Of all the features in Minecraft, none of them scream out "I HAVE LORE" quite like the trail ruins. I mean these are literally the site of a buried civilization. But what are they really? And what do they look like restored? Well, let's find out.
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This is a series called Minecraft VVSauce where I explore random features of Minecraft. Not Secret Minecraft things or Minecraft lore (like Game Theory) or Escape Rooms, but a research based series dedicated to over-answering questions you never asked.
#minecraft
Unfortunately, Bedrock's trail ruins aren't very easy to navigate due to the fact that the tower is split in two.
That happened to me so I gave up looking for the loot :(
When I came across my first one I thought it was a but in generation
this used to be a comment about bedrock being bad. some ppl got a bit too upsettty spaghetti about it.
I hate u Ne-rey
@@XSV.Animate.Lab_723 who?
I did a whole excavation of one in my survival world and took notes in a book (im a historian irl so LMFAO). Its clear to me that the "Platforms" are altars. To me, some of these trail ruins are set up like modern villages: same job blocks, but different structural design. It is apparent based on the ones i found that these trail ruins are geared towards battle. Grindstones, smithing tables. The towers have a very citadel-like vibe to them, which is what i call them. The towers have half-slab windows in them, perhaps for shooting arrows, and the bottom of the tower is often connected to some structure that feels like a safe-room. At the very least, the towers are very defense oriented and the rest of the buildings are more often than not there to back up the tower. This implies that the people who inhabited the trail ruins (presumably villagers based on the job blocks and similar setup) were once a very aggressive and combative race. Perhaps this points to a time when modern villagers were just aggressive as their neighboring pillagers. Just food for thought. Nice video!
The materials used in their construction would tend to point away from villager ancestors being the creators. As far as I know, the only real overlap with villages is the plain terracotta that shows up in desert villages. As Wiffles mentioned, the friend pottery sherd with a villager face also indicates the villagers existed then and were a separate group.
@@NitFlickwick why would the friend sherd imply that the villagers are separate? Also, the fact that the building blocks are different doesn't mean that it's a completely different species. The stronghold, dessert temple and the ancient cities use completely different blocks but he still in the video says that the were built by the same people. (
@@NitFlickwick or, it simply implies that they were friends with neighboring communities. Im not sure, but there is no other evidence for a "separate race" besides the master builders
@@p1ratesail0r there is evidence of a different race, pillagers vs. villagers, you can see this through their skin tone.
@@DoolaidmanPillagers and Villagers are provably the same species, as shown in Minecraft Legends, where we see their origins, and also Minecraft Dungeons, where a Villager is cast out from the Village, and turns into an Illager, which is the same species as a Pillager.
a common mistake i see with a lot of recreations of ruins: people forget that wood and hay withers, they probably had roofs and various other structures constructed of those things alone. also ofc the random pottery scattered around is a little confusing, maybe they had a form of library back when that showed their history through pottery.
In this case, Wool can also be one of the materials used for roofs
@@EdbertWeislyI don’t really think it would be, considering it was pretty valuable in ancient times. Even though they had pens, it’s safe to assume that those wool were mostly made into clothing
I do think that wood and hay are possible roof materials, because trail ruins are located in forests, and they do have some sort of farming skills.
not to mention they were in a forest
I kind of assume the pottery shards weren't pottery, there just part of the mosaic that is combined to make pottery, because that's more interesting than a block that looks like terracotta with weird symbols.
Something I'd like to point out: "Host" might not refer to a role in their society, but instead to their *gods.* "Host" is a term used in Minecraft Legends to refer to the beings that created the Overworld- The Hosts, Knowledge, Foresight, and Action. The armor may have a religious purpose, a way of paying tribute to the gods or to denote a priest or something.
I really would like to see Minecraft’s theology be expanded upon in a future update, preferably by having a future boss be an aspect/avatar of one of the Hosts.
Some of the trims bear resemblance to real life runes. The symbols in runes often relate to a concept, much like the trims do here. Sweden used them for decorating purposes in the past, but other cultures used them for religious purposes. You might not be far off here!
