The official Santae Kickstarter is underway now, and we are absolutely thrilled at the outpouring of support from our community. Not only was our goal fully funded in 28 Minutes, we’ve also already achieved four of our exciting stretch goals!
We’ve now unlocked 2 new Pet Colors, 5x HTML5 Games, a new Pet Species and Pet Auras and Backgrounds — and our next stretch goal, another brand new pet species, is right around the corner!
Between all the exciting backer tiers and a rich selection of available add-ons, there’s something for every Adventurer to enjoy. We’ve even recently expanded the Kickstarter add-ons to allow you to select the color of your choice when adding Phasmic, Seamso, or Kyree figurines!
We've also added 3 new stretch goals to bring 4 new pet species to Santae! These have been added in-between our previous Stretch Goals <3
Equip yourself for adventure in the world of Santae by making your pledge to the official Kickstarter today!
In the DMs between Ellis and CJ, CJ mentions Ellis doxed him. I haven't seen anyone talk about this so this is me bringing attention to it. Got these from the anon submission on the salt blog.
One of these screenshots shows Ellis saying, "I have a list of Santae users that are way too easy to find on Facebook."
No wonder why CJ chose to nuke her Santae account.
Edit: If you want to know if you were on the list, please DM me so I can tell you without risking your safety.
I should not have had the names listed publicly as that could have put those on the list in further danger. I am sorry I did that.
Even if you are not on the list, I have been told there are users Ellis was able to find that are not listed in the screenshot due to those people being found after August 26th 2025. Please make sure you are not findable on Facebook or any other personal accounts you do not want others to discover.
Santae banned me without telling me why and won't unban me unless I send them my photo ID
Hey guys sorry for not posting in… forever? I just suck at social media lol. But you may have seen that I've reblogged some posts that advertise Santae in the past, but please disregard all that. I've since deleted those posts after learning how the site is managed and, after what happened to me a few days ago, I feel as though I should go public about this. Because boy did I just get fucked over.
Anyway, yeah, what it says in the title. On October 24th, around 10am EST, I was restocking my user shop when the entire webpage went white. I couldn't access the site at all and, when I tried to look for the Discord on my server list, it wasn't there. I knew what this had meant. I got banned from both the game, and the Discord - this is important to keep in mind for later.
I didn't receive any Discord DM or email notification about my ban, so after asking a mod what their support email was (and yes, I later verified that this is indeed their legitimate support email), I sent them this:
After a few hours, I get this back in response:
There's so much I'm confused about here. I think the one that screams out the most is that they're asking me to show them my photo ID so I can get unbanned. Absolutely not. I refuse to do this. This poses a massive security and privacy risk. They straight up banned my account, gave this half-baked explanation, and told me I need to send my personal information or... I stay banned?
Let me make something clear: The only personal thing they have on file about this account is the email address that I created my account with, which I've also used to contact them. My real name, date of birth, anything of that nature would not be connected because this was not asked for during account creation, therefore this wouldn't actually prove I'm the account holder. Theoretically speaking, I could show them any ID in the world and for all they know, that's my real information, because they have nothing else to go off of. They even say as much in their privacy page.
Secondly, "account has been compromised"? What does that mean? I think anyone's interpretation of this would be that my account got hacked. But if my account got hacked, why wasn't I informed of this? I had to reach out to support, they did not reach out to me first. That means my password, which I may share across other sites, would have been known to someone else and thus I should've been warned of this immediately, not roughly 5 hours after the fact.
Thirdly, what, was my Discord "compromised" too? If an automated system had flagged my account, does that system somehow interact with a Discord bot so they ban a user on both at the same time? How does that work? That makes no sense as to why they'd ban me on both the game and the Discord for something like this, which is why I'm calling bullshit.
Let me tell you what I think happened.
Recently, Santae has been in some really hot water with connections revealing their relation to an older petsite, Lurapets, which has a history of scamming and artist mistreatment, as well as proof coming out of them using AI art for their NPC art. You can find these posts on the @santae-salt blog if you want to see for yourself, but I'm also linking them throughout this post.
