Ancient Rituals of the Warden | Minecraft Deep Dive

There’s something hiding deep beneath the world of minecraft if you spend your time in the relative safety of the surface you may never find it the peaceful villagers the livestock the wandering traders all of these go about their daily lives oblivious to what lies beneath their very feet

Yet ignorance does not change the facts there’s something really strange going on deep underground as we explore we find a biome called the deep dark it contains a squishy and shimmering material known as skulk but these deep dark biomes are more dangerous than they first appear

If an adventurer is not careful they can summon the warden a beast of such power and violence that it dwarfs all other overworld foes yet despite this looming danger in the deep dark we find remnants of ancient cities outposts built with the warden in mind why would someone knowingly accept

The risks to build these places why is there a mysterious structure at the center how does skulk work and what exactly is the warden to answer these questions we are going to need to take a deeper look at the deepest biome and there’s only one way to do that join me

For a dive beneath the waves to understand the warden we need to first understand the location in which the warden can be found deep dark biomes spawn somewhat rarely underground upon visiting them we notice that they’re covered with a strange material called skulk a substance found nowhere else in the game

Skulk is not just a block it’s a category of them with several that are related but have different properties and functions let’s take a look at each of these the most basic sculpt block is well skulk it’s by far the most common it has dark blue shimmering dots on the

Surface and the sounds tell us that this is a squishy block just take a listen the audio visual elements are immediately intriguing but things get weird quickly when we actually break the block instead of skulk dropping itself something quite unexpected comes out of it experience at first this seems impossible we may be

Tempted to think that experience is just a gameplay element designed to provide progression to the player yet it turns out that there is strong evidence that experiences a physical quantity within the minecraft world magic in minecraft is strange but it’s not random when we enchant a weapon at an enchanting table

Experience stored within the player is used and converted into the enchantment it’s actually possible to go backwards too a grindstone converts enchantment into experience another key property is that energy can be transferred between beings this is seen most commonly when killing a mob upon its death raw experience is dropped

And can be picked up by the player the exact same thing occurs when the player dies the experience is released and sits on the ground until it is gathered one way to interpret these phenomena is to consider experience as some sort of magical energy much like real life

Energy it cannot be created or destroyed it only changes forms the enchanting process is one such example of a form change however this experienced energy can also take a different form known as soul energy in the nether we find a special block called soul sand we can

See that there appear to be several screaming souls on the texture if the soul speed enchantment is used on boots a player can travel faster on soul sand during this process we see an animation it’s some sort of being that writhes and turns as if it has escaped a trap it

Starts brown apparently covered in sand as it rises it reveals its true color a beautiful light blue then it fades away this could be an actual soul we know that it’s capable of doing physical work in the world such as causing the player to move faster the soul animation could

Therefore be interpreted as an indication that the energy contained within the souls is being used these souls can also be burned producing a soulfire which is much hotter than regular fire as well as providing nutrients for nether wars to grow i call this phenomena soul energy and it’s shown up extensively throughout the

Minecraft world soul energy and experience are both different versions of the same basic energy check out this video if you want to learn more this brings us back to skulk it appears as though skulk is somehow storing this energy the skulk block contains it and when they break the energy is released

This leads logically to another question how did the skulk obtain this energy in the first place we find the answer in the form of a different block called the skull catalyst visually it’s fairly similar to normal skulk but it has the addition of a strange bony section reinforcing the edges skull catalysts

Are benign that is until a mob is killed near one when that happens a complicated set of events occurs in quick succession did you miss it let’s go to the arginine super mo camera and slow this down when the mob is killed the skull catalyst shows a circular puddle on top emanating

From the central point then several souls are released they swirl and escape dissipating into the air simultaneously at the location where the mob died some blue droplets appear they move around and search for a non-skulk block when they find one they pop and generate new skulk at that location this catalyst

Action appears at first to be difficult to interpret however if we remember what we learned about soul energy and experience a picture comes into view of what’s happening skull catalysts are capable of taking soul energy from dead mobs and storing it in skilled blocks notice how the sole particles from the

Catalyst are nearly identical to those of the sole sand but instead of escaping brown sand they escape bluish skulk the bubbles that generate skull contain these souls as well right before the bubbles pop you can just barely see the edge of the soul inside this is the

