The People’s Imperial Confederation comes together to celebrate its 4th anniversary. These past four years for the army have seen immense success and triumph. Let us look back on their rich history and take a glance at their role in the Small/Medium circle.
Graphic by Cassie.
People’s Imperial Confederation has significantly influenced the Club Penguin Armies community since it reopened its doors. After months of holding events, fighting its way into the Top Ten, and even joining a world war, the army finally awaits its founding anniversary.
The very first event of the army (taken from their official website)
Originally conceived as a revival of the old People’s Republic Army by Sidie9, PIC was registered as an official army in October 2019. Ever since, the army has made itself known through several successes in community events, such as the Challengers Cup and countless wars. They quickly began to accumulate territory, not only through invading free land but also from deals with their allies.
PIC during the Challengers Cup 2
Even though labeled as a medium-sized army, the People’s Imperial Confederation gradually proved itself as a force to be reckoned with via numerous wars with vastly larger armies such as the Army of Club Penguin and the Templars. The army went through multiple hiatuses, and changes in the High Command, which only served as a means of evolution for the army’s overall development.
Since the army’s revival at the beginning of 2023, the Congress has held several events on Club Penguin Armies Battleground, meet-ups, and even joined World War IX. Recently, it has broadened its horizons to Club Penguin Journey as well. The People’s Imperial Confederation largely vowed to the day the army would finally show its value and obtain its own trophy. With a wonderful performance in Beach Brawl III, that dream came true for them. Today, we see PIC heading into a 4 years anniversary, celebrating the longevity of an ever-changing army on its fourth generation.
PIC during Beach Brawl 2023
Their 4th anniversary will be a remembrance and a huge celebration acknowledgment of their great prosperity and fortune in recent years. Recently, on October 11th, they hosted ‘The Sidies‘. The awards were held to celebrate four years since the creation of PIC, where members would vote for their favorite thing or person depending on the category. The army gathered to celebrate and show the results on the 15th of October at their huge parade where 15 showed up to honor this moment.
PIC at their recent 4th-anniversary event.
Our team decided to do an interview with People’s Imperial Confederation leaders Sidie9 and Shallissa as their army enters its fifth year of existence:
How has the army evolved over the past years in terms of its size, structure, and goals?
Sidie9: Our structure and size has varied throughout PIC’s existence, though our goals have generally remained consistent. Having not reached major army status yet, we’ve put a large emphasis on expanding our influence diplomatically and strategically. A small/medium army can only accomplish so much, but we’ve done our best to break down barriers of what the community can expect from an army of our size. You don’t see many small/medium armies lasting as long as we have, inciting as many conflicts as we have, or becoming as involved in world wars as us. In the absence of others, I led almost every battle for the Sapphire Concordat in World War IX on behalf of PIC. This is testament to our aim of to making the largest impact we possibly can, regardless of our size. Much like a smaller boxer could pack a huge punch, the Confederation always has the capacity for greatness.
Can you share some memorable moments that have defined PIC’s journey?
Sidie9/Shallissa: PIC has established such a powerful culture surrounding our history, members, and allies. There are plenty of moments throughout our history that have defined our journey. The earliest cultural moment in our history was the Lighthouse Incident, in which the Army of Club Penguin raided a PIC event amidst growing hostilities. This spawned the phrase “Remember the Lighthouse” which is still referenced to this day.. With many of PIC’s veterans being former members of the Recon Federation, The Great Resistance helped outline a key quality of PIC. Met with months of harassment and raids by RFCP, affecting both size and morale, PIC learned to persevere and power through enemy opposition. Tournaments such as Challengers Cup and Challengers Cup 2 demonstrated our capacity to triumph over our peers, culminating in our first trophy at Beach Brawl III. Additionally, the myriad of wars we’ve waged have each influenced our journey in ways that are unquantifiable.
How does the leadership team see the army’s role within the broader Club Penguin Armies community, and how has it influenced or been influenced by other armies?
