Solving the Minecraft Warden 

Sorry for the lack of videos until now but luckily most of my final exams are over which should hopefully mean more uploads more frequently :)

I always thought that the Warden looked and moved like it was a bunch of corpses stitched together, And I'm glad that I'm not the only one who suspected it too.

I love how Mojang is adding lore to the game. It gives Minecraft so much to think about.

The warden is such a strange mob, it changes the entire game when it comes to minecraft. When you enter an ancient city it becomes a whole new game, a borderline horror game. Sneaking around, hoping to not summon this beast. It has so many detailed animations, including a summoning animation. It feels like it’s from a different game, which is what it is supposed to be, a being from somewhere else

We always ask “What is the warden?” But never “How is the warden?”

the spinning axolotl glitch was intended, if they spin enough the centrifugal force elongates them into wardens

My headcanon for the sculk is that it's one huge living organism. The catalyst acts as a brain of sorts, sensors detect and warn of possible dangers, and shriekers scream to try to scare away the danger. If that doesn't work (hence why you need to activate the shriekers 4 times), the sculk deploys its last resort, the Warden.

IMO, I view the sculk as a parasite. Based on how old designs look like parasitic mushrooms, and how it spreads. I’d like to think the old civilization viewed the sculk as a wonderful shroom with many capabilities. Over time they became infected and merged with the sculk. That’s why we have bones and why the warden is hostile, it is the collective consciousness of the people who merged and want to protect their work.

I think it is possible that the Illagers decided to set up camp in the deep dark because they wanted to research soul energy.

In Bedrock, skulk appears in the “nature” section of the creative inventory. Just thought that would be a helpful detail.

Now I understand why the axolotls look so cute. They're trying to hide stuff, don't they?

Also, in Bedrock Edition, a gang of Wardens can definitely beat the Wither, what you said on 11:32 was correct. The Wardens get aggravated when hearing the Wither, therefore on a mission to kill it.

I love how at 5:21 he's trying to convince us that sculks are natural and not manmade like redstone, while redstones are pretty natural since they're also found in caves in the form of ores

You, sir, are a genius. I never thought of The Warden being _formed_ out of sculk. I thought it was _covered_ in it. The idea of people taking advantage of this natural stuff to defend them is interesting and this is my favorite theory on what The Warden and City are. Although, I don't understand why the souls of the builders seeking revenge is necessary. I would rather think it's a tragedy, and the player stumbles upon activating it. I'm also not giving up the possibility of the middle _also_ being a portal. They didn't have that word on the small Statue for no reason.

I personally think that Sculk and The Warden are from another dimension. I agree that the Ancient race of builders did hide underground from the Wither, but they made a portal to try to escape but ended up bringing something much worse to their dimension.

Interesting observation here: The Wither and the Warden are thematically linked while being vastly different Consider this: Both the Warden and the Wither rely on bones and souls to function and there's a theme of "spreading an affliction" within both. The skulk which is spread on death and consumes all forms of matter and the withering which kills all that lives in regards to vitality and thus spreads death and probably even help release Souls and both kill everything they find. And of course, both are triggered into being by players: Withers by being built directly while Wardens are passively generate by out presence and actions. Where they divert is curious: The Warden is also somewhat "fleshy" and more confined to the ground. It doesn't need to break blocks to move around when confined it can simply burrow itself, it also reacts more towards sound. The Wither is mostly bone and is more often in the air, when it's confined it or can progress it breaks blocks. It also has three heads meaning it can see things more easily. It's almost like they are by nature direct opposites while thematically congruent. Like Zombies and Skeletons (except those don't try to kill each other).

Matpat after watching this be like: *"Hello Internet, welcome to Game Theory. The show that keep the viewer in deep dark about everything"*

I like to think that the giant structure is actually an attempt at a portal, like the End portals, but it didn't work.

the reinforced deepslate "portal" looks like a warden with the ears and the rectangle shape, could be a hint that if we get a new dimension in 1.2 we would go inside the wardens "heart" where we can see and fight all the souls inside it or smth like that

Your videos have made me decide: I'm going to fix the ruins and finish what the Ancient Builders started. Thank you for this motivation. Also, I just had a thought: what if the Allays are a kind of souls? What if there is something connecting the Allays to the Warden? Can you look into this?

Out of all, this turns out to be the most appealing theory, and the way you always explain the theory whole at detail in the end makes it more easily understandable.