Moment when it is converted into the experience then stored in the block in fact if you listen very closely you can make out the sounds of the souls being used by the catalyst furthermore upon breaking a skulk block you can barely hear what seems to be the soul screaming

This in and of itself is a process that we haven’t really seen anywhere else in minecraft but simple storage is barely scratching the surface of the power of skulk the catalyst has a few other capabilities as well upon the death of a mob there’s a 90 chance that the skulk

Block is generated thus leading to the majority of skulk blocks being of this basic variety however there’s a 9 chance that something else generates a different type of block called a skulk sensor skulk sensors are half-sized blocks that are visually similar to basic skulk they have tentacles protruding from the surface these

Tentacles are specialized sensors capable of detecting a special stimulus called a vibration there are a multitude of possible vibrations including actions such as walking eating breaking a block and opening a container for most purposes it’s sufficient to think about if an action makes a sound if it does then

Usually a vibration is produced and can be detected by a skulk sensor upon detection the skulk sensor lights up and the tentacles become more excited however skulk sensors do have a weakness wool has the property of being able to absorb vibrations thus preventing the sensor from activating sneaking also

Does this removing the vibrations produced by the sensor this is already a much more advanced use of soul energy that the catalyst has created but the skull catalyst can do one final thing once out of every hundred times it activates it can generate a special block called a skulk shrieker

The shrieker is quite striking on some level the base of it appears to be made of skulk it’s dominated by four jagged tooth-like protrusions once again made of the same bony material seen on the catalyst the proverbial cherry on top is the surface where we can see two souls

Swirling clearly this block has an exceptionally high amount of soul energy contained within it and as a result it’s capable of doing some truly unique things the skulk streaker is sensitive to vibrations from skulk sensors if the player produces a vibration such as by walking skulk sensors will detect this

Vibration and send it to the shrieker which has no way to detect vibrations by itself in this way a group of skulk sensors can act as a sensing network for shriekers so what happens when the streaker is activated well it shrieks the souls contained within cry out into

The air with a blood curdling screech accompanied by some blue particles rising from its jaws then something stunning a single heartbeat sound shrouds any nearby players in darkness a status effect that severely reduces the ability to see the skulk streaker is clearly another step up in terms of complexity yet once again

It’s powered by the soul energy to the extent that we can see the souls doing the work we’re starting to see a progression the death of mobs causes the catalyst to produce skulk centers and streakers sensors help alert shriekers to nearby players and once alerted these speakers activate but inflicting darkness is not

The only purpose of the shriekers if a player activates a streaker 4 times in short succession then something different happens something so unexpected is to be jaw dropping from the skulk will emerge the most formidable beast in minecraft the fabled warden The warden is a powerhouse in every sense of the word it possesses a ludicrous 250 hearts of health equal to the wither and the injured dragon combined it is completely immune to fall damage fire and lava its defense is rivaled only by its offensive capabilities a swing of its

Arms deals a whopping 22 and a half hearts of damage on hard mode the highest non-explosion damage in the game oh and it also disables shields for 5 seconds but the problems for a monster hunter don’t in there the warden has managed to weaponize vibrations producing a ranged sonic boom attack

That hits at a distance of 20 blocks it may be a more advanced version of a skulk shriek given the visual similarities this attack deals seven and a half hearts of damage bypassing shields armor and enchantments but even that’s not all much like the shrieker the warden is also capable of producing

Darkness this essentially puts the target on the same playing field as the warden eliminating the advantage of sight and it is indeed an advantage for the warden is totally blind it’s completely unable to see any of its targets it does however have a sense of smell it also

Has skulk sensor tentacles meaning that it’s capable of receiving vibrations including signals sent by skulk sensors in other words these sensors help guide the ward into its targets when there are a lot of sensors the warden is increasingly effective but this shares the same disadvantages namely the ability for wool and sneaking to

Suppress vibrations wardens are extremely aggressive they’ll target and kill just about anything that produces vibrations be it a harmless bat a wandering traitor or a marauding player more than any other mob wardens seem especially equipped to kill as much as possible in as short of a time as

