On the Google+ account of Notch, creator of Minecraft, he has revealed a new mob, and a very creepy one at that. Their collective name is officially Endermen, singular Enderman, named after Slender Man after multiple users on Reddit and Google+ commented on the likeness. To sum up Slender Man, he is a fictional being created by the users of Something Awful as a supernatural Lovecraftian horror that kidnaps, traumatizes, and murders children. See this wiki page for more details. Endermen however are not likely to kill you and leave bags of blood hanging from nearby trees.
Very little is known about the mob, outside of its name and appearance. It appears as a tall, completely black, humanoid figure with white eyes. They are roughly 3 meters high (One block in Minecraft is, according to Notch, a one meter cube). In the full version of the screenshot you can see by clicking here, you can clearly see that one of the closer ones is holding a block of sand, and one in the distance is holding a block of grass. The screenshot has been brightened up so you can see them better and provided below if the original is too dark to see properly.
Speculation runs wild and Notch has not commented on the capabilities of Endermen, but like Most mobs in Minecraft, they likely spawn at night and are killed by sunlight. Whenever the Endermen are hostile to the player or not is unknown, as is their method of attack if any, but some have theorized that they might throw blocks at you.
One thing many are paranoid about is the ability of Endermen to pick up blocks, which in theory would allow them to dismantle your house, letting other mobs have free reign in your house. A bit of bad luck involving an Enderman could prove incredibly dangerous.
Imagine the chaos they could cause if they have the ability to pick up lava blocks or an elaborate AI that will seal you in a cave, or completely rearrange an entire network in large numbers.
I didn’t plan on sleeping anyway.
#Update
On Notch’s twitter, he has revealed more details relating to the Endermen. They’re insidious.
Firstly, Endermen are not naturally hostile at all. They’re a passive mob that steals blocks. However, they have a unique condition for hostility. Even though most mobs are hostile by default (excepting animals and pigmen), Endermen only become hostile if you look directly at them. From then on, they behave like the Weeping Angels in Dr. Who, moving very swiftly and teleporting to attack you, freezing when you look at them. At this point, it is not known if they become invincible when seen like the weeping angels their attack method is inspired by.
Meaning, if you make eye contact with an Enderman, you cannot look away without risking attack. Whenever there is a limited range to this, as well as the range and speed of their teleports and attack strength is still being kept quiet about. For a long while, players of Minecraft have wanted a monster that behaves similar to Dr Who’s weeping angels, and now they have it. Happy!?
blake
imagine blocking u in ur mine with obsidian right after u broke ur tools
kenlith
thats why yoy tak a crafting table and wood into a mine with you
kenlith
you*
Rian Quenlin
Notch said on his twitter they teleport when you’re not looking at them. We’re doomed.
And yeah, that would be annoying, obsidian takes forever to break bare-knuckle.
LegatoDude
Not cool.
now i need to secure even the back of my premisis. i don’t want them stealing pieces of my house… I’VE BUILT EVERYWHERE 😀
well, i’ll just have to fill the back of my land with torches to banish them.
damn.
MEHRANDOMNESS
hhhyh
jnjnjnjn
MEH RANDOMNESS