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Minecraft has just gotten a new dimension after a 14-year wait. Mojang has unveiled Sift, which is packed with new enemies, new blocks, and a new storyline. And thanks to Dungeons 2, we now know how this dimension works and how it ended the lives of the ancient builders. Hello, Internet. Welcome to Game Theory, the show that's ready to scrutinize history. Because with the release of Minecraft Dungeons 2, they've given us what we were all waiting for. A new dimension that lies beyond the portal of the ancient city. Finally, after 14 years, we have a new dimension to explore. And it's one we've been theorizing about for a long time. And the best news of all is that it's not just stuck on Dungeons 2. It's coming to Vanilla
next year too. I can't wait to dive into the loot chests, structures, and enemies. However, I also can't wait until next year to discover all the juicy history that the Sift hides. Fortunately, Minecraft Dungeons 2 not only lets us explore this new dimension in advance, but also tells us everything we need to know about what the Sift is, how it works, and, most importantly, why the Warden came from there to the Overworld. This opens up many more perspectives on our ongoing theory about the ancient builders, the ancient race that came before and left behind all the structures we find throughout the Overworld. And it changes what we thought we knew about the
Illagers. So, theorists, grab your music blocks and sing along with me as we uncover the whole story behind the Sift. The plot of Dungeons 2 is relatively simple. After the hero defeats the Arch-Illager in Dungeons 1, three Illagers venture underground and stumble upon the ancient city and the enormous portal at its center. They open it to reveal the Shift. Then, an Echo Golem appears, a creature that runs on the soul block it carries in its head, which the Illagers steal, use to become stronger and take over the Overworld. So the hero steps forward once again to stop the High Council of the Illagers by traveling through their portals to the Sieve. Throughout the game, we discover that the reason Echo Golems have soul blocks in their heads is because the Sieve is
basically made of that material. Souls fly through the atmosphere, nourishing the environment, and all live there in harmony. However, the Illagers attempt to ravage this dimension with their spiritual power to use it in their plan to dominate the Overworld. As expected, we defeated the Illagers and closed the Sieve portal once and for all. Peace is restored. Now, you might think this story doesn't give us much to talk about, but the truth is that what we see of the Sieve and the Overworld tells us a lot about the overall story we've been developing on this channel. Firstly, some things about chronology. When I saw this opening scene, I immediately started to panic. For a long time, we believed that the Illagers had
helped the Ancient Builders to build the Ancient Cities and the Trial Chambers. Thanks to things like the Pillager Outposts in the Ancient Cities and the Ominous Bottles and Illager weapons used in the Chambers, we thought they were working together to train and face the Wither together. But this opening scene shows that they knew nothing about these cities and that they basically discovered them by accident. Was this, therefore, the first time that portal had been opened? Did the Ancient Builders never meet the Warden? This would have completely undone everything I had worked for. Fortunately, in the corner of the screen, as the Illagers head towards the portal, you can see something: Skulk. Until now, what we understood about Skulk was that it was a
block that harvested souls. If you die in Skulk blocks, it spreads. It is also connected to the Warden, a creature that has Skulk growths all over its body. It drops a Skulk catalyst upon death, which helps Skulk spread further even after death and, by design, also works with souls. But in this game, we can see where Skulk comes from: the Sift. In other words, the portal had to have opened once before in order for him to travel to the Overworld in the first place. Therefore , it appears that the Ancient Builders opened a portal and brought Skulk with it. We were wrong about the Illagers' help in building the Old City and the Courtrooms.
