Herobrine's Message

by Sean Fay Wolfe

  Stan’s head was spinning as all the information came together. He had been expecting to be able to punch dozens of holes in the Black Hood’s argument, but yet . . . somehow . . . Stan found that it all made sense.

  “So . . . ,” Stan whispered weakly, “it’s . . . true? Lord Tenebris and King Kev . . . really are the same player?”

  “Yes,” the Black Hood replied.

  Stan sank to his knees and put his head into his hands. The Black Hood gave a sad sigh as he watched Stan try to comprehend this horrible truth. For the longest time, Stan had believed that King Kev and Lord Tenebris were two different entities, one of whom had built off the back of the other, and had fought independently of each other to take him down. But only now did Stan see that it was all the work of a single player, who had defied death itself to return to Elementia and do all that he could to destroy Stan and his friends.

  “I . . . have another question,” Stan managed to get out, even though he felt as if all the air had been vacuumed from his lungs.

  “I will do my best to answer it,” the Black Hood replied.

  “Well . . . it’s just . . . why? Why did King Kev go through all this trouble to return to Elementia? I mean, why didn’t he just cut his losses and start another server after he died?”

  The Black Hood took a deep breath. The answer to this question was long and complex, yet it held great truths that Stan must learn if he were to have any chance of vanquishing King Kev for good. The Black Hood knew that he had to express himself correctly.

  “The answer to that is quite simple, Stan2012. King Kev still had unfinished business in Elementia.”

  “Do you mean the lower-level players?” Stan asked, outraged. “Did he really care about getting rid of them that much?”

  “Getting rid of the lower-level players never really mattered to King Kev, Stan2012.”

  “What?” Stan shouted, causing Rex to bark in surprise. “Are you crazy? I’ve lost everything trying to take down two different dictatorships created by this guy, and the main reason that both of them existed was that he hated lower-level players!”

  “I’m sorry, Stan2012,” the Black Hood replied. “I didn’t mean that. Of course getting rid of lower-level players mattered to King Kev. However, it did not matter to him nearly as much as it mattered to the other members of the Noctem Alliance. Do you know the reason why, all those months ago, King Kev made the proclamation that started your journey?”

  “Well, I assume it was because he hated the lower-level players,” Stan said slowly. He thought that this was obvious.

  “King Kev did take issue with the lower-level players, but that’s not why he passed that law. He passed the law because Caesar and Charlemagne asked him to. The only purpose of the law was to keep the upper-level players, the ones with the most power, happy and on his side. This is because all that King Kev has ever wanted in Elementia is power, complete dominance over the server. This is the driving force behind everything that he has done to you, both as the head of the Kingdom of Elementia and as the head of the Noctem Alliance.”

  “But . . . that makes no sense!” Stan exclaimed. “If he had operating powers the entire time, then why would it matter that he keep the upper-level players happy? He could just force them to do whatever he wanted!”

  “Indeed, in the early days of King Kev’s rule, that is exactly what he did. After Avery007 was defeated, and King Kev stood as the only remaining operator in Elementia, the server lived in an era of fear. All who stood up against the King were silenced, and many high-level officials were killed for suspected treason. Mecha11, Apothecary1, Bill33, Ben33, and Bob33 were all banished into the wilds. Nobody was happy, not even the upper-level players. Fear spread through the countryside like a pack of wolves, and it soon manifested itself in revolt.

  “Many players determined that freedom was worth dying for, and they attempted to take down King Kev, much like what you did, Stan2012. With his operating powers, King Kev crushed rebellion after rebellion, most of which were led by upper-level players. However, King Kev also realized that Elementia had become a hateful, ugly place. This was not the type of server that he wanted to rule. Therefore, he vowed to turn over a new leaf, and make Elementia a better place. Not many believed that he was capable of it, but when he claimed to give up his operating powers, turning him into a normal player, just as powerful and mortal as any other player, people rallied around him, believing that he truly had changed, and Elementia entered a new age of prosperity.”

  “But he didn’t give up his operating powers. He lied to everybody!” Stan retorted.

  “Yes he did, but he was also careful never to use his operating powers again. The only reason he kept them was as an absolute last resort . . . such as when you were moments away from killing him.”

  “But . . . I still don’t understand,” Stan replied, perplexed. “If everybody in Elementia was happy after the King said he gave up his operating powers, then how did stuff get so bad for the lower-level players?”

  “That, Stan2012, is because King Kev was very clever and manipulative. He knew that if he was going to be benevolent and kind toward his people, he needed the most powerful players to become loyal to him. That way, if a rebellion ever did occur again, he would have a strong group to stand by him through thick and thin. Because of this, while he tried to be kind to everybody, King Kev gave special privileges to the upper-level players who had been in Elementia the longest, and acquired the most resources for themselves. He established a governing council, the Council of Operators, which he filled with upper-level players. Because of this special treatment, the upper-level players loved King Kev, and were willing to do anything to keep him in power.

