Hermitcraft

Hermitcraft is a private Minecraft survival multiplayer (SMP) server. It was founded by GenerikB on April 13th, 2012. Original members of the server include BDoubleO100, Keralis, Hypnotizd, Xisumavoid, and JoeHills. Several members were previously part of Mindcrack and Kingdomcraft.
Most members of Hermitcraft feature the server in YouTube videos. As a series, Hermitcraft is split into seasons, and with each new season the world is reset and moved to a brand new seed. New or returning members, if there are any, tend to be added at the start of a new season. As of February 2024, there have been 10 seasons.
Members of the server are known as Hermits.There have been roughly 60 different people active on the main Hermitcraft server since its creation. As of Season 10, there are 25 whitelisted members. An updated whitelist of members can be found on the Hermitcraft website.https://hermitcraft.com/
Hermits as of January 2025, with the season they first joined: 
 Season 1: BdoubleO100, Hypnotizd, Joe Hills, Keralis, Xisuma 
 Season 2: FalseSymmetry, iJevin, Mumbo Jumbo, TangoTek, xBCrafted, ZombieCleo 
 Season 3: Docm77, Etho, ImpulseSV 
 Season 4: Cubfan135, GoodTimesWithScar, Rendog, VintageBeef, Welsknight 
 Season 5: Zedaph 
 Season 6: Grian 
 Season 8: GeminiTay, PearlescentMoon 
 Season 10: Smallishbeans, Skizzleman 
Former Hermits include Zueljin, Jessassin, Biffa2001, PythonGB, Iskall85, and Stressmonster. 
TinFoilChef passed away in August 2022.
== History ==
GenerikB founded Hermitcraft after being inspired by Mindcrack, a popular Minecraft SMP at the time. He named the server after his self-imposed title as the "Gaming Hermit", and members from then on were referred to as "Hermits". When GenerikB was invited to Mindcrack, he left Hermitcraft and passed on ownership of it to Xisumavoid, who took over as prime admin and "steward" of the server. Since then, several other hermits have been granted admin abilities, and the server runs as a community effort without having to rely on one designated leader. 
Hermitcraft is primarily a building and redstone-focused server. Members are well known in the Minecraft community for their artistic and technical proficiency in the game, and many of them are pioneers in their specialized crafts. In latter seasons, some members have also incorporated storylines and light roleplay into their Hermitcraft series. Whether individual or collaborative, most storylines are contained into easily digestible story arcs and may feature events or minigames to wrap up a particular narrative. The server returns to the status quo once the arc is finished, and as such there are never any long-lasting conflicts or effects.
==Fanon==
===Character Headcanons===
As is common in MCYT fandoms, extensive headcanons about characters are extremely popular. In particular, many Hermits are headcanoned as non-human in some way, with varying degrees of canon support. 
Many headcanons give the Hermits traits based on their name or their Minecraft avatar. Docm77, whose avatar is a cyborg creeper, is frequently depicted as a cyborg creeper. This is also the case with iJevin and ZombieCleo, who are headcanoned as a slime and a zombie respectively. Hermits who have mob-based avatars will often make jokes and references to the fact that their character is non-human, thus giving canon support to such headcanons. 
Animal hybrid headcanons are also common. Grian, who is very skilled at flying with an elytra, is commonly headcanoned as a bird hybrid, popularly called an Avian in the MCYT fandom. Other common animal-based headcanons include GeminiTay as a deer, ZedaphPlays as a sheep, and Rendog as a wolf or dog.
Some fan concepts have later been "canonized" for the Hermits' avatars. For example, Rendog did not originally have canon dog traits, but continued fan depictions of him with canine attributes led to him adding dog ears to his avatar. Similarly, after an extended campaign by a small group of fans, Docm77's avatar now wears crocs.
Other headcanons incorporate elements from the content creators to add to the characters. GoodTimesWithScar and TinFoilChef are disabled in real life, and their characters are often portrayed with disabilities as well--though not always identical or analogous ones. Iskall85, who professionally played the first-person shooter Quake before joining Hermitcraft, is sometimes headcanoned as a former assassin. Although Canada does not exist in Minecraft, real-life Canadians VintageBeef, EthosLab and GeminiTay are often referenced as Canadian as part of their characterization, while similar real-life origins are very rarely mentioned for other Hermits.
Since Hermits frequently use different build styles and may create different or conflicting lore during each season, headcanons often change after new seasons start. For example, in Season 5 Cubfan135 was part of a pranking duo with GoodTimesWithScar called the Convex, resulting in headcanons that Cub and Scar were partly or fully vex. In Season 7, however, Cub used an ancient Egyptian-themed skin to go along with his pyramid build, resulting in a decrease in vex headcanons and an increase in headcanons depicting him as an immortal being. 
Because of the fluctuating nature of popular headcanons, ask blogs and surveyshttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1B5ZZIyXVcx5uYLiy-AHehVL5aB3dYru2u6kbEqqtWfQ/edit about Hermit and Hermitcraft headcanons on Tumblr tend to be popular.
