“1000 Players Build Massive Civilization In Minecraft”
Corginia Trinity: We are covering the lore behind a YouTube video because we aren’t real journalists
(Covering this video)
A YouTube channel called Ish made a 1000-player Minecraft experiment that I got kind of obsessed with, so I wanted to convert the world into blog form and respond to it. As a pretend journalist, I thought this would be a great opportunity to also be a pretend historian, and maybe even start adding fanfiction to the mix.
Why the obsession? In a 90-minute video that took 1000 people about 20 combined hours across ten days, they managed to effectively create their own universe.
A Little Context
If you are not familiar with Minecraft, this story hopefully will not be too tied to it — but there are a few things to explain for it to make any sense. In Minecraft, every player effectively has the following superpowers:
Compression. Everyone can carry virtually unlimited items at any time
Molecular Recomposition. Like Adam Eve in Invincible, players have the ability to extract resources, recombine them, and quickly lay them down
Speed. Everything in Minecraft can be done virtually instantly, so human acts such as construction, mining, and farming can all be done within seconds
Effectively, anyone who plays Minecraft is like a god. This is how 1000 people could conceivably create something like a world in just 20 hours.
The Experiment
In 10 days, 1000 Minecraft players mimiced civilization.
For reasons that are not completely clear to me, everyone did something interesting. They formed separate nations with different forms of government, such as theocracy, democracy, and dictatorship. The entire thing culminated in a world war.
Setting
As shown in the map at the top, the world (which I will call the MinISH universe, if it catches on) consists of four islands, each with a vastly different environment. In the center is Dead Island.
The story is covered in a 90-minute video by Ish himself. Some players have uploaded their own perspectives, with some inconsistencies. It seems Ish made some creative liberties for a more cohesive narrative, such as scripting portions; he did not change anything major, but occasionally footage seems to be different.
From this point on, each island will be referred to as a nation, and the entire thing will be referred to as international. Each nation has various cities/factions ruled by different people, and not all nations are unified.
Plains Island: This island is the most peaceful of the four, and its most powerful leader is named Sidefall. Though they nearly have a large national conflict caused by Sidefall conversing with a Snow Island leader named Turkey, they avoid bloodshed, sign a peace treaty, and effectively become the most peaceful of the four nations until the Battle Of Aculon. This is the most advanced nation and comes closest to a 21-st century setting, with thriving businesses and a national highway
Snow Island: This island is the least hospitable of the four, with very few resources and a harsh climate that causes many to perish simply from “the elements.” Scattered cities developed, all of which are unified by a mysterious leader named Elanuelo who leads from an unknown location. Elanuelo’s goal is to rule a unified Snow Island from his empire, the Aculon Empire
Desert Island: This nation is mainly split between two large cities, the extremely powerful Sultanate, and the much smaller/weaker democracy called Theria
Jungle Island: This nation exists in a state of virtual anarchy, with many warring tribes, until two large cities develop and nearly fight a national war. War is prevented by Wozz0ck, who kills both city’s major leaders in order to unify the nation against him
Dead Island: A small resourceful island that ends up serving very little significance to the plot
Characters
Thank you, TVTropes
Ish: The narrator of the story, Ish has godlike status and simply observes others. Unlike in some similar videos, Ish is relatively non-invasive here and the story is almost entirely character-driven
Turkey: The protagonist of the Turkey Arc, Turkey is Elanuelo’s second in command and becomes extremely popular in all nations. In spite of serving for an autocratic emperor, Elanuelo’s openly supports democracy and wants to transition the Aculon Empire into a democracy. Elanuelo’s public execution of Turkey results in the Battle Of Aculon
Elanuelo: The overarching antagonist of the series, Elanuelo seeks to rule the Aculon Empire as its unquestioned ruler. Much more can be construed from this video about actual day-to-day life in Aculon — these depict Elanuelo’s tyrannical rule, his creation of a police state, and a firsthand view of the Battle Of Aculon
Wozz0ck: Though seemingly an antagonist, Wozz0ck is actually an anti-hero and protagonist of the Jungle Arc. He effectively unifies the two largest factions in the Jungle Nation by forcing them to unify against him
Zombta: The protagonist of the Desert Arc, Zombta is one of two twin brothers who serves as The Sultan’s bodyguards. He is ordered to kill his brother, but chooses to kill The Sultan instead. He later flees from the Desert Nation and takes part fighting against Elanuelo in the Battle Of Aculon
