About

The Aether Portal is an Minecraft structure of a glowstone frame with a blue portal in the center. The portal comes from the popular 2011 Mod "The Aether" where players could build a glowstone portal to teleport to a sky dimension by using a water bucket to make a portal instead of a flint and steel.

Spread

During 2011, many Minecraft fans were hyped to see one of the earliest big mods that added more game-play, and made a lasting impact upon the community. Players unaware about Minecraft modding were fooled into believing that this was in the base game, leading many players to imitate what they saw on YouTube and heard on the Minecraft forums. This lead to some YouTube users to fuel the hoax, and upload fake claims that the Aether existed in-game.

Resurgence

In 2019, Youtuber CallMeCarsonLive uploaded the video "I toured YOUR minecraft worlds…" where he joined a fan's world which had the Herobrine altar, and a Aether Portal that didn't work. This came in a point where a lot new traction for the game started to build again, and a new culture around Minecraft started to form.

Many users in the years after started sharing images and memes related the the Aether Portal on social media--both about the legacy of the mod, and ironic memes of childhood disappointment of not being able to build a working one.