| 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. |
|
| “ | Stop. | „ |
| ~ Herobrine's only quote in the original creepypasta. |
| “ | Only God can help you now. | „ |
| ~ Herobrine's most famous quote. |
Herobrine, also known as Him, is a famous Minecraft urban legend, having made his first known appearance as the titular main antagonist of the 2010 Creepypasta of the same name.
He is a mysterious entity who, in his original story, stalks players from afar and doesn't want the world to know of his existence. After gaining popularity thanks to a streamer, he began to spread throughout the Internet and appeared in countless mods, maps, story arcs, fanfics, videos, theories, songs, webcomics and books, becoming so popular that his existence was both acknowledged by Mojang and Notch himself, even making cameos in some promotional artwork and in the game's changelogs.
He is an enigmatic figure by nature, with his character, motivations, and backstory not being explicitly defined, but following official descriptions from the original Creepypasta, Herobrine could be Notch's dead brother somehow embedded into Minecraft who appears as a digital ghost, although Notch stated that he never had a brother. He is commonly portrayed as an omnipotent and malevolent villain in fan-works.
Herobrine has become somewhat of an icon in the Minecraft community. Despite having no appearance in vanilla Minecraft, he has appeared in many forms of fan-made media, most commonly in YouTube videos. He can also be found in some promotional artworks by Mojang.
Quick Answers
What are some of the powers attributed to Herobrine in the Minecraft universe?
What is the origin of the name 'Herobrine'?
How did Herobrine become a popular figure in Minecraft lore?
What role does Herobrine play in various Minecraft mods and fanfics?
Why is Herobrine also referred to as 'Him' in the Minecraft community?
Appearance[]
Herobrine is a noncorporeal humanoid entity that 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 is 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.
Personality[]
The original story doesn't explain much about Herobrine's characterization, other than showing that he is calculating and mysterious, preferring to work from the shadows and avoid conflict in order to scare the player. He shows defiant behavior in response to the author trying to spread the word of his existence, deleting his thread and even outright telling him to stop.
The Herobrine mythos have greatly expanded on the character, taking what was known about him from his canonical interactions and popular depictions to paint a picture of what his personality is really like. While it ultimately depends on the writer, most depictions of Herobrine portray him as a silent, malevolent, cold-blooded killer who stalks and murders players, often for no reason other than sadistic enjoyment. He is threatening and intimidating to those who cross his path and the mere mention of his name for some is enough to frighten them, owing to his status as a notorious urban legend. In fan-works taking place in the universe of Minecraft, the denizens of the game are usually afraid to say his name in fear of invoking his wrath. His behavior in the Brocraft stream also cements that Herobrine is a cruel, malicious and enjoys tormenting players. Additionally, he is commonly portrayed as the leader of the Hostile Mobs, further showcasing to his intimidating demeanour, and shows no care for them, viewing them as his pawns.
Herobrine is usually portrayed as being generally highly intelligent and very understanding of the mechanics of Minecraft, especially in regards of how to build, set up traps and mess with players. Statements from Notch regarding Herobrine seem to suggest that Herobrine is narcissistic and enjoys being feared and the centre of attention, with one of the only ways the player can use to get him to stop tormenting them is to ignore him, prompting him to leave. Notch has also described Herobrine as a "morally dubious ghost with a god complex", further cementing his arrogant and egotistical nature and implying that, depending on one's interpretation of "morally dubious", he has moral agency issues and doesn't understand morality in general, or isn't completely evil and has a few good qualities. Whenever he isn't portrayed as a godlike being who can easily defeat his enemies, Herobrine is shown to be somewhat of a coward, often depicted as fleeing from players when spotted, sending mobs to attack players instead of doing it himself, and/or killing people from behind, the latter being a common display of cowardice.
Herobrine's motivations are entirely unknown, but the two most commonly accepted explanations are revenge and for the sake of being evil.
Biography[]
Fictional Origin[]
Because Herobrine is such a mysterious character, his origins are completely unknown aside from what was presented in the original story, that of being the spirit of Notch's dead brother possessing Minecraft, although Notch himself has stated numerous times in response that he doesn't have a brother aside from a half-brother he's never met.
Despite this explanation, the Herobrine mythos have presented other explanations towards a potential backstory for the ghoul, with these explanations usually falling into two categories: fictional and non-fictional. The non-fictional explanations presented for Herobrine usually have him portrayed as an outside force that has embedded himself into the game, whereas fictional explanations portray Herobrine as a character in the game's lore.
