The End Raid

*Not be confused with the SMPEarth Moon Landing, where players banded together to go to the Moon.*

**The End Raid** was a covert operation conducted on Day 5. The raid was participated by KaraCorvus, CaptainSparklez and IAmSp00n who were the first people of the server to enter the End dimension and defeated the First Ender Dragon.

## History

### Day 4

At the time, emeralds were still the main currency of the server. Kara managed to exploit the emerald trade with her villagers to craft nether stars and make multiple eyes of enders required to activate the portal. This also marked the height of her faction, the Corvarian Empire, as one of, if not the most, rich factions on the server.

### Day 5

Kara, Jordan and Sp00n joined forces to reach the End realm and launch an attack against the Ender Dragon. They travelled across the world and breached the Ancient Stronghold, the central base of the Antarctic Empire. Sp00n managed to locate the Southern End Portal hidden in the labyrinth. When the group accessed the portal, some of the players such as RobTob, Jawsh, TommyInnit, and Jmak were shocked as the 'The End?' achievements were broadcasted in the game chat.

Jawsh expected beating the Ender dragon was to be a server event, while Tommy was impressed that Jordan had successfully stepped into the strange dimension and immediately sent a request to become an ally, though was largely ignored afterwards. Jordan, Kara and Sp00n discussed for a while on whether the attacks on the beast should be continued. But, as there were no prior announcements that it would be a server-wide event, technically they did not break any rules by reaching the End and confronting the beast.

   As no one was coming to stall the attacks, the trio continued to fight the dragon using the usual strategies. They worked together to destroy the end crystals atop the obsidian towers while evading the dragon's fireballs. Amidst the battle, Jordan began claiming the exit fountain for his faction. At the same time, Kara encircled his area with her own territorial claims. Sp00n, however, abstained from any factional claims, due to his Arkansonian principle to remain neutral in any situation.

Despite the agreement that Kara should have the killing blow as she was the main sponsor of the raid, Jordan eventually landed the fatal shot on the beast, much to her chagrin. To make up for this, Jordan allowed Kara to have the First Dragon Egg, though initially, it was difficult to extract the egg as it teleported to his territory. They then moved on to reach the outer Moon cities via the gateway and obtained other loots such as shulker shells and elytras.

## Aftermath

All in all, the raid itself was controversial as people argued the dragon fight should involve more players and should be a server-wide experience. Not only that, the raid was done at midnight whereby only a handful of players were online at the time. Kara and Jordan were mostly blamed for trespassing the Antarctic Empire's base. They refuted the accusations by saying that Technoblade should have not claimed the Southern End Portal as part of the Empire's property. Rather, it should have been accessible to the public and not owned by a single person or faction.

Meanwhile, the Empire was contemplating the possibility of war with the trio but nothing had transpired ever since. They did, however, disband their alliance with the Corvarian Empire. While the portal was unlocked, other players such as Jmak, SwiftyPat and Ph1LzA had also joined the bandwagon and looted the outer End cities for elytras and shulker shells. Jmak built a house with End stone blocks with the so-called "Belle Delphine's Bath Pond".

To curb the controversial issue, Chip did what was necessary for the server. They sealed the portal, disallowing any possible End raids. This also meant that the End dimension was reset and all factional claims were revoked. A Northern End Portal was created hours later, which is now publicly accessible, unclaimed by any factions and located in a safe zone. Chip also changed the custom recipe for the eyes of enders and nether stars to counter any exploitations (this also coincides with the breakage of the economy caused by CallMeCarson). Emeralds are now replaced by diamonds as the main currency of the server.

## "The end landing was a lie"

*Main article: Fake End Landing*

   On Day 7, Michaelmcchill received a coordinate deduced by the SMPEarth community Discord server that led to the eventual discovery of an underground room resembling a film studio with a miniature set of the End central island and an unsigned book-and-quill which listed filming equipment used plus the studio rental fee. The location of the bunker correlated with the real-life location of Hollywood Boulevard.

Kara and Sp00n admitted that they had signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and "resurrected Stanley Kubrick" to shoot the End raid, a reference to the controversial conspiracy theory that the moon landing was a lie. Since then, the phrase "*the end landing was a lie*" has become part of the server lore and inside jokes among fans and players. Initially thought to be part of the ongoing Octangula ARG, it was indeterminate who set up the clues that lead to the discovery of the studio, but obviously it was designed to discredit the entire End Raid from the server's storyline.

## The Moon Landing

*Main article: The Moon, SMPEarth Moon Landing*

    Following an announcement made on the official SMPEarth Twitter account and YouTube channel, the End dimension was reportedly modified and revamped to be the that of the Moon. Among the custom features introduced were low lunar gravity and modified dragon, with custom-built structures on the central island (the obsidian towers). However, most of the outer cities remains default.

On Day 45, the official moon landing was launched involving almost 20 or more players defeating the Second Ender Dragon called Big Bertha. Prior to the event, Kara had lost her prized dragon egg (retroactively known as the First Dragon Egg to differentiate from other, multiple eggs). It was presumably taken by JoshA20. Following a later quest, she would claim the Fifth Dragon Egg as a replacement.