The Sultan: The antagonist of the Desert Arc, The Sulton rules The Sultanate as a messianic leader who forces labor and resources to support his own worship
Primary Story Arcs
Though it would also make sense to cover this story chronically, I think it is easiest to break it down in arcs:
Plains Arc: The largest leader in the Plains Nation, Sidefall, allegedly communicates with the outside Snow Nation; in response, multiple cities unify in case he attacks them. A conspiracy develops that Sidefall plans to take over all surrounding cities, but this turns out to be misinformation. The Plains unifies into a single peaceful nation
Desert Arc: The Sultan rules the most populous city in the Desert Nation and subjects citizens to tyrannical rule and forced labor; a democratic city called Theria forms. The Sultan’s elite guard hunts for a criminal and openly invades Theria while searching for him; the leader of Theria conspires with one of The Sultan’s two armed guards, Davarit, to kill The Sultan. Davarit secretly attacks The Sultan at a wedding, but his armed guards kill Davarit. Zombta, who is Davarit’s twin brother, kills The Sultan in revenge. Shortly after, the leader of Theria commits suicide, as he was secretly plotting to kill The Sultan and realizes that in retaliation, the citizens of The Sultanate will wipe out Theria
Jungle Arc: Chaos erupts between the two largest forces in the Jungle Nation. Wozz0ck, an eccentric tribe leader with his own neutral territory, invites multiple leaders to a peace talk and it seems that the two have unreconcilable differences. Wozz0ck then triggers a trap, killing all Jungle Nation leaders present at the meeting. The two sides set their differences aside to hunt for Wozz0ck, who hides underground. Wozz0ck later turns himself in and his executed publicly; before dying he delivers a speech with the cryptic words “long live the jungle,” followed by “time can never be your trusted friend.” Only after the events of the simulation does it become clear Wozz0ck was attempting to unify the Jungle Nation
Turkey Arc: Turkey, Elanuelo’s second-in-command, carries out Elanuelo’s orders while Elanuelo leads from the shadows. Turkey is loyal and does not seek to overthrow Elanuelo, but Elanuelo becomes increasingly disturbed by Turkey’s popularity. Turkey, who begins to feel Elanuelo is getting out of control, secretly transfers multiple citizens out of Elanuelo’s empire (called the Aculon Empire) so that they can become refugees on other islands. Elanuelo is aware of this, and invites Turkey to a peace talk. Turkey hopes to talk sense into Elanuelo and travels around the world, conversing with the other three nations and learning that he is a hero for evacuating refugees and standing up to Elanuelo’s tyrannical rule. At the meeting, Elanuelo publicly executes Turkey for treason and orders all Turkey’s supporters to be killed as well. Some supporters escape and alert the rest of the world about what happened
Battle Of Aculon Arc: This ridiculously cinematic battle takes place in approximately the last 15 minutes of Ish’s YouTube video. All three nations unify and rally at Dead Island, then sail to Aculon to destroy the empire and kill Elanuelo. Elanuelo locks down from a massive, hyperadvanced structure called The Iron Torch, a high-up fortress protected by lava and archers. After many casualties, the unified nations manage to kill Elanuelo and breach the defenses, killing most of Elanuelo’s forces. Even after surrender, the unified nations continue to mercilessly kill Elanuelo’s men
Other Arcs
This video is a much more in-depth look at the Snow Nation
Here, “The Librarian” becomes disillusioned by life in the Aculon Empire and decides to rebel. He becomes critical in Aculon’s downfall, as he has intelligence on their defenses and also orchestrates a network of spies, one of whom kills Elanuelo from his fortress.
Other minor plot points:
- Someone made a 20-minute video about life in the Plains Nation. Though he is often just a minor character in the overall arc, he sheds some light on the Battle Of Aculon and mentions many inner-workings of daily life in the Plains Nation
- Someone else, in a video I have not yet watched, simply describes his experience running a tavern, which remains a neutral zone even during the world war
- Someone runs a chicken business called Los Pollos, and secretly sells sugar illegally on the side. They are very popular in the Desert Nation, but are forced to flee from The Sultan’s tyrannical rule. They go to the Plains Nation, where they are welcomed with open arms
- One faction provides medical aid and sets up bases in all four nations
- In all the chaos at the Desert Nation, a small group called Homestead protects themselves with a lava wall and becomes something of a cult, arguing that all is chaos outside the walls
Why Do I Care?
The fanfiction potential here is absolutely tremendous. I could write short stories about:
- The coronation of Elanuelo
- The trial of Turkey
- The Battle Of Aculon