The two most widely accepted non-fictional explanations are that Herobrine is either a virus/glitch or a figment of the player's imagination. Herobrine being a virus would explain his strange behavior, such as being able to manipulate the game world and send messages to players through the internet. Him being a virus would also suggest he was accidentally created during the development of Minecraft or that he was intentionally added by someone to wreak havoc, which would make Herobrine the pawn of someone else in the real world. Some variations of the virus explanation portray Herobrine as a sentient entity. A more tame alternate explanation is that Herobrine is simply a glitch or a scrapped mob, likely one of the unused "human" mobs.
The other popular theory states that Herobrine is merely a hallucination caused by the player's paranoia, whether that be from hearing about the original encounter or what the protagonist of the original story experienced themselves. It would explain as to why there is no code in the game relating to Herobrine despite player's swearing they've spotted him in their game.
The most popular fictional explanation for Herobrine and the one most accepted by the community and the mythos is that he is simply a ghost, specifically of a dead miner killed long before the player's arrival by an unknown force, implied to be a hostile mob or something even worse. Most versions of this explanation portray Herobrine as vengeful and consumed by a burning rage as a result of his death, taking it out on innocent people to satisfy his anger. It would explain why Herobrine is commonly spotted in caves and mineshafts and also their abandoned conditions in general. This explanation is also the basis of many interpretations that feature Herobrine wielding a diamond pickaxe as a weapon in reference to his former occupation. It's also speculated, in regards to this explanation, that Herobrine was featured in the hidden story found in discs 11 and 13 as the protagonist who met an untimely end at the hands of whatever was chasing him.
A recent theory suggests that Herobrine was created by the Illagers to be their version of Steve, using the light and dark blue wool found in the woodland mansions and the totem of undying to bring him to life. In this scenario, it's unknown if Herobrine is working for the Illagers or went rogue and out on his own.
The "farlander" skin in console editions of Minecraft as well as the toy modelled after the skin implies that Herobrine is related to the farlander, perhaps being part of the species and that Herobrine is the farlander doppelganger of Steve, explaining their similar appearances.
In May 2023, with the discovery that Herobrine was inspired by a screenshot taken on August 1st, 2010 of a pair of glowing eyes dubbed "White Eyes", it has lead to a new interpretation/speculation that the two entities are one in the same, with Herobrine being a shapeshifting creature with a variety of different forms, with his "White Eyes" form, a dark skeleton-spider hybrid, being either one of these many forms or his true form. This interpretation has also lead to speculation that Herobrine might be a genderless entity, as the poster of the original White Eyes screenshot refers to the entity with female pronouns. Others speculate that Herobrine and White Eyes are separate entities, although somehow connected.
Other theories describe Herobrine as being a demon, an unknown powerful entity, the Minecraft equivalent of the Devil, an eldritch creature or the brother of Steve, the latter of which goes to explain why the two look identical. Furthermore, several versions of Herobrine have portrayed him as a very tragic character, rather than a terrifying horror, or in some cases even an outright hero. Herobrine's backstory is and will presumably remain surrounded by mysteries, unless his creator reveals his true origins.
Creepypasta Story[]
Herobrine made his first known debut in a single image detailing an encounter. It's unknown when the picture was first created, but it was eventually 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 random constructions, such as sand pyramids in oceans and long 2×2 tunnels. He also cuts off all the leaves from trees. It is the first media to name him Herobrine and explain his origins as the supposed dead brother of Notch, the creator of Minecraft.
Herobrine grew in popularity when the Brocraft streamer "Copeland" photoshopped him into several screenshots, having taken a liking towards the story and wishing to be a part of it. After getting largely good reactions, he decided to stage a hoax. Copeland had played through his Minecraft world like normal, deliberately avoiding the room he had set up for the hoax. Herobrine was introduced to the stream about 20 minutes in, confirmed to have been a retextured painting, causing Copeland to scream, run out of the room and end the stream.
Copeland pretended to be terrified 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, announcing that he would delete the world to avoid Herobrine.
Later on, another user Patimuss made a video showing Herobrine in a user-made lava field. This Herobrine was likely a retextured door given how he was free-standing, unlike in Copeland's stream. The live stream went down after Patimuss ran away and saved his game, only to resume ten minutes later when Herobrine had disappeared. In the second stream, he can be heard talking to his wife and revealing that the Herobrine encounter was a hoax. After realising the fans had heard him and were outraged in the chat, Patimuss faked a game crash.
