Game Theory: The Forgotten War of Minecraft (Minecraft 1.19 Update) 

The reason why the ancient builders weren’t able to defeat the wither is because they forgot the combat system changed after the 1.9 update

A block game with this much lore

You know, that would explain why End portal is positioned as it is. It's set so anything that comes from the other side falls down into lava to prevent another breach like the Warden.

Consider this: When a mob dies near a Skulk Catalyst it spreads more skulk and ancient cities are covered in it. You could even say... a populations worth.

Mojang: *"Opening the Warden Portal is a bad idea."* Mod Makers: *"That Sign can't stop me because I can't read."*

The "sirens" are probably goat horns being used as a signal, likely for whomever is on the other side of the door to pull the lever and open it up. The "Phantoms" are also probably the Wither, given the pitch and tone.

To further the theory of the sculk being sentient, I noticed that if you listen close to the audio of breaking the sculk, you can almost hear a scream

I hope they don't add a new dimension; instead I hope that add more invasive creatures coming through from that dimension. I WANT ELDRITCH HORROR IN MY CUBE GAME

Ancient Builders: We're saved! The Warden freed us! Warden & Skulks: We wouldn't say freed, more like... under new management!

Disk 5 serves as a warning about opening a new portal. Modders: So I took offence to that and built a whole new world based on that theory

I don't think that the ancient builders fled to the end because of the Warden. The Warden is just too stationary for the ancient builders to ditch an entire dimension. If the shulk only grows when things die around it, then one could simply close off all access from the ancient cities and booyah! No more Warden. I think that some of the ancient builders built the end portal before the Warden killed the Wither. There is no implication that the ancient builders stuck together. We've seen the drowned civilization staying away from the rest, as well as the not-so-ambitious relatives of the ancient builders, the villagers. If the first experimental portal brought the nether, and the next brought the Warden, who the heck would be stupid enough to make a third portal? I think that the civilization that became the Endermen were completely oblivious of the Warden's existence. Those who tried to live in piece with the Warden either was the cause of more shulk being created via devoured souls or fled to the caverns which would have almost certainly killed them. This also still leaves the question of how the shulk got up to the broken nether portals. The Minecraft legends game will probably be stuffed to the brim with LOOORRREEE! as MatPat calls it. A theory for another day my friends, a theory for another day...

I’m a 30-year-old man and this is my third Minecraft lore theory video in a row. It’s making me want to play Minecraft, but it’s Sunday and I’ve got work tomorrow.

Anyone else gonna mention how the soul fire under the “portal” helps keep the biome contained since mojang made a feature where sculk can not spread past soul fire. coincidence? I think not!

Warden: drops sculk catalyst Players: That isn't very rewarding Matpat:LOREEEEEE

It would be awesome if in the future you could activate the portal and then something just absolutely awful comes out. Like a new boss mob.

Its interesting to think that the builders didn't escape to the end to escape the wither; but rather because the thing that killed it was coming for them too. It adds in an entire section of story in between the 2 main theories

Theory: the warden actually has the spirits of 5 children in it and the ancient city is a pizzeria Edit: I just wanted to watch a game theory video then I found out that not only did this get over 20k likes and 483 replies, but it got into a video 🗿🗿🗿

This theory makes alot more sense when you consider that ruined Nether portals seem to have bits of the Nether seeping in around them, implying portals left open long enough will begin to transmutate the world around them into the world within (I imagine the reasons player portals dont is due to age/Mojang not wanting peoples builds ruined by such a thing)

While I have been working on restoring an ancient city in Minecraft I noticed that skulk, if you look close enough at the texture, appears to have the souls of animals in it and it made me think that, along with how skill spreads, exp may be similar to soul remnant, and the warden may not be just a defence, but the way that skulk was able to cover a city leads me to believe that skill may be similar to a carnivorous plant, and the warden it's cool for gaining the exp it needs to spread

Funny sidenote: The ONLY piece of music that plays in the Deep Dark, and by extent, the Ancient Cities, is called 'Ancestry'

Dang, it just shows us that even if the end was a bad place to be in, if the warden is that powerful, that new dimension must be extremely dangerous. If they went through the portal, it most definitely would have killed them.