===Watchers===
Watchers originate from EvolutionSMP (EvoSMP). Initially, Watchers were representative of the audience. The fanfiction And The Universe Shifts further expanded on the concept by depicting them as antagonists, and as such it is often credited for establishing the basis for most modern related fanon. The archetypical Watcher is a member of a high-fantasy, repressive secret society that is in charge of watching over Minecraft servers, usually to either roll out game updates or prevent cheating. Watchers are commonly depicted with full face masks, wings, and powers over Minecraft mechanics. They are associated with the color purple. 
Watcher headcanons are often applied to Grian due to his canon association with them, but they have been applied to many other MCYT creators, especially fellow EvoSMP member and Hermit PearlescentMoon. Watcher!Grian is frequently called Xelqua, which was his previous YouTube channel name. 
===Hels Hermits===
Some Hermits have canon evil clones or alter-egos, the most notable of which are Evil Xisuma (Xisuma's evil clone/twin) and Helsknight (an evil alternate version of Welsknight from the Hels dimension). From this, fans have created fanon evil or inverted versions of other Hermits, called Hels Hermits or Helsmits. There are no consistent fanon interpretations of non-canon Hels Hemits, though fans often create their own names and appearances for Hels Hermits by inverting the usernames and color schemes of their respective Hermits. For example, a Hels version of xBCrafted might be named something like yCServicehttps://biinaberry.tumblr.com/post/682344708634230784/each-helsmit-and-their-names-each-helsmit-is. Other Hels names are based on the Hermits' alternate accounts, such as with TrueSymmetry, which is FalseSymmetry's camera account. 
=== The Life Series ===
The majority of the players in the Life SMP Series, organized by Grian, are Hermits: 8 out of 14 players in the first season were Hermits, and 13 out of 18 players in the sixth season. It is often assumed that the characters in the Life series are the same characters from Hermitcraft, since the players frequently make references to both. Fusions and crossovers are very common. This is often combined with fanon about the Watchers, who - often maliciously - force the players to play in death games to feed on their fear. (This has been canonized by Martyn Inthelittlewood for his personal PoV, but is not canon for anybody else.)
==2019 Schism==
In 2019, there was an intense debate in the Hermitcraft fandom over what kinds of fanfiction and fanart were acceptable to create. The two particular sticking points involved whether or not shipping Hermits together was acceptable, and the morality of writing angst, gore, and other heavy topics about the Hermits. 
Anti-ship sentiments often declared MCYT shipping as RPF, which some saw as inherently immoral. Pro-ship arguments frequently contended that because MCYT includes fictional elements to various degrees, it is not actually RPF. The debate over whether or not shipping Hermits should be considered RPF was further complicated by the relative lack of obvious roleplay or seperate personas for some Hermits. This divide was differentiated by the terms "content creator" for the real person and "character" for the persona, often abbreviated CC and C (e.g. CC!Grian versus C!Grian). 
People who were either against or in favor of shipping often congregated in private discord servers. Notable anti-ship servers and groups include the scutes (a friend group who created one of the first hermitblr discord servers in 2018), the Underrated Hermit Fanclub (a public discord server), and the moderators of an early hermit fanzine. Notable anti-hermitshippers include ethoslab on tumblr, commonly referred to as Miles, and ayaptre, the author of And The Universe Shifts. Although not every member of these groups was vehemently opposed to shipping, the general tone of the spaces were anti-ship.
Disagreements about the acceptable level of angst or heavy content in fanworks were also common. One point of conflict questioned if portraying disagreeable, dark, or shocking content violated the boundaries of the content creators. As a result, some fanfics such as The Red Sun Never Sets were heavily criticized for featuring heavy angst and violence.
Hermitcraft member ZombieCleo commented on the discourse on her Tumblr blog in early 2020 as a response to people asking for her thoughts on the subject.https://zombiecleoprime.tumblr.com/post/190046157065/how-to-avoid-shipping-problems https://zombiecleoprime.tumblr.com/post/190063333965/cleo-how-do-i-politely-tell-a-fic-writer-to-maybehttps://web.archive.org/web/20220902222604/https://zombiecleoprime.tumblr.com/post/189635996205/ahh-cleo-thankyou-for-the-comment-on-the-shipping Cleo defended fans that created shipping or controversial fanworks, and was met with critique by those that disagreed. She left tumblr shortly afterwards. 
As a result, shipping in the Hermitcraft fandom became nearly obsolete for a time. However, with the debut of the Life SMP Series and its proximity to the Hermitcraft fandom, shipping has become significantly more common. Many people who were previously anti-ship became neutral or positive on the topic of shipping as the overall tone of the community shifted. 
== Interactions with other fandoms ==
There is considerable overlap with fandoms of other Minecraft series that some Hermits participate in, like Pirates SMP, Rats SMP, and Vault Hunters SMP.
This was also the case with Empires SMP, as GeminiTay, FalseSymmetry, and PearlescentMoon played in both, and especially since the canon crossover event between Empires SMP season 2 and Hermitcraft in season 9 in 2022.
