#nether megafauna

[imtryingthisout]

Do you think baby Piglins have little toys that resemble the long extinct megafauna of the Nether. Much like how we have dinosaur plushies and other small joys? Creatures long dead and gone, living only in our collective imagination. And in the hand’s of someone playing make believe. Pieces together from what little remains and loved all the same.

#piglin culture #piglins #baby Piglins #nether culture #nether megafauna #toys #Minecraft

[illwilledomen]

The Nether Environment - Ecosystem, Biomes, and Wildlife (part one)

Note - this will contain some headcanon organisms/features that aren’t ingame

The nether’s ecosystem is entirely reliant on the abundant fungi that thrive in its dark and humid environment. Contrary to popular belief, water does exist in the nether, but not in ways we are familiar with. Unlike it’s sister dimension, the Overworld, water can only exist in a vaporous form within the Nether. In the crust of the Nether, it is cooler, and small pockets of water create hydrothermal geysers that spurt out steam periodically. Many life forms have evolved to take advantage of this abdunant expulsion of moisture and minerals, as the water is infused with the layers and layers of dead biological matter and inorganic salts and vitamins within the netherrack. These vents often occur in Nether Wastes. While the Nether is hostile, it is not a desolate place.

Crimson Forests

Crimson forests are some of the most biodiverse areas of the Nether. Within the crimson forest prowls a frightening apex predator - the Hoglin. However, the Hoglin is not entirely native to the nether. It is a mammal, a group of animalia native to the Overworld. The origins of this bulky opportunistic hunter are murky, but it is hypothesised by Netherologists that they originated by wild pigs straying into man-made and rare naturally occurring portals and becoming trapped. The crimson fungi are the true kings of this realm, however, and provide the food and shelter for the life forms of the forests.

Crimson fungi have intricate networks of root like growths that feed off of the scarce moisture in the ground, as well as extra nutrients such as decomposing matter and experience - the energy and information within a being that is expelled once the soul leaves the body. Similar to the Sculk of the Overworld, Netherian fungi are dependent on death for their food intake. Unlike the Sculk super-organism, however, Netherian fungi do not have a way of actively taking down live prey.

Hoglins feed upon the crimson mushrooms and other smaller fungi and netherian pseudo-plant (alien beings which are plant-like in nature) species. They will also paw into the netherrack dirt, searching for nutrient rich nylium ‘truffles’, small bulbous growths within the fungi that contain experience. The hoglins also prey upon other small animals and animal-like organisms. While much of the native nether megafauna have been hunted to extinction by ancient human influence, smaller native life forms remain scurrying through the undergrowth of these vast, treacherous forests. Little is documented upon these small life forms - often times no bigger than a rat - though explorers have been described them as looking like fleshy insectoids, like the rest of the native Netherian organisms. It is possible these creatures may be smaller relatives of the larger, stockier Strider. These creatures are grouped together as ‘mushroom mites’ in an informal classification.

Hoglins are highly opportunistic and successful, but are not the top pig on the block. Their relatives, the smaller, leaner and intelligent Piglin prey on these animals, and are dependent on their meat and blood for sustenance, their hide for clothing and their ivory tusks for weapons and tools. Piglin are very interesting creatures, because they are potentially the only sapient being that is confirmed not to be a hominid (there is much debate in Enderologist communities on whether Endermen are hominid in origin, due to the lack of a fossil record in the End, and Testificates - villagers and illagers - are close relatives of Homo Sapiens and are also great apes).

Despite their volatile environment, the Piglin have a rich culture. Their diets consist of fungi, Strider, Hoglin, and very occasionally, Ghast. However, Ghast meat is said to have a foul bitter taste, and it’s low nutrient content is not worth the danger of hunting them. Piglin are artistic and spiritual beings, like hominids, and they hold a sense of honor and respect dearly to them. Due to their different anatomy, their language is unable to be fluently spoken by humans and testificates, and thus, causes divide between the two groups. The Overworld is talked in almost a mythical context from piglin to piglin - similar to how the Nether is regarded in villager culture.

Piglin are dependent on Hoglins. They serve as handy steeds and beasts of labour in a treacherous, unsteady landscape, and their meat is rich and fatty - a good source of fat is hard to come by in The Nether. Hoglin meat is described by Nether-goers to be greasy and tender, even when raw, yet with a complex and gamey flavour.

Interestingly, Piglin are unable to digest plants - due to there being a lack of plant life in the nether, those niches being filled by fungi and alien organisms.

Soul Sand Valleys

Soul sand valleys are desolate places. You will find very little life here. Small invertebrates may burrow into the soil, but otherwise, the foreboding presence of mass death and soul expulsion instinctually drives many creatures away. Despite this, valleys are rich with nutrients and energy. Unfortunately this abundance of soul energy and minerals will not help any land creature, as due to the amount of souls in such a concentrated area, it releases a very low frequency that will send any creature into a panicked, nervous state over a long period of time.

