 ✓
| ||
| This villain was proposed but was rejected by the community for not being heinous enough or lacks what is necessary to be a Pure Evil villain. Therefore, this villain shall be added to our "Never Again List", where proposed villains rejected by the community shall be placed to prevent future proposals of the same evil-doer. They can be proposed again (with the permission of an administrator) if new elements appear in their series that can change their status as non-PE villains. Any act of adding this villain to the Pure Evil category without a proposal or creating a proposal for this villain without the permission of an administrator will result in a ban. | ||
- NOTE: These facts are all composited from many canons concerning this character. “Official” canons that are seen as particularly significant to this character, such as the official original Creepypasta, are explicitly identified.
|
| “ | Only God can help you now. | „ |
| ~ Herobrine's most famous quote. |
Herobrine Persson, or better known as simply Herobrine, is the main antagonist of the 2010 Minecraft Creepypasta story of the same name, as well as its popular Minecraft mod and countless other mods, videos and even books. He is a widely popular urban legend originating from the 2009 sandbox video game Minecraft.
He is an enigmatic figure by nature - his character, motivations and backstory are not explicitly defined, but following official descriptions from the original Creepypasta, this entity could be Notch's dead brother somehow embedded into Minecraft who appears as an omnipotent and malevolent spirit - although Notch stated that he never had a brother.
Herobrine has become somewhat of an icon in the Minecraft community: despite having no official appearance in Minecraft, he has appeared in many forms of fan-made medias, most commonly in Youtube videos.
Herobrine is also the main antagonist of countless Minecraft mods, maps, theories, fanfics, webcomics, books, songs, and videos.
Biography
Herobrine first appeared in a single image detailing an encounter. It was posted on the 4chan's /v/ board, and gained very little attention. It stated how Herobrine had appeared in someone's single-player game, building various strange pyramids and tunnels. It is the first media to name him as Herobrine and explain his origins as the supposed dead brother of Notch, the creator of Minecraft.
It was only later that Herobrine grew in popularity when the Brocraft streamer "Copeland" photoshopped Herobrine into several screenshots to show to his chat. He had recently taken a liking to the story, and wished to be a part of it. After getting largely good reactions, he decided to stage a hoax. He has explained exactly how that took place in an email.
Copeland had played through the world as a normal lets-player would, deliberately avoiding the work-in-progress room he had set up for the hoax. Herobrine was introduced to the stream about 20 minutes in. He is confirmed to be a retextured painting. Copeland then screamed and ran out of the room, promptly ending the stream.
Copeland pretended to be shaken up in the chat, and later posted a message onto the forums, providing links to the video to spread it on the internet, hoping to get similar reactions. After a while, Copeland removed the painting and reverted to normal textures. He proceeded to stream further, pretending to be scared. He announced that he would delete the world to never meet Herobrine again.
Later on, another user Patimuss made a video showing Herobrine in a user-made lava field. This Herobrine was free-standing unlike the previous video. Due to this, it is likely he was a retextured door. The live stream went down after Patimuss ran away and saved his game, only to resume ten minutes later when Herobrine had disappeared.
Later on, during the second stream, Patimuss can be heard talking to his wife, stating he was trolling. This flooded the live stream chat with outrage. He then proceeded faked a game crash. Copeland disliked that Patimuss outed Herobrine as a fake. It is unknown when exactly it happened in relation to Patimuss' video, but Copeland then posted links in chat, leading to a website named GhostInTheStream. This is likely where the nickname "Him" originated from. The page features Steve's face, featuring small real frantically rolling eyes in the place of his block eyes, which are modified to be completely black.
Below the face, there is a jumble of characters and letters. After removing all non-alphabet characters, the following message is revealed:
| “ | It has been reported that some victims of torture, during the act, would retreat into a fantasy world from which they could not WAKE UP. In this catatonic state, the victim lived in a world just like their normal one, except they weren't being tortured. The only way that they realized they needed to WAKE UP was a note they found in their fantasy world. It would tell them about their condition, and tell them to WAKE UP. Even then, it would often take months until they were ready to discard their fantasy world and PLEASE WAKE UP. | „ |
| ~ A cryptic message about Herobine. |
The message keeps telling the viewer to "wake up", implying that they are living in a fantasy world, and this text hidden in the page is their "note". The above text is from another creepypasta, entitled "Wake Up". The stream proceeded later with no further Herobrine sightings. Copeland continued to adamantly state Herobrine was real for about a year onward. The Minecraft wiki asked Copeland several questions regarding the event, which can be found on the official page about Herobrine on the Minecraft Wiki.
