The infamous Wither. I definitely like this one better than the new one that came out today.

Neat little set, confused why the skeleton on the top has light grey legs though

It appears the floor is quite literally lava.

I wish I'd pick up this set, orat least some set with a Wither Skeleton.

@Studded_Dud said:
"Neat little set, confused why the skeleton on the top has light grey legs though"

What's especially weird is that the piece hasn't even been produced in gray, it's only been made in lack and Bright Reddish Violet.

First 2016 set chosen by the bot

Ironic given they just released an updated version of this one.

Lore that's mostly game mechanics!

One of the enemies that exclusively spawns in Nether Fortresses are Wither Skeletons. Taller and darker than normal Skeletons, these foes inflict the Wither debuff when they hit you. This slowly ticks away at your health and turns all your hearts black, making it hard to tell how much life you have left.

When you kill Wither Skeletons they have a small chance to drop Wither Skulls. If you combine four Soul Sand and three Wither Skulls you can summon THE Wither, a powerful three-headed demonic force. The Wither is fueled by endless rage, shooting explosive skulls that destroy the terrain and killing any non-Undead Mobs it can find. Initially the Wither will try to fly out of the player's range, but when it reaches half health it will become grounded and immune to ranged attacks, forcing you to engage it head on. It also can heal itself, meaning you can't spend too long retreating from its powerful blows. On bedrock edition, The Wither can summon additional Wither Skeletons as backup for the fight.

Slaying The Wither will grant you with one Nether Star. This can then be crafted into a Beacon. Beacons create a giant beam of light to help players track their base from afar, and emit magic boons to buff you and your friends.

Outside of the base game The Wither's most notable appearance was in (the non-canon) Minecraft Story Mode. The main antagonist of the first five chapters was The Wither Storm, a special Wither created using a Command Block that was capable of consuming the world. It was summoned by Ivor to prove his own might, but when you and your team accidentally destroyed the potion that was supposed to stop it you're forced to join forces with the grimy wizard to find a new way to slay the beast before it eats everyone. There's a pretty fun twist partway through the game where you think you've managed to kill the thing, only for the three blobs of goop you blew off to reform and create three separate Storms, each with their own three heads to bolster its feeding power. Eventually you manage to kill the Storm, but at the cost of your brave pet Ruben's life.

In the other spinoffs the Beacon gets a lot of love. In Dungeons the Corrupted Beacon is one of the more powerful weapons you can obtain. While it has a decent cooldown, once charged it can fire devastating beam of purple energy that can wipe out waves of enemies (as opposed to the blue beams that heal you in the base game.) In Legends a notable plot point was the Night Beacon. Long ago the Overworld had two suns, until the great Piglin invasion. The haggard witch who served The Great Hog, known as The Seer, used the Orb of Dominance to supercharge a Beacon. Once placed in the Overworld it shot out a beam that drained one of the suns of its light, creating the Overworld's Moon and causing the first night to befall the once blessed land. The (also non-canon) Minecraft Movie references the Night Beacon, with Malgosha (who is definitely The Seer) having a purple beacon atop her Nether portal at the films climax to bring darkness upon the land.

A pretty popular fan theory posits that the post-apocalyptic nature of Minecraft Vanilla is thanks to The Wither. This mainly stems from the Achievement for summoning the beast being called "The Beginning," a nod to the Achievement for fighting the Ender Dragon being called "The End." This has led people to believe that The Wither was some sort of apocalyptic threat that resulted in the spread of the Undead across the land. While I used to think this was a fun idea, its a hypothesis that hasn't really aged well. In Story Mode killing a Wither is seen as a pretty regular occurrence, Jessie's inexperienced crew have a Beacon, and even the pushover Piglins of Legends must of have done it to make the Night Beacon. Dungeons also firmly established the sheer number and hostility of Undead was the result of the Nameless One and his cult of Necromancer's melding, a purposeful war to build his troops rather than an accidental viral outbreak. All of this suggests Withers aren't actually that much of a threat and aren't inherently responsible for the Undead, but still raises the question of what they were "the Beginning" of?

@PurpleDave said:
"I wonder whether the wither withers."

Whither withers the Wither? The Wither withers ever the Nether.

Not technically true, though. You can create a Wither wherever you like, although I would advise summoning it where you -don't- like. Unless you really take care to build a proper arena out of the right materials, it's an incredibly destructive fight.

You'd better believe the Wither withers.