Church of Francis

Church of Francis
Clan

Name: Church of Francis
In-game name: {{{ign}}}
Alts: The Red Empire
Status: Inactive
Date: {{{date}}}
First joined: {{{joined}}}
Last seen: {{{lastseen}}}
Formed: 8/8/2019 - 25/11/2023
Abandoned: {{{abandoned}}}
Disbanded: {{{disbanded}}}
Location: {{{location}}}
Coords:
Members: 44, as of the end of The Civil War
Clans: {{{clans}}}
Bases: See Bases/Territories
Schematic: {{{schematic}}}

PRAISE FRANCIS

The Church of Francis was a religious militant cult empire founded in 2019 revolving around their god Francis, a red sheep found at the base Syracusai. COF was by far the largest group on SimPvP during it's 4 year reign and had been at the forefront of SimPvP politics since it's founding, participating in almost every conflict and war. Francillians were also prolific base builders, having built more bases than any other clan. Frequent events were held like the SimPvP Boxout, International Lord1 Day parades and Legion Tournaments. The Church was mostly run by the Priests and the Triumvirate (The Holy King, Pope & Supreme General) with each Legion being run by it's own General.

| COF's 4th Anniversary Advert | COF Discord | COF Youtube Channel |

A depiction of Francis made by THEJudgeHolden

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Original COF banner (left) | Imperial COF banner (right)

History

Created 04/08/19

2019: Church of Francis

Pre-Church Francisism

In the early months of 2019, the Fellowship of the Kittens hosted a few notable players that would go on to found the Church and define the Second Burning Age. At their capital city, Syracusai, FOK member Lord1 would find and house Francis the red sheep. Francis would be displayed in downtown Syracusai for a couple months, around this time Lord wrote a book named 'Elder Gods of FOK', which listed a few characters and ingame mobs which the FOK members claimed as their gods. These gods include Pepe the frog (An idea by MrMeeps and Bacon_15, would go on to be the mascot of the clan Meme.), Olgrem (Son of Francis and God of War) and of course Francis himself.

However the impending doom of a grief of Syracusai was inevitable, FOK member Tenced and Lord1 would lead Francis out of the main city and hide him in a cave where he would stay for over a year. When the grief of all FOK bases came at the hands of The Fellowship, all fingers pointed at Lord1 which split the former FOK members apart. Lord would go his own way and take on a multitude of failed and outright cringe attempts to gain some notoriety and power, whilst the rest of the former FOK members went on to build the city of Passacaglia.

However, Lord and Tenced's bond and love for each other couldn't be stopped any longer. The two would start talking again about the possibility of returning to and expanding the former FOK industrial city of Hammerhall but they eventually came to the conclusion that starting a new base would be safer, thus the creation of New Hammerhall was set into motion.

Birth of the Church

Whilst the construction of New Hammerhall was underway, Tenced & Lord went on to invite tons of players including iPyxis, Wolfiee__, CranberryWarrior and Unix System. Lord1 finally finished his cathedral and it was agreed it would be dedicated specifically to the religion of Francisism. Furthermore, the fervour of Minecraft religious clans was on the rise at the time and it was decided that the members of New Hammerhall wouldn't pass this opportunity, thus the Church of Francis (clan) was established on the 8th of August 2019.

The clan's first breakout into SimPvP's public eye was a organized raid and 'invasion' of a chain of The Conspiracy's bases. Days earlier, Lord1 had discovered the chain of portals inside The Capital's potion brewer which connected to Andromeda and ultimately connected to MisterStrawmans own portal hub, of which had portals to Golden Sun and The Vault (The Conspiracy's main storage base).

However, this invasion didn't go quite as planned. During the original scouting mission, JavelinFury came online at The Vault as Lord1 was scouting it, Lord1 drank a invis potion and tried to escape without raising Jav's suspicion but this was futile as Jav tried to go /world within 50 blocks of Lord1, thus Jav figured someone was invis at the base. The next day the Conspiracy evacuated The Vault, then completely blew it up.

(JavelinFury running past a invis Lord1 inside the main hall of The Vault)

As the first ever deployment of the COF army set on the city of Golden Sun, clipchip and JavelinFury ambushed the unprepared and disorganised militia and a battle would break out, causing two COF troops to die and the rest to flee. Ultimately though, the goal was achieved and the COF force returned home with the spoils of their raids. A month later in September, Lord and Tenced were approached by Out_Here_Sneezin (later Burger_Malone) about a new clan union that was to be called the Bloc for Smaller Clans (BSC), to which the Priests of COF agreed to join, but not all people were pleased to see such a powerful clan of new players arise...

The Holy War

On October 17th, ostrich1414, unofficial leader of The Order of Wilbur declared a Holy Crusade against the Church of Francis. Ostrich saw the Church as a copycat clan which threatened Wilburian Dominance in the religious realm of SimPvP, thinking that defeating them in war would diminish the clan into obscurity and gain notoriety for his own.

The Army of Francis saw some victories in the first half of the war, holding back ostrich from annexing 'The Capital' and crushing the Wilburian army at the Battle of Andromeda. However, the Wilburian Army pulled in tons of allies and had multiple cities producing and supplying their army, whilst the Francillians had a single industrial district at their capital, Francistan, supplying their army. Ultimately the better army proved itself at the Battle of Snowfrog & Battle of Monarchia where the Wilburians decisively pushed back the Francillians.

