I have gotten many an ask, so I give a single answer in this form.
When they first woke up, Steve knew nothing but their own name and basic survival skills. With time, they met creatures, developed skills, created recipes and discovered strange structures scattered around the world.
Structures that they hope would fill in their apparent 'amnesia'. Temples, Strongholds, Fortresses, Trail Ruins, Bastions... and the creatures themselves too.
Zombies, that wear the same clothing and resemble their anatomy. Endermen, that they swear they could've heard speak but unsure if they've imagined it (Endermen tend to make their mind go fuzzy...). But no attempt at curing works and no attempt at communication is recognised.
Even the V/Illagers recognise this, in their clothing and in their deep purple eyes. Some have dubbed them the 'Living Zombie'.
Where did the structures come from? Where did everyone go? Why can't Steve recall anything? Major extinction event? War? Natural catastrophe? The Dragon? They seek the answer. In the world residents, in the engravings on pottery sherds, books of the Stronghold, the portal...
Everything leads to The End. Because everything ends. Surely.
And there they meet Jean, and they hear their own name said in another's voice for the first time ever, and for a moment it felt like everything they've ever wanted. For a moment.
Structure constructors or something, idk, I never played the Minecraft.
In the nether fortress crafting my Withers, and by Withers, heh… let’s justr say.. inter dimensional societal collapse…
Usual design rant below
I believed veils would work great for the Ancient builders as not only can they hide their identity efficiently, keeping them relatively ambiguous, but also protect from the weather in the generally warmer climates they were largely stationed in, and equally work as face masks against disease and virus‘, all whilst still being able to be stylised in different ways, allowing the shape language to remain distinct.
Other visual inspirations were pirate and sailor clothing for the cold costal tribe, Ancient Greek and farmer attire for the warm costal tribe, and funnily enough: sci-fi desert planet Civilisation concept art for the desert tribes design.
Aswell as ofcourse their own respective structures and the loot within.
The colouration does differ in my head from what I rendered, I believe a lot of the little trinkets and details would have different colors, but I didn’t want the shillouettes to clash or melt into one another in this lineless style so here are the base colors for now, as I tried the former and it didn’t look good.
Look I know they were like a massive imperial force or whatever but you cannot tell me a group of artists inventors and architects that relied heavily on their semi sentient bio-mechanical hellspawn machines (and some necromancy) to do their bidding, bunkering up immediately once the odds were no longer in their favour, could handle a punch or two.
These people probably looked like starving artists, especially after the overworled was turned into a withering shithole for a couple years, legends was definitely a fanfiction they wrote about themselves. /j
I don't think a lot of people who watch SFAWTDE understand that d3rlord3 COULDNT escape his search for the King in Yellow. Every since he walked through the first tunnel and fell into the water he has been compelled into going forward. He literally says he felt compelled to keep going forward into the darkness; he lost control of his own body to the King and had to keep going.
We also see that in the original, uncut footage of his recording, when he is told in the village to stop searching he was ready to give up the search and go back. But what happened when he turned around and went out of the house, he was started/dragged by something back into the house.
There were also multiple points as he walked through the darkness towards the yellow doors where he seemed to pause and struggle to not move forward, as if he was being puppeteered towards the King. It's not that d3erlord3 didn't want to leave, he couldn't, he was being compelled into finding the King. Why?
I believe d3erlord3 is now the King's vessel. A body to inhabitant so he is no longer trapped in minecraft's virtual space. The king was waiting there just for him. Is it a coincidence that the statue in the village looks just like d3erlord3's skin? I think not. Is it far fetched for a person with this amount of intelligence that can tank the King's infinite knowledge TWICE and still set up a warning for Avery and US as viewers? I THINK NOT.
D3erlord3 is probably walking around like Auther Lester with the King whispering in his ear.
The Sniffer is really weird
[Sniffer Lore Speculation]
I was randomly thinking about the Sniffer for whatever reason and it dawned on me just how weird they are.
