The Tragic Story of Minecraft's Nether Fortress 

Notch: Bruh, I'm too tired to do interior of the Fortresses, let's just keep it simple Wifies: But why they're empty? Clearly this is indication of...

Imagine Notch watching this and being like: this is just a cool building that has loot for the players........

A few things I think you should have explored and added into the theory: - Regular skeletons also spawn in fortresses, although much less frequently then wither skeletons; - Wither skeletons and piglins are hostile towards each other. The same does not happen between piglins and blazes, which only attack each other when provoked; - Piglins become zombified when going to the Overworld, and are strangely more tame when zombified. Hoglins also become zombified, however become extremely agressive in the process, attacking every other mob in the game; - Even more curious, piglins and hoglins are not immune to fire despite being native to the Nether, but their zombified counterparts are. Other than that this is a good video.

I like to think Blazes are melted-in-lava Wither skeletons, with their teared up ribs becoming the 12 floating rods (like the 12 pairs of ribs on a human skeleton). Melted enough to fusion into really hot and strong material, it explains this metalic sound to their breathe and the nature of their fire throwing abilities.

Mojang developer: *inhales* MatPat, RGN, and Wifies: This is clearly an indication that all hostile mobs work for the Illuminati.

Wifies: Explains a theory Me: "That totally makes sense" Also Wifies: "But this is the actual theory" Also me: "Oh"

To me, the lava well could very well be some sort of altar. Kind of a sacred room at the core of their fortresses, dedicated to the worship of some deity. Maybe its purpose was to protect the fortress against external attacks, by placing it under the protection of a god or goddess.

Just to add to that, based on the design of the nether fortress, I think it’s likely it started as a nether hub. The long isolated pathways were designed not as protection from zombies, which could be accomplished much easier with much shorter platforms, but as protection from ghasts and piglin raids. Ordinarily you would want to concentrate the forces of a fortress, make them easier to defend, but on a nether fortress, the paths are important, they’re roads in another hub. At the end of each path was probably a portal that they destroyed when the zombies attacked.

Wifies in earlier videos: "haha potion have funny name" Wifies now: SO THAT'S WHY THE PIXELS ON THE CACTUS CLEARLY POINT TO THE WITHER ACTUALLY BEING YOUR BIOLOGICAL MOTHER-

"saddles can only be found in chests" leatherworker villager: am I a joke to you?

"Lava has no real purpose" Obsidian: Am I a joke to you?

That video was just amazing... especially the end bit... "An inhumane never-ending process, truly a terrible fortress" It all makes sense. Thanks Wifies :)

Wifies: *walks in a nether Fortress* The Ground: *makes grass walking sounds*

I didn't think a game made of cubes would have such a deep story where everything connects

Him: “hello internet” Me: i know that from somewhere- Nice game theory ref!

I like that this hypnosis briefly addresses the fact that the Wither Skeletons are 2.4 blocks tall. This feels like an important detail, something intentional.

Just to build on this slightly, undead mobs take damage from potions of healing. One of the only places you find naturally generating brewing stands (besides villages) is in the End ships. And of course, every single one of those brewing stands are stocked with potions of healing. This leads to my theory that the ships were constructed in a last ditch effort to return to the overworld and eradicate the zombies by raining those potions down from above.

My thoughts is that the fortress was originally just made for potions (blazes are natural and the ancient builders farmed and put them into a spawner) but then they found out about the ancient giant withers. They then made it into a fortress to defend and all of the wither skeletons are ancient builders who died from ancient withers.

"Those Were The Days" being an advancement name really makes you think sometimes. I don't think Steve is necessarily human. He might be some kind of dark soul taking on a friendly form. He knows how to play with souls and if you read Achievement and Advancement titles, you get enough to make you point to official lore even if it's very little. Your avatar was doing something before spawning into the world for us. Up to something that we don't know about.

Notch: lets just make a rlly cool build for players to loot and make potions with no lore intended Wifies: or is it?

Now the "a terrible fortress" achievement makes even more sense

Wifies: "The Tragic Story of Minecraft's Nether Fortress" Speedrunners: "KIll blazes, wither skeletons suck unless you are doing an all bosses speedrun."

9:45 I agree with this that seems the most reasonable.

I think that's both a brilliant and terrifying theory, and would encourage you to keep going! You videos are awesome!

wifie: “something, is missing” random ad: GET THE WHOLE TEAM TOGETHER

everyone: talking about Wifies saying "Why is it black?" me: why did it make a dirt sound when he walked on nether brick??