  “At first, the lower-level players weren’t oppressed at all. Although they missed out on the special privileges of the upper-level players, they were still able to live in peace. Then, as the prestige of Elementia grew, more and more new players joined Elementia. The upper-level players became scared of the growing majority of new players. They asked King Kev to pass the Law of One Death, which would change the mode of the server to Hardcore PVP, and stop the new players from respawning if they died. Desperate to keep the new players happy, King Kev agreed.

  “However, the upper-level players were still scared. The new players outnumbered them. The upper-level players realized that the Law of One Death didn’t just apply to the new players—it applied to them, too. Therefore, the upper-level players asked King Kev to banish all new players from Element City. I believe, Stan2012, that you are well aware of what happened from there.”

  “But after King Kev died, he didn’t have any power anymore!” Stan pointed out. “His whole plan to use the upper-level players to stay in power fell apart when the kingdom fell, so why did he come back to Elementia as Lord Tenebris?”

  “You’re right, Stan2012, that after the kingdom had fallen, King Kev couldn’t use the upper-level players in the same way. However, when you took over Elementia, he saw an opportunity to use the upper-level players in a new way.

  “King Kev knew that many upper-class players had lost their leader and their special privileges when you won the Battle for Elementia. He saw that most upper-level players hated you and the lower-level players that you protected. Therefore, he took on the new identity of Lord Tenebris, and told the upper-level players that their hatred of the lower-level players was justified. He rallied the upper-level players around him, uniting them under the banner of their hatred and spite toward the lower-level players.

  “At first, the upper-level players only joined the Noctem Alliance to take revenge on lower-level players, and take back what was lost in the revolution. Now, however, they have become unwaveringly loyal to Lord Tenebris, eternally grateful that he has restored them to their former glory, and they will follow him no matter what he says . . . the same way that they became loyal to King Kev.

  “Back in the old days of the server, it took King Kev years to unite his people under him, under the banner of
trust and camaraderie. It only took Lord Tenebris four months to unite his people under fear and hatred. By founding the Noctem Alliance, Lord Tenebris gave the upper-level players what they were looking for: a new leader to rally around, a chance to win back their dominance over the server, and a group that they could blame for everything that had happened to them. That group, of course, was you and your followers.

  “This is how the worst tyrants of history form their empires, Stan2012. Desperate people unite under ruthless leaders, often under the banner of hatred of another group. It is a swift and effective way to gain control, but that amount of power given to such a hateful cause will inevitably lead to a permanent scar on the face of the world.”

  As he finished his speech, the Black Hood watched as Stan pondered what he had just told him. The Black Hood was quite impressed by Stan. He had been through so much in the past day, and yet somehow he was still able to process the information that he was being provided.

  “Okay,” Stan said when he finally stopped looking as if he were about to pass out from sheer exhaustion. “I have one more question for you.”

  “Yes?”

  “Well . . . it’s just . . . ,” Stan said awkwardly. The Black Hood could tell that, whatever he was about to ask, Stan was trying not to offend him. “Well . . . if you’ve known all this the entire time . . . then why didn’t you say anything to me or my friends before now? I mean, all my friends have told me how you’ve protected them a bunch of different times . . . and you appeared to me outside Nocturia. . . . so why didn’t you tell me this before?”

  The Black Hood gave a sad sigh. He knew that Stan was bound to ask this question sooner or later, and he didn’t want to answer. Even as he stood here now, the Black Hood felt himself getting weaker and weaker, and the more information he gave to Stan, the faster his demise would be. However, the Black Hood knew that his own death was inevitable. Hopefully, he would be able to provide Stan with all that he needed before then.

  “Stan2012, how much do you know about the history of Herobrine . . . about my history?”

  The realization washed over Stan yet again that he was talking to Herobrine, the mythical Minecraft being who so many had called a demon, yet who had been working tirelessly to keep Stan and his friends safe for weeks. It only lasted for a moment, though. Stan knew that his time was running out, and Lord Tenebris’s deadline would be on him before long. He couldn’t shake the innate sense that, if he continued to talk to the Black Hood, the answer to his problems would somehow find him. “Um . . . I know that everybody thinks that you’re some sort of glitchy demon that lives in Minecraft and haunts people . . . and that’s about it.”

  The Black Hood chuckled again. “Indeed, Stan2012, that is true, and there is a reason that so many think of me that way. It’s because . . . for the longest time . . . I was a force of destruction and chaos in Minecraft.”

  “What?” Stan asked, surprised. “But . . . you’ve been so helpful to me and my friends! You’ve done nothing but good in Elementia.”

  “This is also true,” the Black Hood replied. “But that is not how it started. As I have told you before, I honestly do not recall where I came from, and my earliest memories are jumbled and foggy. All I remember for sure is that I came into being during the Alpha days of Minecraft, and soon found that I had access to all the powers that were possible for a player to have in vanilla Minecraft.

  “At first, I saw no need to destroy or corrupt worlds. I saw Minecraft as a beautiful place, a place of wonder and splendor. I was particularly fascinated by the players, these beings from a realm outside of Minecraft, who could manipulate the natural world in much the same way that I could, and used this ability to create fantastic structures in a way that I could never hope to. I made a habit of watching the players work from a distance, enchanted by the various things that they built. I never let myself be seen, fearing that if they noticed me, they would stop the work that I found so fascinating.

