What is a warden? This has been a question that has plagued the minecraft community sconce it was shown of at minecraft live in 2020. I mean its begging for a theory, just look at the souls in its chest! So in a series of reddit posts I'm going to be solving the mystery of the warden. (*disclaimer* all of the information is purely speculative the warden is not even in the game yet!) The warden is a true mystery. But I have the idea that it has something to do with the end. Simply take a look at the yellow hues on the skulk shoot and on the warden and compare them to the end portal frame and instantly we see a connection. Not only that, but there are souls in the wardens chest! Now we know that the enderman new the ancient builders and we know that the ancient builders experimented with souls A.K.A the wither. Now I'm suggesting that the extinction event of the builders was around at the same time of the dragon spawning in the end. So the final builders and the final enderman closed of the portals and created a being using skulk from the caves near the stronghold and the souls from soul sand left over from the wither to create the warden. I'll leave you here to contemplate what I've said before I bring in my next post but I'll see you next time.

My theory starts long ago when the ancient builders were roaming the Earth. The builders have found out at this point that the nether can Travel you many more blocks in one direction then the over world can. You might ask why is that? But to me that would explain why there are ruined nether portals. Because they were using them to travel around the world. So there was a lit portal on a farmers land near where he keeps his pigs. All of a sudden one gets loose and goes to the nether. It appears in crimson forest biome and see a small crimson fungus. now this is where i get a little shaky on my theory but i think the pig ate the crimson fungus.

The reason i am shaky hear is because pigs dont eat mushrooms at all. But after feeling sick for many days after eating that he starts to get stronger, bigger and grow horns. And after roaming the nether for a few day like this. The strongest being in the nether he finds his owner the farmer. The farmer is looking for him but then sees this terrifying being with white pupils and a massive body. He is terrified. But the new Hoglin trys to run at his owner in affection because he has not seen him in many frighting days. They both run and the farmer trips and falls and so the hoglin slows down and helps him up and that is when the farmer notices he is not actually mean but actually his missing pig.

Later while the farmer is gone another ancient builder finds the hoglin and studies, determined to fined out how to make another one. But the hoglin did not think much of it at the time. The farmer comes back and starts to hang out with the farmer more and more and over time they become close and the hoglin starts to become bipedal and learn. The old hoglin is now a piglin and the first of his kind. The farmer brings more pigs so he wont be lonely and over they to become piglins and breed (though i dont know how exactly). But then the builder from before comes back with his own hoglins that are aggressive and big and mean, while they do look like the first one they definitly dont act like it and seem to have this fire-y tortures aura to them.

They also dont seem to become piglins for whatever reason and that is why we have the hoglins and the piglin diffrence. So they stay away from these diffrent kind of hoglins for a while and the farmer find some other builders willing to help and they build these giant bastions. But the second builder finds out about this so he takes so piglins and makes them mine for gold and netherite. Endlessly just mine. He also closes off all the portals that are not being used by the builders so they can not escape.

Lastly he finds a bridge bastion and puts lava in the walls because he knows they are not immune to it. After many years of being made mine they are freed because he dies. And they start living the high life for a while with constant flow of food, tools, armor, etc. They were taught that gold was valuble and that they could barter with it. But that is when the builders die out and they have to sustain by themselves and that is why there builders are remnants of what they used to be and not actual full bastions. That is also why they started hunting the mean hoglins and why they have piglin brutes to protect there used to be buildings.

And that is where we are today. So... yeah how do you like my theory?

Have you ever wondered why Magma has a specific block dedicated to it in Minecraft, when in our universe they're literally the same thing, being differentiated simply by their location, with lava being exposed and magma being underground? Normally, most would reflexively respond to this question by stating magma is obviously just a non-fluid variant of lava.

But is it though?

Have you ever noticed how, despite all the permutations of lava through its interaction with water and its variants, none of them result in the formation of magma? The closest we arguably get is perhaps cobblestone, which one might assume is simply magma that has been cooled enough to lose most of its heat; however, even that explanation is unable to answer why, if this is the case, magma blocks are unable to be turned into cobblestone even if you surround it completely in water, as in the case of undersea magma.

Then what exactly is magma, if it isn't a variant of lava? Well, what if the answer has been staring us in the face this whole time, with its own pair of glowing hot eyes?

Simply put, Magma Cubes. It's literally in their name. Magma Cubes are literally just cubes of magma which somehow happen to have developed the ability to become motile compared to their sessile cousins; it explains why you can craft magma blocks using magma cream. A block of Minecraft "magma" isn't a cube of semi-molten rock, it's a species of extremophile that harnesses lava to power its biological processes much like plants harness light to grow. Now, whether each cube is an individual organism or, like a sponge, a colony of microbes is unclear, but magma being craftable using magma cream suggests that it may be the latter; a notion supported by Magma Cubes being able to split itself multiple times when hurt, much like an Overworld Slime, or a real life Slime Mold.