5:49 Mabye they use this lava to tortue others for info, they dangle them over it

Theory: The ancient huge whithers killed the some of the builders. They are obviously undead, what killed them? Considering how similar they are to the actual wither, could dying to the wither affect be similar to the zombie plague but with skeletons this time?

Mojang: Let's add a cool structure in the nether which has some loot and offers the player a challenge Lore theorist: As you can see here... This is what I like to call *L O R E*

Cool video! I thought the story you presented was well-told and quite enjoyable!

Really cool video! I really think Minecraft Lacks of a good Lore , with all this soul related blocks, colors and sound, the End dimension, the bastions, everything could be linked in a really dark story! Thank you for real! Now we have something to start creating that good Lore!

Love the video and the story👌 I do have an alternative theory tho. What if the dimensions were fighting eachother. That's why there are strong holds in the over world that lead to the end and fortresses that protect the nether. Ther are also end citys guarded by a dragon. The overworld has mob spawners spread across the world to protect against any possible intrusion. The loot in the chests in all dimensions comes from looting the overworld after a raid or battle between them.

while this does seem like a pretty good theory, I feel like it could be possible that all the Wither Skeletons are just the fortress' members who were killed by the Wither, since mobs killed by the Wither drop Wither roses, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch if the ancient Withers could turn things they kill into Wither Skeletons. The current Withers are much weaker than the theoretical ancient ones, so their power of doing this would have weakened to a point of only turning things into Wither roses

The "This is truly a terrible fortress" with the advancement was a perfect ending. Chefs Kiss

This was really interesting to watch! Keep it up!

6:26 the sprite shows it's made of a blaze rod aswell

“The blaze breathing sounds eerily similar to a human” Lots of mob sounds in games are randomly taken from irl humans or animals

"Why is it black? That's weird" -Wifies 2021

Blazes being human souls inside a metal shell actually sounds legit. Especially since when you hit them the strike makes a metalic clanging noise

Dear Wifies I would believe that the ancient builders discovered nether wart from crimson forests because the "leaves" on a warped fungus tree are nether wart blocks.

The mojang coder who just wanted to make a cool and long structure: "Oh yes, absolutely!"

3:15 Who said the piglins made the bastions? It's called "Bastion Remnant" but if they are built by the piglins, it would still be a bastion, and not just a remnant. I think that the ancient race made them, but the piglins found them and inhabited them.

My hades, this makes so much sense!! great video man!

12:12 People volunteered themselves to be brutalized and have their bones charred? That sounds pretty messed up. I take it these ancient builders never had the ability to respawn after death too.

Alt title: picking apart things that were never, ever meant to be given a thought

Heres a theory on the wither skeletons: the skeletons are the reincarnated (by the wither effect) remains of the casualties of war against the withers. The wither effect changed their bones black, and also drove them down a violent path. Also the fact of the wither skeletons are undead mobs would support this theory. This also makes me think of the wither effect as a virus, that takes control of its host, and "withers them away", brining the dead player into the vast armies of the wither skeletons. This theory would also support the fact that both the wither boss, and the skeletons give the wither effect upon getting damaged. As if they are trying to infect you, so you enter the endless horde of skeletons.

It is also interesting how blazes drop blaze rods, which can craft eyes of ender, leading to a dungeon. Though if this theory is right, the dungeons would be built after blazes. Does this possibly mean the blaze's rods can follow the builders? Or is this a sign that the dungeons were there before the humans?

ok but i love how u end all of these with a dramatic saying or sentence it makes the story way more interesting in my opinion!!

"to summon the wither the most horrifying and destructive mob in all of minecraft" ender dragon in the overworld: are you sure about that?

"you can only find saddles in chests" Fishing and the leatherworker villagers: am I a joke to you?

9:19 also sounds like a man in a gas mask

I am really indulged in this channel, please dont end this series.

Mini-Theory for the lava well! The builders could've used the lava to smelt netherrack and to make netherrack bricks. This leads to the "But they could just get it outside". They couldn't. It was much too dangerous. (Considering the giant withers theory) They used the well to safely get lava while staying away from the withers. The well, as any normal well, would refill with time. So they had a safe way to gather fuel.

