Herobrine is Notch's dead brother, somehow embedded into Minecraft. While this is the "canon", this is also completely false in reality, as Notch has no brother.

Ghost aside, there are two plausible canon theories remaining.

Herobrine shows a lot of characteristics of being a form of virus, such as manipulating game worlds, deleting threads and sending messages through the Minecraft Forums. Perhaps also hacking into Notch's email and Twitter to reply on his own existence. Or, Herobrine is simply a figment of the users imagination. All users the user talked to, including Notch's email reply, could simply be the creation of the player's mind. This would also explain Notch's rejection of the canon, as showing the story is all in the user's head.

Herobrine is near-certainly inspired by Slenderman, who is also the inspiration behind Endermen.

*GASP*

Congrats on the Minecraft badge. Herobrine is probably lerking in your world right now. Herobrine is watching..

Quote:

Congrats on the Minecraft badge. Herobrine is probably lerking in your world right now. Herobrine is watching..

Thanks and probably

*herobrine noises* Stay back! *gets out enchanted diamond sword*

Congratulations on earning the Minecraft badge. Yes, no one knows the true story behind herobrine.

~Rawr

Guys, Herobrine is removed I think.............. ~ Mico