| “ | Harrooom!!! | „ |
| ~ The Illagers Raiding the Village. |
The Illagers are the secondary antagonists of Minecraft. They are the villagers' main archenemies, and one of the player's most common enemies, and they mainly attack and invade any villages they see (and sometimes, the player's territory/house).
They can optionally serve as the main antagonists of the game, if the player's main goal was to get revenge and eliminate all the illagers from the Overworld, protect a village from a raid, and/or hunt down the Woodland Mansion.
They’re Hostile Mobs that raid and takeover villages. They serve as one of the game's "mini-bosses" because of their partaking in raids towards the player, and the villagers, and possess many abilities such as axemanship, archery, magic, and many more. Evokers, Vindicators, Vexes, Pillagers, and Ravagers are the most well-known illagers in the franchise so far.
The Illagers also serve as the main antagonists of the 2020 Minecraft dungeon-crawler spin-off game, Minecraft Dungeons, making their first appearances ever in a Minecraft spin-off game.
Despite being absent in Minecraft: Story Mode, the Illagers may also appear as the main antagonists, or recurring antagonists of other Minecraft medias, mainly in maps, songs, fanfics, story arcs, or videos, and mostly have different roles and motives, though they don't appear as often as other hostile mobs.
History
Illagers are known to be destructive, ruthless, mean, cruel and strong mobs. They are also one of the very few hostile mobs that appear during both daytime and nighttime.
Background
Once the player finds a Pillager Outpost and kills the Pillager Captain who has an Illager flag on his back, they get the Bad Omen affect. Once the player returns to his village, the Illagers begin to raid. The first round are only Pillagers. The second round are Pillagers and Vindicators. In the third round the Witches join. The fourth round brings Ravagers and Evokers. If the player gets defeated and the villagers all die, the Illagers takeover the village. If at least one villager survives the raid, and the Illagers get defeated, the player wins.
Spawning/Locations
Woodland Mansions
Woodland Mansions are the main headquarters of the Illagers. The mansions are huge and rare structures in the game, spawning only in Dark Forest and Dark Forest Hills Biomes. In these mansions, Evokers and Vindicators can spawn. Mansions have 2-3 floors. In this mansion, there are:
- Chests
- Flowers
- Rails
- Cobweb
- Spider Spawner
- Obsidian
- Diamond Blocks
- Lapis Lazuli Blocks
- Bookshelves
- Wheat Farm
- Blacksmith Rooms
- Saplings
- Wool
- Pumpkin and Melon Farms
- Chicken Statues
- Cat Statues
- Illager Head Statues
- Banners
It is hard to find a Woodland Mansion since they are rarest structures in the game. However, the player can acquire a map of a Woodland Mansion from a Cartographer via trade.
Pillager Outpost
Pillager Outposts are a scout tower-like structures. In these structures, there are Pillagers that holding crossbows and a Pillager Captain who carries an Illager banner. There are also Iron Golems that are imprisoned by Pillagers and put in a cage. There is a chest, tents, and scarecrows in this structure. In this structure, Pillagers will continously spawn, and if the player kills the captain, they will get a "Bad Omen" status effect, that will cause a raid in villages.
Raids
A Raid is an attack from the Illagers to a village. If the player enters a village while they have a Bad Omen effect, a raid will start and Illagers will come to the village and attack them. In these raids, player can gain loot like armors and emeralds from killing the raiders. If the raid ends with a fail, the player will get the "Hero of the Village" effect.
Patrols
Patrols are a group of two-five Illagers. They patrol around the biome and they attack the player when they encounter them. There is a patrol captain and they carry a banner. If the captain is killed, the player will get the "Bad Omen" status effect.
Fiery Forge
The Fiery Forge is the Illagers' very own weapon forge and fortress in Minecraft Dungeons. It is also home of the Redstone Monstrosity.
Highblock Castle
The Highblock Castle is the place where the Arch-Illager and his higher ranking minions reside in Minecraft Dungeons. It is divided into three places: Highblock Halls, Underhalls, and Obsidian Pinnacle.
Membership
Leaders
Arch-Illager
The Arch-Illager only appears in Minecraft Dungeons as the main antagonist of the game and the leader of the Illagers. Previously an outcast illager, he is corrupted by the Orb of Dominance and goes to the path of evil. He enslaves villagers.
Raid Captains
Raid captains are the leaders of raids, patrols and Pillager outposts. They lead the other illagers and they handle a Illager banner named Ominous Banner on their head. A raid captain is usually a Pillager or Vindicator and rarely an Evoker. It can be a Illusioner, however they can not spawn naturally. If a raid captain is killed by a player, the player will get the Bad Omen status effect, that causes raids if the player enters a village.