They can their arsenal of powerful ranged attacks melee attacks status effects and defense is nearly undefeatable and rivaled perhaps only by the wither how is the warden so strong we can get some insight by examining it visually first we notice that it contains a plethora of skulk elements this includes

The aforementioned tentacles as well as the bony reinforcement block but the real key is found within its chest much like the skulk shrieker we can see that embedded within its rib cage there are several glowing souls this is what powers the warden the warden contains an extremely high amount of soul energy

This concept is boosted by the sounds of the warden several of their noises have in the background the ethereal tones of souls that we’ve heard in other school components Furthermore the souls pulse alongside the heartbeat of the warden indicating that these souls are the life force powering the beast we should not gloss over the importance of this the warden is the culmination of the collection of soul energy from dead beings the catalyst has produced increasingly advanced capabilities first

Soul energy was stored then it was used to sense the world around it then it was used to affect the world around it finally it was used to produce a being that can kill as much as possible a being that’s approaching the level of sentience a being that can think

But in a way this makes perfect sense no longer is skulk relegated to random deaths that occur nearby instead it has created a being that can actively seek out and kill nearby mobs which would have the awfully convenient side effect of producing more skulk what we have stumbled across is something similar to

A life cycle each component in this cycle is ultimately designed to perpetuate the growth of the larger system skull catalysts are aptly named as they catalyzed the entire process yet we appear to have one crucial missing link in our life cycle how are skull catalysts produced it turns out

That the warden contains a skull catalyst within it we know this because it drops one if you do manage to kill it and that right there completes the chain the skull catalyst is analogous to an egg if you have one you can eventually create everything else in the skulk

Family and then another egg all the skulk we see was at some point created by the death of a mob the warden has been so powerful and destructive that it’s killed all of the mobs in the area to the point where no mobs exist in the deep dark

There are of course some things we don’t know such as why the skulk is only found in certain overworld biomes deep underground despite this we’ve acquired a solid knowledge of how skulk uses soul energy in order to perpetuate itself this fundamental understanding of the nature of skulk is critical

This leads us to our next topic within the deep dark biomes we do find a lot of skulk but we also find something else something not so natural occasionally deep dark biomes contain one of the strangest structures in the entire game an ancient city ancient cities are mysterious locations

They contain sprawling pathways lit up by candles and soulfire lanterns these lead to several types of ruins some are easier to understand such as a soaring watchtower or a fortified pillar there’s also a sauna with a hot pool and a cold pool and a few changing stations

There are barracks intended to house the occupants of the complex however other structures are far less intuitive for example there’s a box that stores ice with a trapdoor leading into it it has a particularly curious feature upon entering the box the specific configuration of the lever means that

It’s not possible to leave and close the door behind you someone always has to close it from the inside perhaps this is why there’s a doorbell but even that is a little strange given the vibrations it would produce the city also contains the occasional odd little statue or monument sometimes

Accompanied by candles yet all of this weirdness pales in comparison to the city center it is here that we find the ancient city’s most distinct feature a giant frame and a striking rectangular shape protruding from an elevated platform the frame is in a vaguely warden-esque shape notice the

Similarities between the location of the hole on the warden’s face there are also a few little loops on the side that correspond to the sensor tentacles it is constructed using a unique material called reinforced deep slate this frame is the only place in the entire game where it can be found the

City’s center contains more secrets there’s a hidden skulk sensor that when activated reveals a piston door on the lower level opening it leads to a secret chamber built beneath the frame this place contains a wide variety of redstone experiments using complicated components that do not spawn naturally elsewhere clearly whoever built this

Place had discovered a thing or two about redstone the influence of the warden is felt throughout the city for example there’s a small standalone statue that appears to be in the same basic shape as the large frame the barracks have a similar feature in the center other warden-centric design elements are less

Conceptual and more practical the upper and lower walkways are covered in wool meaning that they will not produce vibrations for the warden there are also many elevated areas in towers the warden does not climb ladders so these places offer some relative safety compared to the ground there are some additional

Features that are a little less obvious for example the liberal usage of candlelight has a purpose the flames were still visible even when afflicted by the darkness effect providing navigational assurance in case of a warden the chest also contained night vision suspicious stew another darkness counter the icebox contains snowballs