Shallissa: Despite being classified as an S/M army throughout all four years of PIC’s existence, we have always aimed high in terms of size and involvement in the community. As PIC has grown over the years, our strong diplomacy has always benefited our growth and reputation. The S/M community has lacked consistency since the end of the pandemic, with many smaller armies closing after a short period of time. Throughout all four generations of PIC, it has been our goal to serve as a dominant force within the fluctuating S/M community. I’d go as far as to argue that the S/M army identity is what has contributed to our success the most. Since our inception, PIC has been involved in three world wars, participating in World War Rewritten, World War VIII, World War IX, the latter which saw heavy involvement from our Confederation. Additionally, generation three of PIC saw the destruction of the Golden Troops, an army with a huge legacy. Many armies have inspired our journey thus far, such as People’s Republic Army which influenced our army’s theme. Our historical alliances with the Army of Club Penguin, Fire Warriors, and the Smart Penguins have led to growth in size and diplomacy, along with the creation of many conflicts that are essential to PIC’s legacy. Although a move to Major would be historical, being a S/M army has been our identity for many years. We envision our role in the CPA community as small but mighty. Though we may not max as much as Major armies, we paved our own way into CPA history through our strength in battle, consistency, and diplomacy. Despite our size classification, no one can deny the impact the People’s Imperial Confederation has had on the CPA community.
PIC has gone through four different generations and multiple hiatuses. Could you elaborate on the challenges and successes of each generation and how they contributed to the army’s growth?
Sidie9: Having existed for almost half a decade now, the Confederation has had the advantage of learning from the mistakes and successes of the past. The reasons for PIC’s prosperity are numerous, but perseverance in the presence of adversity has been paramount. I can recall several points at which we could have given up and become a footnote in army history.
Our first generation was undoubtedly turbulent, with internal conflicts and a war with ACP leaving us devastated. Despite this, I fondly recall this time in our army’s history. It felt a lot like original Club Penguin armies for me, we were a ragtag group of individuals with a shared vision and a desire to have some fun. Almost everyone from those days have gone, but the events that transpired undoubtedly impact the army to this day.
The second generation marked the true beginnings of success, reaching the grand final of Challengers Cup and becoming involved in numerous wars. This was definitely a point in which much of the culture and lore of our army began to develop. I think this could have easily been the end of PIC as a whole. In the span of a couple of months PIC had been blown to smithereens. We lost Challengers Cup amidst a multilogging scandal and left a conflict with RFCP humiliated, only to be repeatedly slammed to the ground by a coalition formed by the Templars, Red Ravagers and the Pizza Federation. This is a point at which I think most people would have simply given up, as it felt all of our effort had been for nothing. We made the executive decision to merge with another army to form Tamales which, despite being a funny meme to reference, was a huge mistake on my part. I should have let PIC shut down. Nonetheless, this second generation was instrumental to everything that came after, proving that PIC could become a genuine contender within the community.
I think it is safe to say that many within PIC view the third generation as their favourite. It is hard to disagree, as it featured iconic successes against the Golden Troops, the Water Vikings in World War VIII, and almost defeating FW in the Challengers Cup 2 finals. This was the point at which the Confederation really found itself as a mainstay in the community as the small/medium army. None of the armies from our category had lasted as long or endured as much as we had. All of our contemporaries from this period and before are gone. I’d say our biggest flaw from this era was our growing complacency, with most of our drive to succeed having depleted by the end of 2021. Though it ultimately ended in a hiatus, generation three featured so many historic milestones for PIC, and remains the most iconic period in our history for so many people.
To myself and my colleagues, the fourth generation seemed like a natural progression of where we left off in 2022. Having learnt so much from our previous iterations, I do think that we’re the best we’ve ever been. The “September drop” has hit us really hard, but we’ve been doing our best to combat it rather than becoming complacent. Our journey has been difficult at points, but this generation has had some of our most rewarding moments. Winning our first trophy, defeating the Dark Vikings and spearheading a world war are only some of the means by which generation four has cemented our presence in the CPPS army zeitgeist. It’s honestly baffling that none of our members have had their efforts acknowledged with army legend status! Even so, PIC has succeeded where armies like Silver Empire and Lime Green Army have not, and we’re still here today.
The Confederates have shown remarkable resilience by constantly learning from their past mistakes and achieving great success, earning themselves a well-deserved title along the way. We wish the People’s Imperial Confederation the best with their future in Club Penguin Armies. Do you think PIC will reach its 5th anniversary?
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