The Order of Wilbur
The Order of Wilbur | |
---|---|
Clan | |
Name: The Order of Wilbur | |
Status: Active | |
Formed: July 29th, 2014 | |
Members: Listed in "Membership" | |
Bases: Stonetown, Quinsigamond, Monarchia, Struthio, Yittrium, City of the Divine Lord, Wilbur, Quabbin, Void City, Suidae Temple, Riverwood, São Porco, Gosnold, Civitrium, Snail, Pangaea, Nova Aeterna, Kinabalu, Typhoon, Shadow Grove, Fern Springs, Yanardagh Temple, Loom Land |
The Order of Wilbur is the oldest and longest-running clan still active today on SimPvP, having been founded shortly after the tragic death of Wilbur the Pig on July 29th, 2014, in Stonetown. Starting off as a very secretive and secluded cult dedicated to worshipping the life of their holy martyr Wilbur, the clan has since evolved and morphed over the years into a much larger and more public organization, shying away from its strictly-religious roots and branching off into the realms of base building and spawn projects. Unlike many other clans on SimPvP, the Order of Wilbur has always been very exclusive in its membership, and has maintained a tight-knit community with shared goals and values.
The Order of Wilbur's promotional trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKnf2rSElb8
The Order of Wilbur's official logo (by ReaganKindred)
A group drawing of the OOW (by LidGuy)
Membership
For many years, the Order of Wilbur has kept its membership private and confidential from the public, maintaining a model of secrecy and exclusivity. However, as the clan has grown and evolved over the years, the ability to maintain this secrecy frequently came into question. As of December 9th, 2021, the Order of Wilbur began to publicly reveal its membership list, no longer keeping its members confidential from the rest of the server. However, unlike other clans on SimPvP, the Order of Wilbur does not have any ranks or hierarchies; everyone is equal.
Current Members of the Order of Wilbur (Listed Chronologically)
- ostrich1414 (Founder)
- MoWobbler
- cheesy_chips22
- willowienal
- ElectricChugg
- Korijenkins
- Laztec
- LidGuy
- WatermelonFun11
- craftgirlie
- GentleGiant69
- TuataraBoots
Former Members of the Order of Wilbur (Listed Chronologically) [Not Complete]
- JavelinFury
- pippenger
- Unclechain
- INDIGO011
- clipchip
- bruno_vera
- DakkaDok
- RealynnKindred
- Zepheron
- AntiFreezeFluid
- Master_Xybot
- Nebuelaz
Beliefs and Structure
While the Order of Wilbur has slowly begun to open itself up to the public over the years, the clan nevertheless keeps much of its inner workings secret, including its core beliefs and objectives. However, the Order of Wilbur has maintained two primary goals regarding the worship of its Divine Lord, Wilbur:
- 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.
While the Order of Wilbur was originally founded as a religious cult, and still primarily operates as a religious cult, it has slowly shed this aspect of its identity over time and has embraced a more secular approach to its format. That being said, the clan still worships Wilbur as its one true god, and nearly every Wilburian operated or affiliated base has a temple or "sanctuary" built at it for worship. Wilburian temples typically follow a similar theme, embracing the colors of pink, red, yellow, and orange as its primary team colors--this often leads to temples harboring a "fiery" aesthetic, with heavy lava and nether brick usage. Wilbur is still regarded as the team's idol and mascot, and although members are not forced to engage in religious practices, the worship of Wilbur as an idol is encouraged. "The Life of Wilbur", a book written by ostrich1414 in 2014 while stoned, is often regarded as the clan's holiest text.
The Order of Wilbur believes heavily in equality and refuses to discriminate within its membership. There are currently no ranks and no hierarchy within the group. While ostrich1414, as the team's original founder and oldest active member, is often regarded as its de facto "leader", he is not officially the leader of the Order of Wilbur, and instead regards himself as an elder founder. Every member of the group is equal and decisions are often made democratically. Furthermore, the Order of Wilbur encourages individuality and self-expression among its members, never denying their freedom of speech and allowing all members to express themselves as Wilburians however they wish.