Which generate vibrations that distract the warden furthermore we can find swift sneak books which make the anti-vibration sneaking action faster and more useful they’re even leggings ready to be enchanted whatever the purpose of this city one part of it seems obvious it’s designed specifically to manage the warden be it by the wool

The candles or any of the other multitude of defenses however there’s a more subtle truth embedded within this larger one whoever built the city was aware of the warden and had a solid understanding of it knowing specifically what to construct in order to protect against it by extension the builders of

The city also had an understanding of skulk we can see that they use skulk sensors within the construction of the central island chests also contain skulk blocks and sensors as well as the hose required to mine it quickly this evidence implies that the city was built

As a response to skulk not the other way around but there’s an obvious question which we should not ignore who actually built these places well there are a couple things to notice first we see that throughout the city there are locations that have dark oak torches as well as

Blue light blue and cyan wool it turns out that these are some of the signature building blocks of the illagers a group containing the pillagers vindicators and evokers their building style is most easily seen in the elusive woodland mansions the main structure is built out of dark oak wood and planks furthermore

There’s an entire room full of blue wool the same colors of wool that we see in the ancient cities it therefore seems pretty likely that the illidars were at the ancient city at one point in time but did the illagers actually build the city if we look in more detail we notice

That these dark oak components do not make up the vast majority of the structure instead they appear to be mostly used as repairs rebuilding staircases fixing bridges reconstructing towers and adding additional wool for protection most of the city is built from deep slate blocks a material that

We never see the illagers use anywhere else nor do they have any history of candles or soul lanterns we can therefore conclude that the ildras did not build the ancient cities rather they discovered them more recently we can see additional evidence for this if we look at the camp structures these are

Inundated with the same colors of blue wool as well as dark oak logs they’re even campfires villagers are known to construct small wool camps in their outposts it’s not implausible that they did the same thing in the cities this all suggests that these were temporary locations places for the illagers to

Safely camp while they explored the ruins it is likely that the ancient cities were instead constructed by a group called the ancient builders these were an intelligent humanoid species responsible for a wide variety of the overworld structures such as the desert pyramids the ancient builders were powerful and prolific sailing the seas

Discovering the nether and teleporting back and forth from the end yet they underwent a mass extinction event turning into zombies and skeletons that we see in the overworld today we can further confirm the ancient builders were the ones who constructed the cities by cross-referencing the loot table with illegal and builder

Structures of the overlap there are far more items found in ancient builder structures compared to illegal structures it was not the illidarists who built these cities but a more ancient society one that is long gone yet despite the fact that they did not build them the illagers were clearly

Here at one point if there’s one thing we know about the illidars it’s that they’re extremely curious their mansion is full of various experiments and oddities if the illidars discovered the ancient city then they surely had many of the same questions that we have about its overall purpose this leads us to an

Intriguing framework could we follow the thought process of the illagers to help us discover the purpose of these cities perhaps we don’t need to figure out everything ourselves let’s use those that came before us to help us out to start we need to recognize that the illagers did not repair indiscriminately

Dark oak wood is a scarce material deep underground and they would have given some consideration to which repairs were sufficiently worthwhile to implement in other words to figure out the most important parts of the ancient city we should examine which parts the illagers decided were the most important as we

May have expected this eliminates several places like the sauna and the barracks these can be taken at face value they do exactly as one might expect even the bizarre icebox is that way it was seemingly little more than a storage location for snowballs and food on the flip side though repairs draw

Attention to some critical details about how the city is designed most of the walkways in the city have wool to prevent detection by the warden in the places where the illagers repaired these walkways they also used wool thus ensuring that there is no change in the safety of the walls

But one path is different there’s a main walkway leading up to the city center that does not have wool anywhere this walkway contains eight bridges that lead perpendicularly to eight pillars notably some of these collapsed bridges have been repaired by the illagers and they too did not use wool we can therefore

Conclude that the lack of wool on this particular pathway is important to the design the central walkway leads upstairs directly to a wall surrounding the city center the center is elevated beyond this wall creating a several block wide moat this moat can be entered on each side using the wool and pathways