The real-life host of a Minecraft world (whether it's a server or a PC) is also the closest thing to a god in Minecraft. After all, they're the only ones with unlimited access to console commands.
I agree. Minecraft Legends is basically confirmation that minecraft theology exists. Minecraft Legends says that the legend was passed down from villager to villager and so *maybe* there was some religious warping of the original legend by a derivative of the trail ruins religion and that religion one day became the dominant religion (Like the Abrahamic religions irl)
Yeah that's pretty good!
Wifies as a archeologist predicting buildings is what i never expected, but loves
The reason they died is because they didn’t have protection no weapons were found.that would also explain why the villagers not only survived but also had iron golem.The connection they all had together means they could have a multi village nation unlike the villagers meaning the ancient buildings wouldn’t be able to use resources to fix each villages problems but what the king saw causing the nation to collapse and the villagers to use their resources to adapt and survive.
i misread that as “i wife” 💀💀💀
@@spungbopscarepanssame
Huh. That's pretty good!@@IndosemaJ-analysis
@@user-wz3hi6yf4o :)
The blast furnances could just be implying they were aware of metal and used it for something. That should put the timelines somewhere around the Bronze Age if I'm not mistaken
They added the bronze age collapse to minecraft 💀
@@a-bombmori7393 💀
@@a-bombmori7393Are pillagers the sea people? But bro Egypt was supposed to survive
@@a-bombmori7393😅
Not a bad idea.
Large room 5 looks suspiciously like a pillager outpost. Mabye the villagers and pillagers were one faction at one point before a war? Maybe thats why the architecture is so unique.
In minecraft legends pillagers are villagers that went off to fight for the player against piglins, but when the war was over they were no longer able to reintegrate into villager society due to their newfound appreciation for violence and resentment for other villagers not joining the war effort
I wish villages were built more like the ruins, they are all just wood house with some stone within a 10x10 area (exception being desert not using wood except for jungle doors) whereas these trail ruins are built by brick, mud, stones, and other unique. Like if it was repaired, it would probably look better than a village.
It would look better, except for the exterior glazed terracotta
What do you mean by "within a 10x10 area"?
If there were ruins made of wood, the microscopic organisms of the universe would have eaten all the wood by the time you discovered them.
universe?@@Boomblox5896
Wood is a lot easier to get
My theory is that the host trim refers to the 3 hosts in minecraft legends, Action, foresight and knowledge. Since there are no structures in minecraft legends other than villages, piglin bases and the ones you build, it'd be safe to say that they were around the same time and the trail ruins were the builders' first true settlement after the war. The technology difference between trail ruins and MCL can be explained by the hosts leaving at the end, leaving the player almost knowledgeless of their world, and with the power of the allays diminished in the host's abscence, they have no help getting resources anymore. They have to resort to manual labor. This would also explain the blast furnace, because they've seen as much as giant catapulting redstone launchers in wartime, so it wouldn't be too far-fetched to say that it was their first complex machine they built on their own, having prior knowlege of that. Looking at your reconstructed version as well isn't all too dissimilar to the MCL villages. Also side note, the ancient city portal looks very akin to Action.
Good point. It kinda does
“To you 2000 years from now” Well played sir, well played
Aot reference
@@MadovCyplinkov i just commented this. guess i was too late.
I cannot stress enough how well done this is, this is exactly what I wanted to see when clicking this video, exactly what I was hoping for after reading the thumbnail and just the process and steps I would’ve taken to discover the secrets of the ruins. Thank you for this very enjoyable video.
I think that the "Host" armor trim is a reference to the Hosts in Minecraft Legends, which released around the same time as Trails and Tales. The fact that the Orb of dominance is shown in the cutscenes in MCL proves it to be Canon in the MC timeline, and it shows the birth of the Illagers, who would later own the Orb. The Well of Fate also may be the "Original" Ocean Monument, tying it into MC even further. I don't know why I went on that tangent.