While the Order of Wilbur has historically been an isolated team and has engaged in several wars, it has since favored a more diplomatic and oftentimes pacifistic approach to its political outlook. The Order of Wilbur no longer wishes to engage in battles, griefs, or wars unless absolutely necessary, preferring to sit out of major political crises. The team's primary focus consists of base building and spawn projects, with many unique cities and structures under its belt over the years. In recent times, the team has dedicated itself to community efforts in and around the spawn region, as well as organizing both team events and large server events, as well as constructing breathtaking megacities and iconic spawn structures.
In terms of membership, the Order of Wilbur is very exclusive, only inviting trusted and well-respected regular players into its inner circle. New players are not allowed to become Wilburians, and anyone interested in joining must first prove their worth through server activity, hard work, and respect. Furthermore, new recruits are often approached by Wilburians to join, rather than vice versa, and initiations into the clan typically occur at the their holiest city, Stonetown, in the form of a minor ceremony. The Order of Wilbur prefers a "quality over quantity" approach with its membership, and has carefully crafted a catalogue of well-respected and influential members over the years. In fact, the Order of Wilbur has laid claim to more Admins than any other team on SimPvP: as of December 2021, the Order of Wilbur has had five admins within its membership, with four currently serving as members, and one being a former admin.
Registry of Holy Sites
The Order of Wilbur, as of September 2021, established its "Official Registry of Holy Sites"--bases, places, and locations on SimPvP that have inherent holy and historic value to the Order of Wilbur, its culture, and its beliefs. The only condition is that a Holy Site must no longer be active as a settlement. These locations are thus listed as "Holy Sites" and are recognized as important for preservation.
The Order of Wilbur's Official Registry of Holy Sites
Wilburian Holy Sites
- Stonetown (Birthplace of Wilbur and the Order of Wilbur)
- City of the Divine Lord, Wilbur (First Capital City of the OOW)
- Suidae Temple (First Major Spawn Temple)
- São Porco (Second Capital City of the OOW)
Wilburian-Francillian Holy Sites
- Virunum/Verillium (First Neutral Territory Respected Between OOW and COF)
- Riverwood (First Collaborative OOW and COF City)
- Gosnold (First Major G.S.F.W. City)
Non-Wilburian Holy Sites
- Syracusai (Birthplace of Francis)
- New Hammerhall (Foundation of the Church of Francis)
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
Immediately after the death of Wilbur, ostrich1414, with some help from JavelinFury, established the Order of Wilbur in his honor. The Order of Wilbur was originally meant to be a highly secretive cult dedicated to worshipping Wilbur as a holy martyr, unjustly killed. For the first two years of its lifespan, the OOW was relatively quiet; only a handful of selected players were allowed to join the cult, including ostrich1414 and JavelinFury, as well as pippenger, unclechain, and INDIGO011. While membership was strict and exclusive, public knowledge of the cult was even more so: very few on the server were made aware of the OOW, and its rituals and values were kept secret. As Stonetown's activity soon waned and was eventually abandoned by late 2014, ostrich1414 still utilized the base as the OOW's headquarters, with it becoming the cult's unofficial capital city and holy ground.
Between 2014 and 2015, the Order of Wilbur mostly constructed small temples around the server, usually in each new iteration of /world, and occasionally at bases and around spawn. It was also around this time in which ostrich1414 wrote the book "The Life of Wilbur" while high, a book which he has consistently regretted, but has since become a holy test for the clan. Nevertheless, the OOW's religious values were first and foremost for the cult, and while these were kept secret from the SimPvP public, ostrich1414, JavelinFury, and pippenger would occassionally leak information about it to draw curiosity from others. Unfortunately, by 2016, ostrich1414 had entered a long hiatus; this left the OOW largely inactive, with only JavelinFury involved with it.