Once the post about them being directly related to Lurapets was released, several users that the Santae staff thought might be involved in the creation of the post got banned. As it turns out, I was banned at the same time as these users.
After speaking with the @santae-salt admin, we are both of the belief that I, a regular user, got caught up in this mess because they're assuming I'm an alt account of someone else and staff demanded to see my ID because they didn't think I was a different person. It may turn out to be wrong, and yeah that sounds a bit far-fetched, sure, but really, what else can I go off of here?? Santae staff has given me a very questionable and refutable explanation as to why I've been banned, and their radio silence after I refused to send them my ID is just making me believe they don't think I'm real. They don't want my photo ID to verify I'm the account holder, they want my photo ID to verify I'm not someone else.
This is unprecedented. I've never seen any petsite ask for a photo ID in any situation, and after asking around, not even those banned from Santae were asked for this. It's just me! This is an incredible attempted breach of privacy, and, with Santae now under doxxing allegations, I really don't feel confident they'd keep my personal information… well, personal.
I messaged back almost immediately after they responded to me where I told them I would not send my ID and I had asked if there were any other way I could verify myself to get my account unbanned. I've received no response so far, and after what I've learned, I feel like I'm not going to get one at all.
So, let this be a lesson to you: don't waste your time on Santae. You can be the most obedient player out there. You can abide by all their rules, be a nice and generous player, or just be minding your own business, but if they so much as think you're associated with someone who they think has wronged them, you'll be banned.
And they can't even be bothered to properly tell you why.
CJ Is Racist
For some time, I have refrained from sharing this out of respect for my friend, who had initially believed that CJ understood the harm he caused in this situation and was willing to take accountability. However, this preceded a series of actions that made it clear his acknowledgment was not sincere, but rather an early indication of a pattern of harmful behavior that would continue to unfold.
I saved these screenshots at the time because I believed the situation was significant and that, eventually, the truth would need to be shared. While CJ has since been involved in a number of concerning behaviors, I believe it is important to highlight that his conduct has also included racism—something that reinforces existing claims of transphobia and prejudiced views toward minority communities.
This incident began when my friend—whom I will refer to as “X”—engaged in a thoughtful conversation in the Alpha General chat with admin Jitterbug. They were discussing cultural erasure in the context of a community debate about renaming an item (now known as the Ancient Elderwood Chest) to better respect Indigenous cultures. X is half Indigenous, and Jitterbug mentioned having Indigenous roots as well. Their discussion focused on the harm of cultural erasure and shared personal perspectives. X mentioned that white guilt often plays a role in how these topics are handled and expressed frustration about how Indigenous cultural expression is frequently censored online, even by those who are part of the culture.
Not long into the conversation, CJ privately messaged X and asked them not to discuss such sensitive topics on the Santae platform. While this request alone might have been understandable—given the nature of the platform and the desire to avoid serious discourse in casual or entertainment-focused spaces—CJ went further. He expressed offense at the topic and proceeded to argue that all races have experienced oppression, stated that he doesn’t “see color,” and claimed Indigenous heritage himself. This exchange left X feeling deeply uncomfortable, and they chose to leave the Santae community.
X later shared this experience with our friend group, of which I am a part. Many of us were shocked and disturbed by CJ’s comments and decided we no longer felt comfortable participating in a game led by someone who expressed such views. One of our friends, “Z,” chose to quit the game entirely and held a raffle for their items. In their farewell message, Z mentioned they were leaving due to “certain things coming to light.”
Unaware of the connection between X and Z, CJ reached out to Z, assuming their departure was related to the incident. In an attempt to discredit X, CJ shared private screenshots of his conversation with X—insisting that X must have selectively shared parts of the exchange. In truth, X had already shared the full conversation with Z. Z was deeply uncomfortable with CJ’s breach of confidentiality and appalled that he would disclose a private exchange with a user in an effort to control the narrative. (I was unable to recover these screenshots. I will post them if I manage to find them).
Z informed our friend group about CJ’s outreach, and X was understandably upset to learn that their private conversation had been shared without consent. Regardless of whether Z had already seen the messages, CJ could not have known that and should never have disclosed a private conversation with a user to anyone outside the staff team.
