We find the Dried Ghast in the soul sand valley, in a nest of skeletal remains. If we follow the theory that the Ghast has a sort of octopus death spiral- killing herself over time to provide for her eggs, dying before they ever get to hatch, we can make the theory that the mother Ghast is providing moisture for her eggs, perhaps inside her body or perhaps with her tears. And then when they hatch, those who thrive are regular Ghasts. And those who do not remain suspended in cryptobiosis, and need more moisture and a cooler environment to revive.
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Ghasts exist, and don't exist. Strange ethereal creatures of fire and air that float around the nether, crying as if they are in eternal suffering. Perhaps that is the cause of their wandering, how they drift in and out of hell, in and out of physicalness, if they even are physical beings to begin with. I think catch sight of them through the fog, but do I really see them? Or is that just something else?
Have you ever held a ghast tear? Not all ghast drop them when they die. They are strange, metallic, but icy, but also of a substance that feels wholly of another place, another plane of existence. It sings, softly, forlornly, resting in your hand. I sometimes think that they contain the souls of the ghast, and those that don't drop them have moved back to their unseen existence, never to return.
No one knows how long they live for, assuming no one is involved in causing their death, of course. You can never be sure that the ghast you see now will be the same one you see next once it fades away and returns. They could well be ghosts, the spirits of creatures who once lived here at the dawn of time, memories burnt into the walls of hell, unable to be forgotten.
Perhaps it's fitting that they appear most closely to the soul sand valleys, those desolate awful places full of bones and crying voices. The sand whispers with so many voices that you can't make out what they say anymore. The creatures who died and left their bones here are lost to time and memory. Not even the piglins know what they used to be, and I have asked them several times.
Then again, the same can be said for the same and larger fossils that litter the overworld. What creatures are these who lived in swamps and deserts and left similar kinds of remains behind? That is a question I would love to know the answer to, but I fear it is also lost. No one knows what that was, because anyone who might have had those memories has also been lost.
I sometimes think about all the lost creatures. The lost plants, too, that the sniffers seem solely equipped to dig up. What land was this before, when there were these six legged creatures, these strange plants, and other giant creatures who were so scattered and large that some were buried at the very bottom of the earth, their bones becoming diamonds and coal.
No one knows how long ghasts have been around, either. Forever, it seems. They have always been here. But their dislike and hostility towards me alone and to no one else makes me wonder if my kind had something to do with them being here at all. and if so, why?
The piglins don't like the soul sand valley very much. They get very quiet when we find one when we're out hunting. Perhaps there are piglin souls in here too. This time, though, we spot something strange by one of the fossils. It's a strange, grey rock that looks like a ghast, frowning face and everything, like it has been carved out of ashen stone and left here. It doesn't feel carved when I pick it up though. This isn't something the piglins like, and they back off, wondering what I'm doing by interacting with it.
It's only when I have it in my hands that I can see it and feel it, and it's definitely not made of stone. Its skin feels like dry tanned leather. Is it a dead ghast? If so, it's not one I've ever seen before. Something in my heart tells me to take it to the overworld, that it belongs there, not here in the nether.
This isn't something I act on for what feels like weeks. I'm too busy at the bastion. There's a festival we're all preparing for, and hoglin is being hunted and stored for the feast. The ghast lies forgotten in a chest until I find the time to take it with me when I next go excavting for gold.
I take it almost as an afterthought, stashing it in my bag along with my other equipment. On my last excursion to the overworld, I'd found and mapped out a new mesa area, and I planned to go back and mine all the gold I could find. In my little house in the overworld, I pulled out the ghast and looked at it again, unsure what to do with it. Surely it wasn't alive, though, right? I was sure it would have done something by then if it was.
I left it behind when I went prospecting, letting it sit in the garden to watch over the crops. I thought nothing of it as I set off. It was a nice decorative piece for the garden. It could watch over the place while I was away.
I was home again a few days later. The mesa was smaller than I had anticipated, and did not get me enough gold. I would need to go prospecting again. It was raining, of course. I walked the last half a day in the rain and was glad to be home at last. A slight movement caught my eye, though, and I was sure I'd seen the ghast moving!
Shrugging it off as exhaustion, I went inside, put my stuff away, had a wash, ate some dinner, and went to bed.
I didn't notice anything off, at first. I was tending to my crops, feeding my animals, and preparing some firewood. I ran into the ghastling as I turned to carry some wood inside. It was... well, it was like a ghost. It passed right through me, and proceeded to flit around my legs, purring strangely. I noticed it was smiling now. I knelt down to face it, as it was no higher than my knees.
"Hey there, little fella," I said.
The ghastling trilled and nuzzled against me, which in many ways felt like being hugged by the wind.
"So you were alive, after all."
It followed me around the rest of the day like an obedient puppy. In the evening, it settled down at the foot of my bed, which was a little unnerving, but it had such a happy smile on its face and it had never tried to attack me so.
But then again, what if it would only attack me when it grew up? Would I have to kill it then, if it got aggressive? I hoped not.
I did notice it went nowhere near my portal though. Was it afraid of going to the nether? Was this then a nether ghast reborn in the overworld? Is that why it was scared now? I thought again about the ghast tears and where I'd found the ghast. Maybe these formed when ghast tears fell on the bones, imprinting the souls of the ghasts into the bones themselves. And then they sat there waiting to be found.
