FINALIST IN A FINALISTS JAM
This Map is an entry in the completed Nether Minecraft Build Contest.

Minecraft Maps / Nether Structure

Ashen Thaael - Nether Dwarven Fortress

  • 8,750 views, 0 today
  • 1,043 downloads, 0 today
  • 101
  • 70
  • 18
SolidRockGaming
Level 37 : Artisan Dwarf
31
In ages long past, there was a proud race called the Ilderdhúva--the Elder dwarves. They were mighty, proud, and numerous. Their power was vast, and was only surpassed by their greed. As their empire grew and spread across the land, their greed also spread across their hearts, consuming them with an ever-growing hunger for riches.


It was this gold-lust that drove the Ilderdhúva to delve deep into the earth. They clove their tunnels through soil and earth; through rock and stone. Such was their mastery that even the ever-stone--which they called bédrok--was no barrier to them. With time they overcame this greatest of obstacles, and delved more greedily and deep than even the creators had intended.


Here, beneath the bédrok, they uncovered a great cavern, but this cavern was like none they had ever seen before. The stones were wrong, and even the soil was accursed. The souls of the dead and the living corpses of the damned reigned freely over the hellish depths. Immediately the Ilderdhúva knew that they had stumbled upon a fell and twisted place.


And yet, there they found that for which they had come: those wrongful stones were rich in gold, and in opaline crystals which their masons and gravers could craft into stunning works of beauty. Most precious to them though was the abundant sources of magma, which the Elder dwarves soon learned to refine. They learned to extract from the molten earth rare metals which formed only here in the intense depths and pressures of the nether realm, and to forge these metals into an alloy that could cleave diamonds like bread and turn back the sharpest of blades.


The greatest work which the dwarves of old fashioned was the deep hall of Ashen Thaael. This fortress was both the capital of their great empire and also the palace of their mightiest king. Its halls were adorned with masterwork of both realms--with overworld stones and with underworld gold. They wove great tapestries of strider silks, and they carved great monuments to kings and lords of days now gone. None who gazed upon the mighty pillars of Ashen Thaael could ever speak of any grandeur greater than that hall. It became a monument to the cunning, the wealth, and the skill of the Ildrdhúva.


But before long conflict broke out among them. Four of the ancient kings were afraid of the evil they might awaken here. Their people murmured about wicked gods and ancient demons. These four wanted to return to their mountain homes and seal this place away forever. But three others were not so daunted. They lusted long after the gold and gems they found in this nether realm, and they were not keen to leave behind such wealth for fear of superstitions.


The council of kings reasoned long together, but no compromise could be found. In the end, it was decided that each would decide for his own people. The four fearful kings retreated to the overworld. These became the Uvrdhúva--the overdwarves, who carved the great hall of Paan Dhora. But the three greedy kings remained behind. These became the Nythrdhúva--the netherdwarves, who built many fortresses and bastions in the nether cavern.


But in time, their greed became their curse. The evils which the overdwarves fled proved too much even for the dwarves of Ashen Thaael. Their once-mighty empire crumbled, and is no more. The great hall of kings lays under dust and ash. The luster of their gold glistens in the deep, but no eye is there to behold it.


Perhaps some day the Uvrdhúva will return, and will claim the hall that now lies empty. Perhaps some greedy king will find his way once more to the nether caves. But until that day, the cloven hall of Ashen Thaael waits silent and empty, keeping watch over the fires of the deep.


======================================


Hello, thank you for viewing our submission to this very thrilling and unique competition.

SolidRockGaming and I have been working together on semi-professional Minecraft architect teams for almost 8 years now, and we are absolutely delighted with the outcome of this project.

Now, usually we would be very impulsive with our projects, and not put much effort into planning; we typically play by ear. But for this build we spent more time in the development stage, and it definitely shows. We believe this is some of our best work yet.

We first began by looking through numerous medias in search for starting points - such as concept artworks, video games, movies, even books. These references gave us a solid idea of what we wanted to; and that we both were on the same level of understanding in vision of our outcome.

