Mainland

The Mainland is the de facto capital of the the Shire and among the largest cities in the world. It is also the oldest city in the Shire. It was originally named 'The Shire' by early settlers, before the world as a whole adopted the term. The city covers an area approximately 600x600 in size, and the metropolitan area stretches beyond 2000 blocks east-to-west. The Mainland is also one of the primary anchors of the substantially larger metropolitan area called Greater Mainland, home to some of the most culturally significant and historical builds.

Brief

In year 1 of the Shire Reckoning calendar (Oct 15, 2010), colonists from the failed Fraggle Rock world founded the city on the shores of the Spawn. The city thrived, becoming the largest in the Shire (and, for a time, the only city in the Shire).

During the early days of the Shire, the Mainland was the location of several major developments, becoming the genesis of the Intershire Highway System and the Shire Rail & Subway system.

Through land reclamation and municipal annexation, the Mainland has expanded beyond its original borders. For example, the areas now occupied by the Opera House and the Promotion Stage were once part of the ocean.

After the Shire became public, the Mainland became a major trading and shopping hub, and its rich history helps attract many tourists, with The Odd Facade attracting thousands of tourists every year.

The city was the site of several firsts, including the Shires' first city, first rail system, and the first area to be featured in the press.

The city's economic base includes retail, government services, entertainment, and tourism.

The city is ranked number one in historical landmarks, and is listed as a SUNESCO World Heritage site.

The Mainland has one of the highest costs of living in the Shire, with building access restricted to select builders, and real estate becoming increasingly scarce.

History

The Mainland was founded as 'The Shire' on October 15, 2010 by Ctshiner, Nebbers, and Mmerkler.

After the sudden and unfortunate loss of their first world, "Fraggle Rock", Ctshiner created a new and far more stable vanilla server, which he hosted from his home PC.

The world was created in Minecraft Alpha (Minecraft Beta was not released until December 20, 2010). The first build ever to be created was a giant "HI" sign, created by Ctshiner to welcome Mmerkler and Nebbers to the server. This "HI" sign, although slightly modified since its creation, still stands today in its original location.

Ctshiner was the first to explore the new area. He left two trails of torches for the other members to follow and explore the area. The first route guided early visitors from the spawn, up through what is now the Plaza or Central District, before ending at base camp, which would later become the first Shire Train Station.

The second route was the "scenic tour". It followed along the Mainland's west coast, up through what is now Brandywine Village and Shai-Town, over the mountain that would become the Odd Facade, before turning back toward base camp. Along the way was the second structure ever built on the server - the "Flame Pits" tower: At the base of what would become the stairway that leads to the Odd Facade was once a sinkhole that had lava dangerously close to the surface. Ctshiner built the tower next to the pit with a sign warning others to watch their step.

The first three months were spent taming the wild lands that would eventually become the Mainland. Citizens explored caves, fought mobs, and survived off the fruits of the land. This time also marked the construction of the first few builds as well. Notable buildings constructed during this time included Castle Wolfen-Neb, Chateau Cristobel, Shire Train Station (since demolished), The Odd Facade, Shinto Temple (demolished), Plaza, and the Herman B. Wells Library. The Great Wall was also constructed during these early days - it was meant as a barrier to separate the 'mainland' Shire from the unexplored wild lands beyond.

The Great Wall originally ran, unbroken, from the Mainland's western shore (near the former Great Pyramid, now Two Bridges Valley) all the way to the southwestern shore (near present day Temple District & Maven Mall). Over time, the wall was dissected by roads and bridges as the outside world was colonized. It eventually came to represent the Mainland's official border to the west and south. Nearly all of the wall was demolished in late 2019, with exception to two preserved portions.

Also during this time, an extensive tunnel system was constructed, spreading in all directions from under the Train Station. The Chamber of Souls, located beneath Castle Wolfen-Neb, is the most prominent portion of the system.

December 20^th, 2010 ushered in a new era for Mainland. This was the day the Odd Facade Resort was featured in the first video of the Shire uploaded to YouTube, and signaled the first public release of the Shire's server address.

A second video, "The Shire Central District", became another hit when it was uploaded on January 7^th, 2011 - it has been seen over 187,000 times to-date; new members trickled in, and the Mainland was soon inundated with new capital investment from these newcomers.