By 2017, ostrich1414 returned to the server in full force, eventually founding multiple bases and two new groups back-to-back: the United Alliance and The League, both that same year. While the United Alliance and the League were separate individual clans with much larger, public presences on the server, they both accepted the Order of Wilbur as their primary religion of choice, and the cult secretly operated behind the scenes, establishing several temples--then known as "sanctuaries"--at both UA and League bases. The first major OOW "sanctuary" built in 2017 was at Quinsigamond, followed shortly thereafter by Monarchia, with both cities becoming major Wilburian strongholds. This would continue well into 2018, with the OOW functioning as a more public, yet still highly secretive and exclusive, religious cult.
Adapting to the Changes of 2019
In February of 2019, SimPvP entered an unprecedent player boom as hundreds of new players flocked to the server. By this point, the Order of Wilbur had been slowly growing in relevance and influence, and this new addition of players led the OOW to capitalize on their attention. By early 2019, Struthio was one of the defining cities of the time, and was also a major Wilburian powerhouse, with several temples scattered around the city. Later on, by May 2019, the city of Yittrium would be founded by both ostrich1414 and several of these new 2019 players, a few of whom were later accepted into the OOW as its newest generation of members. The largest Wilburian "sanctuary" yet would be established in Yittrium, and the city would quickly become the OOW's most powerful base yet, both in terms of influence and wealth. This also led the OOW to be catapulted into the server's spotlight as a major team. Despite this, the "secretive cult" aspect still largely remained, though it had begun to crumble as more publicity was brought to it.
Of course, with this new player boom, and the OOW now becoming a major clan, some new religions would be founded in direct opposition to it. 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 (although the Church of Fluz would be a short-lived phenomenon, becoming inactive within a few months). 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, even went 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.
São Porco
Ever since the fall of Wilburia in May 2020, the Order of Wilbur had lacked an official headquarters. This would change on April 19th, 2021, when cheesy_chips22 returned to the server after a long hiatus and reunited with ostrich1414, and the two founded the city of São Porco. Unlike Wilburia before it, São Porco would be a new Wilburian capital city with an immensely different theme and aesthetic: it is largely influenced by Brazilian architecture and inspired by coastal, tropical cities within the country, including Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Settling on a jungle biome along the ocean, ostrich1414 and cheesy_chips22 set to work, recruiting a number of Wilburian members and close allies to join as farms and builds immediately sprung up.
Embracing the new Brazilian/South American theme, ostrich1414 and cheesy_chips22 headed construction of Vila Porta, a rustic tropical village along the coast, centered around the city's portal hub. Underneath this village, MoWobbler would create a massive, sprawling sewer system composed of mazes, tunnels, traps, hidden rooms, and an underground city. Bruno_vera would assist with this project and establish a series of catacombs within the sewer system. Meanwhile, GentleGiant69, ElectricChugg, and willowienal would focus on broadening São Porco's collection of farms; some of these high-quality farms include a ghast tear farm, a wither skeleton farm, an iron farm, a mob farm, a totem farm, a bartering farm, and more, as well as SkullerG's five-level gold farm. Nearby Vila Porta, a dense district primarily composed of skyscrapers would develop, containing the city's main storage facility. However, most notably, cheesy_chips22 would work on São Porco's most anticipated project, its hillside favelas, sprawling randomly along the rugged man-made mountains along the coast. Unlike Wilburia's more calculated city aesthetic, São Porco would become a much more community-driven capital for the Order of Wilbur.
Alliance with Francis and the G.S.F.W.
Historically, the Order of Wilbur and the Church of Francis had been bitter rivals, having gone to war twice and participating in a number of griefs and battles against each other by mid-2021. However, in post-Imperial War SimPvP, the overall climate was changing as the two enemies slowly began to warm up to each other. This progression towards comradery was catapulted by their joint base Riverwood in February, as well as the COF's focus on the Confederacy-Francis War starting in May, giving them a new rival to engage with--the Confederacy of Man. Furthermore, both the OOW and COF's long-term goals were becoming more similar: to shy away from drama and focus more community-driven build projects. Of course, the thing that truly helped were the personal relationships shared between many members of both teams, as players were far more friendly with each other than bitter.
