Big Moon Incident

“Is the Moon Big?” -MumboJumbo

Around four months into Season 8, the moon started to appear larger in the night sky, growing in apparent size and appearing full at all times. Several Hermits believed that it was either increasing in size or coming closer to the world. Starting on October 21, 2021, the moon began growing and stopped changing phases. It was first mentioned by MumboJumbo and Grian on November 9, 2021.

The Hermits had reacted to this in several ways. Several cults and religious groups were formed to worship the moon, while others relied on science and technology to prevent the disaster from occurring. Some other effects that were presumed to be related to the moon are periodic earthquakes and levitation, and persistent slow falling and jump boost. Blocks also appeared to be levitating into the air occasionally. The moon also seemed to be taking away Evil Xisuma's powers, though that may have just been a coincidence.

HASA worked to study the moon and discover how to prevent the cataclysmic event, confirming that the moon's orbit is decaying and causing earthquakes. Grian and JoeHills built research stations to measure the moon's growth regularly, and Cubfan135 studied the levitation effects while launching animals to the moon with TNT cannons in an attempt to recreate the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle. The Order of Octa and the Mooners were cults formed around the moon. The Order of Octa obeyed the command of Moonatrix Octa through her whispers from within the moon rock, while the Mooners tried to prevent any sleeping on the server, to bring forth long nights with the moon shining bright.

The moon eventually crashed into the server, ending the season. In Docm77 and Rendog's season finale, it was revealed that the moon had crashed into the server as part of an antivirus operation, the culmination of their season long Hermatrix storyline.

Timeline of Events

Date	Event
October 21	The moon first starts growing and appearing always full.
November 6	Earliest accurate moon size in Vector_9260's data.
November 9	Moon size first noticed by MumboJumbo and Grian.
November 12	Earthquakes start.
November 17	JoeHills begins measuring the moon.
November 26	Hermits randomly get slow falling and jump boost. A moon rock crashes Docm77 and Rendog's base.
November 29	The Mooners cult is created by MumboJumbo.
December 1	HASA is created by TangoTek.
December 3	Blocks randomly start flying up and dropping around the server, and the Order of Octa is formed by Docm77 and Rendog.
December 6	Hermits randomly get levitation.
December 11	Slow falling and jump boost become permanent.
December 14	MumboJumbo leaves the Mooners and a general decline in following of the Mooners follows
December 16	Blocks are pulled out of the ground completely by the moon, however this was just a visual effect and the blocks return when the chunks are reloaded.
December 22	The moon crashes into the server, ending Season 8.

Moonatrix Octa

Moonatrix Octa, Hermatrix Octa, or /delete hermatrix-V8.simul, is a "character" related to the big moon arc and the Hermatrix. represented by or being the moon rock that crashed in Rendog and Docm77's base. Moonatrix Octa is some form of deity that requested Docm77 and Rendog deliver 8 Hermits' heads to the moon rock. She says that there is "not long left" until some unknown event. She is "nearly here", possibly being the moon itself. Moonatrix Octa corrupted parts of the Odditorium. Moonatrix Octa gave them a book named the Altar of Octa saying:

magnet:xt=urn:btih:35C9DF102DD950A8537E403BC64035A5567C3821&dn=Octa.zip&tr=udp%3a%2f%2ftracker.opentrackr.org%3a1337%2fannounce

In Rendog and Docm77's season finale, it was revealed that Moonatrix Octa was an operation to get rid of a virus in the Hermitcraft 8 simulation.

Hermit Reactions

BdoubleO100's reaction

BdoubleO100 didn't even notice that the moon was growing, as he always slept the night away. This is also why at the end of the season, he was very confused about why everybody was trying to evacuate from such a paradise. And, of course, he was the only hermit left on the server in the overworld at the end of the season, as, of course, everybody had left due to the moon crashing into the server. This resulted in the moon also crashing into him, leaving his status unknown.

Cubfan135's reaction

Cubfan135 created a news segment where he interviewed the other Hermits about the moon. He began monitoring the levitation effects caused by the moon with the Levitologicator 4000, a redstone contraption that measured how often and how high he levitated. He later tried to appease the moon by recreating Hey Diddle Diddle. To do this, he used a TNT cannon to fire a cow over the moon, found a cat, and used an armour stand with a MumboJumbo head (a hermit often referred to as a "spoon") along with a bowl renamed to a dish to be the dish running away with the spoon.

Docm77's reaction

Docm77 started a cult named "The Order of Octa" with Rendog, and began by attacking the Boatem residents.

EthosLab's reaction

EthosLab didn't seem worried about the event at all, commenting that as the "quiet one at the back of the class", he would leave the other Hermits to deal with the growing moon problem. EthosLab figured that they're all trying stuff, and something has to work, and if not, he is sure that they will join as a group and figure something out and everything will go back to normal again.