To me, the trail ruins always looked like just ancient villages. With all the villager work stations and the villager face, it doesn't have to be an ancient forgotten civilization.
The bit where you looked at what the structures actually were and the age range was pretty good. Randomly choosing 2 of the 1000s of ancient civilizations that used bricks, stone, pottery and farming and citing the absence of wood (Which rots) disproving others was a bit sillier. But overall a good vid, I like the idea of pulling together a story of what happened to the people who previously inhabited the minecraft world. I wonder if they were us, villager/testificates or some 3rd group? The presence of zombie villagers as distinct from regular zombies implies other players did/do exist.
My other issue besides the arbitrary choosing of civilizations and implying a lack of wood when the civilization has been abandoned for so long, was also that while you can say that the ruins may be x years old, thats from "current day" *in minecraft* and not necessarily IRL. We have no idea what year the world in mc is equivalent to, at best we're looking at the iron age around the 13th century, or we could be looking at a tabula rasa apocalypse and its many centuries later.
Whoever lived in the trail ruins also had some pretty cool tunes considering that you find the Relic disc there
‘To you. 2000 years from now’ Was that a fucking attack on Titan refrence?
another person who beat me to it.
I have a feeling that the trail ruins were made by villagers, not the ancient builders. Almost all the buildings contain a villager job site
"To you, 2000 years from now" Nice AoT reference lmao
I've been to that national park that you used for an example of ancient pueblo towns, and I can say with certainty that it is a similar experience to that in minecraft. Although the pueblos used much less vibrant and varied colors, the scale and overall experience of discovering these structures matches Minecraft very well
13:25 snk/aot reference
There was one room which i’ve seen before which i didn’t see when you were talking about the different parts of the structure, it’s like a massive castle looking thing with 2 towers on each side and are really cool
One thing I noticed about Trail Ruins is that they look remarkably similar to the Villages in Minecraft Legends. Perhaps that’s something to consider and look into.
The host armor trim could be the ancient builders respect of the hosts from Minecraft legends. Plus, I found a gag about the Relic disc that you can find in trail ruins. Since Minecraft Legends was coming soon, they released the disk that has lietmotif to The Well of Fate in Minecraft Legends
@@thegeniuschannelwithlandon498 I think mc legends is a derivative of the trail ruins civilization and that the armour trims represent the hosts of trail ruins time
This was awesome! I love having a time frame estimate, rough as it is. You should cover some of the other structures, maybe dungeons or trial chambers?
This actually made me like trail ruins because before this I had never had any luck with them, always thinking they’re just random bunches of blocks
Mojang is a Swedish company and "hosta" is the Swedish word for "cough". Maybe the fourth armour trim is hinting at how the civilization died out? Clutching at straws, I know.
Wifies, blink twice if you're being held at gunpoint by your world history professor
This is a great video and I have to say thank you so much for the captions. I have a hard time hearing sometimes and concentration can be hard when you either can’t hear or you have to make the video really loud. Thank you for the captions.
Wifies just becoming an anthropologist isn’t exactly what I expected to show up in my feed today, but I’ll take it. Very nice, I love the vid. Minecraft lore is really interesting. Keep it up, Wifies!
I’m Thankful that someone as smart and funny as Wifies is able to upload so much with high quality content as well! Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! 🦃
Do you have any ideas for lore about trial chambers? I think those spawner variants are quite interesting.
I think they were made by whoever made the Gale Sanctum in Minecraft Dungeons.
@gardenerguy2.065 That would be really cool, but unfortunately Minecraft Dungeons isn't "canon" to our Minecraft worlds (I think).
In my opinion the Mages of the Ancient builders made the spawners and put them into the chambers as some kind of rite of passage or test of aptitude both for individual warriors and even teams/groups. If they succeded, they would have proven themselves as true warriors and might have then: A) been given a sort of "adventurer's pass" that meant they could leave their settlement and explore the world (perhaps this was the trial key's use?). B) been drafted into the Ancient Builder's expansionary military and eventually sent to die in the Nether, the End or the Ancient Cities.