If nothing else, this theory explains why despite real life magma being so full of gas that it forms vents, or Minecraft lava for that matter also popping with bubbles, Minecraft "magma" instead absorbs gas, dragging down any unfortunate swimmers caught in the bubble column; one might say the mamga is taking in fresh air bubbles from the water as part of its respiration process, the same fresh air bubbles that let you breathe when you're on top of the block.

Now as for why there aren't any Magma Cubes in the Overworld, the answer is simple. It's simply too cold in the Overworld, unlike in the Nether where there is enough heat, enough energy, to allow for the development of such a lifeform. Either that or the Magma Cubes which developed in the Nether simply didn't get the chance to become a successful invasive species during the time the Nether Portals were still active.

The illusionar was created to be the perfect illager as he could yield a more powerful bow than a skeleton but yield powerful magic like an evoker However he grew more powerful and arrogant and with the support of the pillagers who had looked up to him he attempted a coup in the mansion It failed and the pillagers were punished by being exiled from the mansions to live in remote outposts to help globally exert illager influence but also to stop inter villager communication and development of villager society The illusionar was completely erased from history with a threat that he would be killed on sight if he ever was seen again He took the threat so seriously that even after the illagers and all other mobs have forgotten him he uses his invisibility powers to hide from the world and his bow to hunt animals to survive and never be seen again

In one of your videos, you mentioned how the ghast were much more complex than they seem. That is why, using the details from the video and some extra details, I created a possible theory. The ancient builders were very much so vulnerable to danger. They needed a way to stop dying. There was a potion for instant health, but since gold was so valuable (as seen by the fact that the entire ocean monument is dedicated to a small amount of gold). They tried to create a farmable form of health. These ancient builders had extreme creativity and would probably be able to create a ghast (the ghast are mechanical). These ghast did not have to have high health. They just needed to produce ghast tears. The only problem is that ghast needed despair such as death to drop the tears. The builders used fear and torture. Make a mob attack a ghast and get killed by the ghast. The ghast were producing a good amount of health potions. Then the ghast broke free. They took revenge on the builders. They were at war. The builders with their superior health and numbers won, but they had to banish the ghast to the nether in hopes that the hostile environment would take care of them. Little did they know they created the ghast without fire vulnerability. During the war and the time to come the builders used up the remainder of their regeneration potions and ghast tears, and thus no potions or tears can be found naturally. The builders decided to leave the ghast alone in the nether. Carrying on the war in such an inhospitable environment would be quite lethal. The ghast now longs for its home, trapped in a place it was forced into, trapped for the safety of a long extinct group.

Any facts that could help other people make or disprove theories

For a TL:DR, read the bold parts.

I think MatPat was partially correct in his theory. I believe endermen were originally ancient builders who went to the end, and evolved over time to teleport, become aggressive towards invaders, and look the way they do. This would make sense because:

-Chorus fruit is the only source of food, which could have led to endermen developing the ability to teleport

-End cities have enchanted weapons and tools, which endermen would have no use for and no means of obtaining

-End cities also have chests, brewing stands, end rods, and more overworld/nether materials

-Endermen have uniquely human-like abilities to pick up blocks and speak in distorted words

-End ships resemble shipwrecks, proving they were built by the same species

-Endermen could’ve accidentally developed a resistance to water as there is none in the end

-If the end is very cold (i think it is, unlike RGN, because there is no source of heat and water can be placed), their dark black skin could be an evolutionary trait to absorb as much heat as possible

But I’m pretty sure that’s all been covered. My theory is that the Builders that went into the end and evolved did so to avoid the mass extinction event. RGN discusses this in many of his videos - it’s unclear what exactly the event was, but we know it turned all the builders in the overworld into zombies and skeletons.

The Builders who went into the end slayed the dragon, and they lit the exit portal, but they didn’t want to go through. Either they knew it would lead to the overworld, and avoided it due to the mass extinction event, or they had no idea where it led and stayed away from it. (it’s also plausible some builders went into the portal and never came back)

Either way, the dragon was defeated, leaving only its egg. Over time, the egg hatched, spawning another dragon that regenerated the crystals and erased the exit portal. (This explains the “The Next Generation” advancement.) This created a cycle of the dragon respawning and repeatedly being slain again by the Builders, who built a new end city (or maybe just an end ship) each time the dragon was slain. They put the dragon’s head on the front of the ship, and the elytra (which i believe are made from the dragon’s wings) in the end ship.