On June 7th, 2021, a historic moment was made when, for the first time in over two years as warring enemies, the Order of Wilbur and the Church of Francis became official allies. A peace conference was held at a site a few thousand blocks away from Quabbin, to which several members from both groups arrived to accept the new era of peace they were entering into. At the conference, the two teams would apologize for past wrongdoings and propose ideas for future joint endeavors to strengthen their bond as allies, as well as establishing overall objectives for their new alliance. Ostrich1414 and Lord1, as heads of their respective teams, would proceed to sign a formal and official peace treaty, which was then distributed to all Wilburians and Francillians alike.
Shortly after the alliance, both the Order of Wilbur and the Church of Francis would engage in talks with GS Trading Co. (a team which both the OOW and COF were already closely allied with) to establish a potential super-alliance. This new coalition was eventually founded in late June, known by the simple title of "G.S.F.W.", referencing the names of each participating team. Although the three powers had grand plans to work on collaborative bases and projects together, these plans were quickly put to the side as a new threat suddenly loomed over the group: YMP, or YeeterMyPeeter. Although the Order of Wilbur and GS Trading Co. had been on good terms with YMP for a while, their sudden formal alliance with the COF (a team which YMP still hated) caused them to be roped into a sudden conflict. While the origins of this conflict are complicated, it largely began after the COF and GS griefed Cope Town on July 10th, a base founded by YMP members 1590283112 and DKC; however, even before this, YMP had griefed Riverwood on June 29th, which, although long since abandoned by then, was a shared base between the OOW and COF.
By early August, it was apparent that another era of drama was coming, although unlike the Imperial War when the Order of Wilbur took an active approach in perpetuating it, they were this time largely uninterested in engaging with diplomatic crises. With both YMP and even the Confederacy of Man still engaging in conflict with the COF and GS, ostrich1414, on behalf of the Order of Wilbur, attempted to use his goodwill with COM leader Nikoxlas to stage peace talks between the two teams at Yittrium on August 7th. Unfortunately, this would go nowhere, and constant battles and ambushes in /world between YMP/COM and GS/COF/OOW would occur. On August 23rd, 2021, YMP would grief GS Trading Co.'s abandoned former capital, Sternenfall Nochmal--a base which had also housed Wilburians ostrich1414 and MoWobbler. This was met with a swift response by G.S.F.W., who retaliated by targeting an abandoned YMP base, Skyreach, that very same night.
Shortly after these two back-to-back griefs, YMP would declare war on GS Trading Co., the Church of Francis, and the Order of Wilbur, respectively; however, none of these teams would recognize this war, and refused to respond with a counter-declaration. Nevertheless, this sudden conflict and ensuing drama worked to bring the members of G.S.F.W. closer together than ever, making it one of the most sturdy and powerful alliances in modern SimPvP history.
A Crippling Conflict
Despite the Order of Wilbur being adamant on staying out of the conflict with YMP, preferring to maintain diplomacy over war, it would constantly find itself dragged in, whether through its alliance in G.S.F.W. or through the aggression of YMP. Wilburians would often find /world to be too hostile to use, regularly getting ambushed and attacked by YMP members. However, their worst hit of the conflict would occur due to the serious security risks imposed at São Porco. Although bruno_vera had been both a member of São Porco and the Order of Wilbur for several months, he was also a member of YMP, and it was becoming clear that his priorities lay more with YMP than the Wilburians. This seriously worried the other members of the base, who felt that bruno_vera would become a liability and eventually leak the city--and this was not an unfound concern, as YMP had made several threats against São Porco throughout the conflict. This paranoia reached its boiling point when several key members of São Porco held serious reason to believe that bruno_vera had betrayed them and the city in favor of YMP; not wanting to risk the city falling into their hands, the members instead opted to loot the entire city, grief it, and abandon it. Thus, on August 28th, 2021, São Porco was severely griefed by a few of its members and promptly abandoned, while bruno_vera was officially kicked from the clan.