Since the stream, there has been a huge increase in his popularity, propelling Herobrine to meme status and making him an icon of the community. There are countless mods, animations, pieces of artwork, skits and constructions of Herobrine that have been created.
Behavior
Herobrine shows a lot of characteristics of being a form of computer virus, such as manipulating game worlds, deleting threads and sending messages through the Minecraft Forums, and perhaps also hacking into Notch's email and Twitter to reply to questions on his own existence, though this has never been stated in any story or video. Or, Herobrine is simply a figment of the user's imagination. All users the user talked to, including Notch's email reply, could simply be the creation of the player's mind. This would also explain Notch's rejection of the canon, showing the story is all in the user's head.
From the original creepypasta, Herobrine creates random constructions, such as sand pyramids in oceans and long 2×2 tunnels. He also cuts off all the leaves from trees. Herobrine is able to build and destroy in Minecraft. The original image states the player found long 2x2 tunnels, small pyramids in the middle of the ocean and trees with no leaves. The full extent of Herobrine's building capacity is unknown, but the given examples indicate Herobrine has awareness of shape and can differentiate materials from each other.
Herobrine seems to solely target human players. He did not seem to interact with any other mobs nearby in the Brocraft stream, some of which were spiders and zombies. His canonical relation to further mobs added since he appeared is a complete mystery. His interactions with other mobs are not mentioned in the original image. While there is a chicken present in the image, Herobrine does not seem interested in it at all and is solely focused on the player.
Herobrine has occasionally interacted with other mobs in other “unofficial” canons. He is sometimes able to take control of and possess passive animals, and revive/spawn undead mobs. In some mods, all mobs, even animals and villagers, will attack the player and have pure white eyes, showing that Herobrine is controlling and possessing them. Herobrine seems able to drastically change his environments with no viable source of resources to do so. Most expansions to his abilities in other canons involve cobblestone placing, dungeon building, using Redstone torches and setting traps. Sometimes, he also possesses supernatural abilities such as being able to control fire and lightning. He exhibits all the signs of being a Creative player in the game.
Herobrine seems to be unable to enter the Nether or the End depending on the canon.
Impact
Notch has tweeted that he does not have a brother (besides an estranged half-brother). However, the Mojang members have constantly teased the community by adding "Removed Herobrine" every time they make an update, fueling the fire more so. Herobrine also has his own Mod, where he usually torments the player with blood-curdling screams and making them seem delusional by ordering chickens and other usually friendly mobs to attack the player. In this mod, he also makes giant, Glowstone "E"s on occasion. This mod is not the only one involving Herobrine, as there has been many, many more created featuring him, usually as a hostile mob with powerful abilities. Herobrine is also added as plug-ins for some multiplayer servers, making other players believe that he is actually real.
When asked about audio player implementation in the wiki, and limits of what could be uploaded, C418 replied to Herobrine claims relating to disc 11. He stated that he cannot say a lot about 11, but that it is not anything to do with Herobrine.
Herobrine has also appeared in promotional material and merchandise for Minecraft, most notably making appearances in promotional posters, skins, and videos for Minecon 2011.
WatchMojo ranked Herobrine as #7 on their Top 10 Video Game Urban Legends list.
Mods
Herobrine, as he appears in The Herobrine Mod, in which he terrorize the player as they summons him.
Herobrine is the main antagonist of the 2010 popular Minecraft mod, The Herobrine Mod, in which the player summons him in their different worlds through a totem and fight him while he summons every minions in the player's world. He also summons his possessed mobs as well as the antagonistic hostile mobs, so it can help him distract the player as they fight him. Herobrine can also be spawned through a spawn egg which has several Herobrine variations, normal, stalker, builder, Chuck Norris, or even a boss that allows the player to fight Herobrine in an intense boss battle. After defeating Herobrine, the player will receive a rare golden notch apple and finally completes the mod. This mod supports every early Minecraft versions until 1.7.10. This mod is not the only mod of Herobrine, as he stars in countless other mods for different versions of the game, usually serving as a very powerful hostile entity that attacks the player. He also makes giant, Glowstone "E"s on occasion. Additionally, Herobrine is also added as plug-ins for some multiplayer servers. Herobrine also appeared as the main antagonist of different Minecraft maps, most notably some horror maps, or adventure maps.
