Nothing Skyward

NOTE: This is the first main chapter of the questline. The modpack isn't actually done, more content is gradually being added as development continues. If you're okay with that, feel free to try it out!

Nothing Skyward is a progression-focused skyblock modpack built to find its own identity instead of beginning with the familiar Ex Nihilo sieve chain. The goal is not simply to remove Ex Nihilo, but to design a complete alternative progression where every early resource, machine, ritual, and multiblock has a deliberate place in the tech tree.

You begin with an extremely limited collection of materials and gradually turn them into stable resource processes. Early survival revolves around unusual interactions with stormwater, vegetation, aerolite, fishing, mineral deposits, and handmade materials. These foundations eventually develop into mechanical processing, chemistry, metallurgy, electricity, industrial production, and structured magical systems.

Custom Progression

Custom content is a major part of every stage of the pack. Nothing Skyward introduces its own resources, recipes, machines, logistics, interfaces, tools, visual effects, and multiblocks rather than relying entirely on the default progression of its installed mods.

The pack’s custom mods are demonstrated as part of normal progression. Systems such as the Stormwater Lithifier, Derrick quarry, completely custom, configurable Lattice Item Ducts which transport 1 item at a time, Wither-powered machine networks, resource filters, specialized processing machines, and modular steelworks are intended to feel like real parts of the world rather than isolated experiments.

Large multiblocks represent major industrial milestones, while smaller machines handle the individual scientific steps leading toward them. A machine is introduced when it provides a sensible improvement to an existing process, not merely because the supplying mod happens to make it available.

Science, Technology, and Magic

Nothing Skyward is heavily inspired by GregTech’s long production chains and commitment to meaningful intermediate materials. Chapter 1's recipes are designed around recognizable processes such as washing, concentration, roasting, fluxing, reduction, sintering, vulcanization, distillation, and controlled alloy production.

Scientific accuracy is adapted to Minecraft rather than followed at the expense of playability. Processes should be understandable and internally consistent while still functioning as useful progression. Materials exist for a reason, byproducts have future applications, and automation becomes valuable because it replaces work the player previously performed manually.

Magic follows the same philosophy. It is treated as another system of materials, preparation, infrastructure, and transformation rather than a disconnected shortcut around technology. Technological and magical progression may approach problems differently, but both are expected to participate in the pack’s larger resource economy.

Quests as Documentation

The quest book is primarily an informative progression guide. Quests explain discoveries, machines, processes, multiblocks, and the reasoning behind new production chains. They are arranged to show chronological progression and relationships between systems clearly.

To be clear, an entire section of one of the pack’s custom mods is dedicated to making “form a multiblock” a real quest objective. Multiblocks are not decorative side content; the pack is fully committed to integrating them into progression.

Quests generally provide no rewards. Completing a process is its own advancement, and the item or infrastructure you produced is the reward. The quest book exists to teach the pack, establish context, and help players understand what to pursue next without becoming a second resource generator.

A Different Kind of Skyblock

Nothing Skyward is intended for players who enjoy:

• Long and interconnected crafting trees
• Purpose-built machines and multiblocks
• Resource generation outside the standard sieve formula
• Scientific and magical processes with internal logic
• Gradual transitions from manual work to automation
• Custom mod content integrated directly into progression
• Quests that explain systems without showering the player with rewards
• Infrastructure that grows because each new capability genuinely matters

This is a skyblock pack about constructing an industrial and magical world from almost nothing. Its progression is deliberately unfamiliar, its machinery has a reason to exist, and each stage is designed to introduce custom ideas rather than repeat the same skyblock opening under a different name. If you're looking for a unique experience, look no further.