The Aquarius

The Aquarius is the community that succeeded The Dome. It began on April 1st, 2021.

## History

Immediately after the start of The Dome, WhiteLikePaste began working on the glass structure of what he was then calling "Project Neptune."

Given the scope of the project, he chose to build it in creative mode in order to guarantee that it would be ready for April.

Requiring a large ocean for this, he recalled a build from 2019 called Ponderosa Ranch, which was located in a warm ocean biome. After revisiting the area, he determined that there was more than enough space for the build,

Using Plotz Sphere Generator as a reference, he worked on it a little bit each day over the course of the next two months. This process included clearing the area, constructing the glass structure itself, and draining the area with sponges after it was completed.

### Name Origin

Several names were tossed around after the concept of an underwater city was presented to The Committee. These included Bubble Town, Bikini Bottom, AquaDome and The Abyss. For a time, The Abyss was the chosen name for the project. However, WhiteLikePaste decided against it after learning that the name was already being used by another realm.

EliteXxX suggested the name "The Aquarius" as a reference to the Aquarius Reef Base, which is a real-world underwater habitat.

### Pre-Launch

The Aquarius was dropped into The Old World on February 28th using MCC ToolChest, the same program that had been used for The Island during the world merge.

Peculier32 played a pivotal role in getting it ready for new realm members by creating the path that extended from the Nether Hub to the new community in roughly one week. Once there, he discovered that transferring it over had created large voids in the surrounding area. Fortunately, this problem was easily repairable.

It was around this time that WhiteLikePaste learned that MCC ToolChest was no longer being supported by its developers and that it was probably best not to use it with the realm moving forward.

The first official build at The Aquarius was the Sun of Peculier, an idea that had been originally presented to WhiteLikePaste towards the end of January for The Island, but was held over for this project instead. It was then used in the promotional image for the project as well.

### Launch

The Aquarius was officially opened to the public on April 1st, 2021 and several already established realm members such as RescueLynn81, Mama071416, Willowtree90, and UptonOgood1 began setting up bases in the new community. Due to the concentration of players in the area, the spawn rates for Slimes were dramatically increased to the point of becoming a frequent annoyance.

Unfortunately, the project had difficulties attracting new members. Many players who joined within the first month either didn't stick around, or left The Aquarius to begin building bases elsewhere. WhiteLikePaste was also taking a bit of a hiatus around this time as he had burnt himself out in the buildup to The Aquarius and needed to take a break from Minecraft. However, he would still check in consistently to see how things were progressing and continued to recruit new members.

### Shift Away From The Aquarius

As time passed, the idea was expanded to include a free build area outside of the glass structure using conduits and a good portion of the builds were themed after locations from the tv series SpongeBob SquarePants.

Around mid-May, the realm saw a surge in activity on a scale similar to the early days of The Island. By that point interest began to shift more towards The Capital, and, to a greater extent, the Shopping District. A large portion of the active player base at this time began setting up their own shops, the Groundskeepers role was established, and it was clear that the direction of the realm had moved away from The Aquarius.

### Under DarkReaper3529

After the Bagera Dojo was completed by RescueLynn81 in May 2021, spawn was officially moved to this location on June 1st. This meant that new realm members would no longer spawn directly into The Aquarius and essentially marked the end of the project being the main focus for the realm.

Since it never attracted a dedicated player base of its own, it was a while before a mayor would be chosen for the area. In August 2021, DarkReaper3529 became first mayor of The Aquarius and immediately got to work revitalizing it in an effort to breath new life into the concept. He built a mayors office and worked on a complete overhaul of the interior and put an end to the slime spawning issue.

### **A New Mayor**

In January 2022, DarkReaper3529 abruptly left The Old World due to burnout and the mayor position became available again. It was ultimately picked up by GiggyPegasus317, who he had initially recruited.

In planning the following community build project, WhiteLikePaste took several of the issues with The Aquarius into consideration. It was suggested that plot-focused communities deterred players from wanting to participate. This resulted in the more free build theme of The Nether Colony.

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