The final straw in the Francillians defeat was at the Battle of the Francillian Holy Land, Syracusai. The start of the battle saw the Francillians crush the Wilburian defenders, killing 3 of their troops at no expense of their own. Yet, Wilbur reinforcements came, and kept coming. This attrition tactic would be the Francillians downfall. Like Wilbur himself had planned this out from the start, Lord1's internet cut out in the middle of combat, allowing AntHand to slay him with the rest of the Francillians retreating. The Francillians had also run out of war supplies and Lord1 issued a conditional surrender.

The Wilburians and Francillians met at the neutral city of Verillium where Lord1 and Ostrich drafted up the terms and formalized the end of the war. The Holy War was notable for being the first formalized war, hosting the largest battles ever seen on SimPvP.

2020: The Red Empire

Intervention War

COF was keen not to collapse after the defeat in The Holy War, instead adopting a more aggressive attitude against other clans and players as a defence mechanism, whilst also networking with the other Bloc for Smaller Clans members in a effort to gain some allies in case of another large war. COF's oldest enemy at the time, The Conspiracy, had plans of a even larger war than the Holy War. After hearing this, COF delegates in the BSC called for a pre-emptive strike against the clan. A 10 person task force of the now Bloc for Clans (BC) annexed and raided MCCAPITAL, starting the Intervention War, a dark and unfun period of the servers history characterized by unyielding toxicity, petty skirmishes and base griefs. COF's participation in this was big, but ultimately fruitless, wasting tons of resources and time and set the stage for even more conflicts.

In early 2020, Francis-Wilbur tensions exploded with The Sigil Conflict. Starting with the defacing and petty grief of a Francis Chapel in the city of Sigil, leading to a investigation by a COF task force which started off harmless with more of a larpy sentiment to it which became far more real when Willowienal came to Wawuwiva's aid after being punched a few times by Lord1, causing a small battle to take place. It's also important to mention GummyBearz was killed by Lord1 when COF arrived, however Lord returned her gear and apologized.

From the perspective of the other offline Sigil members, Lord1 was 'killing everyone and taking over Sigil', a notion that stuck for months after. After hearing these false rumours, Lord1 killed everyone and took over Sigil. Shorty after, Ostrich came to defend Sigil, griefing the Francis chapel and battled the occupying Francillians. A diplomatic agreement was then made and the tensions once again cooled off (Lord1 was then put on trial in VC on the BC discord, kicked out of the BC and went of a griefing rampage against the BC, but was allowed back in after???wtf relly??).

On the 6th of February, CrackyJoe became the first ever Pope of the Church after being baptised at 'The Holy Land'. Soon after, The Church official recognized the 'Francymbol' as it's main symbol. From February to May 2020, the Church claimed/created 6+ bases/outposts and the full member list including recruits was up to 20.

Republic-Francis Conflict

Throughout the first half of 2020, Former Wilburian Holy War Vets as well as newly joined victims of COF grew to despise Lord1's leadership of COF, seeing him as a impulsive tyrant who was only getting more and more powerful (which was true tbf). As a means to counter COF's growth and MBI's success, Zepheron planned a the new clan The Republic. The Republic was announced directly after the massacre of the Second SimPvP Summit and flocks of COF's enemies and independent players alike joined their ranks, even a Republic-Sponsored trade guild was formed, Exultia, to compete with Lord1's Melon Boiz Inc.™

The Stonetown Incident was a notable event in this period, which saw ownership of the Wilburian Holy Land, Stonetown, given to Lord1 by Pippenger in an attempt to undermine ostrich's ambitions of annexing it for the Order of Wilbur due to internal disputes. This heavily contributed to the alienation of COF and OOW for the rest of the year.

The next couple of months could be seen as COF's darkest period and the closest it's come to extinction since the Holy War. The Republic blew up the Francillian city of Olgremont as well as the COF Capital city, Two Words. In retaliation, Lord1 & Wawuwiva went to the Wilburian Holy Land, Stonetown, and relentlessly griefed it. This action caused Tenced, the Co-Founder of COF, to leave the clan. Priest iPyxis would also leave around this time too. The entire server was outraged at Lords actions, so Pope CrackyJoe and Supreme General Lord1 devised a publicity stunt to try quell the anti COF hate. Lord was 'excommunicated' from COF for his actions and was conveniently voted back in days later.

The remaining COF priests and disciples came to the conclusion that encouraging the conflict with the Republic would only benefit them, thus COF started working on more internal projects including new outposts, bases, free supplies and discounts for members, a public propaganda contest with a winning pool of 40 DB and soon the first election for a Priest.