Although the opportunity for YMP to grief São Porco had ended, the Order of Wilbur was nonetheless devastated by the loss of its capital city, being forced to relocate to a temporary location underground. They would eventually move to a new, more secure location much further out, establishing their newest capital city, New Yittrium, on September 4th. All the while, the conflict between G.S.F.W. and YMP would continue, eventually culminating into the most severe casualty when, on September 21st, 2021, GS Trading Co.'s main base was raided and griefed by YMP, promptly ending GS's dominance on the server. This created a major rift within the G.S.F.W. as many GS members left the server, leaving it more COF and OOW dominated. Nevertheless, the conflict, which would ultimately go on to be known as The GS YMP Conflict of 2021, would dissolve into an unofficial armistice as hostilities ended by October 2021.
Not wanting to be restricted by the conflict, the Order of Wilbur instead opted to be defiant of the toxicity and hostility, and founded its first major spawn base in months. On August 21st, 2021, ostrich1414 and AntiFreezeFluid would found the city of Gosnold, located on an island roughly 7.6k from spawn. Despite its close proximity to spawn, the Order of Wilbur were determined to make it both the largest and most luxurious city in the greater spawn region, modeling the city off of other iconic Wilburian megacities like Yittrium and Quabbin. Gosnold would consist primarily of tall concrete skyscrapers, many of which were built by both ostrich1414 and AntiFreezeFluid themselves. However, all Wilburians were invited to join the city, and eventually the city was opened up to all G.S.F.W. members. Outside of Wilburians, several Francillians would arrive at the city to build, and it became the second joint Wilburian-Francillian city in SimPvP history. The city's skyline was soon dotted by a plethora of unique skyscrapers, as well as temples for both the OOW and COF, a few basic farms, and its central city hall. Willowienal would even begin work on a massive stone statue of Jesus Christ nearby the city's shores.
Unfortunately, Gosnold's inevitable demise would come sooner rather than later, and the Order of Wilbur were unable to completely ignore the ongoing hostilities of the conflict. In what would largely become the last major event of the declining G.S.F.W. / YMP conflict, the Order of Wilbur received intel that YMP was actively searching for Gosnold, determined to destroy it. The city had been growing significantly throughout September 2021, but on October 1st, all that would change--and, ironically, not from YMP. OperatorUltra, OperatorLucid, and OperatorDeimos were discovered severely griefing Gosnold, block-by-block, until each skyscraper was completely dismantled, as if nothing was there. The Operators were discovered in the midst of their grief by 1590283112, and a battle thus ensued, with vv101zeli and jake276493 soon arriving to assist 1590283112 against the Operators. Unfortunately, Gosnold would be severely and utterly griefed, although not in the traditional sense; roughly three-quarters of its cityscape was removed by the Operators, leaving behind a hollow shell of what was once spawn's most unique city.
With the self-grief of São Porco, the dismantling of Gosnold, and the numerous ambushes and attacks at the hands of YMP, as well as the degredation of their allies, the Order of Wilbur had suffered significantly from a conflict in which they never wanted to participate in. Because of this, many Wilburians were left in a depressive state, discouraged by the conflict that had ravaged them.
The Wilburian Reformation
Between mid October 2021 and mid November 2021, the Order of Wilbur entered a temporary state of demoralization and inactivity due to the immense trauma from the conflict with YMP, and the overall toxic state of the server. Several Wilburians relocated from SimPvP to another semi-anarchy Minecraft server known as Uneasy Vanilla during this time, while the remainder kept quiet on SimPvP. Despite this brief break, the team would once again regroup in mid November following their return from Uneasy Vanilla, noticing that the server climate had slightly improved during their break.
