"Cut" Left 4 Dead Character Inspires Fan Art After Wiki Vandalism

A highly detailed series of fake additions to the Left 4 Dead wiki has inspired fan-art and even a mod that puts the nonexistent content into the game. The vandalism focuses on a bizarre character called "Purple Francis," a poorly recolored version of one of the game's four Survivors. The vandal cooked up a surprisingly thorough backstory for Purple Francis, including his untimely death in a comic book, described by the article as a "national tragedy."

According to the articles, Purple Francis's purple hue was caused by an iron-rich diet. Prior to Left 4 Dead, he owned a root beer factory and sired two sons, Cungulus and Skibbity. Though the wiki's moderators sadly deleted Purple Francis's page, a mod on Left 4 Dead 2's Steam Workshop page will add Purple Francis to the game, which the mod's author labels as "cut L4D content." There's also a Discord page to join if you're a true Purple Francis enthusiast.

While there's no word on the state of the Left 4 Dead franchise, the game recently got its first official patch in nearly a decade. Though the patch came from Valve, it was primarily built by more than 30 members of the game's community. A spiritual successor called Back 4 Blood is currently being made by many of the game's original developers.