From cave noises to Sculk shriekers, who knew that a simple block game could introduce the most disturbing noises ever.

I really wanna see someone animate scenes based on these theories

12:46 is officially the COOLEST part of the audio omfg i love the sounds of reversed glass breaking and the soul's echoey whispering

This would also explain the lava pool under a horizontal portal. They learned a vertical portal could let stuff out, a horizontal anything came out would go right into the lava, and not be able to escape.

This actually explains why you can't find the wither that was summoned way back when, it was already defeated

So, what if Allays are ancient builder spirits that escape the sulk, hence the blue. That leads to part 2, what if the ancient builders used sounds. They made music discs to record their history and the instrumental music is them singing. Also they would record events which would explain disc 5. Which leads me to believe that the ancient builders were about to make a giant achievement and that's why they were recording. And some one sinister spawned the wither to stop them. Also what if the guy with the cough has wither sickness from the wither and also why the disc is mixed up is your piecing it together.

here’s an idea: the end portal was made to escape the Warden/Skulk. They accidentally let the Warden into their world and were terrified to not only find an entity that could kill the Wither but also spread and grow. Maybe they used the souls from the skulk to create the end portal frames -hence the very similar colors. Maybe the labs under the City Center were made to create conditions where they could try and create these frames away from the threat of the Warden. Just a theory based on the color palettes :)

Given all we know about Minecraft lore now it really gives some “I am Legend/Last man on Earth” vibes. Steve/Alex, and the Villagers are the only survivors in a world of undead, the diseased, mutants, evil spirits, and abominations that come out at night.

Minecraft community: The Warden is terrifying, kill it Mojang: Try not to kill it Warden: I'm just trying to protect my species

13:16 It sounds kinda like the Ender Dragon death sound too (specifically the firework-like noises echoing in the background).

Play 13, 11, and 5 together, it sounds different, almost like a puzzle put together

Here's another point to make. Consider this: the most common animals and lifeforms in an ecosystem are plants and prey. It has to be this way due to the concept of entropy (as you've talked about in the past). If the warden came from another dimension and considering how easy it is to spread, it may suggest that the Skulk and the Warden are not near the top of whatever food chain exists on the other side, as well as how quickly the warden passed through. If the portal opening briefly was enough for the Warden to immediately cross through, it suggests that it's near the bottom of that world's food chain, hence why it was able to find the portal so easily. It didn't need to find it cause it's so prevalent in its world. If the Warden's native dimension becomes accessible, I expect to find a world that is far too dangerous for anyone, to survive, putting other dimensions like the Nether and the End to shame in terms of deadliness.

I know this one's a little obvious, but I love the environment storytelling of the skulk. It only spreads when exposed to death, and the sheer quantity of it around the ancient cities suggests something truly tragic.

This actually gives credence to the new Minecraft game coming out. This is a great theory as always.

actually that "explosion" you heard in the disc was really the wardens heart beat and when the warden spots someone the heart beat becomes faster just to let you know. I love the warden and I'm trying to understand the lore behind it

Ancient Builder 1: "How do we bring back the dead?" Ancient Builder 2: "Build a statue with their remains and give them two more heads?" Builder 1: "Let's try it!"

I'm sure you won't see this since its an older video, but I noticed something while trying to repair the ancient city. There are intact and ruined parts of the city, but the ruined parts also have wooden scaffolding to continue the bridges. What happened? Was the city already failing before the warden emerged? Or is this another civilization, or perhaps the same one, revisitng this site to retry teh portal?