This led on to us experimenting with the new Nether blocks which arrived with 1.16. This was essential, as we were potentially working with a brand new palette. Subsequently--after many days of testing--we decided these new blocks would work better in accenting the style we had decided upon.



Once we had decided on our style, we moved onto planning the scale and location, and we had no fuss on choosing a massive, towering fortress - something that would tremendously stand out in the new Basalt Delta biome. This new biome is a favourite of ours, on account of its amazing, atmospheric, foggy ash effect.

We came to the competition late, with only about two weeks to the deadline. To complete this project on time, we ultimately chose to use the buildings aides WorldEdit and VoxelSniper - two plugins we are very familiar with; being very efficient for placement of intricate parts, and for the recreation of realistic Minecraft terrain. This allowed us to the clear the vast space we required for our bold project.



We found that through our thorough prototyping we both had picked up a very similar style - that gave us the ability to split up and work on separate areas which in turn gave us more time to put extra fine details into the various rooms - which we kept in a simple plan. This would prevent the build being overwhelmed by over-detailing, maintaining a clear path around our grand and looming halls.

Once the whole structure was at long last complete, we brought our fortress to life with some basalt terrain to fit it into the surrounding area and biome.

In the end, we are extremely pleased with our work here. Most times we forgot that this was an entry in a contest, as we were enjoying it so much - and we hope to work on a great deal of builds in future.






Thank you for your support!


- Roccosthom and SolidRockGaming
CreditRoccosthom
Progress100% complete
Tags

Create an account or sign in to comment.

JIS_hobbit
08/29/2020 6:08 am
Level 25 : Expert Engineer
also good build
1
JIS_hobbit
08/29/2020 6:08 am
Level 25 : Expert Engineer
what are the XYZ for dis place i cant find it
1
SolidRockGaming
08/31/2020 9:09 am
Level 37 : Artisan Dwarf
It should be located right at the world spawn
1
LordDathedr
07/24/2020 9:33 am
Level 36 : Artisan Architect
Absolutely stunning, a great Creation with an even greater storyline. An overall great work.
3
SolidRockGaming
07/24/2020 10:39 am
Level 37 : Artisan Dwarf
history
Thank you friend! We wanted our build to stand out, so we took a different route than just putting netherrack and lava everywhere, while still using the new nether biomes and blocks to our advantage. What we achieved is something haunting and eerie. We're very satisfied with our final product!



As for the story, we tried to take the old dwarven cliche of digging too greedily and too deep and put a twist on it. We also wanted to make sure the major rooms of the build (The throne room, the council room, and the forges) were represented in the lore. Glad you like it!
1
LordDathedr
07/24/2020 10:46 am
Level 36 : Artisan Architect
It was really really eerie, and I do agree, Nether rack does get boring without another color besides red. And I love the addition of blue flame to the Nether Update, it really adds good accents.
2
SolidRockGaming
07/24/2020 10:48 am
Level 37 : Artisan Dwarf
Totally agree. The additions of basalt and blackstone were just what this game needed. We needed a broader pallet of truly black blocks to offset the true white of nether quartz. It has opened many possibilities.



And the blue fire is just epic xD
1
LordDathedr
07/24/2020 11:01 am
Level 36 : Artisan Architect
I'm really just happy they added a black stone to minecraft, a stone that could be turned into stairs, the closest thing to black was Dark Oak, which wasn't good enough, I absolutely love the nether update, it adds so many more possibilities to Nether Building besides overworld materials.
2
SolidRockGaming
07/24/2020 11:04 am
Level 37 : Artisan Dwarf
I feel the same way. That's one reason we were so happy to do this project! If you download the map, you'll see many of those black blocks being used in exciting and creative ways!
1
Jumbao
07/22/2020 3:20 pm
Level 1 : New Miner
Nice Build was watching a steam when it was being built. Big props to the build team sticking to build it. Looks amazing. Start a Build Team!
3

Welcome