Minecraft's Quasi-Lore and How to Build on it

Minecraft doesn't have concrete lore, but its hints and clues can be used as a scaffold by modders and builders alike. This video contains all such lore that I am aware of, as well as some examples of how to expand it.

0:00 Introduction
1:27 Water and the Ocean
1:50 Example 1: Crafting Recipe
2:45 The End
5:01 Example 2: New End mobs
5:46 Energy
6:44 The Nether
8:47 Gold and Piglins
10:00 Asking Questions
10:47 The Undead
12:02 Example 3: Totem of Withering
12:45 Illagers and Villagers
14:04 Miscellaneous quasilore
14:59 Example 4: Badlands Pyramid
15:38 Conclusion

[RetroGamingNow]

Great stuff! This is one of the earlier examples of Minecraft theorizing. It was one of the inspirations for the Deep Dive series, as well as MatPat's theories. Pretty cool to revisit this and see how in some ways it laid the groundwork for my YouTube channel.

[yaboijakob]

Time for my mini theory:

Soul Sand Valleys are the coldest biome in the Nether. Since primarily Skeletons spawn there, this also backs up how Wither Skeletons spawn. Skeletons that venture far out from Soul Sand Valleys are exposed to dangerously high temperatures that chars their bones, creating Wither Skeletons.

[Slirthart]

The chickens being spies thing has GOT to be a nod to Paulsoarsjr. He's one of the very first minecraft youtubers and he had spy chickens as a running joke ever since they were even introduced

[SpoonChase]

I wonder if the reason piglins and hoglins get turned into zombies when they enter the overworld has something to do with zombification being a sort of pathogen. Because it’s a foreign disease and exists in large quantities in the overworld, it easily turns them into zombies. The reason villagers don’t turn so easily is because they have a certain level of immunity, and are only in danger of the pathogen if it enters directly into the bloodstream. Maybe that’s what happened to all of the humans, being all turned into various forms of undead due to a lack of immunity, and the ones who had some level of immunity gave rise to villagers and illagers. This may actually be a huge problem for the piglins, as some of the pathogen made its way into the nether. It would explain why piglins avoid zombie piglins, because they might fear catching the disease. It also may explain the bastion remnants. Perhaps the disease has been ravaging their civilization for years, leading to the slow decay of their society and, as a result, their precious bastions.

Lots of stuff I know but I’m just spit balling.

[uhoh]

I think that the Nether Wastes were formed from the excessive mining of Netherite done by the piglins, and as a result, it has left a barren, jagged terrain where nothing grows but a few mushrooms.

[doorknob]

Here's my mini-theory regarding the Ender Dragon heads on the front of End Ships:

A lot of people say that the Ender Dragon was slain before by the people (or things) that built the End Ships and the heads of those Ender Dragons were attached to the ships, but I don't think that's the case. I believe the heads were *crafted* by the ship builders as either decoration or a way to hopefully deter the Ender Dragon from attacking the ships. The first piece of evidence comes from the wood-like sound the heads make when you break them, leading me to believe they were crafted from wood. Another supporting piece of evidence comes from how the heads' mouths open and close when a redstone signal runs into them, suggesting they are mechanical. The third and final piece of evidence comes from how ships in real life were commonly decorated with animal heads on the bows.

[zanktondb]

I think ( i have litle evidence ) that crying obsidian is formed when a portal is destroyed and the obsidian starts driping interdimentional energy.

[tensionalboat-]

“Quasi-lore is never set in cobblestone” I love that, that speech phrase is beautiful, very creative, good job

[Naleck_WoW]

Enderman only care if sentient creatures look at them. A pumpkin on your head means that you are a construct. If you buy into the enderman once being human then then this would also make sense.

[yougotthecrowbar]

The idea of "Giving pumpkins their own personality, and thus bringing them to life" is making me really happy

[stellanightsk]

15:17 Did you know? In vanilla desert temples, the top floor of a desert temple is the perfect size for a max level beacon, complete with a hole in the middle perfect for the beacon beam.

[awesomeninjamc]

I really like this video, and something to point out is that Dungeons is canon, and Dungeons has a ton of quasi-lore. As creator of the Dungeons-related portion of the wiki, I try to mention this without going too far into opinion-based theories but it's interesting to think about.

When the Orb of Dominance creates a 'body' for itself (i.e. the heart of ender and jungle abomination), it always has enderman eyes, and all the plant-based monsters it made have purple glowing streaks running through them, suggesting the Orb is from or relates to the End. And because of that, the Illagers may even worship the Ender Dragon like the Endermen do (which is why there's end-related stuff everywhere in Highblock Castle, the Arch-Illager's home).

