#Minecraft worldbuilding

[azzayofchaos]

Since my other Nether worldbuilding post was received pretty well... I'm back on my bullshit!

This time featuring zoning and biomes of the Neath: Lore below cut

Nether (noun): the formidable hellscape straddling the boundery between the Fragments of the Overworld and Death's Realms.

Derived from Beneath -> Neath -> Neth -> Nether.

The Nether is most easily accessable through outer regions of the nether, regions that are comparatively closed-off, and lacking in biodiversity compared to the Deep Nether where most Neath civilizations are centered.

The Neth is divided into three primary zones, distinguished by altitude and general climates.

The Calfactory Zone: the largest and most iconic of the three, the Calfactory zone is blisteringly hot and bone-dry, it's most prominent features are its abundant seas and lakes of magma, and the massive Supermagmas atriums that are common above the magma. In the largest of these atriums, the ceiling may be so high above as to be completely invisible from the ground, obscured by an ever present smog of toxic vapor and minerals formed in the self-generated micro-climates that are generated from the rising heat of the lava that begins to cool at a higher altitude.  

In the Basalt Deltas and other biomes around the edges of these lakes, massive pillars of rock and crystals bulwark the more-visible ceiling. 

The most common of this zone’s biomes is the Crimson woods, home to hearty thermal-philic fungi and plants that grow on the minerals and vapors of the lakes. Many are carnivorous in their lack of access to water or sunlight, and these forests contain many sub-biomes and ecosystems of flourishing life. 

The Wastes are perhaps the most desolate regions of the Neath, irradiated deserts of red-rock, brimstone, and sharp sand. Even the vast majority of nether-folk avoid these deserts due to the leftover radiation that rots and destroys anything that waits too long. The only forms of life are particularly robust lichens and bacteria that are happy to sit by the boiling pools of sulfur and mud and toxic sludge that dot the landscape. Growing within the rocks themselves are colonies of amorphous fungus, called geocorpus molds, they get their spores into cracks in the soft netherack and slowly feed on it; the ‘rock meat’ is considered a delicacy in nether cuisine. 

The Temperate Zone: Cradled in the heights of the Neath’s atriums and sat below the roof is the temperate zones; the rising heat of the zone below begins to cool and by doing so, distinct weather patterns form within this zone, leaving it, while still sweltering, a cooler though much more humid climate.

The main biome are the luminescent warped-fungal rainforests that collect the high-rising minerals and odd moisture from the lakes. Liquid is actually present here, though, if it’s not safely filtered through the innards of the various plants and fungi, this water is usually aggressively corrosive, and it is best to shelter from the acidic precipitation to avoid chemical burns. The nether folk and ender local to these rainforests are suited to deal with these conditions and the ender especially do not have trouble with the extreme pH of the water here like they would in the overworld. The zone is lit almost exclusively by the biolumincense of the organisms there and have often been described as false-stars.

In the Deep Nether, the ceiling may give way, allowing one to pass onto the plateaus of the Nether Roof and the yawning void above. The bedrock of the nether roof is jagged and layered in huge slabs, sometimes broken up my mazes of pillar-like structures and shallow, thermal pools of crystal-clear liquid. The kind you don't want to touch of course. fogs may hang low to the ground, but when its clear, or above the fog, the entire universe seems to spill out into the sky. The nether roof was culturally significant and a source of much knowledge and inspiration in the early days, but I'll get more into that in a later post 0.0

The Rime Zone: Plunge deep enough and one might find themselves bellow the lava beds. Here, where the heat can't quite penetrate, the temperatures will drop rapidly to sub-zero.

Namely, the Rime Zone is made up of the soul valleys, flat steppes of cinder and clotted sand, you can imagine it almost with the blindness effect, a fog that pools by your feet, and a heavier darkness hanging from the sky, it feels massive and endless and claustrophobic all at once. Frost collects as crystals on the irradiated, soul-soaked barrens, and the bones of the massive nether wyrms lie fossilized, breaking up the landscape. The sands are also split with patches of crazing on the ground and vents of blue fire that spills out and sets the sand ablaze.

These same wryms can be found sometimes, ancient things that dig through sand and soft rocks and the magma lakes, far and few between and treated with both fear and reverence.