There is also a large overlap with fans of the Life SMP Series - unsurprising, due to the large overlap in players and the common fanon that the characters in the Life series are the same characters from Hermitcraft. Fusions and crossovers are very common, and many AU fanworks are also tagged with both fandoms. Some fans see downsides to this:
The relationship with the Dream SMP fandom has at times been contentious. Crossovers are popular, especially AUs in which TommyInnit lands in Hermitcraft and/or becomes adopted by the Hermits. After the Dream SMP ended, many fans subsequently got into Hermitcraft and/or the Life series. However, because there was considerably more drama in Dream SMP fandom, some Hermitcraft fans considered Hermitcraft to be "better," and some Dream SMP fans were frustrated by that attitude. This tension was for example notable during several rounds of the MCYT Tumblr Sexyman poll. 
The Hermits are very popular participants in MC Championship events, and many Hermitcraft fans discovered new MCYT creators when they were on the same team as a Hermit.
==Notable Groups and Ships==
Groups
* Architechs - (Grian, MumboJumbo, & Iskall85)
* Convex/Concorp - (Cubfan135 & GoodTimesWithScar)
* Logfellas - (Xisuma & Rendog)
* Boatem - (PearlescentMoon, GoodTimesWithScar, ImpulseSV, MumboJumbo, & Grian)
* Soup Group - (GeminiTay, ImpulseSV & PearlescentMoon)
* GIGGS - (Grian, ImpulseSV, GeminiTay, GoodTimesWithScar & Skizzleman)
* The Neighborhood - (Rendog, StressMonster, Iskall85, Xisumavoid, FalseSymmetry, Hypnotizd, VintageBeef, & ZombieCleo)
* nHo - (Ethoslab, VintageBeef, BDoubleO100, & Docm77)
** nHo stands for new Hermit order, a play on the wrestling stable called the new World order.
* Team ZITS - (Zedaph, ImpulseSV, TangoTek, & Skizzleman)
Ships
*Grumbo - (Grian/MumboJumbo)
*Scarian - (Grian/GoodTimesWithScar)
*Redscape - (GoodTimesWithScar/Mumbo Jumbo)
*Mumscarian - (Grian/GoodTimesWithScar/Mumbo Jumbo)
*PolyZITS - (ZedaphPlays/ImpulseSV/TangoTek/Skizzleman)
*Xisuma/Evil Xisuma
*Evil Xisuma/Helsknight
*Rendoc - (RenDog/Docm77)
*Ethubs - (EthosLab/BDoubleO100), Cledubs - (ZombieCleo/BDoubleO100), Cletho - (ZombieCleo/EthosLab), and Clethubs - (ZombieCleo/EthosLab/BdoubleO100)
**Although ZombieCleo, EthosLab, and BDoubleO100 are all Hermits, these ships are more popular in the Life SMP Series.
*Cubscar - (Cubfan135/GoodTimesWithScar)
*FalseRen - (FalseSymmetry/Rendog)
*Jleo - (Joe Hills/ZombieCleo)
*PolynHo - (EthosLab/VintageBeef/BDoubleO100/Docm77)
*SmallEtho - (EthosLab/SmallishBeans)
**Ship originated in the Life SMP Series and carried over when SmallishBeans joined Hermitcraft in Season 10.
==Fanworks==
===Fanfiction===
*And The Universe Shifts (ATUS) by aayaptre
*The Red Sun Never Sets by ThaneZain
*Shells in the Foam (a Hermit!Tommy fanfic) by Cedarwhisp21
**Crossovers with DreamSMP are both common and popular. Shells in the Foam is an extremely popular example of a common trope where DSMP member TommyInnit escapes to, is exiled to, or otherwise winds up on the Hermitcraft server. It frequently features Hermits taking protective, parental roles towards Tommy, which some members of the Hermitcraft fandom feel encourages mischaracterization. 
*dog at the door by fluffy_papaya and iamsolarflare
*this is about a stuffed bird by Bee_4
*Still the Echoes Give Us Light by doctortrekkie
===Fanvids/AMVs/Fanmixes===
*Hermitcraft Season 8 Finale Animation - How Far We've Come
*Producer Man | Hermitcraft Shade-E-E's Animatic
*ElyBeatMaker is a popular remixer. He frequently makes songs from speech clips or Hermits singing. One of his most influential remixes is the Hermitgang Remix.
=== Alternate Universes ===
* From The Archives (MCYT) by Sixteenthdays - is a completed The Magnus Archives inspired AU for Hermitcraft and the Life SMP Series, there is an official podfic version on Youtube.
* Gemcyt by chrisrin- a Steven Universe inspired AU for Hermitcraft and the Life SMP Series
===Zines===
*
*
*
=== Meta ===
*, a video by Molecoid with AO3 stats of Hermitcraft fanfiction/fanworks until 31.12.2024
=== Challenges, Fests and Exchanges ===
* MCYT Recursive Exchange
* MCYTBLR Holidays Exchange and Extreme Timed Challenge MCYT Gift Exchange
* MCYT RPF Kink Meme
* Hermitshipping Big Bang
==Resources==
*Hermitcraft SMP on AO3
*r/HermitCraft
*Hermitcraft Wiki on Wikia
==References==
 
Category:MCYT
Category:Minecraft Server
Category:Web Series