Nether

The **Nether** is a dangerous hell-like dimension filled with fire, lava, fungus-based vegetation, and many hostile mobs. The Nether has many names; The Underworld, Hell, Land of the red, you name it. Although most of the landscape is unclaimed and untouched, majority of the land is owned by The Nether Church, a doomsday cult that believes the Wither is meant to heal the ones that follow it.

## Church of Nether

The Church of Nether is a major staple of the Netherworld. Believing in the ways of the Wither is here to heal, a new way to give life and bless immortality to strong believers.

### Nex

*Nexus* was a scientist on an exploration team to discover the nether's remains and research on what blazes were made of. On the exploration however, her team laid across a nether roof opening. The team wanting to head back, Nexus stayed on track and touched the void within the nether roof, corrupting her and “connecting” to a force of decay. Before her team was able to save her, Nex killed half of her team, sparing two and making them a part of her new grand plan. To bring this “force of decay”, known as the Wither, to life and spread the message that the Wither is actually here to help.

Nex since then got tattoos to symbolize a wither skeleton as well as started the wither experimentations to all the followers that believe her. Many were turned to soul sand or became a wither guard to roam the halls. One exception however were the impures. Although there were rarely any impures that made it to the Ritual of the Buried, an impure named Lowkey was let out of his isolation and put under her wing to be the next Wither as she believed he would be the one.

Nex as of now is head of the Church, being the main head of the Wither Council. She is currently looking for her runaway protégé.

### Nether vs Overworld/Fey

Due to the believings of the Church, they started to push it against the Overworld. Burning villages and abducting Overworld species to convert and use them for the projects, the Overworld had enough and brought armies into the nether. The nether army, siding with piglins and ghasts, was under control of General Nex and General Lowkey. Moons passed as the war raged on, with the majority of the conflict towards the Feywilds, before coming to a halt so the Church could bring a Wither into play. Although it seemed to heat back a bit. This has been dubbed simply as ***the Nether War***.

## Wither Dissection

The Wither mainly connects to the Nether Church due to Nex’s condition and beliefs.

Summoning a wither in the nether tends to be due to the Church’s experiments, mainly turning the testee into a wither skeleton to roam the halls of an abandoned church as well as protecting the catacombs of a church, or turning the testee into soul sand if rejected. Even if the Church uses cruel ways, it is possible to summon via Overworld way. It's implied, however, to not summon in nether as the Overworld way is taboo and leads to a false wither.

Overworld summoning requires four bags of soul sand and three wither skeleton heads, this forms a nether star and creates a vessel for the wither.

Nether stars are a withers core, without one the wither ceases to exist, hence why if damaged enough it drops it. Only withers can have a nether star, NOT wither skeletons as they are already animated due to the withers rose and soul sand.

### Impures

Impures tend to be a failed result of the withering experiments. Although it is a failed halt in the process, Impures are the closest thing to a full wither the Church can get. With the closest being of a wither, the process can be resumed in a Ritual of the Buried, encasing the impure soul and causing the star to corrupt. The impure can still wither due to sickness, emotions, etc; but it is not known if that causes it to complete the process or let the impure die.

* Depending on emotions, decay can spread faster, via stress, anger, or mental stability.

Due to the impure halt, the impure is TECHNICALLY a wither. Impures have a star located in the gut region and are the impurities “new heart”. They may have a human heart, but are practically useless, the reason why the impure is registered dead. If a star is taken out then the impure will die.

### Soul Sand

Soul sand is the ashes of a dead person's remains. With soul sand, it gives uses for the Church to animate wither skeletons and for the main goal to bring the Wither back. Just because soul sand is ashes, doesn't mean it's not alive. If you listen closely, you can hear voices in the dunes. The soul sand seems to affect withers in a way.

Soul Sand Valleys were formed due to past battlefields for the Nether Wars.