Copeland, angry that Patimuss outed Herobrine as a fake, posted links in chat that lead to a website named GhostInTheStream; possibly the origins of the nickname "Him". The page features Steve/Herobrine's face, except his eyes were pitch black and replaced with small, real, frantically rolling eyes. 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 an edited version of 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 said 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.
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 makes 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 have 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 does not have anything to do with Herobrine.
Herobrine has also appeared in promotional material and merchandise for Minecraft, most notably making appearances in promotional posters, skins, videos for Minecon 2011, and even as an easter egg in A Minecraft Movie.
Monster/Mob Theory[]
The "Mob" entity/entites.
The "Monster" entity/entities.
In internet, a theory appeared and became popular. According to this theory, Herobrine was real but it was not how people thought about him. In first versions of Minecraft, there was an entity named "Mob" who is just keeps running away randomly and have same appearance with Steve. This entity was later removed and later another entity who is technically Mob entity itself who named "Monster" was added. However This entity was an hostile entity similar to Zombies and not friendly/passive like Mob. After updates, its also got removed but its code was not deleted and this theory suggest that "Herobrine" is actually Monster/Mob who is spawned on the map because of glitch and all "- Removed Herobrine" changes was the slowly deletion of the code of "Monster" from game.
Powers & Abilities[]
Herobrine shows a lot of characteristics of being a form of a 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.
Herobrine is able to build and destroy in Minecraft. The original image states the player found long 2×2 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.
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, to an extent, brainwash entire communities of mobs to do his bidding.
Worse, as a supernatural entity, Herobrine has the ability to travel 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.
Inspiration[]
The screenshot of "White Eyes", the creature that inspired Herobrine.
On May 12th, 2023, it was revealed that Herobrine was most likely inspired (and might be a direct adaptation/edited version) by another creepypasta, White Eyes.
Twitter / X user OssyFlawo released a thread detailing a discovery about Herobrine's origins. Firstly, the 4chan post widely thought to be his debut couldn't have been Herobrine's origin; the Unix Timestamp of the picture proved it was posted on August 31th, 2010. However, fans have been asking Notch about Herobrine since at least August 19th, and the Copeland stream happened a day before the 4chan post.
While the origins of the first Herobrine picture are unknown, something else has been discovered OssyFlawo and her friend; a post from August 1st 2010 about a Minecraft player being too traumatized to go to their mines or house because they know they are being stalked by an entity with two glowing white eyes, that appears only when a cave ambience sound is heard. Alongside it is a YouTube link to a version of Disc 13, with the thumbnail being a screenshot of a Minecraft cave with the glowing white eyes in the bottom left corner.
Despite what it seems, the so-called "White Eyes" are not Herobrine. Not only were they confirmed to be female, but she also had her own design. While the original pictures have been lost, comments from the 2010 forums are describing her as being a spider-skeleton hybrid with an exposed ribcage and scythes for legs. As Spider Jockeys have not existed by then, the similarities are purely coincidental.
Around two weeks afterwards, the original Herobrine picture would be made (this can be deduced by the fact that the screenshot was made on version Alpha v1.0.16_02, which came out on August 13th 2010, but Herobrine was already a thing by August 19th). He was more than likely based on White Eyes, given how both are mysterious stalkers with glowing pitch-white eyes who came into existence around the same time, and since then he became extremely popular while White Eyes faded into obscurity.
Music[]
- Rice"
- GameChap
- PixelSteve
Other Media[]
A Minecraft Movie[]
| “ | The Overworld doesn't need you, Henry, nor do I. | „ |
| ~ A hallucination of Steve in A Minecraft Movie, saying nasty things to Henry. |
In the 2025 film A Minecraft Movie, Steve's eyes glow white making him resemble a live-action Herobrine almost verbatim.
Mojang explains that this was completely unintentional, and that all of the characters in the scene were meant to have purple eyes instead, but somehow Steve's eyes kept changing to white no matter what they did. This statement is obviously trying to invoke a paranormal intrigue, reminiscent of the original Herobrine legend.
Gameknight999[]
- Main article: Herobrine (Gameknight999)
Herobrine appears as the main antagonist of the Minecraft unofficial graphical novel series Gameknight999 by Mark Cheverton.
Kitten Cat Simulator 3D Craft[]
(A) "Herobrine" in Kitten Cat Simulator 3D Craft.
