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catailz · 1 year

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The Trails and Tales update is NOT the Trails and Tales update

A look at the hints towards and my insane ramblings about the upcoming 1.20 update.

Brief disclaimer before my autism fueled rant: Minecraft is my special interest, and I acknowledge because of this I have a very positive outlook when it comes to the game and it's creators over at Mojang. Please take everything I say here with a grain of salt, and to help with distinguishing what is my opinion and what is fact within the game I will put a little ☾ at the start and end of things that are fact, ✩ will be at the start and end of speculation based on facts/things we know, and ☼ will be at the start and end of things that are entirely speculation/opinion. Tldr: ☾ = Fact ✩ = Speculation based on facts ☼ = Pure speculation/opinion (These guides are mostly to help my fellow people on the spectrum bc when I read things like this I find it hard to discern what is fact or coming from facts and what is more opinionated)

This rant will be in five parts:

What we know about update 1.20

Analysis of the ancient cities

The story of the lost people

The previous updates

The real 1.20 update

Part 1: What we know about update 1.20

Recently we have gotten the first official snapshot for the Trails and Tales update which gives a much clearer look as to what we are getting this update, which imo is a bunch of random shit. To break it down we got;

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Camels

Hanging signs

Armor trims

Netherite is even harder than before

Sniffers

Two new ancient plants that (currently) don't do anything besides look pretty and make dye

Suspicious sand and gravel and a tool to reveal treasure inside

Amethyst can be used to extend a sculk signal

Calibrated sculk sensors

Trail ruins

Pottery shards

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Now these are all cool and all, but feel a lot like a bunch of random things thrown together on the loose theme of archeology, which is very much coming out of left field when it comes to things to add to minecraft imo. This feels like the kind of stuff that maybe you'd want to put to the side of a bigger update, which is what I think is happening but we'll get back to that. There are two things that have come with this snapshot and I want to talk about specifically that have stood out to me;

The new trail ruins

The pottery shard featuring the warden

Starting with the trail ruins, according to the article about the snapshot, the trail ruins are "a buried structure from a lost culture". ✩ This implies that whoever made these are not currently alive and were somehow wiped out, as although the civilization could have been a branch from villagers or vice versa like the illagers. Regardless, it is clear that their culture, and thereby beliefs, religion(s), etc., no longer prevail even if they are the ancestors to villagers. ✩ ☼ However, due to the different building styles, deliberate locations near water (unlike villager's seemingly random location choices), and very different choices in blocks and build styles, I believe they could entirely be a different species from those currently alive. ☼

The reason the trail ruins stood out to me after I learned more about them is for a couple of reasons, ✩ the first being that they are our second reference to a civilization/culture that has been wiped out, the first being those who resided within the ancient cities. The second reason they stood out to me is how much this culture seems to have traveled or mined. Based on my own brief research and the Minecraft Wiki, Trail Ruins can spawn on land or underwater in:

Jungles

Old Growth Birch Forests

Old Growth Pine Taigas

Old Growth Spruce Taigas

Snowy Taigas

Taigas

And they have a higher chance of spawning near water. What stands out to me is the blue glazed and regular terracotta. Although the terracotta and mud is reasonable after giving thought to the fact that they tend to build near water, were mud can be made and clay can be found, the biomes they spawn in cannot spawn cornflowers which is the primary way of getting blue dye. If they did not travel to get the amount of blue dye used in not only their structures but also things found in the loot within these structures via sus sand/gravel ☾ (purple and magenta candles, blue and light blue dye, and magenta, purple, and light blue stained glass) ☾ they had to mine to get lapis to make the dye. However, the reason I am leaning towards them also travelling is due to one additional piece of loot in the sus sand/gravel, that loot being ☾ green candles. Green dye has to come from cactuses, ☾ meaning that they had to have found a desert and taken the cactus from it. There are other signs that they could have been miners ✩ ☾ (gold nuggets and emeralds are part of the sus sand/gravel loot tables) ☾. ☼ In addition to all of this, following the reasonable assumption that the lost culture of the trail ruins are the creators of the original pots that featured the pottery shards, the fact that two of the shards are explorer (featuring a map), and miner (featuring a pickaxe) supports the fact that these are two of the professions of this culture. It also helps that the "er" suffix within the names of the pottery shards only apply to professions, the only exceptions being danger and mourner. Supporting "er" being a suffix mostly used to refer to a profession is that there are other potter shards that show objects but their names refer directly to what they are, not what they are used for (blade, sheaf, skull, and (sort of) prize). Besides that, pottery shards can be not only found in trail ruins, but also desert wells, desert temples, and ocean ruins. If they built the temples and wells (therefor leaving pottery behind) then that would confirm they not only traveled to but built within deserts for one reason or another. It would also mean they made the ocean ruins. A big reason I think the pots could not have also come from the villagers is because of the fact that there are no naturally spawning whole pots let alone shards within villages. ☼

