Herobrine/Origins

### "White Eyes"

On July 31, 2010, Minecraft Forum user Flaky posted a comment, supposedly copied from a post on 4chan's /v/ board, containing a story of a player encountering an entity with glowing white eyes after listening to the "13" music disc. One supposed instance of these eyes was linked in the comment, which was a YouTube upload of "13" posted the previous day (the same day that the disc was added to the game), showing a screenshot of a dark cave with two white eyes in the bottom left corner. This story is the first known instance of the concept of a creepypasta regarding a white-eyed paranormal being in *Minecraft*.

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.

### Herobrine creepypasta

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.

At some point before August 19, a similar altered version of the story surfaced: "White Eyes" gained the name "Herobrine", and was now described as the deceased brother of Notch (in reality, Notch has never had a brother), taking the form of a human entity with white eyes. The exact origin of this version of the story is unknown, with the earliest known instances of it being from a comment in a Minecraft Forum thread on August 30, 2010, and a now-deleted image posted on 4chan's paranormal /x/ board on August 31.

The story details an encounter in *Minecraft* with a nameless human entity in a single-player world who displayed strange behavior such as stalking the player from afar, creating unnatural constructions such as sand pyramids in the ocean and long 2x2 tunnels, and removing leaves from trees. The writer then attempted to start a topic about the encounter on the Minecraft Forum, only to have it be repeatedly deleted, followed by a private message from a seemingly nonexistent user named "Herobrine" telling them to stop. The 4chan post also contained a screenshot of the encounter, showing Herobrine in the distance amidst the fog.

### Brocraft streams

Brocraft streamer Copeland came across the Herobrine story on 4chan's /v/ board and took a liking to it. He edited Herobrine into several screenshots to show to his chat and, after getting largely good reactions, decided to stage a hoax; he changed the texture of a painting to display Herobrine and put it in a work-in-progress house in his world, planning to show it on a livestream. On August 30, Copeland played through the world as a normal player would, deliberately avoiding the work-in-progress room he had set up for the hoax, until about 20 minutes and 45 seconds in, when he entered the room and saw the re-textured painting. Copeland then screamed and ran out of the house, promptly ending the stream. He pretended to be shaken up in the chat and later posted a message onto the forums, linking to the video to spread it around in the hopes of getting similar reactions. Other users in the thread began debating whether Copeland's sighting was real and started posting their own screenshots with Herobrine edited into them. After a while, Copeland removed the painting and reverted to normal textures, then proceeded to stream further, pretending to be scared. He announced that he would delete the world to never meet Herobrine again.

Later on, fellow streamer Patimuss made a stream showing Herobrine near a user-made lava pool. This Herobrine was free-standing, unlike in the previous stream, likely indicating that he was a re-textured door (most likely iron). The livestream went down after Patimuss ran away and saved his game, only to resume ten minutes later, where Herobrine had supposedly disappeared. Afterwards, during the second stream, Patimuss could be heard talking to his wife, stating he was trolling, which flooded the livestream chat with outrage. He then faked a game crash and the stream proceeded later with no further Herobrine sightings. Copeland disliked that Patimuss outed Herobrine as a fake.

Around the time of Patimuss' stream, Copeland posted links in chat leading to the website http://ghostinthestream.net/him.html, which likely inspired the "Him" nickname. The page featured Steve's face, but with his original eyes made pitch black and replaced with real, frantically rolling eyes. Below the face, there was a jumble of characters and letters. After removing all non-alphabet characters, the text is revealed to be a slightly edited version of another creepypasta entitled "Wake Up?", which is written as a note to the reader explaining that they have retreated to a "fantasy world" due to suffering from torture (specified as rape in the original text) and that they need to "wake up".

### Increase in popularity

Following these events, the popularity of the character began to increase, propelling Herobrine to meme status and making him an icon of the community. Numerous screenshots, animations, pieces of artwork, constructions, and videos of Herobrine were created, with the earliest among them being created on the same day as the original livestreams.

