The Living City: Endermen Have a Society We Never Understood

The Living City is the most important End City type. Because it shows us something we never knew. Endermen are not mindless. They never were. THEIR HIERARCHY: THE BUILDERS - lowest rank: Continuously repair and construct the city. Never stop. Never rest. Building is the last memory they have of being human. They do not know why they build. They just know they must. THE GUARDS - middle rank: Stand at entrances. Do not attack unless you enter without Remnant Armor or Void Cloak. They are not hostile. They are professional. There is a difference. THE ELDER - highest rank: One per Living City. Taller than normal Endermen. Moves slowly. Never teleports. Watches everything. Does not attack under any circumstances. Ever. If you stand before The Elder without attacking for 5 minutes it does something no Enderman has ever done. It nods. Once. Slowly. Then returns to watching. It acknowledged you. It recognized something in you. Maybe the Remnant Armor. Maybe something else. The game will not say. WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE STORY: Endermen did not lose everything when they transformed. They kept their need to build. They kept their social structure. They kept their hierarchy. They lost their memories. They lost their language. They lost their faces. But they kept trying to be what they were. Every single day. In a dimension with no days. That is not mindless. That is the saddest kind of brave.