@@Sagryl Why do you think it is not canon. There is nothing to say it isn't.
@gardenerguy2.065 My bad, gave it a google and turns out I mistook it for minecraft Legends which is not confirmed as canon but rather apparently a story told to a young villager. Still it's a shame that there is practically no indication of the events of Dungeons in the base game. If they simply added the mobs and other features from Dungeons they would basically have over half the update done and people would love it
These remind me a lot, of End Citys in some way, big room with chests, towers which you had to climb, all of it does remind me of well, End citys.
nice AOT reference Wifies. thanks for making a great video!
Wifies never fails to entertain us with his content.
agreed
I like how much effort he put in to this Wifies never fails to impress us!
I think you meant impress us
youre saying he dissapoints you
Thanks@@Miloporo
@@user-tz2zn1bw1mOmg it's a person grateful for being corrected how wholesome
this has got to be my favorite video on the trail ruins because ive been wondering since they came out which civilization they could be based on, and i think you hit the nail on the head! granted im not a historian or archeologist, but i definitely think its a good educated guess
Bro I was REWATCHING old Wifies videos yesterday and today I see this masterpeice. 🤩✨
New lore idea: when the ancient builders where makeing the wither they first made the breeze (there are many similarities such as when the wither first spawns in it has the same white rings as the breeze, the way they fly is also very similar and if you /summon a wither skull it looks very similar to a breezes head)
I always think that the Trail Ruins were just ancient villages because of some buildings having specific jobs and it seeming similar. Villagers could just have evolved from builders because they had houses, jobs, and a currency, so they had no reason to build and villagers eventually just forgot to build.
I always love your video diving deeper into this stuff!
IDK if anyone has pointed this out yet but Platforms seem to be religious rooms, the Campfires are a pire, the Throne could be for a priest or king, and the empty ones could have had Talismen or other sacred items in them that dont preserve
Old villages are my idea. As soon as you mentioned the structure that resembles a blacksmith, it clicked. Besides, the final structure looks like a really old village. This would also make sense as to why villagers existed back then too.
One of the devs once said that the Minecraft games are all connected and take place in the same universe, and I'm sure you mentioned that in a video before. I would love to see a video where you do a timeline of the Minecraft universe, taking information from all the games and highlighting major events that happened.
no they didn't.
I have my own world and I've dug out the ruins and rebuilt them slightly, and I figured that the part of the tower with the campfires is a cooking room, probably to cook meat for royalty or for just the entire city in general. (Most likely used for cooking all food in the city). (P.S, I'm a huge fan and ever since I started watching your Wifies' Theory videos, I've been making some of my own. Huge inspiration for a favorite passion of mine. Keep up the good videos!)
A lot of this is really cool, and I like your ideas a lot. The pottery shards being proof that they 'dicovered', 'invented', or 'were the first to' anything is a pretty big stretch however. No matter how much cooler it makes the video sound.
Issues I have with this: 1. The sea level rises due to climate change. The ocean level didn't always rise 0.14 inches per year. Over the last century, the ocean level has risen by 7 inches. Therefore over the last decade, the ocean level has risen an average of 0.07 inches per year, and probably even less before that. 0.14 inches simply isn't a valid measurement. 2. How does the fact that there is the image of a fire on a pottery shard at all indicate that this civilization used the campfires as a means of communication, it simply means they were aware of its existence and that it was somewhat important to their culture. 3. HOW DOES THE FACT THEY HAVE AN IMAGE OF SOMETHING ON A POTTERY SHARD SIGNIFY THEY WERE THE FIRST TO DO SOMETHING. I think this was just a mistake because it's not central to any of your arguments but . . . why? 4. The face pottery shard could also signify that the trail ruin creators were villagers . . . I mean we know the villagers lore wise can place blocks because they can build villages. 5. You said it yourself "This is a perfect look into the types of civilizations in the Minecraft world. Forest-dwelling and beach-dwelling." The age of the underwater ruins does not correlate to the age of the trail ruins. It makes no sense to estimate the age of the trail ruins based on the age of the ocean ruins. 6. probably some other stuff I missed. If you have any additional corrections or corrections to my corrections feel free to reply to this comment.
