There was a beautiful world. Not perfect, but wonderful in its own kind of way. The race of man was upon it, but this race was a much calmer one than the kind we know now. It was a simpler race of men and women living for the sake of living. We know these people as the testificates, and as much as we would like to disregard them as part of our kind, they are still very human. As it is well known, human nature is to strive to grow, expand, gain. Of course these people built homes. Small gatherings called 'Villages'. They built crude streets and crafted new items. They were able to mine and gather supplies. Rather than taking nature as its own, they lived in the midst of it. Agriculture thrived. The people felt no need to expand beyond their small homes. Though they did thirst for a reason of existence. A purpose.
The men of this age began to tinker in the realms of magic. Dark arts. They knew not what they were unleashing upon this calm world.
They came across the makings of a portal to the Nether.
Opening this released all sorts of evils into the world; Skeletons, Zombies, Giant Spiders...
It made life in the villages unbearable. Their fallen brethren now tore their doors down at night, as though some horrific nightmare had come to life. Danger and fear hung heavily in the minds of the people of this time.
So they took refuge underground. Gathering all of the supplies it could muster, man fled from its own mistakes to a haven beneath the rubble. While the deeper they went caused struggle and strife, it was safer than the open darkness of the overworld.
Their bodies show to be that of a race that relied on their noses and other senses more than their eyes.
Together, as one world, they created a large city at the base of the earth. We know this to be called the 'Stronghold'. It was as close to a utopian city as they could create.
Soon enough though, scientific curiosity got the best of them, and they wanted to see if they could reverse the effects on the creatures that now thirsted for them.
If they could change these creatures back into men, or at least something less harmful, man could reclaim the earth as its own.
They had gained enough technology to keep the monsters at bay as they experimented. As they had set out to give life to these half-dead monsters, they lost sight of their goal after an incident.
The greatest minds of the Stronghold had gathered to focus on this project. A man whose name was lost through translation had taken the lead. They had herded one of the rotting creatures into a room and had sealed it away from being able to harm anyone. They kept it behind iron bars, subjecting it to various concoctions cooked up with the intent of being able to bring life into the monster.
A vial of green liquid was all it took.
A blood-curdling scream filled the room. They couldn't make out whether the voice was male or female, for the distortion in the rotted flesh had taken that identity from this being long ago. Cries and inhuman noises erupted from the cage.
Words could be made out in the noise.
Phrases such as "Oh God", "Don't kill me" and "I just want to live" were engraved into the minds of the men who witnessed the first of few recorded glimpses into the state of minds of these things they called monsters.
Trial after trial, the result was the same. Each subject given the ability to speak coherent words, only screamed out their greatest fears, and their hopeless cries for life. They were each, in their own way, living out their last moments for all of eternity.
Frightened for its own mortality, man tried to grow stronger. Take on better forms. Every time the leaders thought back to how close they themselves were to becoming the very monsters they were fighting, they only grew more persistent to change.
In their studies, the scientists had found that they could give themselves specific strengths. They could bring a man with little eyesight in the light to see in broad daylight. All they needed was the right combinations of ingredients. The men who began into this pursuit left behind the idea of making the monsters closer to them altogether. Their fear ruled their actions and haunted their minds.
However, there were still a few whose hearts couldn't leave the broken beings that bombarded their doors at a loss. The search to better the creatures around them continued, but on a more silent level.
The 'scientists' began to ravage the world for anything they could get their hands on.
They mutilated the bodies of the monsters for ingredients, absolutely certain that they could enhance themselves to be equally as strong if not more.
If not more...
If they could enhance themselves that much, why not go even further? Perfect their forms. Create the perfect person.
Of course, the scientists who still had a mind for the natural world tried to prevent this from even being brought to the table.
They tried to stop the madness, even going as far as to lock up various 'dangerous subjects'.
They knew well from history that tampering with the unknown darkness would only bring horror. Listening to their hearts and letting their minds come to a conclusion, they hoped to put the topic at rest. Mutilating the bodies of the dead was one thing. They had been able to fix their own medicinal practices, even find healing remedies for men who had ailments that were previously beyond them. Trying to break the laws of nature as a whole and enter a territory that was so obviously marked with darkness and evil... The few who could give say in the matter that were against it tried to keep peace and control.
All until the night that one of them went missing.
The once beautiful city was now a battleground under total anarchy. The 'scientists' now referred to themselves as the Endermen. As in, the "End result of man". The final form, if you will.
The scientists who were left tried to escape.
They knew this was beyond them.
They needed the people of the world to return and reclaim the last of sanity that they could cling to. Evacuation was implemented immediately. The mines they had used to create this city were now used as escape routes. The fall of man was upon them, and man itself knew it was over. The city's people fled. The scientists who called the evacuation tried to fight their ways to the surface
... But they never made it out.
