Howdy doodly. I have a project in mind to create a village of each of the Bionicle elements in Minecraft, but I want to wait until 1.19 is out to do so, so I decided to distract myself by making some mini-temples of each of the elements. They’re of mediocre quality.
The Shrine of Magnetism. I know that both magnetism and sonics have had those assumed grey-black colour schemes pointed out to be non-canon, but I don’t think they’re that bad if you throw in some neat tertiary colours. In this case I’ve obviously chosen cyan. I also think dark blue should be a magnetism colour, since Hahli goes into making Jovan, but I didn’t include any dark blue nor any black. This is the only one of these shrines in which I was considering what the villages in my overambitious project should look like; the rest are basically just getting the colour schemes in which isn’t really necessary for a village. The Shrine of Magnetism is at the centre of the shrines and rests on coordinates 0,0 and has a lodestone centrepiece.
Shrine of Air! This was the second one I made (I’m doing these in order so far and I’ll tell you when I’m not). Air, altitude, and an open-air layout. I did give a tiny bit of thought to “how would an actual Le-Matoran build this” so made it look slightly like they carved up an enormous tree but then went straight for “lets put green in here.” Notice both here and in the Magnetism one the terracotta floors. I used some warped wood because of turquoise like Kongu’s mask, and used end-rods for lighting because white is sort of a fanon tertiary air colour (the air gafna are white in VNOG. Is there a word for “official source but a non-canon one”?
Shrine of Ice! Extremely bland, and lets face it that’s how the Ko-Matoran would like it. Packed ice walls, blue ice centrepiece, a regular ice skylight, and a snow floor and supports. Soul lanterns because blue. Not much more to say here.
Shrine of Water! Lots of prismarine blocks, because they’re watery blocks at least in the Minecraft Universe. Also I think at least a few people have fanoned turquoise as a water tertiary colour (some Ga-Matoran are turquoise in some builds of Legend of Mata Nui). There’s also the calcite, because I like to fanon white as a water tertiary colour (think sea foam, rapids, or maybe chalk cliffs because calcite is the same chemical as chalk). Otherwise all blue: lapis, water, blue terracotta. The centrepiece is a fountain, and the shrine roof is a pool which makes the inside drip which is a cool effect.
Shrine of Fire! Red Nether Bricks, which is my favourite minecraft block. Orange glass skylight, orange sand rim for the obvious secondary colour, and a yellow terracotta floor like Jaller’s mask. Gotta love how fire has some nice canon tertiary colours, though I didn’t use them all here. Maybe should have thrown in some soul fire like Takua’s mask, since according to Greg that’s a canon colour for fire. A few magma blocks at the doorways for theme, and eternally burning Netherrack for lighting and also the centrepiece, the least impressive centrepiece because is fire is everywhere else.
Shrine of Earth! Blackstone and regular stone bricks for the primary and secondary Earth colours, and thematic because rocks. A ring of crying obsdian for the purple like Onepu’s mask. Orange glass windows, glowstone lighting, and gilded blackstone for the orange like Nuparu’s mask. A deepslate mineral centrepiece; resources of the Earth.
Shrine of Stone! At this point they were getting samey, so I through on that dripstone crown. There’s not enough brown stone in Minecraft, so I went with brown terracotta which I feel has a disappointing texture. Deepslate, sand, and orange bricks deliver the other colours associated with stone. The centrepiece is of all the filler stone of Minecraft. In hindsight maybe I should have used some glowstone for lighting, but I think maybe it would have been too visually loud.
Speaking of visually loud the Shrine of Lightning is godawful and should go back in and destroy it. It started out too bland so I overcompensated. Went with iron for the white because metal, and struggled a bit to find good light blue blocks. Notice the diamond ceiling, which I feel was a bit much hence no other diamond. The glass walls with the redstone lanterns was a nice touch I think. Yes, I feel yellow should be a lightning tertiary colour, though red and orange probably shouldn’t. Redstone and lightning rods were just nice and lightning themed. In hindsight, I should go and reduce the number of lightning rods, clean up the floor a bit, and kill the candles.