It’s crazy how MatPat can take a sandbox game with no official timeline or really events at all, and can make a whole entire standing theory about it

Let's all take a moment to appreciate the true hero of this story: the absolute madlad who was running around recording all of this on a music disk.

apparently his story checks out. a warden can actually tank a wither's attack and finish it before the final explosion takes it with it,and since they're in a cave system the warden could actually reach the wither without being carpet bombed. if im taking this correctly then the warden not only defeated the wither, but as it was taken out by the wither's final explosion it dropped the sculk block, which would explain why after the warden defeated the wither it didn't stayed long enough to be considered a threat by the ancient builders, and how it brought the sculk block into the city in the first place

Remember this: skulk spreads wheb something dies near it. So when the warden came through, there barely any skulk and maybe even no skulk sensors or catalysts. However, because the Wither is made up of souls, when it died, it spread so quickly so much that it then made it very difficult to maneuver around the city quietly, which costed many of the biilder's lives and caused the skulk to spread even more

Heres my version of the events, its been a week since the wither destroyed everything. The last remaining colonists from the big city that was destroyed fled to the underground, but soon after they split, one group tried to build a portal to escape and one group tried to preserve the colonists legacy and decided to build an underground city. Its been a few days since they split apart and one explorer ventures into the caves to check on the other group but theyre gone, he wanders inside the strongholds and finds the end portal but its been destroyed. Creeper attack likely. As hes leaving though he sees a tall human like form, he looks at it carefully and approaches but it shrieks and he quickly runs away. He gathers materials but he sees and hears the figure again and runs away quickly. He sees a light and runs for it but it was a terrible mistake. In the distance he sees the wither and frozen in fear he watches as it gets close enough to see him. He tries to turn and run but then the tall figure finds him and ends him. A few hours later the city realizes someone has gone missing and sends a group of soldiers to go find him as they go to open the doors however they hear something.... strange, loud bangs, getting closer and closer, they realize it must be the wither. They tell the city folk to hide under the city center in the newly built bunker and they sound the sirens and open the door. The scientists grab supplies and finish the new portal and as it is created the souls from the soul sand they gathered and experimented with scream in agony but they get ready to flee. But a sound of a creature is heard, then a loud roar, a giant beast steps lut and ravages through the scientists, it makes its way through the city until its hit by a large fireball, it roars and a large fight insues and the beast destroys the wither, but as the soldiers and townsfolk try to embrace and rebuild and mourn, they make too much noise. For je next few weeks, it kills everyone no matter how much they try and get around it, it doesnt work and finally the last survivor is mutilated by the beast and it burrows, leaving the city in ruin and infected by skulk, forgotten, an ancient city..... abandoned....

Here's a small theory: something interesting is that when killed Iron Golems don't spread skulk, this confirms that they are robots without a soul (something kind of well documented already) and makes me speculate that perhaps the real reason they built iron golems wasn't protection against miscellaneous threats but specifically as foot soldiers to fight the spreading skulk, something big and bulky enough to be able to take on wardens and something that couldn't make the skulk worse. In Disc 5 when we hear those soldiers mark we hear their footsteps they are all human footsteps, not even a little of the iconic iron golem walk sounds can be heard (the metallic footsteps are without a doubt player armor) which indicates to me that Golems were not built until after the wither attack ruined their civilization, it also goes to show they never learned their lesson about playing with life which ties into the idea that their downfall was caused by not really knowing their own limits.

Damn these ancient builders couldn’t catch a break, huh? Portal #1 : Hell Portal #2: Warden invasion Portal #3: End with no escape

The strange thing is that the skulking block has a similar texture to end portals

If you think of the numbered disks as part of a set and assume there are more numbers that just haven't been found yet, you can play the disks in order. Start counting up from 1 and play disks 5, 11, and 13 at the respective times. It's eerie to see how they line up and I'd love to hear MatPat's take on this

A fun little detail or two: a warden at partial health is able to fight and defeat the wither without dying, and unlike every other mob that requires the skulk sensors to detect movement/vibrations, the moment the wither is being summoned, the warden immediately attacks, even when the wither has yet to move or even act (though it’s mere presence does set off the sensors)

With so any different horrors out in minecraft, it makes Steve look like the doom slayer for being able to deal with them, when his peers couldn't.

