The End



The End (previously known as The Ender) is a stark, empty plane containing a series of large floating islands of White Stone dotted with Obsidian Spikes. The White Stone blocks cannot be mined unless a pickaxe enchanted with Silk Touch is used. This dimension is populated mostly by the Endermen (also found wandering in the Overworld) and the Enderdragon (exclusive to the End). The starless sky and Void are both composed of a dark static pattern, but there are still particle effects within the Void area.

The day/night cycle is absent in the End, being replaced by a constant dim light. Most items and blocks (including Fluids) function in the End exactly like they do in the Overworld, with a few notable exceptions. Compasses will be unable to find the original spawn point, and Clocks cannot determine the position of the sun (the arrows and dials will instead spin and flail randomly). Maps seem to only map static, Beds will explode when used (lighting nearby white stone blocks on fire), and portals to the Nether will not work in the End without use of Mods.

Traveling to the End


The only way to enter The End in non-Creative Singleplayer mode and SMP (as a non-op), the player must collect at least 12 Ender Pearls by killing Endermen, crafting a Portal to the Nether to collect at least 6 Blaze Rods (from Blazes), and crafting the rods into Blaze Powder. The Ender Pearls and Blaze Powder are crafted together to yield the Eyes of Ender.

Then the player needs to return to the Overworld and locate a Stronghold. They can then use one of these Eyes of Ender to locate one by tossing it into the air and following the direction the Eye flies towards until it lands on the ground to be recollected. The player is advised to craft a few extra Eyes, as they will occasionally disappear into The End. Once inside, the player has to search the Stronghold for a room with Ender Portal Frame blocks. If a ravine or an abandoned mine shaft instersects with the room, some portal frame blocks may be missing and the Ender Portal will not be able to be used. For the Ender Portal to activate, the player must insert an Eye of Ender on each of the frame blocks.

An activated Ender Portal allows the player to enter The End immediately, appearing on top of a five by five Obsidian platform in the End. The centre of this portal is always at the co-ordinates 0,72,0. There is currently no possible way to leave the End without dying or using inventory hacking to obtain portal blocks.

If the player is an OP on an SMP server, the player can use the /give command to give themselves item number 119, the item version of an Ender Portal. Jumping into one placed will send the player to The End. The player may also use /give to give themselves item number 90, the item version of a Nether Portal, which will allow them to leave The End and then portal back to The Overworld at the player's spawn location.

A player in Creative Singleplayer Mode cannot place Ender Portal frame blocks, but they can give themselves several Eyes of Ender to find a nearby Stronghold and activate the portal.

History
In an earlier stage of development, The End was known as the Sky Dimension and had Overworld blocks and mobs.

Notch first mentioned The End with his comment regarding the name-change petition of the Endermen, when people wanted to change the name of the mob to "Farlanders" (a reference to the area nicknamed the Far Lands). He joked that instead of renaming them Farlanders, he was more likely to change the name of the Far Lands to "The End". In later Beta versions, the Far Lands were accidentally removed and The End became the native land of the Endermen.

The End was added in Beta version 1.9 Pre-release 4 on October 13th, 2011. Notch tweeted "raqreqentba", which could be decoded using ROT13, translating to "enderdragon." A Reddit user under the name of "cptqwashi" posted the idea that the new dimension accessed by the new "Crystal Block Portal" would be called the Ender, and would be home to the Endermen and Enderdragons. Notch soon gave more information and said that cptqwashi was "100% correct." In this 4th prerelease, an Enderdragon spawned near a portal would destroy it, but End Portal blocks would continue to function even if the frame was destroyed. The ability to create Ender Portal frame blocks in Creative Singleplayer mode was also removed.

Trivia

 * The Ender Portals found within Strongholds may be how the Endermen ended up outside of their native dimension in the Overworld.
 * The End, an endless sky filled with masses of stone, is intended to be an inversion of the Nether, an endless cave filled with masses of air.
 * Even with mods or inventory hacking, it is impossible to create an Ender Portal in the End.
 * Mob behavior, plant growth, potionmaking, and enchanting are not visibly affected by the End.
 * Ender portals can be permanently inactivated by flowing water or lava. Reactivation requires replacing one of the portal blocks with a game editor.