Does it know that we love it?

A minecraft seed that has something deeply wrong with it.

This seed deserves special mention for having (at least) 13 ancient cities within 1,500 blocks of spawn. This is one of those seeds where they're more common than villages.

Right near spawn it becomes apparent that something is...not right about the mountains

at least, when you are confronted with THIS motherfucker unlimited. Note the level of the clouds.

For the uninitiated, terrain can only generate below y level 256. That flat plateau? Is at y=255.

Mountains are supposed to taper into peaks in Minecraft. This mountain looks like it was just chopped off at the height limit.

This whole seed is full of some truly dramatic mountains. This beautiful mountain range, for instance.

I checked out the seed on Chunkbase and found another area where the altitude seemed unexpectedly high, and traveled out there:

This range of stony mountains is by far the most dramatic terrain I have ever found. Like the mountain near spawn, these mountains also have weird flat plateau-like areas at y=254 or so, as if they were suddenly chopped off at the top.

It's almost like the game tried to create a much, much higher mountain, but was stopped by the height limit for terrain generation.

That's weird enough, but it doesn't really get creepy until you go underground.

This is underneath the mountains near spawn. That sculk growth is an expected thing to find under mountains, where the Deep Dark biome generates...but something's off here.

The Deep Dark biome is supposed to generate below y level 0, waaaaay way deep underground. But this sculk is all the way up at y=106.

That's not only over 100 blocks higher up than it's supposed to be, it's above the normal level of the ground! The surface in low lying areas in Minecraft tends to be around y=65-80!

The same weird thing is happening underneath the stony mountain range. The sculk growth has climbed far above sea level, when it's not supposed to do that.

All new features announced for the 1.20 update at Minecraft Live this year:

New default skins alongside Alex and Steve

Bamboo wood type and rafts

Hanging signs

Chiseled bookshelves, which can be used to store both written and enchanted books

Camels, which can be ridden by two players at once and jump across ravines or rivers

Additionally announced (but not shown) after winning the mob vote was the Sniffer, an ancient turtle-like mob which will potentially be implemented alongside new decorative plants.

Every Block Board #156 - End Gateway

I recreated the Dungeons Illager font bc the one website that has it broke on me, noticed some interesting similarities between it and the enchantment language. It also has links to the latin alphabet like O and Q, V and W being similar (which, look I know it's just bc the writers are latin alphabet users but it can be used for worldbuilding)

You can have both of them here, along with bordered versions of both, and a font based on the Mojang logo. Mind you, they’re rather bare-bone

Every Block Board #165 - Spore Blossom

They’ve got bastions throughout the nether, huge buildings that at one point were clearly lovingly constructed. Not only were these buildings functional (apartment complexes, hoglin stables), but they created art. Not just carvings, but music. Not even villagers have created music discs, only piglins. Piglins also had access to the overworld at some point, they have a number of items (carrots, water bottles, string, iron) that could only have been obtained from the Overworld.

But… something happened. At some point in the past, something happened, and Piglins lost the ability to maintain their buildings. The buildings fell into ruins, and even though the Piglins stayed with the ruins, they couldn’t salvage them. They just wander the broken hallways.

What happened? Well, we don’t know for sure. But… Piglins are afraid of Zombie Piglins. Even though Zombie Piglins won’t attack them, Piglins still try to get away from them. Despite this, Zombie Piglins don’t appear infectious. Piglins don’t even turn into them when they die. Instead, Piglins turn into Zombies when exposed to the Overworld. The Overworld infects them, and unlike Zombie Villagers, there is no cure.

The piglins used to have access to netherite, but they overharvested it, and all that’s left is this crude debris that’s useless on its own. But what do you need to make that debris into actual ingots? The same thing that piglins will give anything they have just to get a bit more of.

Namely, if Piglin’s are desperate for gold, so desperate they’ll do anything, then why does wearing gold make them passive towards you?

If anything, shouldn’t it be the opposite? They have no problem killing a player who isn’t wearing gold, but at long as you have a golden hat or golden boots, they’ll let you pass by unharmed (unless you break their other rules). If they were truly driven by nothing but greed for gold, then I would expect them to attack players wearing gold on sight to try to get it. But it’s the opposite.

Gold certainly wouldn’t let you blend in with them, they clearly recognize you as something other than them, and brutes still attack you regardless. So that can’t be it. Piglins are still smart enough to barter, to understand that things should be given in exchange for gold, and they understand the difference between gold ingots (currency) and gold items (gifts). They also can’t always be distracted by gold. If they’ve been hurt, then they ignore it in favor of attacking you.

So, what if gold isn’t so highly valued by Piglins purely because of it’s association with Netherite? Or maybe that’s where the idea came from initially, but over time as conditions worsened and stories were lost, gold came to have a new meaning for piglins: safety from infection.

Fun fact about gold irl, it has strong antimicrobial properties. Silver and a few other metals do too. Gold in minecraft also has significant healing properties, AND gold has significant anti-zombie properties. Golden Apples not only heal players, but they can be used to heal a zombie villager. Glistening Melons make health potions, and Enchanted Apples are one of the strongest healing items in the game.

So maybe the Piglin’s strong fondness for gold is less about Netherite, and more about a belief that it may offer protection from Zombification? If that were the case, then Piglins being more trusting of players wearing gold makes sense. It’d be the equivalent of feeling more safe around a person wearing a mask today. A player wearing gold has signified that they are protecting themselves and others from the infection.

This theory is further backed up by Piglin’s singular natural enemy (they hunt Hoglins, but that appears to be for food, and the babies get along), withers. Piglins are hostile not only towards the Wither itself, but towards Wither Skeletons. And it’s only Wither Skeletons. Regular Skeletons and even Zombie Piglins aren’t attacked by Piglins, but Wither Skeletons are on-sight. Why? Well, maybe they have something to do with this infection. Or at least, maybe Piglins believe withers have something to do with this infection.

It’s also worth noting, when you spawn the Wither, the achievement you get for it is “The Beginning?“ and for killing it you get “The Beginning.“ Which is an odd string of achievements for spawning in and killing an out of the way boss.  A strange parallel to when you enter The End, and earn “The End? Or the beginning?”.

The deep dark looks so, so good.

For those who missed Minecraft live, they revealed a new part of the deep dark, the "deep dark cities", these sprawling underground structures, with lots of stone brick, sculk, candles, etc.

There's a new block called the "Sculk shrieker", that shrieks loudly when it detects you near it. It also will apply the "Darkness" effect when you get near, causing the environment to pulse with darkness.

Another new block that was revealed is the "Sculk Catalyst", a block which causes the sculk to spread- if a mob dies near a sculk catalyst, it will cause more sculk to grow, and the exp dropped by the mob determines how much it grows. It also stores some exp inside of it.

Also, they showed off more about the Warden-

The Warden spawns by literally emerging from the sculk on the floor, once you've made too much noise, or if you activate the Sculk shriekers too many times. It was also revealed that, even if you are silent, if the Warden approaches you, it can begin to smell you out.

It literally smells your fear.

Every Block Board #116 - Iron Bars + Chain

[combined due to similarity]