The candles in the city may actually be practical, the flames remain visible through the blindness effect, thus you can walk confidently through a candle lined hall when wardens are close

I think that the Warden used to be a creature like the Iron Golem that the Ancient Builders used to guard their cities, but because they are made out of iron the skulk was able to infect it, transforming it not into a stationary block but a living moving form of itself- turning the thing the Ancient Builders created to protect themselves against them.

Ah, the ancient builders. So smart that they can open portals with redstone, yet so pathetic that they can’t just spam harming potions

I feel like this also helps to explain the random silverfish spawned always in the end portal room, the silverfish would squeak and crawl around providing a distraction to mask the builder’s footsteps

Another unique thing of note is that the during the end poem, one of the figures says one of its name it was called "the spirit of the mountain". Deep dark cities can be found in mountains. Perhaps the wardens were a safety measure to stop the builders from entering the other dimension.

insane how i used to watch this guy 10 years ago and the editing hasn't changed... much

Regarding the "monster" at 10:37 - that's the sound of an Endersent, a larger and stronger type of Enderman from Minecraft Dungeons tasked with guarding the eyes of ender required (in that game) to access the End. You can hear it for yourself by finding the Minecraft Dungeon Wiki's Endersent page and checking the Idle sounds

I used to think that Because the Wither is gone why won't they just get out from the underground and just leave the Warden behind, But until i realised that the virus thing is still going on so they can't

I think the nether, the sculk, and the end are discovered by three different groups of ancient builders, because strongholds do not have wool carpets, thus they have no warden threat that forced them into the end.

This gets even crazier when you consider matpat’s FIRST theory on the warden three years ago, and he suggested that the warden is an iron golem infected by the sculk…could this all be connected somehow??

its also a possibility that the ancient builders were split in groups, and some groups built ancient cities with a giant portal to escape, but perished because of the sculk, and another group built the strongholds, with the end portal, but got trapped in the end. They aren't necessarily 1 group.

I seriously love the direction this game is heading

This is honestly one of my favorite series to follow. Thanks so much for all the work you put into these videos!

I think the ender dragon was tamed some how and was used by the ancient builders to defend themselves against the warden or wither if those things ever made it to the end, because there are iron bars around the end crystals and end crystals are man made requiring stuff from the nether to craft

I like to imagine the wardern the the weakest and smallest creature from its dimension, and the reason nothing worse came out was because everything else was too big

Here me out: what if Steve has an echo shard inside of him? We know the builders were desperate to prolong their survival as a species. We know that they performed experiments with death and used the skulks weird post death properties to craft things like recovery compasses which stay in your inventory when you respawn and point you to your place of death. We also know that with the wither and now the warden there were 2 looming threats to this species. So what if, In the last few days of the builder civilization, they created the player by embedding an echo shard into one of their own and using its death bending properties to allow that builder to respawn infinitely ensuring even death can’t truly stop them. Maybe this ties into the illagers, maybe the illagers saw this process somehow and tried to recreate that series of events. since illagers can’t reproduce this ability to ignore death would’ve been very valuable to their kind. But their inferior science and lack of access to the deep dark caused them to mess it up. Maybe they used lapis instead of echo shards cause hey both are bluish lookin crystals they have to be interchangeable right?

A creepy detail about this theory is that you can find skulls in ancient cities.

I love how this video not only explained the origins of the warden but also how the original wither that destroyed the ancient builders died.

This actually solves everything; Why the city is covered in sculk and wool, why the portal is unlightable, the motivation, the shapes, it all makes sense

Another reason the builders might've stayed in the city: instead of there being one Wither, there are actually multiple, and if the Warden was shown to be able to kill one of the Withers, then the Ancient Builders would have wanted to stay near something that could kill their most dangerous enemy. They laid down candles to help see in the darkness effect, they laid down carpets as to not alert the Warden, but the longer they stayed down in the Ancient Cities, the more sculk was made from the slaying of mobs and the natural deaths of the citizens. Eventually they couldn't contain the sculk or the Warden anymore, so they left.

