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Minecraft: Java Edition
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Details
Sanctuary
A floating-world Minecraft project about exploration, production, infrastructure and collective progression.
Sanctuary transforms Minecraft into a world suspended in the Void.
You begin on Sanctuary Island, a large floating island that acts as the origin, home and historical center of the world.
There is no endless vanilla continent waiting beyond the horizon.
Around Sanctuary is the Void.
From there, players explore, build, produce resources and gradually participate in the expansion of the world itself.
A world that grows with its players
Sanctuary is built around a simple idea:
The server itself becomes a world that grows through the actions of its players.
New territories are not just places you walk into.
They can be discovered, funded, unlocked and eventually reached.
Around Sanctuary Island, new floating continents may appear in eight directions:
North · North-East · East · South-East · South · South-West · West · North-West
These continents can take radically different forms:
- oceans suspended above the Void
- mountains
- enormous ravines
- floating rivers
- archipelagos
- caverns
- strange holes through the world
- unique biomes
- lost cities
- isolated structures
- anomalous territories
Unlocking a continent does not necessarily mean you can reach it.
You may still need to build a bridge, install a zipline, construct an aircraft, use a grappling device, develop a teleportation network—or invent another solution.
Sanctuary Island
Every world begins with Sanctuary.
The island is designed as a substantial starting territory rather than a small spawn platform.
It contains enough space to live, build infrastructure, establish farms, explore and prepare future expeditions.
Over time, Sanctuary can become the capital of the server: a place where players return with resources, discoveries and artifacts gathered from the expanding world.
Production has a purpose
Sanctuary aims to give large-scale production a reason to exist.
Instead of building farms only because you can, the world may request resources from its players.
For example:
- stone
- food
- wood
- metals
- manufactured components
- rare resources
Players contribute these resources through shared infrastructure such as deposit systems and terminals.
Large collective objectives can then participate in unlocking new parts of the world.
The result is a progression loop built around:
explore → discover → produce → build infrastructure → expand → explore again
Interconnected systems
Sanctuary is not designed as a collection of unrelated features.
Its systems are meant to interact.
World generation affects exploration.
Exploration reveals resources.
Resources enable production.
Production enables expansion.
Expansion creates new transportation problems.
Transportation creates infrastructure.
Infrastructure changes how players inhabit the world.
A small rule can move several systems at once.
That is where Sanctuary's gameplay comes from.
The world of Sanctuary
Sanctuary is gradually expanding to include its own:
- floating world generation
- 100+ biomes
- unique biomes
- mountains, lakes, oceans and ravines
- floating islands and continents
- structures and dungeons
- Lost City
- Backrooms
- caves and large cavern systems
- progression
- health, hunger and breath systems
- mining and building systems
- unlocks and prestige
- quests and bounties
- shops and black markets
- computers and terminals
- storage systems
- mailboxes
- cameras
- dynamic panels
- waystones
- long-distance teleportation
- biome finding
- aircraft
- ziplines
- grappling tools
- unusual boats
- new ores and materials
- new woods and plants
- rare animals and creatures
- custom Creepers
- ghosts
- whales
- Mooblooms
- weather
- real-time systems
- calendar and day events
- constellations
- sky rotation
- server events
- strange TNTs
- Lucky Blocks
- secrets
- and a lot of things that probably should not exist.
Not everything listed here is implemented yet.
Sanctuary is an ongoing project and is developed incrementally.
A Minecraft that feels like Sanctuary
The project also modifies the presentation of Minecraft itself.
Sanctuary is intended to feel identifiable from the moment the game starts, through its own:
- title screen
- menus
- loading screens
- icon
- HUD
- resource packs
- advancements
- visual identity
- credits
- atmosphere
- shaders and colorimetry
The goal is not to hide Minecraft.
It is to build another game inside it.
Ecosystem
Sanctuary is the foundational mod of a larger ecosystem.
Some sufficiently autonomous systems may exist as separate mods.
For example, It's Alive! develops farming, ingredients, food processing and cooking as its own large gameplay system.
Other community mods can complement Sanctuary without becoming part of its source code.
Development
Sanctuary is developed openly and incrementally.
Features are designed and implemented through small tickets rather than through one giant rewrite.
The project intentionally allows itself to evolve while being played and developed.
Some mechanics may change radically between versions.
That is part of the project.
License
Original Sanctuary code is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0.
Minecraft, community mods, resource packs, shaders and other third-party assets remain the property of their respective authors and are distributed according to their own licenses.
See the project's credits and third-party documentation for details.