Ceciliantas is the name of a character in Everquest 2, which is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). After this character took it upon himself to seduce and subsequently engage in cybersex with a female character in the game, a third character entered the room while hidden, and took a number of screenshots of the scandalous incident. Edited versions of the humourous images, which included both Ceciliantas and the female character engaged in cybersex, as well as the ridiculous lines he used to act out said sexual performance, were then posted on the EQ2Permafrost.com internet forum. Ceciliantas replied with a number of threats of both in-game retaliation and real-life legal action. A number of people found both the images and the ensuing thread amusing, and posted links to it on a number of other internet forums, mostly those affiliated with other online games. From there, the thread spread rapidly to larger sites such as Something Awful, Fazed.org and Fark.com. This is an example of an ongoing internet phenomenon.

Significance

A very interesting case study on the power of word of mouth in online forums, where the story spread like wildfire within hours from a relatively obscure gaming forum to international attention.

The anonymity of the Internet also affects the mob mentality of groups of people, where in this case people banded together in the common hate of single person, going after him with great glee and exaggerating the effects of their abuse to make themselves stand out in a faceless crowd. This is also a good example of the responses known online as flaming, where people continuously heap denigrations upon on someone, simply because they can do so without retribution.

The abuse Ceciliantas received, or how others simply pointed out the obvious errs of his ways, depending on how you want to look at it, is an excellent example of what it means in the online gaming community to get pwned, or "owned". This was a common term used by many posters to the message board which chronicled the event as it unfolded, and could be one of the most significant uses of this term to date.

Background

While the identity of Ceciliantas is unknown, his profile stated that he was a 34 year old welder from Virginia, USA. He had been playing as a Paladin character exclusively on various MMORPGs for 5 years. While he states that he has been the subject of harrassment throughout this period, others have asserted it to have been a result of his own behaviour.

During his time spent on online games, Ceciliantas developed a habit of flirting with characters of the opposite sex in-game. While playing Final Fantasy XI, another MMORPG, he formed a close relationship with a female character who was later found to be a 14 year old boy. By December 2004, Ceciliantas had joined Everquest 2 and found an in-game girlfriend named "Evenstar".

Images

Ceciliantas' main claim to Internet fame began with a thread posted on a small forum devoted to the Permafrost server on Everquest 2. This initial posting, created on December 17th 2004, consisted of a single image posted by a forum member calling himself "bobmarle". This image consisted of in-game screenshots of Cecilantias, an unidentified blurred-out female character and the silhouette of a third character, also unidentified. Later images would also include a blue and aqua dragon, most likely Ceciliantas' pet.

Some have questioned why the female character was blurred, claiming this to be evidence that the images were doctored. However, as a poster to the message thread pointed out, the time and date stamps added to the images by Adobe Photoshop were only a few minutes apart, showing that the editing made to the images was minimal, and most likely only consisted of the blurring of the female character. The female character was most likely blurred by the poster to keep her identity a mystery, so that the discussion would center around Ceciliantas' behavior, and not who the person was, which was not as important.

The screenshots were taken from the point of view of the third character, who had entered Ceciliantas' apartment as a result of failure to disable visitor access, allowing anybody to enter the room. He remained undetected using stealth abilities common within RPGs. This allowed him to gather screenshots of the two engaged in cybersex while standing on a pair of adjacent single beds. Ceciliantas decided to bring an abrupt end to the cybersex session when he let his companion know that his (real life) job would begin in only 4 hours, and he still had to run an (in-game) errand, before going to bed.

Ceciliantas responded that the images were doctored, a position he would maintain for the entire thread. However, the fact that doctoring such images would require the cafeful arrangement of many lines of text and other onscreen objects, as well as the later release of additional images, made his claim hard to believe. Ceciliantas also demanded that the thread be taken down or locked, and that the poster reveal his identity and accept responsibility, so that he would, as Ceciliantas put it, "face my justice". He initially warned of repercussion, claiming that he would be able to get admins and moderators to take action, both on the Permafrost messageboard, and in the game itself. These warnings soon would escalate to threats of legal action, when Ceciliantas warned an admin that he had talked to his lawyer, and had been informed that he would be able to "press charges", as the situation continued. One poster to the message thread, who appears to have some legal background or legal knowledge relating to this type of situation, carefully described how various legal actions would not be applicable or would fail in court, making Ceciliantas' legal threats, and claims of contacting a lawyer, rather dubious.

Results==
By the thread's sixth page, Evenstar publically dumped and denounced Ceciliantas, and even said that their relationship was only temporary ("and no I am not his perm online gf either"), for engaging in cybersex with this unknown female character. This quickly made the situation significantly more interesting, since at the same time that Evenstar posted, Ceciliantas continued to vehemental deny he had done anything wrong, and proclaimed his fidelity and devotion to his online girlfriend, which was increasingly appearing to be quite to the contrary. Then, the event's climax came on page 15 of the message thread, when it was revealed by "bobmarle", who got the whole thing rolling, that the cybersex incident was actually a setup. Unedited versions of the screenshots were then posted, revealing the identity of the female character, who turned out to be not female at all, but a male member belonging to bobmarle's guild, who all wished to get back at Ceciliantas' years of supposed misbehavior in the online world. Since Ceciliantas had been known to constantly flirt with female characters in online games, this would prove to be their most effective form of revenge.

Soon after, replies to the thread flooded in from a wide variety of sites. As this event is online gaming-related, traffic initially came from other online gaming websites, however it quickly spread to many different sections of the Internet, from Something Awful, to forums dedicated to bodybuilding, the Ford Focus, and even Hello Kitty. By the time the page appeared on the front page of the infamous Fark.com, seen daily by thousands, the server hosting the message thread was struggling under the load of the onslaught of visitors, and crashed several times.

==External Links

Ceciliantas - watch out ladies, here he comes! - The original thread on EQ2Permafrost.com.

The Epic Adventures of - Ceciliantas: Hide your Slits! - A summary of events with a list of the images posted and some choice excerpts from the thread.

Halflings and Ogres and Elves, Oh My!: Sex, Love and Relationships in EverQuest - A study on relationships in EverQuest-type games from the National Sexuality Resoure Center

Serket ring BS rumor - Thread created by Ceciliantas while he played Final Fantasy XI to defend against what he termed the "We Hate Cecil Club"