Herobrine. Almost every Minecraft user has heard of the legendary figure, but not as many know of his origins. Before I begin, I’m going to cover some facts about Herobrine. The “true” facts about him are taken from the original story and the Brocraft stream.


Herobrine is considered to be Notch’s dead brother. He is able to create long, 2x2 tunnels, small pyramids, and take leaves off of trees. He is the default Steve skin, but with white glowing eyes. Herobrine theories include that he may be a ghost or demon.


Now that we have some basic information, how did he originate? The first Herobrine story was, depending on your source, either posted on 4chan or the Minecraft Forums. The original story had a player in a Minecraft world who saw a character with a Steve skin and glowing eyes. It had no name tag. The player continued to explore and found 2x2 tunnels, small pyramids, and trees with all of the leaves cut off.


The player posted a thread on the forums that was deleted within five minutes. The user then received a private message from a user called Herobrine with the message “Stop.” The player then received an email from another forum user who had also seen Herobrine.  The other user had been keeping track of sightings and told the player that Herobrine had been seen and had made structures in other players’ worlds.


Some other players who had seen Herobrine looked into the name. They found that it was commonly used by a Swedish gamer. After some more research, they found Herobrine to be Notch’s brother. The player emailed Notch asking if he had a brother. Notch responded, “I did, but he is no longer with us.”


This was the original story of Herobrine. Not much interest was taken in it. However, the Brocraft streamer Copeland had liked it and edited Herobrine into a few screenshots. He got a positive reaction and decided to do a livestream with Herobrine in it. He replaced a painting’s texture with Herobrine. He then placed the painting in his house. During the stream, he pretended to find it, screamed, then ended the stream. He acted scared in the chat afterwards.


Another Brocraft streamer called Patimuss staged a Herobrine sighting in a lava field. Because it was freestanding, it is believed to be a door. However, Patimuss admitted Herobrine to be fake to his wife. Many fans were outraged. Copeland did not approve of Patimuss admitting this.


At some point (it is unknown when this happening in relation to Patimuss’s sighting) Copeland posted links to a site with Herobrine’s face with creepy eyes and jumbled text at the bottom. The text, when all non-letter characters were removed, suggested that the reader was living in a fantasy world that they needed to wake from.


After this, the community propelled Herobrine into his position as the legendary Minecraft meme that he is today with animations, fan art, and fake sightings.