Thanks to a high-output obsidian farm at New Yittrium, GentleGiant69 and ostrich1414 devised a plan to put their surplus reserves of obsidian to good use, in the form of massive statues and structures around spawn. On November 23rd, the OOW constructed a large obsidian T-rex, their first major spawn project since Gosnold. The next day, however, they would begin construction on their magnum opus: the Snail. Consisting of over 177,000 blocks of obsidian, and completely solid, this massive obsidian snail statue would instantly becoming the largest obsidian structure at SimPvP spawn. The project itself became a serverwide sensation, drawing over twenty participants, all aiding in the construction of the statue and the placement of obsidian. Between November 24th and 26th, the Snail was miraculously completed, even despite facing the threat of several battles that occurred on site. Thanks to their success, both the T-rex and Snail statues would revitalize the OOW's motivation for SimPvP and help reform them into a group with new goals and aspirations.
By this point, the Order of Wilbur was slowly growing into a more public and accepting clan, although it still kept a tight grip on its exclusivity. The emphasis on religion that had been there since 2014 had been slowly waning over time, and a new period of focus on base building and spawn projects was becoming more apparent. By December 9th, the OOW would officially release their member list to the public, a first for the clan in SimPvP history. This would come after the acceptance of a few new members, adding to the team's growth.
On November 27th, the Order of Wilbur would once again fund another major base when ostrich1414 helped establish several players from Uneasy Vanilla, including TuataraBoots, WatermelonFun11, probablynotnick, craftgirlie, and CloudDragon29. Along with LidGuy, these seven players moved much further out and eventually settled on a coastal area, founding a new city known as Pangaea. Pangaea would become an affiliated base of the OOW, and several other Wilburians would arrive to help build at the city, including MoWobbler, ElectricChugg, GentleGiant69, Laztec, and willowienal. Thanks to their obsidian farm, the Wilburians helped fund Pangaea's three-layer gold farm, as well as several skyscrapers and other buildings and farms. Over the course of the next few months, Pangaea would flourish in activity and progress, becoming a much larger city complete with a diverse set of builds in different architectural styles. It would also house many other non-Wilburians who would help contribute to the city's growth.
Perhaps the OOW's greatest achievement during this period of internal reformation would occur between early to mid December 2021, thanks to Laztec's introduction of the "Make Spawn Great Again" campaign. This campaign was determined to repair spawn through a variety of different methods, from clearing lavacasts to fixing highways; however, the first step the MSGA campaign would take under both Laztec and ostrich1414's supervision was the "Water Removal" project, in which the OOW and their allies focused on removing spawn's excessive water flooding in an effort to reduce FPS lag. By December 15th, the MSGA had been successful, clearing a large portion of spawn's largest water pocket thanks to a combined effort of Laztec constructing water-eating machines and the manual use of sponges and other solid blocks.
Thanks to the success of these many OOW-led spawn projects, as well as a few other secret ones, the group felt that they were establishing a new purpose for themselves. Furthermore, the team was unanimously opposed to drama and conflict; the toxicity of 2021, especially the conflict with YMP, had soured their interest in server politics, and by 2022, they had all but embraced neutrality. Despite this, they were still official members of the G.S.F.W., a super-alliance that did not feel fully neutral and was once again being targeted by YMP. Wanting to fully express their neutrality and focus on themselves as a group, and their own personal goals and objectives away from SimPvP politics and drama, the OOW officially withdrew from the G.S.F.W on January 4th, 2022 thanks to a unanimous decision from its members, effectively ending the alliance.
Once again free to keep to themselves, the OOW had many projects to focus on. Void City, New Yittrium, and Pangaea were prospering cities, growing in size and wealth, and the group's many other side projects were keeping them busy and motivated. TuataraBoots and ostrich1414 would take charge in the creation of a secure portal hub explicitly for use by Wilburians, using a series of one-ways to bring them to several bases. Other projects would be devised and planned, with Laztec even announcing the future continuation of the MSGA campaign. It was clear to many that the Order of Wilbur had emerged from the ashes of trauma and depression and had bloomed once again, experiencing a major reformation as a group and, arguably, entering a new renaissance period.