FalseSymmetry's reaction

FalseSymmetry hid in a bunker built under The Lump with GeminiTay, and vice-versa.

GeminiTay's reaction

GeminiTay hid in a bunker built under The Lump with FalseSymmetry.

GoodTimesWithScar's reaction

GoodTimesWithScar was away from the server when the moon started to grow. When he returned, the first thing he saw were signs near his bed placed by Grian, telling him that the moon had grown and not to sleep. Unbeknownst to Scar, Grian had trapped the bed with an ender crystal that blew up when Scar tried to sleep. A hole was blown through his house, which Grian later repaired. After some talking with Grian, GoodTimesWithScar decided to join the Mooners and stop sleeping, though said that he only joined because he wanted to kill BdoubleO100. He later succeeded in this goal by luring Bdouble100 to the sacrificial fire of the Mooners shrine.

Grian's reaction

Grian built an observatory to measure the size of the moon and calculate its growth in size. Upon witnessing MumboJumbo's Mooners shrine and reading its sacred texts, he agreed to join the Mooners and forgo sleep, commenting that Hermits sleeping the night away were interfering with his ability to measure the moon. To affirm his commitment to the Mooners, he blew up his bed in front of the shrine, accidentally damaging ImpulseSV's bee farm which, coincidentally, had been built directly underneath the site of the explosion.

MumboJumbo's reaction

For more information, see The Mooners

Following the path of 'peace, love and plants', MumboJumbo took to calling himself a Mooner and built a shrine to honour the moon. The shrine consisted of a ring of stone statues that cried during the day but stopped at night, shooting four celebratory rockets when the moon came out. He also wrote the Ancient Mooner Texts, which state that the Moon is coming closer due to becoming angry with the Hermits consistently sleeping the night away. The Texts ask the Hermits to cast their beds aside to live life with night and day.

PearlescentMoon's reaction

PearlescentMoon joined The Mooners, and started a slumber party. Once things got worse, she built a safe place in the Nether to house her pets, hoping they wouldn't be killed by the moon. Later, she went down into the void along with the other Boatem crew members.

Rendog's reaction

Rendog found the moon's growth rather odd, but didn't react too much until a moon rock crashed into his base. Their chicken coop blew up, and Rendog and Docm77 decided to investigate. At first, they thought this was the doing of the Boatem crew, until they came across the rock. At first their reaction was surprise and confusion, but they soon calmed down and started joking around. When Rendog got the rock in his inventory, he realized that it was called /delete hermatrix-V8.simul, with the color of the text being yellow. The two eventually came to the conclusion that someone was trying to warn them about Hermitcraft Season 8 not being real, and Rendog decided to take it to his Odditorium. They placed it down, and Rendog started to hear odd noises, so he enticed Docm77 to come closer. They were both weirded out and decided to log off for the day. In the next episode, with no transition, Rendog and Docm77 were seemingly brainwashed by the moon rock. The rock was surrounded by crystals and vines, and Rendog and Docm77 decided to kill MumboJumbo, as the moon 'requires to be fed'. They also killed Grian, Cubfan135, Keralis(1), JoeHills, ImpulseSV, and each other (Rendog and Docm77) using weapons named The Order of Octa.

TangoTek's reaction

TengoTek built HASA (Hermit Aeronautical and Space Administration) in response to the increasing size of the moon. Later, TangoTek ventured out to the moon on a mission to blast the moon back into orbit, but this failed when one of the lunar bunnies blew up the TNT, which wasn't enough, which in turn led to the destruction of the world.

Xisumavoid's reaction

Fled to the Nether

Evil Xisuma's reaction

The increase in the size of the moon caused Evil Xisuma's powers to fade. He would eventually lose all of his powers and without the ability to influence Xisumavoid with the use of these powers, he was forced to flee the server. However, he did not flee far enough, as the location he fled to also collided with the moon shortly afterwards.

Zedaph's reaction

Zedaph was aware of the large moon, but paid little attention to it, instead focusing on the completion of the projects within his lab.

Data

All sources are from JoeHills' streams unless otherwise specified, and are based on an FOV of 70, and how much of the screen the moon spans horizontally. Data from u/vector_9260 on Reddit, and his continued moon measurements from counting pixels in JoeHills' streams.