That lead directly into it however the illagers have constructed a bridge from the main pathway over the moat leading directly to the top of the central island it’s subtle but we can just make out the remnants of a stone bridge this apparently was a feature of the original design there are some intriguing

Implications of this setup the lack of wool in the path indicates that a warden would be able to sense if someone was walking there thus making these paths extremely unsafe however we must note that the bridge itself as reconstructed by the illagers is only two blocks high

Thus ensuring that the warden can never reach the central island things get stranger when we notice that this island has four redstone lamps with skulk sensors on top of them these sensors are positioned in such a way that they only activate when a person is on the central area

Any motion in the moat will not be detected thus making the gap a relatively safe place it almost seems as though this entire section is specifically designed to attract wardens the lack of wool the skulk sensors these are all design elements that would make it exceedingly

Easy to get a ward and near the central structure perhaps the purpose of the redstone lamps is not to light up the area but instead to warn others in the city watchtowers that they are in the process of dealing with a warden these towers are additional structures the

Illagers felt were important enough to rebuild but there’s another aspect here remember the skulk sensor that opens the piston doors if the warden is being summoned to the top then that would be the perfect opportunity for someone to sneak inside the moat and enter the redstone chamber they could do it

Relatively safely the four skulk sensors with the lamps would ensure that the warden would be distracted and with that we find ourselves in an interesting state there’s a person on top of the central island a person inside the redstone chamber and a warden on the moat wall the people in the

Watchtowers are aware that the warden is active because of the redstone lamps and anyone on the wool pathways is relatively safe so much of the city appears designed specifically in order to get into this type of configuration but why why is everything we’ve seen led

Us up to this exact moment and why have the ill jurors chosen to recreate the setup what sort of dark ritual have we stumbled across here let’s take a step back and examine some of the details about the ancient cities notice how there are soul lanterns everywhere and there are also several

Instances of soul fire both of these require soul sand a material that must be imported from the nether presumably at great expense furthermore they appear to offer little obvious practical benefit as they produce substantially less light than their regular counterparts thus making their cities more difficult to navigate yet for the

Entire city the builders have decided that this is worth it let’s look at something else the city statue is constructed from a specialized material that uses bones from skulk-related blocks this couldn’t have been easy to acquire much less build such a large structure out of it furthermore skull sensors are utilized

In the city design something that would have been hazardous to obtain yet the builders decided that it was worth it and what about the location a single journey to a deep dark volume is a long trek as they’re found near the bedrock level of the overworld they’re extremely

Dangerous containing the warden a nearly unkillable beast that can only be countered with a precise attention to detail in the city design imagine how exceedingly difficult it was to construct the ancient city surely it would have come at great expense of money time and lives yet the builders decided that this too

Was worth it and this is because the deep dark contains something found nowhere else in the entire minecraft universe skulk think back to when we were looking at the warden we discovered that skulk can use soul energy from dead mobs to do fascinating things it stored experience in block form it generated redstone

Proximity sensors it made streakers which use the soul energy to cause status effects and it spawned the warden an eldritch nightmare of a beast whose soul energy fueled extraordinarily potent attacks but all of this goes back to one object the skulk catalyst in some way every one

Of the possibilities of skulk is enabled by the catalyst it’s the common thread the key to unlocking the power of soul energy so what if you had one of your own what would be possible with an artificial skull catalyst could it absorb energy from the surroundings could it infuse

Soul energy into new places could it create sentient beings thankfully we don’t have to wonder because we’ve just stumbled across one the frame in the ancient city is an artificial skull catalyst the frame in its associated word and ritual are the result of countless experiments and represent the pinnacle of understanding

Of the uses of skulk the frame itself has strong similarities to the natural catalyst notice for example that the deep slate is reinforced using material that’s clearly very similar to the natural one the same bones found in several skull components the loop may be designed to be similar to the loops that

Appear when a natural skull catalyst activates but how does it actually work let’s compare it to normal skulk a natural skull catalyst takes soul energy from dead mobs and uses it to produce new skulk blocks but soul energy exists in other places too such as within soul

Sand as another based block it’s not something the overworld native skull catalyst would ever have come across naturally so it’s logical that the normal catalyst would not react to it yet it nonetheless contains soul energy in a dense form making it perfect for powering an artificial catalyst this is

