World Police

The World Police (abbreviated WP) has been a label used to describe various people, groups, and organisations throughout almost all of Civ history. Whether they're formal or informal groups, the uniting characteristic of those who've earned the moniker "World Police" is the heavy involvement in international combat operations. This usually involves bounty hunting griefers and raiders but also more notably taking part in wars against PVP-oriented groups, such as the HCF. Though most World Police members are also members of their own nation's security force, what distinguishes them is their cooperation with other members' security forces. Many World Police groups have also been accused of intervening in the affairs of nations that housed no WP members, while others existed as their own independent nations, such as the LADS. Most World Police groups were also not one organisation but rather an informal group of members from many other organisations that simply worked together; however, some WP groups did exist as singular, organised entities, such as Eden or the original World Police from Civcraft 1.0. Regardless of their structures, this page will seek to catalogue all groups and people who have earned the reputation of being World Police across the many Civ servers that have existed so far.

The World Police (left) stare down NebulaSSR during the Mount September Ice Road Conflict, August 2021

Civcraft 1.0

The Great HCF War and Creation of the World Police

The World Police began as a concept in late 2012 during the Great HCF War. In the iteration before Civcraft 1.0, AncapMinecraft, griefing and killing were bannable offences, and the main purpose of the server was largely as an economic experiment. However, with the introduction of Prison Pearl and Citadel in Civcraft 1.0, it changed to a broadly political one. Griefing and raiding were no longer bannable as it was now up to the players to enforce their own safety through the organic crafting of laws and defence apparatuses. Taking advantage of this and attracted by the stakes that now lay at hand, players from the PVP Minecraft server Hardcore Factions (or HCF) planned to come to Civcraft and wreak havoc, testing the limits of the political experiment.

A still from the video "Slaying AnCaps with Russian_Roulette" depicting a fight with the original World Police from the HCF side, December 2012.

On December 20, 2012, HCF forces attacked and occupied Columbia, the largest city on the server at the time. The server largely united against them, with Civcrafters from many different cities coming together to retake Columbia.This informal coalition successfully retook Columbia and Foofed's Vault, which the HCF griefed extensively.The rest of the course of the war followed this formula: the HCF would attack a town, and the World Police would come to defend it and pearl them, absorbing town residents into their ranks as time went on. The result was a coalition of fighters from a variety of backgrounds, including anarchists, Prussians, AnCaps, statists, and nomads.On December 27, the World Police label was officially adopted by this group.

As the months went on, the World Police were continually successful in ultimately repelling HCF attacks despite taking heavy losses and having their cities numerously raided. On February 23, 2013, the WP broke open the HCF's second world border vault, which they had been using to store the pearls of WP fighters and innocent civilians they had been pearling, leading the WP to declare victory.The next two weeks involved cleaning up HCF stragglers, with the WP pearling the last of them on March 9th, bringing a final end to the server's first global conflict.

The Gimmick Brigade and anti-WP Revolution

Main Article: 2013 Revolution

This newfound peace also brought newfound boredom to the World Police, who subsequently used their mass amount of wealth and power generated during the HCF War to follow in the footsteps of their former rivals. During the second week of March 2013, World Police members began going around populated cities on unknown alts and killing people at random.When they were outed by berge403, a WP-aligned fighter during the HCF War, it was then they were declared the Gimmick Brigade.Though they did pay their reps and avoided pearling, their reputation on the server was sullied and planted the seed of anti-WP sentiment on Civ servers for years to come.

In the midst of the Gimmick Brigade scandal, the World Police invaded the small town of Blackstone and pearled resident RKWildCard, accusing him of being tied to the HCF forces that previously lived in the town during the war.As March progressed into April and RK was still imprisoned with what was little evidence against him specifically, many towns formed their own militias to turn on the WP, setting the stage for a distinct, independent World Police for the first time. On April 20th, this coalition of militias marched on the WP vault and began to break it, routing WP defensive attacks in the process.During the vault break, the World Police noted the presence of many HCF fighters that the militias were collaborating with, but most of the server remained unphased and carried on.The next day, the vault was broken, RK was freed, and the rest of the World Police began to be hunted down by the militias and HCF. However, on April 26th, the end of Civcraft 1.0 was announced, bringing an end to the fighting and to the first iteration of the World Police.

Civcraft 2.0

When Civcraft 2.0 began, some individuals pondered whether or not the World Police from 1.0 should still be held accountable and tried for their actions on the previous server.Though many people would carry over their grudges toward the WP into the new server, the idea of pearling them for crimes on a server that no longer existed was generally received as facetious and largely dismissed by the community as a whole.