X decided to reach out to Jitterbug—with whom they had shared a Discord server — so they could express their concern about this breach of privacy. Jitterbug appeared surprised by CJ’s actions and promised to address the issue. X, still upset, warned that they were considering making the incident public. Jitterbug responded by saying that “canceling a site over an opinion is wrong” and that this situation was “a good learning experience for everyone.”
Following this, CJ deleted all messages sent to both X and Z, blocked them, and banned them from the Discord server.
Months later, X reached out to CJ via the site to apologize for threatening to go public and to explain how his behavior had impacted them. CJ appeared receptive, acknowledged the harm, and validated X’s feelings regarding racism. Believing that CJ had taken their concerns seriously and had grown from the experience, X decided to let the matter rest. They explained what had happened to our group and asked that the screenshots not be shared, as they wanted to give CJ the benefit of the doubt and assumed he had simply been uninformed at the time.
Unfortunately, CJ has since demonstrated a continued pattern of harmful behavior, including further instances of discrimination against marginalized groups. While many new issues have understandably taken precedence, I believe this incident is still important to share. It reflects not just a single lapse in judgment, but a broader and ongoing disregard for the well-being of others in the community.
Please respect the privacy of those involved. If you are aware of the identities of X or Z, I kindly ask that you do not reach out to them, regardless if you agree or disagree with how they handled the situation or anything they said.
Thank you.
If you’re a member of the Petsite community, please watch and share this video. Santae staff have been abused by the owner, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
First and foremost, I'd like to establish this as an attempt made in good faith to advocate for the better treatment of all current and future members of the Santae staff and community. I have nothing to gain from this personally--everything that follows is shared only in the interest of transparency, and the choice to do so now is my own.
At the time of the recent walkout on March 4th, 2025, CJ was presented with a letter. This letter was drafted with the assistance of multiple established staff members for two reasons: to address recurring behaviors that were unanimously considered inappropriate and unprofessional, and to provide an exhaustive list of adjustments and changes required to better the team going forward. The intent was always to bring light to these issues, and encourage growth from within by supporting any efforts made to resolve them.
Instead, the few changes that were implemented while I was still an Admin were inconsistent and poorly executed; CJ's behavior remains unchanged, and he has stated outright that he is unwilling to entertain any further negotiations. Without anyone present to hold him accountable, it's likely that this will get brushed aside as unnecessary drama, and the cycle will continue.
Unfortunately, as of writing this, the majority of those aware of the letter are no longer staff. Given CJ's active resistance and overall failure to honor promises made to his own team, making its contents public feels like the most effective way for me to ensure that everyone's effort hasn't been in vain.
As always, I wish Santae and its community all the best.
-- Lacilia
( Full transcript below the cut )
Staff Members of Santae Entertainment LLC.
Dear Management Head CJ,
The present letter has the objective of opening communications regarding a series of events within the Santae Workspace. We as members of the Staff Team want to make an official petition to take these statements into consideration and open discussions to improve the workplace environment we have come to appreciate, all in order to continue making possible the growth of Santae.
Recently, we as staff members of Santae Entertainment have witnessed and experienced interactions that have been deemed as inappropriate or unprofessional. These interactions extend to staff members in Front-End and Back-End positions.
In order for us to continue providing service to Santae, we require an immediate acknowledgement and addressal of these eventualities, including a plan of action and the management of our workspace.
Issues of Note
Included are the concerns that Staff Members of diverse roles have reported not being handled in an appropriate manner for a work environment sharing the ideals of kindness, safety and unity as established by Santae. It is our hope that the acknowledgement of said events will open an opportunity to improve relations and foster a safe and professional environment for all Santae Staff Team members.
A. Frequent occasions of speaking ill or inappropriately about current and previous staff, site users and/or situations utilizing the designated Staff Server Voice Calls. As well as distasteful content being displayed in the shared Work Space, despite the vocalization of discomfort from multiple Staff Members.
Conversations on official Staff communication channels must remain professional and respectful, projecting an image of unity, while being mindful about social and historical backgrounds, ethnicity, race, identity and current sensitive global issues.