I kind of love how people are only focusing on the deep dark and the warden while they are also overhauling swamps and adding mangrove swamps

ur closer and closer to 1.5m, congrats you deserve it wifies!

ok, so this one BIG problem, if the damage was caused by withers, then how come the stronghold was unaffected

Love this theory, but if that frame isn’t eventually going to be a portal, people are gonna be mad for sure lmao

The warden is such a cool way of making players raid the ancient city the “intended” way instead of just cheesing it.

11:22 😂 the player looks like he’s a nerd being protected by a big guy 😂

My head cannon is that the ancient cities were built by ppl seeking immortality and built a portal to the afterlife (kinda like the nether is hell but instead just a death dimension where the souls go after passing) but instead of being able to go through the portal, the dimension spilled into the overworld and spread like fungus, feeding on the fresh souls of living things. The ancient builders decided to study this fungus and encouraged its growth, until the warden spilled out of the portal. A being whose sole purpose is to recapture and maintain souls in the dead dimension, it quickly did away with anything that moved or tried to run, sensing their living souls and eventually destroyed all the ancients. The random patches of skulk to me is just remnants of the portals opening and contaminating the overworld. Also, I just like the idea of a new dimension cus id love to see a new one! its been years lol

They actually explained that there was more for the ravenger way back when it was scared of rabbits but removed because it didn’t fit with the lore

I also love how all these clues also tie in to the gameplay, like you find snowballs in chests and you can use them to distract the warden yourself, or how there are carpet pathes so you dont have to sneak for 10 minutes just to get to the other edge of the city

I personally like the theory that the ancient cities were giant enchanting centers, using the Wardens as giant 'soul batteries'.

I remember watching this video back when I first started playing minecraft, and I still thought bedrock edition was the "main" version of minecraft, and it's so weird to look back at that time... I just recently found your channel again because of a video by Parrot! I'm so glad I found that video too! Keep it up!

The name 'Warden' now comes together in three ways! 1. The Warden as it is to its creator, the sculk with the purpose to guard the catalyst and assist in its growth of sculk infestation by killing everything that is alive. 2. The Warden as to the ancient builders who utilised and worshipped it as it guarded themselves against the dangers that caused their extinction and to kill intruders. 3. The Warden as to the illagers and the player who explore Deep Dark, for them it is guard of the treasure left behind by ancient civilization. (Though this time the Warden does not help...)

Fun Fact: The sculk related things that have bone texture (Warden, catalyst, shrieker) are the only ones that relate to souls. Maybe sculk didn't have the power of turning souls/xp to itself at first and it was only able to detect vibrations, but when it spread to fossils of ancient creatures it got its powers. (Btw sculk also has he sense of touch, because when you place/break a block on sculk the sensor will get activated even if there is wool on the way.

this guy creates the most vivid detailed stories that are kind of sad, from a game i didnt even thought had lore. bravo

My personal theory is that the sculk is small leaks from another dimension, like how the random nether portals you find around the world have netherite and lava around them. The ancient builders found these sculk infections naturally growing in the deep dark. The ancient builders then made these city’s in order study the sculk and experiment with it and find out what it is and where it came from, but this was before the sculk absorbed enough souls to make shriekers. Now that the skulk had more living beings around dying either from killing mobs, mobs killing the builders, or builders dying of old age it was able to make the shriekers and summon the warden where it attacked the builders. It was only then that they started using wool to line their floors to keep quiet. It was also possible that some began to worship the skulk and make it into a religion like the unitoligists in dead space and make sacrifices or ritual suicides because they thought of it as a next step of human evolution and to become a hive mind of souls, that would explain all the candles covering the area and why the portal is set in the middle of the city like an alter. Eventually they were able to figure out how to make that giant portal to where the sculk comes from and all the worshippers went through only for it to close and never be seen again. As for the rest of them/non believers they either went through the portal due to curiosity, killed by the warden, or just left. I prefer this theory because I’m tired of the old “oh they built this to hide/fight the wither” theory. I like to think that the builders weren’t all just one United nation and rather there were multiple tribes I guess you can call them. Like there are the ones did the desert temple and ones who did the jungle temple and the ones who did the nether fortress and the ones who did the ocean temples and ones who did underground stuff like the mine shafts and this ancient city stuff. But I 100% believe the pillagers making the zombie virus theory.

