Hello there, ladies and gentlemen!  I've got some neat stuff to show you this week.  Let's get right to it.

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This week was dominated by hubs, palaces, and other nuggets of architectural goodness.  At the forefront was a build titled Palace of Lost Souls, created by MrBatou.



This palace is the very definition of the word opulence.  It’s designed not to house things, or to hold assemblies; it’s just there to look cool.  Nothing more.



The palace is surrounded by a vast, elaborately designed perimeter fence. Within the palace grounds are hundreds of custom-made pink trees.  Oh, and there’s gigantic, circular auras hovering above.  Whenever you see a massive build with a lot of detail and effort put into it, chances are it’s accompanied by floating auras.  Just look up.



The structure itself is adorned with rich details, support towers, and giant angelic statues.  The interior is spacious, dark, and devoid of spacial interruptions.  I’m not sure what the inside of this building is meant to be used for, but the possibilities are endless.  They could probably set up a fairly extensive carnival, host any variety of sporting events, or maybe even fit Rosie O’Donnell through the front door.  Probably not.



But the true centerpiece of this castle is the small circular structure out back.  It resembles a large steam chute, spewing a cloud of white smoke into the atmosphere.  I assume that this material is meant to be interpreted as ‘souls’, but I have a different theory.  I think that the structure is actually a nuclear reactor, and that people are just told that the thermo-nuclear waste being pumped into the atmosphere is just a bunch of souls.  That way, the EPA has no basis in regulating the palace, and the surrounding property sales remain high.



That would explain why the leaves on all the trees bear an unnatural pink hue.  They’ve all become hideously mutated.  That’s just my opinion.  Every steam chute, big or small, on the planet is potentially a fission reactor irradiating the environment.  You think about that.

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The best terraforming of the week was, as it usually is, a massive multi-biome terrain made by someone with a near infinite amount of time on their hands.  This is Afterlife Island, created by Gabersid.  Apparently Gabersid has been working on this map for the past 10,000 years.  If you have a hard time grappling that fact, keep in mind that there’s a time vortex and a portrait in Gabersid’s attic involved.  That’s all I’ll say about that.



This map incorporates a great many biome types, ranging from volcanoes and deserts to icy mountain ranges and tropical swamplands.  In truth, Afterlife Island appears to be 12 different projects crammed into one.  If this terrain were a person, I think we could diagnose him as severely bipolar.



It’s the execution of each terrain type that makes this map so profoundly mind-blowing.  The volcanic rock looks rigid and viscous, the peaks in the tundra region are layered and sprinkled with a delicate dusting of snow, and the swamplands are lush and tropical.  Everything looks perfect in its own regional identity, yet everything is flanked on all sides by foreign terrain.



It’s like a soup with many ingredients, all of which compliment each other in their own way.  Except instead of broth you have forestry, volcanos instead of onions, dunes instead of croutons, and rivers instead of cheese.  Overall, Afterlife Island is much like its ‘french onion soup’ counterpart.



Oh, and Gabersid was kind enough to include some neat icy symbols on the shores of the tundra region.  Why not?  The map is downright whimsical at times, and simply realistic at others.  Yet it is one thing throughout: absolutely perfect.

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The best organic project of the week also happens to be the best skywars map I’ve ever seen here on PMC.  It’s a map titled O’Clock - Skywars Organic Map, created by BuildTeamStar.



The perimeter islands are covered in gigantic, swirling leaves that reach for the sky in a profoundly beautiful manner.  Massive gears, buried in the sands like coins standing on end, litter the map as well.  Oh, and there’s a few floating hourglasses for added effect.



In the center lies a tremendous clock, wrapped in vines and vegetation with circular auras emanating above it.  The one thing that’s constant throughout this map: time.  The clock, gears, and hourglasses represent the mechanical side, while the reaching plants represent the organic side.



It’s a simple theme, easily understood by the viewer, that provides a nice stage for some PvP fun.  Skywars maps usually take banal, uninteresting forms.  O’Clock is definitely not one of those maps.

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Thank you very much for stopping by.  If you liked this blog, please consider tossing me a diamond, and don't forget to spread some diamonds to the map creators too.  I'll see you guys next week!