"the nether is the strangest dimensoin" the surreal astroland that is The End: *sad extra-terrestrial astroland noises*

I definitely like the idea of "builders" being a race of people in minecraft. Like players are some of the last remaining builders of the world

I love how complicated minecraft lore is, but when you take a step back its like: enderman? ancient builders. skeletons? ancient builders. zombies? ancient builders. 90% of all structures? ancient builders.

fun fact: The Blaze's name in Hungarian is "Őrláng" that stands for Guard Flame. this leads to them being created and mass produced by the spawners to defend the fortress from the withers

Blazes: *Breaths* Wifies: THIS IS IT! CONTENT!!

Love all the theories! keep going!

The blaze breathing sound always creeped me out, but this brought it up several levels. Now I feel real terror. 😭😭😭😭

I think the blazes spawning from spawners should have a bigger role on the theory, they could have just spawned naturally like wither skeletons, I think spawners are canon

The wither Skelton and blaze are like the game “close your eyes.” Their soul gets put in the blaze and their bones get re animated,

Good theory! I definitely agree with the blaze part, especially since a blaze’s eyes are nearly identical to Steve’s.

Oh my god this is not just the story of nether fortress, this is the story of builders who once tried to cure the plague and what they became. This is amazing!

1:10 The end with a goddamn dragon and void everywhere: "ExCUSE me?" Also, obsidian can't be made in the nether, so it was the overworld people going to the nether.

I wanna see a collab with Game Theory and Wifies, that’d be really cool

My best guess is that the fortresses were in part ancient nether hubs. All the long corridors and bridges ending abruptly would’ve been connecting different nether portals for over-world locations, and the destroyed parts would’ve been where the portals were before being destroyed somehow. It would explain the seeming lack of purpose for the fortresses other than to guard the paths between the local clustering of portals.

This is a brilliant origin story of Minecraft universe - thank you!

My theory is that the nether portal is a time machine. U travel to the future where everything is radioactive, because when u travel underground u can sometimes here a radioactive meter thing sound. The piglins are villagers that mutated. Also they call netherite as ancient debris, which can be actually old rusted metal of the previous world. Or modern day.

"who leaves a skeleton here and why is it black?" Skeleton: *so you have chosen death*

Sipover made a video about the history behind a Minecraft world that explains this too. Good video ❤

I hope they keep elements like this vague as it allows people to make their own stories (like how I had a story where Zombies came from people who first discovered the Nether who ate the rotten flesh of Zombie Pigmen, and the Skeletons came from victims of Wither Skeletons). At this point, any definitive answer could never live up to the players' expectations.

This joke is so overused now but Mojang: hmm, let’s add a structure to beat the game for gameplay purposes Wifies: DID I HEAR AN INDICATION OF LORE? Also this is unrelated but my theory is that everytime a backup is loaded, the progress made was all a dream

So this is how the race of the Steves went out: Overworld, 1010 So there was a virus and they made igloos to try to cure it on villagers. It didn’t work, so they resorted to the nether. They did experiments to try to make potions to cure the virus, trapping human souls into blazes, with magic fireball defence mechanisms. They then had to make more sacrifices, and those sacrifices turned into charred skeletons which were the wither skeletons, and the wither skeletons and the blazes took over the fortresses. Then they went back to the overworld and made the strongholds. Then they went to the end and were stranded there, so they went to the outer end islands, where they found chorus fruit and created the end cities. They ate the chorus fruit and hen they became the endermen from eating too much chorus fruit. And then one day, Steven, god of the Steves, went back home from his 1,000 year vacation and noticed that his creations had been missing for a long time, so in the year 2010 he created Steve and he did stuff and eventually started a race of block people and they had more creative names, like Stampylonghead, Grian, DarukFan64 (that one was me :)

“But why is it black? That’s weird.” -Wifies

"The nether is without a doubt the most dangerous dimension in Minecraft" Two things wrong with that statement. 1) Discounting the overworld, there's only 2 dimensions. 2) The end, I'd argue, is _far_ worse. With the nether, you can survive most of the threats by popping a fire resistance potion. With the end, pretty much everything can kill you and there's little you can do other than be careful and kill everything that tries to kill you.

Oh the child in me and even the "adult" One goes crazy with these Minecraft theories. How much I love these lmfao

I would like to present my theory, the nether fortress where once one big fortress suggested by the broken bridges. A catastrophic event maby a earthquake happened reviling the lava the nethers terian changed it burnt and withered and the native animals adapted pigmen evolved from the pigs imported from the ancient builder race. This could also explain why the bastions are crumbling. The lava rooms where used to store the lave that was under the crust of netherac that could have been fertilised with warped or crimson grass lava would have taken a lot of resources to extract so it could have been rare.

"It sounds like a human trapped inside a metal box" That didn't give me Companion Cube flashbacks at all.

