A private server · Minecraft 1.21.1
The lamps have waited long enough.
A cosy Victorian countryside adventure with an undercurrent of mystery. Restore a great house one building at a time, win over three villages with opinions of their own, and find out what happened here.
From the desk of the Estate Steward
“Ah. You’ll be the new custodian. Do wipe your boots; the foyer has had twelve quiet years and would like a thirteenth.”
Somewhere in a green valley stands a red-brick house on a rise, with a belvedere tower and a great many dark windows. Its machines are asleep. Its villages are talking. And as of last winter, it is partly yours.
This is a slow, warm, lamp-lit sort of adventure. Danger does exist out in the wilds, and some of it is clearly signposted, but retreating is always sensible and the house is safe and lit from your very first night.
Yours, in anticipation,
The Trust of Alderwick Estate
Why the estate is dark
Nobody has ever been told the whole of it. Here is what the village will tell you before the kettle boils.
The Builder
Built the house on a rise, with a tall belvedere tower so he could see his orchards from his desk.
The Engineer
Filled the grounds with machinery and ran a railway all the way to the town of Ironmere.
The Keeper
Ran the estate for decades: exacting, practical, never without a notebook.
About twelve years ago, in a single season, Lenora shut it all down.
She stopped every machine by hand, in a particular order. She let the staff go with wages and references. She closed the house room by room, and then she left. She never gave a public reason.
Last winter, Lenora died. Her will put the estate into a trust with two custodians’ chairs. One of them, it seems, has your name on it.
“Light first, then hands, then water.”
Put to sleep, not broken. In game, /estate ledger lists what each restoration needs.
Go on, give one a nudge. (In the real thing, it takes rather more than a click.)
Who you are
Your identity changes how you’re greeted, which villages warm to you first, and the letters that find their way to you. Once drawn, it’s yours for good.
The first to arrive
The first player to join is always the Heir: Lenora’s great-niece or great-nephew, raised far from the valley. You know the family name. You don’t yet know the family.
Everyone after draws one identity from the will. Each has a story of its own.
Every identity has a story of its own. Don’t look it up.
The valley
Each remembers the estate differently. Each will make up its mind about you.
The market village at the gates
Families here worked at the house for three generations and still talk about “before the closing” and “after.” The village is split down the middle about Lenora, and they’ll be weighing you up on the same scales.
An orchard village with a long memory
Tends the estate orchards on very old leases. Bramblemead remembers the Drowning Week, when the mine flooded and the estate’s pumps saved three trapped miners. They have not forgotten who kept the pumps.
Calls Ironmere folk clinkers
.
A stern railway & metalworking town
Grew up around a foundry that burned down and a terminal that went quiet. Older folk call any hard year “a Long Cold year.” Warmth here is earned, and then kept.
Calls Bramblemead folk pippins
.
All three meet each autumn at the Harvest Fair, where the Golden Apple goes to the best produce. Rivalries are friendly. Mostly.
People worth knowing
A few of the faces you’ll meet. Start with the steward; he has been waiting.
Estate Steward
Formal, dryly funny, and still says “Miss Lenora.”
Mechanic · Alderwick
Blunt and brilliant. Her mother was the estate’s chief mechanic.
Grocer & matchmaker · Alderwick
Currently waging a freight-rate war with Ironmere’s stationmaster.
The law · Alderwick
Slow, fair, and thoroughly procedural.
Miller · Bramblemead
Talks weather first. Keeps a copy of something Lenora once told him.
Innkeeper · Bramblemead
Food before opinions. Always.
Stationmaster · Ironmere
Precise to the minute. Has Opinions about freight rates.
Electrical engineer · Ironmere
Lectures in numbered points. 1) Listen. 2) Take notes.
The law · Ironmere
Severe, consistent, and very strict about tools.
Ways & customs
A little etiquette for new custodians. None of it is a secret; all of it is useful.
/estate intro replays it.Ruins marked with a white placard are fair game. Everything else belongs to somebody.
Getting started
Four steps from your desktop to the foyer. Put the kettle on first.
In CurseForge, choose Create Custom Profile → Import, and pick the Alderwick client ZIP.
Allocate 6 GB of memory. 8 GB is comfortable.
Multiplayer → Direct Connection, using the address from your invitation.
Keep the pinned mod versions and dismiss any update prompts.
On first login, MCA asks. Keep your name, choose a gender, pick Vanilla, then Accept.
Open the Quest Book in slot one, read the introduction letter, and go and find Elias Ward.
Bring your curiosity, your good manners, and perhaps a boat. We’ll leave a light on.
Back to the steps