Why aren't you questioning their use of cyan dye? Although initially their use of cyan dye could be seen as further evidence to support my travelers theory, I simply cannot use it in addition to everything else on good faith considering the fact the pitcher plant, one of the two plants added in the most recent snapshot, can be used to make cyan dye. This is one of the ancient plants that a sniffer can dig up, and based on the fact that whatever culture made the trail ruins is wiped out, as well as the fact that their structures are either buried almost entirely and/or underwater, it is not a stretch to imagine that these people were alive while the plant was growing and there is currently no evidence that this plant did not grow around where they built.

Next, let's talk about what was added in this update that pretty much spiraled me into this, as although I had been speculating about it previously, this is what made me look further into things.

This is the pottery shard titled "Mourner" and it ✩ appears to depict a warden. This instantly stood out to me due to the name, and the fact that this shard indicates that whoever made the pots had seen wardens before. ✩ However, before talking about the implications of this pottery shard, I'd like to talk about the warden's home.

Part 2: Analysis of the ancient cities

I'm sure I'm not alone in the opinion that ancient cities are three things; 1. incredible cool, 2. absolutely terrifying, and 3. are ultimately underwhelming. The ancient cities feel like they could have been the next step in you Minecraft journey. Trying to find one is a often difficult task due to their scarcity, but the search is made much easier with an elytra, and if you want to even have a chance of surviving a run in with a warden, you'll want proper enchanted netherite to take even a single hit. However, the only unique things you can find is a creepy disc, a special material to make a compass that is barely useful, and an enchantment that really only feels worth the effort if you are going to be constantly around sculk sensors you do not want to set off.

It looks cool, it's atmosphere is perfectly crafted, it's fucking scary as hell, but there is no reason for anyone to ever want to interact with it, even for a fun challenge, as there is little to no reward given in return for said challenge.

The ancient city isn't that bad, just make a noise machine. This is true, however, like many things that make the game a lot easier it was not intended by Mojang for you to do this. For all intents and purposes of this rant, I am ignoring things that although might be common within the community, were unintentional on Mojang's part as these are not things they considered during the design possess.

At least to me, this leaves the whole thing feeling unfinished. It really feels like it's meant to be this important thing to the world, a big challenge with a big reward for facing it, but it is not. However, I think this is because they are saving its true reward for later, and my biggest reason behind this is something the community noticed as soon as the ancient cities were put in a snapshot; reinforced deepslate.

☾ Here's the facts; reinforced deepslate cannot be overtaken by sculk or moss, broken, blown up, crafted, pushed or pulled by a piston. Not only that, but the only place you can find it is as part of a single structure that generates in every ancient city, the city center (the city center has three variants, but all of them feature the structure around the reinforced deepslate and the reinforced deepslate prominently). ☾ This basically puts a big ass red clickbait arrow pointing directly at it. For whatever reason, this block is important. They could have used any previously existing block, or made this block breakable, or even also given you the ability to craft it, but they didn't. The common theory as to what this all means is that it is a portal to a new dimension, and I am very much inclined to this theory, although I do have a second one I see as being equally as likely. The main supporting evidence to it being a portal besides how reinforced deepslate behaves and the shape of the structure, is that 5, a disc that can be crafted from shards found in the ancient city, ☼ has multiple parts with portal-esq sounds, sounds that sound like going through a portal, and sounds that sounds as if they could be of a different dimension. ☼

youtube

What does this have to do with the latest snapshot? Well lets pick up where the previous section ended, the mourned pottery shard.