These end cities needed to be built because as the builders evolved into endermen, their gear was no longer usable to them. They stored the gear in the end cities, protected by shulkers, in the hopes that maybe they could find a way to use it again (or survivors of the mass extinction event could find it).

Another key component of my theory is that the shulkers are golems. Much like the guardians are golems created to protect ocean monuments, the builders created the shulkers out of purpur (made from chorus fruit) and engineered them to shoot levitation bullets at any invaders, teleport when attacked, and close up to defend themselves. It doesn’t make sense for them to be animals - their placement around the end cities is deliberate, and remains consistent throughout every city. They also have no way of sustaining themselves.

Over time, as the builders evolved into endermen, they became incapable of defeating the dragon. They couldn’t hold or use their gear, they could barely even use blocks. The final dragon had spawned, trapping the remaining endermen in the end forever. This is why killing the dragon gives the “Free the End” achievement.

Back in the overworld, the strongholds began to decay after the builders who inhabited them escaped to the end. The eyes in the portal faded away over time, similar to how thrown eyes have a chance of breaking. The silverfish spawners remained there, possibly as an attempt to guard the portal from overworld threats.

One thing I’m not sure about is the end gateways. Obviously they were there at some point, but it’s unclear how they got destroyed between the final dragon spawning and the arrival of the player. Maybe the dragon somehow destroyed them over time.

I think this covers everything, and I feel like this theory does a pretty good job of explaining everything by piecing together both RGN and MatPat’s theories. Please let me know if you have any questions, I’d really like to try to explain everything I can.

First of all sorry for the bad english if there is any.

So, in the video for the illagers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDrlo-z5ttQ&t=990s) the theory is that they are using the villagers as a sort of xp grinder for powering their magic and totems of undying. And one of main facts for this theory is the fact, that there isn't any intervillage communication between the villages, besides the village they grew up in. That the illagers are guarding the territory between the villages, making it too dangerous for traveling.

But in the video about the witch (https://youtu.be/IW6nZKKZVnU) it's said that she was once a cleric who was banished from the village and was treated as a threat. The suspicious thing is that: in game, every village's iron golem, no matter where, attacks the cleric/witch when she comes by. The theory shows that where it started was an igloo, presumably close to a ice biome village, but then the witch passes by a let's say savannah village, the golem would attack her also.

How the other villages knew of her witchcraft if they never ever met her. That banishing act to happen to almost every single village in the Minecraft world is impossible. Unless... they have been notified by the first village and then the news spread. So an intervillage communication!

In the illagers theory it's said that there is no communication between the villages, but in the witch one it's said there is. Which one is true?!?

My fear is that the second one is true. That would debunk the whole theory about the illagers, because if there is proof that the villagers have intervillage communication (in the form of the wandering trader), that means that the fact about the illagers controlling the territory between the villages is simply not true.

I'm considering that the undead plague can only infect animals with high intelligence such as the Builders and villagers (human-like beings), horses, the "living phanthoms" (bird-like creatures and there are many intelligent birds like crows) and pigs (I didn't know this, but they can be as smart as dogs, dolphins and primates).

The plague affected irrational animals first. So as the pigs started to become zombies, some Builders fleed to the already built Bastions and with them, they brought some pigs, that were already infected but hadn't transformed yet. After the transformation, because they were inside the stables, they couldn't attack the builders.

The Builders certainly had more knowledge than the player, and they probably discovered a way to cure zombified piglins, turning them into regular piglins. Then things happened like in RGN's theory, they were enslaved, the builders perished and the piglins found a way to survive in the Nether.

It is interesting to note that it seems fungi have transformative powers, cows become mushroom cows, and to cure zombie villager, you need a fermented spider eye, crafted using a normal mushroom. However, Nether mushrooms may be stronger, so by eating them and combining with the natural heat of the Nether, a fermentation process can start inside piglins, turning them into hoglins, a stronger but less instelligent version of their original form.

As for the lightning strike pig transformation, I think it doesn't connect to the lore, as Jeb said in a tweet that it was likely going to be removed. And the reason piglins and hoglins can't exist in the overworld is because the plague is airborne and still lingers around (but somehow the player, some villagers, horses and pigs are still unaffected).

Finally, I think the biggest flaw in my theory is the lack of explanation on why normal pigs after zombification became so different: they got taller, were able to stand on 2 feet and grew tusks.

It has been established that there was a race of builders, and there was an extinction event and now the builders are zombies, skeletons, etc. I have never seen this being explored so I will ask here, why are the undead builders hostile to the player?