Why the ancient builders decided to build the catalyst above soulfire it provides much of the necessary energy required to activate it this is also why the use soul lanterns wherever possible in order to radiate additional energy into the surrounding areas but what about the warden ritual why do

They go through the effort to get the warden so close to the city center despite the risk the answer is simple because the ward in itself contains an extremely high amount of soul energy so much so that it can be seen in his chest a catalyst as big as the frame would

Need all the sole energy you can get and what better way to obtain it than to suck it out of a warden the culmination of the natural catalyst soul energy production with a warden nearby and the soulfire activated a person in the heart of the city could control the internal

Redstone circuitry to fire up the artificial catalyst in this manner the ancient builders were capable of siphoning soul energy and using it in a semi-controlled fashion from here our next question is quite logical what were they doing with it there are actually quite a few answers

That seem to be at least plausible let’s take a look at some of them first the loot in the ancient city is extremely enchanted so much more than anywhere else in the entire game as an example the diamond toe and diamond leggings are enchanted at a level

Between 30 and 50. while enchanted gear is found throughout the world nothing else in the game is enchanted this much in fact to this point we still don’t really know how the ancient builders enchanted anything at all enchanting tables never spawn naturally the artificial skull catalyst offers us a

Tempting interpretation perhaps this is where they converted soul energy into enchantments there’s additional evidence for this the city contains the second highest density of books anywhere in the game beaten only by the specialized stronghold library loot chest beyond that the shipwrecked treasure room is the only

Other ruin where they can be found and while enchanted books are found elsewhere they are found at the highest rate anywhere in the game in ancient cities what about the enchanted golden apple it turns out that these are nearly twice as common in ancient cities as any other

Loot table if one of the purposes of the frame is to enchant books and equipment then this sure seems to be consistent but what about other crazier uses for the catalyst bottles of enchanting are found at a high rate here as well one of the few other experienced storage

Methods if the natural scope catalyst can store pure experience in skulk then why wouldn’t the artificial one be able to do something similar what about a more unique capability sensing the ancient cities contain a unique type of loot called an echo shard these appear to be strongly connected to

Skulk they have the same shimmery gleam to them and the word echo is a very vibration-centric word they could be a modified version of an amethyst chard another item found in the city loot chests echo shards can be used to craft a recovery compass which points to where the player last died

This ability feels very in line with what we’ve seen skulk do the natural skull catalyst knows where mobs died at a distance after all another example worth mentioning are the disk fragments that make up disk 5 which also appear to be scope related if you’ve heard the disk then you’ll know

That there are some extremely interesting sounds on it they seem to tell a story one that may be related to what we discovered today however this disc is so complicated that i’ll reserve detailed discussion for a future video let me know if you want to see that

Maybe you buy this catalyst theory maybe you don’t but it’s hard to deny that there are a lot of things found near the city that would be conveniently explained this way it also gives a logical reason for wanting to summon a warden we can’t forget about the illidars

Though we know that they discovered the ancient cities at a later date and presumably experimented with the artificial catalyst themselves what did they get out of it well one of the more difficult to explain capabilities of the evokers is the ability to summon vexes floating blue ghost-like mobs many

People have noticed that they share some distinct similarities to the soul-energy ghosts including their color and basic shape furthermore the sounds of the vexes are very much in line with other soul sounds we’ve heard down here take for example the death sound let’s compare it to the sound of the skulk speaker

There might be something there if we know that the illagers have been down in the ancient cities i think there’s a decent chance that the vexas are a result of their experiments after all natural skull catalysts can create sentient mobs why wouldn’t an artificial skull catalyst be able to do something similar

And of course there’s the other blue ghost-like mob that the illagers possess how about the olay a lays were found trapped in the cells in woodland mansions as well as the cages and pillager outposts these lays probably were not created at the outpost as it’s not a great place for experimentation

Could it be that the alleys were created using the artificial skull catalyst in the ancient cities beyond the obvious visual connection olays have some more subtle skull connections as well olay’s love sound they’ll bring items to note blocks and they’ll dance to music this is conceptually not dissimilar to