I remembered this video after seeing LTN’s post about making a machine to kill the warden and apparently harming potions HARM the warden meaning the warden is an alive mob and not undead.

This actually makes sense as in the early concept art of the warden others look like withers as if they were trying to make something similar to the wither to protect them.

I was thinking that the warden killed all the population in the city, and became sculk blocks, or that maybe the population discovered a new portal with reinforced deepslate, and attempted to escape through the portal, abandoning the city and become as we know it now. But what I am sure is that the people that did this cities traveled through the nether before, because of the soul sand under the portal, also theres some basalt blocks in the city, maybe the people who did the nether portals are the same people who built the city. In case the structure at the center of the city is not a big statue of the warden and its a portal, I think this people maybe had elytras because there is no stairs to go up, or maybe is a statue just because of that fact.

12:23 I'd argue that hopefully it is a new dimension?

Wifies: "you know what both of these statues also resemble?" My brain at 2am: AMOGUS

"Mom can we get Game Theory?" "No son, we have Game Theory at Home." Game Theory at home;

If there is a new dimension created this could still line up with the other lore ideas. All you’d have to change is that the builders who stayed on the surface were successful in making a portal to a new dimension which led to the endermen and the player. The others that went down to build the ancient cities were able to build a portal but decided to stay due to the protection the warden provided and the the rest of the video would fit in just fine.

0:31 game theory

Just saying he is insane at finding lore that we don’t even need the Minecraft movie when we have Wifies and Seawattgaming

The fact that this is all in the overworld is scary enough, I can only imagine what a new dimension would hold. But regardless, wonderful video!

Hi Wifies, I love to watch your game theory videos. Just wondering, does the Ancient Wither have anything to do with the painting of a wither? Then if so, an ancient builder must've travelled to the nether before anyone else and came back and painted a picture of the Ancient Wither. Then a few generations later, someone finds out how to go to the nether (and the Ancient Wither has died by then) and finds the soul sand and wither skulls, then saw the painting of a wither and created a wither.

Okay so is no one gonna acknowledge how chilling it is when Wifies talks about the sacrifices of the builders? Like thats great storytelling right there

He's advancing,guys. He's getting too smart. Soon,he'll be able to use 50% of his brain. Worst of all,he'll solve the mystery of where my dad went. He must be stopped.

11:33 the wither is way too weak to drive them beneath ground, i've said this before and i'll say it again. its a boss mob that doesn't even spawn naturally, and in the Mobeastiary, a book _by Mojang_ it says it was summoned by a few foolish adventurers who fought it and eventually defeated it. if a handful of adventurers defeated it so could an entire species.

5:34 also a good note is that redstone itself is natural, so perhaps there's an in-universe interaction there, or a coincidence where they both use the same types of signals

Bro, I LOVE your lore videos!

I remember once hearing something about the lore of the updates going backwards. After all those sacrifices to the warden, there's nobody to wake him up so the withers destroy the city. [1.19 --> 1.18] Something like a force destroyed the world and you travel back in time to look for hints and strenght to stop that force from destroying everything.

I kinda find it really funny that mojang acknowledged that the snowballs felt out of place in the loot tables, really tried to do something else, but in the end they couldn't come up with a better alternative and just ended up adding a new room that justifies the existence of snow instead.

This has me so hyped for a new dimension in minecraft, i havent fr played it in forever but if they add a new dimension im definitely coming back

I don’t know if y’all know the book The City of Ember but the builders making the city there gave me such a solid connection

With the release of 1.19, shriekers and sensors can be activated by other mobs. Still, a very interesting theory. Perhaps the warden had always been there and fed off of the death it caused to any unfortunate mobs that wandered into its lair. When the builders arrived, they built the city and worshipped it, using its sense of sound to protect them from the dangers outside like the wither or the undead plague that was spreading like wildfire on the surface (as proposed by RetroGamingNow). Aside from that, pretty solid theory!

My personal theory is that, following what you said, that the Warden is an amalgamation of bones, skulk, and souls. The shrieker seems to be where the souls to power the warden come from. When something dies, the “soul” is used for it. Also, the other theories talk about how the builders and evokers were interested in “soul technology”, so they could have stayed here to study it as well. Just my personal theory.

