#I love making Helsmits completely awful

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Okay I love this a lot yes very good. Parental EX goes brrr. Imma go off now.

Some of the kids being banned purely because they have magic powers they don't know how to handle, and EX teaching them to use them (and vaporizing the admins/operators who banned them)

EX being a bad influence by teaching the kids which blocks are and aren't flammable. Also how to use TNT to cause maximum destruction.

EX claiming he only looks after the kids because it means he gets a small army and everyone knowing he's lying.

The kids helping EX! Maybe he never learned to read, so they pool their knowledge and teach him! Maybe they show him new ways to stab! Maybe they come up with Fun New (extremely unrecommended and dangerous) ways to use his lightning! Maybe some of the kids use sign language and teach him! The possibilities are endless.

EX eventually making his own server for the kids because even when you have the protection of a small army the banscape really isn't that pleasant. That server quickly becoming a home to the kids. It's registered as an anarchy server, so there's no rules and therefore no banning. He still frequently goes back to the banscape to find more kids who need help.

EX taking in older kids as well! They help deal with the large numbers of small children because we all know EX can't really do it solo, and they can fill in the gaps.

Him inviting the only hermit who really made an effort to understand him (Zedaph Worm Man) who finds himself teaching the kids redstone and doing his best to be a good influence because he knows EX honestly isn't. He does his best to be understanding and not tread on any toes though! His redstone is fun, his Worm Man persona is hilarious and he's got a good sense of humour, so the kids like him.

Worm Man telling EX he's done a lot of good for the kids and EX barely holding it together because validation.

EX actually helping neurodivergent kids instead of trying to force them to act normally. There is a quiet space for kids dealing with sensory overload, for instance. One of the few server rules is no loud noises/flashing lights/etc in the Quiet Space.

EX having a hit list of various terrible admins, operators, parents/guardians and teachers. Occasionally he goes off and lightnings half a dozen. It's very therapeutic.

He encourages their creativity! Of course, usually their creativity leads to there being an awful lot of exactly what you'd expect from a pack of 9-12-year-olds. But they're having fun, and the fact there's a forest's worth of the things on the server is admittedly kinda funny.

EX teaching the kids to accept things like hybrids, disabled people, neurodivergent people, LGBT+ people etc. as normal people because he (and a lot of the kids) know how it feels to be ostracized. He never asked to be the evil clone, after all.

Xisuma finding out eventually and being Very Concerned for the kids but not really being able to do anything about it because he's not whitelisted, so Zedaph Worm Man gets some footage of the place to show it's actually fine and the kids are doing well. X is still worried but he's choosing to trust Zed WM and let it slide for now.

"Hey kids! Who wants to help me obliterate a random mountain for no good reason?" *enthusiastic cheering*

Helsknight is like the weird uncle who shows up occasionally and teaches you how to rap battle and get away with arson and then disappears again for several months.

Parts of the server are For Destruction (and get reset every now and then) and parts of the server are Not For Destruction. Do not get these mixed up, please.

Zedaph Worm Man is the only responsible adult on the server and he is definitely not used to it please help.

As the kids grow up, some of them stick around to help but others go off on adventures! Some are very successful, and they all live safe in the knowledge that they've always got a home to go to should they need it.

EX knows the name of each and every child on the server. He never uses any of them.

He has an array of shelves in his bedroom filled with all the gifts the kids have given him- bracelets, drawings, flowers, cool rocks... he keeps everything.

Very occasionally he has a run-in with Xisuma and threatens to sic his army of small children on the hermits. Xisuma is still trying to figure out if he's serious or not.

A Slightly Less Depressing Evil Xisuma Theory

Because as angsty and widely accepted as the idea of a "ban void" is, I've actually always held a slightly different idea.

Okay. So, the general consensus in the Hermitcraft fandom seems to be that getting banned lands you in a kind of limbo space unique to every world. However, I've never really thought of it that way? The nature of banning is to expel you from that one world, de-linking you from it entirely. If you have another world to go to, you can, but if you don't, it just doesn't seem like a natural conclusion to me that you would end up in a limbo specific to the world you were just ejected from, when you aren't even linked to that world anymore.

Instead, what about a common destination for all banned people? I've always visualized a more universal ban space, an area separate from all worlds that everyone defaults to when they are kicked out. If a "world hub" is a kind of marketplace/train station hybrid, a meeting ground and a gateway to all worlds, then a "ban hub" would be similar, but more hostile. The only way to leave is to enter another world, but if you don't have one to go to, you can stay and try to make your way in the chaos that happens when a bunch of ban-worthy people are packed into the same space. Most of the banned brush themselves off and beg or bargain their way into a new world, or create their own to sulk in, but some...some can't bring themselves to move on. Evil Xisuma included. Whether out of misplaced hope or a need for revenge, a certain set of people stay in that in-between space, carving out a space for themselves by force.

Edgy, right? Until you actually consider who most of these people would be. Think about it. What people who are most commonly banned from worlds, would also be the most likely to spend a long time dwelling on it instead of moving on?

Realistically? A bunch of kids! Nine year olds who just discovered how to use a flint and steel and torched builds until their equally young admins got fed up with it, twelve year olds who think a non-stop stream of cursing in the chat makes them adults, teens who griefed their younger siblings' worlds out of boredom...yes, there are some pretty brutal and powerful people around the ban hub, but the majority of the population is just. Problem children. Too immature yet to accept their consequences and form their own future, or innocent enough to hope that their old world will take them back.

So. That would mean that Evil Xisuma is currently attempting to navigate an intense and mayhem filled landscape composed of petty conflicts between thousands and thousands of kids (with the occasional Actual Threat to keep him on his toes). Whether he's attempting to become their king, getting absolutely steamrolled by them in PvP, begrudgingly adopting them and protecting them from the few other powerful players... whatever version you want to imagine. Just think about it. Evil Xisuma in a banscape filled with those little Minecraft menaces you remember from childhood...so many possibilities for happiness and angst and hilarity....