History 16: The Creation of Mercia

Why was Mercia made? Why this particular world? What exactly happened during the First Age? While there isn't much to know, it's somewhat of an interesting tale. It starts back in 2015 and a series of unfortunate events that followed. It all started when the idea of creating a Runescape type world was brought up. If it could be done, it would be a fun experience and would give a group of friends something to do and look forward to. The idea was that one person would be the Game Master and make the World/Rules and the others would play and follow.

There would be Shops, Quests, unlockable areas, and level progression so that the standard Minecraft Experience wouldn't just be strip mining and eventual boredom. Once the rules were agreed on, the proper seed had to be found. The Seed makes the world and Mercia wasn't the first seed to focus on an Island. Based on Tutorial Island from Runescape, the idea was that it would be the launching platform for which the players would begin their Journey. Once the seed was found, construction began on what was called "Minescape".

Minescape featured a small island with several basic quests and shops and was a success. The best weapon you could have was Stone and it was sold in the Desert area, aptly named Al Kharid. With the Skill Levels being worked out and the lands beyond the Island being developed as the second tier of unlockable areas, it seemed this could be a huge thing. This was until a Bug that hadn't been encountered before had, well, been encountered. Unbeknownst to us at that time, creating a new profile while logged in the world would cause it to become corrupted and unplayable. This was the first fall of Minescape..

Hurt, but even more motivated, another world was founded. Featuring a Similar Island and, with all the information now worked out, the second iteration was better than the first. More shops and more detailed Quests were created and a fully built city called Ike was formed as the first unlockable area. Ike featured a lot of what the other world was lacking, including a Grand Exchange and Skill Hub center. This would be the foundation for what Mercia would become. This world lasted until the early months of 2016 until the aforementioned Bug had struck again, destroying all the progress that was made.

Later worlds were created and quickly abandoned due to loss of motivation. World after world was started and scrapped until one peaked the interest of all. One with a much larger island than the previous ones, and with an even layout of Hills and flatlands. The name it was given was Mercia. All the former players were willing to give this new world a chance, and initially explored and had begun construction on their own personal Cities/Bases, much different than the previous worlds. Shortly after, it was decided to try Minescape one last time.

A staging area was built on the top of the highest hill at the beginning island and would become the Tutorial for the world. Once the tutorial was finished, stairs were built just off the hill, and the small beach would become the spawnpoint. Ofcourse, that Hill with the Tutorial would later become High Rock, where the White House is located today. Minescape continued to be the meta until the Third Age was formed and veered away from the original vision, becoming the Economic Age.

The Rest is history....