And in the deepest pits of the Neath are the glowing frozen lakes that are colloquially and rightfully called the Gates to Death, glowing blue from beneath their surfaces. Indeed, any further down and you pass into limbo, the edge of Death's Realms.

Extra Notes??:

Soul sand/soil is tread on carefully or not at all, is one form of remnants from the apocolyspe. Like the general radiated rubble present through the Nether, it's a fault of nuclear fallout. Unlike other areas of radiation, its also been infused with the souls of those who didn't survive the joining of worlds. That said, unlike soul sand, soul soil is used productively to grow certain nether crops. It’s minerally and magically dense.

This infused quality is also precent in Nether Debris, resulting in a material that takes magic particularly well.

Iron cannot be found in dense veins and crystals like gold or quartz in the nether, but it's a pretty rich mineral a lot of netherack, giving it its ruddy coloring.

Sorry for this massive rant that no one asked for. If you have questions please feel free to send an ask, I may not have an answer yet but I'll certainly come up with one if I can.

I'm also hoping to do a pass on my headcanons about history and culture in the Nether and then we might start talking about character headcanons since this is also an actual AU.

If you read this far, here's some notes on striders and ghast

[ink-ghoul]

now to my fave minecraft worldbuilding topic

what can you cook? what's edible? what's possible with enough imagination?

I'd like to start with things that are present in-game (vanilla), first, the foods and drinks (ingredients too), having a loaf of bread with a nice mushroom stew seasoned with dandelions for breakfast is an option taken straight from the game

now let's say that I take the apples, wheat, milk, sugar and eggs to make an apple pie, that isn't in the game, but it's something possible to craft

in an extend things like salt can exist because the presence of sea water, same as things like bacon (pigs), cheese (milk) and so on

what if I throw the existing leaves in hot water to make tea?

or since all the dyes have an organic source can I make a rainbow cake?

how you cook things must be important too I imagine, maybe steak cooked in the smoker tastes way better than cooked with a fire aspect sword

[yourlocalcringekid]

GUYS

Idk if someone else has thought of this before, but hear me out on this new worldbuilding headcanon for Minecraft. Phantoms pose the same ecological role as IRL vultures. That being, they eat dead bodies. The reason a lot of them swarm (and even attack) the player when they haven't gotten sleep is because they sense lack of energy (which, for a lot of animals means death is nearby) and assume the player is either dead or dying.

[living-dead-guyy]

I’m going insane I want to eat it so bad

[randomtheidiot]

The fact that zombie villagers and villagers are a thing but regular zombies, skeletons, et cetera are all the same species as the player is fucking haunting. Imagine you’re a villager and you’ve heard stories of a long-dead race of skilled warriors and artisans and the only thing left of them is their crudely reanimated corpses. Hell, imagine you’re STEVE and you’re quite possibly the last member of your race, but you have to destroy the carcasses of your own people every night if you want to survive.

[illwilledomen]

Gently placing down a Strider (They’re some of my favorite critters) (You have such an interesting take on them!!! /genuine) (Same with ghasts- utterly superb)

Alternatively, Iron and Copper golems

Strider!

The most common fungivorous animal in the Nether. There are multiple subspecies split into two major groups — Terrestrial and magmatic (lava-walking). The largest species is the Black-footed Magmatic Strider (pictured) and they have been domesticated by piglin for meat, leather, and fiber string woven from their quills. They are also used as beasts of burden, and are useful for traversing the huge magma flats. Striders can detect vibrations through their wide feet, evolving the feature to detect the activity of ghasts and geothermal activity. They are the only non-porcine nether organism that gives birth to live young, though some more basal terrestrial species still lay eggs.

[whycraft]

"I'm Starving to Death in the Nether": A Cookbook for Avoiding Certain Doom

Renowned chef and piglin-player hybrid Ghàkùàg-Ayg̀ìkh (player name gu_Aykix19) introduces their favourite Nether cuisine to the world in this sensational collection of recipes.

Feast on the following:

ʘa̰ḫṵ̀khṵ̀ guhùàkh, magma cream flatbread

Strider ʘḭh̨kḭʘa̰k̨ì

Candied mushroom skewers

ʘa̰k gheì, crimson soup

and more!

