I've always loved video games. Even when I was really young, I remember sneaking down from my room at midnight to play on my Gamecube. Then getting promptly caught by my parents because I didn't mute the sound. And more than play games, I want to make games. And making a Minecraft map is kinda like that, right? I do have experience coding in Java and making a text based game with that, but there is something great, and terrifying, about making a Minecraft map. I remember playing Herobrine's Mansion/Return and being awestruck, especially by Return's spells. The fireworks just had me shocked. I wanted to make a map like Herobrine's Return where you could actually use those spells. And... after almost a year and something like 300 hours of development... I did. 1.8 gave me that chance. I originally made a PVP map with this system, Dawn of Magic. It isn't as good. The spells aren't as cool. But it was still my first map I published. And now, here's my best. I hope you enjoy... Of course, knowing my luck, it's going to turn out that I forgot to pull that one lever that turns on everything and the whole map is broken. I sure do hope it all works... please...

Pick one of five classes in this four hour long (at least, that's how long it takes me playing solo) map, inspired by greats like Herobrine's Return. Except here, I've added a touch of magic. Well, not a touch because the entire map is based around it. You can either go alone or with up to four people you might call friends. Although, I haven't tried it with any number past 3, so it might get laggy after that. And the map takes zero mods. This map is for Minecraft version 1.8.8. Currently, the majority of the map should work in the 1.9 snapshots, but the final parts don't.

Features:

Five classes each with three unique spells, plus a shared fireball spell
Each class has four upgrade trees, one for each spell + one for passives
Currency and scoring
Custom items, weapons, and bosses
Storyline exposition!
Five semi-open world levels
References EVERYWHERE!
7,111 command blocks. It has a mess of redstone, so it MUST work!
Plus one random block of pink wool. I'm sure it's somewhere... maybe...

Basics of how the spell systems works (click to hide)

You get four "sacred" items. Now, they might look like a map, snowball, egg, and XP bottle, but they are actually artifacts of incredible power. Right click with any of them to cast the corresponding spells. In addition, each class has an ultimate spell that you get later on in the map. Each spell takes a varying amount of mana. By default, you can have up to 50 mana and you recover about 2 mana per second. Certain potions, abilities, or pieces of armor can help you recover mana faster. Technically speaking, you have unlimited mana because you can go into negative mana. However, if you do, you'll get various status effects like poison, slowness, and wither. The effects get worse the farther into the negative you go until it eventually straight up /kills you. You respawn with 30 mana after death.

Classes: Read these so you know which one you want to pick in game. Every class has a short video showcasing each spell.

Mage (click to hide)

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled..." -Plutarch

The Mage is a good, all around class. They can launch fireballs slightly faster than other classes. Their first spell is Ice Barrage. For 15 mana, it fires a small blizzard of snowballs in the direction you're facing. Enemies hit by this take damage and are slowed. Their second spell is Molten Spike. It launches the closest enemy into the air with a pillar of flames at the cost of 20 mana. Their final spell is Cuboid of Cold. For 15 mana, it launches a blast of wind in the direction you are facing. That blast flings enemies and damages them. Doesn't work on flying enemies very well.

Unfortunately, for this video I had to record myself, so it isn't as good as the others.

Druid (click to hide)

"Nature always wears the colors of the spirit." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Druid's first spell is Thorn Burst. It launches a ring of thorns from your location for 15 mana. It can be upgraded to carry either poison or healing potions. Their second spell is Falling Star. It targets a nearby enemy and summons a falling, explosive block above them. Costs 20 mana. Their third spell is Shapeshift. It "transforms" you into a wolf temporarily. While you are a wolf, you have strength, speed, jump boost II, and resistance. In addition, once per shapeshift, you can cast Feral Howl, which costs no mana and starts out doing nothing. It needs to be upgraded to do anything. Shapeshifting costs only 15 mana, but you do not recover mana naturally while shapeshifted. You can still recover mana with potions or other sources though.

