Chapter 1: The seed.

It all started in an usual day... or night, you might never know as all time looks alike here in this fiery hell...
You could say it was a day, because I was not asleep.
You could say it was a night, as I spent countless hours building without break.

Truth is... that it makes no difference... It was just an usual day, or so to be... Working and working, carrying, moving, placing and picking. our skeleton masters truly want us to build these... monoliths, these dark structures that cover the beautiful landscape... and the fiery oceans of lava...

I? Who am I that works so much, and who am I to kneel to skeletons? Well there's many of us here... and this, The Nether, is -OUR- home... I am a Pigman, and yes, there are ghasts as well, but they are friendly creatures, and they do not harm us or our children...

We all lived in peace, having our usual games, meetings, maybe the friendly "wars" between ourselves... life can get quite boring when you can live forever, but maybe that this fact: That we cannot die by "aging"... might be what caused our doom...

It wasn't any other usual day... night... erm... whatever, everyone was doing nicely. either exploring our endless world, or swimming in the hot oceans of lava, maybe admiring the way that the ghasts live... but then... something happened, and from the center of a lava lake a giant obsidian pillar rose up into the netherrack ceiling... and from there appeared a creature... that was shorter than us, but walked on two legs, he did not have pink skin, or hooves, and he did not have long ears, or any other pigman similarities... He did however have two eyes... two arms... two legs... and on his face was a black bear that fell onto his chest, dark as night... erm... dark as it can get here in our fiery home...

He was calling himself "Notch" and speaking in a way that we can understand, but not using our natal tongue or any other pigmen dialects, his voice resonated throughout The Nether, as to which most pigmen turned their heads listening.

His words were not quite... clear... Maybe it's the time spent digging for quartz for our "master's" new design... supposed to be a gateway to another world... and armor... there are rumors that we will wage war onto another world... but we do not want that...

Anyway, he was speaking about a strong being, a black creature that could fly like ghasts, that had three heads, and made noises that would make the bravest pigman afraid, and that even the ghasts would not dare to stand against. Someone that could destroy everything at his will, and with ease.

This... Notch... said that we will receive great powers and might if we shall worship him... and while most of us didn't agree... there were a few that did. They followed his plans, in secret, and did their... weird rituals, and in one day, a black fog surrounded the obisidian pillar... Out of which, balls of fire exploded, heading towards ground, hitting a few of us and killing us, and destroying the beautiful landscape made of burning nether rock, and out of these craters, tall black skeletons arose, taller than the biggest pigman, and stronger than any of us.

They proved to be hostile, they attacked us and we tried fighting back... but many of us died...

They chained us, a mystical black fog as was near the obisidan pillar was floating around us, shading our minds and will, and making us work like slaves, being guarded by puny skeletons, so fragile that we could break their bones with a weak punch... but then, nobody would dare to fight the big guards...

These guards had Lieutenants in parts of this... fortress...

The monolithic structures we would build... out of melted and compressed netherrack... fortresses, towering high, and covering the pools of lava... Dark buildings that seem to suck in the light itself... the home of the black skeletons... And our prison...

The Lieutenants were a bit more docile with us... but their punishments would burn into our skulls literally... they were beings that could float, covered by smoke and forever burning, they were made of a certain metal, infused with lava, and they could spit out fire as they wished... Some of them communicated with us and helped us... but others were just as harsh as their leaders, the dark skeleton guards.

One certain Lieutenant... in his fiery Blaze, was more kind than the others towards me and my family... he did move us to another block, were the job was a bit easier, but it is as much as he could do for my wife and child...

In this new block we were supplying bricks for the construction... so we didn't have much to do else than just burn up netherrack, and nowadays quartz... and here... I met a pigman that had dreams... that he would escape, and live like many others that managed to hide from this menace... Listening to him made my working days much easier... and he did have a plan...

He was planning to escape to another world... using a prototype of a portal to the new world, but it was unstable and not many of us could step through, as to why they were researching ways of using quartz to make it more stable, and bigger...

He seemed crazy, he had plans on what to do, he would try contact civilized life on the other side, warn them of the menace, build a force and come back and take down these creatures that were Withering away our people...

His name was Zisteau... and his words... his planning, the time he dedicated digging a way out of his cell, the things he searched for and found to make his escape possible...

When he did escape, and a small riot started where we actually managed to take a black skeleton down... Even though with casualties, we had hope...

That is what Zisteau did... he planted a seed of hope in all of our hearts.