Personality
| “ | I can't comment on that, he might be watching... | „ |
| ~ EvilSeph on Herobrine. |
In most depictions, Herobrine appears as a hurtful, sadistic, manipulative, psychopathic, evil-minded and treacherous individual, which is partially hidden by his false friendliness and weirdly mischievous behavior, whose goals appears unclear at first, until he frostily reveals them. Herobrine is remorseless to his victims, he enjoys watching them cower in fear before his horrific crimes and killing them after they're done panicking from being in the entity's presence. He's also quite an arrogant and questionable individual, as Notch describes him as being morally dubious and having a god complex.
Herobrine is very hard to understand, one day he may seem harmless and the next he's a full-blown misanthropic psychopath who craves destruction and anarchy, he only really seems to care about his own safety, although this is hard to tell as he is very powerful when it comes to combat. Herobrine's psychopathic tendencies are presented by how he viciously attacks and tortures players without any regret or second thoughts, directly going in for the kill and not hesitating to attack them with everything that he's got, whether it be brainwashed mobs that act as pawns or his barbaric abilities that lets him massacre anyone he pleases. Herobrine also enjoys taking the opportunity of breaking friendships between players by taking things such as a minor accidental explosion and turning it into complete destruction of the entire world and bond breaking between players. Ever since his first appearance, the bogeyman of Minecraft has continued to torture, stalk, and murder anyone around him.
The most well-known and most common rendition of the rumor that is usually considered as canon is the original Creepypasta, where a gamer while in single player mode found an NPC with the default skin - but with "empty eyes". Following the encounter, strange occurrences start happening in his game, such as man-made objects appearing that he never created, such as trees missing their leaves, perfect 2x2 tunnels underground lit with Redstone torches, and pyramids of sand in the ocean.
He states he posted the topic on the forum where it is removed. A user by the name of Herobrine sends him a message telling him to "stop". The player is contacted by an administrative person, claiming him alongside other players have encountered a pseudo player. Upon further research, Herobrine is discovered to be Notch's brother. The player personally emails Notch asking if he had a brother. After some time, Notch responded with this short message: "I did, but he is no longer with us".
Appearance
Herobrine is a noncorporeal humanoid entity who shares the exact same characteristics and the same skin as "Steve". However, Herobrine has bright pure white eyes that glow in the darkness as if they are a light source; thus, Herobrine's eyes act as a light source in the dark.
Herobrine can sometimes be seen holding tools, such as pickaxes. This stems from the widespread community belief that Herobrine was a miner. Usually, his hands are empty.
Herobrine is often portrayed by the community as a dead miner, killed long before the player's arrival. His appearance, however, does not suggest either of these are the case. But with Minecraft's abandoned mine shafts and strongholds, as well as mining being a large part of the game, the game itself has shaped public perception of the character to suit this persona.
Herobrine is often portrayed with his head crooked or twitching. This is likely due to him being seen more as a virus/creepy entity in Minecraft, rather than a ghost, although this is most likely him just showing his creepy and sadistic demeanor.
Powers and Abilities
On almost every testimonial and story about him, Herobrine is described as a vastly powerful and competent entity, which make him, by far, the worst threat that a player can encounter. Herobrine seems to be totally unbeatable, as he cannot take physical wounds nor cannot be cleared with commands (even with the /kill cheat-code, which can kill any entity in an instant), and often rely on brainwashed vessels instead of engaging in a direct fight. Which is strange, considering that he has an enormous strength. As an invulnerable human, he seems to have access to every Steve's abilities from the Creative mode, such as flying, running, crafting, invisibility, access to every block from the game, able to set up the most undetectable traps to trick players, and so on. He also seems to move in directions without physically moving, like a ghost, which makes him the (unofficial) first noncorporeal mob from the game.
Plus, he has many other unusual powers for Minecraft's entities such as being able to teleport anywhere in an instant, crafting nearly anything instantly, the capacity of destroying vast areas in seconds, electrokinesis, and so on. As shown below, he can also possess other entities or, in an extent, brainwash entire communities of mobs to do his bidding.
In fact, he is unmatchable, as he seems to know perfectly the position of each player he stalks, can blind players for a few seconds, is totally immune to potion's effects or curses and can pass every trap without being detected. Without a doubt, he is the strongest entity from Minecraft; next, to him, game bosses such as the Ender Dragon or the Wither appear as considerably easier and utterly futile opponents. Even if Herobrine can be killed, he would most likely be resurrected by building a Herobrine Shrine.
Worse, as a supernatural entity, Herobrine has the ability of traveling into different worlds and games from different players through totally unknown and paranormal means, as well as being able to traverse and explore the internet, as shown in the original story where he blackmails the player to stop trying to spread his existence, which inevitably fails.
