Dungeons:The Illager's New Robes

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 "field": "(link to Sofia Dankis article, displayed as Sofia Dankis)",
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 "field": "English",
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 {
 "field": "Short Story",
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 {
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 {
 "field": "September 27, 2021",
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The Illager’s New Robes is a short story set within Minecraft Dungeons. It is authored by Sofia Dankis and was published on Minecraft.net on September 27, 2021.^[1]

Around a campfire, the baby ghast tells a tale that it claims had been passed down for generations. The story begins by introducing a group of powerful illagers who lived deep within the Pumpkin Pastures, terrorizing villages and defeating heroes. One night, an unnamed evoker stumbles upon a hero wandering the land with a baby ghast. The evoker prepares to attack the hero, only for the hero to surprise attack the evoker first before making their escape.

Upon returning to their lair, the evoker argues with the other illagers about the incident, before retreating to ponder in peace upon what makes this specific hero different from others. They quickly come to the realization that the baby ghast must be the answer due to never seeing one before. The evoker leaves their lair for a few days, in search of the baby ghast to study it. Upon finding both the hero and the baby ghast, the evoker comes to the conclusion that the red core must be the cause of the baby ghast’s "terrifying appearance." They then begin to imagine the possible advantage of combining that terrifying appearance with their own large size. The evoker immediately set to work in the lair, comparing the various stitching in the battle robe to their evocation robe, and using the patterns in the splendid robe. So as to not disturb the evoker, the other illagers busied themselves with spreading terror and capturing villagers.

When the evoker finished creating their new robes, they showed off their see-through creation through spectacle. It is at this point when the baby ghast telling the tale provides a description of the robes themselves, describing them as being “a bright white with a red square pattern stitched into the midsection,” and that they “were opulent, but opaque.” Fearing the evoker’s large size, the other illagers refrained from giving feedback and instead voiced admiration of the robes, convinced that they could now capture more villagers than ever before.

Encouraged by the other illager’s admiration, the evoker sets out to terrify villagers and their pets with their new see-through appearance. The evoker is so engrossed with capturing villagers that they are ambushed by the very same hero and baby ghast from before. Despite quickly recovering from the shock, the evoker lets their ego get the better of them, feeling as though their new robes would terrify the hero, but instead it provides the hero with the advantage.

When the evoker’s intended effect fails and the hero frees all of the villagers, the evoker ponders whether they did something wrong during the creation of the robes as they were admired by the other illagers. The evoker’s pondering is rewarded with an answer when the baby ghast reveals to them it’s ability to fade in and out of invisibility. The evoker realizes then that without the baby ghast’s translucent elusiveness, the “red square pattern stitched into the midsection,” made them an obvious target rather than an invisible opponent.

Upon returning to the lair, the evoker changes back into their own robes and discards the new robes. While the evoker and the other illagers never mentioned the incident with the new robes in stories, it was told and re-told across many generations, with many changes being made and details being lost. Despite this, the moral of the story survived in that “no matter what you’re wearing, your true colors will always shine through.”

• The story was created as a result of a popularity poll for the pets featured in Minecraft Dungeons.^[2]
  • The other pets in the poll were the endermite, baby turtle, baby goat, baby pig, arctic fox, baby chicken, and parrot.

• Video made to promote the story.