  “However, one day, a player did see me, captured me in a screenshot, and posted it online. I didn’t think much of it at the time. . . . People posted fake pictures of player-like glitches all the time. I assumed that nothing would come of it. However, before long, I was shocked to find that the Mojang team released a patch of the game that banished me from entering any Minecraft world ever again.

  “I was confused and angry. I hadn’t been harming anybody, I had just been watching the other players! Why would Mojang want me to be removed from the game? In any case, I found that it hardly mattered . . . after all, I am a glitch who is capable of adapting, and I soon found that the banishment was not too hard to get around. Before long, I was back in Minecraft, determined to never be spotted again, lest Mojang try to kick me out again.

  “Alas, my attempts to be inconspicuous were in vain. Mojang soon released another patch, which banished me yet again, this time making it even harder for me to reenter. Now I was beyond angry; I was furious. Why was I being kicked out of the game? Because of my odd appearance? Whatever the reason was, I didn’t care. I was more determined to reenter the game than ever, but now I no longer wished to watch the players. Rather, I wanted to attack, haunt, and frighten the players, to get back at the game that had arbitrarily decided that I had no place in it.

  “I learned that the one who had captured me in a screenshot had fabricated a story about me, saying that I interfered with the world by creating pyramids and tunnels, that I was the spirit of Notch’s deceased brother, and that my name was Herobrine. I adopted the persona and the name, and terrorized players all throughout Alpha and into the early stages of Beta. Although Mojang constantly tried to remove me, I found ways around their defenses, always reentering Minecraft to terrorize more players, growing stronger and stronger as more new abilities were added into the game for me to mimic.

  “As the official release of Minecraft approached, I knew that the Mojang team was trying to iron out as many glitches as possible in preparation for the new game engine of the Adventure Update. However, I never could have predicted what they put into the game to counter me.”

  “What did they put in?” Stan asked with bated breath.

  The Black Hood closed his eyes. “To this day, I’m not sure exactly what it is. All I know is, whatever they coded into the game, it’s not just a patch meant to keep me out. Whatever it is, it’s alive, sentient, and capable of adapting, just like I am. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve named it . . . The Voice in the Sky.”

  As soon as the Black Hood said the name, a crash of thunder sounded from overhead. Stan whipped his head skyward. The rainstorm had stopped a while ago, and the sky above them was clear.

  “That was him, Stan2012,” the Black Hood replied quietly. “He lives in the sky, watching me.”

  “Wha . . . what does he do?” Stan asked meekly.

  “I’m . . . not sure,” the Black Hood replied frankly. “I don’t know who he is, what he is, or what he does. All I know is that, whenever I enter a Minecraft server and interact with the blocks, the mobs, the players, or anything else, the Voice in the Sky tells me to stop. Then . . . if I do not stop . . . my energy begins to rapidly drain.”

  The Black Hood paused for a moment to catch his breath. As he spoke about the energy draining from his body, it was happening to him. Revealing his face to Stan had given the Black Hood an adrenaline boost, as he was excited to finally be talking to a player again. However, now, the fatigue caught up to him, and he felt his life force draining the longer that he engaged in this forbidden activity.

  “To avoid withering out of existence,” the Black Hood continued after a moment, “I stayed out of Minecraft servers, forever condemned to hang in the void of cyberspace between thousands of Minecraft worlds. I could watch the worlds from a distance, but I could never enter them, interact with them, or wreak havoc in them again without the Voice in the Sky catching me.

  “And . . . yet . . . as I watched these hundreds of thousands of Minecraft worlds from afar, I no longer felt
the need to destroy them. I watched the players working together, building together, and creating amazing structures and worlds together. The amazement with Minecraft that I had felt upon first entering the game returned to me, and I realized how wrong I had been. Minecraft is a beautiful game . . . more than a game, really—it’s a beautiful world. It allows people to have a place where they can do anything they want, where the only limit is their imagination. I realized that I had been foolish for wanting to corrupt such a marvelous universe.

  “However, the damage was done. The Voice in the Sky was still watching me, and every time that I entered a Minecraft world, I could feel my life force fading more and more by the second. The only time I was ever safe was when I floated in limbo between the Minecraft worlds, watching longingly from far away.

  “What I saw shocked me. Even though the players in the worlds had nothing holding them back, nothing trying to keep them out, many still found the need to antagonize others. While I saw many players building together in harmony, I also saw countless Griefers, going out of their way to make the Minecraft experience miserable for others. As I watched these players fight, I couldn’t help but feel responsible. I was the original Griefer, the one who introduced the concept to Minecraft. Because of me, Minecraft was no longer a world solely of creativity and wonder, but a world where you had to constantly watch your back, lest you be destroyed.

  “Stricken with guilt, I knew that I had to make up for it somehow. I swore to myself, right then and there, that if anything were to ever threaten Minecraft on a large scale, I would do everything in my power to stop it. My opportunity came fairly recently, when my attention was drawn to your Minecraft server, Stan2012.”

  “Let me guess,” Stan said with a dark grimace. “You sensed King Kev pulling energy out of other servers to make himself stronger, and realized that it might create a glitch that could destroy Minecraft.”