Neverthless, in spite of his vast array of competences, he is not all-powerful and has some flaws. Namely, people report that Herobrine is unable to enter other in-game realms such as the Nether and the End. In addition, it is totally unknown if Herobrine can swim, use minecarts, boats or Nether portals - but this is likely not a problem, since Herobrine fly and teleport himself anywhere. Like most ghosts, it is most likely he can use them, but simply has no use for most methods of transportation.
No players who have ever witnessed him or crossed his path have ever beat or killed him, even in Creative mode. Grouped efforts seem also totally pointless as Herobrine know the position of every player at each instant and, as such, can adapt his strategy or just turn invisible. Herobrine cannot be banned or kicked from multiplayer servers, leaving him as the most powerful when it comes to players in online servers, allowing him to destroy and murder everything in sight.
It seems that the only way to get rid of him is to exiting the game simply and deleting the infested world, which put an end to his mere presence. Also, as stated above, it is possible that going into the Nether or the End turns Herobrine harmless, as he presumably cannot penetrate into these realms.
In the original creepypasta, usually considered as the main “canon” for Herobrine, he does not display many abilities, however he is able to build several structures, hack into singleplayer worlds and delete certain forum threads. The user also mentions that Herobrine’s page on the forum 404’d when he tried to look.
Fictional Origin
Despite many knowing the story of Herobrine, many question just who the entity is. It's very rare to suggest that Herobrine is an otherworldly entity from another dimension that has somehow manifested itself into Minecraft. Herobrine could also very well be a Tulpa and has been manifested in the game as a sentient entity created by the imagination of everyone that claims to have seen him. Others suggest that Herobrine is a virus or glitch that somehow found its way into Minecraft and started wreaking havoc, it's also possible that Herobrine was once a mob or boss in the game that was removed for unknown reasons.
Because of Notch's rejection of Herobrine's existence and the many people that still claim to see him, it's possible that Herobrine is a figment of the player's imagination, and that all the players who have 'seen' him are just imagining Herobrine haunting their game. Another theory is that Herobrine is somehow related to Steve, the protagonist of the game, which makes sense, as Herobrine is a carbon copy of Steve with white eyes, possibly hinting at Steve being the real brother of Herobrine, and not Notch.
The most likely answer to Herobrine's existence, the answer that was suggested by his original Creepypasta and the answer that makes the most sense is that Herobrine is a vengeful ghost. Many people assume that before Herobrine passed away he used to be a miner who died and was mysteriously brought back to life and haunts not only Minecraft, but also the abandoned mineshafts where he presumably worked at when he was alive. This explains why he not only haunts the other world, but also the various cave systems of the game. Other interpretations of the ghost theory interpret him to be Notch’s dead brother, such as his original Creepypasta.
Despite all the theories, Herobrine's enigmatic existence allows for many interpretations of the character, either portraying him as an insecure entity with misunderstood intentions, or a cataclysmic warlord that wants to see the world burn and bring everyone in Minecraft down to his knees. Furthermore, several versions of Herobrine have portrayed him as a very tragic character, rather than a terrifying horror. In fact, Herobrine's backstory is and will presumably remain surrounded by mysteries, unless his creator reveals his true origins.