At this point I am no longer following the order I made them. The Shrine of Psionics! Fairly mediocre as far as they go. Used predominantly precious Minecraft minerals to make it. Raw gold blocks, and other raw minerals, make nice pathway material. Glowstone is sort of like gold, but I also used candles for a shrine-like atmosphere (which is why I tried to used them else but especially in such an occulty element as psionics). In hindsight, the centrepiece could have been an enchanting table, because magic and psionics are close enough, but I went with an amethyst pillar. Partially because I think purple should be a psionics tertiary colour, but also because we all know Ce-Matoran are like those girls way too into crystals and astrology and badly-appropriated Hindu/Buddhist symbolism.
Shrine of Plasma! I know lava isn’t really plasma but it’s the closest thing minecraft has except for actual lightning which I can’t place as a block (or else I’d have used it in the lightning shrine). Quartz is nice and white and also Nether (and therefore “hot”) themed. I thought the copper would look good but in hindsight it’s too pinkish. The glass floor over the magma blocks is great though, as is the lava behind orange glass for lightning. You know, I cannot think of a good tertiary colour for plasma? Other than ranging orange for yellowish to reddish orange and white into the greys.
Shrine of Sonics! Again, I went with the uncomfirmed grey-black colour scheme. It’s also extremely bland, like the Ice Shrine, which I feel is in-character for the De-Matoran. We all fanon the Ko and De-Matoran as besties, right? Console commanded myself some sculk sensors for sound-themed decor, and the wool prevents them from being triggered from inside. The centrepiece is a jukebox with five disks (four in frames and one inside it.) I find it weird that every other Matoran is resistant to their element but De-Matoran can be incapacitated by loud noises. Sonics villages should be wonderful places of music and such.
Shrine of Plantlife! I refuse to call it The Green! On this one I briefly went back to “how would I build an actual Bo-Koro?” so jungle logs and moss for the ground. I then remembered I was trying to represent colour schemes, and quickly through in a pool of water and some warped logs and plants. It’s a bit messy, but that’s how nature works. I considered replacing all the logs with warped logs, but I was lazy. I think we all agree brown is a plantlife tertiary colour though. The centrepiece is a glowberry vine which also provides the light. Outside I used shroom light on the floor, because it’s plant-adjacent lightning (even though fungus are closer to animals than plants).
Shrine of Iron! Not much to say. It’s metal. I like it. The floor is made of smithing tables. The centrepiece is ancient debris, which is a great decorative block if you’re in creative (which I obviously am). Copper and netherite dominate because those are the main colours of elemental Iron, though Greg is smart and made the gold and iron colours fair game too. Didn’t use any forged iron blocks though. I wonder if the oxidised colour of copper should be a Iron tertiary colour? Maybe.
Shrine of Gravity! Probably the most creative. Made it even higher than the Shrine of Air. Accessed by a weeping vine, which is also the centrepiece, because since those things grow downwards they’re kinda gravity-related. This one is also where I went a little overenthusiastic with fanon tertiary colours; gold and red. I made the ground beneath it open up to the void, with a little catwalk with a glass floor. There’s not much more to say here. The crying obsdian dripping all over the place emphasises gravity a bit more too.
Shrine of Light! I debated with myself whether to put in shrines of light and shadow, and I went with it, and they’re unimpressive. Light is white and gold, so there’s quartz and glowstone. Glowstone is nice and gold and a light source, so it serves as the centrepiece. I used some Nether wood for accents because in some fanfic I’ve written I declared cyan and crimson to be tertiary light colours, shamelessly stolen from the colour palette of Urdak from Doom Eternal. The tall pillars try and make it look more grand than the others.
I’m only including the Shrine of Shadow for completeness sake. Had an interesting concept, being transparent with tinted glass but with no lighting inside, but since I couldn’t make overcomplicated doors because I’m lazy I couldn’t get it dark enough. Black terracotta for the floor because the red highlights are nice and ominous. I felt the same way with the gilded blackstone but I think it missed the mark.
I considered making a few for my private fanon elements (kinetics, crystal, salt, and rahi) but except for crystal those don’t lend themselves to particular good (or at least feasible in Minecraft) builds.
No download link because these screenshots literally give you everything in the world. There’s nothing more to it. I mentioned wanting to do a superproject where I make a full village of each element, and I will make that available for download when I make it (eta 2030).