B. Concerns not being met with a professional or empathetic response, on the contrary, implying that expressing their uneasiness would foster an unsafe work environment, ultimately leading to members of the Staff feeling unheard. This is accompanied by the relaying of unclear terms, rules and regulations for Staff Team members that contradict or imply previous statements on said rules.
As Santae fosters values such as kindness, empathy and compassion, these same values must be represented within the private Staff spaces in order to create a safe work environment for every individual. Communication is essential for the best performance of their employees and therefore the correct functioning of the Santae Entertainment site both in private and public spaces.
C. Incidences of Staff and Users feeling that Management has previously or is currently utilizing resources, information, status or vulnerabilities in a way that elicits the individual into an emotional or moral disadvantage to argue or discuss issues openly. On a similar note, instances of Management insisting on conducting private conversations with Staff and Users after a discussion has been settled in public.
In order to promote a secure and equitable work environment, external factors to disagreements and conversations should not be taken into account unless specifically relevant to the resolution of said discussion. In a similar manner, private or sensitive information pertaining to any Staff member or User should not under any circumstances be distributed, displayed or relayed to any other Staff member or User without the former individual’s expressed written consent. As for an appropriate usage of the designated Staff communication channels, requesting private dialogue between staff without a mediator cannot be insisted on when it is expressed they are unwilling.
D. An incident involving multiple Staff Team members participating in an unrestricted Voice Call channel being spoken to in a manner that was deemed as disrespectful and severely harsh while in the presence of unrelated Staff Team members that were allowed to join the aforementioned call unimpeded, leading to shame and a posterior fearful environment.
We believe this to be the lead cause of reflection upon the conducts observed in Santae Entertainment’s workplace across an extended period of time, motivating the need to elicit change in order to keep operating in the most efficient, professional and adequate manner moving forward. Ideally, communications must be kept in a tone and volume that conveys respect in an omnidirectional way, benefiting the resolution of misunderstandings, mishaps and misinformation.
Suggestions and Future Improvements
The present Santae Staff cherishes the fellowship within its members, including that of the Management Head, and trusts that there is opportunity in hardship, guiding us in the search for a safer environment in which many of us find home. While changes are needed in order to improve current working conditions, the Santae Staff team is open and willing to collaborate in the proposition, development and implementation of the needed and/or requested measures written on this document or otherwise proposed by the Management Head, thus perpetuating the family values that Santae Entertainment holds as its core tenets.
The introduction of an HR Manager who acts as a mediator and impartial party between Staff and Head Management. Santae Staff will propose an interim HR Manager until a new, completely impartial external individual can be hired as fitting for both the Head Management and Staff requirements. We believe that a neutral ground would facilitate communications in the events of announcements, controversies, changes in reglament, management of Staff and resources, as well as scheduling and planification.
Reduce unnecessary private correspondence with Staff and Users, unless actively and enthusiastically consented to. Personal conflict should be handled through the HR Manager, who will arrange conversations between the appropriate Department Lead, the team Member/User, and Head Management. It is to be respected if any or both parties request a Mediator present in conversations taking place, all in order to ensure a secure, fair and respectful dialogue between both parties. This, at the same time, will foster a feeling of trust between all members of the Santae Staff Team.
Cease all distribution, relaying or display of private or sensitive information of any individual without their explicit written consent. This requirement is specially insisted upon as it is protected under various Data Protection Laws, including Federal US Law. We have trust that is in Santae Entertainment’s best interest to comply with such requirements.
Avoid introducing mentions of actions done magnanimously, status or vulnerabilities in irrelevant conversations on unrelated topics. With the objective of keeping communications clear and leveraged for all Staff members, it is important that the focus is kept on priority issues during conversations and discussions, separating personal and professional relationships in a healthy way.
All Staff and Management members must be addressed and referenced to in a respectful manner in all public channels and in private correspondence with other Staff Members. While we understand the existing trustworthy treatment between Staff members, it is important to remain cordial towards all individuals that are and have formed part of the Santae Staff team.
