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⚞ INTRODUCTION ⚟

Hello, Steemit, and welcome to our brand new showcase of Acheron – a medieval-fantasy themed Minecraft Roleplay server that's been in-development for quite a long time.

Our team has collectively invested immense amounts of time and resources into creating a high quality Minecraft Roleplay experience for all to appreciate.

At first it was merely a casual project to us; but the end result became a server that entirely changed the way Minecraft would be played and enjoyed.

The purpose of this article and the following series is to promote what we feel are the best features Acheron has to offer. While we plan to go into greater detail regarding specific aspects of the server you can expect a general description of Acheron's most interesting qualities from this post.

Now, let's crack open the good stuff.

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⬞ MAP, BUILDS, RESOURCE PACK ⬞

One of the very first things that Acheron has done very well at is the setting of which our server takes place. The scale of Acheron is massive, asserted by the fact that the playable map used on the server is only a tiny sliver of the geopolitical world it is a part of in-lore. The focus of our setting is on the Cervarian peninsula, a peculiar baltic region which has largely gone unnoticed.

This is where our story takes place, in a land that is simply a piece of the puzzle in our tale of justice and injustices, war and peace, faith, lies, political intrigue, and other conflicts – a story driven by the players and influenced by the events of a world much larger than the characters themselves, as significant as they are.

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The natural landscape players will find while playing on the server is evidently stunning, and the builds we have taken the time to perfect make Acheron arguably the best looking Minecraft Roleplay server out there.

But, the exceptional quality of Acheron's map would not be possible in the first place if it weren't for the Conquest resource-pack.

Monsterfish_, the author of the pack, was even officially interviewed by Mojang – showcasing the brilliant work that has had such a big impact on the Minecraft community.

However, Acheron uses a modified version of the Conquest resource-pack that is currently incomplete and not up for download.

And of course we can't forget the physical map itself that we owe such beautiful landscape to having been made by none other than Jamziboy, exclusively for Acheron.

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Furthermore, while the map is quite large being several thousand blocks from one corner to the opposite – it is designed from the beginning to accommodate a Roleplaying community that may only consist of merely several active players, to over a hundred – allowing the servers' community to grow and shrink over time as all servers experience throughout its life, while always suiting the needs of the current playerbase.

Players will have access to loads of pre-existing content as well as having the option to build much more themselves. There are several castles across Cervaria open to the reign of any one player or group of players, along with two major towns to start at the servers' release. This also isn't excluding the dozen other builds around the map's release area; composed of builds such as dungeons, homesteads and hamlets, cabins, shrines, mines, etc.

But, the playerbase isn't restricted to Roleplaying in the existing towns only, and will have the freedom to build their own villages and fortresses – leaving their own mark on the land and introducing new opportunities for Roleplay as ruling factions rise and fall.

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⬞ LORE, STORY, HISTORY ⬞

Acheron's lore allows relatively diverse content because while it is primarily medieval themed it has some heavy fantasy elements added to it. Such as, like in Game of Thrones, the seasons on Acheron can last decades.

There are strange malignant forces hidden within the world – tales of horrific monsters, paranormal superstitions, and accounts of an elusive mountain-people made from bone.

However, these are merely whispers of what is unlikely to have ever existed. Our story is focused on man and men, conflict and its resolution, and the succession of kings.

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Acheron is deep in turmoil with war soon coming to the Cervarian sovereign lands. In the east, the largest caliphate to ever form is raising armies for history's greatest conquest – strengthened by the Khendari horselords whom have now sided with their longtime enemies from the arid regions as they seek to expand the influence and legend of their Khan.

Meanwhile, the once noble kingdoms that encircle the heaving gulf to the north of Cervaria – the cornucopia of the west – have been stricken with infighting, corruption, and betrayal.

The power of the Gallican kingdom is collapsing, accelerated by the division of the Ashvinist faith; crippling the uneasy peace that Bellvik shared between its neighbor kingdoms and leading to the growing domination of the hostile Cabalist sect.

The civil war erupting in the regions of Ozura and Freilith, followed by the violent spread of the Lakeeri caliphate, effectively leave Cervaria undefended by its native fatherlands in the north. This is a dangerous scenario as the factions of Cervaria lack the power to stand against the advancing mamluk armies from the east, without the help from the greater kingdoms.