The vibration sensitivity native to the skulk family the prevalence of amethyst throughout the chest suggests that this is at least a possibility perhaps one purpose of the outpost is to serve as a temporary place to store allays after an expedition before they can be moved to the mansions

Let’s do a quick recap natural skull catalysts are found in the deep dark biome these catalysts sense when mobs die and harness their soul energy storing it in skulk blocks occasionally they spawn skulk sensors and streakers these streakers can summon the warden using the sensors to help it the warden

Kills as many mobs as it can thus producing more skulk the warden also completes the life cycle by containing a skull catalyst within it the ancient cities are built in the deep dark biome and they’re built with the skulk and the warden in mind they’re designed around a

Giant frame in the middle this frame is a custom skull catalyst that uses soul energy from soul sand however that by itself is not enough to really make it work it needs a final boost of energy nearby this is provided by the warden and there’s a pathway specifically

Designed to get a warden close to the catalyst when activated this unlocks a wide variety of magical powers using soul energy these powers tend to correspond to things that the natural school can do such as sensing death or generating soul-powered beings we can also see that the illidars discovered

The ancient cities at a later date they repaired the city and performed the catalyst ritual perhaps discovering how to make vexes or laze unfortunately for most of this stuff we don’t know for sure all we have is the evidence in front of us and untangling it is a complicated ordeal but if you’ve

Been following me this whole time you may see that some of this stuff feels like it makes sense it matches the concepts that we see elsewhere in the world and it aligns with the interpretation of skulk that we discovered earlier now as with every theory it’s important

To examine our reasoning and be aware of areas where we may have made any sort of leap while this theory has a lot of logical elements there are a few jumps that we need to recognize perhaps the biggest one is that we never actually see the artificial catalyst in the city

Become activated despite getting a warden nearby the catalyst in the game itself never actually does anything it’s completely benign this may be enough of an issue to cause you to reject the theory yet this is the nature of theorizing about the past unfortunately we may never see a concrete example of

It much as we may never see a concrete example of a shipwreck or the construction of an ocean monument we can nonetheless use clues to make an educated guess about the history and purpose of these structures this theory also relies heavily on the interpretation of souls and experience

As a special type of minecraft energy i’ve talked about this extensively in other deep dives but if you personally reject this then the entire theory may not make sense to you that’s important to remember don’t take what i say as absolute truth the primary reason for this video is to get you

Thinking about your own theories what do you think happened does what i said make sense be sure to let me know in the comments Thank you so much for watching this video it’s the longest and most intense deep dive episode yet however the warden and the ancient cities deserved the time and i hope you enjoyed our journey together i highly encourage you to come over to the rd and discord server this

Is a place where some of the best minecraft theorizers on the internet come to discuss their theories do you think you’ve found something if so join us using the link in the description i’m excited to hear from you before we conclude today i want to tell

You about a cause that is dear to my heart the i’m glad you state project fair warning this is a heavy subject but it’s important i have a friend named abby slay who told me a story abby had an internet friend named dylan one evening dylan told abby that he didn’t

Want to be alive anymore abby and her mother called the non-emergency number but realized that they didn’t have enough of dylan’s personal information they were fortunate to get dylan’s address from a mutual friend when the emergency personnel got to dylan’s house they found him and took him to the

Hospital where he was in the icu for four days before officially passing away the first time abby saw the person that she connected with the most he was laying in a casket it was at this moment that she knew that this should not be a universal experience and she decided to

Start a non-profit five weeks later the i’m glad you state project strives to educate the public especially teenagers on real-time suicide prevention actions and resources to save the lives of those struggling with mental health the project provides just keep swimming 988 wristbands and pamphlets to anyone who wants one they

Have sent out over twenty one thousand wristbands and eleven thousand pamphlets to schools mental health organizations doctors offices and individuals in 30 states and four countries if you or someone you know is struggling you are not alone go to i’m glad you stateproject.org to learn more information the link is in the

Description if this is a cause that resonates with you i encourage you to make a donation as well if you want to show support in a different way you can get a wristband and a pamphlet at no cost to you there is hope and the i’m glad you state

Project helped share that hope with the world this has been retro gaming now thank you so much for watching and i’ll see you all in the next video have a great day You