Okay, we messed up a bit and forgot to make a proper post for this but:

Tomorrow (May 19th) we’re doing a CTF event using our old arena from Season 1. It’ll be at 12 (noon) PDT.

Sorry you guys didn’t get a proper heads up but since some of you read the thread, we will go ahead as planned.

Many thanks go out to our wonderful players for the inventive and creative biomes that they’ve spent their time on. After long deliberation, we’ve finally tallied the votes and a clear winner has emerged! But, many of us felt strongly about the other biomes that were presented, and as such we have a 2nd and 3rd place winner as well.

In first place: Maunoir!
Maunoir’s lillypad biome was fantastic, and something that we as admins spent plenty of time roaming around imagining uses for. This is the kind of flora that I’d like to see on the Season 3 server!

In second place: Team Murderface
While we agree that additional time could have been spent on the exterior and small details, the ice cave felt like it would be right at home in the concepts we’re putting together, and the concept was executed very well.

In third place: JammyThunder/KingDogUK
Though the ice of their domes doesn’t show through water, the orbs themselves are visually impressive and have given us many ideas as to alternative places they could be used. All in all, a very interesting submission.

Be aware that we may also hand out tickets as we go through the map creation process if we feel like we’ve drawn significantly from your biome. We’ll let you know ahead of time, and post thanks as well so you can get some recognition from the community for your work

Stay posted, as our next PVP event will be starting this Sunday!

It’s been a while since our last event; we’ve been a bit busy both in real life and planning the new season. We’re definitely due for one, so I’m going to give it to you next weekend.

It’s a PvP event, so details are purposefully scarce since we don’t want anyone having an unfair advantage. It’ll be a fresh map, so don’t worry about collecting supplies and gearing up for it. As usual, winners receive tickets for the raffle at the end of testing.

Event starts a next Sunday (29 April) at 11AM PDT.

The RFTW Endurance map was a bit of a slog, but after three hours we’ve finally gotten our two winning teams! Many kudos and raffle tickets go to Team Fonjo and Team Sheez! Will there be a match between these two winning teams? Stay tuned.

In the meantime, I am happy to announce our first build contest! For the next two weeks we’ll be giving you the opportunity to start helping our map creation by building examples of new biomes. A flatmap will be put into place over the next day or two, and the server will be switched to Creative mode so that you have an abundant supply of blocks to realize your vision. We’re looking for a 2×2 chunk minimum (so, 32×32 blocks) to realize your landscape, though feel free to go larger if you have time. Judging will occur the weekend of the 21st, so be sure not to bite off more than you can chew!

Good folks of N@W, we’ve had our time to play jokes and get down with a vanilla server. We need something new. Something exciting. We need an event.

This weekend, we will be running a race for the wool using some of the maps our own wonderful Balrog has created. Admins will be leading teams to great victory or crushing defeat, all the while screwing with each other in the process! I am going to get things moving around Saturday the 7th, Noon PDT, so be ready!

Additionally, once the winner of the event is announced, we’ll be kicking off a build contest for two weeks. Watch this space for more info on these events!

Many thanks to those of you who built fantastic shelters in the hollows. Seeing many of the ideas and concepts brought to fruition there was a treat on our part, and a good display of the ingenuity of the players in the N@W community. I appreciate that most of you stayed within theme and that we didn’t see any spaceships or similar setups in the Hollows.

But you’ve waited long enough for this..

I am pleased to announce that the prize for the best Hollows shelter goes to the Mill-Ajru/Crimson Clan/New Forthwind/etc entry!

While there were other interesting and fascinating shelters built (in particular the dwarven stasis pods, the keg shelter, and biome transfers), the winning shelter had the most consistent theme, was built with a strong attention to detail, and in general was aesthetically interesting and pleasing.

The members of all associated nations will each receive one ticket to be used during the raffle for Season 3!

Thank you again for the wonderful builds!

The seal between worlds had torn. The End is connected now directly through a portal in the Wailing Sands, seeping into the essence of the World and corrupting it with all of the strange and foul energies that had been imprisoned there. Black tentacles rise and twisted out of the landscape. Meteors rain down in unprecedented numbers. A foul, thick fungus spreads over the sand, grass, and rubble of the world.

The End is nigh.

But there is hope. Axan has been saved, and working with the defenders to ensure that the Hollows themselves are safe. Nations have been constructing safehouses within these caves to withstand the end of the world as they know it. Soon, Axan reminds them incessantly. The end comes soon.