Carson and the New World Police

On July 1, 2013, the federalist-syndicalist city of Carson was announced to the public.Carson was founded by WP 1.0 ally blueavenue and residents also included many former WP, including TeaJizzle and MrsEmery. Though it was not founded for the express purpose of recreating the WP, many Carsonites would ultimately take up the World Police role yet again to fight the new iteration of the HCF known as Bloodcrew, named after its leader bloodidiot that began raiding in late 2013.From this point on, Carson would be invaribly linked to the World Police for the rest of 2.0. Simultaneously with the raiding of Bloodcrew was the raiding done by what was dubbed the Poser Brigade.Made up of some former WP 1.0 members that didn't join Carson like 008shock and shadowjay1, the Carsonite WP didn't take them seriously and didn't fight against them as the members of the two groups largely remained friends. This led many on the server to see no difference between Bloodcrew and the WP, once again soiling the reputiation of the WP on a new server.

The Ruse Cruise

In November 2013, a friendly, internal dispute among Carsonites took place regarding a brick storage building built within the city. Many residents wanted to demolish the building as it didn't fit the aesthetic that Carson came to have, while others wanted to keep it for historical value and practical use. Both sides soon came to an agreement when they thought of an even better use for the brick building: as a trap. On November 17th, Carsonite WP member _sword made a post claiming to be revealing the location of all of Carson's hidden wealth following an alleged falling-out with his friends.The supposed location of Carson's wealth was, of course, the brick building. Many Bloodcrew members and anti-WP forces, some on previously unknown alts, converged on Carson and tore apart the brick building looking for the chests, allowing the WP to gather info as they tripped their snitches. With an egg on their face and little if any stolen wealth to take home, it was revealed Bloodcrew had fallen for it: The Ruse Cruise.

The Rise and Fall of the LADS

Main Article: The LADS War

Ironic anti-LADS propaganda from the LADS War, circa February 2014.

The World Police claimed to have found themselves in a new, impossible position: people wanted them to fight Bloodcrew and the Poser Brigade and live up to their World Police role while also simultaneously lumping them in with the former two and despising their presence outside of Carson. In order to remedy this, on January 1, 2014, the World Police announced their official disbanding and reformation into a new organisation: the Legal Authorised Defence Service, or LADS.The LADS would function largely the same as the World Police, but with a couple differences. They settled in a new headquarters, an island town called Duck City, and also committed to not intervening in the policing affairs of any city unless given express permission. This move also resulted in them emptying their former vault, resulting in many Bloodcrew and HCF members being free yet again. The next day, shadowjay of the Poser Brigade also released a number of griefers and HCF from his vault.On the contrary, most of the server saw this as a passive-aggressive move that solidified their attitude toward what they perceived as a corrupt World Police.

What would become known as the LADS War formally began on February 3, 2014 when the LADS raided Whosnick island in an attempt to pearl Joshua97367. The head of a reformed raider group, Josh attempted to pearl shadowjay for crimes committed under the Poser Brigade, but was thwarted when shadowjay ran to Duck City for safety.The rest of the LADS then attempted to pearl Josh and resulted in the invasion of his home base. Taking up the defence of shadowjay as their hill to die on, the LADS would go to war with and invade numerous cities around the server, including Commonwealth, Orion, and FAGT, all of who attempted to pearl shadowjay.Subsequently, similar to what happened at the end of 1.0, a new coalition of city militias teamed up with the newly-free HCF members to take down the LADS, who were shedding members like blueavenue and MrsEmery.

On March 9th, ReCharge, a new PVP group made up of many of the HCF who were released and who claimed to have been reformed, invaded Duck City and pearled a number of the LADS and Poser Brigade.Worn down by the fighting with an entire server against them, the LADS saw the writing on the wall and surrendered, announcing their dissolution and releasing the rest of the Recharge members.

ReCharge and the Unofficial World Police

See also: The Recharge War

The surrender of the LADS led to the departure of many from the server, mostly voluntarily but also including a few like NjPalms and GordonFreemanQ who were banned for cheating throughout their Civcraft careers.Carson still existed and would still always be linked to the World Police, but founders blue and Jacky crafted a great name for Carson independent of the World Police label. This was largely done through the creation and continual expansion of the CIC, 2.0's great rail network that connected all of the server's major cities and then some. For the first time for over a year, Civcraft was without a World Police, and peace was at hand.

This peace, however, would not last long. ReCharge, the HCF group that succeeded Bloodcrew and absorbed many of its former members, earned the favour of many Civcrafters by claiming to be reformed and fighting with them against the LADS. As Recharge built up their base, River's End, and got more powerful, they began to test their luck. First, they released infamous HCF collaborator Dill_Weasel on March 13th, and second, they came to New Danzilona to harass citizens and get into a fight on April 6th.These acts were controversial and planted the seed of distrust in many, but most of the server still gave Recharge the benefit of the doubt, siding with them or taking a lenient stance. It was not until they invaded Fellowship on April 15th that the server could no longer deny their intent, and a new war began.

To face such a global threat, yet another global coalition of Civcraft militias was formed. The coalition included many Gondolins who were previously anti-WP, like clone2204 and Superbuilder229, as well as Threepers, Carsonites, Fellows, Commonwealth citiziens, Orionites (like Farley50)