The spawn theme for our seventh epoch looks to blend elements of the mystical and mysterious, and the older and rural. In one part, a ruined altar, in another a tea shop, and over all of it, enormous ancient trees of unknown age and origin.

A handy label for the built side of this theme is Cottagecore. Cottagecore is an aesthetic and fashion style inspired by romanticized interpretations of rural and farm lifestyles.[1] Cottagecore is to 19th century rural life as the SCA is to the middle ages. To-wit: it is a fillet of an era, where everyone gets to be a person of means and all of the nasty, stinky, drudgery-filled parts are ignored in the name of enjoying the neat bits. [2]

Practically that means builds are more compact and heavy on nature themes. Large builds don't suit the theme. To give some hard numbers: building footprints should aim for 15x15 or smaller. Total builds, including outside spaces and gardens, should aim for 15x25 or smaller. For example, the Post Office is 15x25: This is on the large size. Ponce’s book shop and Akio’s tavern define the upper bound of permissible size.

Below are some images for inspiration.

1 A nice discussion of cottagecore IRL.

2 And, a rather more pointed discussion of cottagecore IRL, including it's adoption (hijacking?) by people on the far-right.

Cottagecore is not without it’s critics. Cottagecore, as realized in real life, has been put to use by groups to entice people into their way of thinking. In addition, it has been criticized for being Euro-centric, and romanticizing a time period that included European colonialism and white people in the U.S. evicting native Americans from their lands.

Regarding its Eurocentrism, I’ll own that. We’ve done three spawns with a European theme (1E, 2E, and 5E); one with an "American" theme (4E); and one with an Asian theme (3E). Sixth epoch was 'Starship castaways'. Seventh Epoch was supposed to be a desert oasis (Algerian/Moroccan) theme, but then a war erupted in the Middle East, and desert oasis suddenly seemed a little too on-point. Hopefully, in 8E we’ll get there. The point being, I am aware of the cultures our spawn themes draw from, and am making an effort to insure that they are not all Europe - Europe - Europe.

Regarding its adjacency to colonialism: Mincraft has its own problem with colonialism and slavery, which we all kind of shuffle our feet and look away from whenever it gets brought up. It's way too big a topic to address in a footnote, but know that I'm well aware of it.

--anna