The Nether Plague

The Nether Plague was a massive growth of Netherrack that in its latest stage had spread over an entire Desert.

Located only a short walk East from the Wilds and Newspawn Forest, The Nether Plague was passed by many players, though few chose to explore it.

While it never reached its full size potential, it has since been re-created in a stand-alone Adventure Map.

## Description

The Nether Plague is a huge manmade cavern of Netherrack. The floor covers the natural shape of the terrain underneath it - except for water, which it creates large bubbles and bridges over. The Cavern walls themselves are exposed to the sky and hollow, with conical bases and large arches for entrances and exits.

The occasional lavafall pours from the ceiling, and there are a few scattered splotches of fire. In the center is a massive glowing eye made from Lava. It's large enough that it creates a clear shape even on The World Map.

A handful of multi-doored portals dot the lower portions of the Plague, and large lumbering creatures made from Soul Sand (Known as Nether Wendigos) lumber the hellscape.

Any non-nether blocks placed in The Nether Plague are quickly swallowed up by Netherrack, creating instances of bizarrely stacked structures as players attempted to build quicker than the plague.

The only known methods of combating the plague were explosives, water, and possibly totems. A successful flooding of 70% of the Nether Plague took place, but was slowly undone Nether Wendigos.

## History

The Nether Plague was originally created during The Long Peace by Pastor\_Glowstone as a Sidequest for them to enjoy. Players managed to beat the first instance by destroying most of the plague, the nearby portal, and much of the surrounding landscape with TNT.

The Plague made a return in the tailend of the Still Summer. Pastor\_Glowstone, with the help of RavingBunnny3 and Kitilexx, worked hard to create an interesting and worthy comeback of the Quest. They created The Nether Quarry to excavate massive amounts of Netherrack and created "Plagueboxes" to transport it. They also invested a significant ammount of time into developing the plot and lore of the Plague, which was slowly revealed to the primary Playerbase.

The entire structure was built by hand in survival mode.

## Lore

Prior to the Nether Plague, a reset to the Nether Dimension had been planned. The assorted Nether-Plague artifacts told a story of how denizens of The Nether - fearing their impending doom - planned on mass migration to the Overworld. In order to create a habitable place to live, they implored a God by the name of Nethorium to create an Overworld haven for them. However, more wrathful than concerned for his followers, Nethorium declared war on the Overworld and sought to drain it of all resources and create a new Nether.

Nethorium set to transmuting a large portion of land where he could erect a giant portal capable of transporting thousands of Nether Creatures, including his armies of Nether Wendigos, to the Overworld.

Players either had to complete a ritual to put Nethorium back to sleep, fight and slay Nethorium and his forces, or use diplomacy to keep the peace between dimensions.

## Artifacts

### Necronomicon: Volume 6

This book could be found at Nethorium Shrines dotted throughout The Nether. Its name - The Necronomicon - is a direct reference to the Necronomicon of Lovecratian Horror. The Title, and the text within is written completely in Nordic Runes. It was written by Pastor\_Glowstone and Kitilexx, and edited by RavingBunny3.

When Translated, it reads:

*He who sleeps 'neath violet veil -- 'midst lands of fire, and dead what wail*

*Hear the scry of your new augur, -- Bloodlust ceaseless, though chants frail*

*Arisen are the Wendigos -- To traverse the sands of stolen souls*

*Harken now our incantation, -- Unto the Overworld, the hellscape grows*

*Nethorium! Of legions limb'd! -- Set free the seeds of bedlam brimm'd!*

*Nethorium! Decimate those who forgot -- Your holy plague of panspermic rot!*

*Unstitching the world’s mauled meridians -- Crawls centipede of the stygian*

*Bow now, to the new oblivion -- And usher the age of Red Obsidian*

### Nethorium Map Art

Also found in Nethorium Shrines, this small work of Map Art depicts a centipede-like creature with one eye, a dripping maw, and flaming antlers. The cipher below identifies it as Nethorium and mentions the age of Red Obsidian.
The cipher translates as follows:

*NETHORIUM
 BENEATH THE BEDROCK
THE HUNDRED LEGGED GOD
WILL BRING HIS KINGDOM
TO THE OVERWORLD ?N THE
   AGE OF RED OBSIDIAN*

(The ? is likely meant to be an I, as the symbol is very close)

Also note, Kitilexx insists that there is some form of binary encrypted message hidden in the legs and/or dots along the body of the centipede, although he cannot recall exactly how it is encoded.

He believes the binary translates to something small and unimportant, "Like 'Fire', or something."