Not long after the Brocraft streams propelled Herobrine into popularity, all of the Brocraft streams in which he was featured were deleted, and not archived elsewhere. Despite extensive searching, no footage has ever been recovered, and only a few screenshots and written descriptions of the contents of the livestreams still exist. Copeland continued to adamantly state Herobrine was real for about a year onward.

At MINECON 2010, the day after Herobrine's popularity boost from the livestreams, Notch confirmed Herobrine was a hoax, but jokingly alluded to the possibility that he might not be. The next day, Notch posted on Twitter about the subject of Herobrine: in reply to a tweet asking if Herobrine was a real entity in-game, Notch replied saying that he was not, but that he "might be soon". This further confirmed there was no Herobrine, but again suggested the possibility that Notch planned to add him at a later date.

In October 2010, due to increased drama surrounding the Minecraft Wiki's page on Herobrine, a wiki administrator asked Notch over IRC if he would ever be added, to which Notch replied "i [*sic*] have no plans of adding herobrine as is, but I do like the rumors, haha".[*citation needed*] This showed Notch had decided against adding Herobrine, but the use of the wording "as is" suggested that something like Herobrine may be added, further fueling beliefs that he would be implemented. Once again, the same user asked for clarification, saying that the *Minecraft* community was "getting frustrated by the hero-spam", to which Notch replied that he had no plans for adding Herobrine into the game.

### Modded versions

On December 10, 2010, hMod Forums user tkelly released the earliest known Herobrine mod, a server plugin called "iLoveYou". In the plugin, Herobrine can be summoned by building an altar made of gold blocks, netherrack, redstone torches and mossy cobblestone, and igniting the netherrack on top. The mod's version of Herobrine exhibits behaviors similar to those in the original creepypasta and livestreams, as well as new behaviors, such as placing redstone torches, building underground dungeons, teleporting behind players, and luring players into traps. Many YouTube videos from around the time of this plugin's release show players encountering or summoning this modded version of Herobrine on many different servers, indicating that the plugin was widespread enough to influence the playerbase's perception of Herobrine, and many of Herobrine's traits and abilities introduced in the mod became established in the community as part of the character. Updated versions of this plugin created by other users still exist on the Internet, but the original plugin from the original creator is currently lost.

Later, on July 29, 2011, a more popular Herobrine mod was released by the Minecraft Forum user burnner. This mod also lets players summon Herobrine by building and igniting an altar made of gold and netherrack, though the arrangement and composition of blocks is different, and a new "Herobrine Totem" block is required. This mod's version of Herobrine retains many of his abilities from the canon sources and original mod while gaining many new ones, such as using tools, placing signs, possessing animals, and spawning undead mobs. Herobrine is much more hostile in this mod and will regularly directly attack players, unlike in the original mod where Herobrine is more rarely encountered and less overtly hostile. Many subsequent Herobrine mods have been made since, many of them employing numerous concepts that originated in these early examples. The use of these mods in servers and videos likely accounts for a substantial percentage of reported Herobrine "sightings", since they are the only way Herobrine can actually exist in the game.

### Current status

From 2011 onward, Herobrine's popularity continued to increase as more and more fan creations featuring the character were created. Many "sightings", modded gameplay videos, and animations featuring Herobrine would reach tens of millions of views on YouTube during the following years. Numerous imitation characters with varying levels of popularity were created with Herobrine as the main inspiration, but Herobrine would always remain by far the most popular.

As the role of lead developer of *Minecraft* was passed on from Notch to Jeb, the chance of Herobrine appearing in an update became unclear. On August 22, 2012, Dinnerbone, current joint developer of *Minecraft*, tweeted "We have no plans at all to add herobrine. I doubt this will ever change." This confirms that Herobrine will likely never see an official addition in *Minecraft*, and that any claims of "finding" Herobrine in vanilla *Minecraft* in future updates are completely unfounded.

## Description

### Canonical

Herobrine is said to be Notch's deceased brother, somehow embedded into *Minecraft* as a human entity with the player skin of Steve, but with completely white eyes and no visible irises or pupils. His appearance differs between the canonical sources; in Copeland's livestream, he had the beard seen in Steve's original design, while in the original 4chan image and Copeland's edited screenshot, the beard appears to be absent.