Netherologists describe this feeling as ‘soul sickness’. Afflicted persons may experience hallucinations and paranoia, and will be compelled to escape to an area that does not contain soul sand.

Soul sickness does not seem to hinder the gigantic aerial predators of The Nether, however - the Ghast. These huge octopodic organisms can reach up to 24 meters in length. They congregate to these valleys to take advantage of the coarse soul - bathing in the sand and removing dead tissue from their body. The soul energy creates static electricity, and this helps drive out any parasites. However, even these behemoths don’t stay long. Once they have bathed, they quickly flee, the soul sickness frequency affecting them as well. If an organism is able to die, the soul frequency appears to be able to affect them. Ghasts can get agitated if they are unable to leave for whatever reason, and this often causes territorial disputes between two specimens in an otherwise unusual proximity to one another.

Undead humanoids, devoid of flesh, are often seen wandering the soul valleys. Netherologists are unsure of their origin, and from studying their bones, they seem to be hundreds of years old. Their white bones are stained with an earthy brown from the sand. These mysterious corpses baffle researchers to this day, and are considered literal ‘living’ fossils.

While piglin are frightened of the valleys themselves, soulsand is often gathered in short intervals (in order to not fall ill) for medicinal purposes. Ground down with melted Hoglin fat, it is turned into a fine paste, and eaten in spiritual practices and as medicine.

The Wither is fueled by the abundance of energy within the sand it is constructed from, and a Nether Star is the hyper-condensed, crystallized version of the souls.

#minecraft #mineblr #minecraft headcanons #minecraft lore #nether #the nether #will make part 2 with warped forests and basalt deltas soon

[jaybirdcreative]

history deduction is pending episode 1

what do we do with a drunken sailor what do we do with a drunken sailor what do we do with a drunken sailor er'ly in the mornin'

literally nothing that's related to the topic at hand

to start: a fossil is the preserved remains of something that lived in a past geologic age. maybe it's evident in their being called 'fossilized bones', i.e. bones that have had the process of fossilization performed upon them, but fossilized bones are not bone! they're other minerals that replaced the bone! they're misleading!

y'know what else is misleading?

Minecraft fossils!

under the real-world definition of a fossil up there, neither the Overworld fossils nor the Nether fossils are actually fossils. admittedly, the Nether ones have always been a bit less fossil and bit more Just Some Strange Dead Thing, as evidenced by their fundamental in-game generation (Overworld fossils are features, like geodes or lava lakes; Nether fossils are generated structures, like bastions or villages)

so . . . somebody built the Nether 'fossils'?

okay, easy. Nether 'fossils' are erroneously-named bone structures that were probably hunting waste. maybe they were erected to commemorate a successful hunt of the currently vanished Nether megafauna. drive the giant creatures into the soul sand valleys to slow them down, have a hunt, mark the occasion/location, and get on with life. solved!

. . . does that make ghasts the last surviving Nether megafauna? were they used to hunt the others? is that somehow connected to the Uneasy Alliance advancement?

that's off-topic right now, but we can get to it later

now: Overworld fossils

Overworld fossils are an assortment of exceedingly large skulls and spines + ribs that generate underground in deserts, swamps, and mangrove swamps. they are composed of bone, with inclusions of either coal ore or deepslate diamond ore depending on the depth at which they generate. this more or less lines up with how some fossils are intermixed with coal on Earth due to the circumstances of their formation.

so why am I saying they're not actual fossils?

well, they're made of bone. fossils aren't

but jaybird! video game logic! game design practicality! Mojang wasn't gonna add a whole new block type just for uncommon fossils!

okay, sure. fair enough. make them bone; people understand that fossils and bones go together

but that still doesn't explain just what in the Overworld those fossils are. they're just skulls and spines of a ridiculous scale. were the legs crushed or otherwise unable to fossilize? was the Overworld previously populated by a ridiculous quantity of giant snakes? how do past geologic ages of the Overworld even work?? are there plate tectonics? mountains exist, so probably, but who knows? there's lava/magma, so something's gotta be heating up somewhere, but how? there's patches of tuff, which is a rock formed from volcanic ash, but there are no volcanoes. will there be volcanoes? when did the oceans fill up? where does prismarine come from? what exactly are sniffers? tortoise? dinosaur? perhaps a relative of yaks or those shaggy cows in Scotland? are they descended from the fossil creatures?

I have Ideas. this is Good.

someday I will Build Them.

paleontology update when?

#cube adjacent content #mystery history #no but really what is UP with that #I have some Questions for Mojang #I Will Find Answers #Or I Will Make Them #either one works