One of the first outside members, Vancelot, constructed a house and magic shop in the Plaza. The house still exists to this day, however the magic shop has been built over by Mr. Wolf Inc. tower (Today known as the SIA Headquarters). It was around this time that the various plaza shops were constructed.

The Skybridge was also constructed, in three phases; Phase one, built by mmerkler, linked the now-demolished Merk Manor to the plaza. Phase two, built by nebbers, crossed over the Plaza - and phase three, built by Ctshiner, linked Castle Wolfen-Neb to the far east side of the Mainland. It still remains today one of the most iconic features of the Mainland.

Back in those days, Creative mode was unavailable and several items were completely unattainable unless through admin commands. The stores of the Mainland plaza were kept well stocked, and they were ran on the honor system. The community was small enough that keeping chests stocked was entirely feasible - members took only what they needed and gave back what they could. However, the popularity of the Shire videos led to something the server administrators had not prepared for: griefing.

The chests were raided, homes were burned, and the plaza was covered in lava on more than one occasion. Not only did the sudden popularity bring griefers, but it also brought something else: bad builders. In fact, one could argue that it was in the Mainland where Mr. Wolf was truly born. These early pioneers of dirt houses helped pave the way for the Shire's quality control systems and our stringent ranking rules and regulations.

By April 2011, the Mainland became a restricted zone for its own protection - only a privileged few were allowed to build in what was then the jewel of the server. This lockdown had unintended consequences, however. It forcibly removed several members and projects from the Mainland and, while tragic as this may sound, the Mainland diaspora helped seed other parts of the Shire, giving rise to new communities, each with their own distinct themes and personalities.

For the next several months, growth in the Mainland was slow but steady. The glory of the Mainland faded and its importance dropped substantially, as new cities sought to supplant the Mainland as the dominant political force in the Shire.

It was in late 2011 that efforts to rejuvenate began in earnest. The server's first Architect, Shanevr, contributed many new buildings after ordering the dismantling of his first city, Vartistia. Several of his builds were relocated to the Mainland to spare them from destruction.

This sparked a renaissance within the Mainland as other builders desired to have their builds featured in the Mainland. Over the next year, the Mainland underwent substantial gentrification (with exception to the Brandywine area, which had its property values purposely depressed for the benefit of the Mainland's poorer residents).

By May, 2012, most Shire Archduke, Architect, Arbiters, and Lords had all staked a claim in the Mainland, weaving together a rich, detailed community full of homes, businesses, and civic buildings.

The Mainland had incremental changes over the next several years. Most notably the rail system was continually improved and redeveloped. Central Station was rebuilt and a much larger main station was built on the westside. A small section of Brandywine was redeveloped with a winery and high-end shops by esteemed Architect Jommers as well. The Odd Facade was remodeled by nebbers and vetous in 2015. The spawn area was revamped by Enderp on more than one occasion. And Andrewpo/CoffeeandChill built a 'mini-Pangea' spawn point for newcomers too.

It was in June 2019 when a major overhaul began. Stemming from a major effort to refresh the spawn area once again, several players led by Jommers, Enderp, Smoot, Spaicol, Malaclord, and others aimed to completely remodel all of the Mainland and surrounding areas. By each neighborhood:

Shiredale was razed and completely rebuilt into a dark prismarine/spruce themed upscale neighborhood.
Spawn added an all new promotion stage, new homes, new roads and bridges, and new ships near the docks.
Central District kept most existing buildings, with most being remodeled with brick roofs.
Shire Heights was rethemed with prismarine bricks, adding several new buildings and new roads, and bulldozing some old abandoned buildings.
Opera House was subtly reskinned and the surrounding coast was completely renovated with a new waterfront.
Brandywine was reskinned with a new palette, and roads were redeveloped.
Shai-Town was remodeled with dark oak and a new underground mall was created by Arcticstar.
A new neighborhood emerged east of Brandywine/South of Odd Facade. Now called Little Caffa, the area is almost entirely all-new buildings.
The Odd Facade was updated once more, this time by Malaclord and nebbers, and a new wing was added on.
Polaris Mall was repurposed as Polaris Hospital.
Temples within the Temple District were remodeled.
A new neighborhood called Little Naoki was built on the outer eastside island.
Little Bork was born in the space between Polaris Hospital and Opera House.
Little Laurelian was created in the 'spawn tree' pit.
Little Venice was created just south of Little Laurelian.