Seventwoworlds winning piece by default
AGTcraft's second place piece
Wawu's third place piece

In early august 2020, the Church hit 1 year old. Around this time, the Church had 23 members including Disciples, Priests, Recruits and the Pope. TonTheKidRS would go on to win the Priest election, and like any good politician, never did any of the things he promised in his election speeches. A month after in September saw the most Church military activity since the Intervention War, as the church executed Operation Red Terror. This operation was to strike multiple bases within a short period built by enemies of the Empire, most being culprits of the Two Words grief. The bases attacked include PANOSKYLO's Base, Cutmans Base, QuantumEntropy's Base, Bbbbbbixieland, Elon Dusk and MisterStrawmans City & Portal Hub. The montage of the griefs can be found [here]

During the grief of Elon Dusk, Lord1 saw in chat that ElectricChugg was at a build near spawn, he quickly flew there and caught Chugg putting his gear into a shulker, to which Lord stole it all and killed him. This caused him to round up his Wilburian allies and challenge the Francillians to a battle. The battle was arranged in a swamp biome near spawn, with ostrich, MoWobbler and ElectricChugg coming to represent the Order of Wilbur. A Francillian force of Lord1, James8B and a newly recruited young man called Xexc (I wonder if he will go on to be a great Francillian...?) turned up at the battlefield. After a solid hour of trench warfare and water pvp, the Francillians decisively pushed the Wilburian force back with ElectricChugg dying (twice), ostrich retreating and MoWobbler chased until he retreated also. The first Francis-Wilbur battle in a year had been won by COF, and it gave them the confidence and pride they hadn't felt since before The Holy War.

The Imperial War

Operation Red Terror and the rapid rise of COF's Empire in late 2020 frightened many players on Simpvp, especially those already spiteful against Lord1. So plans were set in place and the disgruntled players started to get together and plot against the Church. At the 1 year Holy War anniversary, Xexc would be camped at spawn by Sellout9 and TheOnlySlash. Although Sellout states he was "only joking", Xexc saw this as aggression. In the next week Xexc would kill Sellout9 2 times in /world as revenge, and later AntHand for suspecting him of helping. This would be the final straw for them, now with a Casus Belli, the soon to be People's Coalition prepared for all out war with COF. The Church would find out their plan for war through spies, and immediately started preparing for war.

When war was declared by the People's Coalition, the Church was slow to respond as to make sure their war plan would play out the way they intended. Spy recruitment was initiated and multiple were inserted into the PC, so until they noticed, the Church was completely aware of the PC's every move. The first half of the war was characterized by the griefs of abandoned bases and small battles near spawn and in /world. This was until the Grand Army of Francis raided Gold Forge Citadel, one of the founding states of the People's Coalition.

It was silent for the next few weeks as the PC had been using a tamed animal exploit to find Lord1's and Tenced's main base, Three Words. The Church was desperate to arrange peace so they didn't have to attack Quabbin which housed many neutral targets and friends of COF. After rejecting the peace offering, the PC raided Three Words and then immediately agreed to arranging peace. This is when the PC split between members who wanted to continue the war until COF was destroyed and those who wanted peace. Those who wanted COF's destruction raided Pepe's Holy Land, but after both factions of the PC agreed to peace. However even up until the very end there was spiteful and secretive attacks, the subfaction of the PC who wanted COF's destruction killed Pope Crackjoe and planned to carry out more attacks post war as peace was being discussed and Lord1 with the strategic help of James8B secretly raided Quabbin. However, on the 28th of January the peace meeting was held at Gibraltar castle and the war came to a end.

2021: The Holy States

During the Imperial War, some COF members (specifically Lord1) wanted to transform the clan and started planning a reform (big mistake tbh). After the war ended they commit to the changes and on the 30th of January, Project "Divine Pillars" went into effect, changing the Church's political system and changing the name of COF (though these changes did very little in retrospect).

After this change, the Francillians saw more public projects than ever before. A few internal incidents happened with two troopers that caused their excommunication from the group (who later went on to join YMP), other than that the post-war recruitment hit sky high and the group could actually afford to give the new members supplies and helped them start bases.

Freindship Work Camps

Post-war Simpvp saw a lot of Francillian warriors burnt out and looking to relax, they did this by starting fun and prosperous work camps for new players! The first work camp to be started was the FFWC 'Francillian Freindship Work Camp' and focused a huge amount of noobs to mining and building on their camp. Another fun fun fun camp was the Moron Mine, which was a safe and wholesome diamond mine on the outer reaches of spawn. All workers were well behaved until they were forced to kill each other. The workers of this camp went on to escape for 20 minutes, but were tricked to kill themselves and sent back to the mine :-)

First Francis Golden Age

Recruit & Trooper bases are erected to house many displaced and homeless newer members of the group, such as Mecca, the alien infested Desert village, and Mooford Compound, a recruit inhabited society. Constant loyalty and faith from Generals Xexc and James8B had earnt themselves the promotion to Priest as a result of Tenced's announced hiatus and other Francillian elites going inactive. By this time Lord1 was reinstated as Supreme General. On the 29th, Yukarion decided to include Lord1 & Tenced's city Three words in the BRP (Base Restoration Policy) meaning anyone who got coords through AntHand would be banned for going to the city.

Soon after, the Francillian builders & allies got to work on restoring the base and re-instating it as Francillian Capital City. Early April saw more work on the Francillian capital, but also the planning of more clan events. The Legion Tournament was planned and prepared by General David and consisted of battles between the 3 Legions of the Grand Army of Francis. In the end, the Norse Legion, commanded by Generals Corleone & Xexc, took the W. Another HSOF event hosted at 3 Words, The 1st Francillian base Competition where the biggest and best bases across the Francillia competed for sexiest base. Bodacious Sneeze took first place closely followed by Ragnarok. Before any voting took place, _Goujon_ made a unexpected appearance, After refusing to leave, Francillian warriors pounced and attacked him. After being chased around 3 Words for 10 mins, Goujon agreed to leave and Lord1 showed him the way out.

