Herobrine
Herobrine is the subject of a community-made creepypasta. He is one of the major community icons of Minecraft, yet Herobrine has not been present in any version of Minecraft.
The first story and image ever posted about Herobrine, as well as the Brocraft stream, are regarded as canonical. Things posted after these two events are considered fan-made adaptations and variations.
Existence
Herobrine is not in unmodded Minecraft, and never has been. There are no references to him at all in the source code, and there is no code to allow for any entity to act like Herobrine. It is not possible for Herobrine to have ever existed in any unmodded clients or servers. Any appearances of Herobrine are caused by either mods being installed or because of another player using the skin.
Origins and popularity
From the original creepypasta, Herobrine creates random constructions, such as sand pyramids in oceans and long 2×2 tunnels. He also cuts off all the leaves from trees. Herobrine first appeared in a single image detailing an encounter. It was posted on the 4chan's /v/ board, and gained little attention. It stated how Herobrine had appeared in someone's single-player game, littering the map with various pyramids and tunnels. It is the first media to name him as Herobrine. It was only later that Herobrine grew in popularity, when the Brocraft streamer "Copeland" photoshopped Herobrine into several screenshots to show to his chat. He had recently taken a liking to the story, and wished to be a part of it. After getting largely good reactions, he decided to stage a hoax. He has explained exactly how that took place in an email.
