Got the idea when searching up history for the Endermen in Minecraft, and I went 'what, nothing realistic?'

So I decided to make this to explain away the whole setting of the End.

Note: imagine the following writing as being directly translated from Enderspeak, so some terms CBxl may use are just alien terms translated into their proper English variant. As Endermen names are unpronounceable by the human tongue, they are kept as scrambled letters. How you choose to read them is up to you.

In the darkest corners of reality, there exists a world.

It was a mysterious world with with barren ground and a black, starless sky. It was a dead, lifeless world, having been abandoned as a failure by the gods. The land was never meant to be lived upon. It was meant to be lost forever, to be left alone and never be discovered by anyone. It was never meant to be discovered. It was never supposed to be lived upon by any kind of creature. Yet against all odds, a whole civilization has settled down within that realm, so separated from the rest of the reality that it would be quite accurate to deem it 'the End'.

At the very least, that was what I – who witnessed the Overworld with his own two eyes and survived – believed. Perhaps I was wrong, but that was the only natural conclusion after having seen all the things I had seen. This was a world lost, so empty compared to that other place. So confused, never really existing the existence of anything else other than itself. Nobody accepted the truth. Nobody but I.

"CBxl, why are you hesitating?" a voice told me from behind. "The pillar is half done. Come and help us."

Turning around to see my friend, DSi, I looked at his eyes, a glowing purple that allowed us to see in the perpetual darkness. That was the proof that made one an Enderman, a term I invented to deem us. For were not the only kind in the universe, we were not alone, and that was a fact I could not forget. It never escaped my mind, not even for a moment in these past seven pillars.

Only seven pillars. So much time had passed that I could've completed more than fifteen, but I had been neglecting my work for bits at a time. Not so much that it would be noticed, but the fact remained that such a thing was happening. My mind was too curious about the other realm, my life having changed the moment it happened.

I followed him as he left, but reluctantly.

Then I let my thoughts take control of me.

…

Several pillars ago, I found myself lost elsewhere, like so many other of our kind.

Somehow, I had fallen into a dark without land that brought us into a world almost completely unlike ours, composed of colors I had never even imagined before. There had been rumors of this place among us, which were normally dismissed as nothing more than a fairytale. But without a doubt, it was definitely all real. The 'fairytale'...it was known as the Overworld.

The colored ground was hard but with strange, miniature blades coming out of them. There were pillars around, like ours, but they too were strangely-colored, more rigid and fragile, not quite tall, and their peak ending in strange matter I couldn't understand, like gigantic Ender Crystals. I decided to call them 'overpillars'.

While in that mysterious world, something approached me. It was not a natural lifeform, something I had never seen before, with its four limbs upon the ground and much smaller than I, it was a queer thing, a bit like a child or baby. But upon looking at its eyes, I snapped out of the illusion and realized that it was not one of us, that it wasn't normal, that it was an abomination, an alien creature that could suck out my soul. Its eyes were so creepy, mixed with white and black and they was even moving by themselves as if they had a life of their own.

Then I screamed.

And attacked it in fright.

It laid motionless on the ground afterwards, its limbs scattered and a strange red liquid leaking from them. I didn't really understand what had happened, but after doing the same thing with several other creatures, I decided to call it 'death'. I did not know whether our own kind was capable of this mysterious 'death' as well, but neither did I want to find out. It was an uncomfortable prospect, that one could somehow cease everything. I couldn't imagine nothing. It was impossible.

But the most frightening thing of all was the orb in the sky, giving off an incomprehensible amount of light and color. After standing there and letting time pass, I watched as it slowly went over the sky, and then I knew what it was. This world was similar to our own, in that it had a ruler.

This ruler had the abominations of this land to build its overpillars, just like our ruler had us to create our pillars. But the ruler of this world…it was so much more powerful, so powerful that its breath painted the whole sky and everything around it. Even I could feel its breath. It was so far away too, its mere presence was already more than frightening.

I decided to call the frightening creature…the Oversun.

After a little while of wandering about this strange land, I watched as the ruler slowly went over the sky and down again, until it had gone beneath the horizon and the sky returned to a natural darkness that I could be familiar with. It didn't take half a mind to realize what had happened; it had swooped down to examine the 'overpillars' that had been built for it.

It was so terrifying. I couldn't imagine what these alien inhabitants must feel.

Getting tired, I knew I had to build a pillar, but all the material here was alien, and surely I didn't want to build overpillars for some other ruler. I needed my own materials, I needed obsidian, but they were nowhere in sight. Under this familiar darkness, I was braver, but still terrified of the world around me.

Sighing, I scooped a block of matter from the ground. No, it wasn't adequate. It was too fragile, simply too fragile. It would crumble easily if a ruler ever approached it. If I made a pillar with this, it would be worthless.

I dropped it and gave up on building a pillar.

As time went on, I found another of my kind with the same eyes, called TYn, and together we managed a way to return to our world, finding another dark spot. Luckily, we made it before the Oversun could potentially return and witness the intruders that had trampled upon its land. I fear to know what would've transpired had that occurred.

Needless to say, the event traumatized me. I was never the same again.

…

It had been seven pillars since then. Being ninety-seven pillars old now, it was strange to find how I didn't feel like building another pillar. I just felt uncomfortable using the same matter over and over again, now that I knew there were so many more materials than I had imagined in this universe. I also felt uncomfortable knowing that this world wasn't diverse, it was barren, in the darkest corners of reality.

"CBxl?"

DSi turned back to me with a look of concern, holding a block of obsidian. He had most likely noticed my demeanor.

