The Sunken Glades

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  View of The Sunken Glades as of 11 Dec 2021

The Sunken Glades
Location
Coordinates	4800 3579
World	Overworld
Nether Path	Blue path, Right, Moss block
Dynmap Link

The Sunken Glades is a large terrain and nature focussed build. It has been made entirely by Thiskal, has been under construction since the first week of the server and has seen hundreds of hours work. The terrain has been inspired by several games including Ori and the blind forest and Subnautica. The bulk of the terrain however has been inspired by the Ardèche region of France. The Sunken Glades contains a number of different biomes, all custom made and has a total size of around 400x300 blocks.

The build consists of a large circular area surrounded by tall cliffs. In the centre of this circular area there is also a lake that flows in to a water filled sinkhole. The circular area is broken up by 2 large canyons, each providing a river stream in to the lake. Between the 2 canyons sits a large cliff, with inside a cave hosting the main entrace portal. A path starts at this cave that goes through parts of the build. The build also features a mobhead museum, containing all over 160 mob heads. The museum is located inside the middle of the three buildings at the top of the north side cliffs.

Initial Planning

The planning of The Sunken glades began near the end of the 1.15 server. It didn't start out as 'The Sunken glades'. Originally the plan was completely different. It began as only the flooded sinkhole in the centre, with a number of large side chambers at the bottom filled with various biomes. However, as the surface began to be planned out, it quickly evolved in to a a layout resembling the current Sunken Glades. First the idea of having the terrain around the sinkhole lower came, followed by a canyon leading in to it together with a base nearby for convenience.

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  The original build idea that later turned in to just the sinkhole

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  Initial plan shortly before the reset

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  Layout shortly before construction

When the server reset happened, Thiskal searched the new map for a good location. A week after the server started a good place had been found. A mix of forest and plains biomes surrounded by mountains on 3/4 sides. This area was however a bit bigger than originally planned for, so some extra adjustments were made.

Construction

Construction started on 21st of February 2021, just over a week after the reset and has been ongoing for over 10 months at the time of writing. First step was creating a very rough layout of where the cliffs would be. This done with redstone wireframing. After that construction of Thiskals base began. It was quickly realised that this would not fit inside the river canyon, so it was moved to a flat area atop of the cliffs on the north side.

After the construction of the base, the digging phase began. A large circular area with a diameter of around 180 blocks sits at roughly y=56, while the top of the cliffs are at around y=80 to y=90. The canyons were also dug out, slowly sloping upwards the further out they go. After the digging phase, construction of the surface atop of the cliffs began. First more detailed wireframing was done, followed by a layer of plain stone, followed by the ground layer, foliage and finally detailing. Once the area on top was done, construction of the cliffs themselves began. This was done in plain stone, with the idea to return to them later once the rest of the build is in a more complete state.

In August the construction of the river streams and the lake began. Both streams slowly slope downwards, into a large lake. This lake has several waterfalls that fall down in to the sinkhole. Around this time the server also updated to 1.17. The new blocks were quickly used for the construction of the sinkhole as well as several caves made out of deepslate and the new foliage were constructed throughout the build. Following the sinkhole, construction of the swamp began which was followed by the chorus tree area after it was completed.

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  Early construction

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  River planning during cliff construction

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  The rivers during their construction

leftover work

All of the major parts have been constructed and there are no obvous unfinished areas left. Some areas however were constructed with a minimal amount of detail. This was done for planning reasons so more important sections could be prioritised.

• The entrance cave needs detailing.
• The cliffs need detailing.
• The areas atop of the cliffs need custom trees.
• The grassy areas along the river need additional detailing and foliage.

In addition there are also a number of extra features that may be added depending on how much time there is left.

• Moving the murder museum to a custom cave with custom biomes somewhere near the entrance cave.
• Building a huge tree atop of the large entrance area.
• Add further large caves containing interesting terrain or features.
• Terrain improvements around Thiskals Base

Gallery

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  Terrain with the Chorus trees

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  Large spruce forest atop of the south cliff side

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  Volcanic Coral reef biome at the bottom of the sinkhole

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  pretty screenshot of the lake

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  Cave tunnel between Thiskals base and the lower build area

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  The swamp biome. Notice the floating grass; a leftover of the original terrain

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  Thiskals base atop the north cliff side

2021-Present

1.16 Minecraft Server

Builds

2021 Stream Build  •  Almost Heaven Stream Build  •  Hell Stress Test Stream Build  •  New Earth  •  New Earth Gallery  •  New Earth Tunes  •  

Towns

Axolotl's Grotto  •  Chungopolis  •  Crater's Harbor  •  Crucible  •  Gamer Lake  •  Hermit's Quarry  •  International Bee Republic (1.16)  •  Kaynoughtree  •  Mookumbooku  •  Nurndal  •  Paradigm Forest  •  Silverwhere  •  St. Laquare  •  The Fields  •  Withering Heights  •  

Settlements

Hapes Hold  •  Steamfall  •  

Points of Interest

Birthday Island (1.16)  •  Community Fishing Docks  •  Gauntlet of Fools  •  Lite Waiting server  •  Map Art (1.16)  •  Tepēcetlan  •  The Ocean Bastion  •  The Sakura Peninsula  •  The Spire  •  The Sunken Glades  •