Members
Illusioners
Illusioners only appear in the Java Edition. They can not naturally spawn, only via commands. Illusioners reappear in Minecraft Dungeons with a different outfit, but still retain their abilities in the base game.
Evokers
Evokers appear in Woodland Mansions. They can summon Vexes and they can run very fast after they have casted a spell. They appear in the fourth round of the raid. They can also attack with their fangs. They serve as one of the mini-bosses in Minecraft Dungeons.
Vindicators
Vindicators also appear in Woodland Mansions with the Evokers. They attack with an iron axe. They appear in the second round of the raid. They are the most common Illager in Minecraft Dungeons.
Armored Vindicators
Armored Vindicators are stronger variant of Vindicators only seen in Minecraft Dungeons. They are equipped with iron armor and a double-sided axe and are stronger than regular vindicators.
Vexes
Vexes can only be summoned by Evokers. They attack with an iron sword and can pass through blocks in the base game.
Pillagers
Pillagers appear in pillager outposts, raids and patrols. They attack with crossbow.
Armored Pillagers
Armored Pillagers are stronger variant of Pillagers only seen in Minecraft Dungeons.
Ravagers
Ravagers, also known as The Illager Beast appear only in raids. They attack by head butting to enemies. They are also the only illager that are absent in Minecraft Dungeons.
Witches
Witches are not part of the Illagers. They only raid the village with them. They attack with potions, they also defend themselves with them. In Minecraft Dungeons, they reside in the Soggy Swamp.
"Johnny"
Johnny is a Vindicator that is named via a name tag. Johnny is the more ruthless and homicidal version of the normal Vindicator. They attack almost every mob, such as animals, utility mobs, other hostile mobs and even Ravagers, Vexes and Witches. Also, Johnny is a reference to the famous quote "Here's Johnny!" from another villain, Jack Torrance, who handles an axe like Vindicators.
Enchanters
Enchanters are only seen in Minecraft Dungeons. They enchant/buff allies, which makes them stronger and more powerful.
Royal Guards
Royal Guards are heavily armored Illagers armed with a mace and a shield, exclusive to Minecraft Dungeons. They guard the Arch-Illager in the Highblock Castle.
Geomancers
Geomancers are elderly Illagers exclusive to Minecraft Dungeons. They are capable of summoning stone pillars and explosive pillars out of the ground.
Icologers
Icologers are Illagers exclusive to Minecraft Dungeons. They are able to manipulate ice.
Trivia
- The Illagers are one of the only Minecraft antagonist, that are considered to be the most evil and sadistic variation of the villagers ever found so far throughout the franchise.
- Despite being hostile mobs, their only motive is to raid and pillage every village they can find and stop the player from foiling their plans, while the rest of the hostile mobs are dangerous, darker, and far more evil than all of them, sometimes being victims of the hostile mobs' homicide also. But if a raid is taking place during nighttime, they will eventually team up with the hostile mobs (especially zombies) to kill all the villagers and iron golems, making the raid more challenging during nighttime. However, the vindicator named "Johnny" is by far the most evilest of the illagers, killing almost every mob in the game, including their fellow hostile mobs.
- Even though they are the secondary antagonists in the base game, they may had been behind all the events all along with the game's "lore".
- For example, the vindicators may have been past villagers that the evoker tried to shift it between them to turn evil, and the vindicators may have also been past innocent villagers, transformed into murderous savage killers by Evokers themselves, although this is still not official, but the official Minecraft book, Mobestiary confirms all of this.
- Some people tried to find out what was behind on the wool structures from their mansions. It may have been speculated that the wool structures from the mansions was the illagers mimicking the game's famous things such as, a wool map, a wool ender portal, wool cat and chicken statues, a gray villager statue with a lapis lazuli block in the middle of its head, cyan and blue wool blocks (which is the same clothing on the default character, Steve and the zombies), and many more.
- In their Mansions, there are also prison structures, which may be used kept villagers as prisoners, guessing if they really kidnapped the villagers from certain villages, and will do 'unexplainable activities' to them, stated by the Mobestiary. However, the prisons are empty in the game.
- All the illagers were once villagers, but as said in the book, Mobestiary, they were exiled and expelled from the villages and moved to an isolated forest to live on their woodland mansions.
- Before the 1.14 illagers were added to the game, Minecraft didn't have any secondary antagonists, as the closest thing the game's secondary antagonist had, was the Wither, despite being an optional boss only, but that role was changed when they were added, because Illagers nowadays are more recognized, and are known as side enemies to the player, and the main enemies to the villagers. Since the Wither is only an optional boss, they are more common and more active to the game than the Wither. So since then, Illagers became a very serious threat to most villagers, golems, and players, even to the pets/animals too.
- They are also known as the secondary antagonists of PewDiePie's Minecraft series.
Gallery
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