Minecraft lore is very mysterious and ambiguous. There are tens if not hundreds of differing
theories and new explanations for game mechanics arsie all the time. But above all one question about Minecraft
remains unanswered. A looming mystery that is arguably the most
important thing in the whole story of the game. Let’s assume for a second that there was
once an ancient race of builders like you and I who constructed all the structures we
see in the world. They made great technological advancements
and shaped the world forever with their buildings. However they’re not here anymore. We are the only players in this vast world. The ancient builders underwent some sort of
extinction. A3 catastrophic event that drove them to be
no more. But what? What could have possibly happened to this
superior ancient race of people that made them go extinct. Well that is the question I’ll be answering
today. However before we begin if you do end up enjoying
the video then please consider subscribing. As you can probably tell we’ve very very
close to 1 million subscribers and it would be incredible to reach that before christmas
and before 2021 ends. My last lore related video attracted 540,000
unique viewers and if even half of those people subscribed we’d get to 1 million in no time. So if you find that you aren’t subscribed
and end up enjoying the video and wanna say you were here before 1 million I’d greatly
appreciate it if you could subscribe. I can’t do it without your help and I promise
I’ll make it worth your time. But with that said thank you so much and I
hope you enjoy. While everyone has a different version of
Minecraft lore in their head there’s one main aspect that almost every prominent theory
agrees upon. The ancient race of Minecraft builders. A group of people just like you and I that
constructed all the structures we see in the game. While there’s obviously no verbal confirmation
for this theory, it would explain so much and things make a lot less sense without it. For instance if there wasn’t an ancient
race how would all the structures get here. They certainly don’t just appear randomly. So with that assumption in mind, the next
logical question is where are they now. A technologically advanced race doesn't just
disappear off the face of the earth. Something happened, some extinction event
that caused them to seemingly vanish before we, the player, got here. And this is where theories begin to diverge. To my knowledge there are 3 leading theories
as to what happened to this race. In this video I intend to examine all of them
and look for evidence and flaws proving and disproving these theories. The three theories to what happened are as
follows. The first is the creation of the wither. The second is some sort of plague, specifically
a zombie outbreak and the third is some sort of world war or man induced conflict. These are all somewhat different but each
have merit in their own right. Let’s begin with the most popular one. The Wither. This is by far the most popular of the 3 and
is often talked about by matpat, myself and more recently Sipover. It pretty much argues that at some point in
time the ancient builders while conducting experiments accidentally or purposefully summoned
the wither. A destructive behemoth that drove them to
extinction. Whether that be by killing all of them, sending
them to die in the end or sending them into the end where they turned into endermen. That part is less important. The first strong piece of evidence in accordance
with this theory is an anecdote from a book, the mobestiary. The mobestiary is an official book released
by Mojang and is the closest thing we’ll get to actual written lore. In the section on the wither we get this little
quote. “There is something to be said about the
curiosity of explorers that leads them to try anything, even if it ends in their doom. A group of settlers tried to recreate what
they saw in the painting, using four blocks of soul sand and three skulls of the wither
skeleton. They found terrible success… and so the
battle had begun” So an official lore book about Minecraft outright states that the ancient
builders summoned the wither. Well that just straight up answers our question
right? Not exactly. Because while we do now know the ancient builders
definitely did encounter the wither, we don’t know if it wiped them out. The wither is by no means an easy boss to
combat. But wiping out an entire race of people. I’m not sold on that just yet. Attentive viewers might have also noticed
and questioned the line about the painting. What exactly did the builders try to recreate? Well this actually raises way more questions
than answers. In the intro paragraph on the wither we get
this mysterious text. “It’s existence was theorized by scholars
before it was witnessed. Soon after, a bizarre painting began to appear,
showing a T-shaped group of brownish blocks topped by three white eyed heads. Thus the search began for information as to
what this creature may be.” Ok who the heck made a painting of the wither
before it was even summoned. Regardless I’ll revisit this later as it
actually isn’t that important to our overall goal. Another piece of evidence in favor of this
theory is the condition and location of the nether fortresses and strongholds. Nether fortresses are built high up in the
air and their bridges look like they were hit with some sort of explosive. Maybe they were built as a place of defense
to guard against wither attacks. Similarly the stronghold is built deep underground
in a place where the wither probably wouldn’t get to that easily. The builders could have been using it as a
place of refuge while working on the end portal. But the wither theory isn’t without flaws. For one thing the wither isn’t that hard
to kill. If you had a whole race of technologically
advanced builders it’s hard to believe that with all of that diamond armor they still
couldn’t defeat a singular wither. However a counterargument to that is maybe
more than one was summoned. For some reason or another. The second condracticing aspect of this theory
is the aftermath. As you probably know when a wither kills a
mob a wither rose is dropped or placed. Players are no exception to this rule. If the wither did end up killing the ancient
builders why are there no wither roses left behind as evidence. Furthermore, how did the villagers survive? In a story by the game theorists that I agree
with, they point out how the villagers are most likely descendants of the ancient builders. If that’s the case though how did they end
up surviving the withers? It seems unlikely that they would remain while
the other builders got wiped out. The final problem I have with this theory
is where is the wither now? The wither is one of the few mobs that doesn’t
despawn even if you unload it’s chunks. So theoretically it should still be somewhere
out in the wild if the builders failed to kill it. Which it isn’t. So there’s definitely an argument to be
made but I'm not sold on it just yet. But that’s just the first theory, let’s
now turn our attention to the plague. A zombification outbreak. Somehow through natural causes or man made
experiments a zombie virus was unleashed upon the Minecraft world. Taking the lives of the majority of the ancient
builders and driving the rest into exile in the end. I myself have also played on this hypothesis