At the time of this Wiki update (May 4 2020), most remodeling was complete, with only smaller updates remaining.

Notable participants: Spaicol, Malaclord, Smoot, Jommers, Enderp, Nebbers, Aedesius, Lobstrex, Jenner, SlyyPenguin, and others.

Today, the Mainland is a mosaic of neighborhoods, including, but not limited to: Spawn Area, Central District, Shire Heights, Shiredale, Shai-Town, Temple District, and Brandywine Village.

Furthermore, the Greater Mainland metropolitan area continues to expand, and now links from Bloodmist (and arguably Silex Civis) all the way to Shai-Ling and Oranjestad. Expansion work toward Equos is currently ongoing.

Cityscape

The Mainland is sometimes called a "city of neighborhoods" because of the profusion of diverse subsections.

There are nearly a dozen official neighborhoods in the Mainland, plus 5 special administrative zones (these being the Opera House, Dukedom, Shire Govt Offices, Odd Facade Resort, and Polaris Hospital. Much of the Opera House and Spawn Zone areas are built on reclaimed land—the ocean in the area has been completely filled in, forcing the destruction of the Shire's first lighthouse, which was stationed just off the original coastline.

The Central District area and immediate surroundings consist mostly of mid-rise wood, brick, and stone buildings, with some older buildings in the Survivalism era style. Several of these buildings mix in with modern mid-rises, notably the Church of Motherwell, Chateau Cristobel, and Castle Wolfen-Neb. In addition to the Survivalism cobblestone & wood styles, several other architectural styles have found their way to the Mainland.

The Central District has come to be dominated by Homestar & Silex-style mid-rises. Shire Heights District, Brandywine, and, until recently Shiredale, became known their Bree styles (with the neo-classical civic buildings as centrepieces). Shai-Town, of course, became known for their heavy Gong-Chengshi and Shai-Ling influences.

Infrastructure

The Mainland is the unofficial hub of the world, with the Shire's Rail, Highway, and Sewer systems all stemming from it.

The original Shire Rail system was a single-line booster cart system that circled the Mainland and stretched as far as Shai-Ling.

By early 2011, the Rail system was antiquated and was in dire need of an overhaul.

Dendrago and his STA coworker LttylerJ30 brought their substantial redstone knowledge to world and completely revamped the system, starting with the Mainland.

Their system lasted nearly a year before being revamped again by Andrewpo, fatllama and several helpers. Keikei designed the new Central Train Station, replacing the obsolete Survivalism-style station entirely.

There are some hidden portions of the original rail lines buried deep within the new station still. It was LttylerJ30 who started the first legs of the Intershire Highway System; the first line started at the end of the Sky Bridge and ran all the way to Shai-Ling.

He constructed the first bypass as well, looping from the Odd Facade, up through Lamename Village and Bree, before connecting back to the Mainland. Today, the Mainland is criss-crossed by several highways, roads, and tunnels, making it one of the most accessible cities in the Shire.

The area's unmanaged, organic growth is evident in the city's archaic and meandering road layout, as opposed to a pre-planned city which often employs a grid pattern to its streets.

The sewer system had its beginnings underneath where the Opera House now sits; the land was originally ocean until a worldedit land reclamation project started by nebbers filled in the area. A never-completed retirement centre & market square was built on the new land before being removed to make way for the Opera House. The landfill project left a moderate cliff face, making a unique drainage point for a sewer system. From there, the sewer system was built out across the Mainland, running under the train station, plaza, Odd Facade, and spawn. The original drainage point beneath the Opera House has since been removed as part of remodeling efforts.

Several lakes, fountains, and wells in the Mainland drain into the sewers, a little-known secret.

The sewers go on far beyond the Mainland as well, connecting as far as Falore, Bree, and the old Skylan Ruins.

Media

The Mainland is featured in multiple videos:

Several detailed maps have been made of the Mainland as well, each at a different stage in its creation: