What is lore in Minecraft?

Lore in Minecraft can be quite a vague term, as there are multiple different types of lore in both regular Minecraft and Minecraft Dungeons.

The literal definition of lore means traditions or knowledge about a subject held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person by word of mouth.

Lore in Minecraft is a bit similar to the word's literal definition. It is the history behind the tale players want to tell, in general terms. It is almost like a bonus story that the author does not explicitly tell in writing.

What is lore in Minecraft?

Lore in Minecraft Dungeons

The story behind Minecraft Dungeons surrounds the main plot of defeating the evil Arch-Illager and protecting all the villagers. The lore for this version covers information regarding the setting, and going over the world the game takes place in.

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Lore in Minecraft Dungeons is basically the backstory of the plot.

Lore within Minecraft

There is no specific lore in the game (Image via Microsoft)

Minecraft itself has no storyline, and the creators purposefully left the storyline creation up to players. Many servers have specific lore, and plenty of SMPs have their own mythology as well.

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None of this lore is official, so it is not the game's authentic backstory, but it is the official backstory for that specific server or SMP.

Item lore

Items can also have lore (Image via Minecraft)

Another meaning to the word lore in the game includes item lore. It can be seen in the picture above, in purple letters. Whenever an item has lore, players can see extra words while hovering over the item with their cursor.

This is a great way to add extra details to items in Minecraft. Lore can be added to an item using commands.

The command to add lore to an item: /give @p ExampleItem{display:{Lore:[{"color","red","text":"ExampleText"}]}}