[ks1971]

I love the concept of elytras as parasites that live in direct symbiosis with Elytrians... Like they are living organisms that learned to live with a species that directly helps them feed, etc., and by allowing them flight in a world where you need some sort of device or anatomy for airborne, long distance travel - they're the perfect choice for the host. It's also a relationship, almost. I imagine an Elytrian could have some subconscious/mental communication with their Elytra - sense its distress, etc..

This would also mean that Elytrians initially don't have feathers/features that mark them as such - they're pretty much bare when young, and the older they get and the longer they live on with their Elytras the more they look like these old travellers' books depictions everyone has seen. Their skin gains dark markings all over the body, especially at the parts where the Elytra connects with its host, new appendages maybe grow (such as earwings, tails - maybe the organism figures out what will help with achieving best flight performance possible)

And the Elytrian culture stemming from this - how probably meeting your Elytra and finding the one your organism will be a perfect match with is a sacred ritual, something really respected and never meant to be interrupted. Maybe it's dangerous, if not done under the right conditions? How does a wild Elytra behave? Are they just living, breathing animals or much more conscious that we might think? This symbiosis is something that has been done for centuries, so there's no question in both parties being aware of each others' purpose on something more than just logic - it's ingrained in their baser instincts.

This hc is also the case where I really like to dive into much less feathered depictions of Elytras and making them more void and creature-like in appearance to really create that rift between just wings and a symbiote that aids you.

[officiallydoubtful]

One of my favorite things to world build is how different languages would look in minecraft. To be specific, when I'm worldbuilding based on minecraft I love to imagine how players would use sign language! I think a huge part of language creation/evolution comes from environment and culture, especially when it comes to sign languages!! Like imagine if people indicated to where a gamer tag would be when asking for someone's name?? Or what the signs for different mobs would look like?? Idk just something I like to think about

[ofthenether]

From what we know of the End, the islands became islands by losing the magic of the wyverns- "Ender Dragons" as they're colloquially called. The species was overhunted for sport; there weren't many to begin with due to the magic required to birth one, and the ones that made it to adulthood were usually slain by adventurers looking to make a name for themselves.

The last documented specimen, one affectionately named 'Jean', was slain well before our time.

There weren't many sketches done of her in the moment, presumably because she was trying to kill the adventurer. The above sketch is a replica of one of those older pages- they were too fragile to keep anywhere other than a glass box.

Nowadays, there are no true Ender dragons left. The ones fought for sport in the modern day are usually fake; illusions and spells maintained to keep it as authentic as possible.

I was one of the lucky few who got to visit Jean's nest, decades after she was slain. Most portals take the travelers to one of the fakes, with proper portals to explore what remains of the End opening once the decoy is slaughtered. This one, however, opened to her nest.

I've visited many fake sites in my youth, and I must applaud the accuracy; they look near identical to Jean's actual nest.

But.

Someone else was there.

someone i can't.

quite.

remember.

[azzayofchaos]

As an exercise in creature design and in the interest on developing my dreaming-verse/general world building lore, i thought these guys would be fun to do!

More lore / transcript:

THE STRIDER:

Peaceful lava walkers and grazers, they’re often breed and domesticated for both their use as transportation across the lava lakes and for various materials.

While not certainly an acquired taste to an overworlder, strider meat is not an uncommon food source. String and membranes from their opalescent sensory organs and hide are also valuable resources.

The membranes are heat management, courting displays, and gathering sensory input as they are near-blind.

Strider's eyes are largely vestigial, the sensory organs picking up on heat signatures exclusively.

They have spiracles for breathing along their sides and tails.

When wading through lava, their limbs are able to stretch out, this process requires the high temperature and results in the brighter, redder coloration of their skin as the heated fluids move under it. When not on lava, this fluid cools resulting in a duller coloration.

A subspecies of strider can be found in regions of the deep Neth that are blue in color.

They are long lived and migratory creatures, lichens and fungi often growing on their harder outer plates to spread across lava lakes. These are not an incident the striders, though magma barnacles, the stationary stage of a Nether-local insectoid species are considered pests.