Side by side I'm sure you also see the resemblance between the two. However if it is a depiction of a warden, why is the pottery shard called "mourner"?. Well I think the best way to explain that is to tell you what I think the story being told about both the ancient city and trail ruins.

Part 3: The story of the lost people

(For this part, I will be using indents to insert where major parts of this story/theory come from that hasn't already been explained instead of answering questions)

Long ago, in what to us is the ancient times of the overworld, a civilization arose. This civilization was one of the arts and spirituality, creating colourful cities, beautiful pottery, and great temples. They were also explorers, travelling through the overworld's many biomes and spreading out across them, although they preferred living near the water where clay was in abundance. Eventually, by some means, the people discovered the sculk, a eldritch creatures from another dimension.

I have a couple reasons to believe that the trail ruins are the original home of the people who created the ancient cities. The first and biggest one for me is the mourner pottery shard. ☾ This shard is not found within the ancient cities but instead cold ocean ruins. ☾ This proves that people who knew enough about the wardens to refer to them as "mourners" lived on the surface, and with the ✩ evidence that the trail ruins people are the makers of the pots, as well as being the only other reference we have to an extinct civilization, it's not a stretch to connect them to the ancient cities. In addition, the people who made the ancient cities needed to have access to both wool and dye to make the walkways and stock of blue wool, which further helps this theories case as they had to have had infrastructure somewhere. ✩

They begin building cities that look more like research cites around the portals to sculk's home dimension, and being researching redstone and it's implementations with sculk. More and more people move to live underground, until most of the civilization lives there instead of their old colourful homes. They begin experimenting with souls, as soul fire is what allowed them to light the portals in the first place.

This soul fire theory may seem like a bit of stretch but stick with me. ☾ Underneath the supposed portal to this dimension in the ancient cities is soul fire ☾, ✩ possibly so they could light troches of some sort to then light the portal in some sort of ritual. ✩ Currently the only way to get soul fire is by lighting soul sand or soil on fire, however one of the things found within the ancient city, maybe echo shards, could be used to make a special flint and steel variant that allows you to light soul fire on other blocks or carry the fire with you, allowing you to light the portal.

They create the wardens, hulking protectors of their great cities, that whine as the souls used to create them mourn their past lives.

Finally talking about the warden pottery shard. ✩ The name "mourner" implies a sadness to the wardens that they feel, and that they have something to mourn. Many of their calm noises sound like whining and whimpering, and is even ☾ referred to as whining by the subtitles ☾. On top of this, the design also features souls that beat like a heart within its chest. These souls had to come from somewhere, and knowing how the sculk works, ☾ spreading when something dies near a catalyst ☾, it is not out of the question that the wardens are amalgamations souls given shape by the sculk. Further supporting this and their roles as protectors is the name, warden. ☾ Although typically when you think of warden you think of a prison warden if you live in the west or a head of a school or college if you're British, the dictionary definition of warden is "a person responsible for the supervision of a particular place or thing or for ensuring that regulations associated with it are obeyed." ☾ Applying this to the mob, the wardens purpose is to protect the cities, and destroy trouble makers. Although in the past they may have been less violent, they were clearly created to be capable of easily taking out any potential threats. When it comes to the ancient people creating them, this would stick with the running theme of overworld civilizations creating some sort of creature to protect them and/or use in combat. Villagers have iron golems, illagers have ravagers, and the ancient people had wardens. ✩

However, their hubris eventually gets the better of them, and disaster strikes. Something causes the wardens to go haywire and turn against their creators, either a greater power within the sculk dimension influencing them or a deadly mistake made. It ultimately does not matter as regardless, the people perished, become part of the collections of souls that make up their previous protectors. With the main industry and population of their people gone, the rest of the ancient people slowly die out. The end.