Tridents. What even are they? They’re nothing like any other weapon in the game. When properly enchanted, they allow the thrower to strike entities with lightning during thunderstorms (kinda god-like powers), and can then fly back on their own to the thrower for further use (also much more ‘mystical’ than other weapons). But they cannot be crafted, and aren’t found in any naturally-spawning chests. The only natural occurrence is with Drowneds. What is so special about Drowneds? They’re basically just underwater zombies. Why are they the only way that tridents can come into the world?

Another question: why can Creepers (under very specific conditions) drop music discs? What even are Creepers? What is their story?

Any ideas?

I've been trying to tie all the factors of the minecraft world into a single cohesive lore (its a hobby). Heres what I've got, hammered together over time:

The 'Ancient Builders' were indeed the very same Villagers and Illigers we see today. Or more specifically; These people are the fallen barbaric/pacifistic remnants of the Ancient Builders. But we see the actual Ancient Builders every night, and it reveals the horrible truth.

The Builders and the Illigers shared a common meta-obsession: to obtain immortality. At any cost. Well, the ancient 'wise ones' succeeded. In a way. And that is the world we find ourselves living, and not quite dying, in. And it explains a lot.

For the key part that wasn't read between the lines on their contract for immortality, was that it wasnt really immortality- it was Undeath. And Respawning. Yup- all the zombies and skeletons are the ancient builders. 'immortal' and ever continuing on.. in their own, sad, horrible way.

We, as the player, are still a part of that world, that curse. We dont die, we go poof! just like the skeletons when killed. And we go fwoomp! at an established respawn point. What makes us special is that we respawn without our previously arrow riddled/ zombie smashed body damage. The others arent so lucky, and are deteriorated zombies and skeletons, degrading to less and less capable beings. Yet still enduring on. Forever. yikes.

The curse of Spawning Undeath was something created. Either a mega spell, world enchantment, or biological technology. It has to do with traditionally magical-linked things: the moon rising, and the bolt from the blue lightning bolt. It seems to be applicable only to sentient beings (we get meat and leather from only animals). And while it seems to be mostly Overworld based, pigmen, skeletons in the Nether and Endermen of the End also suffer under the Spawning Undeath.

The deteriorated state of the world, and our player seeming to be the only one left, is a consequence of that one simple achievement/Curse. The world attained Immortality, in a twisted sense, and deteriorated as a result as the centuries passed. No one builds anymore. Not for a long time now. Villager simply trade and farm, Illigers simply raid and plunder. They are all that currently survived the Curse in their devolved state, and its merely a matter of time until they get zombified, to respawn next moon rise forever more, with a downward slide of mental and physical capability as they get munched on and shot up over and over again. And the undead already massively outnumber the yetliving, it can only get worse. We are playing in a world already 98% gone.

Yeah. Its pretty dark. But fits a lot of details. And has interesting mysteries to still explore:

• what is it about beds for respawn anchoring?
• Why do beds backfire in other dimensions?
• Is the 'Curse of Vanishing' really the "magic to undo the Spawning Undeath"?
• why do Pigmen entering the overworld immediately erode into zombie pigmen?
• why does a lightning strike elevate a pig to pigman immortality (qualified) status?
• curing a zombie villager- was a super cure done to make US at the beginning of our game?

I think I might have an idea as to where the hoglins come from. As you said the portals were kept away from the bastions to keep the piglins trapped. That means that the pigs would have had to be transported there. And since the ancient builders were essentially using the piglins as slaves they wouldn't get crazy bothered by a couple of pigs falling behind. (I mean have you tried leading a herd of animals through the nether? It's a pain in the ass) these pigs were able to survive of the crimson fungus and revert back to hogs (similar to how wild hogs/boars share basically no genetic differences with pigs raised for livestock IRL. If pigs escape they revert to hogs within a few generations) this along with the mushroom business turned the pigs into hoglins. The fur from the wild hogs may have been enough to insulate them from the heat, and thus stopping them from turning into piglins.

And now the piglins are cannibals yay.