He's back
Hella cool video. Me and my friend found one of these and had no idea what it was so we ended up digging everything up and we were still lost. Thanks.
Don’t stop making the unsolved mysteries and Minecraft explained videos. They’re really entertaining, honestly
Wifies is the only guy that can make an entertaining video from a lump of clay and gravel
Working on the hardest escape room in Minecraft… It’ll come out soon.
i remember someone talking about how the mojang developers are the “ancient builders”, and with each update they are just building extra stuff back in time so when the player spawned they would have more structures to explore
Gotta love that AOT reference at the end
Wifies is theorizing when MatPat doesn't anymore
this aged well
I think this is what happened. There we're Three Cultures that arose from a new Era The Mainlanders The Greekish Roman Sea/River people And the Gothic Sea/River people The Mainlanders because they are far from the cost most likely didn't have transportation which means no boats and less advanced thats why they are living in this Primitive yet abtract houses The Greekish Roman Sea/River peoples however had the ocean for travel ehich means influence and culture spread quick and mostly got influenced by the Villagers that are living on the coasts The Gothic Sea/River peoples just like the Greekish Roman Sea peoples had the luxury of living near the coast but rather than villagers influecing them it was Illagers or some early for of pillagers which turned them most likely barbaric pirates I think The reason why there are no other builder apart from the olayer is that the gothics wage a war against the other two cultures and completely ignoring the villagers Wage a Generational war which led to the summoning of the wither and extinction of the three cultures *Minecraft Bronze Age Collapse" But I have a question? Why arent the other ruins as Ruined as The Trail and Ocean Ruins? The pyramids are Hardly ruined buried yet unruined uncrubled or the jungle temple mossy yet all of its redstone and the it looks like it hasn't even started crumbling still intact or the Ancient City yes the ancient cities have cracks but its ruins are still tamed unlike the Builder ruins,it hasn't been berried by deepslate and again its Restone is still intact.Which means all of these Ruins (except the theories Builder Ruins)were built recently
I think the other ruins were attacked while the temples were abandoned
Based on the fact that they also made candles, we can assume that they farmed bees or collected honey and wax from wild bees. We can also find hanging signs (which says that they knew carpentry and might have doors too) and emeralds, which may indicate that they also traded goods a lot. Also you can find various stained glass panels in the loot.
Haven't even started the video and I know this is gon be a banger
Wifies never fails to disappoint!
youre saying he dissapoints you
if you think fire was invented 2000 years ago there's a few high school history classes I think you would like
💀
Love the vid Wifies always keeps me entrtained
The sea level doesn't consistently rise and can also drop so what i think happened is that a cataclysmic event happened flooding them mud brick ruins that were built at lower altitude (also mud bricks degrade underwater very fast compared to stone bricks) The flood is hinted at by various elements :the moskstraumen achievement, the prismariene(which can be found as individual buried blocks in the sandstone ruins), and other things. And after the flood the stone ruins were build underwater intentionally which is hinted at by the fact that the ruins have prismariene blocks and sea lanters which work better underwater also other thing that work better underwater Also i think that prismariene is made out of enchanted quartzbecause the (green/turquoise color change) and because chiseled quarts has an an eye carved into it and eyes kinda means guardians and guardians are obviously made out of prismariene (and copper (the spikes)) (guardians are obviously golems so if we find a way to enchant chiseled quartz we might be able to craft guardians)
Last hehe
Sorry Have a wonderful day ❤🎉😢
*nod of acknowledgement* actual archaeologist here. both these and 'real' ruins are artifacts of human volition. valid. nice video.
Love these fun theorie videos they realy make you think!