Confederacy-Francis War

A new clan had been founded in May 2021, the Confederacy of Man, consisting of Spanish players who were never incorporated into COF like the Spanish Inquisition. These Spaniards hated Francis and all Francillians, and publicly antagonized them by declaring "HSOF Elites will be hunted". However in retrospect, it seems this comment was what got COM hunted. Father Xexc had infiltrated COM by sacrificing a abandoned HSOF farm base, beleiving Xexc had truly defected to COM they invited him to their Capital City, Nueva Confederada, which was shorty after raided and griefed by the Francillians.

On the 8th of June, HSOF would finally enter an alliance with The Order of Wilbur. During this time talks were held about a possible super allaince with the Order of Wilbur & GS Trading.

The Confederacy Francis war would go quiet for the next few weeks as the confederates regeared and rebuilt and Francillian spies infiltrated them.

2021: Empire of Francis

The Second Empire

After over a year of service from Pope Joe, he felt he wasn't active enough for the role and subsequently stood down, with Lord1 being voted in as the next pope. With the new powers as Pope of HSOF, Lord held a vote to reform his beloved Empire. The vote passed and the Empire of Francis is reformed in the stead of the Holy States. COF celebrated at the city of Hype Base, where the first iterations of Francoin were experimented with. Around this time, YMP had begun to enter a phase of activity and pride in themselves, their PvP skills were rather formidable and started to pose a threat to the big three: the Church of Francis, Order of Wilbur and GS Trading Co. (the three most powerful clans at the time) who all agreed to join in a trilateral alliance, which became GSFW

YMP had been targeting COF & GS assets, including the Pope Inauguration Ceremony at the former HSOF outpost at 100k 100k where a small force of YMP savages attacked, instigating a hour long battle between COF x GS vs YMP. The Battle was ultimately won by the COF x GS coalition, but this would only be the start of a long and toxic period of conflict now known as The GS YMP Conflict of 2021 or the 'GSFW-YMP Conflict'. GSFW members would go on to grief multiple YMP bases and battle YMP on multiple occassions, however YMP had a secret weapon (X-Ray) which helped them acquire tens of bases which they relentlessly pillaged and griefed.

For a brief period, the Francillians close off recruitment to stop YMP spies and worked on stability in the clan in the turbulent time late 2021 was. The propaganda department is once again reactivated and started focusing on adverts, posters and movie production.

End of the Confederacy-Francis War

The Confederacy-Francis War was still active at this point, however after a successful spy operation, Francillians gained access to most of COM's bases. On the 27th August, the Empire of Francis strikes the bases as well as one of YMP's bases. Later COM would disband due to inactivity among ranks and the Francillians would claim victory over the war. The Francillians also absorbed many of COM's members who would go on to become devout disciples and citizens of Bestia Papa, a glorious COF city lead by IAmTheSheriff.

But that didn't leave the Empire without enemies, The GS YMP Conflict of 2021 had still been active around this time and the Francillians had been the biggest supporter to GS during the war, which had huge casualties on both sides. However a informal peace was declared around November, to which GSFW embraced but according to spy intelligence the rebels in YMP had been planning another war specifically against the Francillians, but at the time didn't have enough coords to enact their plans and was postponed so YMP could X-Ray more COF bases.

2022: Second Francis Golden Age

2022 becomes COF's most peaceful and prosperous period with frequent public events, base building, recruitment, diplomacy and minimal conflict with other clans.

Return of Traditional COF

After a party and Church ceremony at New Hammerhall on December 30th, the Empire of Francis returns to it's traditional name; Church of Francis. Lord1 however kept the title of Emperor, as there was already a Pope and he didn't want to give up leadership yet. Another victory came as the vile YMP was permanently jailed after over half a year of X-Raying COF bases, to which they then disbanded and left the server, bringing an end to the years of conflict. However shortly before this, the Order of Wilbur declared it's withdrawal from GSFW, ending the short lived Super-Alliance.

The subsequent period would be defined by a slight dip in church activity, many Francillian builders had lost their homes to the repugnant YMP and the vast Francillian legions had been left with no more rebels to battle. however some members still played and would spent a lot of time hunting spawn terrorists and providing a level of support to Wilburian spawn campaigns.

International Lord1 Day 2022

To celebrate the Emperor on the day he joined 3 years ago, COF planned a parade which hosted lots of other clans and players on the server. Players from the Order of Wilbur, GS Trading Co., The 88 and many neutrals came to show their support to the legendary COF leader, and a very unorganised military march was displayed.

Collaboration on the Map Art Competition

With the 2022 Map Art Competition starting, Francillians were quick to brainstorm ideas for a group map entry. Soon after, artist IAmTheSheriff put together a design and the crew at Hype base 2 started clearing the area and building. Mostly Lord1 would make the map but some helped supply mats and place blocks. These efforts paid off as their map won the competition with 32 votes.

Lord1 becomes King

Weeks of begging Yukarion had paid off, Lord1 was given the Crown of SimPvP. COF then hosted the coronation at the city of Bestia Papa. Pope Xexc would crown Lord1 as the Holy King of SimPvP. 20 players from across the realm had attended. Also around this period, COF saw a moderate intake of new members, of which performed many public works projects, whilst the majority of the other active Francillians worked on their personal bases and stockpiled resources.

