Nomen Dubium

By
crydigo

A mod that expands archaeology by adding new features, entities, structures and items

few chimeras

prehistoric maw weapon

large group of the variety of chimeras you can make

the fossil cleaning system of the palaeontology table

Description

This mod was created especially for Modjam 2026

Nomen Dubium is mod that expands the vanilla archaeology system, making certain items and features useful and rewarding, as well as adding new content to the game.

The main feature of the mod however are the customisable "chimera" mobs, which can be built with a random assortment of fossils mashed together and revived to create your very own custom mobs!

The mod requires KnightLib to function

Items:
various items can be obtained by fossil deposits, these items can then be restored using a tree of life into many of the powerful items in this list

Root of Life

Used by the Tree of Life as fuel to restore certain items to their productive state.

Fossil Bone and Regenerating Chop

Restorable. The chop is a piece of edible meat that never runs out, allowing you to eat it up to 3 times before it enters a cooldown period.

Primitive and Hunter's Arrows

Restorable. Powerful arrows that were once used to hunt dinosaurs. They are not effective against creatures wearing armor pieces, but they deal a great amount of damage.

Amber and Sap of Life

Restorable. It is the essence of the Tree of Life. It communicates with the player when they eat the amber, revealing its location. The second grants infinite regeneration until the player takes damage, can be used to craft the Fruit of Life and to tame (and heal) the Chimera.

Fossilised Apple

Restorable. It can be restored in any of the three types of vanilla apples.

Fossilised Shell

Restorable. It can be restored in an aquatic treasure, such as nautilus.

Fossilised and Prehistoric Maw

Restorable. A sort of ancient axe that was once used for climbing ice slopes. It can be thrown, but you'lll have to pick it up. The restored prehistoric variant is alive and increases the weapon's effective damage as you rack up kills with it. It is very hungry, so if you don't feed it, it's damage decreases. It can be used as a boomerang, so once thrown, it will come back to the player.

Shattered Diamond

Restorable. It can be restored into a functional diamond.

Encased Fossil

A fossil whose contents are unknown, and which needs to be polished on the Paleontology Table to determine its true purpose. It could be any part of the fossilised Chimera's body, or any other useful item.

Fossil Parts

They can be placed on the floor (start with the body, then the rest of the parts are interchangeable), which can be used to build a decorative skeletal dinosaur called Chimera, or can be brough back to life using the Fruit of Life.

Fruit of Life

It is used to bring a skeleton back to life (body, head and tail required). It can be re-dyed in specific colours using vanilla dyes.

Blocks:
lots of decorative blocks to be found in the various structures and to be used in builds.

Sediment

A non-lootable block found exclusively in "open pit" structures. It breaks in layers and hinders access to resources.

Root of Life

Loots a single Root of Life item upon interaction.

Fossil Block

Coalden Wood Set

Obtained by restoring coal in the Tree of Life.

Paleontology Table

Used to restore Encased Fossils using various set of tools, to do this you play a small minigame similar to "Simon Says".

Entities:

Tree of Life

You can find them in the "Life Hollow" structures around the world. It allows certain items to be restored to their original version.

Chimera

In version 1.0.0, there are a total of 20 different parts to build the Chimera you like. It can be painted in a custom colour when it is brought back to life, recrafting the Fruit of Life item in a specific colour. Chimera's behavour depends on the body part currently in use.

Structures:

Open Pit