But, this also poses new opportunities for aspiring leaders to take the mantle – to unite the people and build up a powerful faction of their own, and potentially turn the tides of the coming war. Or, the lords within Cervaria may descend into anarchy and be at the mercy of those stronger than themselves.

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As nearly all Roleplay servers have, lore is the backbone of the servers' story. It is essential for the foundation of the setting and for the players to immerse themselves and their characters in a world that feels real.

How this story unfolds is entirely up to the influence of the players and the characters they play. We can't wait to see where the community will take Acheron.

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⬞ PLUGINS, ECONOMY, GAMEPLAY ⬞

Acheron employs dozens of plugins with a variety of them being customized exclusively for our server, with a few others currently under development. If you don't know, plugins completely change how Minecraft behaves, creating an entirely different level of gameplay – without requiring the player to install or alter anything on their end.

Many of these plugins work entirely behind the scenes without any further involvement by the staff or players. They can do things as simple as changing the way the chat is utilized, to something as complex as completely altering every drop table in the game.

There are a number of plugins that are very important to Roleplay servers such as the implementation of character cards; which is any plugin that allows players to set their character name, descriptive appearance, age, race, gender, etc. in-game so that other players may conveniently access this information by right-clicking the other player.

Another significant change or series of changes is the addition of a professions system of sorts. This system on Acheron is still being worked on, but its purpose is to provide a platform for players to realistically play a character with certain skill sets – not that different than skills you would find historically important in medieval society.

Every drop and crafting recipe on our server has been replaced or added to by a custom professions plugin. As you gather resources you will notice that all items have a customized UI that displays the item name, a flavorful description, a quality/rarity tier, and sometimes a combat-related trait.

The way crafting works has been modified extensively to introduce a level of realism and immersive gameplay that players may appreciate. The universal crafting bench has been done away with, and custom crafting stations have been implemented.

For example, clay must be fired in a kiln. Weapons and tools made from metals must be forged on an anvil. Flour must be made by grounding grain in a gristmill. Players are also able to make their own custom items and petition for new recipes or drops.

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⬞ NPC'S, DIALOGUE, QUESTS ⬞

One of our absolute favorite things that Acheron brings to the table is a feature only made possible by the ridiculously awesome plugin combination – BetonQuest and Citizens2.

What these two plugins allow us to do is create incredibly responsive quests and dialogue that players may choose to participate in. The amount of possible unique NPC's and events that can be created are effectively infinite! If you wanted to recreate every single line of dialogue and have it behave perfectly as it is in Skyrim, you could.

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NPC's are able to change their behavior towards a player based on their characters reputation with a certain faction, the good or bad deeds they have done, what race or gender they are, their age, the time of day, and anything else imaginable!

By completing quests for one faction, you may fall into ill favor with other NPC's who will refuse to interact with you or provide certain quests and/or information. Some NPC's may straight up attack you if they find out you aided their enemy. Additionally, by helping certain NPC's often, you may unlock more opportunities through gaining their trust – potentially being able to gain them as a companion.

And of course, there are also varying levels of skill checks that a player may choose to attempt when interacting with NPC's. Players with high charisma can persuade NPC's to do or say certain things, and players with high strength or a reputation as a renowned warrior can intimidate an NPC forcefully.

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⬞ FINAL WORDS ⬞

I'd like to thank everyone for reading and taking the time to glance over this... I'm truly grateful for having had the opportunity to share this with Steemit, and I hope you guys enjoyed the little presentation.

This being my very first post, you may not know me very well, but anticipate a somewhat proper personal introduction in the future!

And of course please check out @Spideryear, you may have seen his post inquiring about interest in Acheron the other day – one of my longtime best friends and an administrator on Acheron. This project never would have begun if it wasn't for him.

Also consider shooting a look at @ggteixeira, and @ateazi, they are good friends of mine and members of the development team.

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Expect further posts and updates about Acheron to come next week, so throw me a follow if you're interested in seeing the upcoming tour of Krow's Keep. And also if you liked what you saw, please consider upvoting and resteeming as I would greatly appreciate it reaching others who may play Minecraft.

Thanks again, my dudes.