COF hits 3 years old

From May to August 2022, COF slowly inducted new members like ChuckFuk, LPmaster, Agekka and Amanako. Not only new members would grace the server with their presence, but OG COF from 2020 would sometimes return to build or partake in events and festivities. Some of these events would include Church ceremonies at new bases like the blossoming 'Name Pending'. Francillians would also partake in the creation of The Frantion, a megalithic obsidian spawn building designed and organised by the blessed disciple Unkn0wnSFR.

Around a week later, the sequel to the SimPvP Boxout Championship from 2021 would be hosted. The SimPvP Boxout 2: Ring of Fire would be held near spawn on the 6th of August, massing a total of 24 players. Ultimately, server owner Yukarion would take home the victory after destroying 4 opponents at the same time by himself. Two days later, the Church would hit 3 years old.

MrDavid99 becomes Pope

Pope Xexc decides to step down and leave COF on the 22nd of August, subsequently the Priests hold a vote for the selection of a new Pope. After 24 hours, MrDavid99 wins with 9 votes with Tenced coming close second with 8. On September 3rd, a Inauguration event is held in the ruins of Gibraltar Castle which was built by David and other Spanish-Francillians and then griefed in 2020 by the Peoples Coalition. 15 Players turn up to listen to the Pope's speech and then fights are held in the arena, David 1v1's everyone who turned up and beats every single opponent.

UnknownSFR becomes to newest Priest on the 20th of September for his work on events and projects. A few weeks before, work starts on Name Pending's successor base, Name Still Pending.

After diplomatic talks, the Modern Communist Agency, a fairly new clan to the server with around 5 members swears fealty and allegiance to the King and the Church. Diplomats from both groups met at the MCA's first base, The Trench Base, to ratify their vassalization into COF.

The Dominion-Francis Conflict

In the later months of 2022, TheOnlySlash was bored and wanted to wage a great war against his ancient enemy, COF. He declared war on behalf of his clan, The Dominion on the 21st of September. The first half of the war was characterized by medium scale skirmishes in /world, with the Dominion scoring more kills overall. Around this time the Dominion also had coords to intact COF bases and was planning for large scale griefs of them, Danimania who was secretly working as one of COF's spies during the war, informed COF of these attacks to which the bases were self griefed. As the weeks went by, more and more Dominion members started to slip back into inactivity, whilst COF numbers stayed strong. During the last weeks of the war, COF was winning almost all skirmishes.

Notable members would rank up during this time serving against the Dominion, like Swiggles who went from a Trooper to General of his own legion, the newly formed Deepstate Legion. Eventually on the 7th of November, TheOnlySlash begged Lord1 in order to arrange peace. The two would meet in world and bring an end to the conflict. The Conflict would claim 15 casualties and a COF base, also halted COF events and recruitment for 2 months. both immediately turned their eyes to the new influx of players and made an attempt to initiate the Third Siege.

COF's involvement in the Third Siege was a concentration camp outside spawn, over the course of the first day hosted around 10 new players. A COF Siege Fort was also constructed on the highway in the ruins of the Franthion, named Fort Squirtstain (named after a spawn town built earlier in the year). COF wouldn't return to the siege effort in any important manor after that.

2023: Rebel Crackdowns

Operation Red Justice

Only weeks after the peace deal between COF and the Dominion and the disappointment that would be the Third Siege, Dominion Rebel Leader TheOnlySlash would break the peace deal and grief LPmasters base. Realising they still had a spy issue in their ranks, COF priests brainstormed and came to the conclusion that it could only be Agekka. Operation Red Justice was initiated by King Lord1 and Agekka would be assassinated by General Palo on the 26th of November 2022. The aims of Operation Red Justice were to re-establish stability within COF, purge the clan of disloyal and double down on anti-rebel campaigns.

It was also decided by the priests that a new rank should be added above Imperial Disciple. They decided on Templar rank and gave it to notorious Francillians who had been serving for over a year and proved themselves. As the months went on, Operation Red Justice was going to plan. Most notably, the Kurwa Legion and the Deepstate Legion lead by Generals ItzPalo and _Swiggles_ respectively would deploy to the front line of /world frequently. Combined, both legions racked up over 20 rebel kills as of January 2023.

Emergence of the Wasp War

With the return of COF rival Antzakes1 a few months earlier and the reignition of his efforts to undermine COF stability & interfere with imperial trade, high command would focus on combating him and his newly recruited henchmen. Though for now this would consist of minor dogfights in /world and insults.

On the second of January 2023, the Deepstate Legion held a grand ceremony to celebrate the service of Saint Xexc and to send off the Grand Imperial city of Deepstate. This was the result of a small group within Deepstate removing access to the farms under the false notion that the general of the base, Swiggles, was planning to sell coords. The small group would then separate from COF and start their own base. Not wanting a separatist faction keeping once COF-owned farms, some of the generals would start a operation to find the separatist base.

A leaving party was held on the 28th of January in the former COF town of 'Name Still Pending' in celebration of Father Unknown's departure for IRL military service. Speeches were held to commemorate everything he had done for the clan and for the server.

The COF generals had successfully located the separatist base, a Task Force Fury squad was scrambled and sent. To COF's surprise, multiple separatists would log on during the operation which lead to one of the biggest battles in over a year of the entire server. COF successfully eliminated all online separatists, but one of them would call other rebels to come aid the base. Egnaroky and Hiiy (both with a history of rebel activities) would turn up at the base to aid the separatists and were swiftly destroyed by the TFF squad. In the following days, the Clover Separatists would be in contact with Antzakes1 & his goons. The secret coalition "The People's Resistance of the Church of Francis" would soon be formed from the two groups as well as HijaxV2 who whilst being a COF member, sympathized with the Clover group.

