The Order of Wilbur
| The Order of Wilbur | |
|---|---|
| Clan | |
| |
| Name: The Order of Wilbur | |
| Status: Active | |
| Formed: July 29th, 2014 | |
| Members: Confidential | |
| Bases: Stonetown, Quinsigamond, Monarchia, Struthio, Yittrium, City of the Divine Lord, Wilbur, Quabbin, Suidae Temple, Riverwood, São Porco | |
The Order of Wilbur is a very secretive cult on SimPvP; little is known about this organization and even less has been revealed to the public. Its current and former members are unknown and its motives and objectives are unknown as well, though much is up to speculation. The Order of Wilbur operates very loosely and sporadically, working only to serve the Holy Spirit of the Divine Lord Wilbur. Having been consistently active since 2014, the Order of Wilbur is one of, if not the oldest and longest-running factions on the server.
As of recently, the Order of Wilbur has also been well-documented for its intense rivalry with the newer religious organization the Church of Francis. This rivalry has culminated into two major wars, The Holy Wilbur-Francis War and The Imperial War, and several small-scale incidents.
Click this link for a humorous video regarding The Order of Wilbur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4l3UNFf-XU
Pro-Wilburian graffiti located in Clinton, Massachusetts
Wilburian propaganda used during the Holy War
Statue of Wilbur at the City of the Divine Lord, Wilbur
Order of Wilbur map art
Beliefs and Structure
While much of this secret society is shrouded in mystery, the main two core beliefs that are publicly known are as follows:
- To honor, worship and promote the life and teachings of Wilbur the Pig, who was so quickly taken from us.
- To connect with Wilbur's heavenly spirit through holy rituals and offerings.
The exact membership of the Order of Wilbur is also unknown, although a few members have been made public over the years. Despite this, the cult is very exclusive in its membership; only a select few devoted players are initiated as full Wilburians. Currently, the head of the Order of Wilbur is ostrich1414, its original founder.
In general, the Order of Wilbur maintains a "firey" theme in its temples and buildings: the group's main colors are orange, pink, yellow, and red, and many temples utilize an aesthetic inspired by the nether. Newly-baptized Wilburians must enter a christened vat of lava in order to become initiated, along with other undisclosed practices.
"The Life of Wilbur" was a book written by ostrich1414 in 2014, not long after Wilbur's death. It is a biographical account of Wilbur's life, leading up to the tragedy on July 29th, and it has since become sacred to the Order of Wilbur. Much like the Bible or the Qur'an, "The Life of Wilbur" is a very important and spiritual book for the cult.
History
July 29th, 2014
On July 29th, 2014 in the small community of Stonetown, player ostrich1414 was on a mission to receive every achievement that Minecraft offered. As the achievements began to get more difficult, one of them stood out from the rest: "When Pigs Fly". To get this achievement, a player must ride atop a pig using a saddle and fly him off of a cliff, potentially killing both entities in the process. Thus, ostrich1414 went to pursue this goal as he searched the town for a seemingly harmless, innocent pig to use for his own desires.
The pig that ostrich1414 eventually found was named Wilbur: a pig who would soon become iconic. After mounting Wilbur and climbing up to the top of Stonetown's infamous Tree Dome, ostrich1414 pushed Wilbur forward and the two plummeted to their deaths, both dying upon impact.
This death sparked server-wide controversy as players condemned ostrich1414 and his brutal actions which had resulted in Wilbur's murder. Almost immediately after the atrocity occurred, a memorial for Wilbur was constructed in both /world and in his hometown, Stonetown. A national mourning for his death was ordered and the date has since become that of legend.
Birth of a Cult
Not much is known about the creation and actions of the cult, but some say that just days after the event on July 29th, a secret organization was founded. The Order of Wilbur, as it is known today, was founded in Stonetown, the place of Wilbur's birth and death: the cult is also headquartered here. Some of the rituals performed by the Order of Wilbur have been described as "satanic" and "disturbing", and the few who have visited one of its sanctuaries have been psychologically scarred due to its intensity. In the Order of Wilbur, Wilbur's death is viewed as a massive tragedy, and Wilbur is portrayed and worshipped as a god. The sanctuaries that house these practices and rituals have also been described as appearing like the Nether. By 2019, there were several temples, with major ones being the one in Struthio, one in Yittrium, and the main headquarters in Stonetown. A sanctuary had been partially completed in Monarchia, but the project was later abandoned. Quinsigamond also had an active sanctuary for almost two years, but it was ultimately griefed and destroyed in March 2019.
For many years, the Order of Wilbur would remain quiet, keeping to itself to continue its secretive, exclusive rituals and missions. Very few players would be allowed to visit the many sanctuaries that dotted SimPvP, and those who did were forced to take a vow of silence.