But then how had it come to life in the first place? All I'd done was bring it here. I thought about that the whole time I was on a second expedition, this time finding a much more fruitful mesa.
In the end, I found no satisfactory answer. I decided I was not the person to find out that question. Besides, when I got home again, the ghast had grown to full size, and let me tell you, I have never touched a cloud before, but that's what this ghast felt like. Like nothing, like the air, like so many different intangible things.
It was still scared of my portal though, so I left it secured in a barn until I could return, fully expcting it to phase into their unseen world and be gone by the time I returned. Maybe it would be. I'm never sure how long my trips take these days. Do I go away for days, or weeks, or months at this point? Time doesn't exist in the nether.
I always loved sharing my riches with the piglins though. They loved my gold, and I loved watching them forge beautiful pieces with them. I did tell them about the ghast though, and even they were surprised and confused and a bit scared. I mean, it looked happy? It was making happy noises? But who am I to judge what a happy ghast sounds like, let alone claim they even exist? I am just a fool who lives with piglins in a bastion. What do I know of ghasts anyway?
Apparently we can craft Dried Ghasts with bone blocks and tears, which, at first glance, gives us the impression that we/Steve can create life. Which could be a fun theory! But I'd rather theorize that maybe the Ghast is a golem.
If we look at Minecraft's Mobestiary, it refers to the Ghast as possibly being a machine with mechanical details. If it's true that the Ghast is a machine/golem, it makes sense that we could craft them. It also makes sense that they suddenly like us if we craft or rehydrate them, versus naturally spawning Ghasts attacking us. There's one other naturally spawning golem: the Iron Golem.
If an Iron Golem is naturally spawned, it's main priority is the villagers. If you attack a villager or your reputation within the village is very bad, an Iron Golem is going to attack you. Because they built the Iron Golem. However, if we build an Iron Golem, it won't defend itself even if we hit it. It will also not attack you if you smack a villager.
This aligns pretty well with Dried Ghasts being craftable, and how they will be Happy Ghasts and they befriend you, even letting you ride them. Because we built them.
However I'm not saying this theory is 100% sound, since it does uproot my other theories on octopus death cycle and cryptobiosis, if they're machines, but it is interesting to consider
While I was in the middle of writing lore for a third city, Concord, which included lore about Ghasts' regenerative properties, Minecraft Live dropped, with some absolutely wonderful new Ghast content: The Dried Ghast, The Ghastling, and the Happy Ghast.
The first thing we see is one of the fossils in the soul sand valley. Tucked underneath, we can see a Dried Ghast. A tiny little thing, with a familiarly sad little face. It begs the question of whether the fossil is the skeletal remains of a Mother Ghast, which has since died, either trying to keep it's baby alive, or as some sort of matriphagy (when a mother animal dies to feed her babies) or closer to the octopus death spiral (the ghast does look like an octopus, a bit), or if Ghasts simply nest their babies in old fossils of unknown and long forgotten beasts?
Either way, the Dried Ghasts are in some sort of cryptobiosis, a state of suspended animation in reaction to the dry and harsh conditions of the Nether. Once we pick up this poor creature (by breaking it with a pickaxe?? For some reason?), we can bring it to the overworld and begin the reanimation process by submerging the Dried Ghast in water. Now, we can see it slowly regain its colour and slowly begin to smile. And then, it emerges. A Ghastling. A playful and curious little baby, which imprints on you and follows you around, before it grows bored and floats off to explore nearby surroundings. Interestingly enough, the Ghastling will follow you if there is a snowball in hand, and will eat snowballs. They appear to hydrate the Ghastling and cool it down. And then, eventually, the Ghastling will grow up into a Happy Ghast. Our once scorned lady of the skies, who flies around the Nether wailing and spitting fireballs, is now a smiling, cooing friend. She can be harnessed and flown around.
Do the snowballs put out the fire within a Ghast, keeping them cool and happy? Are they miserable in the Nether? Do they mourn their dying babies? They're miserable in the nether, an angry, sobbing thing. Is she a woman scorned? If you look up the definition of ghastly, it has two definitions: 1) Causing great horror or fear; frightful or macabre. and 2) extremely unwell; washed out. The Ghast we know and fear is both. Horrifying and sick. She's pale. She's suffering. She switches from crying to angry in a heartbeat when she sees you.
As we all know, if you kill a Ghast, she drops a tear. Ghast tears are responsible for some of the most extreme regenerations in the game. You can use one in brewing to make a potion of regeneration, sure. But you can also use them to craft end crystals, which are seen in 2 scenarios: the Ender Dragon uses them to heal herself in the End, and you can craft them yourself to revive the Ender Dragon, completely bringing her back from the dead. Are we able to gain this tear because we are putting the Ghast out of her misery? Is she suffering in the Nether? Or is she crying because her baby is dying, and her tears, the only source of moisture in the Nether, are what keeps her baby barely alive, because a mother is willing to sacrifice for her baby? And if a Ghast is suffering in the Nether, how did they wind up there?
Lots of questions, can't wait to see what other theories are out there!