This was told like a god damn legend bro. Someone needs to make an animation of the history of all of wifies’ wiftheory about the builders

high as hell rn and watching this opened my whole mind bro love ur vids im subbing

Wifies: “Why would they set up camp next to such a dangerous mob, well-” RU-vid: *A D*

Here's another interesting connection between the warden and the skulk shreikers: in order to summon the warden, you must activate a shreiker 3 times. The warden can be seen with 3 souls in its chest. Maybe for each time a shreiker gets activated, a soul is moved from the collection that the skulk has stored to the creation of a warden

I like the idea that the ancient builders were tampering with something they shouldn't have (like the portal maybe?) and when something came that they didn't expect, the sculk now covering the city is them. Of course, there were survivors trying to get out of there for a while thus the loot corresponding to the warden.

Truly amazing I love these types of videos

This is actually a very well thought out theory tbh, there are a lot of wither references so this theory fits in well

Ancient City: Whoooo I'm being released and I'm gonna be a whole city! End City: Don't get excited. Mojang doesn't know what a city means. Ancient City: *actually a city* End City: HEY NO FAIR

Here's a theory: What if the builders fled underground to escape the zombie apocalypse and a wither they made and then found the deep dark, where they built an ancient city and sacrificed axolotls from any nearby lush caves so that the axolotls were turned into wardens to protect the builders from any undead that dared enter the city. And yes I completely agree with how the wardens were formed. Piles of axolotl bones and souls (souls were held in shriekers) held together loosely by sculk. But the wardens weren't enough. Other hostile mobs, like withers were getting in and slowly diminishing the population. So the builders made a portal in the center of the city with deepslate pathways leading up to it, made to purposefully attract the warden. Why? Because the builders needed experience energy for enchantments to fight off the mobs. That is the main purpose of the warden. They would lead a warden up to the portal and it would somehow activate the portal through sacrifice of a player or something stronger... like a wither. A player would lead a wither and a warden to the portal where they would fight and the warden would win, resulting in the portal opening to a dimension entirely sculk where the builders could get all the enchantments and xp they wanted. There was probably a block in that other dimension that was unbreakable and the builders couldn't bring back that enchanted their items. But the wardens weren't exactly cooperative with the builders and they killed anything that made noise. Mobs or builders. Later after the builders all died the pillagers found the ruins and set up camp there to continue the ancient builder's operations but it wasn't too long after that the same thing happened to them.

theory : the ancient city was actually inhabited by mysterious warden like creatures that I would call Sculklings. Sculklings consider this home but when the ancient builders discovered this. They raided and looted the ancient cities and they fought a brutal war which was The Sculk War , The ancient builders won and only some. of the Sculklings survived and were forced to evacuate and leave their ancient city and those who survived evolved into what we now know as The Warden. The Warden is hostile to us because we look like the ancient builders who destroyed their home. 2 years after the ancient builders raided the ancient cities. The mass extinction event happened and the ancient builders died. Also the reason of the shriekers is because it was a defense mechanism and was left there because ancient builders didnt know how to get rid of it without summoning the warden. Also the snowballs in the chest prove they were at a war. Look at the animation of the warden , Its like it is injured. Possibly the shriekers summon the same warden over and over again and when it keep getting summoned. They fought and the warden got injured

Apart from the city centre not being a portal, and the whole overly sacrificial phase. This is probably the best Warden theory so far.

Random person: "Minecraft is a kid's game" Mmm you sure about that buddy? Seriously though, great video, as always. I love how detailed you are in explaining your thought processes. Can't wait to see if you were right!

What if the ancient builders lit the ‘portal’ and left to another dimension to escape the wither and the warden stayed behind to protect the leftover structures. This could mean the wither breached the ancient city and all the ancient builders left in a hurry leaving behind some items which we see today in the chests. Skulls also can be found around the ancient cities meaning some ancient builders didn’t leave in time. And finally, the warden could be blind from a fight with the wither. But that means the wither left without killing the warden. Meaning it could come back a second time….

While you do have a good theory, I have one where the pillager and axolotl theory combines, so here’s my theory: Because the ancient city has the same wool, and wood as the pillager mansion, I think the skulk and the warden are just mutated axolotls and coral and the souls are souls of pillagers. While the mansion was their home, the ancient city is their testing place

this breakdown is super detailed at first I thought it was a portal like most others but now I feel completely different about the lore behind the warden, I hope Minecraft dev's add more and more exciting and intriguing lore in the future updates.