and it definitely is a strong candidate. For one thing it’s undeniable that zombies
look like us. They wear the same clothes as default steve
and have the same physique as the player. This on its own already presents a strong
case for the ancient race turning into zombies. The same mechanic is also present in villagers. Zombies have the ability to convert villagers
into zombie villagers, proof of the zombification in action. Additionally zombie villagers spawn naturally,
supporting the claim that some villagers were converted in the past along with the builders. Furthermore there’s the whole mechanic of
anti zombification. We have the ability to cure zombie villagers
and the builders were aware of this too. Why else would there be an anti zombification
study in the basements of igloos if the virus wasn’t a problem. Likewise it would explain the prison cells
found in strongholds. Perhaps zombies or zombie villagers were kept
there to study upon. But I think one of the strongest pieces of
evidence in favor of a zombie virus is the zombification mechanic of piglins and hoglins. When these nether mobs enter the overworld
after a bit of time they begin getting the nausea effect and convert into zombified versions
of what they once were. As if there is some airborne virus infecting
them. However while this definitely is a strong
case this theory is not without many flaws. For one thing we aren’t affected by the
zombie virus. If this plague is still airborne you don’t
see the player turning into a zombie every 5 minutes. In the theories' defence it’s not that much
of a stretch to assume that Steve along with the villagers and other overworld mobs have
developed some sort of immunity to the virus. The nether being such a hot environment kills
the airborne plague thus it’s mobs have no immunity since they don't need it. And when they travel to the overworld their
lack of immunity renders them helpless to the plague. All that’s to say the fact that we aren’t
affected by the virus isn’t that big of a deal breaker. However, that's not the only problem with
this theory. That comes in the form of skeletons. If the ancient builders died and turned into
zombies, what does that make our bony pals over here? One argument is that skeletons are decomposed
zombies that no longer have a desire to eat brains, hence why they don’t care for villagers. If that’s the case though, why do they attack
us? Another possible argument is that this is
proof of a second race of people. One that was killed by something completely
different. That said, both of these solutions are pretty
spineless and only thrive on speculation. With all that in mind though you may be beginning
to see why a zombie outbreak seems much more likely as an extinction event as opposed to
the wither. But we aren’t done just yet. A war. A battle between two species of intelligent
lifeforms that ended up leaving both of them forgotten. How likely is it? Well, while it isn’t necessarily a cause
for extinction it might explain a motive if there was a second civilization combating
the builders. As I mentioned previously it could explain
what the skeletons are. It could also be what was in the prison cells
of the strongholds and what drew the original painting of the wither. Not only that if there was a war going on
between these two civilizations, it could be that one of them in an effort to win ended
up summoning the wither or creating zombie virus. As for who this race could be we already have
two solid contenders in the game. If you’re willing to consider RetroGamingNow’s
interpretation of the lore, the ancient builders and endermen are two completely different
races, which could have been two warring civilizations. Even more likely however are the illagers. These things have always seemed like the villains
of the game and I don’t think it’s unreasonable for them to be an opponent that our ancient
builder race was facing. Look no further than zombie interaction. Illagers while being almost completely identical
to villagers in physique and structure are ignored by zombies. It might be that the illagers in an effort
to wipe out the villagers or the builders were the ones that made a zombie virus. However as you might be able to tell I have
very little evidence for and against this theory. It’s just all in my head. So with all of that said and done, where does
that leave us now? Well with the provided evidence considered,
I give to you, the story of the extinction of the ancient builders. Getting more and more technologically advanced
as each day passed the builders continued to thrive. With invention after invention their power
grew stronger. Eventually though some didn’t want to continue. They were satisfied with their comfortable
way of life and just wanted to settle. Eventually these two groups of people diverged. The majority of the builders who remained
continued to go forwards, pushing the overworld to its limits and discovering alternate dimensions. While the second smaller group settled down,
building towns defended by robotic golems to protect them from incoming spiders and
phantoms. But life wasn’t perfect forever for the
villagers. Eventually some got frustrated, they wanted
to come back to their adventurous way of life. They wanted to do stuff again. However this belief was not shared by the
majority of the villagers. It had been a while since other builders contacted
them and they were content without outside interruption. So these wanna be adventurists were exiled
out of the village. Becoming outcasts and establishing their own
huts, and outposts. Shunned and ridiculed, the outcasts began
to work together. To pile up their resources and construct their
own homes. Giant mansions where they would plot their
revenge against the villagers. And after months of experimentation, they
did it. A plague engineered to wipe out the villagers. A zombification virus. They wreaked havoc on the villages. Many of the civilians were wiped out and converted
into zombified versions of what they once were. Thought this wasn’t the end. The builders came back just in time. They brought their armies to fight against
the zombie plague, knowing it may soon come for them too. As well as to protect their lost relatives. But it wasn’t enough. Soon the armies of builders also fell victim
to the plague. The airborne virus infected their systems
and converted them too into mindless warriors. Quickly the armies began constructing fortresses
in the nether and shelters in igloos. Places where they could experiment on curing
the zombification. They managed to find a cure for the villagers,
but it was too little too late. Day by day more and more builders succumbed
to the plague. A last ditch effort was made, an underground
base was constructed with a portal to flee this virus. And when the zombies arrived, the last of
the builders jumped into the end. Greeted with a fate arguably even worse. And that is the answer to Minecraft’s Biggest
Unsolved Mystery. Or at least it’s my answer. It’s the one that I think makes the most
sense but I encourage you to look at the evidence and draw your own conclusions on what you
think happened to the builders. The villagers to this day are still plagued
by the zombies, and we as the player are the last builder who can protect them. But with all that said, thank you so much
for watching, please consider subscribing, and as always peace out, have a good one,
I’ll see you next time.