We’ll be judging the shelters in the Hollows on Friday! It is strongly suggested that you build something both interesting and functional, as the prizes we give to the winner will carry over into Season 3!

The following Saturday at noon PST, we will have one final event. It would be lovely to see the rest of you attend as we close out this season in a spectacular way. After the event, the season will close (perhaps with a bit of exposition from Sheez) and the server will go down. But don’t despair! We’ll be keeping you updated with news and events for the interim between seasons.

Axan knew the warp and weft of the world intimately. Tied to the fundamental forces that comprised existence, it experienced the changes caused by the intrusion of the Empire with every sense of its spiritual body. The Empire was the taste of iron, a dull ache in the bones, a discordant note in the harmony of the universe. Impending doom. And it was growing closer.

To the best of its ability, Axan had commanded, cajoled and pleaded. Perhaps the nations of the world would listen, but it could simply do no more. The feeling of being followed, hounded, had grown unbearable. They were close.

They were here.

Axan fell under the weight of their nets, metal barbs latching onto the space between its scales, and crushing its feathers close. Even as the spirit struggled and lashed out at its captors with fang and claw it knew that hope was fleeting. The leering faces of the Empire, changed by their time in the End, glowered over their prize and the largest of them lifted the snake-like spirit over its shoulder, and back. Back into the dark and empty of the End, in chains more real than those that had held it before. Back into the place of dead and sleeping gods.

What hope did the world have without the one spirit determined to save it?

Without Axan, the world is doomed. Only the combined might of the Nations can save this spirit, and in turn save themselves. Meet us on the 17th at Noon PST to invade the End and recapture Axan from the Empire of the Riven Moon. And bring your finest gear, as this will be a fight to remember.

EDIT: We will be judging the sanctuaries you’ve been working on in the Hollows on the Friday the 23rd. The current season of N@W will be ending on the 24th, but our final map backup will be happening this Saturday, so please be sure to finish up any relevant projects by then. We have some fantastic plans for these events, so stay tuned!

The Empire spilled out of the portal in a wave, moving forward in a coordinated block through the passage near Stormhaven. Outside of the mountain, the forces of the worldly nations stood against them, resolute but rent by their own differences. Gaps formed in their lines as foes stood apart from each others, eyeing each other warily, and into these holes the corrupted Empire charged like arrows. Their swords rent armor and flesh and bone, and their silent stoicism shook the hearts of their foes.

But even as they moved forward, strange wounds began to appear on their bodies. Their skin warped and tore, and a thick viscous black ichor spilled to the ground. The weight of the World was, seemingly, inimical to their existence here and it wounded them more surely than the swords of the disparate nations. Hollow voices cried out in pain, and the Empire fell back, leaving holes through which the battered defenders could advance.

And advance they did. They poured into the Nether once again, driving the Empire before them. Though their wounds slowed them, the Empire fought with a striking ferocity, giving ground only grudgingly against greater numbers until, at last, they were pushed back into the very portal they had spawned from.

And it was here that they vanished, again, somewhere else entirely leaving the defenders of the World bewildered. Try as they might, they could not enter the portal as the Empire had, and there were few clues as to where it led.

The Empire had returned. They were defeated, for now, but had always been canny foes. If they could not succeed in their unknowable goals by brute force, inevitably they would try again through more duplicitous means. The wiser nations would keep watch for their inevitable return, while the foolish ones would fall to their black blades.

Brisk winds ruffled the alien grasses of the floating islands. They whipped and howled through the twisting canyons, twisting in violent, unpredictable paths. They ripped still-young spores from the enormous mushrooms that colonized some of the islands and flung them out into the red mists to float, or burn.

While an unnatural stillness had always pervaded the nether, something here had fundamentally changed. The air felt thin, strained, like a bubble near bursting. Even the native wildlife, as much of it existed anyway, had sensed the changes. Ghasts huddled in unheard of numbers, moaning and wailing to each other while the native orcs withdrew into the ruins they had claimed as shelter. Blazes flickered sullenly from under the outcroppings, their lights dimming as shadows cast from no visible source passed over them, as if to hide.

The nether rippled and bent, it’s substance twisting as something new forced its way into the world.

Hey there folks. We’re going to be having a small get together in the Nether around Noon (12PM PST) on Saturday. This ought to be a blast, so be sure to bring your swords. And ideally nothing you feel bad about losing.