Season 9

The new world opened on 29 May 2022, and the organising began almost at once. Exe had ideas for another clan. Bufong and Nightklp settled on the Pure Forest Nation, with forest and jungle territory and a base people would soon recognise by name. CobaltNaginata asked to join. The reset had cleared the buildings, but it had done little to disturb the habit of finding a group and making plans together.

Bufong recruited actively. Joining could even become an event, with a competition at the base's entrance offering membership and a reward. The Nation gave players somewhere to meet, contribute and point newcomers towards. For Night, it became one of the projects that made him increasingly central to everyday server life. When Oz asked what the large base was called, Night had an answer ready.

Alongside the clan work came preparations for a different gathering. Bufong and JustSomeWeebs were going to have an in-game roleplay wedding. There was a church, there were clothes and guests, and Exe was expected to officiate. It was an ambitious way to spend the gaps between boss fights, depending on several people arriving at the same place for a reason that offered no loot at all.

That last requirement caused trouble. Somebody was ready to begin, somebody else wanted to wait for Exe, and the ceremony kept slipping. Hallow discussed going to a bar afterward, then announced another delay. Bufong asked people whether they were coming; G U N briefly appeared to think the question meant he was getting married himself. The preparations accumulated more reliably than the guests.

By 10 June, the wedding had become a running subject across the server. Bufong eventually described it as the worst wedding ever, and Exe agreed that Ozzaria's first attempt had earned an unfortunate reputation. Days had gone into the church and the arrangements. Even the disappointment became something the players could refer back to together, which was more than an ordinary afternoon of farming usually achieved.

Other familiar faces were changing places in the community. PurpleCloud returned under the name Black Cloud after becoming associated with another server. Some of the reaction was unfriendly, including KDY's accusation of disloyalty. It was a player quarrel, rather than a settled judgement about what had happened, but it showed how much people had begun to care about where familiar names chose to spend their time.

Newer regulars were filling the same chat. Saeed, LibyLad, MenacingDirt and CobaltNaginata appeared around trades, equipment questions, farms and fights. Their lives in the world overlapped with the clan and the wedding without needing to revolve around either. A busy evening could hold somebody's building project, somebody else's preparations for a boss and a conversation that had nothing to do with Terraria at all.

The boss schedule left room for those evenings. By now, the server had enough experienced players to move very quickly if everything was available, so progression remained paced. Hallow found the wait long, particularly when they were still talking about Golem. To the people ready for another fight, a longer season could feel like being held at the door. To builders and organisers, those same days were time to finish something.

By 15 June, Moon Lord was on the defeated list, and the restraint gave way to repeated summons. Players described the resulting fights as mayhem. More equipment became available, more attempts followed, and people who had spent weeks waiting for access could finally use what they had prepared. The server was briefly busy with the kind of excess the schedule had kept at a distance.

The ocean suffered again near the end. Liby reported drained water, and players discovered the ocean teleport was gone. This time the surviving account offered no clear person to blame. With the reset approaching, Liby was inclined to leave the problem behind. Others were thinking about what could make the next world different: Hallow wanted a minigames area, while Night suggested a mushroom-themed world. Repeating Terraria was starting to invite ideas beyond simply repeating the same fights.

There were still last-minute goals. Cobalt wanted to finish weapons even while acknowledging how little use they might receive before the wipe. Bread was spending what remained. A server restart briefly caused confusion, and Oz carefully explained that restarting the process was different from replacing the world. The reset was tomorrow; they still had a little time.

At noon on 19 June, that time ran out. Liby entered the replacement map and immediately recognised the Not the Bees seed beneath a covering of Shadow Paint. His enthusiasm was followed by KDY's much less cheerful assessment. After three weeks in which the community had supplied its own nations, ceremony and disputes, the next world was going to make an impression before anyone had built a church.