I liked your theory. I always thought that the soul was separated from the body, both willing to protect the fortress, until a cure could be found.

My theory is that nether was once much like the over-world and lava was scarce, once a cataclysmic event (volcanic eruption?) Wiped the flesh off the innocent humans, changed water into lava, and the lava turned lush green into the brutal red. EDIT: Some people have been asking me about some of the nether features and what theories did I made for them, well I did make them but I didn't include it in the original comment because I thought it would make the comment even larger and hard to read. Here are them: Bedrock roof: If anyone knows how pressure works, you know that diamonds form because of pressure (The element carbon gets crushed under immense pressure and they form diamonds.); Similarly The bedrock roof formed because of Pressure, Temperature and Time, The volcanic eruption melted rocks below the Ground and turned Stone into gas, they get spewed off into the atmosphere, The gas solidifies at the "Edge" of the atmosphere and are not attracted back to the ground because, well Minecraft doesn't attract blocks to the ground except gravel, sand and other blocks like that. That solidified mass hardens over time to make the unbreakable bedrock roof. Ancient Debris: An Ancestor of bedrock. They will turn into bedrock in 4.2 Billion Years, Also they are mixed in with iron rust. Bones: Those dead animals fossilized by soul sand. Soul Sand: Ashes of animals Life on earth: The volcanic eruption formed Obsidian and the humans used it to make nether portals all across the nether, They couldn't escape in time, but the Plants did, The nether portal remains are the now popularly known Ruined Nether Portals That should solve all your questions!

The Lava Room is the Nether Fortress Hub, and as such, the rest of the Fortress generates from that point. Also, Piglins can Barter some of the Items that you said you couldn't find elsewhere, such as Nether Brick and Iron.

I really like the theories that Minectaft is a world recovering from some disaster. This makes the theories even better

12:46 I agree with this but not this part the wither skeleton are the remains of ancient builders I think

0:08 when Europeans discovered Africa.

Wifies: What are the Nether Fortresses? Speedrunners: …..Blaze Rods?

Thanks for the good content. Great job. I had to subscribe

My Theory on the "extinction" of the "ancient builders": 😅 Nether: Fossils only appear in soul-sand valleys because the wither, after it came to the nether, killed and "ate" everything in sight... after a while there was no more prey for said totem wither and it died, scattering its bones across the nether... but now, why are they drenched in soul-sand? When you walk with soul speed boots on soul sand, little "souls" come up, which might be the "totem wither's" soul thus, the bones CREATED the soul sand and "infects" the ground around them. I'll update this later I have something important

To be honest the combo of blaze and wither is just op, when you are hitted by a wither Skele and get black hearted meanwhile a blaze shoots fireball at you, your hp gonna down with an insane acceleration.

9:50 this is starting to sound like a movie

I love how 9 minutes into this Minecraft fan fiction the dude goes “the following is based in speculation” as if to imply the previous 9 minutes of speculation weren’t speculative.

i have a sort of mini-theory about the lava well room. like you said, the only way to get nether bricks is by smelting netherack. and, since the fortresses probably contain hundreds or even thousands of nether brick blocks, it makes sense that they would want a conveniently located fuel source for smelting. however, i wish we saw some more signs of the mining & smelting required for the construction, such as a furnace room in the fortress, or maybe a netherack mine as another nether structure

"The nether is the most mysterious biome in minecraft" The end: am I a joke to you?

When Blaze "breaths", I hear the voice of a man, who hoarsely says to the player "Help me". Its kinda disturbing tbh, but on other hand - is very cool and interesting. There are many theories, that Endermen's and other human-like mobs were a people once, but they suddenly became what they are now

I LOVE your theories so much dude

This would give a lot of insight on certain things MC related. Could also give purpose to the beacons, certain colors signaled safe havens while others were marked off as quarantined zones.

Wifies: “Why is it black?” Wither Skeleton: **intense taco bell sound**

To me the blaze has always been a defensive mob that hovers high above enemies(while not wandering far) that snipe you from extremely far distances (zombies are susceptible to fire as well). And they infinitely regenerate from the spawners.They’re a two in one defense system and farmable component to potion brewing. The “lava wells” may just be the easiest light source to to make. Make a bowl of heat resistant material and dump the bright lava in.

4:27 I was thinking Maybe The ancient builders Built fortress And then Died from the heat and there bones dried and withered turning them to wither skeletons

i like how combined with dragonic's ghast theory, this means there are three types of nether mobs: tortured soul boar cube