Reactions to Churches of 2019
In early July 2019, the newly-established Church Of Fluz announced its public opposition to the Order of Wilbur and the prophet Wilbur himself. Originally created by TheOnlySlash and SirTashingdon, the Church Of Fluz continued making blasphemous, defamatory remarks about the organization, thus forcing the Order of Wilbur to emerge from its secretive shadows and engage in a public rivalry with the Church.
The Church of Francis was another new religious organization formed in the summer of 2019 in August. Unlike the Church of Fluz, the Church of Francis established peaceful relations with the Order of Wilbur, and the two religions formed an alliance of mutual respect and worship. Lord1, the church's founder, has even gone as far as to describe the two religions as "linked". Unfortunately, by October 2019, this good relationship would be fractured as war impended.
The Holy Wilbur-Francis War
The Holy Wilbur-Francis War, which occurred between October 17th, 2019 - November 18th, 2019, was by far the most violent war in SimPvP history, with a series of bloody battles under its name. Ironically, it would be this war that would truly bring the Order of Wilbur into the limelight: prior to the war, the cult was rather secretive and isolationist, but this war catapulted the religion's interior organization and beliefs into the public eye.
The war began on October 17th, 2019 when ostrich1414 declared war on the Church of Francis, seeing their growing size and influence as a threat to the Order of Wilbur as the server's dominant religion. Thus, a series of violent and destructive battles would occur throughout the duration of the war, with notable battles occurring in several cities like Castle Snowfrog, Syracusai, and Monarchia. While the Church of Francis would see a fair amount of victories in battle and acquired almost x2 more kills than the Wilburians, it was the Order of Wilbur that dominated the war, securing more victorious battles.
Furthermore, the Order of Wilbur, due to its popularity, was able to secure and convert a much larger army of followers than the Church of Francis. The Wilburian army would be massive in size, with several battles dominating the Church of Francis in terms of player count. In fact, many soldiers who fought for the Order of Wilbur had previously been unaffiliated with the religion.
On November 17th, 2019, on what is known as "V-Day", the Order of Wilbur emerged victorious after the Church of Francis surrendered following their most recent loss at the Battle of Syracusai. A massive peace conference and victory celebration was held at Virunum, with ostrich1414 and Lord1, the Church of Francis General, signing a peace treaty together. This would be the most significant event in the history of the Order of Wilbur since the death of Wilbur, and their victory would prove their dominance over Francis and as the server's main religion. This would also plunge the Order of Wilbur into the public eye, making it less-secretive than it once had been.
Post-War Incidents of 2020
After the Order of Wilbur's victory during the Holy Wilbur-Francis War, a temporary period of peaceful reconstruction occurred between the two religions. Lord1 was invited to Yittrium in December 2019, which was a major Wilburian city, and both Lord1 and ostrich1414 had plans of making a joint Wilburian-Francillian temple there together. However, this period of peace between Wilburians and Francillians was cut short: between January 15th, and 17th, 2020, The Sigil Conflict occurred, which primarily resulted due to the resurgence of the rivalry. After the Church of Francis's Sigil temple was vandalized with pro-Wilburian propaganda, Lord1 initiated an assault on the city, annexing it for the Church of Francis and instigating a two-day religious conflict. This culminated in ostrich1414 arriving at the city, destroying the temple in the name of Wilbur, and fighting the Francillian occupants. While the Sigil Conflict would ultimately end in peace, this incident reignited the rivalry between the two factions.
Another major incident occurred between April 15th and April 16th, this time in the Order of Wilbur's holy city, Stonetown. The Stonetown Incident, once again between the Church of Francis and the Order of Wilbur, occurred when Lord1 attempted to fully annex the town for the Church of Francis, upon the gifting of the town's deed by Porkington. This was taken as an act of hostility by members of the Order of Wilbur, who reacted with anger and reclaimed Stonetown, threatening the Francillians. A back-and-forth of re-annexations occurred between the two religions, until the possibility of yet another war neared on the horizon. To prevent another war, Lord1 and ostrich1414 met at the neutral base Verillium to establish peace and identify Stonetown as a neutral base due to its sacred nature.
The City of the Divine Lord, Wilbur
Between January 24th and May 6th, 2020, the Order of Wilbur saw the rise and progression of its first and largest city to date: the City of the Divine Lord, Wilbur, a.k.a. "Wilburia". The concept for a new Wilburian religious capital had been on ostrich1414's mind for years, but after the raid of Yittrium in January 5th, he was finally compelled to create Wilburia as a testament to his religious devotion. Ostrich1414 invited Zepheron, cheesy_chips22, and Porkington--three major devout Wilburians--to aid him in constructing the city.