The story you've come up with is super spooky and interesting, and the narrative is also awesome! Mojang really wants us to dig deep and not be shallow, which is something you generally should do in your life.

you probably should talk about disc 5, it gets more in-depth with the story of the wither, ancient builders and warden.

Bro when you started talking about sacrificing people to please the warden I was like, "oh it's gettin' dark now."

I feel like the AB Destroyer must be something less block-destroying and more dangerous than the Wither, because the landscape isn't broken and it's quite easy to kill the wither especially if your an entire socity

I think the name is important. Warden means “ a person responsible for the supervision of a particular place or thing or for ensuring that regulations associated with it are obeyed.” Is it possible that the ancient cities are more like prisons, with the warden being a guard?

OH MY the OST from Ordem Paranormal gave me the chills, it fits so well the narrative (btw there's a monster that resembles warden a lot in this RPG)

That Game Theory intro parody was 10/10.

My takes on this video: Most of the waterlogged skulks sensors are alone and doesnt seem to have been spreat, so i reckon the water was a way to resist and contain the skulk from spreading. And the war part i think its "wrong", my take on it is that the warden and the builders didnt win and the whiter(s) destroyed the ancient cities, also killing the builders, and this explain the overgrowth of skulk in random areas

This update just has so much to offer… I can’t wait

I think this theory is perfect, keep up the good work!

when you said the water logged skulk sensors are for "aesthetic purposes" to keep them silent I think it might be to stop them from sending signals to the shriekers.

when you asked why the people of the ancient cities didn't just leave, my immediate thought was to ask this question. why are there many many human populations that exist in very deadly areas when they could just leave? I know its not as simple as that

What an incredible theory, I really think it's spot on in a lot of areas. I think the statue worshipping the Warden could still be a portal and go along with the core idea of this theory, though. Perhaps sculk came through the portal, or it was another attempt to flee into another dimension like the end? Disc 5 certainly seems to hint in it being a portal. But yea, I really love this, thank you for exploring the lore in this way! I think it makes a lot of sense and is definitely very spooky. Don't forget, not just the wither, but the ancient human civilization was also facing a zombie plague that was seemingly threatening their kind as well, given the absolutely endless hordes of zombies we see today.

I find the deep darks incredibly fascinating and theory videos like these make me think that maybe I can get interested in Minecraft 1.19. I might even work on my own theories regarding the souls in Minecraft.

This.... I will never ever ever think anything differently about the warden. I love the thrill even though it is highly unsettling! Thank you for the theory!

this feels canon in a way minecraft theories usually don't. good job!

16:30 you had the *perfect* opportunity for a jumpscare there and you missed it dude

11:21 Alan Becker actually pokes at this in the Animation Vs Minecraft episode "The Warden" as the music that Orange plays through a flute reminds the Warden of the old villages that used to live there that it protected, with the warden basically being their Iron Golem(s).

It's pretty clear to me that they built those portals in hopes to escape the overworld but the portal they opened went to the 'otherside', home to to the skulk. The builders were pretty smart and studied the stuff and built cities designed to avoid alerting any skulk sensors that would spawn, then opened the portals. The cities were probably just giant labs to study the stuff that came through the portals to maybe devise a way to see if going through the portal was even worth trying since the nether and end were dead ends. Would be nice if the otherside is introduced later as a real biome.

Yeha, I think for the "pillagers", if they were involved in anyway, tried to piggyback and take over the city, but were either destroyed, or scared off by the Warden. Hence the Dark Oak, they were trying to rebuild, but got interrupted very quickly.

"The axolotls are not what they seem" refers to how they aren't axolotls, they're actually olms.

Bit of a design flaw to have a security system activated by ground contact against a monster that can fly.

i think of the Skulk as a hive mind of sorts, using the sensors as its ears and catalysts as ways to grow or repair. The warden is its defense mechanism. The builders had a symbiotic relationship with it, where the Skulk protected the builders and the builders provider it with "food".

a small detail in the texture of the cracked deepslate bricks is that it looks like theres punches in the center of the block. hence forth it may seem like the warden was attacking something but it may just be me who thinks that

7:08 Finnaly someone said it! I was thinking the same thing when I saw the dark oak and birch bridges scattered around the ancient cities

This is very good you have made such a good point this could be a small breach through

I love the game/food/film theory intro 🤣