Herobrine Lore (Minecraft)

Overview

Herobrine is one of the most famous community-made creepypasta from the famous blocky game Minecraft. It is also one of the major community icons of Minecraft, yet he has never really appeared in the game before.

The first stories and images ever posted about Herobrine are regarded as canonical, as they were fundamental to the creation and popularization of the character. Any content posted after these events is considered fan-made adaptations and variations.

The First Sighting

This is the most famous story about Herobrine's sighting: 

Original forum post

"I had recently spawned a new world in single-player Minecraft. Everything was normal at first as I began chopping down trees and crafting a workbench. I noticed something move amongst the dense fog (I have a very slow computer so I have to play with a tiny render distance). I thought it was a cow, so I pursued it, hoping to grab some hides for armor. 

It wasn't a cow though. Looking back at me was another character with the default skin, but his eyes were empty. I saw no name pop up, and I double-checked to make sure I wasn't in multiplayer mode. He didn't stay long, he looked at me and quickly ran into the fog. I pursued out of curiosity, but he was gone, 

I continued on with the game, not sure what to think. As I expanded to world I saw things that seemed out of place for the random map generator to make; 2x2 tunnels in the rocks, small perfect pyramids made of sand in the ocean, and groves of trees with all their leaves cut off. I would constantly think I saw the other "player" in the deep fog, but I never got a better look at him. I tried increasing my render distance to far whenever I thought I saw him, but to no avail. 

I saved the map and went on the forums to see if anyone else had found the pseudo-player. There were none. I created my own topic telling of the man and asking if anyone had a similar experience. The post was deleted within five minutes. I tried again, and the topic was deleted even faster. I received a PM from username 'Herobrine' containing one word: 'Stop.' When I went to look at Herobrine's profile, the page 404'd. 

I received an email from another forum user. He claimed the mods can read the forum user messages, so we were safer using email. The emailer claimed that he had seen the mystery player too, and had a small 'directory' of other users who had seen him as well. Their worlds were littered with obviously man-made features as well, and described their mystery player to have no pupils. 

About a month passed until I heard from my informant again. Some of the people who had encountered the mystery man had looked into the name Herobrine and found that name to be frequently used by a Swedish gamer. After some further information gathering, it was revealed to be the brother of Notch, the game's developer. I personally emailed Notch, and asked him if he had a brother. It took him a while, but he emailed me back a very short message: 

"I did, but he is no longer with us."

-Notch 

I haven't seen the mystery man since our first encounter, and I haven't noticed any changes to the world other than my own. "

Another Story

"Hello. My name is Nitro. I can also relate to the story above. So, what happened is I had just spawned in and started cutting down trees. I was on single player, then I saw it, him. He ran past my screen and scared the crap out of me. Later after I built my house I went mining. I was super deep down and as soon as I placed a torch I saw him looking at me. I was so scared because it felt like the Minecraft devil staring at my soul. I left as fast as possible. Later I decided to try to make a Minecraft forum. I checked it the next day & it was gone! I tried a lot more times until on my Xbox I received this message: "Stop. This is your only warning" At this time I just quit. I saw him 3 times. I'm blazemico so 

1. I was digging dirt AND I HIT HIM 

2. I was outside I saw a zombie BUT IT WAS HEROBRINE 

3. I was running on trees then I SAW HIM UNDER A TREE 

sorry that it was so short I hate typing"

Origins

White Eyes

It was July 31st, 2010 when Minecraft Forum user Flaky posted a comment supposedly copied from a post on 4chan, containing a story of a player encountering an entity with glowing white eyes after listening to the "13" music disc. An instance of the pair of eyes was linked in the comment, being a YouTube upload of "13" posted the previous day (the same day that the disc was added to the game), where a screenshot of a dark cave with two white eyes can be seen. This story is the first known instance of the concept of a creepypasta regarding a paranormal entity with white eyes in Minecraft.

Top: Original screenshot taken and posted

Bottom: Brightened and clearer vision

The following day, Forum user Endorphine posted a thread recounting a myth surrounding the ambient sounds added to caves in Alpha v1.0.3, in which "a pair of white pixels" would appear whenever these sounds would play. The same video was linked as an example of an appearance of these white pixels. The phenomenon was attributed to "White Eyes", a female creature who would stalk the player from afar with no visible traits other than her blank white eyes.