Humans, mistakenly known as Herobrine and Steve are the main antagonist of Kitten Cat Simulator 3D Craft. They are the owner of the cat(s). After player choice how many of them appear in game, they tries to caught the cat. Despite currently they are look like Steve, they are used to look like Herobrine. It's also heavily agreed by fans that Humans are not caught cat(s) but killing him/her/them.
Animation vs. Minecraft Shorts[]
- Main article: Herobrine (Animator vs. Animation)
Herobrine appears as a major character in the Animation vs. Minecraft web series, serving as the main antagonist of the original Animation vs. Minecraft and a major character in Season 3 of the AvM Shorts.
Quotes[]
Herobrine's Quotes[]
| “ | Wake up. | „ |
| ~ Herobrine. |
| “ | Where is your God now? | „ |
| ~ Herobrine's second most famous quote. |
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. |
| “ | Removed Herobrine | „ |
| ~ Changelist of updates. |
| “ | 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. |
| “ | All of their eyes were supposed to be purple, but when it was rendered one of the characters' eyes kept coming out white in the final rendered frames. | „ |
| ~ Mojang explaining the seemingly paranormal nature of the Herobrine easter egg in A Minecraft Movie. |
| “ | I think Herobrine was patched out of the game a very long time ago. Repeatedly. | „ |
| ~ Torfi Frans Olafsson to Za_TigerIBr after he was asked if Herobrine will appear in the sequel. |
Trivia[]
- Herobrine is one of the most popular Creepypastas to this day, and might even be the most popular gaming Creepypasta and video game urban legend to date.
- In recent days, 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.
- In Minecraft's official 15th Anniversary Map, there is a section of the museum dedicated to the Alpha versions of the game. Here, a recreation of Herobrine's first sighting can be found, making it one of the few times Mojang themselves acknowledged the Creepypasta's existence.
- Burntrap from indie horror franchise Five Nights at Freddy's has been jokingly compared to Herobrine from Minecraft by fans due to their similar behavior with Burntrap's cut role.
- Herobrine is by far the most powerful Minecraft villain by fiction.
- Herobrine can be considered the closest thing the Minecraft 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, it is very unlikely.
- Herobrine is often seen as a tyrannical leader to Hostile Mobs, as well as the Nether and the End, which contradicts the statements of Herobrine being unable to enter these worlds.
- Since it was posted to 4chan on August 30, 2010, the original creator of the Herobrine Creepypasta (and by extension, Herobrine himself) has never stepped forward publicly to add to the rumors and speculation or be interviewed, in a way making themselves more mysterious than their creation.
- It was speculated for a short while that the creator was Kizzycocoa, an admin at the Minecraft wiki. But he has since confirmed that he is not the original creator, but just an admin who helped to contribute to Herobrine's page on the wiki.
- However, it was revealed that the 4chan post is not the one that created Herobrine[1].
- It is commonly agreed upon by fans that Herobrine's base of operation is the Nether.
- This is also why fans represent Herobrine as a tyrannical overlord that dwells within the depths of Minecraft.
- In 2013, Herobrine ranked 46th on a poll for the Top 50 Video Game Villains of All Time, which was organized by Guinness World Records.
- 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 the overarching antagonist for the next two installments and is considered the overall main antagonist of the series.
- Notch recently tweeted about Herobrine after a fan jokingly 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 (although calling him a "hero" is still a huge stretch as he teaches mobs how to kill players), 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.
- In A Minecraft Movie, Henry sees an Enderman-enduced vision of Steve with glowing white eyes. This is the one of the only times Herobrine has been referenced in an official Minecraft project.
- Recently, the world seed from which Herobrine originated was found by MinecraftAtHome who then revealed it in their video about the discovery.
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 In past, everyone thought that 4chan post is/was the origin of Herobrine. However, once it was revealed in 2023 that people were asking Notch about Herobrine since August 19, 2010 (while 4chan post was from August 31 ,2010), it became clear that the 4chan post is not the one that created Herobrine. His origins and date of creation remain unknown.
External Links[]
- Herobrine on Wikipedia
- Herobrine on the Creepypasta Wiki
- Herobrine on the Creepypasta Classics Wiki
- Herobrine on the Creepypasta Files Wiki
- Herobrine on the Minecraft CreepyPasta Wiki
- Herobrine on the Minecraft Wiki
- Herobrine on the Monster Wiki
- Herobrine on Know Your Meme
[]
 Villains
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