Couldn't the people have become the villagers and illagers of present day? There is a good case for either, but for both the purpose of drama and my personal ideas of how this all went I'm going with the idea that they are not directly related. In my opinion it ultimately doesn't matter which way it went as the culture died out regardless and even if they are descendants neither share traits with the ancient people outside of building structures and creating guardians.

Now what does this have to do with the upcoming update outside of them expanding on the lore of the ancient cities? Well I think the update is actually about the ancient city, and it's going to add a lot we have yet to see, however before I address what I think this update may entail, I want to talk about the previous updates.

Part 4: The previous updates

When I was talking about a lot of this to my friend she brought up a great point; why now? She told me that since Microsft's acquisition, they haven't really added anything major. I don't disagree with her, but I've taken this all as something else, so allow me to explain my perspective.

There haven't been many huge additions to Minecraft since the 1.9 update, which changed the entire way we do combat in the game. Since that update, it feels like they've been refining and expanding on different aspects of Minecraft instead of really adding. Let me explain by taking you through the updates since 1.9.

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1.10 - Frostburn Update

Mostly adds technical stuff including the /teleport command and the auto jump option, but in terms of actual game stuff does a general expansion of the world of Minecraft by adding fossils, polar bears, strays, husks and some new blocks.

1.11 - Exploration Update

Like frostburn this is a more general expansion on the world instead of a focused one, adding the woodland mansions, shulker boxes, totems, observers, and the two curse enchantments to name a few of the additions.

1.12 - World of Colour Update

Hey this is the one I came back to Minecraft to!

This is when the updates start becoming focused again, and specifically focus on expanding on pre-existing things and concepts. This update, as the name suggests, expands on the color options available in the game, adding concrete, colored beds, and parrots. This one isn't quite as focused as the ones to come after it, but it's definitely the starting point of this trend.

1.13 - Update Aquatic

This is when the updates are not only becoming much more strongly focused, but also expansive. Update aquatic not only overhauled the entire ocean and water areas in general, but also added stripped logs, wood (the log blocks with the bark/outer texture on all sides), trapdoors, pressure plates, and buttons of all woodtypes instead of just oak and plenty more.

1.14 - Village and Pillage

This update not only overhauled villages and villagers and expanded upon their evil counterparts illagers, it also added tons of new blocks to the game and even some non villager and illager related mobs. To name a few of the things added directly; the new trades and villager job system which lead to the villager trading halls that are now a staple in most worlds, cats became their own mob separate from ocelots and began spawning in villages, and 14 news slabs and stairs as well as 12 new walls were added.

1.15 - Buzzy Bees

Although content wise this update didn't ultimately add much, this update was just as much a bee update as it was a bug squashing update, which is honestly the best update combo to ask for. Not only did they squash the bad kind of bugs, the added the cutest good kind as well. This one doesn't really expand or refine anything, but I think this can be equated to the fact they had a lot of bugs and things they wanted to fix and tweak so they gave us bees along with it all so it wouldn't only be a massive bug fix that took almost half a year to release, not to mention how huge the next update is.

1.16 - Nether Update

We all know the nether update, do I even need to go over how much this update did? It turned the nether from a boring red wasteland that you'd probably only go to once so you could get blazerods and beat the game to a place that's not only absolutely gorgeous to be in but also full of exclusive blocks, items, and even an enchantment you can only find by exploring it. This update was insane when it was first announced and although it added a lot, these additions were once again expanding on the pre-existing concept of the nether.

1.17 + 1.18 - Caves and Cliffs

Putting these two together as they are ultimately one update. Caves and cliffs is another massive update that completely overhauled the overworld's generation, as well as expanding on the mountains as per the biome vote.