I never get tired of the outro "But hey, that's just a theory... A GAME THEORY" LOVE IT

10:39 The "Monster Shriek" is a sound of an Endersent from Minecraft Dungeons. This makes the whole idea of the Ancient Builders becoming Endermen later kind of crumble on it self or at least linking their story to the Disc 5 does.

notice how they use very strong blocks to make their portals. The portals only work with stronger blocks. maybe this means that any attempts to use weaker blocks have backfired and resulted in the portal imploding or something; leaving builders trapped in other worlds. and they also continue to use stronger and stronger blocks. the obsidian was natural, but the rest they made themselves- that's how the deepslate got reinforced and how the end portal was made despite the blocks being unmovable. once they found that obsidian, the strongest natural block besides bedrock (a block they can't move and therefore can't use), could be used to make a stable portal, they proceeded to make even stronger blocks to make new portals. the only problem is they couldn't all be lit the same way. the lighting methods were somehow related to the dimensions the portal led to (fire for the Nether and ender eyes for the end). The ancient city portal to the skulk world was somehow lit using souls of the deceased, possibly VIA soul fire, to light the portal in an ancient technique we are no longer in position of. note: I'm behind on theories, so if by sheer luck I happen to mention something previously stated here, please do not ridicule me for it.

Who else wants this to be animated? Just imagine the warden jumping out of the portal and punching the wither in mid air. That would be awesome.

I think the Stronghold Ancient Builders were probably cut off from the Ancient City Ancient Builders. Both groups tried to flee to other dimensions to escape the wither. One succeeded but got trapped in the End, and the other unleashed the invasive Sculk on their city.

The fact that the skulks evolved to have the warden as a defense mechanism should be terrifying, because I feel like that means there are things at least equal in power to the warden, if not stronger on the other side

Imagine just going through the new portal and there are a bunch of wardens just walking around casually.

Lore theory: The deep dark is a different dimension the ancient builders opened up using the giant nether portal looking structure in every ancient city, this explains how the city’s are destroyed and why skulk is only in these areas as if it is bleeding into our world. When the builders found out there mistake they quickly decided to try again. This action lead to the creation of strongholds and the end. Proof that dimensions bleed into the over world is when you find ruined nether portals. These small structures have nether rack around them suggesting that they are also spreading. :)

I like to think that this ancient builders underground could have either been another ancient civilization of builders basically like a surface civilization and a underground civilization. I think they both are different kingdoms. The underground civilization perished because of the skulk infestation while the surface made it to the end. I like to guess that they must’ve already made it to the end while the wither still goes on a rampage and eventually found another civilization which was underground and of course they were trying to escape but then perished after the skulk came through the portal.

Theory: “I might be wrong but idk” Maybe the warden is a mix of the ancient builders who tried to open the portal. Which they succeeded in which has the sculk spreading. So maybe they are infected by it and got warped into the warden. And the reason they attack the player is because maybe the warden doesn’t want the player to open the portal to make the spread worse..?

10:02 I think that the "sirens" are actually Goat Horns which were also introduced in this update.

One small thing I would like to add to this theory is an idea I heard that the pillagers found the Ancient Cities before the player did. We can see Dark Oak wood bridges and outposts which stand out from the rest of the city but is a staple of pillager outposts and woodland mansions. The carpet that lines some of the Dark Oak Bridges is also a distinct purple compared to the grey wool as the pillagers likely had an encounter with the Warden or at least understood why they had to keep quiet. The small outposts that line the cities were small bases for the pillagers to make camp and we can even find piles of wool similar to those found in woodland mansions lying around the city. Judging by the fact that the outpost’s chest still have loot, however, it’s clear that despite their attempts, the pillagers didn’t make it out alive. Like I said, this wasn’t my theory but just something I heard although it does make the world feel a bit more lived in as the player isn’t the only one to explore the ancient ruins left by the builders.