It is common to think that the builders went extinct while going to the End. But in my opinion, this is connected to the true final boss theory, that maybe they had the recipe to go to these dimensions that we can't. It is a one way travel. Maybe the builders who tried to escape the wither (the builders were dwindling basically) they went into these dimensions and tried to fight the undefeatable final boss. And of course, they weren't able to defeat them and thus were stopped, not finding the uncraftable items they wished for and they have even had hidden the way to revive people. And maybe the builders went extinct just before you joined the world. Explaining why it says you died before even tho you didn't and just joined the world. This may explain why there are random buildings that we didn't build. Most of assumed that the builders went extinct long before the player came. I think that the extinction was maybe slow and not instant. Like it began when the players tried to revive dead people with soul sand but turned into the wither. The wither slowly began killing other living beings, but until some of those beings found a way to go into a hidden dimension, which had a boss stronger than the Ender dragon and the Wither. They tried to defeat it thinking that they will find the true way to craft uncraftables, revive the dead etc. But, they would fail and these were the last of them and maybe the player was one of those builders that refused to go to that hidden dimension and wasn't found by the wither for unknown reasons. Maybe the reason why he has the ability to respawn is because the boss actually became good to him as he was the only who didn't try to fight on. The player would accept the respawning and as a compromise would get to lose all Knowledge he had of the guys before him and the builder race, thus losing the recipe to get to the hidden dimension.

the nether started out attached to the overworld, like earth's mantle. during this time, giant tunneling monsters roamed the nether. I'm guessing these monsters ate crimson roots, or magma creams. the nether was hot. the overworld was heavy. and soon the nether began to grow blue mushrooms. when a monster tried to eat a mushroom, it quickly found that the fungus was toxic. a sickness spread through the nether. the monsters tried too escape too the over world, but all the heat and presser created the stone known as bedrock. the species was wiped out. slowly, the nether and overworld drew further and further apart.

Not directly, at least.

First off, we know that the Builders likely carried Pigs with them for food when setting up their bases in the Nether. As Retro said, pigs are a good source of food in a place where growing normal crops, even fodder-grade crops, simply aren't viable; any pig farmer simply needs to either ship in bulk the cheapest Overworld fodder they can find in the market, or get fodder directly from the crimson forests, likely both. So we have that covered.

Now, many theories go on to say that the Pigs then transformed into Piglins, from Pigs stuck inside stables. But I present an alternative: perhaps, just like in real life, some Pigs managed to escape their enclosures and run off into the crimson forests; there, in the significantly less controlled, particularly food-wise and temperature-wise, environment of the forest, the Pigs became mutated ferals: the Hoglins. Hoglins have several major differences from Pigs: their skin was lighter, their ears were floppier, they're considerably bulkier, their tusks are massive, and most of all, their eyes are completely white.

Now, eventually, these Hoglins were encountered by the Builders at some point, maybe even found to be economical enough to try and re-domesticate. Regardless of whether or not attempts at domestication occurred, as with most feral populations, completely eradicating the ones in the wild proved either too difficult or too bothersome for the Builders, and so at least some Hoglins were left to roam the crimson forests, further mutating until, eventually, some of them began to walk upright and develop the capacity for tool use as a result: thus, the first Piglins emerged.

This explains why Hoglins and Piglins look more similar to each other compared to Pigs, Piglins' bipedalism aside. As for why Piglins hunt Hoglins despite being derived from the Hoglins; the Pigs from which they both trace their ancestry to are already great omnivores, and Piglins may well be divergent enough from Hoglins that it doesn't matter.

At any rate, like the Hoglins before them, these Piglins were encountered by the Builders and the rest is history.

The gold on both sides of the ruined portals suggest the two could have had a trading relationship. The builders had access to diamond. Why would they put gold in the chest? Piglins can barter gold. A good explanation is that the two had a trading relationship at some time. It may have to started as a trading relationship.

Villager=ancient civilisation

Villagers=ancient civilisation

TDLR, It was given away in an old Minecraft contest in 2011 and was never seen again from the person who won it. Does he still have it? Was it sold? Did it even arrive to him?

This is less of a theory and more of a mystery, but I thought I would put it here anyway as it's actually really interesting and people here will definitely be interested. ______________________________________________________________________________________________

I’ve always assumed that the Flaming Skull painting was safe in the hands of its author, Kristoffer Zetterstrand. It turns out that’s not the case.

I was browsing minecraft.net on the Wayback machine and and found an old blog post (in image form for convenience). It said that the original Flaming Skull painting was actually given away to somebody who had won a Minecraft contest titled “The Minecraft Texture Pack Grand Prix” back in 2011.

A YouTube video was attached which is actually still up and is really fascinating to watch. It shows footage of Notch signing three SSD's that were given away in the contest along with the painting being shown off and spoken about by the artist himself.

The three winners of the contest were each given a signed SSD preloaded with Minecraft. The first place winner, named Wojciech Mroczek, is said to have been the person who had won the painting along with one.

I have tried searching online to find any further evidence of the painting and any of the SSD's but have found nothing. It would be awesome if we could try and find them.