1.19 - The Wild Update

This update is rather small compared to the two that came before it (or three, depending on how you view Caves and Cliffs). It added the mangrove swamp as well as other features proposed for the swamp in the biome vote (leaving the badlands as the only one not to receive its proposed biome vote update) as well as the ancient city. ☾ ☼ This, at least to me, gives me the same vibes as the Buzzy Bees update, something smaller to tide us over while the work on something bigger that they need to dedicate more time and resources to. This bigger update, of course, being the true Trails and Tales update. Notably, this is our introduction to the ancient city, which is chock full of the aforementioned hints to it having a larger purpose. ☼

Don't you think one of the reasons the Trails and Tales update stands out to you so much is because it doesn't follow this pattern? Yes, that is certainly one of the big reasons that Trails and Tales stands out to me so much. Archeology is ultimately the running theme of this update, which is new, it doesn't expand on anything pre-existing except maybe the fossils but let's be honest who saw the fossils and thought we might get archeology in the future. However, ✩ archeology seemingly was supposed to come with either Caves and Cliffs or The Wild Update, and a lot of its features seem pretty done for something proposed almost three years ago. This is one of the reasons I think it's a front for a bigger update ✩

So let's say I'm right, they have been focusing on expanding on pre existing concepts, what do I think the 1.20 update will bring?

Part 5: The real 1.20 update

I have two theories as to what this update will really be, so we'll start with the more reasonable idea and end with the long shot.

First I want to mention something that very recently was released by Mojang with is this short below:

youtube

What??? WHAT??? This caught me so off guard and felt like it was Mojang turning and winking at me as I was already thinking about what the true purpose of the ancient city was, not to mention two days after they run by and slap me in the face with the mourner pottery shard after repeatedly telling us to try and find the stories in this update. I cannot name a single person who has thought about or even asked for Mojang to add another boss. No one was talking about it. No one was mentioning it. And then they come at us with this?? Are you kidding me?? This feels like even clearer of a yes than just yes and they just wanted to be cheeky about the whole thing.

Originally, I thought the true Tales and Trails update was going to be the sculk dimension, but this short leads me to think it might instead be a new boss that is summoned using the supposed portal, or it's both a new dimension and a new boss, as ☾ each dimension outside of the overworld has an associated boss, the end has the ender dragon and the nether has the wither. ☾ However, well researching this I had an idea that feels like a stretch but bare with me.

The sculk is going to be an update to the end.

Let me explain. Not only has the end been completely overhauled, but the overworld practically has as well. The only dimension really missing an overhaul at this point is the end, which hasn't been touched since 1.11, which was 7 years ago. I think a lot of people agree that the end desperately needs some work, because for an end game area not only is it boring as fuck, you also only really want one thing from it. On top of this, beating the game is ridiculously easy and has been for years, and although this is a sandbox game, I'm sure a lot of the player base would enjoy beating the game feeling like a lot more of an accomplishment that it currently does. The ancient cities could be the new strongholds, with the portal either having something to do with the reinforced deepslate, or the reinforced deepslate being something needed to summon a boss that lets you go to the end in the first place, were you then seek out the final boss. I admit this very wishful thinking, but I've noticed a couple things that slightly support my theory.

1. The pallet of the sculk matches extremely close with multiple end related things as pictured below, even closer than a lot of the currently existing end content does. Granted, sculk is a bit bluer, but sculk has more going for it in terms of colour relation than the ender dragon, ender men, and even the cities do to the portal and its components. Minecraft literally updated the textures and did not fix it

2. During the previous discussed disc 5, ☼ warping sounds can be heard, ☼ which are typically associated with the end.

3. In Minecraft Dungeons, ☾ the end aka. Echoing Void has a corruption theme, not unlike the sculk. ☾ This at the very least shows that Mojang has previously played with the concept of the end/void being a corrupting force/presence.

Once again, the end part of this theory feels even more like wishful thinking than this theory as a whole, but I hope at least I've convinced you that this update or maybe even a future one will focus on expanding on the ancient cities and truly making the area's challenge worth it, or at the very least my ideas have given you even more ideas and things you want to explore, whether that be in vanilla Minecraft, as a mod, an smp, or a unique work. But if the Tales and Trails update logo gets infected by sculk, don't come crying to me.

Either way, thank you for making it all the way here. Feel free to send me asks about this or expand on it yourself via reblogs. I hope you have a wonderful day!

#minecraft #minecraft 1.20 #minecraft update #minecraft theory #minecraft trails and tales update #minecraft trails and tales #long post

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