My newest Minecraft lore story! I hope you like it. More are on the way.

On the ninth night of the third month of the sixty-fifth year of the reign of his Excellency Hesiodetes VI, the sun sank brilliantly behind the calm blue ocean. The island city was plunged into an hour of darkness before the full moon rose and illuminated Spartos to a gleam nearly as bright as day. Shortly after the sun had set, a hooded figure stepped through an alleyway near the edge of the city. His face would have been completely obscured were it not for the foot-long greying beard that came from the hood's opening.

The bearded man walked swiftly between buildings, over bridges, across cobblestone streets, and in the dark shadows of sky-scraping watchtowers until he came to a hidden doorway in the stone wall of the enormous palace in the center of the city. He knocked three times and a peephole opened in the door, revealing the scowling eyes of the man who had opened it.

"Password?", he spoke in a gruff voice.

"Night is upon us.", came the reply.

The door opened and the bearded man was bid to enter. Behind the door was a small room. inside was a downward staircase with a stone brick floor, ceiling, and walls. In the corner of the room was the office of the watchman, Argus. "The others await you, lord Aristarchus."

"As you were, Argus." Aristarchus replied. At the bottom of the staircase, Aristarchus came to a large, square meeting chamber with rows of carved stone benches along the walls, and a tabletop map of Spartos in the center. This map showed in detail, every building on the island, from the smallest fisherman's cottage to the enormous temple of the ocean, and the palace itself. On the other three walls were passages leading to the rest of the complex.

"Welcome back." said Aristarchus' younger brother Copernicus, who was studying the map table. "Today I have made a fabulous discovery!" he continued. "As you well know, our people have long noticed a connection between the moon and the ocean's tides. We have always understood this to mean that the ocean controls the phases of the moon. However, through careful and diligent study, I have determined that the moon controls the tides."

"But this is extraordinary! You have my congratulations, for I believe you, but certainly, you will never be widely believed. I must know how you discovered such a revolutionary principle!" Aristarchus marvelled.

"I have simply noticed that the moon waxes slightly before the high tide comes in. Unless the moon has some absurd psychic ability, the true explanation is quite obvious."

"I couldn't agree more."

During their conversation, the two brothers walked through one of the other doors out of the meeting chamber, and into the forging district of the underground complex. These forges were the complex's true purpose. Every city and military outpost in the empire was defended by armies of trident-wielding soldiers, and these tridents were forged with smithing secrets known to only 32 people in all the world. After the empire's eventual decline, these secrets would not be rediscovered for several thousand years.

Every hour of the day, at least five of the complex's smiths were forging new tridents to keep their empire safe and secure. Inside the forges, every apparatus was running at full force. The exact smithing process is lost to the ages, but it is known that the prismarine (extremely strong sea monster scales) was heated to a liquid in a blast furnace, cast in a mold, left to settle, pounded to maximum strength on an anvil, and sharpened on a grindstone. The newly forged tridents were presented to new soldiers in the imperial army.

Inside the forge, the brothers met the head smith, a man named Imhotep, who had come from the distant desert city of Tresad in his youth. "We are all pleased by your return, my friend Aristarchus. Tell me, what news do you bring from the battle?" Imhotep queried.

"We have driven the Phoenixians from our territory, but they have found powerful allies in the Kretians, and will not hesitate to strike back." Aristarchus replied.

"Kretia is near my homeland. Have my people sent any reinforcements?"

"This is not their fight yet, but I suspect it will be soon."

After their conversation with Imhotep in the forges, the brothers parted ways. Aristarchus was met by Argus the gatekeeper.  
"My lord, you must come at once. You will never believe what has been found in the mines!"
Spartos has a small network of mines, not nearly large enough to sustain the whole city with its profits, but as the late emperor Hesiodetes II always said: "A little extra gold never hurt anyone!"

Upon entering the mine, Aristarchus' jaw dropped. He had seen much in his 62 years of life, but few things as fantastic as this. Embedded in the rough, rocky wall of the cavern was an enormous skeleton. Not of a man, but of some gigantic monster of eons past. Its immense skull was longer than any man is tall, with large, curved horns, and sharp, serrated teeth. "It's a dragon!" Aristarchus declared, amazed. "An ancient dragon, far older than the city itself!"

The miners continued unearthing the ancient beast for the next six days. Then the problem arose of how to transport it to the surface of the island. "We shall take utmost care not to damage our discovery, for the ages have made its bones most brittle." Aristarchus wrote in the log he had started for the excavation. It was decided to dismantle the skeleton, transport it in pieces to the surface, and reassembled in the palace where it could be seen by all who passed. Years later in his autobiography, Aristarchus would write: "The most noteworthy discovery that I have made in my life is doubtless the dragon bones of Spartos."