Design wise and their in game 'lore'. The thing that got the gears in my head turning are their legs. Unlike every other passive mob in the game, sniffers have 6 legs. Every other standard terrestrial mob has 2-4 legs (cows, pigs, llamas, etc) with the only real exceptions being insects (spiders and bees), and mobs that fly or swim (squids, phantoms, guardians etc.)
It also lays eggs, which if it's a mammal, makes it the only monotreme in Minecraft, which is neat, but still very weird. Now beyond the oddity of being a monotreme (which isn't too insane considering we know the Sniffer is meant to be an ancient mob, thus is probably from early into mammalian evolution), the real weird thing is that their eggs are still good? Like they're able to hatch? And like-
They're on a pottery sherd??? which means they co-existed with one of the ancient civilizations?? Which is WILD because that has several potential implications.
IMPLICATION 1. The sniffers genuinely did just live with the ancient civilization and were pretty standard farm animals for them.
IMPLICATION 2. They PREDATE the ancients and were brought back BY them in the same way the player brings them back, which is why they're on the sherd. Personally, I think this option is FAR more interesting because it aligns with what we see with the rest of the sherds. The number of mobs on the sherds is incredibly limited as they only contain mobs with a notable connection to the ancients, which means the sniffer's existence was NOTABLE to them.
The mobs shown by sherds are;
Breezes (Assumably created by the ancients, being a construct mob only found in the trial chambers.)
People (Duh.)
SNIFFERS ? ?
Skeletons (Not sure if we should count this as the mob itself because people still have skeletons, it could be standard death iconography.)
'The Mourner' (Warden seems most likely though it's not 1-1. The warden would be incredibly notable to preserve.)
Wolves (Nest friend, makes sense they get a mention)
Everything here is notable enough to be preserved. If they had discovered a literal ancient mob pre-dating them, that would be notable enough to mention. So I think the sniffer pre-dates the ancient civilization (or civilizations, hard to say if it was one giant civilization or a bunch of disconnected ones throughout time but I'm NOT getting into that here.).
Another thing that backs this theory up is the six legs. It's INCREDIBLY weird for a Mammal to have 6 legs, this is because all mammals evolved from the same original 4-legged ancestor. This means Sniffers are from an entirely separate evolutionary branch of land-dwelling animals that went extinct. Which is fucking CRAZY RIGHT??? The fact there was an entirely separate evolutionary tree in minecraft's past is completely fucking nuts like that is such a mind boggling implication to throw into the game. Them being from another evolutionary tree also explains their oddities such as their weird yellow-faces that resemble beaks (but clearly aren't due to how elastic they are) and their aforementioned 6 legs + egg laying.
So, next question, Whats up with the green?
The sniffer has nothing textured beneath it's green layer, and there is nothing else shown in game that could refer to what's beneath it. Additionally due to it's green facial markings, I believe it's safe to conclude the green is apart of the sniffer. So what is it?
My initial thought was; ''Maybe it's moss.' something along the lines of a sloth, essentially. It does align, sniffers are slow and docile, they'd be able to grow something like moss or algae. I think this is a very valid possibility. But the main thing that sways me from this line is thought is the egg.
The egg is also green. Eggs usually have their markings for;
1. Camouflage, a brown egg in a brown environment is harder to find and thus eat.
2. Distinction, the more complex an egg is, the harder it is to mimic and thus makes it harder for other species to replace with their own.
3. Structural integrity, sometimes markings just make the egg sturdier.
I believe the main reason the eggs look like this is camouflage, and the main reason for this is the sniffer's green back and, well, stick with me here; Podzol.