Many items have lore of their own, like how Heartstealer (I could be remembering the item name wrong) was given to the general who conquered Squid Coast after his victory, suggesting he was killed at some point (because it would be embarrassing to lose a gift like that)

In fact, about Highblock Castle, some item descriptions suggest there's a prison there that we never get to explore called Highblock Keep. There was apparently an Illager there who would use the Truthseeker sword (the long soul knife) for interrogations, and there was a jailor who was known as the "terror of Highblock Keep".

[LY.]

this is the content the community is sleeping on

[庫倫亞利克]

The End, I think, has a general teleportation/space (not in the "outer space" sense, but the other) theme.
Endermen, Shulkers, Ender pearls, and Chorus fruit can teleport. The Ender Dragon is intangible and can phase through blocks. Ender Chests create an interdimensionally-connected storage, and Shulker Boxes hold items that should've been spilled out after the chest is collapsed.

Alternatively, I'll say Ender pearls are lithiasis to Endermen, who eat from chorus fruit and gain the power to teleport from them. Because there are so much chorus fruit in their system, they are able to teleport at will without having to consume chorus fruit all the time, even across dimensions (explaining Enderman in the Overworld and Nether). The pearls they drop are essentially what's left of the chorus fruit in their system, which has enough residual magic for us to use as well.

[poeissalty]

The mushrooms on a mooshroom's back not causing them any discomfort makes me happy

[partyinpiplup]

One thing that's interesting in the lore is that redstone is almost completely exclusive to the player. Only redstone machines are in jungle temples and they're pretty basic ones. It's a nice contrast from other mobs making it mystical vs mechanical power. Jungle temples may be the last thing expiremented on before the ancient race disappeared. Or maybe they dismissed it.

[nebulaentertainment]

Personal Quasi-Lore Theory: Dragons existed in both the Overworld and Nether many years ago. This could explain why the Red Dragon was never added to the game. Proof of their existence could be the large skeletons of creatures found in the Soul Sand Valleys, and at rare times deep in caves. Maybe they were hunted to extinction by the ancient race of humans. The last survivor of the Red Dragons may have hid away and hybernated for eons after, only to wake up with the Overworld completely gone, with only few pieces of debris floating around the void as the End dimension. The Red Dragon would adapt to the new enviornment, and turn into the Ender Dragon. The reason it may attack the player could be because it still hates for what our kind did to hers.

P.S. Great video. I never would've thought as Quasi-Lore being the word to describe the story of minecraft, and I loved the addtion of mods in your video to tell your ideas. Keep up the great work.

[JRexRegis]

Another interesting link is that all magic draws back to the soul in some way.

- All potions require an Awkward potion, which can only be brewed from Nether Wart, which only grows on Soul Sand. Interestingly, a Wart is usually something that grows on animals, not plants, meaning it may not be a plant at all, but rather some sort of organism or weird hybrid. You can't bone meal it either, like you can all other crops. So perhaps nether warts are an artificial lifeform that is capable of drawing and storing the energy from the souls trapped in soul sand, which is what gives all potions their magic.

- Enchanting requires experience, which is drained from the player - but experience doesn't just passively generate, meaning it's not something like memories or thoughts or whatever, but rather something more ethereal. Another interesting aspect is that experience orbs burn in lava and fire, meaning they're physical objects that actually exist. You get experience from acts of change, by altering the world in an irreversible way - smelted ores cannot be unsmelted, slain mobs cannot be unslain, coal cannot be unmined, etc etc. Considering the fact that it's some form of energy and it does not appear in your inventory leads me to believe that experience is stored in the soul.

- Ender Pearls hurt you when thrown, but why? Chorus fruit doesn't, so why would a pearl? I think it's a trade-off for the magic that went into enchanting the pearl, plus the fact that you, as a water-based lifeform, aren't fully compatible with the kind of teleportation the pearls perform. So it draws on your health during the act of teleportation, siphoning away a chunk of your health to fuel itself.

- The color of both the Totem of Undying's eyes and its particles is 100% the same as the color of experience orbs and the experience bar.

- The Witch's hat has a gem of that same color on it.

- Beacons require a Nether Star, which needs a Wither, which is summoned with Soul Sand.

This is too consistent to not be intentional, imo. But I wonder if it goes deeper than that, if there's more to it than just "magic comes from the soul".

[elderhakabong]

One of the earlier designs for the strider looked even more like a ghast where it had a bunch of legs!

[cxhen]

I feel like witches are ex villages who got a little too into potions and were banished from the village, and the reason they attack the raid illiger things is because they still feel a connection to the villagers and want to protect but they still have some prejudice towards the villagers so don’t fully attack