In other media
Gameknight999
- Main article: Herobrine (Gameknight999)
Animation vs Minecraft
- Main article: Herobrine (Animator vs Animation)
Music
Herobrine appears as the main antagonist of many Minecraft-related music videos and songs, including:
- "Cube Land" by Laura Shigihara
- "You Know My Name" by J Rice"
- "One More Fright" by GameChap
- "Diamond Heart" by PixelSteve
- The "Fallen Kingdom" series ("Fallen Kingdom", "Take Back the Night", "Find the Pieces", & "Dragonhearted") by TryHardNinja and CaptainSparklez
Quotes
Herobrine's Quotes
| “ | Stop. | „ |
| ~ A post from the original Creepypasta. |
| “ | Wake up. | „ |
| ~ Herobrine |
| “ | Where is your God now? | „ |
| ~ Herobrine |
Mojang Quotes
Mojang has occasionally shared their views on Herobrine. Here are some of them:
| “ | I did, but he is no longer with us. | „ |
| ~ Notch (Original Creepypasta) |
| “ | The Herobrine stuff is awesome and kind of scary at the same time. It really shows how little control a content producer has over the content. | „ |
| ~ Notch |
| “ | I've publicly told people there's never been any such thing as Herobrine, and that I don't have any dead brothers, and that letting too many animals die in lava is a fool proof way to summon him but that you don't need to be afraid of him. He only means well, he's looking out for you, trying to warn you of the dangers you can't see. There certainly are NO physical manifestations of Herobrine that will sneak out of your computer if you leave Minecraft running at night, looming over you as you sleep with his pale eyes inches away from your face, as he tries to shout at you to wake up. Sometimes you wake up with a jolt, and he's gone, and all that lingers is the memory and faint echo of his wordless screaming. Of course it was just a dream. There's no way a morally dubious ghost with a god complex could at any point decide to haunt the children who play my game "for their own good", as there is NO SUCH THING. etc etc | „ |
| ~ Notch |
| “ | Getting loads of tweets and emails about Herobrine again. I don't have a dead brother, and he never was in the game. Not real. Never was. | „ |
| ~ Notch |
| “ | Also herobrine is not real please stop asking argh | „ |
| ~ Notch |
| “ | Ok ok. To be honest, there has never existed a Herobrine. It was just a rumor started by some douche and then someone probably created a mod. | „ |
| ~ Kappische |
| “ | Yes..but he is watching me! | „ |
| ~ Kappische about Herobrine. |
| “ | I don't always have an opinion about Herobrine, but when I do, it tends to end up on a wiki. | „ |
| ~ Carnalizer |
| “ | I don't have an opinion. | „ |
| ~ Carnalizer |
| “ | Oh! That's Lemon Gus, the ghost that has been haunting Minecraft forever. | „ |
| ~ Notch |
Trivia
- Herobrine is one of the most popular Creepypastas to this day, as well as being the most popular gaming Creepypasta and video game urban legend to date.
- In recent day, Herobrine has received slightly less attention ever since the introduction of more recent Minecraft Creepypastas such as Entity 303 (alongside the fact that Minecraft has lost too much of its popularity with the arrival of Fortnite, though Minecraft underwent a revival in 2019), but is still recognized as an iconic, popular and menacing figure in the community.
- Herobrine is by far the most powerful Minecraft villain.
- Herobrine can be considered the closest thing the Minecraft's unofficial mythos will ever get to a Big Bad or main antagonist so far, although it is possible that Herobrine could see an official release in Minecraft in the future, however it is very unlikely.
- Herobrine is often seen as a tyrannical leader to the hostile mobs, as well as the Nether and the End, which contradicts the statements of Herobrine being unable to enter these worlds.
- Despite being around for almost 8 years, Herobrine's creator is still unknown, with people speculating his creator is an employee at Mojang or even Notch himself, though the author of the original Creepypasta should most likely hold the title.
- It is commonly agreed upon fans that Herobrine's base of operation is the Nether.
- This is also why fans represent that Herobrine as a hellish tyrannical overlord that dwells within the depths of Minecraft.
- Herobrine is often the main antagonist of Minecraft music videos and story arcs. The most infamous is the Fallen Kingdom series created by CaptainSparklez, where Herobrine is a ruthless warlord commanding an army of mobs who is responsible for the attack on the titular kingdom. Despite his death in the sequel Take Back the Night, Herobrine acts as a presumed posthumous antagonist and is considered the overall main antagonist of the series.
- Notch recently tweeted about Herobrine after a fan cynically asked about a "real" screenshot of Herobrine, to which Notch replied by sarcastically calling Herobrine "Lemon Gus".
- He is also considered as the main antagonist of the whole Minecraft theory fanbase, as he is often portrayed as the arch-nemesis of the player in some theories.
- Herobrine also appeared as a recurring character/antagonist in videos by comedy YouTuber ExplodingTNT, portrayed as an incompetent scapegoat abused by his mother as well as the character of Pink Sheep.
- Thanks to his massive popularity, Herobrine has appeared as a hero of sorts in some forms of media, such as the Monster School series, where he is shown as a teacher to several Hostile Mobs, or the Entity 303 Creepypasta, where he is portrayed as trying to warn people of 303’s arrival, with 303 stating that Herobrine died and he is replacing him.
- Herobrine is sometimes featured with other popular horror villains such as Granny, Slenderman or Baldi in YouTube videos, most commonly the new Monster School videos (which have nothing to do with the original series created by WillCraft).
- Herobrine could possibly be the main antagonist, the overarching antagonist, or a posthumous antagonist in the upcoming 2022 film Minecraft. However, chances of this are unlikely, as he has never been an official character.
