The Dark Past of the Ancient Illagers (Lore Theory)

Thank you so much to WitherKing001, without her this video wouldn't have been possible!
Also big thanks to Rogue as well for helping with a lot of the building of the Revived Ancient City!

Mojang Trailer Animations Featured:

Check out these other videos:

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:00 - Brave Beginnings
4:06 - The Social Schism
5:21 - The Sunken Civilizations
8:25 - The Ideological Clash
11:08 - Appearances
13:02 - Living in the Dark
15:37 - Alien Assistance
19:21 - Born from Darkness
22:28 - Shadowy Influence
27:14 - The Power of Telepathy
31:41 - The Power of Heart
34:35 - Spellcasters
40:04 - The Portal Under the World
42:49 - The Broken Record
51:49 - Aftermath
53:10 - Outro

Warrior Textures by WitherKing001
Ancient City revival built by RogueAkk, WitherKing001 and Xatrix

Channels:

[CenturyGuard]

I don't know what to do with this information. But you know how there's the *heart* of Ender the *eye* of Ender. Well, the *heart* of the sea and it opens To reveal It's also an *eye*

[halolover]

Id love an updated/overview video of everything you've explained with this theory so far. Especially since new information and games have come out. 😊

[franf]

Probably the best explanation I've heard for the 5 disk and one of the best Minecraft theory videos I've seen! Just keep going bro, and that mod you're making back there looks 🔥

[trumediamix]

26:55 "Mind altering" isn't an impossible game mechanic to mimic, terrifyingly enough!

The Illuminate, in Helldivers, would have units that would screw up the way your hotkeys were formatted (if caught in range).

Instead of "W goes Forward", and "Ctrl has you Crouch" - you'd suddenly turn left and pull up your Strategems (when you pressed Ctrl with intent to crouch)!

Imo, that sounds amazing - but my guess is that they scrapped it to avoid mod conflicts out the ass.

[QuAIyanMusic-vy]

I actually have a mini theory about the ghost cloak, it’s a mixture of void and skulk, thing about it. All void based beings can teleport, which explains the purple coloration, the skull and its souls within control and energizes the magic used to teleport. Void for the teleportation, Skulk/Souls for the power

[solomonshedarowich]

The big building in the ancient city’s could also be actions face, considering they look extremely similar

[keithcarrier]

I wonder how well Game Theory theories would match yours and maybe be able to make a book! Love your theories and his!

[EvilShadow]

Witches emit purple particles too... 😮
Just like the evokers, illusioner, enderlings ecc...

[DarkestMarlin]

The Illagers may not have left because of their desire to fight, as implied in Legends' ending, because (as the game title says) it is a legend, a retelling of the story. It was most likely told this way by the villagers to not put fear into other villagers (by saying monsters were friendly when they clearly aren't; or to hide the fact that their ancestors expelled the Illagers like we see in the beginning of Dungeons and in the Rise of the Arch-Illager book). Basically the Legends story could be pro-villager propaganda, since Piglins don't even attack villagers (nor can they live outside the Nether without becoming zombified).

[crim-jim]

I like to imagine the reason shulk/Wardens, portal frames, Eye of Ender, enderpearls, and warped forrest all have similar colors is due to it harboring the power of teleportatiton and or souls. And the reason that the shulk has come to the Overworld and the Warped Forrests to the Nether is due to corruption from dimensional travel.

[trumediamix]

"What would you have us do? Start farming? Build villages? Become civilized and weak?"
*_"You dense little greyskin! YOU WERE BORN IN A VILLAGE AND TOOK UP ARMS TO DEFEND IT!"_*
...
The fields laid silent... and in one sentence, our hero inadvertently became a villain of someone else's story...

To me, the Illagers aren't just "valuables to farm" from their attempts to pillage people's homes on the rare occasion...
... rather - to me - they're an ostracized people who are a perfect metaphor of Minecraft's PvP community.

They kill, destroy, and care very little for creativity or consequences - but the damnedest irony of their barbarous cruelty stems from the mutual misery that Villagers and Illagers both endured under the Piglin invasions.

On one side of the coin - you have a people who still wished for renewed autonomy as a means to help rebuild their homes (and themselves).
On the other side - a people who yearned for vengeance... who cried out for blood in the name of the blood of their own that was spilled before their own eyes...

...for it is the nature of all monsters to seek the destruction of their makers.

Yet, when they found the Ancient Cities... I firmly believe all they feared to ask was... *_"What could have made THAT THING?!"_*

[Espozayd]

never would i have thought to see the wolololll easter egg used for lore

[chelsea-legos]

With the leaked spicewood artwork, it’s hard not to see the sculk coming from another dimension.

[TriplePistol]

I think Vindicator was the remaining pure gray villagers controlled by lapiz seen by their blue eyes.

[theparrishshow]

An important thing that a lot of people forget is that the Illagers and Villagers are NOT a separate race. The books stated that Villagers and Illagers are literally the same species, but Illagers left their homes or were outcasts for a large number of (unsurprising) reasons. Their practices and lifestyles that use certain dark magics that physical alters them. One of the side effects being turning their skin grey.

[RavenGamingOverLord]

Those warriors became the very thing they wanted to protect the other villagers from

[winSonoma]

So, I have a theory about the Enderlings being in the overworld before that portal activated. Long post warning, btw

So, after the Overworld-Nether War, (and presumably the Minecraft Movie) the Piglins have had enough of the Seer and his/her goals, and so they killed the Seer and took the Orb some place in the Overworld, and then they devolved into the pigs that we see in regular Minecraft, as a side-effect to the Orb of Dominance. With the Heart of Ender now in the Overworld, it called Endermen to their side.

During the time the Illagers were in the Ancient City, the Endermen presented themselves as "helpers, " but their motives were not to help them. Instead, the Heart's motives were to remove the viral infection known as "Skulk" from thier world. Now, I like to think of the concept of Skulk much like the Flood from the _Halo_ franchise. For more info, look on the Halopedia. So, the Illagers, with the help of Endermen, reinforced their deepslate with that of skulk bones (or End Stone), and the Illager known as Thorstein Agesson (probably not the canon name) lit the portal, as instructed by the Endermen.

Out came more enderlings, Endersent, and Wardens, golems of End Stone made to fight off the Skulk infection, now compromised of the virus itself. From there, the Illagers and Enderlings ran for it, and made a barricade from the rest of the Overworld, so that the Skulk could be contained. This could also be why the Illagers split themselves up into tribes.

[TypImiko]

Very late, but I do have a small theory regarding each dimension: We already know the Nether is based on hell, and the End is loosely based on Heaven (originally), so it'd make sense for whatever created Skulk, whether it be a machine or from another dimension, is based on Purgatory? I mean, Warden is a good name for a monster meant to keep something in purgatory, the jail between life and death.

[frigidonyoutube]

It sucks seeing how rich and full the actual minecraft universe is just for the game itself to feel so empty

[frostbytetw]

So I find it weird that they were warriors BEFORE they became angry and became the warrior race of villagers? Or did they build the ancient city, and then forming an alliance with the ender people?