Sniffers are a rather weird red-color. With other mobs we know their colors are like that due to real world influence, (ex. pigs are as pink as they are because of human influence despite it not being good camouflage, but pigs don't have a predator in Minecraft so they don't need it regardless.) but with sniffers the red is weird. I think it's there to blend into their natural environment. It's clear the sniffer has undergone little to no evolutionary changes since it's original environment vanished, so I think originally, Sniffers were from an area with Podzol comprised of brush materials from the biome, which gave it a more reddish-tint than it's brown/green from spruce adjacent biomes.
See, Sniffers having green only on their tops reminds me of aquatic camouflage. In the ocean certain animals have darker tops and lighter bottoms because the sun makes water lighter while looking up and darker while looking down. I think the sniffer's green backs are a means to camouflage with the foliage of their original environment.
Their diet is comprised entirely of seeds, and due to their VERY large size and slow speed, we can assume this does not give them much energy. They spend a lot of their time just loafing around, they even have a dedicated sitting animation. I think they were originally a large herbivorous prey species, with their main predators being avian. Green backs would let them blend into the foliage and reduce the chances of them getting snatched up (Also these birds would have to be ridiculously huge to carry off a sniffer oh my god can you imagine, that's terrifying). Their eggs are colored this way for the same reason, they're much harder to spot if they blend into the ground and the foliage.
Alright time to wrap this together.
[HISTORY OF THE SNIFFER]
The sniffers are an ancient herbivorous prey species. They originally fed on loose foliage to get at their seeds and nuts. Their 'beaks'(?) were used similarly to a birds, being able to crack open a seed's shell to eat the innards. They primarily fed on torch flowers but were not limited to them (But are now, due to their stomachs being specialized for ancient plants, not modern ones).
They likely lived in foliage dense zones with a cooler ambient temperature due to their thick fur (something like a taiga biome with entirely different foliage). They had some natural predators, though they could deal with most terrestrial predators due to their large size. Their main predators were massive flying creatures which could swoop down and pick sniffers off one by one. They evolved their green backs to camouflage against these mobs.
But we know their fate in these ancients times. Sniffers and every other mob from this period went extinct. Some evolved into the mobs we have now, but the sniffer's entire evolutionary branch of the tree is gone, so far as we know.
An unknown amount of time passes and a sniffer egg is discovered by an ancient civilizations. They find a new home in this new age, one without a natural predator. But they could not get their footing as a species due to their stomachs being poorly adapted to newly evolved foliage. Eventually, they would go extinct again, but this time remembered, and more properly preserved.
Now in modern day they've been found again by the player and brought back, likely to repeat the same cycle yet again.
Minecraft theory: the spiders seen in Minecraft are members of the salticidae (jumping spider) family
Jumping spiders are most well known for their, well, jumping. When hunting they use this powerful leap to pounce on their prey. This style of active hunting means that they don’t spin webs, though they obviously still produce silk. While yes, cave spiders do produce webs, I think this is because their cave-dwelling habitat means they use their eyes less and use these cobwebs to sense what passes into their territory, as most spiders with poorer vision do.
The other notable feature of jumping spiders, and the thing that distinguishes them very easily from other spider families, is their eyes. Their hunting style means they have large, forward facing eyes and really good vision to help pinpoint prey. The other best candidate for what family minecraft spiders could belong to would be the lycosidae (wolf spider) family. They also have a pair of larger forward-facing eyes and are active hunters rather than web spinners, but the arrangement of the other eyes makes me think that minecraft spiders are salticidae. Lycosidae position their other eyes beneath the two largest, whereas salticidae have eyes around the two largest.
The arrangement of a minecraft spider’s eyes is a little different to both families because they have all their eyes on the front of their head but the arrangement of the largest foremost eyes and the two eyes positioned either side of the head seemed pretty similar to salticidae, and combined with their pouncing behaviour and relative lack of web-spinning makes me think they’re of this family. Also I just really like jumping spiders, who doesn’t?
These two guys are related and I'm gonna PROVE IT!!!!!!
