been among you.

Gold and Glory, as a organization, believes in creating a safe place for our members. We have failed you in the past, but are committed to improving ourselves for the future. We have taken steps, to remove members posting anti-lgbt or disparaging comments. We have attempted to make the best calls we could, with evidence provided while attempting to be fair to all parties involved.

We will continue, to work on improving ourselves as an organization, and we will hold no tolerance for hateful views, or manipulation within our freecompany.

We have however, come to a conclusion. It is clear that between this situation, and the previous Kale incident, members of G&G leadership will be stepping down from their current positions. We ask you to please work with those that take their place, to help improve our community as a whole.

How do you Love? - Aedwen Morning

Carefully, like a gentle rain on dry Earth

You've been left beaten down and by someone you really trusted and loved, so now love doesn't come easy for you. You want it to. You want to love and be loved, but you're not sure you remember how. So you need someone else to take the lead. They have to be gentle and sweet and patient. They have to watch out for you, and make sure you’re doing okay, because most days you feel a little fragile, if not totally shattered. But someone will come along who will put those pieces back together again.

tagged by @seascrapes tagging you!