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Purple Francis is a nonexistent protagonist of the Left 4 Dead video game franchise, created as a hoax by two teenagers on February 12, 2021 on the Left 4 Dead community wiki, which subsequently received a cult following within the fandom.[1][2][3] The hoax consisted of a series of vandalistic edits to the Left 4 Dead wiki,[2] describing a nonexistent playable character named "Purple Francis," who is visually identical to the character Francis with the exception of a "purple hue".[3] The edits provided detailed nonexistent lore, and cross-references to over a dozen edited pages,[1] where Purple Francis was discussed in detail alongside other existing characters.[4][5] Purple Francis was described as having been born in a candle factory, and turned purple through an iron-rich diet, which made him "incredibly attractive to women".[6] The edits also claimed that Purple Francis's daughter had an affair with Ronald Reagan, that ten players passed out after hearing his voice in the game for the first time,[7] and that he was later removed from retail copies of the game by Valve, "due to negative feedback."[1] "Screenshots" of Purple Francis were also supplied, depicting the character photoshopped into existing artwork throughout the wiki.[7]
While the edits were eventually reverted a few days after creation, the Left 4 Dead fan community seemed to embrace the concept of Purple Francis, and a mod on Steam Workshop was released on February 14 by a developer who'd worked on official Left 4 Dead content in the past, claiming to restore the "cut content" depicting Purple Francis.[1] The original creators of Purple Francis were later identified as "Lucy" and "Unknowntrope," two teenagers who had originally come up with the concept as an inside joke.[3]