Moon Sizes

Date	Size	From	How big compared to normal	Distance (based on estimated 500x500 moon size from ending animation)
N/A	4%	Normal-sized moon	1x	10229 blocks away
11/9	11%	MumboJumbo, Grian	2.75x	3714 blocks away
11/11	14%	Docm77	3.5x	2916 blocks away
11/13	17%		4.25x	2398 blocks away
11/17	21%	TangoTek	5.25x	1938 blocks away
11/19	26%		6.5x	1560 blocks away
11/22	30%		7.5x	1348 blocks away
11/26	34%		8.5x	1186 blocks away
11/29	40%		10x	1002 blocks away
12/01	46%		11.5x	866 blocks away
12/04	51%		12.75x	776 blocks away
12/08	59%		14.75x	663 blocks away
12/11	65%		16.25x	596 blocks away
12/13	73%		18.25x	522 blocks away
12/18	81%		20.25x	465 blocks away

Fans' reactions

The fans have many varied theories on the moon. They come in two types, Big Moon theories and Approaching Moon theories. Big Moon theories state that the moon is being made bigger somehow. A theory of this type is the Big Eyes Embiggining theory, which states that the Big Eyes have a laser that they are trying to embiggen the eyes of the man in the moon with, but for some reason, it just hits the moon. An Approaching Moon theory is that the Octagon have a Moon Magnet they are using to pull the moon closer to Earth. Most people believed it would be like Majora's Mask and the moon will crash into the server, causing geographical shifts, but some thought it would eventually stop getting closer, and the moon's gravity will rearrange the terrain instead. There are even some who believe that the moon would destroy the Hermit's bases, capsizing Keralis's destroyer and causing rockfall on MumboJumbo's Utopia. But if HASA is correct, the Moon is getting closer. Some fans believe that Hermatrix has something to do with this, that Hermitcraft Season 8 is a simulation created by Grumbot.

The Truth

The Big Moon turned out to be the conclusion to season 8 rather than a way to change to 1.18. In many of the Hermits' most recent videos, they die in the middle, then an animation (made by Element Animation) shows Boatem - and presumably the world - getting destroyed (though not before Grian's Villagers comment on the fact they were left behind). When the animation finished for Rendog, though, it cut to a spaceship called the Hermitheus that has apparently been transporting the Hermits throughout the many seasons, and collecting memorabilia from those seasons. While we only get shown the seasons 5 and 6 storage containers, they are filled with the most memorable builds from said seasons, such as Sahara's storefront and the Speedy Pines Raceway sign. It turns out Ren-Bob and Goatman are driving the van, with help from Holsten and Grumbot).

Grian's villagers commenting on getting left behind

Moon as it enters Hermitcraft Season 8's Atmostphere

The Moon as it appears from the perspective of the Boatem Gigabase

The Moon in its final moments before impact.

The Moon after it impacts into Hermitcraft Season 8's world

Hermits' Fates Prior to Hermatrix Shutdown

Hermits	How each Hermit attempted escape in the final moments
BdoubleO100	Claimed ownership of whole server. Fate unknown.
Cubfan135	Launched self into space on a llama via Moonshot.
DocM77	Leapt into the Octa Altar that he and Rendog created, triggering the Hermatrix Shutdown.
EthosLab	Fate unknown. No finale video was made.
FalseSymmetry	Flew away on the back of the large eagle.
GeminiTay	Went through an Amethyst Portal. Fate unknown.
GoodTimesWithScar	Sent self and the other Boatem Crew into the Boatem Hole, ending up in an unknown temporary limbo. During the season 9 premiere, it was shown that he continued to fall till he dies hitting the ground of the season 9 world.
Grian	Went with the Boatem Crew into the Boatem Hole, ending up in an unknown temporary limbo until season 9.
Hypnotizd	Fate unknown. No finale video released.
iJevin	Rocketed into space on an improvised rocket.
ImpulseSV	Went with the Boatem Crew into the Boatem Hole, ending up in an unknown temporary limbo until season 9.
Iskall85	Fate unknown. No finale video released.
JoeHills	Broke his No Wings streak and flew into space with his Elytra.
Keralis	Almost stranded, but hitched a ride on xB's Situation Room ship.
MumboJumbo	Went with the Boatem Crew into the Boatem Hole, ending up in an unknown temporary limbo until season 9.
PearlescentMoon	Went with the Boatem Crew into the Boatem Hole, ending up in an unknown temporary limbo until season 9.
Rendog	Leapt into Octa Altar portal with Docm77.
Stressmonster101	Fate unknown. No finale video released.
TangoTek	Sent into space due to failed attempt to redirect the moon.
TinFoilChef	Fate unknown. No finale video released.
VintageBeef	Fate unknown. No finale video released.
Welsknight	Built a spaceship and flew it off planet.
xBCrafted	Went to Situation Room Bunker, revealing it to be a ship, and escaped.
Xisumavoid	Went into the Nether to wait it out.
Zedaph	Fate unknown. No finale video released.
ZombieCleo	Stranded alone in the End.