The Ancient Builders dug the deep cities, built the gate, and raised a city in the Sift over the largest Vaerith deposit they ever found. Their arenas were called the Grounds. Your lobby is that city.
Grounds lore, written by Grounds. Not Mojang canon. Names are working titles.
I
Long ago, told only through finds.
A people of inventors and builders dug deeper than anyone. Under the world they raised mining cities out of deepslate, with halls, bridges, canals and lifts. They were craftsmen, not wizards. In their largest city they set a frame that led nowhere, until they learned to fill it with soul light.
In the game: Every ancient city in vanilla is one of their mining cities.
II
The golden age.
Behind the frame lay the Sift: quiet, colourful, full of drifting souls. In the carapace the Builders found the largest Vaerith deposit they had ever seen. Over it they built their great city upward, with copper lines, power stations, workshops and an academy. At its edge they laid out arenas for their trials, where a fallen soul returns to its anchor. They called the arenas the Grounds, and the city took the name.
In the game: The city you spawn in, the Soul Anchor rule, and the name of the server all come from here.
III
The sealed gate.
The Builders asked more and more of their cores. A great core was overloaded and cracked. The cracks ran through the Sift into their old cities in the Overworld, and what seeped through made the sculk grow. The Builders sealed the gates and left a warden behind. Most of them vanished; a few families stayed and kept the essentials running. The lift has stood still since.
In the game: Sculk and the warden, from Grounds' point of view. Where the Builders went is what the seasons are about.
IV
The day the gate woke.
The tides of the Sift shifted and the sealed frames began to hum. In the city, Mira, a mechanic from one of the families that stayed, set a new core into the gate in the gate hall. On the other side, in an ancient city in the Overworld, an old frame lit up, and a traveller walked through.
In the game: The intro you see on your first join. Mira is waiting in the gate hall.
V
Now.
More and more travellers come through the gate and find their place in the city. They compete in the old Grounds, help Mira bring the dead machines back, and find out from echo shards what happened to the Builders. Each season brings a piece of the city back and opens another part of the Sift.
In the game: The lobby, the journal, the city projects and the seasons. You build on where the Builders stopped.
In the Grounds a fallen soul returns to its anchor instead of being lost. The Builders built the arenas for exactly that: you can fight, lose and come back. Destroy the anchor and there is no return. It is the in-world reason respawning works the way it does.
3 of 8 found by the city so far. Each shard is one sentence from the Builders' time and goes into your journal.
Three characters carry the story in the lobby. Names and looks are still being worked on.
The mechanic. She grew up in the city, took over a family workshop in the lower town, got the gate running again without knowing who would come through, and wants the lift back. Warm, practical, stubborn.
“Welcome to Grounds. Just in time.”
“If you want to play, the Atlas shows you the way. If you've got a few minutes, I could use a second pair of hands.”
The Builders who left never appear. You hear them through echo shards hidden in the city. Each shard is one sentence from their time and goes into your journal.
“The anchor holds. Who falls comes home. Only the gate must never stay open.”
A creature of the Sift and the lobby's mascot. Hops around the square, squeaks, cannot be caught.
“squeak”
Any mode counts.
Every match delivers some to the city.
One project per season.
Everyone in the city, live.
And the next season starts there.
Vaerith delivered this week: 184,200
Build on where the Builders stopped.
Java Edition 26.2. Bedrock to follow.