#swedeslore

The bastion remnants (their official name, not my name for them) are in a construction phase, not derelict. And the Piglin are a new civilisation that arose from Overworld pigs introduced into the Nether. Most were mutated into zombie pigmen, but their genome eventually stabilised and they became the Piglin. The other pigs devloped into zombified hoglin and then regular hoglin in a similar way, just that the Piglin are sapiant.

Nether fortresses meanwhile are the ruins of a previous civilisation, and the blazes their ghosts. Wither skeletons are their physical remains, twisted and charred by a desire for revenge. This previous civilisation was wiped out following a mass invasion campaign by people from the Overworld. The reason? Gold. It was in absolute abundance in the Nether, then the Overworlders broke it. Literally. They broke the Nether out of sheer greed. So it remained, stagnant but still slowly decaying, for ages.

The material known as "magma cream" is the natural remnants of a magma cube, gathered quickly before its body despawns. Because of the short time before a magma cube despawns, this potion material, vital to many Nether expeditions, is hard to come by.

Sometime ago an imitation magma cream was created utilising common green slime from the Overworld, and finely ground blaze rods. Players have found that by folding blaze powder into slime, a mixture can be made that mimics the properties of magma cream. This substitute is formally known as "Imitation Cream", but is still colloquially called magma cream in many servers.

Imitation cream is not a perfect replica, however, and potions made from it tend to have more unstable results. But due to it being able to be manufactured, and to imitation cream being more easily utilised by brewing technology, it has found widespread use.

Natural magma cream creates wonderfully stable and long-lasting potions, but is difficult for most brewing methods to break down, especially for single-person stands. This, in addition to the high price of magma cream, makes it only highly used by advanced brewers; or those that live full-time in the Nether, and thus have access to the magma cubes themselves.