A video was made of the Battle of Clover

Within the next month, two more separatist outposts were located and invaded. The second invasion saw one rebel eliminated.

After the third invasion, a treaty was signed with the separatist faction after seeing two rebels eliminated, this treaty wouldn't last. A few weeks later, a spawn town inhabited by a group of chat spamming new players was located and neutralised, in part due to their perceived hostility towards the Church.

On the 20th of February, Corleone retired as Supreme General. Tenced was selected as his successor. At the same time, Lpmaster123 was chosen to be the newest Priest of COF.

4th Lord1 Day & Legions II

To celebrate the King of SimPvP on his 4th year on the server, Supreme Chancellor Hijax and Le_Reviewer organized a ceremony at Castle Snowfrog where speeches were given and gifts were exchanged.

The next week, with help from MrDavid99 and HijaxV2, COF Legions Tournament II would take place. The event included a quiz and multiple team fighting & duelling events. The Kurwa Legion & the Deepstate Legion would come in joint first place, taking the Norse Legions place from 2021.

Tenced Becomes Pope

With the voluntary (?) jailing of Pope MrDavid99, COF co-founder Tenced was selected by the Imperial Clergy to become the new Pope. The next day, decorated hero Swiggles would be promoted to Priest and Supreme General of the Grand Imperial Army.

The Wasp War

As of April, the conflict involving the People's Resistance of the Church of Francis ('PROTCOF') had consisted of a handful of small - medium dogfights in /World and Spawn. However taking place behind the scenes was the largest 'Spy War' to date. Multiple attempts from both sides to infiltrate the other, feed misinformation, execute counterintelligence & acquire enemy positions & coordinates, all with varying success rates. The end game goal for PROTCOF was to convince COF high command that the Church was riddled with unloyal members with the hope that they would start kicking out random members. PROTCOF agents would also feed misinformation to COF, making them believe that PROTCOF had access to multiple high value COF bases and was planning a huge offensive. HijaxV2, who by now was the Supreme Chancellor of the newly reformed (yet defunct) Imperial Senate had supposedly exposed the secret existence of PROTCOF to Lord1, including their aims and members. Lord ordered Hijax to stay within PROTCOF and to feed back info whilst simultaneously gaining trust for PROTCOF coords.

(For clarity, Although this does make me sound more badass this is not the case, PROTCOF was a short-lived small group consisting of only 5 members for around 20 days in January, After that it become defunct and its goals at the time were completely different than what has been previously stated, its goal was to start an actual organized Resistance to COF. After January it never existed again, Hijax only informed Lord1 about the previous existence of the group during the Information War in march because it wasn't a secret and why keep a secret? -Hijax)

However, Hijax wasn't the only informant COF had. After cross examining multiple COF spy reports, High command was convinced Hijax was a double... triple agent? Lord1, embarrassed he had fallen victim to such a gullible play, plotted a counteroffensive. On April 2nd, Hijax was lured to a 'Diplomatic Summit' and subsequently assassinated by Supreme General Swiggles. The Grand Imperial Army of Francis then griefed a string of Hijax's bases. During the grief of the PROTCOF outpost 'The Hole', Antzakes1 and his allies (now in their own group, The Supreme Cult Of Tem) would arrive, engaging with the COF griefers. After about 2 hours of air combat, COF forces had killed Hijax again and killed PastChicken6240.

(Sidenote: The PVP technique involving only air combat, even against ground troops is referred to as 'Wasping'. Antzakes1, The Supreme Cult of Tem ('TSCOT') and the remains of PROTCOF only utilised Wasping throughout the war. COF designated the entire enemy coalition as 'Femwasps', taking & changing 'Tem' from TSCOT into 'Fem' (LOL!!) and adding Wasp.)

The following month, dogfights in /World would continue yielding impressive enemy casualties, but eventually the fighting died down. In the meantime, COF agents would gather & destroy a handful of low value Femwasp bases, notably 'Clover 4', Valor and Valleria (again). After intense spy operations directed by Lpmaster123 and Supreme General Swiggles, COF agents hit the jackpot and acquired coordinates to Excabor, a high value Femwasp base on the world border. With help from GS Trading Co. logistics and COF flyers, COF had a portal to the base and soon after executed an assault.

The Church has recorded 20+ Femwasp kills since January, whilst suffering 2-3 friendly casualties. A playlist of all COF videos posted from the Wasp War

However, in September both COF and TSCOT would come to terms on a peace deal. TSCOT would admit defeat and COF would extend a offer of alliance.

2023: The Fall of Francis

The Civil War

The Holy King of COF and SimPvP, Lord1, had grown tired of clan affairs. On top of this he recently got a hot girlfriend, so he started to plan his retirement from the clan and Sim politics. Instead of just picking a successor he decided to let SimPvP fight for one, beginning The Civil War.