Wilburia became known for the massive statue of Wilbur that served as the city's centerpiece, standing atop an ornate pedestal. Other major Wilburian landmarks included the religion's largest (and tallest) temple and a museum that house several significant items, ranging from Wilbur's original drops to Holy War artifacts. Wilburia was also an industrial powerhouse: it became one of the wealthiest, most powerful bases of its time, and propelled itself to the forefront of SimPvP politics. The Order of Wilbur's first major city was a success, and was growing rapidly.
Unfortunately, this success would be cut short when on May 6th, 2020, AntHand and egnaroky of the Caudices discovered and annexed Wilburia. This angered its members severely, who protested the annexation and completely abandoned the city, moving on to new things. While the city luckily avoided griefing, it was largely looted for its remaining resources, and was considered fully abandoned and nonoperational, marking the end of the Order of Wilbur's powerhouse megacity.
Destruction and Forgiveness
After the fall of Wilburia, the Order of Wilbur entered a small period of stagnation as many of its major members went on a hiatus or focused on other opportunities. By the summer of 2020, many Wilburians were involved in The Republic, a newly-formed group dedicated solely to opposing Lord1 and even the Church of Francis itself. Since many Wilburians still harbored a hatred for the Church of Francis, they found the Republic to be a suitable home, including ostrich1414 and Zepheron themselves.
Of course, this affiliation would have tragic results. After the Republic griefed Two Words, the Church of Francis' main base at the time, Lord1 decided to retaliate by targeting Stonetown--the most sacred base in the Order of Wilbur, as well as one of the longest-lasting bases on SimPvP. After six years of remaining upkept, the Church of Francis had effectively destroyed Stonetown on June 23rd, 2020, reducing the holiest city in the religion to ashes. This action became immediately controversial, and left many Wilburians furious.
Fortunately, the Republic-Church of Francis beef would soon wane into obscurity, and by the fall of 2020, the Order of Wilbur was back to its period of stagnation. Meanwhile, the Church of Francis had been growing much larger, even establishing an empire. In the eyes of many Wilburians, this left them to view the Church of Francis as increasingly aggressive and imperialistic, only further straining their longtime rivalry. The last major incident between the two religions would occur on September 15th, 2020, when ElectricChugg was harassed and killed by several Francillians. Enraged by their actions and aggressions, ostrich1414 finally decided to retaliate and called for an organized battle to be held, the first armed conflict between Wilburians and Francillians since the Holy Wilbur-Francis War almost a year prior. Thus ensued the Battle of Swampland, a major battle between Francillians Lord1, James8B, and xexc versus Wilburians ostrich1414, MoWobbler, and ElectricChugg. Fought entirely in a swamp biome near spawn, the battle would rage on for nearly an hour. The only death would be ElectricChugg at the hands of Lord1, and eventually ostrich1414 and MoWobbler were forced to flee. This would result in a Church of Francis victory.
However, as time went on, the two often-warring sides were beginning to open up to prospects of peace. On November 18th, 2020, the first major peace conference between the two would occur in the form of the one-year anniversary of the end of the Holy Wilbur-Francis War. Representatives of both the Order of Wilbur and the Church of Francis both met in Verillium to celebrate both the end of the war and to admit to wrongdoings of the past. For the first time ever, both parties apologized for war crimes, griefs, and petty actions, with the first signs of peace beginning to blossom between the two.
New Temples
Meanwhile, the Order of Wilbur would begin to put more focus on individual structures in its catalogue. In August 2020, Zepheron founded what is known as "The Grand Sanctuary", a massive Wilburian temple located in the middle of a forest. Although largely unfinished, the current temple stands at an impressive size, with a design hearkening back to Strawman Temple. The temple consists of a columned Romanesque tomb-like building with pillars and Wilburian memoribilia everywhere. Originally, Zepheron anticipated the construction of a massive domed extension behind the current Grand Sanctuary, but it was unfortunately never completed.
After many months of no real progress, the Order of Wilbur finally bounced back when it decided to construct its first temple in the greater spawn region on December 3rd, 2020. Located in the middle of an ocean, ostrich1414, MoWobbler and SkullerG all worked to create a massive temple known as Suidae Temple. This structure would be unique for its composition of nine "tubes" all arranged in a 3x3 grid pattern, raising upwards with domes capping them off. The interior of the temple would contain systematic bridges sweeping through each leveled tube, as well as many religious memorabilia and monuments to Wilbur.
Both the Grand Sanctuary Suidae Temple would mark the Order of Wilbur's first foray into influencing spawn, something the Church of Francis had been steadily doing throughout the latter half of 2020, as well as the creation of brand new places of worship. These would also be the Order of Wilbur's first major construction projects since the City of the Divine Lord, Wilbur had fallen.