First, general body structure: The ghast is primarily composed of a single cube with tentacles below it. It's face is on the front of it's body, with two eyes and a mouth and no visible nostrils. The strider is composed of a single cube with two legs below it. It's face is on the front of it's body, with two eyes and a mouth and no visible nostrils.
Let's also add that the strider's concept art has it resembling the ghast even stronger than it does currently with multiple legs and much larger size. Even if the final design doesn't seem super ghast-y to you, it definitely started at a point where it was related to it.
Also you might've noticed that the strider concepts actually show some lines on the sides of their head... But is that in the final version of the strider or...
Oh wow, they are!! When we remove their "bristles", we can see these lines on the sides of their heads. Hey, what else has lines like- yeah, it's the ghast, what did you expect. They also have similar lines on the top of their head, which are shown better through the back of the strider where they continue down... just like the ghast has.
I could also mention somber expression, but that doesn't feel as concrete. I can look sad and not be related to the ghast just fine. However, as a design choice to reference each other? I could see it being a thing.
But one thing I do want to mention is how their immunity and seeming love for lava. The strider's connection to lava should be obvious, as it's part of their purpose. Striders get visibly distraught and discolored when they leave lava, so their love for it should be obvious.
But the ghast...? Well, nothing concrete, given that they're an old mob and have generally random behavior, but I do think that ghasts are supposed to like lava in-universe. For one, the Mob Menagerie on them says that "they love the warmth of lava". This is a recontextualization of how sometimes Ghast can get stuck in the lava falls of the nether.
Source: Mob Menagerie: Ghast
Also, when the upcoming summer drop is eventually released, Ghasts will have a variant that can be given a harness, which is a version of a saddle specifically made for their size. Hmmmm, what else can be saddled and ridden....?
Yeah I know, not a crazy argument for this, but considering this is one of the first ghast updates in a while and it's main thing is adding rideable ghasts. Previously, the only rideable nether mob was the strider, so this feels somewhat significant to me.
But take of all of this as you will, I'm not trying to force you to think that the ghast and strider are related, but rather to explain why I think they're related. (ignore that I said I'd prove it at the start)
Essay on: Soul Sand Composition, Nether Energy Cycles, and Dimensional Space-Time Warping in Minecraft.
hey guys. I'm being an autistic biologist about minecraft again....
Texture and structure
The three principle minecraft lore assumptions are as follows: First, the Nether was blatantly oceanic and/or cooler in the deep deep past, as evidenced by the prevalence of basalt which can only form when lava cools, enormous sand banks, and hydratable jellyfish-like ghasts. Second, that Minecraft souls are analogous to heat and will constantly be compared to energy cycling (consumption, magic, heat loss). Finally, I consider the Nether a closed-loop system with minimal energy inputs/outputs, and the perpetual heat output of lava is due to drawing from soul energy sequestered in soul sand banks.
Soul sand. SAND. It’s about percolation baby! Due to grain size and porosity, the souls can quickly percolate into the soul sand and become sequestered. I assume souls take a very long time to percolate if soils of different textures such as clay or silt have minimal sequestration. (This will be returned to). Furthermore, soul sand banks are where all that juicy organic matter from the oceans accumulated in massive banks of necro-mass/souls. Side note the giant skeletons were nether equivalent whale falls.
Now, the very evident high organic matter in soul sand would drastically affect the structure of the soil. But would you look at that. In sandy soils, organic matter aggregates increase water and nutrient retention. Only further increasing their soul/Organic matter sequestration!
Anyway at this point I started considering soul sand similar to histosols. Similar color, pluuuuuuuus:
Hmm. That is shareing quite a lot of the characteristics we theoriezed about, doesn't it?
