The End is the emptiest place in Minecraft: a black sky, pale stone islands, endermen, and a dragon. Then you take an End gateway to the outer islands and find cities. Tall purpur towers, bridges, rooms full of loot, guards hidden in the walls, and floating ships with a pair of wings and a dragon's head on board.
Somebody built all of that. Mojang has never said who. This page reads the End cities themselves as evidence, the same way we read the trial chambers and the rest of Minecraft's structures.
Image: Mojang Studios, from an official minecraft.net article.
No official answer exists. Mojang has not given End cities a backstory. Below, facts about the structure are stated as facts, and every interpretation is labelled as one.
What End cities are, in facts
- They generate on the outer islands of the End, reached through an End gateway after the dragon is defeated.
- They are built from purpur blocks, end stone bricks, end rods and magenta stained glass.
- They range from a single tower to sprawling complexes of towers, bridges and rooms, including tall "skyscraper" towers with double spiral staircases.
- They are guarded by shulkers, which sit hidden as part of the walls.
- Some cities have an End ship moored beside them. The ship holds the game's only elytra, displayed in an item frame, and a dragon head on the bow. Brewing stands in the ship's aft carry potions of healing.
- Chests hold enchanted diamond and iron gear, diamonds, emeralds, gold and saddles.
- They were added in Java 1.9. Developer Jens "Jeb" Bergensten first teased them in June 2015, and the design was reportedly inspired by traditional Asian pagodas.
For the practical side, getting there and getting the elytra, see how to get elytra.
Clue 1: a city, not a fortress
Image: Mojang Studios, from an official minecraft.net article.
Strongholds are mazes. Ancient cities are temples to something. End cities are something else: places to live. They have rooms stacked on rooms, staircases, bridges between towers and even banners.
Interpretation: this was a settlement, not a military outpost. Whoever lived here was comfortable enough in the End to build upward, decorate, and stay.
Clue 2: the guards are part of the walls
Shulkers sit inside End cities looking exactly like blocks of the wall until they open. They shoot homing projectiles that make you float. They do not respawn naturally; they only multiply when a shulker is hit by another shulker's bullet.
Interpretation: the shulkers were not invaders who moved in later. They are woven into the architecture, the way gargoyles are part of a cathedral. One popular reading is that shulkers were the builders, or their engineered defenders, and that a city without its builders still has its guards. Mojang's own description treats shulkers simply as the city's residents.
Clue 3: the ship carries wings and a dragon's head
This is the clue everyone remembers. The End ship has an elytra in an item frame, like a trophy or a relic, and a dragon head on its bow.
What it implies (interpretation): the people of the End cities had a relationship with dragons, and with flight, that the player does not. The dragon head on the bow could be a trophy, a figurehead in honor of the dragon, or a warning. The elytra, wings that let a person glide, hanging on display like something precious, suggests these builders either flew themselves or revered those who did.
The most common fan reading connects the two: the elytra are taken from creatures that once flew in the End, and the dragon head is proof the city's people fought or hunted dragons. Another reads the opposite: the ships honored the dragon. Neither is confirmed, and the game gives no text either way.
The only pair of wings in Minecraft is kept in an item frame on a ship, the way a museum keeps a relic.
Clue 4: healing potions, and gear for a fight
The ship's brewing stands hold potions of healing, and the city chests are full of enchanted diamond and iron weapons and armor.
Interpretation: whoever stocked these expected to be hurt. Healing potions on a ship and weapons in the towers point to a people who fought, whether against the dragon, the endermen, or each other.
Clue 5: the cities sit beyond the dragon
You only reach End cities after defeating the dragon, through the gateway that opens when it dies.
Interpretation: the dragon guards the central island, and the cities lie beyond it. That ordering reads like a story: the dragon stands between the outside world and the people of the outer islands. Some players see the dragon as the cities' warden, others as the reason the cities are empty. The Ender Dragon lore covers the dragon's side of that question.
So who built them? The theories
1. The shulkers. The guards are part of the walls, the cities are purpur (a block found only here), and shulker shells become the game's best portable storage. On this reading, the cities are shulker architecture.
2. A lost End civilization. A people who lived on the outer islands, sailed between them, prized flight and had some bond with dragons, and are now gone, leaving only their guards. This fits the Ancient Builders theory, which proposes a single lost civilization behind many of the game's structures.
3. The endermen's ancestors. Endermen are everywhere in the End and carry blocks. Some players read the cities as what endermen once built before they became what they are now. There is little direct evidence for this, but it is a popular link between the End's two mysteries.
What we can say with confidence
- End cities are settlements, not fortresses.
- Their guards are built into them.
- Their builders prized flight, kept an elytra as a treasure, and put a dragon's head on their ships.
- They expected combat and stocked for it.
- They lie beyond the dragon.
That is a detailed portrait for a place with no words in it. And like the End Poem, the End leaves the last part of the story to the player.
Frequently asked questions
Who built the End cities in Minecraft?
Mojang has not said. The most common theories credit the shulkers, a lost End civilization, or the ancestors of the endermen. None is confirmed.
Why is there a dragon head on the End ship?
There is no official reason. Players read it as a trophy from a dragon hunt, a figurehead honoring the dragon, or a warning. The game gives no text either way.
Why are elytra only in End ships?
It is a design decision: the End ship is the only place the game places elytra, in an item frame, guarded by a shulker. In lore terms, it makes the wings read as a treasured relic.
Do shulkers respawn in End cities?
Not on their own. A shulker hit by another shulker's bullet can duplicate, which is how shulker farms work.
When were End cities added?
In Java Edition 1.9, the Combat Update. They were inspired by traditional Asian pagodas.