Continued Prosperity
As the Wilburian Reformation period continued, with new members being added to the group and new projects being planned and constructed, the Order of Wilbur was immersed in its most prosperous period yet. Fortunately, the first few months of 2022 would prove to be the most peaceful era of SimPvP in years, and the OOW's new objectives of staying neutral and peaceful allowed them to flourish and focus on numerous projects, from more work at spawn to base building and recruitment.
Laztec's trademark MSGA campaign would continue under the Order of Wilbur's supervision and funding, although a new multi-clan organization, known as The Federation, would be founded by Laztec on February 20th to centralize these spawn efforts. The water removal campaign continued on throughout January and into February, with "Phase II" of the MSGA taking hold after a short hiatus. After the team managed to remove a large chunk of SimPvP spawn's water, Laztec focused his efforts on setting up TNT dupers to destroy spawn's many lavacasts (thanks to the recent re-addition of TNT duping at spawn). One major project for the MSGA involved the clearing of lavacasts covering the Snail, the OOW's other major project months prior. Once the casts were cleared, Laztec and ostrich1414 headed a massive community project that involved the water-cubing of the entire Snail; essentially, all of the Snail was now underwater, preventing it from being lavacasted effectively. Unfortunately, due to the opposition of some players like TheOnlySlash and bruno_vera, many of the lavacasts destroyed by the MSGA were quickly replaced.
Outside of spawn projects, many Wilburian bases entered a period of growth and prosperity. Although the city of Pangaea had become a major security risk (having been discovered by two different players twice) and was promptly abandoned, the core members of the city would move on to found a brand new city, even bigger, better, and more secure than Pangaea: Kinabalu. Primarily made up of OOW members and a few other outside allies from Pangaea, Kinabalu would become another massive modern city for the group, boasting several sleek skyscrapers, high-powered farms, and other beautiful builds. Cheesy_chips22's medieval neighborhood would become a defining feature of the city, as well as LidGuy's skyscraper district and Laztec's massive villager breeding complex, Breed Corp. Unlike Pangaea, which largely functioned as a recruit base and had no real city planning, Kinabalu blossomed as a well-planned, self-sufficient city, become one of the OOW's major components.
Of course, the OOW's capital city, New Yittrium, would be thriving as well during this period. Already having created many high-tech farms thanks to GentleGiant69 and ElectricChugg, the city finally began to focus more on aesthetic builds by late March 2022. In fact, New Yittrium would undergo a massive restructuring process by April, going so far as to reshape its entire identity and rename itself. New Yittrium would subsequently change its name to "Civitrium", with the name "New Yittrium" now belonging solely to MoWobbler's district--in fact, Civitrium was now made up of several sovereign city-states, with each city-state having its own name and aesthetic. Civitrium was now the name for the "continent" in which these city-states existed, or the base overall, and each city-state established borders amongst each other. Outside of these changes, the city continued to flourish, quickly becoming the OOW's wealthiest city to date.
The OOW's two other staple cities, Void City and Nova Aeterna, also experienced growth. While Void City had been relatively stagnant for some time, it experienced another building boom by April, with Korijenkins, TheOnlySlash, and ostrich1414 contributing new builds. Meanwhile, DakkaDok would work diligently on growing and expanding Nova Aeterna, his latest endeavor in the "Nos Astra" series of bases. Void City and Civitrium would form a very close trade relationship during this time, with ostrich1414 and Korijenkins consistently trading between themselves to contribute to the growth of each base.
Outside of spawn projects and bases, the OOW would grow closer as a community. One common activity that the group engaged in frequently together was basehunting, mostly around the greater spawn region. This was largely inspired by the growth of the OOW's private portal hub, known as the Stonetown Portal Hub, which housed access to numerous old and abandoned OOW-affiliated bases. In fact, the hub itself would become a long-term project for the team, with ostrich1414, TuataraBoots, cheesy_chips22, and LidGuy all investing in its construction and expansion, including new links, new rooms, and new sections. Thanks to all of the above, the OOW's internal community would become its strongest yet, and the constant upward trajectory of the group enabled it to grow closer than ever before. Of course, the OOW would still occasionally participate in other community events, from the COF's "3rd Annual International Lord1 Day" party in February to assisting the GS-sponsored reparation of end spawn throughout February to April.