The Imperial War
The Order of Wilbur would officially participate in its second major war against the Church of Francis, more than a year after the Holy Wilbur-Francis War, upon the declaration of The Imperial War. Between December 10th, 2020 and January 28th, 2021, the Order of Wilbur joined the People's Coalition as a founding member, a loose collective of various groups dedicated to waging war against the Francillians. Although the Order of Wilbur and the Church of Francis had begun to see some signs of peace in late 2020, many players, including ostrich1414 himself, had become fed up with the Francillians' imperialistic virtues and their increasingly more erratic behavior. After Sellout9 and SimCoin were killed in /world by the Francillians, however, ostrich1414 was urged to gather an army of like-minded SimPvP players and unite against the Church of Francis, as the People's Coalition declared war against them on December 10th.
Unlike the Holy Wilbur-Francis War, the Imperial War was much more chaotic, destructive, and hate-filled. Numerous griefs took place throughout the duration of the war: the People's Coalition griefed two Francillian outposts, Lakeside Lodge and Gibraltar Castle, on the day of the war declaration, with the Church of Francis responding by griefing New Oberstein, and then Tol Honeth, the next two days. The first half of the war was largely characterized by this strategy, with back-and-forth griefs between the People's Coalition and the Church of Francis--however, at first, many of the griefed bases were inactive or abandoned. Soon, Bitchport, New Brunoland, GS Base #1, RBC Spawn Base, McCapital, and Florestria would follow suit, all being griefed by both parties. Of course, many battles would take place as well, mostly located in /world or nearby spawn. Despite most of these battles being small skirmishes or ambushes, the largest battle would take place on December 17th in /world, in which a large number of troops from both sides would meet and fight--although there would be no clear victor.
The second half of the war would become much more chaotic and personally devastating to those affected. This began when the Church of Francis targeted and raided Goldforge Citadel, the first active city to be affected by the war. This left numerous members of the People's Coalition homeless and angry, with tensions and bitterness soaring. The People's Coalition would hit back by griefing Swaglabs, with which the Church of Francis would respond by griefing Axetown. However, the breaking point would occur on January 11th, 2021, when the People's Coalition made a surprise ambush by raiding and annexing Three Words, Lord1 and Tenced's main city. The base was discovered by AntHand, using a then-secret wolf tracking exploit, rendering the otherwise secure base defenseless. This made Lord1 and the rest of the Church of Francis furious, with tensions now reaching a boiling point. Things only worsened when the People's Coalition raided Pepe's Holy Land seven days later, another secure Francillian base. Although the battles and skirmishes had completely halted by this point, tensions flared between both affected parties.
However, on January 28th, 2021, peace would be made. After over a week of negotiations and peace talks between the two warring parties, agreements were finally reached. Both the People's Coalition and the Church of Francis were drained and disillusioned by the war: what had started as a seemingly tongue-in-cheek conflict had grown into a truly devastating crisis, leaving many homeless and angry. Now that the war was over, representatives from both parties met at Gibraltar Castle to finalize the peace agreements, thus ending the Imperial War for good. The Order of Wilbur promptly departed from the People's Coalition, with one of their agreements in the peace talks to never initiate war with the Church of Francis again.
Reconstruction
After the Imperial War had finally ended, the Order of Wilbur entered a period of moderate reconstruction. Their long-time rivalry with the Church of Francis (now the Holy States of Francis) had culminated into two wars, a series of conflicts and battles, and all-around bitterness and toxicity between members. By this point, ostrich1414 had grown weary of the rivalry, and desired a true state of peace between the two entities.
On February 15th, 2021, ostrich1414 founded Riverwood, a small town with the goal of recruiting new players and helping to get them started on the server. Within the first week, Riverwood had successfully recruited over a dozen new players, all of whom assisted in expanding and growing the town significantly. Seeing this as an opportunity to finally promote peace and unity, the Order of Wilbur and the Holy States of Francis agreed to use Riverwood as a joint base for just that, with each constructing a temple within the town. For the first time ever, a Francillian and a Wilburian temple existed in harmony in the same location; Lord1 and ostrich1414 used this as a means to showcase the importance of unity and respect to their new recruits, many of whom quickly excelled on the server. Despite these initial gains, however, Riverwood would slowly fall into a period of inactivity by March--but its peace with the Francillians remained.
For almost two years now, the Order of Wilbur had stayed from its initial purpose as a "secretive cult" and had become engrossed in the server's limelight through many major incidents with the Holy States of Francis. Ostrich1414 had a desire to bring the organization back to its roots, wanting to descend the Order of Wilbur back into the shadows as SimPvP's most exclusive religious group. As such, a few new members were initiated and plans were drafted for brand new community projects, akin to Suidae Temple. The first of these projects would be the refurbishment of a public spawn / end spawn portal used by many players; ostrich1414 and willowienal cleaned up the spawn side of it, making it look much nicer and adding new amenities. The group had also begun to make several changes to its internal infrastructure, putting an emphasis on community building projects over military prowess.