Cleric (click to hide)

"We are twice armed if we fight with faith." - Plato

The Cleric's first spell is Chain of Light, which costs 20 mana. It launches a projectile which damages nearby enemies and heals nearby allies. If it hits a mob, it will split into a bunch of other chains, which can also split. The splitting stops after that. A fair warning, if you fling this into a massive group of entities, expect a lot of lag. Their second spell is Shadow Flay. For 25 mana, it launches two shadow nodes into the air. After a few seconds, they explode into darkness, debuffing all nearby enemies. Their final spell is Divine Wrath. Costing a whopping 35 mana, it gives you temporary access to the Staff of Mercy to use to beat enemies' faces in. Landing a kill with the staff will restore 5 mana to you, so it's good against swarms of weak enemies.

Technomancer (click to hide)

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arther C. Clarke

Technomancers have stronger fireballs, but they take longer to recharge. Their first spell is Sniper. It costs 20 mana and gives you one shot with a very powerful sniper rifle. You cannot move while holding the sniper rifle. Their second spell is Polarity Slam which launches all nearby enemies into the air and holds them there for a moment for 20 mana. It also deals a little damage. Doesn't deal damage against flying enemies like blazes. Their final spell is AirStrike. For 30 mana, it places a beacon that calls in a powerful airstrike after a few seconds.

Dragon Acolyte (click to hide)

"My strength is as the strength of ten, for my heart is pure." - Alfred Lord Tennyson

Dragon Acolyte's launch powerful fireballs, but slowly. Their first spell is Shining Shots. For 15 mana, it launches 3 enderpearls in the direction you're facing. These enderpearls can either hit enemies directly for damage or if they hit the ground, they will explode a few moments later. Their second spell is Ender Acid. For 30 mana, it launches several acid nodes that fly around randomly and rain down acid on enemies. The acid also can buff allies. Their final spell is a fun one, Draconic Rush. For 25 mana, it launches you in the direction you're facing, causing an explosion where you land. You also ignite enemies you pass by and it can be sometimes used to glitch out of the map. However, you take some recoil fall damage ~~and it doesn't work against Fairy type enemies~~. Dragon Acolytes tend to be slightly better in groups because they have passives that can buff allies, but you're perfectly able to play it solo.

laggyness notes (click to hide)

The laggiest class in the game is actually Mage, solely due to Ice Barrage. Cleric's Chain of Light can also cause serious lag if it happens to hit a large group of entities. It shouldn't lag if you're playing solo, but for servers, here are the classes in order of least laggy to most laggy:
Technomancer < Druid < Dragon Acolyte < Cleric < Mage

Now, there seems to be a high correlation between the number of pictures a map has on its tread and how successful it is, and because correlation ALWAYS implies causation...

Pictures. I COMMAND THEE TO LOOK AT THE PRETTY PICTURES! Slight spoilers I guess. (click to hide)

Level 1, ManaStream.

Level 2, The Treetops

Level 3, Venlanti

Level 4, Techletia.

Level 5, The Crater? I guess?

The post level hub, the Ethereal Keep

An example of skill trees. This is for Druid.

So much lore text I had to turn down my GUI scale!

This is me having a WONDERFUL time.

Dragon Riding! I was messing around with resource packs, so that's why the golden apple looks weird.

Now, I have tested it several times, so I'd hope nobody runs into any issues. But just in case...

Trouble Shooting (click to hide)

Spell X broke! (click to hide)

You might be able to break certain spells by spamming them really fast. It's not too difficult to fix if it does happen though. First, type into chat /scoreboard players set @p spell1 0 . Use "spell1" if your class's first spell broke, "spell2" if your class's second spell broke, and so on. After that, discard the glass pane and /give yourself another snowball, egg, or XP bottle, as needed.

My fireball broke! (click to hide)

Clear out your inventory of any filled or blank maps. Wait about 10 seconds, then go into creative and grab another blank map and put it into the first hotbar slot.

I lost a vital item! (click to hide)

First, take note of your coordinates with f3 so you can come back. Then, use /tp @p 205 5 -51 . I hid a chest there with copies of a bunch of different items. Take whatever you need then tp back to where ever you were.

