So, how about 36 more square kilometers of hand-crafted fun?
Yes, this is another map from Darastlix, the creator of Meiva, but the landscape we're dealing with here is more natural than magical. This is because one of Darastlix's inspirations for the map was a real-life location, namely the delta of the Siberian river Lena. The likeness of the Lena Delta is actually one of the island's most prominent landmarks:
And naturally, there's plenty of lore, too:
Iaven is a magic island where each season, be it winter, spring, summer or autumn, lasts no longer than week. Iaven can be divided into four main regions - Lena Delta, White Winter, Nedgeradak and Tonash.
Lena Delta
Iaven is constantly torn apart by unbelievably strong river called Lena. Lena river changes its shape almost every day, forming ridiculously complicated maze of small streams. This place is called Lena Delta or as some might call it The Water Maze. Western part of Lena Delta is more dry, Lena rarely reaches this part. Here for thousands of years stand Vimcia Rocks. These massive rocks were carried to Iaven by giants or dragons. Nobody knows the truth. Southwestern part of Lena Delta contains huge crater. Theories suggest, that one of the giants dropped his rock here, then he picked it up and carried it to the north.
White winter
White winter in autumn, sunny spring in winter, hot summer in spring, golden autumn in summer. This place haves many names and all of them perfectly describe it. In the heart of this place, on an island, there is a tree called Ethuil or The Tree of Next Season. In the autumn, this tree is covered by the snow. Four spirits live in the tree. One of them is called Grikad - spirit of Autumn, others are called Rhiv, Celu and Laer (winter, spring and summer respectively). They are the masters of all four seasons.
Nedgeradak
Maze of stones and bushes. Located in the south from Lena Delta, this place is extremely easy to get lost in. Eastern part of Nedgeradak is overgrown with giant bushes, forming a wild labyrinth, it's called Miruvoris. Western part is similar to giant stone maze, people that went there and returned called it Ondren. Miruvoris and Onren are separated by strange rock formation simply called Snowy Terraces, because snow always lies there even in the summer.
Tonash
Tonash is located in the eastern part of Iaven. This place is overgrown with forests, it also contains huge rocks that formed here naturally. Giants called these rocks Gondra. In the southern part of Tonash, you can discover hills very similar to hills in Meiva. That is why people called this place Winimus, to honor Meiva God Winimo.
Okay, maybe there's some magic involved. Still, there aren't any giant monuments or floating structures: it's all rocks, rivers, hills and forests. Beautiful rocks, rivers, hills and forests:
The map doesn't look half bad ingame, either. Darastlix used a custom texture pack for the autumn colors you see in the renders, but vanilla Minecraft's eternal spring suits the place well, too:
If you're up for some survival gameplay on Iaven, or just want to take a look around for yourself, you can grab the 349MB map file from the Planet Minecraft page here.
Iaven - Magic of Colors [Planet Minecraft]
Questions? Comments? Contact the author of this post at andras-AT-kotaku-DOT-com.