Long ago Minecraft was inhabited by several species; The Overworld was home to most of these civilizations, which included Humans, the Testificates, the thin, calcium-based Bowmen (who had tamed the Spiders and used them as mounts), and the Golems.

The Golems were a hulking metallic race of people, with skin of iron. They were not born, but built initially as the protectors of the Testificates, who at the time were highly advanced in the ways of science and technology. Eventually the Golems were numerous enough to rebel and become their own civilization, building temples in the jungles of the Overworld, where they lived in noble solitude.

The Testificates lived in great strongholds deep underground, where they built massive labyrinths and created devilish creatures of stone to keep their enemies at bay, along with a race of armless monsters infused with explosive powder. These creatures were deemed too dangerous and unpredictable to be used as sentries, and banished to the caves. They were expected to die out, but instead they thrived in the dark environment, and grew to be a worldwide pest.

Eventually the Testificates learned the technique of creating portals to other worlds, and as an experiment they created three portals to the planet's moon. This project was called the End of Limitation, or simply the End.

The Testificates did not expect to find what they did in the End, which was a massive dragon that had created tall black creatures of nothingness for its own purposes. The dragon was angered by this intrusion and killed them all, wiping out their great civilization, by sending hordes of these ghostly creatures, the Ender Men, into the Overworld. The surviving Testificates were scattered, above ground, with no technology, and are now rebuilding from nothing, currently at the age of Iron, while living in small, isolated villages.

Shortly after the collapse of the Testificate Empire, the Humans and the Bowmen, who had an alliance, decided they would steal the portal technology, but instead of going to the End, they would tunnel to the center of the planet, where they thought they would be safe from the Creeper menace. How wrong they were. The center of the planet was a hot and hellish place, inhabited by spirits of fire and thunder. They did, however, form a friendship with the resident intelligence, the Pigmen, who grew an odd plant, Nether Wart, for use in potions.

In exchange for the secrets of Redstone, the Pigmen formed a pact of friendship with the Alliance of Men. The Humans became obsessed with the idea of potions and magic, and dug deep into the depths of the Overworld in search of artifacts and ingredients. They dug far too deep. They released a terrible sickness, a plague that destroyed the brain and left one with nothing but a terrible hunger. The humans were transformed into Zombies and spread this plague over the world. The bowmen were also affected, but being so thin by nature already they merely shriveled to bones and now seek vengeance on Humanity.

This illness also spread through the portal to the core of the planet, as the Pigmen retreated into their massive fortresses built on lakes of fire. They could not hold out forever, though. Eventually the race of the Pigmen, too, fell. The Pigmen in the overworld were cut off from the rest of their race when the Nether portal network was taken down, and after building refuges in the deserts, lost their knowledge. They forgot speech, and to walk on two legs. They have become nothing but animals in the Overworld now.

After the plague wiped out most of the remaining civilization, the Creepers created by the Testificates emerged from their cavern homes and now dominate the night with fear. The Golems eventually abandoned their homes in the jungles to resume their role as protectors of the villages, as they were under constant attack from the undead, and the remaining Endermen.

The fortresses and bunkers of the Pigmen, the temples of the Golems, and the tunnels and mines of the Alliance still stand, in crippled and decrepit states, available for plunder by whatever shred of Humanity and civilization remains on this desolated planet.