First pls pin😢😢😢 Dad said it’s my turn to get pinned Roses are red Violets are blue I liked my own comment Cuz I wanted too
I liked my own comment.
Absolute fucking menace
Oh, shut up! (In my opinion)
I'm gonna touch you
No one cares, your just begging for likes
This is so full of assumptions and misconceptions, but I like the effort!
I’m pretty sure that mojang, didn’t intend for someone to cover the lore, and most likely didn’t know about the lore, so that explains some stuff
I liked my own comment
no one asked bruh
No proof no balls
@@Not_a_spoon69stop being an ass
@@Not_a_spoon69imagine saying "no one asked"
This garbage wasn’t even funny when people were saying it a month ago 💀 Edit: I checked you’re channel and saw that you’re like 6 years old, sorry if I was too harsh 😥
The Stables buildings make a lot more sense when you consider that in cooler climates, for centuries, common folk used to let their few livestock stay in their dwellings with them in the winter. It was for shared body heat, so they could all survive the winter. It would get annoying and smelly, but it beat freezing to death.
Love the lore man! And you made me a believer! Lol.
not the aot ref at the end "to you, 2000 years from now"
bro this is crazy you figured this out through these ruins
Hey Wifies!! You should make a video on the pvp legacy puzzle I think it would make a great video
I belive the sniffers were in those stables, and they kept their eggs incubated in the cauldrons (possibly), and that might be why we see sniffer eggs in the trail ruins.
There are plenty of intentional airpockets in hidden in the rubble. Likely left behind from rotten wood, which is generally overlooked by many who do these kinds of recreations It may also be useful to consider the position of archeology loot
Wifies makes the new updates taste good, and makes minecraft more interesting
I like to imagine that Mojang watches these videos and go "Hm, I never thought abut that before 🤔"
The "sea levels rise by 0.14 inches per year" only applies after 1993 and is roughly double the historical trend.
Hey wifies. The host trim refers to the hosts, somewhat godlike entities that were from minecraft legends. While legends are only loosely considered cannon, the trims were made as a reference.
The fact that people left stuff behind begs the question of why was this stuff left behind? Crop Failure? Catastrophic Natural Disaster? War With Neighboring Cultures?
8:39 Bricks now equal stone, thanks for the information!
This is really fun and educational! I liked it! :)
I found trail ruins under a village. The pot shards i found went like this: wheat, heartbreak, fire. Nearby there is a pillager outpost. The story writes itself
for some reason i can't stop thinking about the fact that this could be an ancient roman structure
What about the music disc you can find in the trail ruins? Great video by the way!
I love the attack on titan reference😂 Great video man always happy to see sth from you
8:20 - "The ancestral Pueblo People" Ah yes, the People People.
It'd be pretty cool if there were hidden burried journals with small entries that told a little about "prehistoric" civilizations.
I never even knew these existed, this is very interesting.
Good Vid man keep it up!
Going back to your enderman video what if the End was supposed to be like some sort of prison, that might also go along to mat Pat theory on how Enderman were formed and why it’s so far away.
I would love for you to put together a video that covers every thing that you've coverd in wifeory put all together gou could even add the years that it all happend, and it would be like a movie❤
I LOVE THESE LORE VIDEOS
SAMEEEEE!!❤❤❤❤❤
your version of the completed trail ruins look so cool, it would be awesome to see them in the game *hint hint, mojang*
😂 hint hint
It’s a good day when wifies posts
Dude now that you mention ruins, I don’t think I ever seen one in game. I don’t remember discovering one at all
I thought that these were the Legends Ruins due to the similarities between the structures and a part of the Relic disc containing parts of the Music featured in MC Legends as well. Maybe some of the village changed due to destruction and repair over time…
Large room 5 reminds me of a pillager outpost and I think trail ruins are supposed to be a ancient village that was taken over by pillagers.
please make a video like this about the sniffer and the ocean ruins. and remember to put minecraft legends and minecraft dungeons in to this because i discovered they are the same universe