The Nether



The Nether is part of the Minecraft Halloween Update. Not much is known about this world, which looks like hell; only these things are sure:


 * Used for fast travel. (more about this in the section below).
 * Plays very spooky voices when away from a portal. The voices will stop playing if the player switches the difficulty to peaceful.


 * The only way to get in or out of it is by using portals; players cannot hit the Nether by mining straight down.


 * The ceiling and the base of the Nether are made of bedrock.


 * While inside the Nether watches and compasses will be unable to tell the time or direction and will flail back and forth.
 * Mushrooms are commonly found.


 * Special mob types (at least 2):
 * Ghasts - Hostile, flying, jellyfish-like monsters which shoot fireballs and are immune to fire. It rarely happening but some times they can die by flying in to lava falls and and when the do they drop Gunpowder.
 * Zombie Pigmen - Peaceful, humanoid creatures, that turn hostile when attacked. They drop Grilled Pork and Feathers.


 * Special block types (at least 6):
 * Bloodstone - burns indefinitely, the main block type forming the Nether.
 * Lightstone ("Australium") - a golden block that glows indefinitely. Australium is not the official name, it was nicknamed so by PCGamer. Australium is also what the Golden Wrench in Team Fortress 2 is made of. (Unconfirmed relation)
 * Mud - an unofficially named "muddy block" or "slip-mud"; grey block resembling a creeper face, slows the player down when walked on and sinks down a tiny bit.


 * In addition, to the special block types, gravel can also be found in the Nether.

Water
Water cannot be placed from buckets normally in the Nether. Instead, it generates a smoke effect and the fizz.ogg sound effect (the same used when lava destroys an object) is played. If an inventory hack is used to give the player a water block, they can place the block. The water block will behave and flow normally, and it will react with lava as usual, creating obsidian.

Because water is normally unplaceable in the Nether, if a player falls into a lava pit or otherwise catches fire, they are unable to put themselves out unless they change the difficulty to peaceful and wait.

Portals and Fast Travel
The portals are made by creating a 4x5 (2x3 on inside) door frame out of obsidian and then lighting the inside of the frame on fire. The corners of the frame may be left out, using only 10 obsidian. When you stand inside the portal for the first time, it will create a portal in its equivalent area of the Nether.

When re-entering the normal world, any distance covered in the Nether is multiplied by 16 times, effectively making the Nether a fast travel zone that allows for greater distances to be covered in short amount of time in the normal world.

Portals can be walked through. In order to use them, the player has to stand still inside. Currently, they won't transport mobs or mine carts.

Warning: Portals may place you in caverns possibly with gravel at their roof.(which will fall on your head soon after spawning.)

Also Note: Any other portals built in the Normal world will put you at that first portal made in The Nether

Naming
In the original announcement, Notch mentioned "a brand new Hell world". However, he's since stated that he doesn't want to use religious names, and prefers for Minecraft to be unique. When the preview was sent out on 29 October 2010 to a couple of gaming websites, the new dimension was called the Slip. This was changed to The Nether on the day of the update release.

Media
Several video commentaries have been released, showing the nether and its inhabitants. FTW, Yoshibear1009, and davidr64yt(aka X)