The Endermen needed "Supplies" for these experiments.
Why go out and waste your time fighting a spider for its eye, when you can change a human's to be oh so similar, if not the same..? … if not better.
The cages that had once held monsters now held captives.
At the heart of the city, there was now a room dedicated to what can only be described as worship to the ideal of the Endermen.
Libraries now covered in webbing and dust from disuse, fountains drying up and clogging from lack of tending to..
Growth and gain were no longer needs of man. They were an obsession.
Having stripped their captives of the very life that they themselves were so terrified of losing, the Endermen lost themselves in their 'studies'.
Finding a live human's eye was much better for the purposes they had in mind, the first advancement had been made. An "Eye of Ender" as they had called it, was formed. It was ideally the highest form of eyesight that a man could reach. It wouldn't falter through the change from light to dark, and it would never fade with age.
Man had began to unlock something very dark. Something that the world was never meant to see, but the breaking of nature was unleashing.
It was a freak accident at first.
In an attempt to create better equipment for research, a couple of the Endermen had put together a small rig in the main room. They were trying to see if they could conjure something like they had in previous ages with the Nether Portal. Vast amounts of research had unlocked a world beyond the Nether. A world that no man had ever traveled to. A world that may prove to have the supplies that they would need. The same for the Nether Portal was the same for this one; precious materials, base components, all were important to this recipe. Though.. a step further.. their perfected form of the Ender Eye was the final ingredient. Sliding each eye into place, they wondered what they could do to activate this portal.
It was a mistake.
One of the men began to wonder if this would even work. His heart had felt no rest since the rest of their world had run away from them.
Who knows if we're even on the right track..?
What if we're wrong..?
What if we made a mistake..?
He dared not speak his thoughts, but the others knew better. By his actions and hesitation, his lack of interest and his wandering mind... they knew what he was thinking.
At first it started as a confrontation, but it quickly escalated into a fight. He grabbed books from the table. Ones he knew were important to these studies that had torn apart the society he once knew. The man fought his way through the Stronghold, through the endless halls and empty corridors, the sounds and shrieks of the creatures behind him only giving him the confidence to know what he needed to do.
Creatures..
In their greed and fear, these men had altered themselves so far from humanity, that compassion and love were behind them. No... beyond them.
He didn't fight for his life, he fought to protect life as a whole. The concept of life, the gift of life, the great wonders there were in humanity. The ability to love, cry, be afraid and overcome that fear... the very things they shed from themselves as weakness, he now saw were the beauty that truly made humans wonderful.
That is why he had set his sights on ruining them. If he could break the portal, if he could take the books that he carried clumsily in his arms and end it all in the lava, he knew he could save the precious life that he knew was beyond his personal grasp. He burst into the room, running up the steps to the portal and let out a cry of angst and triumph as he jumped through the gate, to the lava below; the research still in his arms.
This was the mark of the end of man. A dark power unleashed itself. The depths of the Nether itself knew no evil as dark as this. This was no science, it was witchcraft of the highest form.
All it had needed was the sacrifice of the life of a human to break nature's hold on it.
The power burst through the Stronghold, deep into the Earth.
This blast wreaked havoc in a matter of seconds. Faults along the Earth's plates became monstrosities of caverns within seconds.
A burst so powerful would normally kill any human or regular creature within such close proximity; These men were of no such breed.
Becoming slaves to the being that has been seething all of this power, these men were given the new form they had so longingly worked for. Under the watch of the Ender Dragon, they became the true horror of the Earth; The Endermen.
Though, dark power always has a certain irony to it.
The lust for eyesight had been fulfilled to them by the Ender Dragon. They would no longer have to fear the mortality of earthly forms under his power. They could see everything around them, whether it be light or dark. They had the ability to see beyond themselves and everything around them, but there was one hitch. They could only see this through the eyes of a human. They are blind otherwise.
If you look directly to an Enderman, he doesn't see you as a threat or a problem..
The greed that swallowed his heart long ago will drive him to come after you to take the last piece of his puzzle. He will see that glimpse of light through your eyes and he will never let you escape.
And what of the people who left these men behind? What was their fate in all of this? Though many had been lost to the thunderous quakes of the earth, a few made it out to survive. They returned to their villages to find that the life they had left behind had learned to thrive in their absence. There had been humans who had stayed above ground, despite the large move to the Stronghold so long ago.
Yes.. we are these people.
Our ancestors.. what we refer to as "The Villagers", They reside in small settlements as they used to. These people have all lost the inner thirst to grow. They are content in the lives that they have.
And so starts the beginning of Minecraft. The darkness held deep within the world is seeping through the cracks, threatening to take hold of the world. You, a single player with your knowledge and ability may now choose your path.
How will your story end..?