User:RichardMcKee/sandbox

The Aether ( (US), (UK) ) is a fantasy heaven-like mod for Minecraft. The mod was first suggested by user GreyAcumen on the 10th of November, 2010. On the 6th of March, 2011, Brandon Pearce (now a developer at Mojang for Minecraft) announced his ongoing collaboration on a mod based on this idea. The announcement shook the community, prompting thousands of forum posts on the topic, and on the 22nd of July, 2011, he published the first version of the Aether mod for the public. It has since become a cult classic in the Minecraft modding scene, with even Minecraft's endgame added in its first official release on November 18, 2011 having been inspired by the mod.

Origins
On the 30th of October, 2010, the Nether dimension was added to the game, inspired by hell. A day later, on the 31st of October, 2010, a forum post was made on the Minecraft forums titled "The Ether", conceiving of a dimension inspired by heaven; the opposite of the Nether. A few days later, on the 10th of November, 2010, GreyAcumen made his post titled "The Aether" bringing together all concepts of The Aether he could find from various forum posts, including one for the Aerwhale from the 9th of November, 2010, which became the "mascot" image for The Aether.

Development
The mod was originally developed as a collaboration between Brandon Pearce (under the username kingbdogz), Kodaichi, and Shockah [sic].

On the 5th of December, 2019, Pearce was hired by Mojang, based on his previous contributions to the game's modding scene, the most prevalent of which was The Aether.

The mod is currently developed by The Aether Team (formerly Gilded Games),

Popular Culture
Markus "Notch" Persson, at the time of The Aether 's release and first several months of popularity, was the lead developer and creative director for Minecraft, and acknowledged the existence of The Aether mod on at least two occasions.