Anyway, I'm putting a read more line here. Click if you want to read the following sections: Vegetation ||| Nether Decomposition ||| Nom Proceeds to Lose Their Mind About Coal Formation ||| The Dimensional Warp of Space, and thus Time, in Minecraft Dimensions (which explains the coal problem, and invents several new ones) ||| The Apocalypse
Vegetation
All that organic matter should be making this soil very fecund! Netherack has no topsoil, so no vegetation, it tracks. But why does the soul soil have so much abundant soil and no growth compared to like the crimsons, warped biomes that only have a thin layer of topsoil?
We see that experience (soul energy) from killed mobs attracts to players. I propose that higher concentrations of soul energy attract more energy. And soul sand banks, which have ungodly concentrations of sequestered soul energy, may be enough to attract still living souls. Such as, slowing down animals walking across it. Permanent organisms like plants and fungi can't effectively grow there. They need to absorb soul energy, nutrients, etc from the soil to survive, but the soil has higher priority soul attraction. But all this does mean that no new organic matter (or souls!) are being added to the soul sand banks, and so they have a net loss due to burning using up souls and organic matter.
Nether Decomposition
The fuel source line....beautiful beautiful. So histosols would be suited for an oceanic/potentially arctic (basalts) due to the anaerobic decomposition of waterlogged soils, allowing such high organic matter accumulation.
My first thought in the comparison was that histosols decay rapidly once in aerobic conditions. If the Nether was previously oceanic, most of the bacteria would've been adapted to anaerobic conditions. And now the current high temperatures obliterate aerobic decomposer microbes hitching a dimensional ride on people. Perhaps the Nether has a dearth of decomposers in this unique modern slice of evolutionary history; Hence immense accumulation of souls and organic matter. Hence all of the bones remaining for an incredibly long time.
But! A lot of bacteria types can go dormant for very long periods of time and reactivate when exposed to water once again. Hence, when you put soul sand underwater, it creates the bubbling jet streams upward because of all of the explosion of anaerobic bacteria activity (and therefore bubbling methane (or other gaseous waste products I cannot be bothered to get into alt electron acceptors rn)) in a very rich and organic matter dense soul sand.
Nom Proceeds to Lose Their Mind About Coal Formation
I had a minor break down when I remembered coal. Histosols create lots of nice rich coal and peat due to the high organic contents, low decomposition, and lots of heat and pressure. The Nether certainly fits the bill for heat and a dearth of aerobic decay! BUT THERES NO COAL. NONE. NOT IN THE GROUND THERES A LITTLE IN WITHER SKELETONS IGNORE THAT. NO COAL. NONE.
So my first theory was thus: What if some property of netherack limits the amount of pressure that organic matter can experience? Netherack could be forming a bone-like matrix that minimizes compression that, on a geologic scale, limits pressure enough that coal cannot form. My only real evidence is that Netherack breaks startlingly easy, as if it's full of air pockets.
Stone, meanwhile, holds real world properties of compression, leading to the formation of coal in the over world. Overworld has far more rebust soul cycling due to 1. lots of plants 2. soil texture less suited to soul percolation 3. Open energy system that allows souls to escape as heat waste at a faster rate than they can percolate 4. coal compression removing any soul sand-esque formations from consideration, limiting the positive feedback loop of soul attraction. Ergo over world has coal, Nether does not.
And then I developed a secondary theory for why there is no coal. Cause hey, what if coal hasn't had time to form in the Nether? But has in the Overworld?
The Dimensional Warp of Space, and thus Time, in Minecraft Dimensions
In my meager defense, I am not a physicist. So do not understand space-time, particularly not in Minecraft. However what I do suggest is thus:
Space and Time are related.
The Nether is a condensation of space compared to the overworld, along the 8 blocks we see
Therefore time in the Nether is also condensed relative to the overworld.
The End is an expansion of space compared to the overworld, in the same vein that outer space is expanding. The correlating chunks in the overworld are separated from one another when translated to the End, but due to gravity and time have condensed into sparse End islands.
Therefore time in the End is also expanded relative to the overworld.
Fig. 1 displays the proportion of three chunks between the three dimensions.
