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. The edits provided detailed nonexistent lore, and cross-references to over a dozen edited pages, 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". 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, and that he was later removed from retail copies of the game by Valve, "due to negative feedback."<ref name":1" /> "Screenshots" of Purple Francis were also supplied, depicting the character photoshopped into existing artwork throughout the wiki.<ref name":3" />
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.<ref name":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.<ref name":2" />
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