However, their arrival occurred many years later. They continued searching for those Ancient Builders and, once they stumbled upon their ancient cities, they made them their base of operations. Just like in real history, what we find in the original game is not just a snapshot of a given moment, but a combination of many societies that passed through the same place. They improved the trial chambers with their potions and weapons for their own training. They set up outposts to explore the portal, and inside was a way to enhance your own training with our partner, Southern New Hampshire University. Have you
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by transferring 90 academic, military, or experiential credits if you qualify. Furthermore, the programs are extremely flexible. You can work whenever and wherever you want without fixed class schedules. And you'll gain real-world experience that will help you stand out to future employers. It's never too late to pursue something you're passionate about, so go to the description and click on the link snhu.edu/gametheory or use the QR code on screen to find your path forward. Thanks again to SNHU for sponsoring this video. But the skulk that saved my pork chop with the timeline has much more to reveal to us. At first, something caught my attention. In the city, skulk blocks look different. They are scattered across the
map, but instead of the dark black color we are familiar with, the skulk is lighter and more vibrant. Unfortunately, the game never really explains the difference, but you know me, I couldn't leave it like that. So I did what I always do in these situations. I read the books. Yes, Minecraft has a lot of novels that are official. Maybe I should make some videos just about them at some point. Look for the subscription button if you want to see it because there are some really interesting things , but getting back to today's topic, just like the original Dungeons, Minecraft Dungeons 2 also has a companion novel, The Rift. It tells the story of some characters who meet in the Sift. But the important thing is that the book tells us quite explicitly what
the difference is between the Skulk of the Overworld and the Skulk of the Sift. Quote: " The earth around us was a deep red, and when I looked more closely, I saw that some of it wasn't earth at all. Beneath my feet, there were squashed bits as if they were alive. The texture reminded me of Skulk, but I didn't feel the same tingling of fear when I looked at it. It looked healthy and bright, whereas Skulk felt sickly and dark. Most of the Sift is covered in these red and orange blocks, which I also thought were just a different kind of grass block, but this book deliberately calls them Skulk. Not only that, but Skulk is healthy, and then it describes the Skulk of the Overworld as sick. If you go deeper into this dimension, you also come across
a strange liquid. If you walk through it, your health and soul power are drained. This stuff is called ichor, and it's a soul-rich liquid, the stuff that seems to power the entire world of Minecraft. Now, immediately, by calling it that, it means we can discover a lot about it by looking at the origin of the name in mythology." Greek, which, by the way, is the reason I've been pronouncing it ichor in this video and previous videos, and not ichor like they do in Minecraft Dungeons. Ichor is the technical pronunciation based on the Greek word, and I'll die on that hill. Although I do call them elytra instead of elytra, which would actually be the correct Greek pronunciation. Okay, fine, I guess I'm going to have to make an exception here. How about
this? If I'm talking about Greek stuff, I'll still say ichor, but if I'm talking about Minecraft stuff, I'll say ichor. Sounds good? Great. In Greek mythology, ichor is the blood of the gods. It's used in Greek mythology to power automatons like Talos . It's full of power, which is exactly what we see in Minecraft. Ichor is full of souls, and the Illagers want to bring it back to the Overworld to power their automaton, the Monstrous Opus. Look, what's the similarity? But when the Illagers drain the ichor from the Sift, and the Echo Golem tells you it's making the Sift sick. It's literally the lifeblood of the divine realm, the Sift, specifically for Skulk. Skulk depend on an environment teeming with souls.
So, when that's taken away, they become dark and hostile, just like we see in the Skulk of the Overworld. The Overworld has never been a soul-rich environment. Lapis lazuli, a block shown in both mythology and Minecraft Legends to house the souls of the dead, is a relatively rare ore. That's why ancient builders had to go to the Nether to get more soul power from things like soul sand. However, that leaves a small gap in one of our biggest theories about Minecraft history. We did a whole episode deciphering the Guardian, and more specifically, Disc 5, the disc you find in ancient cities. On it, we can hear the portal opening, the Guardian emerging, and the scream of the Wither is defeated. But
if the Skulk gets sick outside the Sift, how is the creature that's the same color, almost as if it's covered by the sick Skulk, able to leave the portal in the first place? You'd think it would go in uninfected and then, over time, get sick. But the sound we hear is 100% the Warden's sound. I mean, I guess we do n't know exactly what the Warden sounds like before it gets sick and is covered in Skulk. So maybe the scream is exactly the same, except I think we do know what it sounds like and what it looks like. Let me introduce you to one of the new mobs in this game, the Singer. The Singer is the protector of the Sift. It can sing and control the souls of the kingdom's species so they
live in perfect harmony. It even created the Echo Golems to be the caretakers of the kingdom. But take a look at the Singer's design. Arms as long as its torso, covered in growth that shares its color with the Sift's foliage, it has A soul-fed element in its chest, and it has horns. Also, it only communicates through singing. Just like me in high school. We're all in this together. Now, compare that to the Warden. Arms as long as its torso, covered in a growth that shares its color with the Skulk, it has souls in its chest, and it has horns. Also, it's incredibly sensitive to sound. The two share many characteristics.