Maybe, with legends, this could be some new lore-perhaps the ancient builders making the portal was an attempt to bring back the hosts, and since this was many centuries after the events of legends, none of them really knew how the hosts looked and so rejoiced, thinking the warden was a host and had come to save them, and so them worshipping it makes even more sense now…

All your most recent theory's mix so well and it's just... amazing

15:13 - DUDE! This is probably your best Minecraft theory to date, and compellingly told.

Wither: You can’t defeat me! Ancients: I know, but he can! *The Warden has entered the chat*

With the Villager Recruits mod, I like to think that the player finds villagers and teaches them how to fight again. After that, together the player and villagers can take down any threat to the Minecraft world.

Game theory idea: the player can respawn because he's been experimented on by the ancient builders that's also the reason he's the only ancient builder Alive.

Makes sense, especially if the deepslate portal was first that would explain why lava is underneath the end portal just in case something came through.

Hypothesis: The two entities that converse in the credits after you defeat the ender dragon are two ancient builders that have ascended to a godlike paragon ultimately achieving the goal the ancient builders sought after, immortality.

Fine interpretation of the disc and all, but this doesn't make any sense with the Phantom theory, if going to the End was a last resort, a one way trip, how can the illagers know about ender dragons? In fact, even if they could travel freely for a while how would a completely subterranean civilization communicate with the illagers?

Great work on this particulary theory, but if you check out the video Wifies posted on his channel about this disc, he mentions the unidentifiable sounds that are not native to Minecraft Java are actually from Minecraft dungeons, indicating a universal overlap. This has been confirmed by the developers in a q&a, which when asked about the interconnected timelines, confirm this theory. It should also be noted that the question was asked in the "music" section of the video, referencing disk 5. This means either 1: we are listening to a minecraft Java player who accidentally stumbled on an ancient city while caving and decided to help defend the city. Or 2: we are listening to a Minecraft dungeons player who is out caving, see the wither and hears the phantoms, which appears after your teammates die. He runs back down and sounds the alarms and mobilizes the city's army the help fight, summoning the warden as an ally rather than an adversary

If they are from some other dimension, then if we imagine that Warden and skulk are at the bottom of food chain in their world, and there are even stronger entities there, it becomes way more terrifying.

Something else that's interesting is that in Bedrock edition, there's a new shirt/top that came with the wild update that's supposed to look like the warden's open chest, but instead of being called something like warden's chest or warden's torso, it's simply called "Keeper's Promise", so that might be something.

There is a theory that Wardens are actually axolotls. If you compare the Warden and the axolotl, it probably make sense because they both have similar properties for example, they both live in deep caves and they have poor eyesight and they need their hearing to navigate. If you didn't know, if you invert the colors of the Warden, it looks more like an axolotl. According to a Minecraft RU-vidr, EliteG he said that axolotls are attracted to sculk sensors, and when they go on top, they get stuck and get dehydrated making their bodies to fuse together and making them corrupt causing them to turn into the Warden

i think retrogamings theory has some stuff to look into, especially regarding the wool in the ancient cities and dark oak wood, both of which are only found in woodland mansions.

It always confused me how a single wither destroyed an entire civilization of builders, even wiping most of their existence from the world, it's also weird how overly protective the Shulk is of itself, my thought is that either the Shulk was only a single species with what could have had a predator, and that's what destroyed the builders, or more simply it's an ambush predator, like a spider waiting for it's prey to step into it's nest

Minecraft in 2011: "Haha, blocks go brrrr." Minecraft now: "The souls of the dead power this entire species that came from another dimension."

The Wither, the ancient builders, the warden… tree mysteries of the Minecraft world. The Ender-Dragon: “Am I a joke to you?”

i do kinda hope a new dimension atleast happens in the future, it would be cool, i mean especially a sculk dimension sounds interesting

“You could say the sculk is in general sentient.” So… if I use sculk to get a ton of exp and enchant my sword, does it become sentient?