Game Theory: Minecraft, The FROZEN Nether

The Nether is Minecraft's version of hell: a separate dimension with bedrock ceilings and floors covered in fire and lava, not inviting as a holiday destination but consistent in its harsh conditions.

The ancient builders chose to build significant parts of their civilization in the Nether despite its dangerous conditions, raising the question of why such a hellish location was appealing to them.

After developing a theory about a Piglin invasion in Minecraft Legends, the creator began digging deeper into the lore and discovered something unexpected about the Nether.

The reason for the Nether being such a sought-after location is connected to why it's so cold, suggesting a dramatic transformation occurred over time.

Minecraft Legends is an upcoming real-time strategy game where players unite the overworld to defeat a Piglin invasion coming from the Nether.

The true lore differs from the game's presentation: Piglins are invading because ancient builders invaded them first, destroying their home in the Nether through over-farming resources.

Mojang has been dropping hints about the early years of the Nether, revealing it was once a thriving ecosystem containing water, very different from its current barren, lava-filled state.

Water once existed in the Nether, and the evidence explains both its presence and its disappearance, which can be proven and understood.

The 2020 Nether Update overhauled the dimension by adding new mobs like Piglins, new blocks like Ancient Debris and Soul Soil, and four new biomes including the Basalt Deltas.

This striking biome features eerily quiet ambiance with large towers of basalt blocks rising from seas of lava, creating a unique and recognizable landscape.

• Basalt makes up around 90% of all volcanic rock on Earth • Forms when molten lava erupts and cools rapidly with low silica content • Rapid cooling causes hexagonal cracking patterns that create distinctive tower-like columns • Examples include Giant's Causeway in the UK and Devil's Tower in Wyoming

Creating basalt in-game requires three ingredients: Lava, Soul Soil (found only in Soul Sand Valley), and Blue Ice (requiring 81 ice blocks total to create one blue ice block).

Creating blue ice requires an extreme nesting process: 9 ice blocks make packed ice, 9 packed ice blocks make super packed ice (blue ice), totaling 81 ice blocks per blue ice block.

• Bottom of icebergs in frozen oceans (only naturally occurring source) • Stored in snowy tundra village houses • Found in ancient cities within a structure called the ice box • Completely absent from the Nether due to extreme heat

Basalt forms in the Nether, but blue ice cannot exist there because it requires extreme cold to form, raising the question: how could basalt ever form without blue ice?

The solution is that the Nether once experienced an ice age when blue ice was present, allowing basalt to form through the collision of ice and lava.

Soul Soil displays waves and streaks on its surface unlike other dirt and sand blocks in the game, matching the pattern left by glaciers in the real world.

• Glaciers flow like rivers but much slower • Ice movement shreds and tears solid land • Creates sediments and streaks in the surface • Matches the streaky texture of soul soil and sedimentary nature of soul sand

Large blocks of blue ice cut through the landscape of soul soil, hitting lava and creating the basalt visible in Soul Sand Valleys and Basalt Deltas.

Iceland is a giant volcano constantly spewing lava while remaining very icy, proving that volcanic activity and frozen conditions are not mutually exclusive and can coexist.

The closed-off Nether system without a sky made ice plausible, and where there is ice, there is water, and where there is water, there is life.

Massive rib-like structures found throughout the Soul Sand Valley serve as fossils, reaching up to seven blocks tall (7 meters or nearly 23 feet per individual rib).

The creatures with ribs that large would have been gigantic mammoth-like mobs that roamed the frozen landscape in a balanced, biodiverse environment.

Something catastrophic transformed the balanced, icy environment into a lava-filled wasteland where only skeletons remain, ending the thriving ecosystem.

The ancient builders escaped to the Nether searching for resources and ways to defeat the Wither they had created in the overworld, discovering luscious environments and abundant materials.

• Heavily farmed the environment for materials • Mined blue ice extensively to create polished basalt for ancient cities • Removed the only real source of water from the ecosystem • Over-harvested resources that lowered biodiversity

The builders brought technology, crafting tables, torches, fires, animal herds, and smelting operations that released greenhouse gases including CO2, methane, and other heat-trapping gases.

Unlike the overworld where gases escape to the atmosphere, the Nether's closed ecosystem under the bedrock ceiling trapped these gases, causing them to accumulate and warm the environment.

Bit by bit, the greenhouse gases caused the Nether to heat up, melting the ice that was already being farmed away, until all water dried up and only hot caves remained.

• Fires spontaneously burst out of the ground • Large animals died from asphyxiation due to lack of fresh air • Plants mostly disappeared • The ancient builders themselves perished or escaped

Only the builders who found escape routes through new portals survived the catastrophe, abandoning the Nether to its fate.

By the time Steve enters from the overworld, millennia have passed and the gases have dissipated, but the damage is permanent: animals gone, plants scarce, only walking skeletons remain.

The surviving ancient builders created ice rooms in an attempt to preserve remaining stores and resources, but it was far too little and far too late to save the ecosystem.

The Piglins are justified in their invasion: their home was destroyed by ancient builders who turned the thermostat up to inhumane degrees and left it to burn, now bringing the fight to someone else's territory.

• The game reveals a story of overuse of land and disrespect for resources • It serves as a warning about the dangers of pollution • The story emphasizes protecting and living in harmony with the world • It cautions against fighting, overusing, and milking the world dry

Mojang has been hinting at the truth of the Nether for over two years through various updates, and now all the pieces finally come together, making complete sense.