4 Teams entered the war and fought for their candidate, Lord would lead the Imperial Loyalists with Swiggles as the candidate. The once feared Grand Imperial Army of Francis would suffer disastrous defeats at the Battle of Yittrium and the Battle of Hamadale, though surprisingly came back swinging at the Battle of Three Words, the COF's former capital city, where at first they lost some troops but managed to destroy the remaining Wilburians, ABC fighters and TSCOT Knights. The next Battle took place at Craftablia, where ABC team and the Imperial Loyalists faced off 1 on 1, ultimately the highly trained ABC troops won the battle with the death of the last Loyalist troop on the field, Lord1, which also officially marked the end of his reign over SimPvP.

ABC team would end up victorious in the Civil War and Sav5 would be named as the new King of SimPvP. However, during sav5's coronation as King, one of his own troops would assassinate him in an effort to win the Crown of SimPvP for himself, though unsuccessful. Proceeding this was a giant battle in the crowd, leading to 6+ neutral players dead and 1 ABC fighter dead. Two more ABC fighters would return to the battleground and fight the alliance of Loyalists, TSCOT Knights and Wilburians, after a couple of hours the last ABC fighter died to former COF Supreme General, Corleone.

On the 25th on November Lord informally disbanded the Church, bringing an end to a group which started as a silly larp joke and rose to the largest, most influential, most powerful and most widespread empire that SimPvP had ever seen.

The end of the Church of Francis

Theology

Francis was found in Syracusai, after a few weeks as Syracusai developed, Lord1 housed him. Francis went on to be a Fellowship of the Kittens Elder God, and was first worshipped in the early months of 2019. Francis is believed to be God of SimPvP, and his followers are responsible for enacting his will and protecting fellow Praisers. Francis also has a sheep son called Olgrem, and is considered to be the God of War with some failed branches of COF named after him, like the Olgremese Templars.

(depiction of Francis by TheJudgeHolden)

(depiction of Francis by LidGuy)

Ranks

Holy King

The divine supreme rightful ruler of all COF and SimPvP.

Pope

The sacred chosen representative of Francis himself.

Supreme General

The ultimate commander of the combined Grand Imperial Army of Francis.

Priest

A small circle of distinguished and capable leaders and pious Francillians.

Templar Disciple

Honourable, trusted and long term members of COF.

Disciple

The Disciple rank holds 3 sub-ranks:

-Imperial Disciple

A Disciple who has proved themselves.

-Enlightened Disciple

A capable newer Disciple who is improving and making progress.

-Novice Disciple

A newly promoted Disciple.

Trooper

Someone who have shown interest in the group and has put some work in.

Recruit

Worms, barely even considered members.

Titles

- Hero of the Church of Francis

Someone who has done something(s) heroic and extraordinary in service of the Church.

- Saint

A title held by former Popes of the Church.

- Holy War / Imperial War / Wasp War Veteran

Awarded to soldiers (from any side) who fought in either the Holy War, Imperial War or Wasp War.

- Supreme Chancellor

(Example: Supreme Monke Chancellor) Bestowed upon individuals who administrate certain channels in the COF discord.

- Propaganda Minister

Awarded to individuals who have made a considerable amount of propaganda for COF.

- Janitor of the Church of Francis

Someone who mops the floor.

Grand Imperial Army of Francis

Swiggles is the current Supreme General and operates all of the Grand Francillian Army, under authority of the Holy King. The hierarchy of the military: Pope & Priests -> Supreme General -> General -> Commander -> Knight -> Conscript.

Legions

The Imperial Grand Army of Francis is mostly made up of 8 legions. When together, they are the largest force simpvp has ever witnessed. As of 2022, the Legion system is mostly unused and stands as more of a ceremonial aspect of COF.

Royal Legion

General: King of SimPvP

Founded: 2021

Unlike the other legions, the Royal Legion consists of new generation Francillians and knights who don't identify with the other legions. It is also the largest legion but most members are lazy and never turn up to fights.

Spanish Legion

General: General PowerXInfinito

Founded: 2021

The Spanish legion consists of Spanish speaking Spaniards from Spain. Highly affiliated with the Spanish Inquisition.

Norse Legion

Generals: General Montana

Founded: 2021

The Norse legion consists of Scandinavian Francillians

CanaDutch Legion

General: General IDenyMyCrits

Founded: 2021

The CanaDutch Legion is the product of two other legions merging together. Originally the Germanic Legion & NA Legion, their Generals agreed to merge to increase in size.

Meme Legion

General: General MrMeeps

Founded: 2022

The Meme Legion is the result of the clan 'Meme.' being incorporated into the Church of Francis

Communist Legion

General: General White_Starline

Founded: 2022

The Communist Legion was formed with the induction of the Modern Communist Agency into COF, formalised on the 19th of Ocotober 2022 at the Trench Accords.

Deepstate Legion

General: General Swiggles

Founded: 2022

The Deepstate Legion was created after a influx of new COF members from the city of Deepstate Forge. Formalised on the 4th of November 2022 during the construction of the Grand Imperial Deepstate Francillian Cathedral.

Kurwa Legion

General: General ItzPalo

Founded: 2022

The Kurwa Legion was created on the 16th of November 2022 when Commando Palo wanted to lead her own legion. The Kurwa Legion is the only legion ever lead by a women!! #feminisim

Knights

Established on the 8th of August 2019 before the invasion on The Conspiracy, the Francillian Knights are categorized as any Francis praiser who fights enemies on foot. The Francillian army was the main fighting power during The Holy Wilbur-Francis War, The Intervention War, The Imperial War, Confederacy-Francis War and The Dominion-Francis Conflict. In all of these wars, Francillian knights kill more and die less and are regarded as some of the best fighters on simpvp, especially during larger battles.