The "White Eyes" story began spreading through the Minecraft Forum, either stemming from or being popularized by the aforementioned thread. On August 24, a modified version of the story appeared, in which "White Eyes" was now a default player model with whited out eyes. That moment would become the rise of Herobrine's encounters.

Herobrine

Prior to August 19, a modified version of the story emerged, where "White Eyes" was renamed "Herobrine" and was said to be the deceased sibling of Notch (who, in reality, has no such sibling). This entity was described as a mob with white eyes. The precise origin of this version of the story is unknown, although the earliest known instances of it can be traced back to a comment on a Minecraft Forum thread on August 30, 2010, and a now-deleted image that was posted on 4chan's paranormal board on August 31. The narrative recounts an encounter with an unnamed human entity in a single-player world who exhibited peculiar behavior, such as stalking the player from a distance, constructing unnatural structures like sand pyramids in the ocean and long 2x2 tunnels, and removing leaves from trees. The writer tried to initiate a discussion about the encounter on the Minecraft Forum, only to have it repeatedly deleted, followed by a private message from a seemingly mysterious user named "Herobrine" instructing them to stop. The 4chan post also featured a screenshot of the encounter, depicting Herobrine in the distance amidst the fog.

                     

Original screenshot

Popularity Increase

The Herobrine creepypasta experienced a surge in popularity, elevating him to the status of a meme and an icon within the community. Many screenshots, animations, artwork, constructions, and videos featuring Herobrine were generated, with some of the earliest creations emerging on August 30, 2010. Copeland, a minecraft streamer, remained steadfast in his assertion that Herobrine was a real entity for about one year after.

At MINECON 2010, the day after the livestreams that propelled Herobrine to fame, Notch confirmed that Herobrine was a hoax, with a playful suggestion that he might not be. The following day, Notch tweeted about Herobrine, responding to a tweet questioning whether Herobrine was an in-game entity by stating that he was not, but that he "might be soon". This strengthened the fact that Herobrine never existed, while also hinting that Notch might consider adding him at a later date.

In October 2010, due to escalating controversy surrounding the Minecraft Wiki's page on Herobrine, a wiki administrator asked Notch whether he had any plans to add Herobrine to the game. Notch replied that he had no intention of adding Herobrine "as is", but that he enjoyed the rumors surrounding the character. This indicated that Notch had definitively ruled out the inclusion of Herobrine, but the use of the phrase "as is" suggested that a similar character might be added in the future, thereby fueling speculation that Herobrine might still make an appearance. When the same user wanted clarification, expressing frustration with the "hero-spam" in the Minecraft community, Notch said that he had no plans to introduce Herobrine into the game.

Quotes and Reactions

Notch

"Fine, Herobrine is real, and he gains spooky vengeance haunting power whenever you remind me of him. Only way to stop him is to ignore him."

"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."

"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. 

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"

"Every single thing in the game gets found out within minutes. People are decompiling the code, and there are even automated tools to do so. It should be obvious to everyone that there isn't a hidden herobrine in there, or it would've been found years ago. 

Despite this, people keep spreading the rumor, posting fake stories and screenshots, and generally hyping it, so it seems to be something people WANT the game to contain. But the truth he certainly had never ever been in the game when I was working on it, and I absolutely, positively don't have a dead brother. But if people want to pretend it's true, who am I to stop them? 

tl;dr: sure, why not"

 

 C418

"Aand I finished the herobrine sound effects! And deleted them as quickly as possible."

"You know how myths can be super awesome and creepy? Well, Herobrine isn’t. It’s silly and boring." 

"Also Herobrine is the silliest name for a myth ever. How about Griddlebraf" 

 

Kappische

"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."

 

Marc Watson

"Herobrine doesn't exist. He can't give you a virus. Your kid didn't see him. Why are you arguing this. Please don't argue. Staahp D:" 

 

 Searge

"We didn't really remove Herobrine, because Herobrine doesn't exist. Believe it or not, but it's the truth. I can't prove it. It's a myth."