Now, while there are differences as well, I think it's worth noting that when you look back at the Warden's concept art, we see creatures that are much more similar in form to the Singer. Almost as if they went back and used unused designs because they're supposed to be similar creatures. The Warden is a Singer, someone who likely came into contact with the soul-hungry Skulk, which infected the Singer, turning it into a soul- sucking monster. But like I said, why is it like that if it lives in the Sieve? Well, just because the dimension is full of souls doesn't mean everyone receives the same amount. There's a scientific concept called Microsite. Basically, even though two groups of seedlings were watered
exactly the same and very close to each other, there was a wide variety of things that could happen in their small area of soil, causing one seedling to grow better than the other. A very common reason is resource uptake. A tree with large roots will absorb all the good stuff from the soil, meaning that plants growing near that tree will struggle to thrive. Despite being in the same soul-rich dimension, we encountered creatures called Marauders. These are beings of the same color as the Marauder and are hostile to the player. Echo Golems describe the places where these Marauders live as ravines, farther away from the Marauder, so it's likely that the healthy Marauder on the surface
steals all the nutrients, making it difficult for the Marauder species to be healthy as well. And the best reason why I think this is correct is that studies have found that by growing slower and not looking as vibrant or healthy as other plants, this allows the species to survive longer, explaining the skulk's sickly appearance and the skulker's dark color. This is what the game means when it says the singer brings everything into harmony. It 's not a paradise, just in harmony with itself. Some skulk thrive, while others live on the bare minimum. However, the slightest change in this environment can disrupt this balance and cause the skulkers to behave differently than usual. When the
illagers reach the sieve, they see the icker, a liquid filled with soul energy- the same substance they learned from the ancient builders was necessary to create life and used to their advantage. So, the illagers begin draining the icker into the overworld. And as they do, we're told that the sieve is becoming sick, and the skulkers are being pulled from their homes in the ravines. We see the same thing happening to the coral reefs. They act as shelters for many fish, but the coral can die and weaken. unstable. And studies have found that when coral starts to die, fish begin to venture beyond their usual reef area. The
coral reef's balance has shifted, causing fish to travel farther than normal-just like the skulk. Now, the skulk is leaving. All the soil the sieve is made of is suffering, and as a result, it's affecting the ravine habitat. They have even less soulpower than usual, which causes them to venture into the sieve's meadows, as we see in the game. And this is why the guardian exists within the sieve and ends up in the overworld in the first place. When the ancient builders opened the portal to the sieve to escape the weather, the balance shifted. This portal had never existed before. The energy had changed. It flowed differently. This likely drew the skulk out of the ravine, including a skulk-infected singer. Or, who knows,
perhaps it infected a singer on its way up. But, as he drew closer and closer to the portal, he sensed the source of the true disturbance. On the other side stood a monster powered by the many, many souls contained within the soul sand used to create it: the Wither. The Guardian entered the portal and slew the Wither, taking the souls it harbored to feed the skulk that had infected it, but it wasn't enough. However, during this altercation, the Guardian accidentally destroyed the portal and his only way home. All that remained were ancient ruins. The Overworld lacked the surrounding souls to sustain the Guardian and the skulk he carried. It was dying. It needed more souls. The Guardian used his hypersensitivity to sound to hunt down
the last remaining souls: the ancient builders. And so, the ancient builders abandoned the old cities and constructed the fortresses, finally escaping to the very end to live out their final days. Then came the Illagers. They eventually found the cities of the ancient builders. that they admired, and with them, a portal. Was that where their idols fled? Was that where they were trapped? But upon opening it and seeing the power it contained, their plans changed, and they followed in the footsteps of the ancient builders. Since Minecraft Legends, the Illagers had seen the heroes of the legends fight and wanted to participate. They had seen what the ancient builders did with souls and how they harvested all the known resources
in the Overworld until nothing remained. Dungeons may make the Illagers seem like villains, but if the ancient builders had seen the Sift, if the Warden hadn't emerged and caused their demise, they would have done exactly the same. Devastated the world for its natural resources and then disposed of it when it was no longer useful to them. Just as they did with the Overworld and the Nether. The Illagers may be evil, but the ancient builders we can't stop talking about taught them. But hey , that's just a theory, a game theory. Thanks for watching. World premiere at Game Theory. Minecraft's new creatures wiped out the old builders.