I can't summon the dragon/it isn't working in whatever way (click to hide)

First off, there are several points where you're not supposed to be able to summon her because it would be totally game breaking. These include, inside the Ethereal Keep, inside those mini-dungeon void rifts, and in certain parts of the final boss. If you're certain that you should be able to summon her, use /setblock 118 5 -64 air , and try again. For any other problems, move far enough away from the dragon to make her despawn (it's about 30 blocks) and try again, preferably away from other players. If you're in limited space, drop the Dragon Command in any direction to make her fly away from you. And if that doesn't work, just /gamemode 1 to fly around. The Dragon Riding doesn't work as well on servers.

Change Log (click to hide)

Jan 2nd, 2015: Added a preview of level 3.
Jan 3rd, 2015: Fixed some bugs, made the boss fights a little harder.
Jan 4th, 2015: Added the "Force Spells" option at the very start. It should prevent you from losing spell items due to having a full inventory.
Jan 4th, 2015 part 2: Made the intro more interesting. Varied up some of the initial buildings. Made the night raid shorter.
Jan 7th, 2015: Bug fix, added a new vendor, new building, text is now colored, no longer possible to wait out the night siege, added a new side quest in the treetops.
Jan 8th, 2015: made tree parkour a little easier, Changed the clock with the Treetops boss fight.
Jan 11th, 2015: New side quest in level 1. Now, celestial pets have the ability to spawn in automatically tamed.
Jan 15th, 2015: Bug fixes, Venlanti now has mobs. The boss fight isn't done though.
Jan 18th, 2015: replaced potentially laggy clocks, the Venlanti boss fight is finished! Rejoice! Also, lots of bug fixes and got some more interesting pictures. The potion shop in the Etherial Keep will now open after finishing level 2.
Jan 27th, 2015: Bug fixes. Nerfed Cleric slightly, buffed Druid. All classes now have ultimate spells which are unlocked after beating Venlanti. Sadly, there currently isn't much to use them on.
Feb 2nd, 2015: Posted some initial screenshots of the 4th level. Reduced Falling Star's mana cost. Changed the Dragon Acolyte's first spell from Dragon's Blessing to Shining Shots to make it more viable when playing solo. Still isn't the best class for solo play though.
Feb 6th, 2015: Replaced mage's Flaming Wrath with Ice Barrage.
March 24th, 2015: Bug fixes, replaced the Dragon Acolyte's ultimate spell with something cooler. Added some of level 4, but doesn't have the balance or boss fight yet.
March 29th, 2015: YAY! Level 4 is FINISHED! The boss fight took me several hours, but its in now. Also, Cleric's first spell has been replaced with chain of light and Dragon Acolyte's third spell has been replaced by draconic rush.
March 30th, 2015: Me vs. bugs, round 1, Fight! Fixed bug with general store, fixed bug with druid's temple thingy tping you to the cleric's skills, fixed bug with draconic rush randomly launching you into space (it was kinda funny the first time) and made the boss fight much shorter and less tedious.
April 23rd, 2015: Bug fixes, made intro stronger.
April 26th, 2015: Bug fixes, replaced current clocks with /fill clocks to reduce lag. Gave more mana after death (from 10 to 30), made summoning a new celestial kill any you currently have out.

--------OFFICIAL RELEASE!--------
August 18th, 2015: Everything. New level, new boss, spell changes, bug fixes, made Ethereal Keep look nicer, Dragon Riding, all kinds of stuff. All for the official release.

Special thanks (click to hide)

Ajleong for help in level design and play testing
Sethbling and CrushedPixel for helpful MCedit filters
CodeWarrior for MCedit itself
Noricum for cool chairs and small blocks
Matt Godfrey for MCstacker, an amazing command generator.
Everyone who has supported Dawn of Magic, my first map.
PrimalDemon for making a recording of this map.
Hajile001 & Michalj54 for help building Techletia
MClabs15 for letting me use his creation as the base for a boss
Awemanrank100 for bringing color to my world
The_Topazian for corrupting my map with chickens that one time. Oh, and map building help.

ManaMight