Grian

Grian is a British Minecraft YouTuber who is known for his Minecraft building tutorials, creating Life Series and gameplay on Hermitcraft SMP. Before Hermitcraft he was popular for taking part in many Minecraft roleplay series such as Evolution SMP and Yandere High School, as well as helping create a popular MMORPG Minecraft server Wynncraft.
== Yandere High School/Tokyo Soul ==
Grian joined Samgladiator's Yandere High School Minecraft roleplay in 2015. The roleplay is sometimes considered to be Grian's backstory for what he did before joining other Minecraft servers. 
The roleplay involved a lot of romantic relationships between the characters due to its nature. As such, one ship cemented itself into Grian's fandom and prevailed for far longer than YHS did:
* Taurian: Grian x Taurtis
== Evolution SMP ==
On 1st of October, 2017BACK TO BETA. Minecraft Evolution SMP #1 Grian started an SMP known as Minecraft Evolution where the gimmick was that the server would slowly progress through different versions of the game. This was achieved through the players solving riddles to find portals to the next version, set up by the Watchers. In Grian's finale for the series he becomes a Watcher symbolizing him leaving the series as an active participant, and becoming a viewer. After the popularity of a Hermitcraft x Evo crossover fanfic "and the universe shifts (ATUS)" by aayaptre, which utilized Watchers as antagonists and wrote them as mysterious entities akin to angels, the fandom quickly adopted the fanon that Grian (and sometimes other ex-Evo members) are all Watchers themselves now in their newer series. Grian's Watcher name is often Xelqua in fanworks.Grian answering a Reddit post about the name, saying, "I made my YouTube account with a random name in 2009. No one has ever called me by xelqua, it has no story behind it. It's just not possible to change for some reason." (18 Aug 2022)
== Hermitcraft ==
Grian joined Hermitcraft Season 6 on 19th of July, 2018Hermitcraft 6: Episode 1 - I JOINED HERMITCRAFT.. On the server, he quickly became prolific for initiating many pranks and events, such as the Hermitcraft Prank War/Civil WarHermitcraft 6: Episode 37 - HERMITS VS HERMITS, DemiseHermitcraft 6: Episode 93 - NEW HERMITCRAFT GAME and much more. Being already a very popular YouTuber before joining the server, he brought a lot of attention to it and for many he became an entry point for joining the fandom. Grian's videos featured a lot of improvisational storytelling, which spawned many fanworks and headcanons, such as people giving him bird wings in fanart because of his elytra course and him getting quickly used to flying around. Back in Season 6, the wings were mainly drawn as chicken wings because of his superhero alter ego Poultry Man, but in Season 7 that changed to parrot wings and stayed predominantly that way. Some fans like to give him different wings for each different season and series he's in.
Grian tends to mainly collaborate and base next to his best friends Mumbo Jumbo and GoodTimesWithScar, which spawned a lot of shipping between the three. Most popular pairings include:
* Scarian: Grian x GoodTimesWithScar
* Grumbo: Grian x Mumbo Jumbo
* Buttercup Trio: Grian & Mumbo Jumbo & GoodTimesWithScar (romantic version of this ship is called Mumscarian)
* Architechs: Grian & Mumbo Jumbo & Iskall85 (romantic version of this ship is called Polytechs)
* Skyblings/Sky Duo: Grian & PearlescentMoon
* Gridoc: Grian x Docm77
== Life Series ==
On 21st of April, 2021Grian plays Minecraft... With a TWIST: 3rd Life - Ep 1 Grian started a new series called Third Life, the first instalment in the Life Series. This series featured many creators from servers Grian has already been on with before, such as Hermitcraft or Evo, leading to a large overlap between the fanbases. Unlike other SMPs Grian's played on, however, Third Life had a focus on survival, with mechanics that encouraged teaming up with other players, betraying them, and improvisational roleplay. This coincided with quarantine giving everyone more free time to watch more series, and many Hermitcraft fans used this as an opportunity to encourage Dream SMP fans to get into their favourite creators, citing the similarities between Third Life and Dream SMP. Being one of the most popular members of the server, Grian naturally was a first pick for many, and as such a gateway from one side of the fandom to the other.
In Third Life, Grian teamed up with GoodTimesWithScar in an attempt to make up for his prank taking one of Scar's lives. The two based together in a desert, giving the name of Desert Duo - the first widespread duo name in the Hermitcraft-adjacent side of the fandom, which at the time was not the popular naming convention there, mainly prevalent in the Dream SMP side of MCYT. Desert Duo/Scarian quickly rose to popularity thanks to both creators being already well-known in their own right and having many interactions throughout the series. Although all events in Life Series are entirely unscripted, fans like to analyse them and construct narratives around the characters. 
Grian has teamed up with other members of the series. Most popular pairings with him include:
* Desert Duo: Grian x GoodTimesWithScar
* GriB: Grian x BigBst4tz2
* Gritho: Grian x EthosLab
== Example Fanworks ==
=== Fanart ===
File:8vs69x1ghnf21.jpg|I don’t know how to title, but I made fan art of Grian with the G-Team flag by Alyx✨
=== Fanfic ===
* The Breaking Point of a God by grey_cat_crozzing
== References ==
Category:Hermitcraft
Category:Life SMP Series
Category:MCYT