Staff Members should always operate in the chain of command in relation to official matters, unless there is a conflict with the direct next member of the chain, in which case they should address the next highest member in the chain. Management must allow Department Leads to operate as needed with only the necessary interference. This ensures that only verified and clear information is relayed between Departments and between members, avoiding miscommunication, controversies or escalating problematics.
Advances or bonus on Staff payment should be written and agreed to, signed by Santae Entertainment LCC and the next participating party. A signed agreement will ensure the safety of both parties and establish a reference point for future transactions.
Management is encouraged to allow an open, public conversation for Staff Members to discuss and suggest improvements to the structure and culture of the Santae Staff Team, with no fear of retaliation or punishment. We believe that great things are built in collaboration, and the unity Santae has projected in past occasions can shine again in the face of adversity.
We, as Santae Entertainment LCC Staff members, officially and formally request that these terms are met and that a betterment of the work environment is progressed upon in order to continue providing services by Front-End, Back-End, and other diverse Staff, some of which have preferred to remain anonymous. While we have trust that Management Head will take these claims into consideration as it is representative of Santae Entertainment’s core values, failure to hold this agreement on course would constitute a relapse of the previously stated consequences. We believe that the most appropriate way of addressing the present in order to keep transparency and trust is through a public written statement or action of similar fashion, avoiding the usage of unrecorded Voice Calls or private, unmediated channels.
We extend a sincere thanks while we work together to sort this issue.
Thank you beforehand for your involvement in the matter.
Hi! I am Tybox a long time community member and former admin of Santae… Tyler McIntyre needs your support for Help Santae Staff get the f
Santae’s artists have dealt with so much and shared such beautiful artwork with the community. They deserve so much better. Please help them out if you can, and if not, sharing the link is much appreciated.
Just want to start off by saying that this is simply my personal experience and that anything following the cut is simply my own opinion based off of that personal experience. Readers are encouraged to please employ their own critical thinking and taking many grains of salt when reading another person's experience, mine included. Anyway, my feelings and experiences following the cut.
To start off when I applied to Santae I was really excited to be a part of the project. It's a project that has a lot of promise and it seemed to set itself apart from other petsites I've played in the past. I was really eager to try and be a part of it and participate in the growth of the site and community.
When I joined the server I received the typical greeting - CJ pings everyone to welcome new staff not unlike a welcoming party. It was a bit overwhelming but seemed well-meaning.
There were a lot of little red flags that sprouted up after my joining that I ignored or tamped down writing them off as caused by stress or seeing them as things that could be grown from. (Badmouthing past management, poor communication, etc..)
I can't and won't go into massive detail about everything that put me off and drove me to finally split ways because it would be splitting hairs after a certain point and I also just don't have the time, energy, or care to go through things with such a meticulousness. This post is mostly to warn others who may be thinking of applying what to expect and to cast a little transparency on the work environment. There are a lot of allegations going around and understandably a lot of people are afraid to speak up. I've already quit so that can no longer be held over my head (but we'll come back to this) and the worst that will happen is I'll become a social pariah on the site, or my account will be banned. (Kind of expecting this, so if Kasper #2468 gets iced just know it wasn't by my own hand lmfao. If my KS backing and SC earned by commission get nuked in retaliation ig it's a consequence I'm willing to accept.)
To the friends I've made on the team and the folks that reached out after I quit and removed from the server - I'm glad we met. And thank you to the former coworker who offered to post my goodbye for me after reaching out to me in DM (I declined because I didn't want anyone being ~ tainted~ by association lol) I was in the middle of typing a goodbye when I was unceremoniously removed from the server. When I joined staff got to say goodbye and some even hung around for weeks after parting ways, but since Sky was removed without being able to say goodbye it seems like being instantly deleted might just be the new standard. Not to mention the other artist who was just removed overnight without even a comment. To everyone else, I kind of assumed our camaraderie was as fickle and transient as my time on the team and wasn't surprised to be proven right. I'm sure it doesn't help that (in my experience) CJ has a habit of hopping into VC to badmouth anyone who doesn't align with his vision.
Anyway this is super disjointed already. Let's get onto some specifics.