Adolescent striders are a few meters tall, though they can grow considerably larger.

When being ridden, a lantern full of the phosphorescent warped mushrooms that Striders prefer. This lantern has the bonus effect of glowing when passing across sections of land. While Striders prefer to graze on fungi, they also spend significant amounts of time filtering minerals from the lava lakes.

Flags are displayed to help make visible where the rider and the strider are coming from and what the point of travel for the rider is.

THE GHAST:

Territorial and aggressive animals that use the updrafts of lava lakes to remain afloat in the the atriums of the Neath.

Ghats contain organs able to solidify and fire out explosive charges, when about to fire, the organ will light up, an illusion of a demonic face appearing through their spiracles and semi-transparent bodies.

They feed on minerals and airborne biological matter that filters out of the biomes in the upper-regions of the Neth with their oral arms.

The ghast tear is an organ in their center arm.

Adult ghasts release their own spores into the air to help with genetic exchange, otherwise growing young ghast on their bodies that eventually split off in a sort of mitosis.

the gelatinous bodies of ghasts are used primarily in construction and fuel, but parts of their innards, explosive organs not included, are commonly eaten.

[asksimon-and-companions]

We enders live just a smidge longer than you and age a lot slower around the 200 mark. A lot of our history used to be told by the older folks, as they retain knowledge of the world before us. But, we started etching our history into tablets and scrolls. Stories any can remember, are demanded to be recorded for the next generation.

[marshrom]

Guys! Enderman !!!

[living-dead-guyy]

Strider Saddles

Response to @mesmerizms !:

In the initial art I did, I was a bit lazy with the saddle drawing, but I’ve made this to clarify some things!

Here’s a strider without a saddle, a strider with only a saddle blanket, a strider with a blanket and a saddle, and a strider with reins.

There’s lots of room for different colours and patterns on the blanket, including tassels like the one in the picture! There’s now a saddle horn and reins to hold onto (although I’m not sure how feasible they are), as well as stirrups.

Keep in mind, I’m basing this off of my prior knowledge + some cursory research. I’ve never ridden a horse or any other animal 😅

[cosmicmenacee]

Erased and patched over 40 or so old sketchbook pages to start on a spell book for a future Joe Hills cosplay!

This is the first spell starfueled!Joe ever learned, back when they were around 13 years old. (Yes, they started adventuring pretty young, which is risky for a full human)

The symbol in the middle is something I made myself! It translates to “fast” in ancient galactic (which I made specifically for starfueled >:D )

I’ll post more updates as I continue on!!

[illwilledomen]

Piglin (plural) live in a matriarchal society, with a healthy older sow running a horde. They don’t oppress their boars, however, it’s just uncommon to see a boar, particularly a young one, in a higher up position. Piglin have unique naming system. While villager and illager names are based off of your profession (villagers having names like ‘Josef of Millet-Town, the Carpenter-and-Mason’, and illagers having titles like ‘The Astrologer’) piglin are more concerned about discerning where you’ve come from and who you’re related to. A nomadic lifestyle means if you run into another horde who’s found a good hunting spot, you might want to figure out what direction they’ve come from — or if they’re hostile to you, you might want to find out what wise guy put ‘em on the job.

Thus, each piglin name starts with their group name (or settlement, e.g bastion) name. Lets say the name of your horde is Oin, which might stand for some kind of fungus that you guys use a lot for medicine. Your head sow would be named OinSow, to show her position as the leader of the group. You might be a skilled strider rancher, so perhaps you got your name from that — OinKurk, based on the croaking sound that striders make. Lets say one of the sows in your horde has given birth to a litter of piglets. What should she name them? Well, since the nether is a terribly dangerous place, there’s a very small chance that many of those piglets will make it past infancy, let alone adulthood, so for now, they’ll all be named OinPiglet until they get big enough to stray from their mother and show some personality. Then they might earn their name — but that is still subject to change when they get older.

Piglin who are divorced from any horde or bastion will lose the first part of their name. In hypothetical piglin you’s case, you would go from OinKurk to just Kurk. A head sow who has been kicked out or left would lose her title as a hordesow and have her childhood name without the first bit — let’s say OinSow’s childhood name was OinPeck, she would simply become Peck.