Complacency
After many months of increased growth and prosperity thanks to the Wilburian Reformation, the Order of Wilbur would finally enter a slower period by the start of summer in 2022. Large spawn projects and community events hosted by the OOW would quietly diminish as the group began focusing on their own bases, with Civitrium and Kinabalu especially growing during this period of time. Although June would be a relatively quiet month for the team, July would become one of their most important. The month would begin with the founding of Shadow Grove, the OOW's newest community project. Founded on July 10th by ostrich1414 and Laztec, Shadow Grove was unique for taking advantage of a new feature brought to SimPvP thanks to the upgrade to 1.18: building under bedrock. Due to new changes in build depth and terrain generation, the group could now build in the void under bedrock. Thus, Shadow Grove was born: a small, rustic base located not far from spawn, floating within the void under bedrock. Although Shadow Grove would grow modestly, with a few Wilburians working on the base, it would become the site of the group's most important celebration yet.
On July 29th, the Order of Wilbur would celebrate its eight year anniversary at two locations: first, at Stonetown alongside the Church of Francis, and second, at Shadow Grove, exclusive for Wilburians. This was an important moment for the OOW: not only was it celebrating eight years of existence (the longest of any clan on SimPvP), but it was the first time that the OOW was able to celebrate its anniversary in years, being unable to do so in 2021 due to the crisis with YMP. At Stonetown, the OOW would celebrate alongside their allies, the Church of Francis, exchanging gifts and partaking in other events. Then, shortly afterwards, the Wilburians would move to Shadow Grove, where every member was given an individualized, handwritten book from ostrich1414, among other gifts. The celebrations concluded with the OOW moving to the build server, helping Nebuelaz work on testing his then-in-progress event, Neb Clancy's Rainbow Sim Siege.
The next few months would steadily slow down for the OOW as members lapsed into periods of inactivity, or focused on building their bases, but community events and projects would still occur. Laztec would lead the construction of two more massive obsidian structures in early August: Terabyte and Millennium Bridge. Although Terabyte was a bit smaller in scale, and primarily constructed by Wilburians, Millennium Bridge was a behemoth of a project that required the assistance of numerous helpers outside the OOW, easily becoming the largest obsidian structure in SimPvP history at nearly 1,200 blocks long and around 175,000 total obsidian. Unfortunately, Millennium Bridge would also become the target of terrorist attacks throughout the month, primarily at the hands of Goujon and f8tal, both of whom lavacasted and withered it. Outside of these two projects, however, the OOW's involvement in large-scale community projects would decline.
Thanks to its staunch emphasis on neutrality, the OOW would entirely avoid involvement in The Dominion-Francis Conflict, which occurred throughout September to November 2022. Despite being closer allies with the Church of Francis, the OOW chose not to pick sides and largely remained uninvolved. Still, the group would continue to maintain friendly ties with the COF: ostrich1414 would attend MrDavid99's pope inauguration on September 3rd as a Wilburian diplomat, while Laztec would attend a summit between the COF and the Modern Communist Agency on October 19th. Another interesting occurrence was dacegod863's decision to revitalize Fern Springs, a forgotten and abandoned OOW spawn base that was originally founded by ostrich1414 and TuataraBoots in March 2022. Although the two had abandoned the base after one building, dacegod863 would start building there again in early December, breathing new life into the forgotten town and completely refreshing it, leading other Wilburians to return to the site and build. However, as a whole, the OOW had become much quieter by September, with most members focusing on their bases like Civitrium, Kinabalu, and Void City. After many exciting months of growth, progress, and projects, it began to appear as though the OOW was falling into a period of stagnation. This was proved further by ostrich1414's month-long hiatus in November, arguably the slowest month for the OOW of 2022. Although the year had been stellar for the group, the cracks were beginning to show.