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Structures and ruins: what was left behind.
Across the land you will find the marks of people who came before: stone ruins, camps, tall monoliths and caches of goods. Some are simple to loot, and some are locked behind a riddle.
Where structures are
The land is divided into squares about 32 blocks across. In each square, the world decides by a set of odds whether a structure stands there. The odds are the same for everyone on the same world, so a place you find is always there. Structures do not stand in the sea, on the high peaks or on very steep ground.
The structures
| Structure | How common | What it is | What is in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monolith | Rare (about 1 square in 250) | A tall black obsidian pillar, 12 to 16 blocks high, with a glowing band of mycelium round it and a ring of obsidian slabs at its foot. | Nothing to loot. A landmark, and a sign of the strange. |
| Ruin | About 1 square in 70 | Walls of stone or sandstone round a floor about 7 to 11 blocks each way, with corner pillars and gaps in the walls. | A crate of salvage. |
| Camp | About 1 square in 80 | A campfire, a bed and a few planks on a cleared patch of ground. | A crate with supplies. |
| Supply cache | About 1 square in 65 | One or two crates left in the open. | Loot from a crate. |
| Buried chest | About 1 square in 65 | A chest three blocks under the ground. Above it lies a flat stone on a patch of loose gravel. | A chest of finds. See Finds and treasure maps. |
| Gem vein | About 1 square in 125 | A rocky mound with a vein of one rare gem running up through it. | The gem itself, as you dig it out. |
| Crypt | Rare, on flat dry ground | A buried tomb with a stair down into it. | See Dungeons and the Guardian. |
On a dry moon, where there is no sea and no living thing, you find only monoliths, caches and buried chests.
The gem veins
A gem vein holds one of opal, lapis lazuli, turquoise, jade, amethyst or topaz, and it is the same gem all the way through its mound. The vein climbs from about four blocks under the mound up through it. Dig into the mound to follow it.
The doors of the dead
Some ruins belong to a people who have fallen. Their treasure is shut behind a riddle. There are two kinds of door.
- Glyph doors: a row of three or four gem plates in the wall. Tablets nearby give the order to press them in. Press them (use) in the right order and the door opens. Press a wrong one and the plates hum, a shock bites you for a few points of harm, and you must start again.
- Power doors: a socket behind the door. Run cable from a power source and bring the socket enough power, and the door opens. It closes again if the power fails.
What the dead left behind is goods of their craft and a few relics: rarer metals and the strange materials of other worlds. The more dangerous the universe, the more and rarer the goods.
The glyphs
| Glyph | Gem | Riddle on the tablet |
|---|---|---|
| Sun | Topaz | the day-lamp |
| Moon | Opal | the night-lamp |
| Star | Sapphire | the far light |
| Flame | Ruby | what burns |
| Leaf | Emerald | what grows |
| Tide | Turquoise | what returns |
Tips
- Monoliths and camps are good landmarks. Note where they are on the map.
- Read every tablet. The riddles are the only clue to a glyph door's order.
- Keep a little health before you try a glyph door, because a wrong press costs some harm.
- A buried chest has a flat stone on gravel above it. Look for that patch on the ground, then dig down three blocks.
← Back to the wiki · Last updated 25 October 2026. Mantlenaut is in alpha, so things change.