I mentioned that the pings were stressful because we had already received multiple about this 'game' and it was getting stressful. When I mentioned that, I got a passive aggressive dm and followup about it afterwards. I will also note that a coworker added an agreeing 'react' to my post about the pings which cj then. removed. lol. I did not reply to the message bc by now I was tired of the manipulation games.
I held off confronting about this for a long time because I feel that CJ does not take confrontation well and didn't want to make things worse for myself of others but by the end I was nearing my limit and needed to enforce a firm boundary.
I did some graphics work under the expectation that I'd be getting a divine figurine for it and had to follow up multiple times as usual, at which point CJ tried to pin it on a fellow artist coworker 'making him uncomfortable'. This is a common trend with poor communication on the team.
"management" would prefer that staff not commission site artists. This just always rubbed me wrong, especially after the, in my opinion, territorial behavior over me doing commissions. I also dmed some coworkers about it since he said he'd 'tell all the other artists' but no one else had gotten any similar messages from him.
When I started it was pretty casual for art staff to stream site work or personal work in the vc. I stopped streaming personal things after the first uncomfortable dm I got when working on an offsite comm and stuck to santae only work from then on. I don't have a screenshot of my own that I can use for this unfortunately but cj sent a message saying
"Hey @ artist @ lead artist @ lead clothing artist I would like to stop streaming art in the staff voice chat channel as technically the behind the scenes is for BMaC so it's just a gray area, however I would love if you all still wanted to stream but would like you all to stream via our Twitch platform or TikTok
Login credentials will be provided as well.
This is a perfect time to stream with the referral contest live it would be very beneficial I believe.
If you would like to stream please reach out to me, There will be SC pay for streaming, 5sc per hour with a max of 4 hours per day and max of 10 hours per week per artist :dravalove: your normal pay rates also apply this is just additional :heart:"
When the most recent artist to stream asked about back-pay for the stream done for the site the response was a gif of an empty wallet and a crying shimmerint emoji. These messages were later deleted.
further commentary as follows -
The only reason anyone noticed he deleted his messages was because in voicechat when other staff were asking why we don't steam anymore he said 'oh I deleted that' and then said that we can stream again in vc. This was followed the day after that vc by the following
CJ not only shared images to the BMaC in my time, but also would take the images directly from the art approvals channel and drop them into the staff vc anyway to show them off to whoever was around. Frankly this felt like shit every single time and felt like he just wanted the dopamine hit of people complimenting the art. Rarely were we credited during the fawning, too.
A fellow staff reached out to ask why I wasn't around as much, this staff member was in the same vc where he said it was ok again. CJ in my opinion likes to say things one way publicly but then if there's an issue he'll take it to dms or involve as few people as possible. To me his public and private faces are very different.
As you can see, they're clearly the same, lol. I will also mention that these plush items take twice as long to do and require more revisions than other items. On top of that I have concept art that I can't share due to NDA of the heartstruck concept - full roughs of the pets that I was not compensated for in any way. None of this was discussed prior to me starting the work which is my own fault and not a mistake I'll make again. I spent days, long consecutive hours working on the concepts before I could even start on the plush themselves. This time and the work I put in will remain unpaid.
Something I noticed while I was putting this together is that CJ has deleted at least one message from our dms, which is funny because the message I noticed got deleted is one that I had originally read as being sent with the intention to manipulate -
I have also been reached out to by a former coworker with a 'message from cj' which I declined. Respectfully, I've got you blocked for a reason man. If I had to guess he probably feels like there's something he needs to smooth over to cover his ass but I'm just not interested.
Overall my experience on art staff was quite stressful and the environment definitely felt like there was an in- and out- crowd that was decided by how present you are in vc and how willing you are to participate in the toxic positivity and bobble-head nodding. Also, getting frequently misgendered to your face and behind your back is a special kind of torture.
Anyway, I could probably ramble on more about the time he burst into voice call while I was in there with a coworker and ranted about another coworker for like 20 minutes totally ignoring me before just leaving, or how he's always talking shit about people behind their backs (hi new admins) but not to their faces but I don't have receipts for any of that. Nor energy. And besides there are other places where folks air their grievances and allegations if that's what you're looking for. So I guess I'll leave it here, take care y'all.