"I know not of what you saw in the Overworld, but it is distracting you. You must concentrate, and help me build this pillar," he said.

I remained silent, before nodding.

"You are correct, DSi," I replied. "I apologize for my behavior. Now, let us make a good pillar for the ruler."

Nearby, a roar echoed into the black sky. That was our ruler, much less powerful than the Oversun, but so much more comforting. The Enderdragon was our comfort and guidance, our source of worship in the End. We did not test it, nor did we question it. We only made pillars for it, just as the Overworld makes overpillars for the Oversun.

We built, and built, and built tirelessly, building up the pillars made of familiar obsidian. Fourteen of us worked together, placing block after block, gradually building it up. The fifteenth did not work, she only stood by us as we built to the top, holding the prepared Ender Crystal in her hands. None of us minded the rigorous work, as in the end, it would all be worth it. Gradually, it grew, reaching higher and higher into the air.

Once we had built it to an adequate height, high in the air, we all watched as the sixth ceremoniously placed the mystical object upon the towering construction.

Only moments afterwards, our ruler flew by over us, having observed and congratulated our loyal work. Despite having gone through this process ninety-eight times, it never ceased to warm my heart. I always felt happy for this, that we could actually do something that pleased our ruler, that made it acknowledge our existence. It gave us meaning, pride as Endermen, that we could be recognized by such an infinitely powerful entity. With that, I turned seventy-eight pillars old.

Proud of our success, we each teleported back to the ground, one-by-one. Most of us parted ways, and only my friends and I remained. Four of us.

"One pillar more, and you will be one hundred pillars old," DSi pointed out, appearing in front of me to look at my eyes.

I only remained silent, looking up at the edifice towering over us, not quite sure on how to reply to that. So many of these things I had made, time passing by without me really noticing, and now I was nearing a hundred.

"Perhaps we should celebrate for CBxl when the time comes," LqrV suggested. She was the one who had placed the Ender Crystal.

"Yes, let us do that!" TYn agreed. "It will give me a chance to repay him for his neverending help."

DSi, LqrV, and I of us were a circle of friends, who had bonded after creating so many pillars together, and somewhere along the lines, TYn had joined in after our escape from the Overworld. It was helpful to have friends.

"Uh-" I was at a loss for words. "That is up to you."

They nodded, and the four of us went our separate ways.

The making of a pillar is a vital part of every Enderman. Each time they participate in the construction of one, they become older and are looked up to, it signified their age. One who has made a hundred pillars is very much so, and I was very close to that point.

DSi was already a hundred-and-seventeen, and we had a celebration for him already. I didn't know what TYn's age was, but perhaps it was around seventy or eighty. LqrV was seventy-three, and I must admit I'm attracted to her, but she seemed to have a greater interest in DSi. It was none of my business.

I knew what the three of them were going to do. They were going to gather the necessary resources and prepare for the construction of yet another pillar.

Although it was rooted into the culture of us Endermen, the construction of a pillar was no easy task.

First, enough obsidian had to be collected, but obsidian was material buried deep in the ground and was hard to get overall. It had to be obsidian, as making a pillar out of rock would be an insult to our ruler. Second, an Ender Crystal had to be obtained somehow, either by constructing one manually or taking one from someone else at a price. Finally, one would need either a workface of about fifteen or higher to smoothly construct the pillar, or the patience to make it by oneself.

Not to mention there was the matter of space. Adequate space had to be found. It should be easy, considering the large barren ground, but each pillar couldn't be built too close to each other. There was a select distance, and so if two towers were built too close to each other, the Enderdragon would personally tear it down and leave the ones who built it in tears. None of us know why, but perhaps it's because that even our ruler has a limit that might overload. Also, there was a limit to the amount of pillars that could potentially be constructed in a single area.

When several multiple Endermen banded together, such as the four of us, this task would be made much easier. Of course, our own group was very small, but at the same time much more personal than any of the other groups. Some were like mindless specters, joining huge groups for no other purpose than to increase their age, though such an act was pitiful. It was the work and effort put into construction that made an Enderman grow, not the amount of pillar-building he or she had participated in. And notably, some legends speak of few who had constructed hundreds of these things all by themselves. An example would be PtRVN, who built a thousand all by himself, though whether he truly existed or not would be a matter of debate.

If an Enderman ever neglected the building of any towers or pillars for too long, either out of laziness or fatigue, then he or she would become a disgrace. Be it man or female, participation was a must, and it would be dishonorable otherwise.

I won't stray for too long, that I could be certain of, but perhaps just for a bit.

Apart from myself and TYn, nobody had ever seen a world beyond the End, and even to us, the other realm felt like nothing more than a distant dream. We knew we couldn't return even if we wanted to. It was but the dream of a blind fool who can't create even a single pillar.

However, the Overworld kept lingering, and instead of helping the others to prepare for the construction of my hundredth pillar, I wandered off into the End to think to myself. So much resources. So much life, and abundance, and resources. And those eyes. Those creepy eyes, of white and black and reflections, that moved. They were frightening, scarier than anything I had ever seen before...but also quite curious. The Oversun as well. I wonder if it knew our Enderdragon?

The potential of it all never leaving my mind, I wandered alone into the darkness.

This was originally gonna be a one-shot thing, but I like it, so I'll make more~

...

In case you didn't figure it out, the Oversun is the sun and the Enderdragon is their equivalent for it. The 'overpillars' CBxl described are trees. Also, because there's no real way to count time there, age is counted by the amount of pillars one makes instead of the amount of years that passes. Pillar construction time can vary, from several months to a year.