Fig. 2 displays the duration (shaded) of x length of time proportional between the dimensions. An afternoon in the over world is a faction of that duration in the Nether, as time moves slower. This aligns with how blackholes have high condensation of matter and have time crawling slow at the even horizon. An afternoon in the overworld is months or years in the End, as time moves far faster.
My proposed duration that (the space traveled to in) each dimension has relatively existed. The Nether: A few million years, thus coal has not formed, the Nether has not adapted aerobic decomposition.
The Overworld: A few billion years. Has coal. Perhaps hasn't existed as long as the Earth because their day-night cycle is approximately 20 minutes.
The End: A trillion, maybe. Something crazy. I suggest that the time warping affect is far more pronounced in the End than the Nether, due to the far greater scattering of matter in the End such that there isn't the clear 1-8 conversion thats seen between nether and overworld. The Nether potentially could only get so condensed. The End can expand infinitely, and has had more time to do so. The increased spatial discconection corresponds with decreased temporal connections.
The Apocalypse
In the fic I'm doing all this world building for, researcher Wickburn says:
Tracking the severe rift in thermal signatures between the Nether and Overworld dimensions is the primary method for determining where the overlap between is thick enough for a portal. Of course, most places are suitable for Nether portals, with minimal risk of destabilizing dimensional rifts if they’re clustered at no greater a density than 2 per chunk (Rei and Orzain 8 L. R. I). Comparatively, the End and Overworld have far less overlap, and even fewer that avoid the disastrous 120 chunk radius minimum (Rei et al. 43 L. R. I).
Not all of this is relavent, but it points to core evidence.
1.For people to discover that other dimensions existed, there needed to be some natural phenomena where the dimensions were already connected.
2. some dimensions connect more easily than others. Hence you cannot make Nether portals in the End.
3.That level of connection changes over time. Thus, ancient minecrafters could make end portals, but you can't now.
4.When it was a cooler dimension, The Nether previously had more connection to the End, making it a more open loop system. IMO this is the biggest leap in logic of this whole piece, in part because its major supporting evidence is related specifically to the Ame smp. But do bear with me. The Nether has a very direct 1-8 block conversion of space with the overworld. Therefore, the two dimensions are more closely related. During the time when the End was still 'close' enough for overworld portals to be built, it would've also been 'closer' to the nether. Now it isn't 'close' enough for new overworld portals to be built, and no nether portals to even work.
5. Previously the Nether's soul and heat loss escaped to the End, where in the void of space the heat input made very little difference, and also was in the far, far more distant past for End evolutionary history compared to the Nether. Heat could've also escaped to the Overworld, I do think it would've had far more impact there. Potentially the disconnect between End and Nether was the natural result of the End's constant expansion, perhaps there's some other cause. Really weird line in the sand to say at this point it's too purely speculation for me to theorize how that shook out, but that's where it is for me.
6. Without the connection to the End, the Nether became a nearly closed loop system. With greater difficulty escaping the Nether, souls/energy had more time to percolate into soul sand valleys, further sequestering it. This positive feedback loop caused catastrophic heating, boiling the oceans and turning the Nether hellish. And the overworld being an open loop system where waste heat can escape into sky/space/End didn't experience this heating apocalypse. The current Nether has extremely minimal heat export, and grows increasingly hot from the current soul/energy input due to the vast amount of soul sand sequestering energy.
Therefore: this entire essay WAS about soul sand the whole time SCREW YOU.
Finally, closing questions: WHAT THE HELL IS THE SOURCE OF ENERGY IN THE FIRST PLACE? WHERE DO SOULS COME FROM? SHAKING MOJANG AND DEMANDING ANSWERS
Adendum: I have found an alternative coal theory but it involves Ame smp specific lore. Which could mean ignoring the entire time-space warping but I really like the implications of origin lifespans so it stays. Unless anyone objects to my bio physics dimension lore in which case ignore this entire essay