Herobrine is able to build and destroy in the game. The original story states the player found long 2×2 tunnels, small pyramids in the middle of the ocean, and trees with no leaves. The full extent of his building capacity is unknown, but the given examples indicate Herobrine has awareness of shape, and can differentiate materials from each other. Herobrine shows a lot of characteristics of being a form of virus, such as manipulating game worlds, deleting Minecraft Forum topics and sending messages to forum users. He is not seen to communicate with players in-game, but does have the ability to communicate through the internet.

Herobrine seems to solely target players. He did not seem to interact with any other mobs nearby in the Brocraft streams, some of which were spiders and zombies. His canonical relation to further mobs added since he appeared is a complete mystery. His interactions with other mobs are not mentioned in the original image. While there is a chicken present in the image, Herobrine does not seem interested in it at all, and is solely focused on the player.

In both the original creepypasta and the Brocraft streams, Herobrine appears in the world without any apparent cause, and his presence is not implied to be due to a player's actions. In the creepypasta, he seems to avoid the player and appears to only be active in unexplored areas, whereas in the streams he seems to intentionally get close to players and appears mainly near player constructions.

### Community

The pronounciation of the name "Herobrine" is not specified in any of the canonical sources, leaving it as a subject of debate. Most pronounce the "Hero" part of the name as either /hɪɹəʊ/ (as in the word "hero") or /hɛɹoʊ/ ("Heh-roh"), while the "-brine" part is commonly pronounced as /bɹaɪn/ (as in the word "brine"), /bɹɪn/ ("brin"), or /bɹiːn/ ("breen").[*citation needed*]

Though his hands are usually empty, Herobrine is sometimes depicted holding tools, such as pickaxes. This stems from the widespread community belief that Herobrine is a dead miner, killed long before the player's arrival.[*citation needed*] His appearance does not suggest this is the case, though with *Minecraft*'s mineshafts and strongholds, as well as mining being a large part of the game, the game itself has shaped public perception of the character to suit this persona.

Herobrine occasionally interacts with other mobs. He is sometimes able to take control of passive animals, causing them to also exhibit his blank white eyes, and revive/spawn undead mobs. He seems capable of drastically changing his environments with no viable source of resources to do so. Most expansions to his abilities involve cobblestone placing, dungeon building, using redstone torches and setting traps. He exhibits all the behaviors of a Creative mode player in the game. While he is usually mute, some interpretations have him communicating with players, typically by sending them ominous messages through signs or chat such as "Stop" or "Only God can save/help you now", or by screaming as he jumpscares them. While he usually cannot be killed, in some interpretations he can be defeated, at least temporarily.

Herobrine's intentions vary, but they usually fall under two categories: the "stalker" variation, based on the original canonical events, and the "vengeful" variation, derived from community interpretation. In the "stalker" variation, he stalks the player, disappearing if approached. In the "vengeful" variation, he tries to ensnare the player in traps, presumably to steal their items. He waits for people to enter his dungeons, then either seals them inside, or teleports behind them, presumably killing them. Some rarer variations of the latter state he breaks the player's creations and steals their items from chests. These ideas are likely inspired by griefers and trolls.

A popular idea in the community is that Herobrine can be "summoned" through the use of a special arrangement of blocks; such a structure is usually referred to as a "Herobrine altar", "Herobrine shrine", "Herobrine totem" or "Herobrine spawner". Typically, this is a 3×3 horizontal square of gold blocks, with a block of netherrack placed on top and four redstone torches placed upright on each side. The block beneath the netherrack varies between versions, with common choices being mossy cobblestone, more netherrack, or more gold. Another common version is a 1 block wide, 4 block tall pillar with 2 gold blocks on the bottom and 2 netherrack blocks on the top. Some variations also include other blocks such as redstone dust, soul sand, and/or lava. Igniting the netherrack is supposed to "activate" the structure, which then supposedly summons Herobrine into the world. These concepts are likely stemmed from, or served as inspiration for, the mods featuring the character.

