Welcome to the Great Archipelago, the shining jewel of our server. This survival build divides big ocean almost in half, and is raidproof, except for the occasional bat episode. Much terrain was raised to accomplish this, and many stone pillars in the plains knocked down to feed the mighty hoe.

Here is the earliest structure we built that is still standing: the Main Door:

This area was the original boat dock and portal cluster. As a whole, this settlement developed organically and contains some parts that were made pretty early on.

And looking west:

We of course did not start the game on any of the archipelago Islands, because they are far out into the ocean. Technically the biome is a Dark Forest, and the fact that there was an almost-submerged Elder spawn on one of the islands drew us to this location. It made the Elder fight quite easy actually. We knew the land here was shallow enough to build on, so we started a main base with kitchen, storage etc. Here it is today:

The construction and storage area evolved nicely over time. There's just enough room for everything, and as our needs grew, we changed things and added idiosyncrasy and pleasant clutter.

At first, we just want to create an "atoll." We ended up going in different direction, but our first big expansion was an array of windmills connecting towards the elder island.

At one point, John Smith and Bonechewer thought: "What if we built an arena around the elder spawn?" And just like that, while John Smith planned, built and decorated the main sleeping area, Bonechewer (your humble author) constructed a fighting pit surrounding the elder objects.

Does the Elder care? We've debated it, and concluded that the elder would be extremely pissed, because he likes living in the woods normally, and we made a stone castle around his stuff.

Let's fast forward a bit: John Smith has taken a break (he'll be back when Ashlands drops and to help me beat The Queen). He left me with the tiny start of a land bridge connecting our old sleeping island to the much larger Dark Forest landmass to the north east. I kept playing, with the goal of: 1) turning our old sleeping base into a mage tower, and 2) connecting to the mainland with some kind of bridge.

Here is the mage tower, where advanced Vikings practice their sorcerous ways:

I took inspiration from the Aretuza wizard school/fortress from The Witcher.

All the staffs are pretty great - I love how they don't use stamina. Staff of Embers is just so good though.

After completing the tower of magery, I set about connecting our fortress to the mainland. This was a whole lot of work, let me tell you - especially since we wanted to be able to sail through the wall in a longboat. I like how it came out. Mistlands building materials like Dverger metal fences and spiral staircases were crucial.

Here's a shot that gives a sense of scale:

Finally, we end with a guarded platform and portal on the North Forest island.

This is the only part of the base that's not raid-proof. Luckily, we don't hang out here that much. And if seekers come, the ballistae are ready.

I hope you've enjoyed the tour through The Archipelago! I'll post updates as we build more.