Francillian Air Force

Officially established on the 28th of October 2019, FAF pilots are categorised as any Francis praiser who fights enemies with elytra in the sky, also before it was removed FAF was responsible for operating TNT bombers. The FAF was a crucial aspect of the Francillian Military during the Francillians many wars, especially the Holy War and Imperial War. When in battle as the FAF would provide important air support to the Knights and gather the positions of the enemy forces and keep them busy when the knights needed to resupply.

During the Imperial War, lots of knights had to constantly switch between sword pvp and elytra pvp, so FAF tac tics from the Holy War were used. However in modern day SimPvP warfare, it's unstrategic to limit multiple troops to a single combat role, so FAF as a branch quickly went defunct but it's presence lingers here on the wiki and on the Francis discord in the form of old roles, however the strategies developed for FAF are still in use.

Task Force Fury (TFF)

TFF was an elite selection of Francillian personnel for the most challenging operations and tasks, but over the years it developed into Francis' spy program. Formed on the 20th of October 2019 during the Holy War, TFF's first mission was the annexation of Tol Honeth. During the Imperial War, at it's peak, TFF had 5 active spies inside the Peoples Coalition, constantly feeding information back to high ranking COF. This was essential in the war effort and the Church would've lost without it.

TFF once again proved it's worth during Confederacy-Francis War as TFF spies in COM supplied the Empire with coords to 3 bases. Soon after the three bases were blown up, COM would disband and Francis claimed victory over the war.

In The Dominion-Francis Conflict, TFF spies managed to alert COF to the impending griefs of some bases, to which they were self griefed. The information gathered by these spies also helped COF strategy.

During the Wasp War, TFF was at the apex of it's existence. Constantly infiltrating the Femwasps and providing the Francillian war machine with coordinates, like Valor & Excabor. But mostly counterintelligence, finding spies within COF ranks and dissecting rebel info for authenticity.

Campaigns

A list of notable military campaigns conducted by the Grand Imperial Army of Francis.

2019

Invasion of The Conspiracy

In August of 2019, the first deployment of the COF army marched on the cities of Golden Sun, Andromeda, The Capital and MisterStrawman's Portal Hub. Conspiracy troops would show up and battle COF at Golden Sun with great success, pushing COF back.

The Holy War

The Order of Wilbur would declare a crusade upon COF and subsequently COF upon OOW, leading to many large scale battles with varying outcomes. COF would surrender after running out of supplies.

The Intervention War

A guerrilla conflict between the Bloc for Clans (which COF was a member-state of) and The Conspiracy - The Dominion alliance. It would last for months and resulted in over 10 griefed bases and no positive outcome for either side.

2020

The Sigil Conflict

A political and armed conflict involving the Church and the members of Sigil and OOW.

The Republic-Francis Conflict

A Cold War fought between the newly founded Anti-Lord1 Republic and the increasingly violent Church of Francis. Saw notable bases griefed and guerrilla skirmishes in and around spawn and /world. Could be seen as a continuation of the Intervention War.

Rebel Repression Operations

Most notably Operation Red Terror, a mass grief spree against notable rebels and passive COF criticizers alike. Would set the stage for the Imperial War.

The Imperial War

SimPvP's biggest war, fought between a coalition of Anti-COF factions and the Church. Many notable bases griefed and huge battles, resulted in mutual peace.

2021

The Confederacy-Francis War

A war fought between the newly founded Anti-COF Confederacy of Man and the Holy States / Empire of Francis. Saw the annihilation of COM and a subsequent COF victory.

The GSFW-YMP Conflict

A huge conflict between the GSFW Super-Alliance and the increasingly violent YMP. Resulted in the Disbandment of GSFW and the jailings of YMP.

2022

Rebel Repression Operations

Most notably the PvP campaigns against Danimania's Team Nova and LLx.

The Dominion-Francis Conflict

A uprising against COF by the resurrected Dominion. Saw a few COF bases griefed and a handful of battles in /world. Resulted in mutual "peace".

2023

Clover Separatist Conflict

A conflict that occurred between the members of the Deepstate Legion, resulted in a handful of members separating from COF and Deepstate being self griefed. The separatists were hunted and invaded 3 times.

Rebel Repression Operations

Most notably Operation Red Justice and the hunting of notorious rebels. Resulted in 20+ high value rebels assassinated. This also includes the infamous operation conducted by Hijax and Zsed to locate the Dogsteve terrorist compound, resulting in it's destruction and members massecred.

The Wasp War

A drawn out conflict fought between the Church and a coalition of small groups lead at first by Antzakes1, then by The Supreme Cult Of Tem. The conflict was fought in the air of /World and Spawn, but mostly behind the scenes in a intricate and confusing 'Spy War'.

The Civil War

A formal war to decide the successor of the Crown of SimPvP.

Robot_Francis

The Church has its own chat bot known as 'Francis_bot'. It's linked with a discord bot that can displays Simpvp chat, and allows players to log the bot in remotely. The bot uses 'Prayers' as its currency and players can use these prayers to do things such as set join messages and send anonymous messages to other players as well as a few other commands. You can see all the commands by doing #help in in game chat when the bot is also online.

Francis_bot was developed and coded by 086.

After a few months of working perfectly, Francis_bot's account was reclaimed. So Robot_Francis account was bought to take its place.