## Official cameos

Herobrine has appeared or been mentioned in official Mojang images and webpages as an inside joke. His first appearance in official Mojang images was with the Wedding Weekend in August 2011, in which he was just behind Notch's *Minecraft* character. He then made several appearances in material related to MINECON 2011: firstly the website header, where he was just behind Notch yet again. He then appeared in the official MINECON 2011 trailer created by Hat Films, at 3:11, though this was likely unplanned, as users were asked to submit their skins to appear in the trailer. In the convention itself, a Herobrine statue was present in the Xbox section, on the board behind the Xbox stations. During the closing of the convention, a user named Zaralith won the Herobrine statue by correctly answering the give-away question "How many Fable games are there?". Some users have pointed to this as proof of his future addition, however there is no proof he has been portrayed for anything other than baiting fans.

Herobrine then appeared in the instruction booklets of some of the first LEGO Minecraft sets, among other *Minecraft* characters. He also appeared in *Minecraft's* Facebook page on the cover photo in summer 2012, although the image was created by a fan for a competition with the theme of "summer picnic", hence his inclusion may not be fully intentional.

In September 2013, developer Marc Watson created a series of skins for the head model. These skins were made to ensure a stable skin for various official entities could be used without fear that the skin could change. Herobrine is one of the skins that can be obtained through this system by using the command `/give @s player_head{SkullOwner:MHF_Herobrine}` (with "MHF" standing for "Marc's Head Format"). The skin used to show Herobrine without a beard and was originally taken from the Herobrine account. It was changed in December 2017 to use the same beard that Steve and the mob had before the release of Survival Test.

In the Java Edition 3D Shareware v1.34 April Fools' update, "Removing Herobrine" is one of the episodes. On the *Minecraft Earth* FAQ site, Herobrine used to be mentioned in one of the frequently asked questions about the game; the question was "Is Herobrine in this game too?" and the answer given was "<REDACTED>". This was later removed from the FAQ page. In the Official Minecraft Discord, there is a sticker called "Him", which references the image in the "Him" website linked to Brocraft viewers after the Herobrine stream.

### Legacy Console Editions

One of the in-game loading tips in the Legacy Console Editions references Herobrine: "We think 4J Studios has removed Herobrine from the [console] console game, but we're not too sure."

Herobrine is part of the first skin pack released on the Legacy Console Editions. Because of this addition, "sightings" rose drastically due to players using the skin. However, the skin was omitted from the Bedrock Edition version of the skin pack. Herobrine then made more appearances as a "Zombie Herobrine" skin in the third skin pack, a "Party Herobrine" skin in the first birthday skin pack, and an "Xmas Herobrine" skin in the festive mash-up pack.

In the changelog of Minecraft Launcher version 2.2.176x, released soon after the world seed of the original Herobrine screenshot was discovered, the developers said that they "removed Herobrine from Java Alpha 1.0.16\_02", the version in which the screenshot was taken.

In an update for Xbox 360 on July 13, 2012 (Xbox 360 Edition TU3), Herobrine was stated to be removed from the Xbox 360 Edition of *Minecraft* for the first time. He was then removed again in Xbox 360 Edition TU5.

In the changelog for version 0.103.0 of *Scrolls*, another game by Mojang, Herobrine being removed was in the changelog's miscellaneous section.

## Mojang reactions

Mojang has, albeit rarely, shared their views on Herobrine. Their reactions have varied from plainly stating that he does not exist to Notch saying he appears only when players ask him.î

## Lost media

No known archive exists of the earliest 4chan thread containing the original Herobrine story. The creepypasta image on this wiki was likely obtained from a 4chan thread from late August 2010, but it is unknown whether the creepypasta was originally presented this way, or if the image was created later.

The original Herobrine livestream was located here and the second Herobrine livestream was located here. Both livestreams were deleted at some point during the following months, and no known backups are available. Copeland, the Brocraft founder, and Livestream.com have all stated that they do not have a backup copy of these streams.

The earliest known Herobrine plugin was located here. This was likely also deleted at some point during the following months, and no known backups of any of the original versions of the plugin are available either.

Any users who may have captured, recorded, or downloaded these media for personal use are encouraged to share them for future generations of *Minecraft* fans.

### Stream recreation

A recreation made in collaboration with Copeland of the Herobrine scene from the first stream can be found below: